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Vintage Photobooth

Beautiful Jazz Age Dude

June 10, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
17 Comments

Cool tie, cool hat, sharp lapels – what a dude. And such a beautiful sanguine face! I love his slightly raised eyebrows, almond eyes and half smile. I feel very warm towards him, as there is something in his expression that suggests kindness and charm.

The background in this booth photo is very unusual, so I would suggest it was added by the owners of a club or bar where the booth was situated.  It is undated but I would guess, based on the quality of paper and the clothing style, it was taken sometime in the 1930s. There is self-adhesive album residue on the back (those albums date from the 1970s) which suggests it was loved and cared for for many years after it was taken.

photoboothAfricanAmericanManSanguine

The photo is of a slightly larger size than most of my booth photos. It measures 65 x 78 mm and came from the USA.

Cyril Astor’s Photobooth Business

June 9, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
38 Comments

Please scroll down for more photos after the article.
photoboothDad&PatFrontCyrilAstor photoboothDad&PatInsideCyrilAstor

Cyril Astor ran a photography business that was exclusively dedicated to photobooths. In partnership with a Mr Leach, Cyril hired out booths to tourist venues and special events,as well as having a number of booths in permanent locations. The business no longer exists but was located on Cefndy Road Industrial Estate in Rhyl in the county of Denbighshire in North Wales. Rhyl is a seaside resort town and an ideal place for booths that supported the local tourist industry.

photoboothCyrilAstorUniform

Inscribed on the back “To Mother From Edwin”

I was unable to find a record of when the business started but his booths were used at the Cardiff venue for the Festival of Britain in 1951, so the business was in operation at that time. In 1972 the business still existed when Irish lass, 20 year old Patsy Furber worked there. I am very grateful to Patsy for her help in my research for this post.

Patsy has shared some of her personal memories of Cyril’s business with me –

“The managing director was a Mr. Leach, the manager was Gwyn. Mr. Leach’s secretary was Cathy and the telephonist and office worker was Nerys. I was a shorthand typist and part of my job was to type order forms for the chemicals they needed for the booths.

I liked working for Cyril Astor’s business in the beginning but left with extremely bad feelings. I come from Belfast, Ireland and I am afraid I fell foul of political bullying caused by misinformation given by the Special Branch Police in Wales.

I really did enjoy myself at Astors but felt it very unfortunate that things turned out the way they did.  Unfortunately, it was the political atmosphere at the time. It was a thing a good many Irish in Britain had to endure….”

Mr Astor had booths in Margate (UK), Ramsgate (UK) and Rhyl in Wales. One of the prime spots for his booths was on the ‘Great Orme’ in Llandudno in Wales. Without Patsy’s help, it was difficult to find information about Cyril’s business but I did find that he was an exhibitor at a trade fair at Alexandra Palace which was advertised in Billboard magazine on the 26 November, 1966. Presumably this event promoted his booths for hire.

photoboothCyrilAstor copy

In addition to being a photographer, Cyril was an inventor. He made a patent application in 1966. The Patent Index says that he applied for patents to make improvements to the Photomaton machine in the early 1960s.

“Abstract of GB962798 962,798. Rollerways. CYRIL ASTOR PHOTOMATON (LONDON) Ltd. March 2, 1962 [Dec. 16, 1960], No. 43458/60. Heading B8A. [Also in Division G2] Film is conveyed through a processing tank by a plurality of vertically-spaced sets of rollers, each set being individual…”

On the back of each of the cardboard photo frames it says, “Photographer: Cyril Astor. You can obtain three beautiful postcard sized enlargements by sending this photograph with name and address to Cyril Astor, 28, North Drive, Rhyl, North Wales. Together with postal order valued 5/-. It is never too late to send and you get this photo back.”  Of course it is too late now, despite the claim, but it does make me think there could be some fabulous photobooth postcard gems out there to be discovered!

