The Shadow Soldier

  

This is another of those throw-in photos that I end up with when I buy an envelope of photos and get a few that I'd never buy individually.  Anyway, as a former professional black & white printer it interests me a bit.  There's clearly detail in the subject's uniform and face, but whoever printed this didn't expose for what's really important.  

Nagra and The Beatles

 

I don't walk by there all that often, but about an hour's stroll from my apartment, there is a store that has a rack of advertising postcards that I sometimes look at just to see if there's anything that I'd like to add to my ever-growing collection of ephemera.   Anyway, I liked the photo of the old Nagra tape recorder, so I scarfed this one up and brought it home.  Because I didn't want to do free advertising for an event, I decided to hold onto it until after it was over.   And no, I didn't go, though I would have liked to.  Who doesn't love The Beatles? 

The Mission Inn

   

Written on the back, "Mission Inn-Riverside, Calif."  Frank Miller opened The Mission Inn in 1876.  It started out as an adobe boarding house that became a full-service hotel in 1900.  In 1903, a series of expansions were begun that finished in 1931.  Frank Miller died in 1935, after which his family ran the inn until the mid-fifties.  It changed hands a number of times and was facing a possible demolition when Duane and Kelly Roberts bought the property in the late 1980s and began a restoration that was finished in 1992.  The Mission Inn and Spa is still in business, and despite being in downtown Riverside, not exactly a tourist destination is doing quite well.  And, by the way, it isn't a cheap stay. 

The Rich Family

 

If you are a fan of silent movies, you've probably seen a film where a family with a large car, drives around a city, and don't do much of anything but run over things, and generally causes a major mess. It's hard to believe, but when those films were made, very few Americans actually owned a car, and those movies were as much about class as they were about cars. There's black construction paper on the backs of the prints, so at some point, they were cut out of a photo album. I thought about trying to peel the paper off and see if anything was written on the backs, but the risk of damaging the prints is too great. 

The Reading Pagoda

 

Navigate back to the beginning of the month, and you'll find a post about the Grand View Ship Hotel, a local tourist attraction from western Pennsylvania, not in Pittsburgh.  This is another postcard dedicated to a tourist site that I visited in my childhood, though, since it was on the other side of Pennsylvania, only once.  (For the life of me I can't remember why we ventured to the other side of the Appalachians.)  So, the caption on the back of the card, "READING'S PAGODA, Reading's pagoda is situated on the southwest extremity of Mount Penn at the terminus of Duryea Drive.  This unique structure is Reading's top tourist attraction and at an elevation of 886 feet above sea level and 620 feet above the city of Reading, it affords its many visitors an exceptional birds-eye view of the surrounding hills and suburbs of Reading, Pennsylvania."  Now why someone thought building a seven-story Japanese-style pagoda in Reading, Pennsylvania was a good idea, well I'll never know.  Built in 1908, as a luxury hotel, eventually, it fell on hard times and was purchased by the city.  Unlike the Grand View Ship Hotel, which burned down, it's still there.  

The Grand View Ship Hotel

  

I used to visit this place when I was growing up.  I can remember that it was on the side of a mountain, and yes it was a pretty good view from the top.  We never stayed at the hotel, but we did eat in the restaurant and bought souvenirs in the gift shop.  The caption, "S.S. GRAND VIEW POINT SHIP HOTEL ON LINCOLN HIGHWAY 17 MILES WEST OF BEDFORD, PA.  ELEVATION 2,464 FEET.  GRAND VIEW SHIP HOTEL, at the most beautiful spot in U.S. Summit of Alleghany Mts. 17 miles west of Bedford, Pa. on Historic Lincoln Highway, overlooking 3 states and 7 counties.  Elevation 2,464 feet."  

Okay, I know that that is one messed up caption, but I've double-checked, and I have transcribed it as printed on the back of the card.  And by the way, I assume that people know that the hotel wasn't really a ship. It was an old roadhouse that had a ship's facade nailed on, made of wood, it eventually burned down. 

Music To My Ears 7

I had hoped to use the name of the act to hunt down some actual information about this duo but the best I could find was the location of The Hotel Penn Alto.  Philadelphia? Pittsburgh?  Nope, Altoona, home of the horse shoe curve rail tracks.  I've been to Altoona though it's been so long that I don't really have any memories of the place.  I figured that this picture was probably from the 1950's so I did look up some census numbers.  In 1950, 77,177.  In 1960, 69,407.  Basically, Altoona is one of those medium sized American cities that has been in a state of decline for a very long time.  The fact that the act was playing the hotel lounge in a small city hotel helps explain why this duo left almost no record of their careers.  Acts that headline in Altoona don't get a lot of recognition.  Still, it's almost impossible to make it in show business.  For every job, there are hundreds of talented performers capable of getting up on stage and entertaining people.  It's why so many of them quite and get a regular job.  Mary Reagan, or Ann Parker or whatever professional name she was using when this picture was taken actually made a living as a singer.  That's admirable.

