Posts Tagged ‘Pensacola Florida’
Hoffman Dance Group …
These images are from a dance group that my father used to photograph out at the auditorium at Pensacola Naval Air Station. He photographed this group for many years and I remember going out there with him when I was seven or eight. I remember walking up and down the halls looking at all of the military photographs on the walls. Nothing in particular other than how large and deserted the place was when I was out there. I ran across these negatives recently and they were in fairly good shape and did not look like they would take me too long to get them ready to post. There were quite a few negatives in the envelope, so I just randomly found six to clean-up and post. I am not going to make any comments about any of them, so here it goes …
The negative envelope said ” 1956 ” on it, but I am not sure about that date. If it was 1956, I would have only been three and this would have been too young for me to have gone. However, this was something that he could have photographed for many years and I did not go until later. I do remember this fairly well and I am pretty sure that I went with him for several years a kid. I would imagine that these children’s fathers were in the military or they worked out at the Naval Air Depot on base. If anyone sees these photos and know anything about this ” Hoffman Dance Group “, please let us hear from you. I am interested personally about who Ms. Hoffman is and how long that she had these dance recitals out on the base. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Harry James In Pensacola …
The tall guy with the black jacket is Harry James, famous trumpet player and band leader. What he was doing in Pensacola, as well as who the other people in the photo are, is a mystery to me. In fact, the only thing that I knew about Harry James was that he was the first big-band leader to hire Frank Sinatra back in 1939. Here is a link to his Wikipedia site. I also saw that he was married to Betty Gable at one time in his life … that I am impressed with. Betty Gable, I believe, had the number 1 pin-up / photo for the guys in WW II. If anyone recognizes any of the other people in the photo, please let us know. Also, if he was in Pensacola to play a concert or whatever, let us know. Thanks for looking … Frank
Several More Pitchers For The Dons …
As usual, I do not have a name for this player, but I am just impressed with the intensity that this pitcher is throwing with for a photographer to take a picture. Also, notice how sharp the fence in the backfield is the photograph. You can read all of the business names very easily … Hill-Kelly Dodge, National Laundry, Fisher-Brown Insurance, W.B. Wood Appliances, etc. I have one other pitcher that I have cleaned-up a little to post …
This guy is throwing with some power, also. I hope that they looked this intense in a real game as they did when my father was taking their photographs. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am interested in seeing if anyone out there might a color photo of the team showing their uniforms and if anyone happened to have shot some footage with a movie camera at any of their games. If anyone ever runs across any of the two, please contact me through this blog. Thanks for looking and if anyone out there recognizes either of these two players, please let me know and if you have any comments let mu hear them … Frank
The Pensacola Dons And Another Promotion …
A good while ago, I posted a photo of a Dons player awarding a pretty girl in a bathing suit some flowers for winning a beauty contest. No one recognized the player or the girl, but the someone did identify the master of ceremonies for the event as a local radio personalty. In the background were the rest of the beauty contestants. Here is that photo again …
Note the suitcase that reads ” Philco ” that I guess contains the equipment to broadcast the event on local radio. I cannot identify what radio station, but I would imagine that it was either WCOA, WBSR or some other local station. So, since the Dons management had this event for all of the guys out in the audience, they needed to do some for all of the ladies sitting in the bleachers down at the Admiral Mason Park … a body builders contest. I do not know if this event was held on the same night or if it done on another night and as usual, I have no idea who any of the body builders are or who the young lady is awarding the winners. I cannot tell if she is this girl above or not, but she very well could be. So here goes … I am just going to post all of the photos and save my comment to the end …
After looking at these photos, I am going to say that the girl in the top photograph is the girl in these presenting the trophies to the body builders. As usual, I do not have a clue who any of these people are. I have been surprised that I have not received that many comments from people who attended the Dons games from back in the late 1950’s. I also am interested if anyone recorded any film from any of the games or of just random footage shot at the Admiral Mason Park during this era of the Dons. I realize that this will be a long shot, but I am interested in seeing if anyone shot anything. When I was looking through my scans of the Dons recently, I discovered that I have around 100 to 120 scans from the Dons years of 1957, 58 and 59, so I will try to throw up a few more in the next few weeks. Please check back and let me hear from you … Frank
Pensacola Dons with Bo Belinsky …
This is a group photo of the pitching staff of the Pensacola Dons from 1959. I am not 100% on the year, but I am pretty sure that was the year. Belinsky in the the back row on the far right side. I do not have a clue who any of the other pitchers are at this point … I will have to do some checking and see if I can find some names. I ran across a folder that I have scanned, but I have not cleaned any of the photos up and gotten ready to post. There might be 40 or so negatives that I have scanned in this folder. Some negatives are of a group of male body builders in their bathing suites and some girls giving them their awards. I have posted a photo of a beauty queen receiving a trophy from a ball player, but I have not done anything with the guys. I guess management figured if they did something for the men in the stands that they had better do something for the women so that they would not have a riot on their hands. I will work them up in the next few weeks and post them. Maybe the Blue Wahoos could learn a thing or two from the Dons, however the way that they pack that new stadium every game, they are certainly doing something right because it sure ain’t the way that they are playing!! Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
One more thing, here is a link to Bo Belinsky’s Wikipedia page. He was really an interesting guy, so just google him and read about him ….
