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
Glass Plate Negatives …
The images that I am going to post today are from glass plate negatives that I purchased off of the Internet a while back. The first one is of a baseball team somewhere from the early 1900’s. No information about the date, team or the players … just an interesting image to me. I plan on cleaning it up and trying to colorize it at some point, but more on that later.
The team is a little short of players, but who cares? They were playing for the love of the game. Now when you watch a baseball game and you see all of the equipment that it takes to field a team, you wonder how these guys got by. I am sure that they would be stunned to see all of the helmets, shin guards, gloves, etc, etc to see what it takes to get a game going. And I am not even going to say anything about what these players are making in salaries today … you know that would probably shock them even more! Next is a couple of kids painting a brick wall …
Here is the whole glass negative scan. How about those outfits that they are wearing to paint in? I have no clue of the year here either, but I would have to say late 1890’s or early 1900’s. More on these later when I have some time to work them up. Thanks for checking back …
USS Pensacola … Part Two ….
One more of the USS Pensacola after it had been launched and the tugs are pushing to the dock. Sorry that I did not include it with the others. If anyone has a comment, please feel free to post it … especially if you were there in 1926 when the USS Pensacola was launched. Thanks and check back … Frank
The Launch of the USS Pensacola …
This is almost a first me … I have actually done some research on the images that I am going to post today and I am going to include a link to more photographs for those of you might be interested in seeing more images. Two of the photographs are one’s that I have copied for a lady in the past and the other three are from the US Navy site that I am going to give you a link to at the end of the post. The first image is one from the Navy site that sort of starts the story of the USS Pensacola launch at the Brooklyn Naval Yard on 25 April 1926 …
You see all of dignitaries from the Navy and I know that there are several in this crowd from Pensacola … Harvey Bayless is one who was the City of Pensacola’s City Manager in the 1920’s and he could have even been Mayor at one time … who made the trip to New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Now the next photo is one that I had copied and showed the ship at a lower level being sent off from the ways. I am surprised that the Navy does not have copies of the prints that I am going to show and I can only think that maybe the ones that I am showing were shot by a photographer that the City of Pensacola might have hired in New York to record this event for them. I have not seen them in any local archives such as the Historic Trust, so without further ado …
Interesting don’t you think? The next photo is a Navy photo showing the boat coming down the ways from out in the East River …
Here come the Pensacola out into the East River. The next photo is one that I copied showing the USS Pensacola completely out of the dry dock and off of the ways out in the East River. I believe that the bridge in the background is the Manhattan Bridge. It possibly could be the Williamsburg Bridge, but if I am wrong, I apologize. At least I have a fifty-fifty chance of accuracy and for me that is pretty good…
Look how many tugs it takes to move the Pensacola around! I could have retouched out all of the trash in the East River, but I am striving for authenticity here and besides since this is 1926, I figured that the US DEP would be pretty lax around a naval shipyard. I do not know if we even had a DEP in the twenties, so there goes my claim for authenticity in the last sentence. Next and last image is a Navy photograph of the USS Pensacola ( CA-24 ) tied up at the dock…
In fact you can see part of the bridge I mentioned earlier. There are a lot more images of the USS Pensacola on the Navy here.
