Archive for the ‘1940’s’ Category
Random Images ….
Here are several images that I might or might not have posted before. The first one of the ribbon cutting at the Bay Bridge entrance is new, I believe. The rest I might have posted along time ago, but I had just run across them again and thought that I might post them again. Here we go …
The top photo of the ribbon cutting is new and if anyone recognizes any of the people, please comment. I have no clue who any of the people are, as usual, but I am interested in knowing who they are. The aerial photo was taken before the Municipal Auditorium was constructed, so that must have been around 1954 or so. I think that the auditorium was completed in 1955, but that is just a guess for me. This Dons group was 1959 I believe…how about that Hopkins Boarding Sign on the the back fence wall? If anyone knows anything about any of these photos, please comment. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Some New Images Purchased Off Of Ebay …
I posted this image over on my Instagram site and a lady identified this scene as the clock tower in Bern Switzerland. She goes by ” TrueColorChrome ” on Instagram and her specialty is colorizing black and white images. Here is a link to her web site and she is truly an artist. The work she does is amazing and people do not realize how time consuming the process is. She was also the one that located the city and country that this was taken. It was one of three negatives that I purchased from an individual on Ebay, of which two of the images I have already posted ( the market / street scene post one or two posts back ) . The next several photographs were taken in Paris before WW II…
The photographs were taken on Rue Royale in Paris. From what I been able to assume from looking on Google Maps and some other sources, the photographer might have been standing in the middle of Rue Royale and took the first photograph. Then he turned 180 degrees and took the second photograph. I was able to enlarge a sign on the right hand side of the image which read “Chrisofle”. This business is located on Rue Royale and here is a link to the Chrisofle web site ( it sells silverware ) and a map showing it’s present day location. I did run across a photo of this Rue Royale taken after WW II and the building across the street from this business had been completely destroyed. And the amazing thing to me was that the building at the end of this street was not bombed by the Nazi air raid. Now I doubt that the Nazi raid did not do this on purpose, because it is widely known that it did not bother Hitler if important buildings, museums, etc were destroyed or not. There is nothing special about either image other that the fact that they were pre-WWII and the seller was not asking much for them. I am surprised what seller’s are asking on Ebay for some unknown individual’s personal photos. I have seen amateur’s negatives going for thousands of dollars and they are nothing more than just random views of nothing … I have always said ” Just because it is old, does not make it gold ” .
That is it for now … If anyone has ever been on the above streets in Bern Switzerland or Paris France ( not Kentucky or Texas ) and would like to comment, please feel free. My Instagram account gets me way more views that my blogs have ever received and it is easier to access. So please feel free to see what I post on it and to leave a comment. Thanks again for looking and I am going to try to get back in the habit of posting more frequently in the future. For now … stay safe.
Unknown Negatives …
A while back on a post, I mentioned that if anyone had any negatives that they did not want to let me know. I talked to several people and the negatives they had, had that either been passed down from family members or they had acquired some other way … flea market find, garage sale find, etc, etc. Most all were just family snapshots, backyard picnics and vacation candid photos. Not exactly what I was looking for, so I did what any other red-blooded American would do … I went on Ebay and bought some. To me, almost all of the negatives that are posted for sale, fit into that category of family snapshots, backyard picnics and vacation travels. Knowing that I should have been more specific, I was not exactly sure of what it was that I was looking for until I ran across the negatives that I am putting up in this post … images showing everyday randomness from the 1930’s to the sixties. Now, the images do not have to show only America, but anywhere in the world … Europe, Asia, China, Africa. So, I purchased these negatives, scanned them and worked them up in Photoshop. They were in fairly good shape, requiring not much computer time to remove scratches, marks, stains, etc. And as usual, I know nothing at all about them other than the obvious – taken in the 1930’s or 40’s and somewhere in Europe. The location could be Germany or some place that speaks German judging by the words / lettering in the photos. There were three negative and I have worked up two. So here they are …
The first image is an overall view of the market and since the people look clean and well fed, I would say that it is pre-WWII. The second showing a meat market / stall looks as if there might be some type of rationing going on since there is not a wide variety of meat or sausages for sale. If anyone recognizes where this area is, please feel free to comment and share what you know with us. I have one more negative from this purchase that I will post once I get it cleaned up and ready. The last photo is really the reason that I purchased these three negatives and besides the fact that they were less than ten dollars. One problem that you find is that everyone thinks that what they have is more valuable than what it actually is … just because it is old, does not mean it is gold ( that is my own phrase ). There are some negatives on Ebay now where the sellers want tens of thousands of dollars for their negatives!
