Classic Hollywood #74 – Elizabeth Taylor
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Category Archives: Photography
How Thanksgiving In New York Used To Be Celebrated
Many Years Before Macy’s Held Their Annual Thanksgiving Parade New York City Children Used To Dress In Costume And Beg For Money
A Forgotten New York Thanksgiving Tradition – Ragamuffin Day
On Bleecker Street New York City children dressed in costume for Thanksgiving 1933 photo Percy Loomis Sperr
“Please mister, a penny or a nickel for Thanksgiving?”
This request was once heard all around New York City from children dressed in outlandish costumes celebrating Thanksgiving. It came to be known as Ragamuffin Day.
Christopher Street near subway kiosk Thanksgiving 1933
When it started exactly is unclear. It was reported in 1870 costumed men were celebrating Evacuation Day a day early on Thanksgiving, November 24. Evacuation Day commemorated the November 25 anniversary of the British forces leaving New York after the Revolutionary War. Evacuation Day was a major holiday in New York until 1888.
The men in costume who paraded about were called “the Fantasticals.” But why would they be in costume? The answer is somewhat convoluted. The costumes were not really about Thanksgiving or Evacuation Day. This was related more to Guy Fawkes Day celebrated November 5 in England. In the United States, Guy Fawkes day was celebrated with anti-Catholic sentiment, burning an effigy of the Pope. Even though the holidays are weeks apart, the proximity of Guy Fawkes Day to Thanksgiving Day and Evacuation Day is thought to be responsible for the strange combination of these distinct holidays. However the American Fantasticals did not beg for money. Continue reading
A Progressive New York City Hotel In 1929 Hired Women Bellhops
In 1929 The Alamac Hotel In New York City Became The First Hotel In The Country To Hire Women Bellhops
New York Hotel Using Girl Bell-Hops
The newest wrinkle in hotel service these days is girl bell-hops. The Almanac Hotel, New York City, is probably the first hotel in the country to use girls for bell-hop service. Hotel customers say they give “real service” too. Here are three of them standing by while a patron registers. The girls are, left to right: Eleanor Julin, Mildred Wilson and Edith Gillin. – Associated Press Photo 11/13/1929
Only at the high class hotels do you still find bell-hops. Until the 1970s, almost all hotels had them.
The Alamac Hotel, (sic: Hotel Almanac in news slug), was being “progressive” at the time, by hiring female bell-hops, in what was traditionally a male occupation. Or were they? Continue reading
Old New York In Photos #96 – Rodeo At Bellevue Hospital
The Rodeo Comes To Bellevue Hospital – 1937
The Rodeo Visits Kiddies at Bellevue Hospital
New York City – A fancy stepping cowboy band and cowboys and cowgirls in their bright-colored shirts parade before children patients of Bellevue Hospital as they visit the hospital to stage their rodeo which is now appearing in Madison Square Garden. 10/14/1937 credit Wide World Photos
Over 3,000 people, mostly children, watched this performance at Bellevue Hospital on October 14, 1937. If you are wondering exactly where this took place, it is the rear yard of Bellevue at 29th Street facing the river. The East River Drive (renamed FDR after 1945) portion of the highway behind Bellevue had not been constructed yet. The hospital grounds had quite a bit of room to hold a rodeo. Continue reading
Signs Of The Times – Funny Road Signs
Real Signs Seen On The Roads
“Fire Danger, Don’t Even Fart” sign in Arizona
With Photoshop you can alter anything. But all these signs purport to be real.
We’ve put in whatever information we know about the signs.
Road sign in Wyoming
Doesn’t this sign apply to most of Wyoming?
Someone defaced this billboard in Cincinnati
Who knew that God was a headbanger? Continue reading
Old New York In Photos #95 – East River, The Harbor & Brooklyn c. 1892
A Very Early View of Lower Manhattan Looking East Towards The East River & Brooklyn circa 1892
This magic lantern slide overlooking lower Manhattan along with the East River and Brooklyn is pre-twentieth century. Where exactly; when it was taken; and where from, was a mystery. But some things to take notice of:
1- there are no buildings exceeding five stories. Continue reading
Old New York In Photos #94 – The Williamsburg Bridge Under Construction
Williamsburg Bridge Under Construction As Viewed From The East River 1901
From a personal photo album comes this previously unpublished 1901 view looking north from the East River.
Besides all the vessels navigating the heavily trafficked waterway, we can see the completed towers of the Williamsburg Bridge. The cables of the bridge have been completed but the roadway beneath the span is absent.
The first bridge crossing Kings County to Manhattan was the Brooklyn Bridge, opening in 1883. It would take another 20 years before the next great span, the Williamsburg Bridge was completed. Continue reading
Classic Hollywood #73 – Mystery Celebrity
Va-Va-Voom. Can You Guess Who This Is?
I did not recognize this well known celebrity when I first saw this photograph.
Do you know who it is?
Here are some clues to who our mystery celebrity is:
- She appeared regularly on a television show which had a long run in the 1950s.
- Two of her co-stars on the show were Jack Larson and John Hamilton.
- She was never attired like this on the show, but wore a pillbox hat and business suit.
- She was born in 1920 in Minnesota and died in 2016 in Arizona at the age of 95.
- She began making films in 1940 and had a contract with Paramount Pictures.
- Her final film was in 2016 Surge of Power: Revenge of the Sequel.
Do you give up?
Or is this someone you’ll have to look up?
In the sky. Not in the cloud.
Okay, that was a terrible pun of a clue.
The answer is:
↓
Old New York In Photos #93 – Police Parade With The Old “Broadway Squad” 1930
New York City’s Finest On Parade With The Broadway Squad Of The Police Department Dressed In Their Old Uniforms
Though these officers bear a resemblance to Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, they are actually old-timers of the New York City Police Department’s Broadway Squad dressed in their uniforms of days past.
The slug for this photograph reads:
Little Bit of Old New York
New York City – One of the features of the annual New York Police Department Parade, which was held in New York today, was the appearance in the ranks of the surviving members of the old Broadway Squad, who twenty years or more ago, directed the traffic and the peace of New York’s “Great White Way.” – 4/26/1930 credit: Wide World Photos
Stationed all along Broadway from the Battery to 42nd Street were the Broadway Squad. They were specially selected officers who were all over six feet tall. While that might seem like nothing special, at the turn-of-the-century anyone over six feet in height was considered quite large.
In 1898 the Broadway Squad was described as “ninety of the tallest, best proportioned and finest looking men on the police force.” Continue reading
You Never Know What You’ll Find At Papermania Plus In Hartford
Papermania Plus – Something For Everyone
A little bit of everything at Papermania Plus In Hartford CT. This dealer featured movie memorabilia; books, pinbacks and Fate magazines at one table.
On a beautiful summer day, customers came from many states to search among a variety of goods, not all necessarily made of paper.
Collectors congregated at Hartford, Connecticut’s XL Center for Papermania Plus 74, which took place on Saturday, August 25, 2018.
Shoppers looking for interesting finds at Papermania Plus 74
There were all sorts of antiques, ephemera, collectables and memorabilia for sale including books, comics, original art, movie stills and posters, postcards, photographs, magazines, manuscripts and a few other things that you might be surprised to find at Papermania.
Promoter Gary Gipstein assembled more than four score quality dealers to offer their wares. Prices ranged from a dollar to four figures for some rare items.
But you don’t have to be a collector of anything specific to enjoy the show. There is so much to look at and appreciate, that it is unlikely you could come here and not go home with something desirable at a very fair price.
So what did we notice? Continue reading