Click on Music To My Ears in labels to see more.

Los Angeles via Hurricane, Utah 2

Well, it looks like someone has found a place to live.  Two couples, at the same location?  I looked into Hotel Lafayette in the Los Angeles area.  I found one in Long Beach, but I eliminated it as a possibility because of the way the outside walls were constructed.  I've found recent photos of the Hotel Lafayette in the Westlake Village area of L.A., at 2731 Beverly Blvd., south of Temple Boulevard, and east of Hoover Street.  Built in 1927, it's four stories high and now, has 65 units.  Today it's an apartment hotel, and may have been in 1927 when it was built.

Click on LA Hurricane in labels to see more.

The Fairmont Hotel, Atop Nob Hill

Ah, the good old days when ladies and gentlemen dressed for dinner, smoked in restaurants, had cocktails and were served by waitresses dressed somewhere between 19th century Viennese servant and Vegas showgirl.

This postcard was mailed and it does have a message, "July 11, Just had luncheon with Golda Woodworth at the Crown Room-a new edition-very posh!  Heard Fiedler in concert a very fine concert.  Weather cooler again.  Leaving for L.A. the 15th.  Rec'd your nice letter.  Am enjoying my trip such a lot-Love- Florence E."   Mailed to "Mrs. George  Woodward. N. 2418 Pacific Ave., Spokane 43 Wash."  And the caption, "Only the stars are higher than the spectacular Crown Room Cocktail Lounge atop the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.  Soaring 29 floors above the city, scenic ascents may be made via an exciting outside glass-enclosed Sky-lift."  The postmark is pretty much unreadable, but The Crown Room opened in 1961 and, based on a few still visible letters, I'm making a guess that it was mailed from Tiburon.

Well, maybe it wasn't the good old days.  Smoking, cocktails and wearing ties doesn't sound that good to me.  Woodworth and Woodward?

Harvey Girls

In 1883, Fred Harvey decided that he wanted an all female waitstaff at his restaurants, so he placed ads in eastern and mid-western newspapers advertising for young women between the ages of 18 and 30, single, attractive, intelligent and of good character.  He offered one year contracts, with a partial forfeiture of wages if they didn't make the whole year.  Also free housing, board, and uniforms.  Also a mandatory curfew of 10 P.M.  Pay $18 a week, throw in the free room, board, and uniforms, that was actually a fairly high wage, not just for women, but for anyone.  Too, I imagine it offered quite an adventure for young women in the 1880's.

Written on the back, "Harvey House girls Mom w/ little girl."  Obviously this photo was taken well after 1883, and is suspect those aren't the original;Fred Harvey uniform, but I'd bet they're  close.

In 1942, muck-raking journalist Samuel Hopkins Adams,  known for his exposes of corruption in government and business wrote a novel,"The Harvey Girls,"which portrayed the Harvey girls as the civilizers of the west.  I have no idea if that's true or not, but it is an interesting idea.  The movie with Judy Garland came out a few years latter, albeit as a musical.

Harvey House, Barstow, California

Think of the Harvey House as the first true chain restaurant.  Fred Harvey opened his first two restaurants along the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1876 at Wallace, Kansas, and Hugo, Colorado.  Even though they closed within a year, Harvey was convinced that a series of high quality, low priced restaurants next to railroad watering stops would be big money makers.  In 1878 he entered into a non binding agreement to open Harvey House Restaurants along the Acheson, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad right of ways.  By the time of his death in 1901 he had built and was operating a number of restaurants and hotels throughout the western United States along multiple  rail roads.  He left his business to his family who ran it until it was sold in 1968 to Amfac, Inc.  At the time it was the 6th largest food retailer in the United States.

The Casa del Desierto in Barstow, California was built in 1911.  The building is still there.  It's the home of two museums, the Barstow Chamber of Commerce, and city government offices.  I've been there, it's well maintained and well worth a stop for anyone driving the I-15 between L.A. and Vegas.

The caption on the back, "Casa del Desierto (House of the Desert), the Fred Harvey Hotel at Barstow, is built after the style of the Spanish renaissance, with walls of tapestry brick and gray stone trimmings, red tile roof and arcade balconies on both stories."   The card, unused, was published by "Fred Harvey HOTELS-SHOPS-RESTAURANTS." 

