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Tag Archives: 1930s

Not Sweet or Cute

March 4, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
27 Comments

photoboothOldCouple
I don’t much like it when elderly couples are characterised as ‘sweet’ or ‘cute’. I think it is patronising and condescending. It ignores the fact that older people are smart, experienced and tough. If they have maintained a relationship for long enough to be growing old together then they are patient, loving and tolerant as well.

This 1930s photobooth photo from the USA shows a couple that has lived well and survived. They appear to be dressed up for a special occasion or simply for a trip into town, which may have been a special occasion itself. They still have a sense of adventure and fun to have stopped, into what was a very recent invention, to have their photo taken. I like their matching granny glasses, her lace collar and beads.

They both have wonderful half smiles that make me feel that they were enjoying themselves and each others company.

 

Small Town Noir by Diarmid Mogg

July 27, 2015
Random Posts
16 Comments
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My own piece of photobooth small town noir.

I don’t normally publicise books about mugshots on this blog but as a minor part of my collection, they hold a level of fascination for me in much the same way as photobooth photos.

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For some time now, I have been an avid follower of Small Town Noir a mugshot blog by Diarmid Mogg. Since 2009, Diarmid has collected over 1,500 mugshots, all from the same small American town, New Castle, Pennsylvania. His collection is an extraordinary set of photographs covering the middle of the 20th century, from 1930 to 1960.

Meticulous research goes into each post which shows the original police mugshot, often accompanied by newspaper clippings, birth and death records plus details of the alleged crime. Anything that can be discovered about the life of the person beyond the day of their incarceration is also included. If you love to time travel through photographs, are interested in vernacular American history or just love a good yarn, this is a blog for you. Hopefully, very soon, it will be a book for you, too.

Diarmid has for a long time wanted to pursue a published hard copy edition of his work. He has teamed up with an innovative publishing company called Unbound, which uses a crowd funding model to

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produce books by proving that there’s a demand for them before the publication process starts. Diarmid continues the story –

“We’ve worked together on a proposed outline for the book, which is exactly what I’d dreamed about: 150 full-page photographs on good paper, with 70,000 words of text; the pictures arranged chronologically from 1930 to 1960, so the passage of time is evident as you flick past changing hairstyles, fashions and types of photographic film stock; with the stories building up one after the other into a fractured portrait of a particular place and time that there’s really no other way to access.”

If enough people pledge to buy the book, he can do this, so please get behind this wonderful project by clicking on this link to make it happen:

http://unbound.co.uk/books/small-town-noir

My apologies for the last post which was accidentally sent due to my inexperience with using WordPress on my iPad. Hopefully now that I am back on my desk-top, I will be more successful.

I’m Feeling Fine

June 27, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
18 Comments

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This is another photobooth postcard from my collection but one published by Auto-Snaps which, to my knowledge, did not also own or operate any photobooths. I can find no reference to this publisher online and have never seen another postcard designed by them.

This young man’s name is Donald. An adult has filled in the address and message –

Having a nice time Auntie.

He has signed the card himself and added three kisses. (Please see the image below.)

Like the other postcards I have posted in this series of three, the message is written in pencil. Unlike the others, this one has been posted without an envelope. It was sent from the seaside resort town of Rhyl in Wales. It is dated June 1937. It is interesting that Rhyl is also the town where Cyril Astor had one of his booths in the 1940s through to the early 70s. I imagine it possible that this was one of his earliest booths. His offices were situated nearby.

To see the previous posts about photobooth postcards please click here and here.

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A Marcel Wave and Malocclusion

June 12, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
11 Comments

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This photobooth pair look like a very happy couple. This gent has the broadest of broad smiles and a fashionable dress sense. With marcel waves in her hair and prominent front teeth, his young lady would not be considered a beauty, but the smile on his face suggests she has a spark that we, as distant observers, may not be able to see.

Without the benefit of modern orthodontic techniques, I too, would have this same problem with upper palate over-crowding. It is interesting to note that in a person deemed attractive, this dental phenomenon is termed an “overbite”. Those deemed less visually appealing, get the pejorative label of “buck teeth”. The correct dental term is, I believe, malocclusion.

There is a Pinterest board for sexy women with overbites, nearly all actresses who’ve long disappeared from our screens, Alan Alda’s character, Hawkeye, in the third season of the TV series M*A*S*H whistfully mentions Gene Tierney’s overbite as sexy but I doubt we will see anymore thespians with this appealing, characteristic given the universal propensity towards conformity through cosmetic dentistry.

This Germany booth pic is dated September 1935.

German Photoweigh – Master Bean – 14 October 1931

August 15, 2014
Photoweigh Photobooth, Vintage Photobooth
9 Comments

photoboothPhotoWeigh

This has to be my favourite Photoweigh image and also one of my all-time-favourite photobooth photos. The reason I particularly love this image is that it reminds me of the wonderful comic character created by Rowan Atkinson, Mr Bean and his best friend Teddy.

Teddy is Mr. Bean’s teddy bear and perhaps Mr. Bean’s best friend. Mr. Bean often pretends Teddy is alive and he is often privy to Mr. Bean’s various schemes. I wonder what relationship the young man in the booth photo had with his bear, and what might have prompted him to take him to the booth for a photo? He looks a bit too old to be playing with a teddy bear, so perhaps it was taken to entertain a young child?

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Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean, with his friend Teddy.

I had assumed that this Photoweigh photo was taken at a railway station in Frankfurt but on Googling the address Kaiserstr 67 (full address Kaiserstraße 67 60329 Frankfurt am Main – see picture of location as it looks today, below) found that it is part of a shopping street. Where the booth once stood is now the Yan Jing Chinese Restaurant.

More Photoweigh photo examples from the UK and Germany can be seen here, along with a detailed history of the booths written by David Simkin of Sussex PhotoHistory.

Another blogger of vintage photographs, Richard Overy, has found some wonderful examples of other Photoweigh photos from the UK from Barry Island. The links to those photos are below. I would also encourage you to explore more of Richard’s found photo blog for more interesting old photographs.

http://lostandfoundphotographs.wordpress.com/?s=barry+island

 

Kaiserstraße 67 60329 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Yan Jing Chinese Restaurant is currently located where the Photoweigh Photobooth stood in the 1930s

Photoweigh – 18 August 1937

July 21, 2014
Photoweigh Photobooth
15 Comments

photoboothPhotoWeighAug15:1937 Read More

Cross Dressing In Top Hat And Pipe -1930s Photobooth Snap

January 12, 2013
Vintage Photobooth
17 Comments

I didn’t have a post scheduled for today but when this gem arrived in the mail yesterday I couldn’t wait
to share it.

When I first saw the picture, in a poor scan on Ebay, I assumed the subject was a man. On closer inspection, I have considered the possibility that this is a woman in drag.

The somewhat theatrical mien of the sitter, the subject’s effeminacy, soft features and no signs of facial growth are a start towards this assumption. Additionally the combination of top hat, pipe, glasses and a business suit seem to me to be caricature features of a male of this period, which I estimate to be the 1930s, rather than an ensemble worn at the time.

If it were a man dressed for a night out on the town wouldn’t he be in formal wear? I never saw Fred Astaire or anyone else for that matter, in a top hat without white tie and tails. There is also something about the top hat that suggests to me that it is nothing more than a costumers prop. The brim seems too narrow and thin and the silky sheen of most top hats is missing.

It could of course be a very young man dressed for a play or a fancy dress party.

Anyone else have an opinion? Please let me know by leaving a comment.

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Approximate original size relative to the larger scan.

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