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Tag Archives: vintage photography

Faces Pulling Faces

June 1, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
16 Comments

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There is no information on the back of these photos to indicate a place, names or dates, despite the previous owner having gone to the trouble of numbering each photo. Why they should have been numbered 1, 2, 3 is unclear, as judging by the clothes of the boy who appears in all three shots, the images were taken on two different days.

I guess the boy who is mugging for the camera in the first photo is a brother of the guy in uniform. It is a shame he didn’t join in the face pulling. Maybe he liked his perfect look in his military duds too much to play the fool whilst wearing them. Or maybe he was too nervous to think of it, as he may well have been off on his first posting overseas.

I bought these photos as much for the background as for the fabulous, goofy faces. It was the first time I had seen a battleship in a backdrop. I have since found a few more, which I will share with you in coming posts.

I am guessing these images were made during WW2 as the military theme would have suited the many last souvenir photos that would have been made at that time.

The Actors’ Agency – Part 8

May 27, 2016
The Actors' Agency, Vintage Photobooth
23 Comments
photoboothGeorgesAss


An enlargement of the photobooth photo is at the bottom of this post.

Here is another Parisian actor’s file card from the 50s or 60s for your perusal.

Poor Georges. He looks scary, right? He has a face and eyebrows made to play a supernatural villian, like Count Dracula or other type of ghoulish creature. He also has a name to play a bad guy. Bad-ass George Ass. Apart from having such a wonderful face, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a photobooth photo of someone so quirky, who also has a listing on the IMDb. Wow, a real actor for a change!  What? You didn’t think I bought the card solely due to his funny surname? Preposterous!

Unlike some of the other file records from this agency, there are a lot of details listed on the back of this card. (See below). He lived at 291, Rue St Denis in the 2e arrondissement of Paris. He was born on the 14th of September, 1909, making him between 45 and 55 years of age at the time this image was made. He had grey eyes and dark brown hair. He was long and slim at 174.5 centimetres tall, (5 feet 8.7 inches) and weighing only 65 kg. Even more perfect for a role as a vampire, I say. In addition to his native tongue, he spoke Russian (good for Cold War villian roles) and had some English. His sporting interest was cycling.

Poor Georges had some minor roles in film but the closest he got to getting a role that really suited him, was when he played a prisoner in Paris brûle-t-il? in 1966. Alas, from there it was downhill all the way. He was a priest at a funeral in Borsalino in 1970, which was definitely a sombre role and could be regarded as slightly macabre, I suppose.  He then played a deacon in Doucement les basses in 1971. A corrupt deacon, one hopes. He had an uncredited role as a man on Rue des Rosiers in Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob in 1973. I like to imagine him breaking windows or vandalising something in that bit part. Unfortunately for Poor Georges, his next and final credit was as a seated man. We can only hope that he was a bad-ass seated man!

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

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Love And Memory

May 16, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
30 Comments

HENSHAW Grace1_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 late

This is a very special post of photobooth photos from one of my blog readers, Sherri. I have tried to present this story mainly in Sherri’s own words.

“My love for photobooth images comes from those that I have of my mother.  She was killed in an auto accident when I was just 7 months old, so all I have of her are photos, no memories.  My favorite photos of her have always been the photobooth strips.  It may sound silly or strange, but I feel like they are the next best thing to having a memory of her.  In those strips, I feel like I can feel how she was feeling in the booth, trying out poses, smiling, laughing.

They are all attached to a page in my baby book. (See the full page, below). There are also booth photos of my maternal grandmother (who, by the way, is the person who raised me after my mother’s death).

I found a note in the baby book telling that the photos taken in July, 1967  in a Fort Wayne, Indiana KMart store.  The other booth images would also have been taken in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but I can’t be sure of the store.
 
My mother was Grace Charline (nee Henshaw) Sloan, born December 26, 1949 and died October 7, 1967.  My name is Sherri Lynn and I was born March 5, 1967.  My grandmother’s name was Mary Louis (nee Shenfeld) Didion, born February 6, 1925.”
HENSHAW Grace1_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 Aug
Sherri has a wonderful vintage photo blog The Rescued Photo, which I encourage you to visit. She meticulously researches the lives of the sitter/s from any scant detail she can glean from a scribbled name or note. Sherri’s philosophy about blogging is closely related to her feelings about her photobooth photos of her mother – that the story behind the images allow the person, or people in them, to live on.
 
Most unusually and unselfishly, Sherri will give the photos back to family members. However it is not always an easy process.
 

“I  hope that someday relatives will find my posts.  So far, I’ve only located one relative of a photograph but not one I’ve blogged about. They said they would love to have the photo and would send me their address, but they never did.  I followed up once and still didn’t hear back.  I noticed they’re using the photo in their ancestry family tree, so maybe the digital copy was enough for them.

I did find a home for the most recent photo I blogged – Orlo C Mathews and his brothers.  Orlo is the survivor of the Sultana maritime disaster. While researching him, I discovered a book he owned (about the Sultana) is housed in the Bedford Ohio Historical Society Museum.  I contacted them and they are excited to add the photo to the book.  Imagine how much more interesting it will be for people to be able to see a photo of the man who owned the book and survived the disaster!  I’m so thrilled with how that turned out!  I hope to have more of those moments!

Just like my blogging about photos I find, makes me feel like I’m helping the people in the images to live on, I feel like that’s what you will be doing for me by blogging the photos of my mother.”

HENSHAW Grace2_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 AugHENSHAW Grace1 1967 Aug
HENSHAW Grace5_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 Aug 11HENSHAW Grace4_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 Aug 11
HENSHAW Grace3_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 Aug 11HENSHAW Grace2_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 Aug 11
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SHENFELD Mary4_baby SLOAN Sherri 1967 Jul 14

Sherri with her maternal grandmother, who raised her.

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The complete page from Sherri’s baby book.

Two Peas In A Pod

April 20, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
22 Comments

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A favourite, foreign, friend of mine, forages frequently to find fabulous fotos for me. (And now I have exhausted my alliterative skills I will plough on with this post!)

I love most of the people in my photos but some people more than others. What a fabulous pair these two are. My friend’s hypothesis is that they are sisters. My theory is that they are mother and daughter. Their noses and lips closely resemble the other’s, which convinces me that they are, at the very least, related in some way.

Regardless of their relationship to each other, they have a very similar fashion sense. Their hats and lipstick shades seem almost identical. I love the very arty, large silver pendant and cat’s eye glasses worn by the older woman.The younger woman has a very appealing gap in her teeth and a faraway look in her eyes that reminds me of a young Marilyn Monroe.

Thanks to Ted for his love and dedication to the cause of photobooth photo rescue. I have more gems from him to show you soon.

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The Actors’ Agency – Part 7

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

photoboothLydieLore 1

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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Cloche Hats

April 1, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
7 Comments

photoboothClocheHatsGermany1929

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.

My Friend Ted

March 16, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
43 Comments

photoboothTedStutz1970

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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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.

photoboothBillboard28Jun1947YoYo

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.