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Three Gents in Snappy Hats

What’s these guys’ stories? Sometime in the 1910s, maybe twenties, three lads got together for a group shot — and it must’ve been important that they be wearing hats. The style of hat is called a ‘newsboy’, ‘Gatsby’ hat, or driving cap, and was popular with the trendy kids of the early 20th century. The button-close breast pockets on the two gents on the right has a very military feel to it, and echoes the late 19th century. The lad on the left shops at a different tailor: sans vest, modern shirtcollar, his collar is lower, wider below the collar on the notched lapel, and is missing the breast pockets. Maybe he’s older, and doesn’t rely on Mom to do his clothes-shopping. Any which way, they’re a sharp looking group of guys.

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Riding the Red Comet

From an overexposed image, adjusted with Photoshop. This Red Comet, a fine steel wagon with rubber wheels, was probably a big gift for a kid back ‘in the day’ – no Toys R Us, and not a lot of money, meant not a lot of toys to go around. A wagon gave a kid transportation: load up the dog, fill it with rocks, drag around a sibling, all kinds of things beyond the scope of two little arms. Also, for a mom whose arms are already burdened with all kinds of carrying, a kid can be pulled along behind when working in the yard. Big rubber wheels and high clearance allowed for off-road travel.

See also: radio flyer * how wagons are made * thoughts on red wagon origins

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J. D. Muldowney and Bro’s Kitty Chorus

It’s sad when something doesn’t come up in Google whatsoever. J. D. Muldowney & Bro. – nothing. Neither address brings anything up. 164 Main looks like a parking lot now on Google Maps, but 373 could still be an old building. Not even the illustrator, J. H. Ives, shows up in search results. So, this little advertising card holds a bunch of mysterious info, guarded by a chorus of partially-anthropomorphized kitties. It’s printed on a stiff card, not as thick as a postcard but thicker than paper, and it looks like it may have been gummed.

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On Leave at Duffy’s Gay Nineties

The back of this postcard says it was taken in Coney Island, so I doubt there was a real Duffy’s Gay Nineties — just a painted backdrop for fun-seekers to get a photo to mail back home. These two guys, on leave from the Army in 1946, seem to be enjoying themselves. The guy on the left has a single chevron, identifying him as private. The guy on the right, while blurry, still has a clear enough view of his unit patch: 1st Army. The guy on the right has some tell-tales in that hand, too (besides the bottle): on his ring-finger is a wedding ring, and between his fingers, a cigarette. The war was over, his best gal was waiting for him back home, and he got to live it up at Coney Island once in a while – he had no complaints.

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Massey-Harris ’44

A Minnesota farmer and his new Massey Harris ’44. The ’44 was made for almost ten years through the late forties and early fifties, and from the pictures in this set I’d say this is on the later end of the timeline. The powerlines are one clue — unless he’s not at home in the picture, but there weren’t power lines on the farm in earlier photos. The attachments on the sides, just above the front tires, are interesting — I’m not sure what they’re for. Weights? Some pictures of a ’44 have a bucket on the front (and note the headlights moved to the fender, to avoid being knocked off), could it be that? Who knows, but he sure looks proud of his new tractor.

see also: hard data * Massey [Harris|Ferguson] history * Massey-Harris Park, Toronto * MH in the 50s

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Steampunk Joker


The new Joker looks surprisingly like this artifact of the last century. This comedic entertainer certainly looks a bit past his prime — although, he could just be worn out from his show. The makeup is smeared and worn off, and if you look really close you’ll see a cigarette in his fingers. This was purchased from a travelling dealer here in Fargo, so I don’t know where the funnyman is from. The hobo is usually an American style, so I doubt he’s from abroad. Hopefully he stuck to clowning, and didn’t run afoul of any batmen.

see also: types of clowns * 1910 review of clown memoir * steampunk batman * victorian clowns
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Fly Northwest

What’s with all the lines? If you were planning on traveling by air in 1955, this is how you’d get there. Oh, the interstate system was still a year from even being thought of, so a trip from Fargo to Billings was better taken by air. Bus lines did exist, but, well, the busses of the time weren’t much better than the yellow box kids ride to school in. That left rail, while more luxurious, was less flexible in destination. So, if you had the scratch, you could fly from Fargo to Jamestown on Northwest Airlines, something that takes a little over an hour at freeway speeds today, over long, straight Eisenhower-endorsed concrete.

see also: Stewardess uniforms * Pacific Northwest Airlines * planes of the 50s * Fargo’s Hector Airport

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Scenic California

I know I’ve been picking on North Dakota for its scenic vastness, but is this so much better? Back in the 1960s, California was so proud of its freeway system that — like Arizona with its Grand Canyon, South Dakota with its Mount Rushmore, New York with its Niagara Falls — they released a set of collectible slides documenting the Los Angeles Freeway System. MARVEL at the expanses of concrete and pavement! SMELL the pollution wafting up from the vehicles! CRINGE IN TERROR at how close those two cars are in the third lane from the left! Oh, I kid — unlike where I live, you can actually see some hills off towards the horizon. Between here and there, however, is a concrete jungle. I still prefer here.

see also: pre-freeway map * California highways * more photos * just newer cars today * house stranded on CA highway

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Party at the Pfister, 1960

The Pfister Hotel was a happening place in 1960; at least for the employees. The wifey bought a set of slides taken by employees of the Pfister barber shop at social gatherings held in the hotel through the late 1950s and 1960. I’ve scanned all of the Pfister-related photos — they’re collected here.

see also: The Pfister Hotel (also) * Desegregation in Wisconsin * WI hotels via Lileks

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Lark movie theatre ad, 1970s.

The Lark occupies the corner of Roberts Street and 1st Avenue in Fargo, one of the strange on-stilts buildings in Fargo designed to maximise parking space. The last time I was in the Lark was the Cinema Grill auction. The building had been vacant through the 1980s, but in the 90s a company reopened it as a dinner-movie-theatre. I’d seen one movie there, but that was it — the films appeared to be VHS projections, as opposed to actual film, and the lights were up enough so you could read menus, which made the screen harder to see. The food-film experiment ended in the late 90s, and a Christian church of odd repute (when I was at the auction, the church’s leader spent some time telling me how 9/11 was predicted in Scripture) held services in it, and I believe is still occupying the building. There had been rumours of that block being razed to build a sports arena — a very bad idea in my mind — but that’s my guess as to why the Lark is still there., waiting for a developer to come along. The ad was from a Binford Guide.