So, if anyone come across any negatives that fit the criteria that I mentioned earlier, before you throw them away, think of me. And, if anyone recognizes anything in these two images which would help me locate the place or the time frame of them, please let me hear from you. Thanks again for looking and I hope everyone had a safe new year … Frank
Bret Harte’s Cabin …
My father made this photo on one of his trips out west to visit his sister in the 1940’s and 50’s. I Googled “Bret Harte” a while back and I think I remember it saying that he was a writer out in California. Here is a link to his Wikipedia site and I was correct about him being a writer. I have seen this old photo for fifty years and never really thought much about it, but I scanned the print and decided to post it just because I had it ready. The only significance to me is that this is my 400th post on this blog. I would guess that I have over 600 photos posted and it could be more since many posts have more than two images and a few have over ten. When I started I had only planned to put up one image per post, then I started finding more and more images that were related. In an effort to streamline my posts, I just thought that it would be easier to include all of the images that were related. My only real goal out of this blog was to just share all of these images that I came across as I sorted through the thousands that I had of my father’s. At some point in time in the future, I am going to try and put together a book of a lot of these image and see what type of response I get. But that is for another time … Thanks for looking and if anyone has been to see Bret Harte’s cabin, let us hear from you. For all I know it might have fallen down or it might have gotten burned up in all of the fires that they are having all over the state of California. And if anyone has read any of Mr. Harte’s books, let us know what you think. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Bronson Field …
These are some negatives that I purchased on Ebay of local air base Bronson Field. I am not exactly sure where Bronson Field was located, but I want to say it was located somewhere near Perdido Bay. I might be completely wrong there and the people that I purchased them from were not exactly sure either. I cropped this negative to show just the flight line and the plane that is taking off below …
There is one other negative that I received and it shows the control tower along with the planes …
And like the one above, I cropped out everything and just showed the flight line …
The photos are nothing really special and you can tell that they were taken by an amateur, but the old cars and planes are interesting. If anyone runs across anymore images like these on Ebay or anywhere else, please let me know. I used to look on Ebay, but you can end up wasting a lot of time with just the shear volume that is on the site. Most of it, to me, is a lot of junk / mess that people think are really valuable and exciting and I am not good at filtering it out. Also, if you run across something at a flea market locally let me know. Thanks again and if anyone knows something about Bronson Field, let us know … Frank
Twelfth Avenue Fire …
On Sunday August 17, 1975, a fire destroyed this entire block. It was a Sunday morning around 11:00 when it started in the freezer of Exotic Florist. There was an electrical short in the wiring of the freezer that held Exotic’s flowers. This building was built sometime in the early 1950’s and the building code did not require fire walls between the offices … since there was no fire wall, all of the units shared a common attic. Once the fire got into the attic, it was just a short time until all of the businesses where consumed in fire. My father happened to be there at the time and was able to grab a few cameras and save them, but everything else in his studio was completely destroyed. The following is a photographic story of the fire, the aftermath and the rebuilding of the block. There are a lot of photos and they really need no explanation, so I won’t bother you with any …
I tried to enter the photographs in some type of sequence starting down at Exotic Florist and then moving north up 12th Avenue through the rest of the businesses. The entire fire from start to finish only took an hour or so. The firemen did an excellent job in getting the fire out and luckily they were able to save the Winn-Dixie grocery store. Now the next photograph is the clean-up several days later …
There was an alley between the grocery store and the building that burned, so I am sure that was the reason that Winn-Dixie did not burn. But it did have smoke and some water damage. The above photo was taken the following week and I am not sure of the date. The Moulton’s owned the property and cleaned up the damage within a week or so. Now, the next images are of the new building that was built within six months of the fire …
The aerial photograph is one that I made years later, but I thought that it added something to the rest of the images. The only businesses that went back in were Dr. Hoyt, Fischler Framing and my father. This new building was completed by February 1976. He had moved across the street to a vacant building on Gonzalez Street and this is where he had started his business in 1948. There are several other photos that I might throw up later, but this is the majority of the images that I have collected / found through the years. The Pensacola News Journal did an article on my father and the fire, but I do not know if I am allowed to publish the photos and the write-up, with copyright laws and such. Speaking of which, there is a local hospital that has been using my photos in their centennial advertisements without my permission or compensation, but that is a whole other story. Thanks for looking and please check back. Also, if anyone remembers the fire and happened to around when the fire started, I would like to hear from you … Frank. I will leave you with one more view across the parking lot looking North.
