Tag Archives: News – Press Photo

When Coffee Jumped From 10 Cents To 15 Cents A Cup

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Americans Perplexed By A 15 Cent Cup Of Coffee – 1954

Go into the supermarket and examine just about any product. You will notice shrinking packaging and products. You are getting less and paying more.

Tropicana orange juice just shrunk again – from 64 ounces to 59 ounces to 52 ounces and now 46 ounces. Coffee is sold in a pound can, but contains about 11.3 ounces of product.

In 1954 the price of coffee was rising, and the answer was not shrink the cup, but raise the price. A 50% price hike to be exact, from ten cents to fifteen cents.

Even after World War II many places still sold a nickel cup of coffee.

The original news slug reads: Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #167 – Betty Grable

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Betty Grable & Poodle – 1944

Pin-Up Queen Gets On The Ball
Hollywood, Calif. – Vivacious Betty Grable, a “Mamma” of five months, romps with this frisky poodle as she gets back in the groove on her return to the kleig lights. The famous Grable gams will dance their way through 20th Century-Fox’s Technicolor musical, “Diamond Horseshoe” now in production. photo: Acme 8/19/1944

Gams. Talk about 1940s jargon. I don’t think I’ve recently heard anyone refer to a woman’s legs as gams except in the movies.

Supposedly Grable’s legs were insured for $250,000 dollars by Lloyds of London. It was a publicity stunt, but an effective one at drawing attention. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #166 – Christie Comedy Starlets

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Christie Chorus “Sports Girls” Prepare For A Scene – 1925

What is about to happen in this 1925 film is anybody’s guess. But these 16 chorus girls are ready to do some sort of athletic routine in their spiffy hats. As the news slug says:

The athletic training indulged in by the Christie Sports Girls even comes in handy now and then in the pictures. Witness this gym scene in a new Bill Dooley comedy. photo: NEA,(Newspaper Enterprise Association)  December 3, 1925

Forgotten today are brothers Al and Charles Christie of the Christie Film Company. Continue reading →

July 4, 1918 New York City & A Parade To Unite Americans

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July 4, 1918 When Patriotism Was On Full Display

Greatest July 4th Parade In History of U.S., Held On Fifth Avenue
General view of the great parade proceeding up Fifth Avenue, New York City. photo: Underwood & Underwood July, 4, 1918

There was a time when July 4 did not mean merchandise sales, and a three or four day weekend with barbecues. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #164 – Theda Bara Learns A Game

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Theda Bara Is Taught The Chinese Game Pung-Chow 1922

The Original Movie Vampire Learns Intricate Chinese Game
Theda Bara the original movie vampire learned a new game yesterday, while at the Westchester-Biltmore Club. It is called Pung-Chow, the Royal Game of China, played for thousands of years in the land of Confucius, the mystic charm of the East, combined with the excitement and entertainment which Americans demand, and a game for young and old. The game is even more intricate than chess and Miss Bara had the pleasure of being instructed by these two fair Chinese experts. photo: Wide World Photos 12/7//1922

Theda Bara (born Theodosia Goodman 1885-1955) is virtually unknown today because she was a silent star and only six of her films are extant. People usually recognize publicity stills of Bara without necessarily knowing her name as the title character in Cleopatra (1917). That film is lost, as are 40 of Bara’s other movies.

A huge star earning $4,000 per week when there was practically no income tax, Bara slowed down after making dozens of films in the nineteen teens. From 1920-1926 Bara made only more three films.

In 1921 Bara married Continue reading →

“The Catch” By Willie Mays An Alternate View

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Willie Mays 1954 World Series Catch As Seen From Center Field

Willie Mays died June 18, 2024 at the age of 93. The accolades and remembrances will pour in over the next few days. We’ll let two photos and a video serve as a microcosm of a brilliant career that writers will try to summarize but will undoubtedly fall short.

Mays was that good.

If Willie Mays was not the all around best baseball player of all-time he certainly ranks as one of the top five.

