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Tag Archives: photobooth

The Actors’ Agency – Part 7

April 4, 2016
The Actors' Agency, Vintage Photobooth
14 Comments

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I would like to think that Lydie Lore (or Lydie Loré) had a good career as a stage actress. In an online search however, all the photos I have found of her are linked to the same seller from whom I bought this, and the other file cards from this series.

In two of these photos, (which you can see, below), she is pictured on stage with an older man. All of the photos are very professionally realised, so I have assumed that this means she was in professional productions. Unfortunately however, I cannot find any reference to her work, save for one play called La Route du Tabac, in which she performed in 1947. It is likely the two photos with the man are from that production.

So, maybe Lydie was not as successful as I would like to imagine. Like me, she may have had an addiction to getting photo portraits made, but unlike me, she chose to have them taken in a studio, not in a photobooth.

This card has more photos than most of the items in this series. The booth photos are particularly lovely, showing what an attractive, sophisticated and fashionable young woman she was. Her address and phone number are listed in pencil at the top of the card. Unlike some of the other file records from this agency, there are no further details about her listed on the back.

There are some other great photos in this series, so stay tuned to Photobooth Journal for more posts.

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Pinocchio For Christmas

April 2, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
19 Comments

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I have never been much of a fan of Disney animated cartoons, having been much more taken with the Warner Brothers characters Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, than the goody two shoes Mickey Mouse and the angry and incomprehensible Donald Duck. However, give me a Disney character in a photobooth and it is all love from me.

Pinocchio is the creation of Italian children’s author Carlo Collodi, whose wooden boy was a lot less likeable than the Disneyfied version. I can find no reference to Disney buying the rights to use the story, so assume that no royalties were paid to the original creator or his descendants. In such circumstances was the Disney empire founded.

This photo was taken on December 28th in the same year the animated film was released, 1940. Pictured is a very handsome young man clutching his licensed character doll, which given the date of the photo, must have been a prized Christmas gift.

The photo, an enlargement of a  smaller photobooth image, measures 80 x 111 mm. It has been lightly hand coloured, with both the Pinocchio’s and the child’s cheeks highlighted with a lovely rose red.

Below is a scan of the back of the photo. Once again I am asking for help to decipher handwriting. Try as I might, I cannot work out what the first word is. I suspect it is either the name of the sitter or of the place where the photo was taken, possibly even the name of a store? I have added two scans with different toning, neither of which are very clear but they are the best results I could get from my aging scanner. The date December 28, 1940 is clear. Below that I think it says 3 years but I cannot make out the following word, nor understand why the year 1940 is written again. Any offers of help are greatly appreciated in the comments section. Thanks!

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Cloche Hats

April 1, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
7 Comments

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These two happy ladies had their portrait taken in a photobooth, somewhere in Germany, on the 15th of April, 1929. The cloche hats they are wearing were derided as unflattering by contemporary cartoonists and columnists alike. It didn’t stop their popularity!

The cloche was invented in 1908 by milliner Caroline Reboux. They became popular from about 1922 to 1933. Its name is derived from cloche, the French word for bell.

“Happy Easter”, Says Mario

March 24, 2016
Digital Photobooth Images
21 Comments

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Mario, my pal the taxidermy rabbit, doesn’t get out much these days, so he was delighted when I offered him a trip in my car, plus the honour of the starring role of Easter Bunny in this festively themed, photobooth photo.

Well, it was all fun and games for us, from the minute we left home. Mario chatted about what he hoped to get for Easter this year. I tried to keep focused on the road. Mario sang along to The Wiggles tune, Little Bunny Foo-Foo. I narrowly avoided squashing one of his relatives on the highway. Mario scoffed the last of the travel sweets. I spilt the last of the water down my blouse. You know, the normal stuff that happens when you go out with a dead rabbit.

Relieved to finally be at the photobooth, we proceeded to prepare for and compose each shot. Imagine our surprise when the prop egg he had given me, started to crack open to reveal a spritely Easter Chick inside!

“Lucky we didn’t boil that one for breakfast”, he quipped. “Yeah, lucky.”, I replied, as the chick gave me a hard peck on my nose and scarpered off into the mall.

St Patrick’s Day

March 17, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
14 Comments

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To celebrate the 17th March, I had plans to make my first St Patrick’s Day photobooth strip. Unfortunately my health was such that I was unable to drive as far as the nearest booth site in time, so here instead, are some Irish relatives of mine. Oh, and a pseudo booth strip on a green theme, below.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!
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My Friend Ted

March 16, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
43 Comments

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My friend Ted, also known as one of the larrikin lads in an earlier post, Two Drunks In A Photobooth, is now looking more composed and formal for the camera. I haven’t asked Ted about this, but was it really fashionable in the early 1970s, to wear a window-pane, checked suit with a floral shirt? My guess is that Ted was a fashion leader in this combo, and just so far ahead of the game no one else has ever caught on to this eclectic mix!

Love the face fuzz, Ted.

