Los Angeles Indiana 8

 

 Is it even possible for me to express how much I hate eBay and antique dealers who cut up photo albums for resale?  I doubt it. Anyway, I bought this page from the same eBay seller in Indiana as another page that I've referred to as The Los Angeles Indiana Collection in labels, and why I call it that is explained in the very first post in the series.  So, click away to find out why and to see the other images in this series. As usual, when I put up an album page, I'll start with the whole page to show position, and then follow up with individual photos.  Once again, I'm not sure how I'll lay things out, and I won't be putting them up uninterrupted, so be patient. 

Music To My Ears 12

The happy couple.  Ann Parker and her accompanist husband between gigs.  Or perhaps, before the show.  Click on Music to My Ears in labels to see more.

Two People Sitting On The Couch

Every so often I'll buy an envelope full of photographs.  I've noticed that, more often then not, there's a breakdown where I really like about a third of the pictures, I kind of like about a third, and the last third are sort of throw ins.   It's not so much that the images are completely without interest.  If nothing else, they show how people dressed and carried themselves, but few collectors would ever buy them individually.  Anyway, from time to time I'll post some of the throw ins.  I'll probably do five or six and then return to things a bit more interesting.  I can't decide if the color restoration setting on the scanner made things better or worse.

Los Angeles via Hurricane, Utah 5

Go to California, get a car.  This is from back in the day when car owners got a new, dated plate every year.  In this case 1936.  When I scanned this row of photos it was large enough to see Los Angeles on the license plate frame, California and the year on the plate.  More confirmation that I was right when I assumed the photos on this album page were from Los Angeles.  Unfortunately,  I couldn't get it big enough to make out the manufacturer's  badge on the car's radiator frame.  I can't find any record of a Stack car company, so I'm guessing that has some personal meaning.  Perhaps Stack is the last name of the owner. 

Click on LA Hurricane in labels to see more.

Furnished Apartments to Let

I wonder how much they were paying?  I live in L.A., a city where have the population can't really afford their rent. 

Woman With Mustache

When I first saw this very small photograph I could tell that the mustachioed gentleman on the left was actually a woman.  What I couldn't tell: Was the lady on the right a man?  After scanning, and blowing it up, it became obvious that, yes, she was a she. 

Be More Specific

It wasn't that long ago where a reference to turn of the century meant a few years either way from 1900.  Now I have to be more specific.  My guess on this one is late 1890's to early 1900's. 

The Couple That Dresses Together Stays Together

I've written about this before.  I spent decades working in professional photo labs, and hardly a week went by were I didn't print "private" photographs.  There were a lot of amateur pinups, naked wives and girlfriends, the occasional naked man, and a few pictures of people having sex.  But, by far and away the most common of these private pictures were men dressed as women.  Some were obviously joke pictures, bearded men with hairy legs in ill fitting dresses.  There were also a lot of photos were an effort was made for the cross dressed male to look like the real thing.  Considering how many times I only knew it was a guy because I was told, I probably printed far more such pictures than I was aware of.  In other words, I'm never surprised when I find a photo with a man in women's clothes.  If anything, I'm surprised I don't find more.  I'm about 99% sure  the person on the right is a man.  I'm a lot less sure that the person on the left is a woman.

The Sandy Beach

Look what I found.  I was going through the ever growing stack of unsorted photographs on my desk when this image popped right out.  These two people are the same couple from a post from a month ago.  The Rocky Beach has been replaced by a sandy one.  I still think, without any actual proof, that it's from Europe, and I'm still wondering about people who go to the shore all dressed up.  Click on beach in labels, and a whole lot of photos will show up.  The Rocky Beach should be the next one back.

The Rocky Beach

We Americans love nice, sandy beaches.  I've been on beaches on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coast, and while I've seen beaches with  a few rocks, I've never seen a beach covered with small pebbles like this one.  Throw in the faded Agfa watermark on the back, and I'm guessing somewhere in Europe.

Drunk Husband

Dated "DEC 54."  He must have been a handful.

Men & Women, Women & Men

I run across photos like this from time to time; pictures where the male becomes female and the female becomes male.  Usually they're more casual.  They've swapped clothes and it has the feel of a drunken dare.  Sometimes, however, they're far more elaborate.  The man and woman in this image have opposite sex clothing that fits.  Perhaps it's from a play, but it was mounted on card stock, is fairly small, and not very good for a publicity still.  I'm thinking these two cross-dressed as part of their sex lives.  Or, in the nineteenth century, long before anyone had ever heard the word transgender, a man who wanted to be a woman and a woman who wanted to be a man, found each other and this is how they lived behind closed doors.

Flirty Germans

No way in hell I'm trying to translate the writing on the back of this print.  The hand writing is so bad that I doubt  even someone from Germany could be sure of what's scrawled here.  Well, I can make out 1964, so that's something.  I did run a search on the printer's stamp.  Linder Platz came up as a main shopping street in Hanover in Lower Saxony.

Canary In Danger

Drunk grandpa decides to get rid of the damn canary.  But how to do it without granny finding out?

The Statue

Anyone out there recognize the statue?  How about the location?  My guess is that it's still there, and people are still sitting on the base.

Playing With Her Ear

It sure looks like he's going for the lobe, but then again...Dated, ""OCT 72"

A Couple From Hanover

It doesn't read all that well, so I almost cropped out the white card, but there is a very faint, embossed credit that can, with a little effort, be deciphered.   "Frommeyer, Hanover."  No, not Hanover, Germany or Hanover, New Hampshire, but Hanover, PA.  These last three cabinet cards that I'm posting all date back to my early days of collecting photographs, and when I started back in high school, I lived in a small town in western Pennsylvania, so Hanover, PA makes sense.  But that's not why I'm placing this card's origins in my old home state.  When I went to Google and typed in the photographer's name and home town I was surprised that one of the first hits that came up was from The New Found Photography.  It seems that back in 2011 I bought an envelope of cabinet cards and one of them was from the studio of D.A. Frommeyer from, you guessed it, Hanover, PA.

It may seem highly unlikely that  this card, that I've owned for more than forty years, should be from the same studio as one I purchased five years ago.  Give it some thought though and it's not all that strange.  David A. Frommeyer, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1850, ran a photo studio from 1886 to 1911.  Let's say that David averaged 1,000 commissions  a year for the 25 years he was in business.  That's 25,000 separate photographs floating around out there.  And that's assuming there was only one usable image per session.   More than likely, there were more.  Who knows how many people posed for  David A. Frommeyer.  Who knows how many usable shots came from each sitting.

Just for laughs I went to one of my favorite research sites, the ever popular eBay.  It didn't take me long to find an overpriced cabinet card taken by D.A. Frommeyer from Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Loni & Felix

Written on the back. "1935, L-R Loni & Felix."  So, Loni's the guy and Felix the woman?  I have a friend who's father was a scientist.  He told his son that right and left depended on one's position in space.  The poor guy's in his sixties and still has trouble telling  right from  left.

Tired Feet, A Convenient Seat

You take a walk, you're feet get tired,  you need a rest, you use the seat that's available.

Lasting Love

Sometimes love lasts.  Not always, but sometimes.