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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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Jannie and Del

December 11, 2011
Vintage Photobooth
2 Comments

This is one of two gorgeous booth pictures from the family collection of my friend Del and her sister Jan. They both look very cute in their matching smiles, sundresses and crooked fringes. This picture was taken in the mid 1950s in the seaside resort town of Rhyl and probably came from a Cyril Astor photobooth located near the beach front. (I will tell you more about Cyril in my next post.)

Situated on the north east coast of Wales, Rhyl has long been a popular tourist destination for people all over Wales and North West England. In a recent email, Del said “Rhyl was the only place I thought was the seaside when I was a child.  I didn’t know other places had beach and sea!”  The family went there on a day trip at least once a year.

I love Jannies little fingers, resting on her sister’s shoulder, just poking out from behind Del’s hair. They were obviously good friends in childhood as they still are today.

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