photoboothCyrilAstorDaughterFrontphotoboothCyrilAstorFather

photoboothCyrilAstorDaughterBack

Printed on the backs of the father and daughter pair (above) is Cyril’s standard advertisement.

photoboothCyrilAstorFriends

photoboothCyrilAstorRamsgateFront photoboothCyrilAstorRamsgateBack

photoboothCyrilAstorFestivalofGB

Lolita

June 4, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
11 Comments

To cast this pretty child as a Dolores Haze/Lotita type is very easy given her provactive pose in the final photo of this strip. That photo,  accompanied by the previous two with her teddy bear, contradict each other so sharply that I doubt she was fully aware of the impression she was creating. Still, her expression suggests that she was experimenting with her “grown-up” persona whether or not she was conscious of projecting her budding sexuality.

These three images are very unusual in the context of photobooth photos and a valued part of my collection.

photoboothLolitaGirl

The strip is undated but looks to be from the late 1960s. It originated in the USA and measures 500 x 41 mm.

 

 

Sailor Boys In A Booth

June 3, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
12 Comments

These two boys are a wonderful pair. What a lovely affectionate pose! They are cute as all get out, with their rakishly tilted caps and loose neck ties, not to mention the rose bud in one lapel. There heads just resting together and those smiles, make me love them both. The feminity of the features of the owner of the magnificent ‘tache made me think briefly that it was a woman in drag but I have dismissed that idea. Do you agree?

photobooth2sailorsGreatMo.

 

This photo comes from an album of photos that mostly were dated 1941. It measures  37 x 52 mm and came from the USA.

Movie-of-U Inside Out

June 2, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
16 Comments
Movie of you Front

Front

I bought this rare type of photobooth photo from an online seller in the USA. I have others in my collection, three of which you can see here. When it arrived it was in a parlous state of repair, being in two pieces and covered with brown paper tape to stop the photo inside from moving. None of the item’s problems were listed in the  advertisement.

After numerous emails where the seller accused me of creating the damage, I finally got an agreement to a refund but it cost me more to return it (it had to be sent registered post), than the item originally cost, leaving me out of pocket by $18. Having had to scan the photo to prove that the item had arrived in poor condition, I decided the best way to ameliorate my bad feelings about the whole affair, is to do a blog post about how the mechanics of this type of photobooth item works. I hope you find it interesting.

Movie of you Back

Damage and brown paper tape on back.

movie of you without photo

With back and therefore photo removed. You can see the marks on the “lens” that gives the illusion of movement when the item is squeezed.

Movie of you Inside

The inside of the item, showing the lens and photo. The image has three distinct images overlapping and printed together. The lens separates each image and the illusion of movement is created by squeezing the sides of the frame.

 

 

Kids and a Camera in a Photobooth

May 31, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
9 Comments

This is the type of picture that everyone who collects photobooth photos wants to own and will be willing to pay a high price to get.

photoboothKidsWithCamera

The above photo of two young chaps posing with an Imperial box camera, was highly sought after on Ebay. As most often happens, I was unable to compete with more highly cashed up collectors when it went up for auction early last year.

Judging by the black paper background, I think this photo was one from Broken Heart Gallery, the shop of Albert Tanquero who did a guest post for me last month.

It is a standard photobooth print size of 40 x 55 mm.

Keep Outta My Booth! or If Looks Could Kill.

May 17, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
21 Comments
photoboothUSAgirls01

A happy, private moment of shared friendship…

photoboothUSAgirls02

…interruptions will not be tolerated.

What a face! What happened to cause this look of utter disdain? Obviously some stupid grown-up was trying to interfere!

These two standard sized photobooth photos came from the USA and are undated. They look to me to be from the 1930s. Photographically they are not the best quality that a booth of this era was able to produce, but the sweetness and comedy of this pair of snaps make them a highly prized addition to my collection.

