Archive for the ‘Fiesta of Five Flags’ Category
Miscellaneous Photos from the 1950’s …
Here are a few random photos from the 1950’s that I have not posted anywhere yet. They are from other groups or sets that I have posted somewhere – on my blogs or Instagram – but have never posted these exact ones. I will try to add what little I do know about each photo, so if anyone has anything to offer or remember being around when the image was taken, please feel free to jump on in and comment. Here we go …
This photo and the next are from the Fiesta of Five Flags Parade from 1955. I am sure this that the sponsor of this float was Coca-Cola, but I do not know who any of the people on the float are or what the theme of the float. Other than that is one huge Coke bottle! The buildings in the background are what draws my attention … the old San Carlos Hotel, the A&P Grocery Store on the left side of the frame and then the miscellaneous businesses in the buildings on the right. The photograph / scan is from a 4×5 negative, so you can read all the names of the businesses on the building. I just can not put that large of a file up on my blog for you read. Next …
This photo shows the Davy Crockett Foods push cart in the same parade. I guess that ol’ Davy had not sold enough “BearBurgers” or “CoonDogs” to justify springing for a parade float, so they opted for a push-cart that resembles an ocean liner. Or that is what it looks like to me. I like the little boys in the background following along with fishing poles trying to snag a bearburger or a coondog. Also, how about those to urchins that climbed up on the building above the Acme Stores sign for a better look? I wonder if this Acme Store sells the same Acme anvil that always flattens Willey Coyote in the cartoons? You have to have grown up in the fifties and watched cartoons on a b&w tv, kiddies, to get that reference. Next up is a celebrity photo …
This, boys and girls, is Denise Darnell, who stared in the classic 1950’s movie, The Strip Tease Murder Case. On my favorite app, IMDb, a fan – the only one posted, by the way – claimed that this movie is his nomination for ” Worst Movie Ever Made “. I won’t boar you with the rest of the revenue, you can go look it up yourself and read what John Howard Reid has to say in his post. In fact, I do not know why I even bothered to mention his name, since his review is the only one! One more interesting tidbit … the advertising poster claims that Denise Darnell is ” 6’7″ of Amazon Beauty “. And to be perfectly honest, this poster might be the best thing about the movie! But for those interested, you can go search for it yourself. Ms Darnell shows up in several of the photos that my father made and for some reason, I want to say that she might have been the “chaperone” for this group of celebrities that included Doc and Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke and Michael Ansara who played Cochise in the tv show ” Broken Arrow ” from the 1950’s. I only use the word chaperone very loosely, because I could not think of a better word / term – tour guide did not really seem appropriate. I am hoping that someone out there might remember seeing Ms Darnell here in Pensacola and will make a comment. I am not really holding my breath on any comments for The Strip Tease Murder Case, but who knows, all we can do is wait and see.
That does it for me. I am sorry that I missed posting something in December and that made the first month that I missed making a monthly post in years. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season in 2016. We got to travel to Seattle to spend time with Lauren, Lukas and Travis, whom we had not seen since Christmas before last in Southern California. I have posted some photos from this years trip over on my personal blog, Frank Hardy Photo Blog .
Thanks for looking and please comment regardless whether you know something or not … I just like hearing from you. I know that people are looking because I see the stats, it just does not tell me whom, but I do know where. Also, don’t forget that I post fairly regularly on my Instagram account: @frankphardy .
That’s all Doc … ( one more feeble reference to 1950’s b&w cartoons that I grew up on ).
