Category Archives: Photography

Ty Cobb In Chicago At Southside Park – 1907 And 1908

The “Georgia Peach” Ty Cobb, Plays In The Windy City

I wonder if baseball fans recognize greatness early on in a player’s career? Ty Cobb started his major league career with the Detroit Tigers in 1905 and had his first breakout season in 1907 at the age of 20 when he led the American League in hits, stolen bases, RBI’s and a .350 batting average. The photograph above is from 1907, taken at Southside Park in Chicago, home to the White Sox from 1900-1910. So did the fans in Chicago realize they were watching a player who would electrify baseball for the next twenty years?

One thing you notice by looking at Ty Cobb is that he had a unique batting stance. His legs and feet would many times be planted way ahead of home plate and his hands spread apart on the bat. It enabled him to spray balls all over the field and get to the pitch before it could do what the pitcher wanted it to. He hit .366, the highest career batting average ever by a major leaguer.

Here Cobb plays against the White Sox in 1908 at Southside Park in front of a packed house. Once again notice how far ahead Cobb is standing in front of the plate. One criticism of Cobb besides his nasty disposition, was that he didn’t hit a lot of home runs like Babe Ruth. Cobb bristled at that comparison, saying anyone could hit home runs, it took talent to be a spray hitter like he was.

On May 5, 1925 visiting St. Louis against the Browns, Cobb told a reporter in the dugout that “today for the first time my career I’m going to go for home runs.” The comment is apocryphal, but that day Cobb went six for six. Home runs? He hit three.

Beauties Of The Past – Maude Fealy

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Stage and Silent Star Maude Fealy

A new feature of our web site: photos and short biographies of glamor girls of the past.

These are women that were more than just beautiful, they were talented and were able to cut out successful careers for themselves during an era when men dominated the entertainment industry. Of course with the passage of time, many of these stars have dimmed and are now distant memories. We hope to bring them to light again to a wider audience.

Maude at age 8 with mother Margaret Fealy.

Maude Fealy (born Maude Hawk) in Memphis, Tennessee, started her career at the age of 3 in the legitimate theater with her mother, actress Margaret Fealy. Margaret divorced Maude’s father, James Hawk and then went by her maiden name of Fealy and Maude also adopted her mother’s maiden name.

Fealy’s exact birth date was never clearly established and contemporary reports range from March 4, 1881 to 1886. The Social Security Death Index lists her birthday as March 3, 1882

Fealy hit the big time just before the turn of the century when theatre impresario Augustin Daly discovered her playing Juliet and signed her to a five year contract. Daly died in 1899, effectively canceling the contract and Fealy was then courted by all the major playwrights to appear in their productions. Fealy quickly became a star in many Broadway and London productions. Among the many plays she appeared in were: Quo Vadis, Sherlock Holmes, The Professor’s Love Story, Heart’s Courageous, The Truth Tellers and On the Quiet. She cemented her reputation as a fine actress by playing the female lead in several of the first British actor ever knighted, Sir Henry Irving’s plays including, Becket, The Lyons Mail, Waterloo and Louis XI. Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #26 – Upper Broadway

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Two Old Views of Broadway, Bordering Washington Heights

These rural looking scenes are of The Boulevard, now known as Broadway taken around 1895. On the left is Broadway and 153rd Street and on the right, Broadway and 158th Street.

At Broadway between 153rd and 154th Street was the approximate site of Washington’s second fortification of entrenchments in the Battle of Manhattan during the Revolutionary War in 1776.

On the western corner of Broadway and 158th Streets stood the second building of the Church of the Intercession. The congregation moved into their larger, current building at Broadway and 155th Street in 1915.

Collision At Home Plate – Red Sox Billy Klaus Crashes Into Yogi Berra 1955

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Billy Klaus Takes Down Yogi Berra, Ted Williams Picks Up 2,000th Hit – 1955

In this series of photographs from August 11, 1955 at Yankee Stadium, Red Sox shortstop Billy Klaus smashes into Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.

The play unfolded in the fifth inning after Klaus singled and Ted Williams hit a ground-rule double advancing Klaus to third. Norm Zauchin then hit a fly ball to right and Hank Bauer made a great throw to Berra. Klaus barreled into Berra knocking the ball loose.

What I like about the photograph besides the action, is that umpire Jim Honochick looks on rather passively not moving very far from where he calls balls and strikes, to make what should have been a very close call at the plate!

The Red Sox would lose this game 5-3. After the game with an ice bag pressed to his face Berra was sore and said, “I don’t know what he hit me with, but I hurt all over.”

One very important event happened in the game, Ted Williams became the 96th player in major league history to record 2,000 hits. He picked it up on a bloop single in the first inning that fell in left center between Phil Rizzuto, Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard. When Williams reached first he jokingly commented to Yankee first basemen Moose Skowron, “What a smash.”

With the hit, Williams became one of only four active players to be in the 2,000 hit club, the others being Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter and Mickey Vernon.

Old New York In Photos #25 – Street Scene 42nd St. & Broadway 1915

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42nd Street and Broadway New York Times Building 1915

We have previously featured an overview of the Times Tower Building and Times Square. Now we present a street level view looking west from Broadway. The date is October 3, 1915 and there are a handful of people milling about on the street. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #20 – Abbott & Costello & Shemp Howard

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Abbott and Costello – 1943 In The Navy

In general I have found that women do not find Abbott and Costello to be funny. Maybe they are an acquired taste.