The above view of Mays’ 1954 World Series catch was taken by United Press photographer Sid Birns.

The original news slug says: Continue reading →

Yankees Billy Martin & Browns Clint Courtney Get Into A Brawl

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Billy Martin And Clint Courtney Fight At Yankee Stadium 1952

Yankees second baseman Alfred Manuel “Billy” Martin had a tough childhood growing up in Berkeley, California. A small boy with a large nose, Billy was picked on by the other kids. Billy learned to fight back and hit hard and never back down. But it would cost Martin. He was thrown off his high school basketball and baseball teams for fighting.

Martin’s toughness carried over to the major leagues, fighting players such as Cubs pitcher Jim Brewer, Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall and others who he felt had  provoked him. Martin’s most famous fights were with Clint Courtney, a fiery scrapper and the first major league catcher to wear eyeglasses.

This photo above shows their first confrontation, as the news slug describes:

Cut-Up On The Diamond
New York: After a heated exchange of punches, Clint Courtney (right) and Billy Martin of the Yanks continue their brawl in close-quarter action as Joe Collins (41) rushes to break up the fracas. The Brownie catcher, claiming he had been tagged hard on the head, charged at Martin after being thrown out at second base on an attempted steal in the 8th inning of the July 12th game at the stadium. Courtney was ejected from the game after the fight was broken up, but Martin was allowed to remain. Yanks scored a 5-4 victory. photo: Arthur Rickerby United Press International 7-12-1952

Though it’s not mentioned in the news slug, Yankees starting pitcher Allie Reynolds knocked Continue reading →

Two Of The Dionne Quintuplets Turn 90-Years-Old Today

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Annette and Cécile Dionne Turn 90 On May 28, 2024
(see update at end of the article)

Turning 90 is still considered a feat of longevity and cause for celebration.

But for two Canadian women, Annette Dionne Allard and Cécile Dionne Langlois, turning 90 on  May 28 will still be a bittersweet day. Their siblings are dead and much of their early lives were lived under constant scrutiny.

Annette and Cécile, are each one fifth of what were the world’s most famous sisters.

When it was announced that five baby girls were born to Oliva-Édouard and his wife Elzire Dionne on May 28 1934 in rural Callendar, Ontario Canada, the world went into Dionne Quintuplet-mania.

The Dionne’s were the first known set of quintuplets to survive infancy. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #162 – Ricardo Montalban & Audrey Totter

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Ricardo Montalban and Audrey Totter Dine At Romanoff’s – 1951

INSIDE HOLLYWOOD by Nat Dallinger (week ending July 13 1951)
Audrey Totter is an attentive listener as Ricardo Montalban related a story during a dinner at Romanoff’s, in Beverly Hills. A radio actress before embarking on a screen career, Audrey once worked as a door-to-door saleslady for a wax concern. After a highly successful career in radio, she received offers from the New York stage and Hollywood. Selecting the latter, this blue-eyed blonde has won top starring roles for herself in numerous motion pictures. Romantically she is expected to become the bride of film producer Armand Deutsch. photo: Nat Dallinger for King Features Syndicate

Nat Dallinger would capture Hollywood celebrities in candid moments for his syndicated photo column Inside Hollywood.

Audrey Totter (1917-2013) never became a Hollywood star of the first magnitude but appeared steadily in films throughout the 1940s and early 50s. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #161 – Eight Warner Bros. Bathing Beauty Starlets 1937

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Jane Wyman & Marie Wilson Among Warner Bros. Hopefuls

The Charge of The Powder Puff Brigade
These Warner starlets (L. to R.) Jane Wyman, Shirley Lloyd, Ann Nagel, Marie Wilson, Linda Perry, Jane Bryan, Rosalind Marquis and Carol Hughes, prepare to “fire” from their portable outdoor dressing table. photo: Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. 1937

The headline here is a spoof of the 1936 film The Charge of The Light Brigade starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Continue reading →