Archive for the ‘Pensacola’ Category
Home Show at the Pensacola Municipal Auditorium …
I am going to start off with this young lady displaying the new colorful rotary dial phones from Southern Bell and Telegraph. It comes in a variety of beautiful colors, however, since color film did not become used wide-spread until the 1960’s and this is 1956, you are just going to have to take this lady’s word for it. There is only one model of phone at the present time, but it does come in eight beautiful colors … as you can tell from the various tones of phones. Be the first on your block to get rid of your basic black phone … the start of phone envy!! Moving on to soft drinks …
Two magnetized Royal Crown Oven Mitts for only 50 cents and two RC bottle caps. I almost will wager that this is one of the first promotions in stores back in the 1950’s. It is hard to believe that before this time the retailers had yet to utilize store promotions. All of that untapped consumer advertising gone to waste for those previous years. Well friend, no need to worry, because in the next thirty years or more they would more than make up for years of no promotions. It is hard to even imagine the decades before without in-store promotions. And let’s not forget the radio stations and TV stations getting involved, along with magazines and newspapers. Your head should be spinning now in ” promotional heaven “… It has only just begun! Thanks for looking and if any of you remember this Home Show down at the Pensacola Municipal Auditorium, please let us hear from you. Thanks again … 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
Gull Point Community Center Play …
The negative envelope read ” Gull Point 3/26/56 “. Nothing more. The envelope contained around 40 4×5 black and white negatives. No names. No contact number. I found the envelope around fifteen years ago, along with tens of thousands of other negative envelopes and just set it aside from all of the other envelopes. School plays must have been a big thing thing in the 1940’s and 50’s, however when I came along in the 1960’s, they were a thing of the past. At least for me … I cannot ever remember being in a play or ever watching one at an elementary school, junior high school or high school that I attended. The only time that I ever got dressed in a costume ( besides Halloween ) was to dress as a carrot and walk in in a Fiesta Parade back around 1962 with my first or second grade class from Episcopal Day School. It was in the summer and it was hot. I was miserable, but I walked the whole parade route without passing out or fainting. I wish I could find a photo of us carrots walking up Palafox, I know I have one somewhere or someone has a photo of a pack of carrots trudging up Palafox Street in a parade. Now back to Gull Point … here are a few more photos that I have worked up …
If anyone out there remembers attending a play out at Gull Point Community Center in March of 1956, please let us hear from you. I do not know if this is the community center or if there was an elementary or junior high school back in the 1950’s ( before my time) and I am interested. The more I look at the photos, these look like elementary school kids and not junior high students. I will work on some more of these negatives in the future, so check back. Thanks for looking and as usual are comments are welcomed and appreciated, so knock yourself out. And one more thing – if anyone has any photos of a group of carrots marching up Palafox in the 1960’s, please contact me. Now the more I think of it, maybe we weren’t a bunch of carrots, but a bunch of oranges!! Well, either way, carrots or oranges, think of me…
Steve Dalkowski …
The player on the far right is Steve Dalkowski and this photo was taken by my father back in 1959. He is featured in a new movie called FASTBALL . The movie is narrated by Kevin Costner and is worth seeing, whether or not you are a baseball fan. It is an extremely entertaining movie and it covers a wide span in the history of baseball. Here is an article written by Joe Posnanski about Dalkowski that really an interesting story and one of the best on him that I have read recently. Mr Posnanski is one of the writers interviewed in the movie and is a sports writer when he is not doing movie interviews / work. Dalkowski’s story is not a Cinderella one, but it is real and interesting. There are other stories out there on Dalkowski and if you just Google his name you will find a half a dozen good articles. It just goes to show you that for every Dimaggio, there are thousand of Dalkowskis out there, but then again – that’s life. I do not have any stories to offer about Dalkowski when he played for the Dons. I wish that I has something to share with you here and I hope that anyone that reads this and has something to share will. In fact, I have only talked to a handful of people that have actually been to a Dons game. The girl whose father owned the Dons, I believe his last name was Davis, contacted me once and I wish that I had some way to get back in touch with her, because I have some questions to ask her about the Dons. That is it for now … go watch FASTBALL and let me know what you think. Thanks for looking and please let me hear your comments or your questions … Frank
Community Chest … Part Two …
Here are a few more photos from the Community Chest. I do not know any of the people in front of the tally board … maybe someone will recognize an individual and comment. Some more photos …
If anyone remembers anyone on the boards or in the photos and wants to make a comment, please feel free. Thanks again for looking. This year is just about up and it really has flown by. No idea what 2016 has in store, but I am looking forward to whatever it brings. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you have a safe New Year. Thanks again for stopping by and looking … the comments are also welcomed. Stay safe … Frank
Town and Country Plaza …
