Tag Archives: 1940s

What To Do When There’s A Cigarette Shortage

Leave a reply

No Cigarettes? Smoke A Pipe.

Lady With Pipe
London- Josephine Yorke, actress now appearing in the cast of the perennial musical, “Chu Chin Chow” has an answer to England’s current shortage of cigarettes. She smokes a pipe. Here she enjoys a smoke in her dressing room. PASSED BY BRITISH CENSOR credit photo: Acme, 8/15/1941

Smoking is not necessarily in vogue these days in England or most places for that matter. Vaping is what attracts potential new nicotine addicts.

Tobacco pipe smoking has also been in steep decline over the last few decades. Maybe not so for pipes filled with other illicit substances like weed, hash, crack, and opium. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #187 – Marie Wilson Protests Wearing A Corset

Leave a reply

Marie Wilson Stages A Protest Against “Fencing Her In” With A Corset

There was no news slug on the rear of this photograph, but tracking down what the commotion was all about was easy. It’s a publicity stunt of the silliest magnitude.

Film Lovelies Protest Corsets, Win Short Ribs
Hollywood, CA – Carrying signs and corsets Hollywood lovelies picket a movie studio. They are from left, with “No! To Corsets” sign is Marie Wilson, in background, Judy Cook, the picketed producer Albert Lewin and Darlene De Mos. photo: AP 5/15/1946

The Des Moines Register was one of the news Continue reading →

What Did The Rear Entrance To Ebbets Field Look Like?

Leave a reply

The Less Than Iconic Rear Facade Of Ebbets Field

The Dodgers left Brooklyn after the 1957 season, breaking many Dodgers fans hearts. The Dodgers home park Ebbets Field was razed in 1960. A housing project is now on its site.

But the memories of what the ballpark looked like is etched in anyone’s mind who ever visited Ebbets Field. If you do remember visiting you are at least 70 years-old. The reality is, few people are still around who actually saw the place.

It’s really photographs of the ballpark, especially the front entrance, that baseball fans are familiar with.

The main entrance was at the corner of Sullivan Place and McKeever Place. McKeever Place was originally Cedar Street, but renamed in 1932 after one of the contractors who built Ebbets Field.

This is what the front  looked like.

Ebbets Field 1940s

The exterior of the front of the New York Mets home Continue reading →

A Patriotic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Balloon – 1940

Leave a reply

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – 1940

Annual Macy Parade For Thanksgiving
New York: Photo shows “Uncle Sam” as it passed through 34th Street, in front of Macy’s. photo: Acme 11/21/1940

As isolationists wanted the United States to stay out of World War II, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1940 had a patriotic balloon of Uncle Sam. The balloon was not a statement of being pro-war, Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #185 – June Haver

Leave a reply

June Haver Promotes National Cat Week – 1949

The Cat And The Blonde
Hollywood: Film star June Haver is amazed at some of the facts connected with cats as she helps the American Feline Society get the 1949 National Cat Week rolling. For instance, did you know that cats were kept as pets in ancient Egypt? Kitty’s been chasing mice since before the pyramids were built. photo; Acme/ 20th Century Fox 10-31-1949

One of the sillier promotional stills we have come across, is this bathing suit cheesecake photo from 20th Century Fox which was repurposed by Acme news photos to promote Cat Week.

June Haver (1926-2005) appeared in only 18 films Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #184 – Brian Aherne & Wife Eleanor

Leave a reply

Brian Aherne Dancing With His Wife Eleanor Labrot 1948

While standing next to Brian Aherne at a party one day, Gary Cooper said quietly out of the side of his mouth, “How tall are you?”

“Six foot two and a half,” Aherne answered.

“Me too,” said Cooper. “Never admit to six foot three!”

A few years later at a party in Washington D.C., General George C. Marshall asked the identical question in the identical way.

“I used Gary’s line to reply six two and a half, never admit to six foot three,” Aherne said. And the General replied, “Me too!”

The point is Continue reading →

6-Year-Old Snake Charmer – 1949

Leave a reply

Parisian Judge Orders 6-Year-Old To Stop Snake Charming

JUST CHARMER NOW, NO SNAKE
Paris, France – She was “Nita”a snake charmer in a traveling circus, who thrilled the audience with her five foot rose python snake form Brazil. But she was also Nicole Vaissiere, six-year-old. So she’s been taken out of her animal trainer step-father’s side show by a court order. Nicole’s on her way to school where the three R’s aren’t all in the word wriggle. Credit: Acme photo by New York staff correspondent David S. Boyer 12/29/1949

And what else? That’s our usual question to a news story like this.

Checking the news outlets of the time did not yield much more information. United Press International did report some additional facts. Nicole’s snake act Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #179 – Alexis Smith

2 Replies

Alexis Smith Early 1940s

This undated publicity photograph from the 1940s shows Alexis Smith in a sultry pose.

There have been movie stars with the last name Smith. But the big studios encouraged promising actors named Smith to change it to something else.

The most successful Smith actor of all-time was arguably Gladys Smith. But she changed her name to the more glamorous sounding Mary Pickford. Continue reading →