Fun fact, for anyone old enough to remember the blue plate special.  The phrase comes form The Harvey House restaurants, which served dinners on blue china.

The Cure House

The Kurhaus at Cadmario, Switzerland is still there and still in business.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find out when it was built.  There's scaffolding and a date on this print.  12-IV-25, the 12th of April, 1925.  Repairs or construction, I wasn't able to determine.  Visiting the spa is fairly expensive now, but in 1925?  I suspect it wasn't cheap then, either, as the wealthy of Europe took the waters to cure what ailed them, and after the horrors of World War 1 and the Spanish Flu epidemic, I suspect people felt in need of a curative rest.

The New Glarus Hotel

Continuing with my hotel/motel theme....Fist of all, it's not a new version of The Glarus Hotel, it's a hotel in New Glarus, Wisconsin,  America's dairy land, so, needless to say, there's a lot of locally made cheese, and from what I've been able to find on-line, there are also a number of local breweries.  I had no idea there was beer tourism.  Live and learn.

So, the New Glarus Hotel was built in 1853, and it's still there, though now it's strictly a restaurant.  The pictures I found don't show a lot of change in the building, though those great Eames/Herman Miller molded fiber glass chairs have been replaced by plain old wood.  And, they have bands.  Have no idea if they had entertainment back in the fifties or sixties when this photo was taken, but they do now.  As a matter of fact, Barefoot Becky just finished an engagement.  She has a few videos on YouTube.  I grew up in an area where polka was quite popular, and I have to say, she wasn't half bad.

The caption, "NEW GLARUS HOTEL, NEW GLARUS, WISCONSIN.  Authentic Swiss Architecture enhances this Swiss Style Dining Area and Service Bar around a fire-place setting."  I've never understood how postcard manufacturers use capitol letters.

Interior Views of the Hotel Rosslyn

I have to confess, I wouldn't have purchased these two postcards if it hadn't been for the L.A. connection, as well as my own personal history with the Hotel Rosslyn.  Many years ago, I spent two strange nights as a guest, and if you want to read about what happened as well as a brief history of the place, click on Hotel Rosslyn in labels at the bottom of the post.

The second card is captioned, "1100 Rooms-800 Bathes-Popular Rates  Free auto bus meets all trains. Automobile entrance direct to the lobby.  Descriptive folder with rates sent upon request."

Seafood At The Hotel

Just three people standing in front of a hotel where seafood is served.   Dated ""AUG 17, 1952"

The Less Than Grand Keerbergen Hotel

It's a long story, but after years of working in photo labs, after an extended period of unemployment, and barely avoided homelessness,  I ended up a member of The Screen Actors Guild.  The funny thing is, when I was a printer I saw 80 to 100 movies a year.  As a member of SAG, I'm lucky if I see 25.  The sad fact is, most of us in the movies, can't afford to go to the movies.  Anyway,  these photos reminded me of the best movie I've seen, so far, this year.  The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The man looks like a concierge.  Too, the second photo reminds that the concierge of the hotel, Gustave H, offered exceptional service to older ladies.

Written on the back of the second photo, "Keerbergen, Juin 1965."  Keerbergen is a  town in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium.  As of 2007, it had a population of 12,500 people.  And yes, it does have a hotel.  

Views of California, Mt. Lowe Railway

I had to go all the way to South Dakota (via eBay) to get this classic southern California scene.

Alright, let's start with a bit of heavily edited history.  In  the late nineteenth century, Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe. inventor, astronomer, balloonist, and businessman, thought it would be a grand idea to build a railroad into the San Gabriel Mountains, above Pasadena and Los Angeles.  A daft idea, but by 1893, he was open for business.

The Mt. Lowe Railway was actually three separate railways.  The Mountain Division started in the city of Altadena, and actually had stops for locals, just trying to get from one street to another.  Eventually, it entered Rubio Canyon, home to some rather scenic waterfalls that hikers can still visit.  After crossing the upper canyon on a bridge, it ended at Rubio Pavilion, a small 12 room hotel.

From there, the next leg was The Great Incline, a funicular railway that had inclines ranging from 48 to 62  degrees.  It ended at the top of Echo Mountain, and yet another hotel.  This one, an 80 room Victorian monstrosity.   There was also an astronomical observatory, the gear house for the funicular, and finally, a mega watt search light that could be seen fifty miles out to sea. The whole lot was dubbed, The White City.