Another First Methodist Photo …
This is not a great photo … it is not as sharp as I would like it to be. I have several different variations of this view and I have been working on one for the longest trying to remove the telephone pole out of the photo. I have about half taken out and I have spent too many hours on it already, but I will finish it one day. In the mean time I thought that I would just throw this one out. My father made this back when it snowed fairly hard in Pensacola back in February of 1958, I believe was the year. If I am wrong, please correct me. You also see in the corner on the right side of the frame, the old furniture company building that now houses The Wright Place. I wish I could remember the name of the old furniture company, but that was before my time. I remember that Rhodes Furniture occupied the building on the other side of Wright Street across from Christ Church. If anyone has any comments, please let us hear them and thanks for looking … Frank
NOTE: The image that I mentioned in the above post is up on the blog and it does have the telephone pole in the image. I have been working on taking it out and I will eventually. I am not sure of the date that I posted it, but it is only about 20 or so posts back from this one. You can go up to the ” search ” button on the top right side of this blog and type in ” First Methodist Church ” and it will pop up with a few other First Methodist posts … Thanks
Equality Cornet Band … Update
I have had this image floating around for decades and finally got around scanning it a year or so back. I am fairly sure that my father did not photograph this image … the only thing that I can think of is that someone brought it by to be copied or something and never returned to pick it up. I know absolutely nothing about the ” Equality Cornet Band ” and I have never bothered to Google it either. Maybe I should have done it before I posted it, but as usual, I did not bother. However, on the other hand, that is not really my purpose or am I all that interested in the history of the ” Equality Cornet Band “, it just makes me smile when I look at the image. So on that note, thanks for looking and please check back. I have been scanning a large selection of negatives that I have had laying around, so I should have enough to keep me busy for the next few months. Thanks for looking … Frank
PS – I Googled ” Equality Cornet Band ” and nothing popped up, so I have nothing more to add. Maybe some of you jazz aficionados might recognize the group … I don’t know if they would be classified as jazz or marching band or big band or what. I just cannot imagine that there is not anything out there on the internet about the group.
Talking On The Phone …
I do not know anything about this photo ( as usual ), but I just thought that it and the one below where cute photographs. You can just barely see the black phone on the table to the girl’s left. I would say that these images were made in the early 1950’s. They could have been taken for Southern Bell, since my father used to take a lot of photos for them. You can tell that big sister is trying to ignore her little brothers … her being a teenager and everything. Here is the other photograph …
Those little guys just are not going to leave her alone. You can see the phone better in this photo. How many of you out there can remember seeing a phone like this? I believe that this style of phone was around for twenty or thirty years before Bell Telephone got around to redesigning it and adding color to the units. I have a photo somewhere showing the new style phone and colors somewhere that I will find to post. I am really surprised how long it took the phone company to come up with different styles of phones to offer the buying public … I guess that the public had other things in life to worry about and not the type or color of what phone they had in their house. Not today! You cannot even watch the Oscars without getting bombarded by the new Samsung cell phone. Times have definitely changed! Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Escambia County Commissioners …
This is a photograph of the Escambia County Commissioners. The year is unknown … but if I had to guess, I would say sometime in the 1920’s. One of these men was my grandfather, H.B. Hardy’s brother – L.W. Hardy. I do not know which one he was. The purpose of posting this photo is to show how things got done ninety years or so ago … a group of men sat down at an old wooden table, in old wooden chairs talking to one another, face to face. Anyone that wanted to sit in and listen could just take a seat in a line of chairs against the back wall. If you had a question, you asked it… Sunshine Law, you mean they needed a law to let the sun shine in? I bet they would even let a reporter from the paper sit in, and if he brought along a box of cigars, he might even be allowed to ask a question. Doing business with the county commissioners has certainly changed a lot in the last ninety years. No longer is it how can we help you, the taxpayer, but what can you, the taxpayer, do for your county commissioner? What, no cash donation at election time? Money talks … yes, if you want my attention, there is something you can do to get me to pay attention . If anyone knows anything about the photo above, please share it with us. I do not know if this photo is even hanging up down at the Escambia County Courthouse somewhere … so if you can tell me that, also, please do. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
And Let The Sun Shine In ….
PK Younge Class Photo …
This is my father’s fifth grade class photo at PK Younge School on Palafox Street. This is the class photo that I mentioned in an earlier post that has the author, Shelby Foote, in the group, but I do not know which one he is. My father is the third boy standing up on the top row, left side. I do not know who the small child standing next to him and I doubt that she is old enough to be in this class. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe she is the teacher’s child and wanted to be in the photo. Having your photo made was a rarity for this time … I would guess that this is 1926 … that they included her for that reason. I do not know if the Escambia County School Board would even have records going back this far. If anyone has any knowledge of this, please let me know. I would be interested in knowing who the rest of these kids are and who the teacher is . I also have a photo of my father’s class out front of the school in Muscogee Florida and I do have the names of the students in that class. There are some names that are familiar to old time Pensacola families like Vaughn, that some of you might recognize. Thanks for looking and if anyone knows about the school board records from the 1920’s, let me hear from you. Please check back … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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