Author: Derek Dahlsad

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The Northrop Loral F-19-A Specter


You probably don’t know about this aircraft, because its origins and operations are so secret even the US Government doesn’t know about it. The F-19A SPECTRE is one of the US’ many Stealth fighter aircraft developed in the 1980s. The thing is, these imaginative stealth planes weren’t developed by anybody in the aerospace industry.

The aircraft design above used for the Monogram’s Stealth F-19A Reconnaissance Fighter 1/72 scale model. Whoever designed it was nice enough to include, in various places, diagrams comparable to the usual aircraft graphics seen in Jane’s guides, as seen here. This version of the Stealth is my favorite, based on a concept by Loral Aeroelectronics that appeared many places, like the airplane book I scanned the poster’s background from, seen above. Testor’s version was first on the market and got the most publicity — including being shown to Congress with the politicians demanding why, if the program was so secret, would a model company be releasing designs to the public? Little did they know, the stealth aircraft in Skunkworks hangers looked nothing like any of the theoretical toy designs.

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Harriman and the Naughty Strawberry Blonde


At the end of 1955, candidates were ramping up their target of the Presidency of the US. Adlai Stevenson ended up the Democrat candidate, losing the election, but the second place for the candidacy was Averell Harriman.

Harriman was a serious contender; he had been holding offices of one sort or another (the Governor of New York at the time), and a few short weeks after the political cartoon above Harriman appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Harriman was a New Dealer during Roosevelt’s days, but his rich family gave him appeal to businesses and the Wall Street crowd. Eisenhower had continued many New Deal programs on his own, so why the comic?

Let’s take it apart: Harriman, a New Deal proponent, was a early Democrat contender. However, he’s got the money and big business interests in his pockets. Eisenhower, too, kept up with the New Deal and worked towards balancing the budget, while working on military strength. Harriman, it seems, was more like the Republican incumbent than the Democrats wanted — the comic implies that the Democrats were looking for a more centrist candidate. Harriman was ‘sleeping’ with the leftism of the New Deal, hiding his vices out the back door — but Harriman was about to greet the centrist Democrats with open arms while his vices patiently waited out back. Public opinion must have agreed — the more centrist Adlai Stevenson was brought back to run against Eisenhower for a second time, after losing in ’52. Harriman, despite his early lead, apparently couldn’t shake the strawberry blonde on the back step.

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Fargo’s North Dakota Skyline

We’ve seen the North Dakota scenery from West Fargo in the 1930s, which is a little unfair to the area. In 1983, the Tree Top restaurant — once at the top of the tallest building in Moorhead — put this photo in their advertisement. At the far left is the low-income highrise, thanks to Urban Renewal; a little to the right of it is the Professional Building, where my childhood doctor worked; a little right of center is now the Bank Of The West building (formerly a half dozen other bank names), and to the right of that is the microwave tower on top of the Burlington Northern offices. We’re looking straight west from the MF Building — but that’s not really downtown out that way. Downtown Fargo is off to the right of this photo, and would have been dominated by the Fargo Forum’s neon sign, the Black Building, and the First National Bank building. It could be partly that this was the best angle, with the setting sun; it could also be that those were the tallest, most-modern buildings in Fargo at the time, while the next-tallest buildings are examples of Art Deco and Federalist styles of the early 20th century, and who wants to see that? But if they were looking for tall buildings — why not take a picture of the Radisson? Sorry, that was still two years away.

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Bertha

I’ve started scanning a new family photo album — another one from Wisconsin, and this one had all the ‘good’ photos removed, leaving the ones I’m scanning behind. Why were they rejected? I can’t tell.

Most of these photos are also unmarked — but the one to the right was important enough to be captioned: “Bertha and Husband.” I wonder which one’s Bertha?

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The Last Binford Guide

Howard Binford was a journalism icon in the Fargo-Moorhead area during the 60s and 70s, training the media personalities of the future and publishing his own magazine. Late in life, Binford starting publishing his Howard Binford’s Guide in 1968, interviewing a series of locals who were quite obviously Binford’s friends, church acquaintances, advertisers, and co-chairs on local boards. Still, he was a bright and entertaining editorialist, and the magazine was actually useful to non-locals on holiday and residents alike.