 And finally, The Alpine Division, a mere 3.5 miles, that had 127 hairpin curves, and 18 bridges, ended at the foot of Mt. Lowe, and another hotel, the Ye Alpine Tavern, a 12 room Swiss style chalet.  Round trip, $5.00.

Things never really went well for Lowe's dream project.  The whole thing went into receivership within a few years, complicated by the fact that the good Professor built the whole thing on federal land without permission.  (The San Gabriel Mountains Forest Preserve, latter Angeles National Forest, and soon to be San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.) In 1905 the hotel on Echo Mountain burned to the ground,  in 1909, a flood wiped out The Rubio Pavilion, in 1928, a Santa Ana wind blew down the observatory, and in 1936,  the Ye Alpine Tavern, also burned down.  And finally, adding insult to injury, in 1938, a three day rain storm destroyed what was left.  To expensive to rebuild, in World War 2, a scrapper went along the route and pulled up what  was left of the tracks.  From 1959 to 1962, the Forest Service dynamited the foundations of all the buildings.

This card is post marked, "OCEAN PARK JAN 20 9:30 A.M, CAL."  And since this is from the era when postmarks were added at both ends of the process, "ESMOND FEB 8, A.M. 1908, S.DAK."  It was addressed to "P.G. Hanna, Esmond, S.D."  I looked up Esmond.  It's not even listed as a town, but as a populated place.  The map showed all of six streets.

Is it summer yet?

Contrary to popular belief, Los Angeles does have seasons.  Or at least we used to.  Today's temps may only be in the seventies, but it's gotten to the point where we hit the nineties  every month of the year.  I know  climate change deniers will point out that there are record highs approaching 100 for mid December, and every other month, but those past days were anomalies.  Now, high temps and rainless winters are becoming the new norm.  Good for those of us who like to get out and enjoy the outdoors.  That is until we run out of water from ongoing drought.

As far as the location of these two photos.  There aren't many cities in the United States where the hotels go right down to the beach.  The two that came to mind were Miami and Honolulu.  I went on line and searched images of Miami and Honolulu in the 1950s, but couldn't find a match for the hotel in the background, that I was sure of, from either city.   I did notice that Honolulu had more palm trees, wider beaches, and hotels with fewer floors.  So, unless corrected, I'm going with Hawaii.  That's going on the assumption that these pictures were taken in the United States.  Could be Mexico or the French Riviera for all I know.

A Beach Front Hotel, The Travelers Collection

I'm starting with the mystery locations early with this group.  I went to Google images and entered "historic beach hotels" and found a couple of maybes, but no true match.  If anyone out there recognizes the building leave a comment.  There's one thing for sure, those palm trees eliminate Bar Harbor, Maine.

Click on travelers collection in the labels section for the other images in the lot.

The Fifth In Florence

I haven't  put up one of these for awhile.  Unlike my other souvenir photo folders, this one isn't for a nightclub, but for "THE FIFTH ARMY OFFICERS' REST HOTEL, HOTEL ANGLO AMERICAN-FLORENCE"  Personally, I would have put the hyphen between Anglo and America, but that's me. .

A rest hotel for army officers is just what it sounds like.  When not on duty, officers of the Fifth Army in Italy could check into the hotel, set aside for their exclusive use, and have fun.  Real beds, clean sheets, plentiful food from the United States, booze, and a liberal policy on female companionship.  And why not.  My mother was a war bride from England, the marriage didn't work out, and she delighted in pointing out how Americans didn't take the war and suffering seriously. "Everything was a lark to you Americans."  My father took a far different attitude to the discussion.  "You're twenty, you might die next week, you'd be a fool not to get in as much pleasure as possible."  I have to say, dad made a lot more sense to me.

Now known as U.S. Army North, the Fifth Army was activated on January 5, 1943 in Oujda, French Morocco, and was part of the allied invasion of Italy.  The Fifth's first commander was Lt. General Mark W. Clark.  The Fifth's overall theater commander, in the Mediterranean,  was British Field Marshall, Harold Alexander.  Clark and Alexander didn't get along.  Alexander thought that Clark was liberal in the way he interpreted orders, especially his liberation of Rome.  Clark, on the other hand, was bitter over what he thought was an unnecessary order to destroy the monastery at Monte Cassino.  Legitimate strategic disputes, or two warring egos?  Who knows.  In the end, over all supreme commander, Dwight Eisenhower, was content to let things be.

The Hotel Anglo American is still there, and still in business.  It's on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi.  Rooms can be had from 74.80 Euros, breakfast and free Wi-Fi included.