Two Up

 

I just picked this photo up today, and I figured I'd better get it posted as soon as possible.  It's small, really small.  1.25 x 2 inches, and I need to get it into the storage box before I lose it.  Anyway, I don't know what to make of it.  Clearly, it's from before the age of the photo booth.  It could be a contact or reduction print.  I'm not aware of any film this small manufactured in the 19th or very early 20th century. 

July 4th., a Piece of History

 

Platoon 35.  On July 6, 1948, Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, integrating the United States Armed Forces.   This photo is dated July 1, 1950, so it's one of the first integrated Marine Corps training classes from Parris Island, in South Carolina.  Unless I missed someone, I counted five black troops in the class.  Anyway, a fair amount of info on the front of the photo.  M.C.R.D. stands for Marine Corps Recruiting Depot.  Just for the hell of it, I did a search for the three sergeants named, H.A. Eravi, H.E. Moore, and P.H. Myers.  Nothing came up.  There is an Ashley Moog, professional photographer located in Beaufort, South Carolina.  A daughter or a granddaughter of the Moog credited as the photographer on the front of the print.  Possible, perhaps even probable, but not guaranteed.  

A Fascinating Face

 

A fascinating face, indeed.  There's something a bit masculine in her visage.  The chin and brow line seem more male to me than female.  I know I'm probably wrong, but I think there is a slight chance that this woman is actually a man.  I spent decades working in photo labs and one of the things that I learned is that if people can think, they'll do it and take pictures, and a lot of men think about wearing women's clothes. But what about when this picture was taken.  I started my lab career after the invention of the Polaroid camera and worked into the digital age granting a certain amount of anonymity to those men wanted to wear a dress.  Did professional studio photographers of the nineteenth century have special times to take photos of special customers?  Probably. 

A Good-Looking Young Lady

  

Good-looking in a 1950s, pre-glam era.  Save us all from Mar-a-Lago face. 

Forklift Girls

  

I purchased this photo from the same antique store and at the same time as the previous post, and while I can't be sure, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was taken by the same photographer.  There's nothing on the back to confirm that, but from Aubrey Studio, La Puente, California.  Does anyone out there know what those things are in the background.  And once again, going by the hemlines and hairdos, probably from the sixties. 

Pull My Plunger, Please

 

Why is the woman holding up a toilet bowl plunger to one of the models?  Maybe she was Miss Plumbing Supplies.  Anyway, I've been picking up a few photos, either taken by a professional photographer or an advanced amateur.  In the case of this photo, a pro.  Stamped on the back, "AUBREY STUDIO, 120 N. First St., La Puente, Calif., 91744" I went online and ran variations of Aubrey Studios, La Puente, and came up with nothing.  Going by the hairdos and hem lines, I'm guessing the swinging 60s. 

The Cut Down Cabinet Card

 

I hate it when people do this.  Someone at some time cut up a cabinet card.  Maybe it was so it would fit in a frame, or a wallet.  In any case, a bit of history has been vandalized.  An unimportant bit of history, perhaps, but a piece of the past, nevertheless.  Not all, but many cabinet cards will have a photographer's studio logo on the back.  There's just a bit of one left on this picture, but not enough to be worth scanning. 

Pat Brown For Governor

I, of course, knew who Pat Brown was when I bought these photos.  Even though I was still living in Pennsylvania during his two terms as Governor of California,  he was famous enough that even a school boy from a coal mining town on the edge of Appalachia would know his name.  I didn't know what he looked like when I purchased these,  perhaps forgotten or perhaps I never knew, so I had to look it up before starting this post.  I kind of assumed that Brown was the bald guy who's in every picture, but I was wrong.  It's possible that Brown is the glasses wearing man on the center couch in the bottom picture, but it's only a resemblance, and I can't really be sure. As far as the year these pictures were taken, Brown ran for governor three times.  1958, which he won, 1962, also a victory, but he lost a third term bid in 1966 to Ronald Reagan.  So these are either from 1962 or 66.

So about Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr.  There's a lot on the net about the man, easy to research for anyone wanting detail, so I'm going to limit myself to an overview.  Brown was born in 1905 in San Francisco.  He graduated college and went to law school at San Francisco State.   His first foray into politics was a failed 1928 run for the state assembly as a Republican.   By 1934, at the height of the great depression, having lost faith in the Republican party he re-registered as a Democrat and became active in New Deal politics.  There was another electoral failure when he ran for San Francisco D.A. in 1939 and finally won the office in 1943.  From the beginning Brown was in the liberal camp, breaking with FDR by opposing the internment of Japanese Americans as well as the attempt to deport Harry Bridges.  In 1950, Brown ran for state attorney general, a win made him the only Democrat holding statewide office.  serving from 1950-1958.  In '57 he ran for governor, serving from 1958-1966.  In many ways, Brown invented modern California.  As governor he championed massive infrastructure projects, including massive water projects that made the central valley the most important agricultural region of the United States as well as providing the water needed to fuel the growth of southern California.  Also major highway projects and a major expansion of the UC system and the state college system. In 1960, Brown was the favorite son candidate for president, running  only in  California.  Because of the state's size, technically Brown finished second to Kennedy, but the plan had always been to pledge his delegates to JFK. Brown died in 1996.  Too, his son was Jerry Brown who ended up serving four non consecutive terms as governor as well as making several far more serious runs for the presidency. 