Denny Shute … Professional Golfer …
Denny Shute was a professional golfer back in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Here is a biography of him from over on Wikipedia … he had won the PGA tournament back in the 1930’s twice and one year he had beat Jug McSpadden to win. I have a photo of Jug on a previous post with Ben Hogan and several other golfers. I do not know what course that he was playing on here in Pensacola when this photo was taken. It could have been the course out at the Pensacola Naval Air Station or it could have been Pensacola Country Club, but I really do not have any idea which course in the Pensacola area that this was taken. The photo was taken back in 1945, so there might be someone that remembers these golf pros coming through Pensacola playing exhibition golf. Feel free to search the site for my post on the other golfers … you might run across something else that interests you. Thanks again for looking … Frank
Unknown Football Team …
I have the negative for this image filed as ” Football Team – Unknown “. I feel that it is probably from Pensacola High School, but I cannot be positive. But what interests me is the team’s equipment … the helmets look to be made of leather and there is no protective bar on the front of the helmet. I do not know what you call this protective piece that is worn on all of the helmets now days. Look at player number “36” seated on the front row. He looks like he is sporting some type of bandage over his left eye … must have taken a really bad hit, but it did not stop him. On the back row there are several players ( #56 for one ) that look like they are wearing a helmet from back in the 1930’s or 40’s for sure. The stadium suggests that this could have been PHS, but like I mentioned I am not sure. I know that there a few views out there that could tell me if this is PHS or not and maybe they will speak out and tell us. I just found this negative recently and it was loose in a box with a lot of other negatives that had no information either. However, like I have mentioned earlier, my main purpose is to share images that my father made and to show a much simpler time / era. If someone has any information, well that is great … icing on the cake so to speak. If not, you have an idea what your parent’s and grandparent’s lived through and endured. So maybe we don’t have it so bad after all, eh? Thanks for looking and as always all comments are welcomed and appreciated … Please check back … Frank
A Few More From The Old Sacred Heart Hospital …
Here is a doctor and his patient discussing his upcoming surgery. Or that is what it looks like to me. I wonder when the doctor’s stopped using / wearing those things around their head to look into your throat or whatever part of your body that they were examining. In fact, I hope someone out there can tell us what the name of that thing is that the doctor is wearing and what it’s purpose actually is. I have often wondered what those things are called when I watch an old movie from the 1930’s or 40’s and you see the doctor wearing one. Next is a couple of patients sitting outside in their wheelchairs …
This was taken on the south side of the hospital where the emergency rooms entrance was located. I have to say that these wheelchairs look to be some of the first one’s ever designed and built. That is all I have for today. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Douglas Fairbanks ….
Here lies the resting place of one of America’s most famous swashbucklers … Douglas Fairbanks. The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood and too many more to mention. This is a link to his Wikipedia site and you can read all about him here. He died in 1939, so no telling how much this cost back then, but I am impressed and I have never been here! I ran across more negatives from his trips out west and will be posting more in the near future. If you want to share your Douglas Fairbanks memories, please feel free. I love a good Fairbanks story as well as the next person … Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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