You Press The Button, We Do The Rest

No, George Eastman did not invent photography, nor did  he did  invent film.  What George Eastman did was see that the average person on the street would, given the chance, take pictures of their own.  Before Eastman and Kodak came along, photographers needed a basic knowledge of chemistry, a light tight laboratory of their own, and a willingness to carry around a large camera that took photos on glass plate negatives and had to be used with a tripod.  Eastman understood that if photography was made easy, photography would spread to the masses.  His first attempt at mass market cameras, the detective, was a huge failure.  It was his second try, the  Kodak, that made his company a giant of American manufacturing.

George Eastman's idea was to build a camera that literally needed no real skill to operate.  It was sold pre-loaded with a strip of film that could take 100 separate images; point and shoot, send the camera with the film still loaded back to Kodak, and Kodak would develop the film, make a single print of each image, reload the camera and mail the whole thing back to the camera's owner.  Of course, at $25 in 1887, for the camera and film, true amateur photography was still limited to the well established members of the middle class and above, but in time that would all change.  In 1900, Eastman introduced the first Brownie camera with a list price of $1.00 with  no film included.

When I was a child,way back in the early 1960's, a cheap 127 camera made by Ansco could be had for $10, and a twelve exposure roll of film could be developed and printed for $5.  The focus might have left something to be desired, and the plastic lenses didn't cut a super sharp negative, but then again, even poor people could take snapshots of their kids.

In all the years I've been collecting old photographs, this is the first time I've found a photograph from the original Kodak mass market camera.  I don't know why George Eastman chose a format that gave round prints, but that's how they can be identified.  In 1887, the Kodak prints were 2 1/2 inches in diameter, in 1888, the size went up to 3 1/2 inches, which is what this particular print is.  Written on the back, "Me and my den as seen through a Kodak."

More Gal Pals

Two gals hanging out in the 1920s.

Woman and Dogs

I like dogs, but the small one bedroom apartment I live in isn't the best place for one.  It seems to me that having a dog is a far better reason to own a house than the whole equity thing.

Snowball

It's hot.  It went over 100 today, I don't have air conditioning, I'm covered in sweat, and very uncomfortable.  I could really go for a snowball fight right about now.

Cleo and Friends

Written on the back, "Cleo, Marion, Betty, Judy  Oct. 21,1945."  Yesterday's post dated from January 1942, just a month or so after America's entry into World War 2.  Today's post just a few months after the war's end.   Whenever I see pictures of civilians from the war era, I'm always reminded that they almost certainly knew someone who was killed or wounded.  It's not like that anymore.  We've been involved, militarily on some level, in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade, and I don't know a single person who has been killed or wounded in those conflicts, nor do I know any person who has family that has died.   We could have small numbers of troops, in combat, for another twenty years, and it would still be possible to never know any actual casualties or their families.  I guess that's why it's so easy to tolerate our involvement.

Two Women

I'm a big believer that if you've seen enough old photos, and if a certain percentage of them are captioned in some way, in time, you can make some fairly accurate guesses about the ones that aren't captioned.  So, I'm calling this one from central Europe.  It's the clothing and the apartment blocks in the background.

Rose & Neddy In Brooklyn

Written on the back, "Rose L age 16, March 26 1922-1115 40th St Bkyn Neddy C. 15"  I can't remember how many times I've found information that specific on the back of a print.  I'd bet, the structure in the background is an elevated train and I'd bet it still there.

Don't Look At Me!

It might be necessary to click on the image for a bigger window, but take a look, our young go-karter has his hand up to block his face from the camera.  Perhaps he had a photo predator for a parent, a mother or father who felt that absolutely everything their kid did had to be recorded for posterity.   Then again, he might have been a future white collar criminal practicing his court house getaway.

Thought I'd try the color restoration setting on the scanner again.  In all honesty, I like the pink one better.

Antenna Head

Yes, I know.  Those aren't antennas.  She's wearing some sort of turban held in place by really big hairpins.  Click on the image and bring it up in a bigger window, and you'll also she she's holding a Look magazine and maybe a very small can of beer.  Ah the good old days.  Well, if nothing else, I miss picture magazines like Life and Look, and now that Rupert Murdoch has taken over The National Geographic...I'm not hopeful.

Stamped on the back, "R. HERVEY ANGIER JUL 27 1941."  As a rule, if a photo has any sort of mark that can ID a photographer, studio, or processing lab, I do a quick search for any info I can dig up.  I wasn't hopeful on this one, more a snapshot than a professional portrait.  I figured I was looking for an amateur with a rubber stamp rather than a professional.

My search for R. Hervey Angier photographer wasn't too successful but remove photog and I came up with a couple of maybes.  From the April 1956 issue of Railroad Magazine "R. Hervey Angier, Los Angeles, Southern Pacific hogger is a timetable collector with a collection of over 1000."  From the October 56 issue of the same magazine, "R. Hervey Angier, SP engineer has an unusual hobby, he collects conductors' punch designs."