This is a view of Town and Country Plaza being built back in the early 1960’s. The camera was a Wide-Lux Panoramic camera that used 120 roll film. I do not know who the developers of this project were, but I doubt that this was a local group. The road in the foreground was called ” Pottery Plant Road ” and was eventually changed to Fairfield Drive since the Pensacola Interstate Fair used to be located on this road before it was relocated to Mobile Highway. Here is one more view …
Back when this shopping center was built, no one could envision a shopping mall that would be enclosed and air conditioned. In fact, I am sure a lot of people at this time would ask ” what is air conditioning ? ” . If anyone wants to share there shopping experiences here at Town and Country Plaza, please feel free. Thanks for looking and please check back. And Happy Holidays to everyone …
Liberace and Friend … Updated ……
I posted this photo years ago and I did not know who the lady is. Someone had mentioned a name for her when I posted this on the first blog that I had on Blogger six or seven years ago. But I cannot what they said her name was and when I “googled” it nothing came up. So I did not pay that much attention to it. Recently, I have been reading a book by author Steve Fischer entitled ” When The Mob Ran Vegas “. On page 113, there is a photo of Ruth Gillis and it said that she was one of Liberace’s show girls when he played the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. I am not going to bother trying to get permission to see if I can post it here, you are just going to have to take my word for it. On the web there are several photos of her with various other entertainers, one being Ernie Kovacs and here is a link to the photo. I have tried ( not very heard though ) to find some other photos and information on Ms Gillis, but have not turned up much. I do not know a date for the above photo and if I had to guess I would say that it would be 1955 or 1956. In the book it says that she started as a show girl with Liberace on April 20, 1955 at the Riviera. I was hoping that someone might have remembered seeing Liberace in Pensacola when he came here, but I have not received any comments from anyone. I might have to go down to the PNJ and see what it takes to go through there microfilm files. If anyone has any thing to share, please let us hear from you. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
The Community Chest … Part One …..
Several weeks ago the Pensacola News Journal printed an article by John Appleyard about the Community Chest. The Community Chest later turned into the United Way. It was an interesting article by Mr. Appleyard, as they all are. I ran across these images years ago and set them aside … the only thing that interested me were all of the photos of the local ” movers and shakers “, since my father had taken the photos. A lot of the names are very familiar to me and a few mean nothing to me, but that really does not mean anything since these images are sixty years old. I was only two when these were taken. There are a few images, so I am going to break these up into two posts. Since I do not know anything much about the images, I am just going to post the images and leave out any comments to the end. Here we go …
None of the people standing in front of the tally boards are familiar to me … I recognize a lot of the names / faces of the the people on the boards. I am sure some of you out there will be able to identify these of these people. I also apologize for not being able to figure out how to put a link to Mr. Appleyard’s article in the Pensacola News Journal. In fact, I am not sure if I would be allowed to since so many publications do not allow bloggers to link to their sites because of plagiarism laws. Maybe someone out there will let me know how to link and if I am even allowed to. Thanks again for looking and feel free to comment. I will post the other images in a week or so … Frank
Ice Machine …
I ran across this image years ago and did not pay attention to it until just the other day. I had not noticed the ” 25 cents bag ” written on the door of the unit. This had to have been taken back in the 1950’s and I do not where the machine was located. You can tell that someone must have backed into it and they are filling an insurance claim on the unit for my father to have taken a photo of the ice machine. It looks like it was located in front of a liquor store because those look like pints and half pints on the shelves on the right side of the frame. I have been busy with other things the last several months ( one being Instagram – frankphardy ) and I have not posted much the last several months, but I am going to renew it for another year in a few weeks. If anyone has any questions or comments, please let me hear them. Thanks again for looking … Frank
Olive Baptist Church Choir …
This is the adult choir at Olive Baptist Church back in the late 1970’s. This used to be a part of our business that used to be a good part of our business was photographing these large groups of people. I would say that we would photograph forty or fifty groups a year back in the 1970’s and 80’s. Around the mid-1980’s, the market changed and the camera manufactures started selling better quality amateur cameras and one hour photo processors opened. We did not sell many individual photos to the members in these type of groups, but we did do well with high school reunions, family reunions and the like. But when the 1990’s hit, most of these groups either had a church member or a family member or a close friend that had a “nice” camera and made photos.
Thanks for looking and please check back. I have been busy with other things this past summer and have neglected my blogs, but I still have a lot of photos that I want to post, so please bear with me. Thanks again … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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