Giant Instamatic

Here's a picture of me holding a giant Kodak Instamatic 126:

This was an outtake from my 1985 (or '86, or '87) Christmas card, shot in the portrait studio at Moler's Camera in Wichita, where I worked at the time. The plaster bust of Lincoln came from an old schoolhouse, I think.

Mysterious Factory Photographs

No idea where these were taken, but they seem to have all come from the same photo album. Found them in a St. Louis antique store. The one that caught my eye was this dramatic, post-fire picture of a young man sitting calmly in the factory ruins:

 What kind of factory was this, anyway?

I like the expression on the guy on the left.

Loading some kind of contraption onto a cart....and below, a standard group shot:

 And of course the gag photo with the guy pretending to be asleep. Any ideas as to where this was or what they made?

Is this the Scariest Clown of All Scary Clowns?

At least of all Scary Clowns riding tiny, tiny tricycles.

Just look at this guy!

He's the corpsiest clown ever. Even if you're not scared of clowns, you should be scared of this guy.

Dodgem, Alber's Flour, the Boardwalk and the beach

 This photograph was given to me by the owner of a small antique store in Alamosa, Colorado, when I was buying a couple of books. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said "Take it." Looks to me like Coney Island, maybe, or Atlantic City, circa 1925. Maybe one of the guys in suits is Nucky Thompson from "Boardwalk Empire."  Click to enlarge and read the ALBER'S FLOUR sign.

Little America, Granger, Wyoming, August 27 1938

Found this lovely thing in Indiana a few weeks ago:

This is the kind of weird old-timey Americana I'm always looking for in old pictures. And only two dollars! As always, click to enlarge, there's plenty of satisfying detail in there....

1930s Stereo Gals!

I will be posting one or two of these a day in hopes of getting back into a good, regular blogging vibe.

These were taken by a French amateur during the 1930s. I'm not sure if he's the same fellow that took the one I posted a few months back, but the style and situations seem similar. (Two of them are outdoor, the rest appear to have been made inside a brothel.)

Oh boy! Upskirt. These seem to have been taken on different days, unless they're two different models. But they're wearing the same shoes!

Anyway, vintage amateur smut for your approval.

More Parisian Rooftops

From, I think, the top floor cafeteria of the Galeries Lafayette, with the Opéra Garnier in the distance, circa 1985: 

Shot using a Pentax LX, what lens I don't remember, using Kodak Technical Pan film. Click to enlarge!

AWOL Russian Soldier in Budapest, 1990

In 1990 I went with my friends Mike Gebert and Susan Snyder to Budapest. A large number of Russian soldiers were still there, just because of the logistical difficulties involved in repatriating so many troops from so many different countries all at once. We met this guy on a pedestrian bridge selling Russian army insignias, pins and caps:

I don't know for a fact that he was AWOL but the hair and chin fur suggest he's been spared a military grooming for a while. No idea what happened to the medallion I bought.

More Nudes in Nature: Arundel Holmes Nicholls

 Here are the last two of the Nicholls 8x10s from the estate sale the other week:

 

Thislady seems to come from an earlier era than the one below, whose bob places her squarely in the Jazz Age as opposed to the Edwardian.

She looks rather pixieish as well....

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.) 

Major Astro, circa 1970

In Wichita we had several memorable kiddie show hosts (Cap'n Bill, played by Bill MacLain, Freddie Fudd, supposedly Elmer's cousin, played by Henry Harvey) but none loomed as large in our little cartoon-addled minds as Channel Three's Major Astro, played by Tom Leahy, who also served as The Host on KARD's late-night horror movie show "Nightmare" (the prime inspiration for Joel Sanderson's brilliant "Basement Sublet of Horror").

 The show began in the days of the Mercury program, but as you can see by the Moonbase set above, it was still running well into the Apollo years.