Then things got kind of creepy.  From 1941, the date of the stamp, a Hervey Angier, without the R was appealing his conviction for unlawful sex with a minor, actually two minors, girls aged five and seven, based on the legal definition of copulation.  His lawyer argued that in California the law defined copulation as intercourse and since Hervey had performed oral sex on his victims, without penetration, he hadn't committed a crime.  I couldn't find any information on the outcome of his appeal.

Of course, R. Hervey Angier the photographer, might not be the same Angier as the sex offender, who might not be the same Angier as the railroader.  But it is an unusual name so one has to wonder.

Gachinko

A nice thing about eBay is that I can purchase old photos from anywhere in the world.   (That is when I can afford 'em, which isn't often.)   Anyway, I found this nice photo of young baseball players from a seller in Japan.  At first I was a bit confused.  Why were  these Japanese baseball players wearing jerseys with English lettering?  Was it possible that this picture was taken in someplace like Fresno, and mailed back to family in someplace like Tokyo?   Then I did some research and discovered that the logos for all the teams in the Japanese major leagues are in English.  The only explanation I could think of was that baseball originated in the United States and Japanese baseball fans crave authenticity, so English it is.

But what does that word mean?  The first thing I had to do was determine the first letter.  Is that an F, so Fachi, or maybe Jachi, or Tachi?  The only other letter I thought it could be was G,  so I typed Gachi into the search engine and found a match on a site dedicated to Japanese slang.  Gachi, a game played earnestly, from sumo wrestling, short for Gachinko.  It might not be right, but it fits.

Seafood At The Hotel

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

Shadows and Light

This one fascinates me as a printer.  Those areas on the right that are pretty much black...was the paper fogged, is the negative plugged up, printed too hot?  Am I making things too complicated.  It could just be a plain, end of the day, shadow.  And she looks very mysterious, too.

Polo

Written on the back "At the polo games stadium SF Golden Gate Park Fall of 1936.  Joan & Patricia & Jean."   I know there's still a polo field in Golden Gate Park but I have no idea if they still have matches there.

A Fragment

I'm really fascinated by this one.  To start with, it is, as the title of the post states, a fragment.  It 's cut from a larger picture.  It was so faded, that I abandoned my usual attempts to get a scan that looked as much like the original as possible, and went the opposite direction, trying to dig out as much detail as was there.   So what did I get?  It looks like a black woman in the fifties, surrounded by white men, walking along, not just carrying a newspaper, but displaying one.  I know that the headline may be about an air show, but I think this could be a photo of some sort of civil rights demonstration.  The front page of that newspaper may also have a story about a lunch counter sit in, attempts to register black voters, or perhaps even a lynching.  I know it's easy to read things into photos that aren't there.  That's part of the fun of collecting old photos.  But, I'm standing by that guess.

Company Picnic

Well it looks like it could be a company picnic.  Then again, it might just be lunch hour.  I paid the exorbitant figure of 50 cents for this photo, and apart from liking the subject, I was also drawn to the building in the background.  I thought the name of the business was Watts Reality.  When I got it home and put a magnifying glass on the print, I changed my mind.  I'm still not sure what it says, but I don't think it's a real estate office from a part of L.A. that has come to be associated with crime and violence.  The fact is, I wander all over Los Angeles County, and I've been to Watts plenty of times, and it's nowhere near as bad as people think.  Get onto some of the residential streets, and it's possible to see Watts' working class roots.  I wish there were still neighborhoods in the area where a blue collar guy could buy a house.

3 Children

It looks like the two older children are posing with the newborn.

A Day At the Beach

I don't know where this one was taken, but with the brick buildings in the background, going right down to the beach....well, it doesn't make me think west coast.  Perhaps New England, or one of the great lakes, or maybe even Europe.  Europe would be fascinating, since this photo is dated "August 1938,"  just a year before the German-Russian invasion of Poland and the start of World War 2.  America or Europe, it's a view of a world not concerned with the upcoming conflict.  A time when people could still go to the beach, swim, and laze about.

Torturing the Dog

What' that thing on the dog's head?  At first I thought the dog was just moving it's head and all the camera caught was a blur.  But after a bit of thought, I realized that the rest of the body would have been moving as well.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

I doubt that's a store bought cake.

Rendezvous

Quite a gathering of car enthusiasts.  When I see these old photos of people and their cars, I always think they must have been the well established middle class of their day.  But, then I remember that the affordable car,  manufactured so that the ordinary working stiff could buy one, transformed American society.  Oh how things have changed.  Today, the new car has been priced beyond the average hourly worker.  I'm 60, and I've never been able to afford a new car, and I doubt I ever will.