Looking forward, Binford began to pass control to his assistants in 1984, sold the magazine to a local publisher in 1986, but his health got the better of him at the end of 1988 and he passed away. Without Binford, the Guide ended publication with the May 1989 issue. The Guide was clearly valuable to the community: most of the magazines I’ve collected were aquired in large lots — people saved years and years of the guide in their basement. I’ve got almost the entire 1980s uploaded, a good part of the 70s, but those 1/8th-size pre-1975 Guides are tough to find.

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Neptune Rex Endorses TWA

In July 1953, Margaret flew across the Atlantic ocean, from Paris to New York. This was during some of TWAs heydays — Hughes was in control and hadn’t gone completely nuts yet, of travelling abroad was still a luxury but was beginning to reach the common people during the postwar boom, and the process was more comfortable and safer than ever before. The bottom text is the most important to note, though: by being awarded this certificate, the bearer was bound to recognize that they were to promote air travel, and recognize its value to international relations. In the fifties, air travel wasn’t just bus service between big cities — it was diplomacy serviced by stewardesses.

see also: TWA history * Lockheed Constellation survivors * Fly TWA museum

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Angelo’s Place – Gulfport Mississippi


The postcard assumes you know who Angelo is — this fine chef was so ubiquitous that his first name was enough to tell all who he is. Emeril? Bah — television was his tool…Angelo was known by word-of-mouth! This postcard is done in the style of real-photo postcards from the 1910s to 1930s, but appears to have been printed much later (and it’s not actually a photographic copy). Angelo Xidis immigrated as a teen in 1915, opening his eponymous restaurant in 1935. This would seem to be about the right time for this photo, maybe 1940s. Sadly, Angelo’s closed in the 1980s, well after the original Angelo retired, but the restaurant lives on in the numerous postcards that recommended his restaurant to the friends and relatives of a multitude of Mississippi vacationers.

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The Hideout at the Comstock

This came from a 1955 Moorhead Daily News, advertising the Comstock Hotel’s Hideout Room. This appears to have been the hotel’s lounge, featuring the dulcet tones of the Hammond organ. The Comstock was located in downtown Moorhead until Urban Renewal flattened and re-drew the flood-ravaged section of downtown to build a mall- wrapped- around- city- hall monolithic building that’s struggled to keep shoppers and tenants. Personally, I prefer how the Comstock looked to the ultramodern styles of the buildings built in its place.

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Thumb Problem

Poor lad — broken a thumb at such a young age, then made to get all dressed up for family. He does appear to have a brace (the black in his palm), which would indicate a pretty serious break, and the lack of our ultra-modern materials means it looks a lot worse than if you broke it today. These days, we have flesh-colored or transparent high-strength tape and carbon-fiber braces that make it all but invisible. In the thirties, they had cloth tape — or that might even be a plaster cast. Also, remember this farm was probably a good 5 to 10 miles from the nearest town…if they went to a doctor at all. If a neighbor or even dad was handy with medical supplies, the only doctor consulted was a copy of the Modern Home Medical Advisor that came free with $10 of groceries down at the Red Owl.

(from this set)

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Peek-a-Boo!

Who’s that behind the tree? Why, it’s Mrs. Pfeiffer! Helene and her mother visited a nursery for a fine day outside, and that rapscallious Mrs. Pfeiffer brought levity to their day by composing very difficult riddles and singing scandalous bar-room tunes she learned from a set of Victrola records her husband borrowed from the Lodge and hid under his humidor. Or so I gather from two photos taken a hundred years ago — I may be reading a bit too much into it.

I also enjoy this photo for the excellent white-birch bench surrounding the tree. The arm-rests are arranged as an ‘x’, allowing open seating on all sides. I can’t see how it’s fastened together, but it seems sturdy enough — as a bench in a nursery, the raw-woo, bark and all, has a great beauty to partake, when walking through the gardens with your mother and that pernacious Mrs. Pfeiffer.