Miss Kitty and Gunsmoke …
Recently on EBay, I ran across some publicity photos taken of the actors from the tv show ” Gunsmoke “. My father had taken photos of Amanda Blake ” Miss Kitty ” and Milburn Stone ” Doc ” two characters from Gunsmoke. I have posted those photos in earlier posts, but I have never posted any of them in their show costumes. I saw these photos of them on EBay and decided to purchase them them to post on this blog. They were photographs and not the printed publicity photos that are so commonly used in these mass printings for handouts at tapings, shows, etc. They are nothing really special and they were inexpensive … I guess Doc and Kitty were not the John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara of their day. Here is a photo that my father made of Amanda Blake when she was at the TownHouse Motor Lodge in Pensacola Florida …
I have a photo of Milburn Stone that my father made somewhere, but I could not locate it when I was putting the photos for this post together. When I come across it I will add them to the post later. Here are a few more Gunsmoke publicity photos …
I have been looking on EBay recently for any photos that go along with the photos of my father’s that I think people might be interested in. Since most of the celebrities that he photographed were popular in the 1950′, 60’s and 70’s, a lot of blog readers might not have a clue who any of these people / celebrities were back then. If anyone remembered meeting Amanda Blake or Milburn Stone when they came to Pensacola back in the 1950’s for the Fiesta, we would enjoy hearing your stories. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
One More of Doc and Kitty …
This is one more of Doc ( Milburn Stone ) and Kitty ( Amanda Blake ) at the TownHouse Motor Lodge in downtown Pensacola with some young admirers. I have had this one sitting around for thirty or forty years and I kept saying that I was going to do something with it … so I finally did. I really don’t have any comment about the photo other it is a very nice photo of Amanda Blake, the lady in the center of the group. If anyone remembers meeting them when they were here for the Fiesta of Five Flags back in the 1950’s, I would love hearing from you. I have posted other photos and I do not recall anyone ever mentioning every seeing them or meeting them on their trip to Pensacola. I have a photo of them holding me up that I am going to finally post … it is really goofy of me, but what else is new?? Thanks for looking and do not forget that I mentioned that I have been putting a lot of photos up over on my Instagram account – frankphardy . I seem to receive more responses there than I ever had on my blogs, so that is why I have been neglecting my blogs the past few months. I will get back going on these eventually, because I still have a lot images that I plan on posting…Thanks again – Frank
Pensacola in the 1950’s …
The first photo is one of Ginn’s Restaurant that was on the corner of 12th Avenue and Gonzalez Streets. You see the old Winn-Dixie Grocery Store to the west and the old Sacred Heart Hospital would be across 12th Avenue to the east just out of the frame of the photo. This photo is a panorama image made with a Wide-Lux camera that my father owned and was burnt up in the fire, which will be another post very shortly. Here is the image …
How about that old Cadillac parked out front on 12th Avenue? The next is just a parade shot from a Fiesta Parade back in 1955 … nothing spectacular about the image ( the Cadillac in this image is carrying the then Governor of Florida – LeRoy Collins ) and I have a better view somewhere in this blog already. But the reason that I am mentioning that here and now is that I just found movie film that my father shot of the 1953 and 1954 Fiesta Parades. Not the three inch reels , but full ten inch reels. And in Color! No sound though. I know that it can be transferred over to digital, but all of the quotes have been in the hundreds of dollars per reel and I am not that interested in spending the money right now. However, that does not mean that I won’t in the future … we will have to just wait and see. Here is the image …
Just imagine all of those horses and riders and cars moving across the screen in COLOR! For the time, this will have to do … but who knows what the future will bring? I have posted quite a few images from this vantage point ( ground level ) that my father has taken in the past. If you type ” LeRoy Collins ” in search field above on the right side, it should pop up … I have not tried it yet, but I am pretty sure it should because I know it is posted somewhere on this blog.
Thanks for taking the time and looking … I have been busy lately and I have neglected this site and my personal photography blog, but I have several ready to post and will get around to posting them shortly … Thanks for all the comments also … Frank
Doc and Kitty in Front of The Town House Motor Lodge …
This is “Doc” and “Kitty” from the tv show Gunsmoke. They were in town back in the middle 1950’s for the Fiesta. I have posted some other photos of them in earlier posts, but I never could find this image until recently. It was in terrible shape and I had already cleaned it up once before, but I never could find it. So when I ran across this image, I went ahead and cleaned it up … again. This is the only photograph that I can find of the exterior front of the Town House Motor Lodge. The two men in the photo are Lynn Toney on the far right and the man helping Amanda Blake is the owner of the Town House and his last name was Head, but I do not know his first name. The front of the Town House was on Cervantes … you should could not do something like this now on Cervates without risking getting hit or run-over. If anyone had any contact with “Doc” or “Kitty” when they were in town, please share your story with us … I would be interested in hearing them. I have a photo of the two of them holding me up that I will post for a laugh … I cannot remember off the top of my head if I already have, so I will check. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Update (1/7/14) : Some people say that the man helping Amanda Blake out of the wagon is John R Jones, who at one time was a local politician … I want to say Property Appraiser, but I could be wrong there. I had said that the man was Mr. Head, who owned the Town House Motel with his wife. Personally, I do not care who it is, that is not the reason why I posted the photo. Please remember, this is a blog for photography, not for identifying correctly the individuals shown in the images. If we do, fine, if we do not, fine. Thanks for looking … Frank
