Ghost Signs, Beverage-Related

 The first two were taken in Nice, France in 1987. I don't know if they really qualify as Ghost Signs since they're painted on glass, but the loveliness of their deterioration is similar. As always, click to enlarge!

And this one is from Brussels in 1982--too modern to be a proper Ghost Sign, perhaps (the number at the bottom reads 1/23/68, which could be a date, though in Europe it's usually Day/Month/Year.) 

Pretty Cityscapes

Some of you probably think this blog is turning into a mere outlet for vintage cheesecake. Not so! Just to prove otherwise, here are two colorful views of famous cities: (CLICK TO ENLARGE!)

This is Paris, France, photographed from (I think) the top of the Montparnasse Tower.

And this is a street scene from Brussels, Belgium in 1984.

Next time: more vintage gals!

Another Film Noir Poster from Belgium

This one's for another "White Slavery" picture. Both titles translate as "Slaves for Rio."
The English title is "They Were So Young," and the story centers on a Rio modeling agency that's a front for a call-girl ring. And it's got Raymond Burr! He plays "Jaime Coltos."

Car Wash Camel

Continuing this week's "Belgium" theme, here's a stuffed camel advertising a restaurant in Brussels in the mid-eighties. It's parked in the lot of a car wash right next to the Hôtel des Colonies, which used to be (might still be for all I know) a decent and inexpensive place to stay very close to the Gare du Nord. It's also on the outskirts of Brussels's picturesque red light district.

 

This is what you might call Bad Taxidermy!

Popeye Impersonator in Brussels

This guy was a street performer in, I think, Brussels in the mid-to-late '80s. (I'm guessing Brussels based on other shots on the same roll.)
As you can see, he drew quite a crowd, but I can't remember any particular shtick he had apart from "Look at me, I look like Popeye the Sailor Man."

He made that shtick his own, though....except for that damned pony tail! Bluto would have yanked on that shit and sent poor old Popeye into orbit.

Film Noir from Belgium!

All right, the film in question isn't Belgian, but the poster is:

 
Click on the image to see some real pretty mid-century lithography. The title translates as "White Slave Trade," more or less. I found this in, of all places, Mark Twain's boyhood hometown of Hannibal Missouri. The poster still has its original Belgian tax stamps affixed to it:


This is what I call villainy!

Manneken-Pis

These are two of a series of twenty slightly ribald postcards featuring the Manneken-Pis of Brussels, possibly the world's most disappointing tourist attraction. As the above cards show, it's a tiny statue of a little boy pissing into a fountain. No one really knows why it's there, though it's been suggested that it commemorates a kid putting out a fire in a similar manner. Anyway, since the early twentieth century these postcards have been on sale across the street. Mostly they feature older ladies--nuns, spinsters and unsatisfied wives--gazing longingly at the little bastard's junk.