The Actors’ Agency – Part 6

March 11, 2016
The Actors' Agency, Vintage Photobooth
26 Comments

photoboothBensamon

This is another in the series of photobooth photo, file cards from a Parisian acting agency. Each photo attached to the card is of a client who was looking for work in the acting profession in the 1950s or 60s.

Monsieur Bensamon, above, looks to me to be perfect for any role as a valet or butler. Which brings me to a film Murder by Death (1976), which is one of my favourite comedies from childhood. It has an all-star cast which included, bizarrely, author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote.

Maggie Smith and David Niven play an aristocratic couple, Dora and Dick Charleston (See dialogue below) who are invited with a group of other guests, to a spooky house where a murder is subsequently committed. The house of course had a butler. It is an affectionate spoof of the work of numerous crime writers of the era but most particularly of the stories of Agatha Christie.  All this is by way of explaining why I bought the above photo, as the butler in Murder by Death is Bensonmum.

Bensonmum is a ridiculous but very funny character, played by Sir Alec Guinness. The similarities in the two names and my affection for the film were enough to make this, less than exciting photo, a must for my collection. There are no details on the back of the card, so all we know of Monsieur Bensamon is his surname and address at the time. If he had been cast in Murder By Death, I am sure he would have had great fun with the following dialogue from the film –

Dora Charleston: Thank you. You are?
Jamesir Bensonmum: Bensonmum.
Dora Charleston: Thank you, Benson.
Jamesir Bensonmum: No, no, no, no, no… Bensonmum. My name is Bensonmum.
Dick Charleston: Bensonmum?
Jamesir Bensonmum: Yes, sir. Jamesir Bensonmum.
Dick Charleston: Jamesir?
Jamesir Bensonmum: Yes, sir.
Dick Charleston: Jamesir Bensonmum?
Jamesir Bensonmum: Yes, sir.
Dick Charleston: How odd.
Jamesir Bensonmum: My father’s name, sir.
Dick Charleston: What was your father’s name?
Jamesir Bensonmum: Howard. Howard Bensonmum.
Dick Charleston: Your father was Howard Bensonmum?
Dora Charleston: Leave it be, Dickie. I’ve had enough.

There are some other great photos in this series, so stay tuned to Photobooth Journal for more posts.

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Yo Yo and Friends

March 9, 2016
Photobooth Clowns, Vintage Photobooth
7 Comments
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From my collection

Yo Yo (Bill Alcott) is seen above with a Majorette, which I have just discovered is an American term for a baton twirling marching girl. In Australia we have a different name for this type of performer. We call them  Baton Twirling Marching Girls. Not much linguistic creativity there, Oz! The above souvenir photo is one of many I have seen on eBay, in the past two years or so, where we see Yo Yo posing with a visitor to the carnival or circus. The above photo is the only one that shows somebody in a costume that indicates they were also performers at the event.

My scanner has failed to capture how wonderful this photo is.  There is a depth to the photo that is not visible here. Our marching girl is beautiful. She looks serene and comfortable getting a hug from my favourite clown. I wonder if they were friends?

Below are more photos of Yo Yo with circus goers. Unless otherwise indicated, I do not own them, but copied them from the eBay listing when they were sold.

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From my collection

The Photobooth Clown

March 7, 2016
Photobooth Clowns, Vintage Photobooth
32 Comments

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I have published photos of this clown before but at the time I knew nothing about him, except that he kept popping up in online auctions in photobooth photos. I am happy to say I now know that this is Yo Yo the clown. Of course he was more frequently known by his birth name, Bill Alcott. I bought this and most of the photobooth photos below from his daughter, Arlene Albrecht. She has so many souvenirs of her own and her father’s career in the circus that she was happy to part with these small items.

Bill started clowning when he was 5 years old as his uncle was a strong man in the circus. He performed well into his 70s. When Arlene was a child she travelled and performed with her father in Jay Gould’s Million Dollar Circus. The circus had a carnival, so it was a complete package for state fairs & other community celebrations. Arlene’s mother had a photobooth and her brother had a slum spindle (which I believe is a game designed to favor the owner, not the player) on the midway. Later the family added snow cones & cotton candy to the business.

The photobooth was very popular during the second world war as all the girls at home were sending pictures to their sweethearts in the military. Their photobooth was a great feature, for children and adults alike, to get a personalised souvenir of the circus. I will post some of that type of photo soon.

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It is interesting that his advertisement for work mentions that he was sober. Taking one meaning of the word, it is hardly appealing to employ a clown of sober mood. Taking the other meaning of sober, which is obviously the one intended, one wonders if there were so many drunken clowns in the business, that it  was necessary to specify that detail.

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The photos below are copyrighted to Clown Alley. I asked for permission to use them but didn’t receive a reply. I hope using them will not upset anyone.

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St Louis Police Circus 1956. Yo Yo is the second last clown on the right.

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Yo Yo in colour, cuddling a Policeman clown.

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.