Miss America 1951 …
Here are a few more photos of Yolande Betbeze from Mobile Alabama who was chosen as Miss America 1951. The link goes to the Miss America web site, but you might want to go to her Wikipedia site and read what they have say. I am not going to go into it here, but she was one of the most controversial winners that the Miss America had up until that point. Here are several of her from a parade … most likely a Fiesta Parade, but I am not real sure which parade it was. Here we go …
The middle photo was taken on the corner of Palafox and Garden Street because see the Masonic Lodge building in the background ( which is now Vinyl Music Hall ). As far as any of the people in the background, maybe you might see someone that you recognize and identify. That policeman sure pulled some tough duty escorting Miss Betbeze around … he must be the chief or the chief’s relative, I am sure that this would have been a prized job to have. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Fiesta of Five Flags 1954 …
Here are some images from 4×5 color transparencies that I ran across and forgot that I had found. I actually had found them 10 years or so ago, but they were so discolored that I did not want to bother to post them. I figured out how to color correct images in Photoshop several years ago, but never ran across the transparencies until just recently. I am not sure who any of the people on the float are, but I know that the float is some where on Palafox Street. If you look real close on the right hand side of the image, you can see the front of the Municipal Auditorium way in the background. I am not sure what the building is directly in back of the float, but I am sure that someone out there can tell us … Here is another float that was in line before this float …
And then here is one of the King and Queen of the Fiesta …
These scans could have used some more work because if you look close, you can see some very small dust marks in the sky and on the costumes. But for this blog they are not that noticeable. I am going to post below an original scan of one of these transparencies, so you can see how much they had discolored through the years ( almost 60 to be exact ). However, with the creation of Photoshop you can almost bring back any image to it’s original color and brilliance. Here is the original scan …
Some difference … If anyone knows who any of the people are, please let us hear from you. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
Fiesta Parade 1955 …
These are two from the Fiesta Parade of 1955. I just found them the other day and they show downtown Pensacola very well. I have scanned them all, but have only worked up these two, but they are in good shape, so I will post the rest in a few weeks. This looks like a float with the Kid’s Court, but that is just my guess, since I do not see a name on the float.
Here are a couple of clowns … notice that they are on Palafox Street next to Christ Church and that Palafox at this time was still paved with bricks. I have no idea who these clowns are, but everyone around them are smiling, so they must be doing their jobs. My all-time favorite clowns were the guys from the jail that were always the last ones in the parade scooping up after the horses … I wish my dad would have taken some photos of them. They always made me laugh and I told my mother that I wanted to be just like those guys, since they always looked like they were having so much fun! My mother always told me that I should have some higher aspirations, but at five, I did not know what she was talking about. Only later … Thanks for looking and commenting … Frank
Fiesta Parade 1956 …
These are from the Fiesta Parade of 1956. I do not have any comments about any of these … they are pretty much self – explanatory. The first photo below is of the car carrying the Governor of Florida at the time – LeRoy Collins. There is a photo of him in an earlier post and it might have been taken before the parade started …
I think that there are 16 photos in this post and I believe that I broke it up on the other blog that I had, but since I did not have any comments or information about any of these images … I just decided to post them all. If anyone recognizes any of these groups or people, please let us hear from you. Thanks for looking … Frank
Denise Darnell …
The only things that I could find on Denise Darnell was two movies that she was in … The Strip Tease Murder Case in 1950, in which, surprise, she played the star … the Stripper. The other movie she played in was one fifteen years later called Mickey One. Again, she played … drum roll please … a stripper. Not the staring stripper roll, just one of the line-up girl strippers. I am sorry to say that I have never seen either movie and I seriously doubt that they are DVD, but hey, one never knows. If anyone has seen either of these movies or knows where I view a copy, please let me hear from you because I am really interested. She was in Pensacola with the group of ” Doc, Kitty and Cochise ” for the Fiesta of Five Flags in the 1950’s. Anyone that remembers anything about her and remembers her at the Fiesta, please share your experience with her. She looks like a very nice lady and she looks out of character to be a stripper, but what do I know? I always thought that Trader Jon’s was a high class ” club “. Thanks for looking … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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