There's a photographers stamp on the back of these photos, "PHOTO BY Bob Crabtree, 8733 E. HOVEY ST., ROSEMEAD, CALIF.,  ATlantic 7-0317."  I couldn't find a thing about Crabtree.  Rosemead is a suburb of Los Angeles.

The Band

No, not The Band, the one with Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson.  It's just a photo of one of the many bands that came down the pike, and more than likely broke up a few years down the line.  If anyone recognizes these guys, leave a comment.  Of course I could be wrong.  For all I know these guys are bricklayers.

Dana Hall School For Girls 13

Unless someone writes in their photo album that these photos belong to me and sign their name, there is always a question of who put the thing together.  I'd guess it's probable that the owner has put some pictures of herself in this collection of life at Dana Hall School, and the most likely culprit has to be one of the three theatrical subjects.  One might stress friends and faculty from the ordinary days at school, but the theatrical portraits are special and say, "Look, that was me." 

The very first post from this collection was a loose photo, not pasted on to any of the pages, and the young lady was identified as Helen Zollinger.  But whether Helen was a classmate of the album's owner or that identification was written by Helen's grandchild years latter, well, who knows.   In any case, none of the three women in costumes look like Helen.

The couple are ID'd as Henry Doran and Helen Moock.  They've showed up before this, and they look just young enough that they might be friends, and just old enough to be junior faculty.  And speaking of labels, once again click on Dana Hall School to see more.

English Theater, The Kiltie Show

Ah, those Brits.  It's always a leg show.

Anyway, like yesterdays' post, there's lots of info on the back, including hand written stuff that looks a lot like the writing on, well, yesterday's post.  So, starting on the stamped info, "KIN 5638 ORDER No.  PHOTOCRAFT OF KINGSTON, 3 & 4 EMPIRE CHAMBERS RICHMOND ROAD, KINGSTON-ON THAMES."  And the hand written entry, "Laughing Room Only, Comin' Thru' the Rye.  Finale of Kiltie Show.  Oct. 1951." 

So, if it the same handwriting, rather than an example of a rigid school system that made sure everyone's handwriting looks exactly the same, was it the photographer or a cast member? 

The Distinguished Actress

broadway.cas.sc.edu

Several posts ago I mentioned that I had bought an envelope of theatrical photographs.  Well, they arrived yesterday, and this is the first post from that collection.

This cabinet card is, to put it mildly, damaged.  The bottom margin that would have identified the photographic studio, and quite possibly, the actress is gone, and I'm not willing to spend days searching images of nineteenth century theatrical photography looking for a match.  While it would be a time consuming exercise, it wouldn't necessarily be a pointless search. It was a fairly common practice during the cabinet card era for famous performers to drop by the local photo studio and have pictures taken.  As I've noted in some of my previous posts, photographers would provide free pictures in exchange for the right to sell those same pictures to the general public. 

Now, I'd like to recommend one of my favorite online photographic resources.  broadway.cas.sc.edu  (You can click just below the title.) It's a great site documenting theatrical photographs from the Broadway stage.  The collection is housed at the very un-Broadway University of South Carolina.

More June Roselle

Different outfit, different lighting, and a bird cage.  All the June Roselle photos are 4x5 prints made on a double weight, fiber based paper. 

June Roselle

A couple of days ago,  I went on eBay and bought an envelope of theatrical photographs.  Those haven't arrived yet, but it did remind me that I already had a few theatricals sitting on my desk that hadn't yet been added to the blog. 

Written on the back of the top image, and the only one with any information, "June Roselle, daughter of composer L. Crist Carson."  In my search for information, I started with Carson and found absolutely nothing.  I tired the usual sources, IMDB, the internet move data base, IBDB, the internet Broadway data base, and of course, the plain old general Google search.  Then I decided to try the same approach with his daughter.  After all, show business has a lot of multi generational artists.  There wasn't much there, either, but something. 

June Roselle understudied Florence Henderson, on Broadway, in the title role of Fanny.  Fanny ran from 1954 to 1956, book by Joshua Logan and S.N. Behrman  music and lyrics by Harold Rome.  She was listed as having been a replacement for a handful of performances, so she did act on Broadway.  And then, that's it.  Nothing, nada.  No other Broadway  credits, nothing on IMDB, so no movie or television career.  It's as if she just disappeared. 

So, did she decide that show business wasn't for her?  Did she get married and go the family route?  Perhaps she died.