I hope you have enjoyed this little bit ” visual ” naval history and how I tied it all together. Don’t get used to it because I will be back to my old self of just posting photographs along with a few unrelated comments. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I have been posting more to Instagram than my blogs, but I have unearthed a lot of new negatives that I have sifting through and will post in the months to come. If anyone happened to be at the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Pensacola was launched and want to share it first-hand, we would love to here from you. You can find me on Instagram at: frankphardy . For some unknown reason it would not let me do FrankHardyPhotography so I used my middle initial “p”. But you can type “frankhardy” into search and I pop up. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Pensacola Fire Department …
This is in the square at Palafox and Government Streets sometime back in the 1920’s. That is the Escambia County Courthouse in the background. Look at the facial expressions on the fire fighters … also look at all of the activity in the background. Everyone is busy and going someplace. Even though this is a black and white image ( toned actually ) it seems that black or some dark color is the predominant color for suits, dresses and cars back in the 1920’s. As usual I have no clue who any of the fire fighters are or what they are doing, but it doesn’t matter. Here is one more from a different direction …
Here you see the TT Wentworth Museum in the background, that at one time used to be the Pensacola City Hall. Even I can remember going down to the City Hall back in the late 1960’s and up into the 1970’s and doing business there. So it must have been in use up until the new City Hall down on Main Street was built back in the 1980’s. I have some photos that I took when they were building the new City Hall over on my other blog that I have showing my photography. If anyone knows anything about either of these two photographs, please feel free to comment. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
New York City 1931 ….
This row of billboard advertising in New York City was located on 12th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Avenues. 12th Avenue runs north and south next to the Hudson River up and down Manhattan. 42nd and 43rd Streets run east and west and will take you across to Times Square. On the right side of the frame is the Taxi or Hack Stand, at least that is what the sign says. I Google Earthed this address to see what is located here now and it looks like the UPS shipping store is here. I doubt if there are very many around today that remember when New York used to look like this, so I do not expect any comments. But the billboards on the wall are interesting and I am surprised of the companies listed that are still around today… GM, Gulf Oil, Heinz. And let’s not forget the Ringling Brother’s Circus. I can almost imagine Tony Soprano’s uncle going to the Hack Stand here to catch a ride across town to the Italian Social Club. Thanks for looking and I have some photos of Pensacola in the 1920’s ready to post, so please check back …. Frank
Cotton Pickers ….
This was taken back in the 1920’s by an unknown photographer. I wish that I knew something about the guys in the photo or the photographer who made the image, but as usual, I know only what I see. It looks as if it could have been in just another cotton field somewhere on Hwy 87 in north Santa Rosa County. Maybe they are brothers, maybe two strangers who just met on their first day in the field, whatever the the case may be, they have a long, hot, hard day a head of them. Notice that their bags trail another few feet once it touches the ground. They look pretty fresh at this point, so I imagine that their day has just begun. I read somewhere that pickers were only paid a dime for a full bag and on a good day they were lucky to fill two of these bags. Twenty cents for eight to ten hours in the hot sun and one hundred degree heat. That sounds , well, you know how that sounds … I wonder how many lined up to work on this day? We see two men that did. The cotton crop in this field looks thin. Must not have had much rain this growing season. My father used to tell me stories of him and his brother Ben going to visit their Aunt and Uncle in Pineapple Alabama. My father was young, maybe eleven or twelve, and he would go out in the fields and pick cotton with all of the workers. He loved it. Ben hated it. Ben could not wait to get back to Pensacola. I have horn that was given to him by his Uncle who would use the horn to call in the workers at the end of the day. I am sorry to say that I did not take very good care of horn, but I will photograph it and post a photo later. Usually at this point in my post I would say something like … If you want to share your experiences picking cotton, we would love to hear them. But, for some reason, I do not think that I would have many comments. Thanks for looking, and if you like, you can share experiences picking peas, string beans, radishes, etc, etc. Or you could tell us about your backyard garden. Again, thanks for looking … Frank
Everglades On The Bay …
The Everglades Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami was built back in the 1920’s. It was finished in 1926, several months before the famous hurricane of 1926 that demolished a lot of South Florida from the Keys to Miami. I have seen several shows on this hurricane on the Florida Public Broadcasting Channel that have been very interesting. I have posted other photos from Miami and Miami Beach that my father had taken, but just ran across this negative the other day. The hotel was demolished back on January 23, 2007 and there are videos on YouTube showing the demolition if you are interested. If anyone has any stories that they want to share of their stay at the Everglades Hotel, we would love to hear them. I still have more negatives of Miami to scan and post, so please check back. Thanks again for looking and check back …. Frank
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
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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