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A Loving Thought

June 26, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
11 Comments

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Here are three more examples of my Photomaton postcards.

The young lady in the booth photo is wearing fashionable clothes of the late 1920s or early 1930s. She wrote a message on the back, which reads –

Dear Beatie and George. We are having a fine time. Hoping all is well at home. With love from Mayme

The writing is in a childish hand, so the sitter may be a lot younger than she first appeared to me. I had thought late teens but she could possibly be as young as 13 or 14. Her name is difficult to decipher. It could also be read as Mayne. Neither that, nor my first guess are familiar female monikers, so maybe neither is correct.

Below is another example of an unused card. To see some other examples of this type of card please click here.

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I Spent My Last Shilling

June 25, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
6 Comments

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I have a small collection of ephemera related to photobooths and these are some of my favourites.

Wherever a photobooth was situated, which was more often than not in seaside holiday towns, there were postcards and postcard vendors. The photomaton company came up with a way of capitalising on the booth’s popularity as a souvenir and the popularity of postcards by combining the two. They produced empty vignette cards with seaside and country themes which had gummed paper backing, into which one could insert a recently made photo from one of their booths.

The top card must have been delivered by hand or posted in an envelope. Written in pencil on the back is –

Just a little snap of me dear. Sorry my hair is so straight. But it’s not so bad is it? Love from Nancy x x

The second card is of the same design as the first. It is one of four I have, which were never used. Below is another example. They all have twee rhymes that are typical of the sentiments found on other types of greeting cards of the time. They all date from the late 1920s to early 1930s

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Oh, You Are An Odd Girl.

June 22, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
5 Comments

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My one and only photobooth photo from Belgium is a corker! This young lady has a quirky sense of humour. I love her for that. I don’t think I have any other booth photos of anyone in bandages, let alone bandages that are so badly done. I suspect they are just a prop for the photo, but could be wrong. This pic looks even more fabulous enlarged, so please click the image to see it in all its glory.

I really wonder what the rest of the strip looked like and whether there are more mad strips of this girl floating around.

This is a standard sized booth pic that is undated.

Lori and Me – Part 7

June 15, 2015
Lori and Me, Vintage Photobooth
5 Comments

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In the seventh part of this series, we have Donna on two different days with two friends. Each photo is dated 1972.

For those of you who remember, I named this series after one of the inscriptions on the back of one of the pics. For a long time I had it in my head that Lori was the blonde star of these photos. I decided to name this large group of pictures after her, despite my mistake. So, here at last and in the top three pictures, is the “Lori” of the title. Ted, one of my friends, will be pleased to finally see her!

In the second two photos, unfortunately faded, we have Donna and Mona (who we saw before in Part 4) and “Steve’s finger”, that being the cigar-shaped shadow at the bottom right of the second image. Not sure who Steve is, but he is obviously important enough to have his finger mentioned!

Donna is photographed with many boyfriends and girlfriends over a period of 4 years from 1969 to 1973 in this series of photobooth photos. It has been a long time since I started these posts, so if you’d like to review the previous photos, please click here.

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.

Please Help To Settle An Argument – UPDATE

June 8, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
10 Comments

photoboothGermanHatLady?

In my previous post about this photo, I attached an image of the back. I suggested that there may be more clues as to the identity of the sitter, if only I could read German. I was convinced that the photo is of a man. My friends thought it was a woman. Now thanks to a reader, Wolff Postler, we have a translation of the inscription. Wolff writes –

As far as I could decipher it, the notice reads:
Meiner Logismutter
Möll(?) zum Andenken
an den fremden
Freiheitsbruder
Ludwig Rot…(?)

This translates as “To my lodging mother Möll as a memory of the strange (weird) brother of liberty Ludwig Rot…”
The places marked by (?) are not readable.
Hope that helps – at least it confirms your speculation about a boheminan of some sort.

The translation confirms this to be a man who is seen and sees himself as strange. What “brother of liberty” meant in Pre-WW2 Germany, I cannot say. Hearty thanks to Wolff for making this interesting photo even more fascinating!

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Please Help To Settle An Argument

June 6, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
25 Comments

photoboothGermanHatLady?

I bought this 1930s photobooth photo thinking it was of a very unusual looking man with an even more unusual fashion sense – a bohemian, arty type. No one to whom I have shown the photo agrees. The argument is that a man of that era wouldn’t have hair styled in that way nor wear a hat, shirt or velvet coat such as these. What do you think?

The photo came from Germany and has this information on the back. I’d say the signature was Ludwig something, definitely a male name, but it may not be a signature at all. I’m sure there will be more clues to the identity of the sitter if I could read more of the inscription.

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Tic-Tac-Toe, Hugs and Kisses, Christmas Wishes

December 18, 2014
Random Posts
23 Comments
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Triptych taken in July 2013 for an exhibition that sadly never happened.

Merry X-mas and O-mas, Merry Kisses and Hugs to everyone who has supported my blog, and supported me during this time of ill health.

Thanks for the comments you left on my last post (as yet un answered, but greatly appreciated). I hope to be able to do some regular writing next year. I have lots of wonderful items to share with you.

Seasons Greetings to all, both long-time followers, new followers and casual readers. Have fun!

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Father Christmas and friends. A booth pic found online, with thanks to the original owner.

With best wishes, from Katherine.

Chanel Make-Over For Two – 17 June 2000

August 18, 2014
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
14 Comments

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17 June 2000, Southland Shopping Centre, Cheltenham, Victoria

One day in June, 2000, my darling friend and virtual sister Petrina and I went on a shopping expedition to get some cosmetic luxuries.  With those came a free make-up session at Chanel. I don’t think either of us, before or since, have been plastered with quite as much make-up as we were that day. It was a fun thing to do together and had to be commemorated with some photobooth photos, of course!

These come from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.

 

German Photoweigh – Master Bean – 14 October 1931

August 15, 2014
Photoweigh Photobooth, Vintage Photobooth
9 Comments

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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