Tattoo Man – Part Four

May 13, 2014
Tattoo Man Series, Vintage Photobooth
6 Comments

photoboothTattooManSeries04

This is the final photo that I have of USA, Tattoo Man and his partner. Probably the least exciting of the lot. I wasn’t able to find this photo in its original context, so below you will see three more low resolution strips from the original sale, just for fun.

He appears to have had a great time creating this lot, especially so the first strip! Having been made around the turn of the century, I cannot imagine what circumstances allowed this collection to end up for sale on Ebay so quickly, but I am glad they did.

photoboothTattooManPart4Edit

Ted’s Photobooth Story

May 12, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
18 Comments

Cheryl and Ted

One of the more exciting, and for me, unexpected aspects of being a blogger is the amount of enthusiasm and generosity that comes to my inbox out of the blue and from all around the world. I have recently started following a blog by Ted Strutz of Friday Harbor, Washington State in the San Juan Islands, USA. The blog is called TedBook and has some very amusing conversational short stories that I encourage you to check out. Ted emailed me the above photos and the following history a couple of days ago –

When I lived in Chicago in the 80’s and early 90’s, there was a bar called the Rainbow Club.  It was quite large with a big horseshoe shaped bar, booths, tables and a stage, maybe a dance floor.  They played 33 LPs on a phonograph.  Kind of an artsy place.  There was a photo booth as well.  It was very popular, and I would imagine they made almost as much money off that thing as the booze.  I think it was a buck.  I’m sure they have quite a few strips that were left behind.  It was a lot of fun.  Of course that was one of the first places we took out of town visitors.

Anyway… I guess it was 1988 or so when an old girlfriend came from Sacramento to Chicago to visit me.  I had been there for two years, and although she was ‘the one who got away’ we had stayed friends.  I took her to the Rainbow Club, as it was close to the Wicker Park neighborhood where I lived and a fun place to go.  My daughter and her friends hung out there a lot, and that’s how I was introduced to the place.  I didn’t go there that often, except when people came to visit so we could do the photo booth. It is interesting to look at people in these strips and how they react to what the other person in the booth does.  It’s kind of a mini play sometimes.

We had a good time on her visit, and I eventually introduced her to a friend in Sacramento who she would later marry.  They had two kids and are still married.  I was a good matchmaker.  Interesting to note there are two backgrounds… one with photo strips, it looks like, maybe to show people how to use it, and a curtain. My other strips all have the curtain. I would say that the first one we did is the one without the curtain.  For that reason, and in the first photo Cheryl is posing with her reflection as it was the first thing she saw.  She always did ‘duck lips’ when looking in a mirror and my two tiny daughters would copy her when looking in a mirror.  They still laugh and talk about her when they do it now. The bottom of one of the strips has the corner torn off.  Those were fun times.

When I saw your blog, it reminded me of that time and I went and found them.  I have 7 of them and a strip of my daughters when they were little kids… they are in their 40’s now.  The last time I was in a photo booth, was with my mother about 5 years ago shortly before she died at 90.  We had gone to the movies and she wanted to do it so she would have a picture of us two together.

Thanks so much, Ted, for sharing your photobooth memories and your photos. Thanks to Cheryl, too.

Tattoo Man – Part Three

May 8, 2014
Tattoo Man Series, Vintage Photobooth
6 Comments

photoboothTattooManSeries03

Here is USA Tattoo Man and his friend once more . I think he is eating a hamburger but it could just be a bagel or filled bread roll, judging by his friend’s wee morsel. As with the previous posts in the series, that you can see here and here, I only own the above photo. You can see it in its original context below.

I have played with the tags in today’s edition. When I posted an image of myself eating a peanut butter dream bar,  I added “woman eating a banana” to see how may extra hits it got. (You can read the story behind why I did that, here.)  It turns out it is a rather successful ploy. My stats were very impressive for that day. So if you are here looking for a man/woman eating a sausage, or a man/woman eating a banana, sorry. You have been the victim of an extremely infantile prank – but hey, why were you searching under those tags anyway, hmm??

photoboothTattooManPart3Edit