 Here the Major waves, looking like he's giving his signature sign-off line, "Happy orbits, boys and girls!" I met Tom once when my friend Jeff Killian interviewed him in his home, and I was running one of two video cameras. In the interview, Tom was very, very funny, (he referred to the character as "The Maj") and afterwards he invited us to have a drink with him. Jeff and the other cameraman demurred, as it was before noon, but I wasn't by God going to pass up the chance to have a snort with Major Astro. He gave me a glass of white wine and said "I believe I'll have something stronger myself." Then he poured himself a good-sized tumbler of scotch.

The viewing screen behind him to his left is where the cartoons would first appear before going full-screen.  I believe Jeff gave me these pictures in the late eighties to print; I just found them in a box of old slides. Most likely they came from The Maj himself. Tom died a year or two ago, mourned by thousands of Wichita's former kiddie-show viewers. Rest in Peace, Maj!

Alfred E. Neuman twelve feet tall!

These giants can be found around the nation, often holding a giant axe or a colossal tire. This one, however, is the only one I know of with Alfred E. Neuman's head, missing tooth miraculously restored!

 I took this at the intersection of 43rd and Cambridge in Kansas City around 1985. Does anyone know if this is still standing? The film was motion picture print stock (don't ask) which made it unusually hard to scan and correct. Note, please, the image of Alfred E. on the banner above the storefront!

This has been your obscure midwestern signage report. Next: Vintage erotica!

More Nudes from Arundel Holmes Nicholls

Here are two more of the six eight-by-tens I found Saturday.

Is she the same woman from Saturday's post, the one picking up a starfish?

This one seems to have been taken somewhat later, guessing by the bobbed hair.

The Lady and the Cake, Part 2

Here are more scans of the lovely lady, clad only in a diaphonous wisp of a garment, cavorting with a birthday cake. Scans 4 through eight follow!

Cycling through the spectrum of human emotions, here in #4 she's carefree!

In #5 she's thoughtful, lighting a candle and reflecting on something deep and wonderful--

#6 finds her having a happy thought, perhaps of a far-off loved one.

But in #7 she's reminded of something sad--though her right nipple seems to have perked up between shots.

And in #8 she's practically mournful. Sorry she's still dressed! For the next and last installment she will be partially disrobed, I promise.

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!

Nudes in Nature: Arundel Holmes Nicholls

I got lucky today at an estate sale: a set of six old eight by ten black and white nudes.

They're by Arundel Holmes Nicholls, who was active from the teens through the thirties.

Good stuff!

A Scantily-Clad Beauty and a Birthday Cake in stereo, 1927

I posted one of these a while back and now I'm going to post the whole set, a few at a time. Just like a strip tease!

Which this kind of is.

She looks like she's really enjoying the lighting process! I wish I could get that enthusiastic about things.

Sorry these are a little out of focus. The cards are quite curved. She's still a pretty thing, though, and we'll be seeing a lot more of her later.

Dubonnet Ghost Sign and the Magic of the Digital Darkroom

Here's a picture I shot on Ektachrome in the summer of 1983 of one of the last Dubonnet wall paintings. The slide itself is disgustingly moldy, the mold attracting dust, but I was able through the magic of the digital darkroom to get this lovely image:

Here's what it looked like when I scanned it:

Chimp-on-Dolphin Violence

Longtime readers (obsessive, detail oriented, OCD ones anyway) will remember this post from May of 2009, featuring a photo of a sculpture in Paris's Muséum de l'Histoire Naturelle of an orangutan (or as I like to spell it, "orang-outang") strangling a man while its offspring cheers it on:

http://pocketfulofginch.blogspot.com/2009/05/attack-of-great-apes.html

It includes a link to a photo of a chimp attacking a dolphin from the Parc de l'Orangerie in Strasbourg, and my lament that I will never find my own photo of said statue. But find it I did!

Click to enlarge! I'm generally pretty displeased with the quality of my photos from those long ago days (1982 in this case) but this one came out pretty well.  And of course you can never have enough pics of chimps attacking dolphins!