What is interesting about this particular scene from their 1943 hit movie In The Navy, is that their co-star Shemp Howard (on left) was a member of another stalwart comedy team, The Three Stooges. Continue reading →

Times Square New Year’s Eve: Celebrations Of The Past

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4 Photographs Of Times Square On New Year’s Eve 1952-1965

Another New Year’s celebration tonight. What did it look like half a century ago?

Pretty much the same.

Here are four photographs of Times Square as it appeared during New Year’s Eve celebrations during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The amount of light emanating from the vicinity leads to an overexposure, making this a difficult scene to capture.

Times Square New Year’s Eve 1952

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1920’s Bathing Beauty Fur Coat And All

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Bathing Beauty Photographed By Charles Gates Sheldon

Charles Gates Sheldon was a “pretty woman” illustrator and one of the best at his craft, active in the 1920’s and 30’s, primarily working for many movie magazines such as Photoplay and Movie Classic. Above is one of his photographs featuring an unknown model in a bathing suit with a mink coat!

Classic Hollywood #19 – Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell

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Cary Grant And Rosalind Russell Accept Awards

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell co-starred together in only one movie. The film, Howard Hawks His Girl Friday (1940), is one of the zaniest and funniest screwball comedies of all-time.

The two stars are seen here on December 23, 1942, 70 years ago today, receiving the Women’s Press Club of Hollywood Most Cooperative Golden Apple Prize.

Incredibly, Cary Grant never won an Academy Award for Best Actor. He was awarded an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1970.When he accepted the award he said “You know that I may never look at this without remembering the quiet patience of directors who were so kind to me, who were kind enough to put up with me more than once, some of them even three or four times. I trust they and all the other directors, writers and producers and my leading women have forgiven me for what I didn’t know. You know that I’ve never been a joiner or a member of any particular social set, but I’ve been privileged to be a part of Hollywood’s most glorious era.”

The talented Rosalind Russell was also nominated by the Academy multiple times for Best Actress and never won. She was ultimately given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award by the Academy in 1973, three years prior to her death in 1976. Interestingly Cary Grant introduced Russell to her future husband Frederick Brisson and Cary was best man at their wedding.

Russell once said, “It’s fine to have talent, but talent is the last of it. In an acting career, as in an acting performance, you’ve got to have vitality. The secret of successful acting is identical with a woman’s beauty secret: joy in living.”

Helen Keller And Al Smith 1929

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New York State Commission For The Blind Christmas Fundraiser 1929

This news photograph reads:

Helen Keller “Sees” And “Hears” Al Smith — World Famous Blind Deaf-Mute Meets Ex-Governor For First Time At Sale Benefiting The Blind

New York City – Photo Shows: Helen Keller, remarkable and world-famous blind deaf-mute “seeing” and “hearing”former Gov. Alfred E. Smith, who is greeting her with his famous smile and a word of cheer at the annual Christmas sale for the benefit of the New York State Commission for the Blind. Witnesses at the meeting of the famous people said that Miss Keller’s words could be understood. – December 19, 1929

Helen Keller was deaf and blind from infancy. She was born in Alabama on June 27, 1880. Early in her childhood Miss Anne Sullivan was employed to instruct her, and so well succeeded that by means of touch she was able to communicate knowledge of the world that was closed to her understanding through the usual senses.

Helen Keller’s sense of touch was so acute that she was capable of understanding the speech of another merely by the placing of her fingertips upon their throat. Through the aid of Miss Sullivan, Keller became a highly educated young woman, earning a degree at Radcliffe College. She would go on to write 12 books and many magazine articles. She devoted her life advocating for people with disabilities.

Keller’s childhood story and that of her teacher Anne Sullivan, was told quite dramatically in the Broadway smash The Miracle Worker which ran for 719 performances from 1959-1961. The show won five Tony awards in 1960 including Best Actress in a Leading Performance for Anne Bancroft. The1962 movie version featured the Broadway stars reprising their roles; Patty Duke as Helen Keller and Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan. Each won an Academy Award for their performances; Bancroft for Best Actress and Duke for Best Supporting Actress.

Alfred E. Smith was born December 30, 1873 on the lower east side of New York. He was elected Governor of New York, 1919-1920 and again from 1923-1928. In 1928 he became the first Roman Catholic to run for President and was defeated soundly by Herbert Hoover. After the election Smith became president of Empire State, Inc. the firm that built the Empire State Building.

Al Smith died on October 4, 1944. Helen Keller passed away June 1, 1968.

Stuff Nobody Cares About

A not so random collection of observations about things you should care about

Category Archives: Photography

Ty Cobb In Chicago At Southside Park – 1907 And 1908

Beauties Of The Past – Maude Fealy

Stage and Silent Star Maude Fealy

Old New York In Photos #26 – Upper Broadway

Two Old Views of Broadway, Bordering Washington Heights

Collision At Home Plate – Red Sox Billy Klaus Crashes Into Yogi Berra 1955

Old New York In Photos #25 – Street Scene 42nd St. & Broadway 1915

42nd Street and Broadway New York Times Building 1915

Classic Hollywood #20 – Abbott & Costello & Shemp Howard

Abbott and Costello – 1943 In The Navy

Times Square New Year’s Eve: Celebrations Of The Past

Times Square New Year’s Eve 1952

1920’s Bathing Beauty Fur Coat And All

Classic Hollywood #19 – Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell

Helen Keller And Al Smith 1929