Las Vegas in Kodachrome c.1962
The guys at Devour just posted this great video of what I’m guessing is 16mm Kodachrome home movies from a group of Chicago Police officers and their wives while they visit Las Vegas in the early 1960s. The opening sequence takes place in a bus with long curved plexiglass windows (which makes for easy viewing of the Nevada / Arizona country) and is perfectly clear and in focus — incredible stuff. The quality of these home movies are pretty astonishing when you consider the era and equipment. Brings to mind the footage of VJ Day that we posted back this past August and the amazing Malibu home videos from 1965. Really interesting to see what Vegas was like in those days and how it has changed.
The Enterprising Mr. Bean, 1941
“More heady than love, ladies or liquor is the sporting-goods catalog of L. L. Bean, outfitter extraordinary to men who live so they may hunt and fish,” read Life magazine’s encomium to the entrepreneurial outdoorsman in October of 1941. From modest beginnings in 1911, sales at Leon Leonwood Bean’s Freeport mail order business had surpassed the $1 million mark by 1937. Life showcased a number of innovative items from the Bean catalog, beginning with the famous Maine Hunting Shoe, created when Bean had a seamstress sew elk hide leggings onto a pair of old rubbers to keep his feet warm and dry while duck hunting.
The Exit 70 Flea
With my apartment positioned squarely within a Zone A of New York’s hurricane evacuation area, I decided to head to Ohio for the weekend to visit my folks and avoid all of the kerfuffle in the city. I got up early on Saturday, grabbed my car and headed west on Interstate 80. I wanted to get out of the city to avoid traffic before everyone was up and about, which meant that I got a quick start and made great time across the state of Pennsylvania. Around exit 70 I saw a sign for a flea market (a diversion that I have been able to successfully ignore on many previous occasions) but being as this was an unplanned trip and I had time on my side, I decided to peek in and see what this place had to offer.
To my surprise, the flea market had a good selection and was situated next to one of the best looking painted barns I have ever seen. There weren’t any crowds or obnoxious yuppies (not counting me anyway) and no food trucks serving lobster rolls — just a bunch of old stuff to peruse. The exit 70 flea is made up of four long stalls each staffed by an old timer that would happily accept conversation over a sale, a transaction I was happy to provide after five hours on I-80.
In the end I did pick up a few small items — resisting the two great lanterns below – took a few snaps of the barn and was on my way a happy man. If you ever find your self running from a massively over-hyped piece of weather and end up near exit 70 on I-80 in Pennsylvania (on a Saturday or Sunday in the spring, summer or fall), stop and check out that old barn and the flea. You won’t be disappointed.
The Great Outdoors | Yakima Ridge Runners
The Yakima Ridge Runners off-road club was not afraid to have a good time driving-hard through the rugged lands of Washington State.
Filmed in the late 1940s or 1950s, these two amazing videos feature all kinds of fun with Willys CJs over all types of terrain. The films represent a look into life of another time — a free spirited American adventure. The old school clothing (which includes gratuitous amounts of khaki and wool plaid jackets), camping and of course off-roading is all incredible to see. In between the log jumping, river crossing and winching I noticed a few signs from Snoqualmie National Forest. Probably safe to say that the current stewards of our National Parks would frown upon this type of activity today.
Selling America
These commercials have been floating around in my head for a while and for whatever reason today I felt compelled to get them all down here together in my little corner of the internet. While there is no arguing that many will find these stimulating in one way or another, I have to think this post will spawn a massive flame war in the comments. But I’m not going to let that stop me from sharing. Actually, I’m interested in hearing what you all think about all of this.
One thing’s for certain, there’s a darkness that runs through these videos (with the exception of the Dodge Freedom spot), a gritty, almost, reassuring quality in these. It’s a provocative bit of salesmanship all the way around, if you ask me. All that aside, even with a shaky economy, there seems to have never been a better time to be a man working in the world of advertising voice-over.
Journeymen Tailors’ Union Handbook
This old book from 1916 stood out to me when I first found it because it relates to the custom tailors union from the early 1900s. Another factor in my intrigue was the fact that the tailor that this book belonged to spent a good amount of time in my hometown — a city with a long history in tailored clothing that is now almost completely gone. I was also drawn to this old union booklet because it is a window into the world of American clothing manufacturing labor at the time. Interesting to see this man traveled from Cleveland to the South and then eventually back to Cleveland, working and paying dues along the way. Maybe he moved around to follow the work? I’m not totally sure.
This is the kind of ephemera that I love to find and collect — it is like a window into the past. These days you see the union label (pictured on the middle page below) on all sorts of garments (made domestically and otherwise), but I bet a lot of people don’t realize it was (and still is) real.
Memorial Day & the Story of the Higgins Boat
Andrew Higgins as photographed by Charles Steinheimer for LIFE 1942
The federal holiday Memorial Day began in 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina by formerly enslaved Africans to honor the dead soldiers of the Union army. Eventually the holiday was expanded and today Memorial Day honors all Americans that currently serve, have served, and of course, those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
Being someone who has a keen interest in the WWII conflict (especially enjoying the work of historian Stephen E. Ambrose) I think it fitting on this day to highlight Andrew Higgins, a person of great service to America (and intrigue to me) as the inventor and builder of the Higgins Boat. The landing craft that somewhat famously became synonymous with the industrious man who created it, saw action in every theater in which Americans fought and dramatically altered the outcome of World War II.
Andrew Higgins as photographed by Charles Steinheimer for LIFE 1942
An Afternoon with Mr. Demuth
It wasn’t until later in his career that Lancaster, Pennsylvania born artist Charles Demuth began painting in watercolor. The American produced a swath or beautiful industrial works in the style of Precisionism, a technique he helped create. I spent the afternoon at the Whitney Museum yesterday with Hopper, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz & Mr. Demuth and figured a few of his works would look nice on the walls around here. I’ve never seen a grain elevator look so good.
Archival Calendars
During the 1930s the U.S. Government commissioned a huge photography project to document the Great Depression and in doing so created some of the most iconic and enduring images of American life. I really fell in love with a set of photos of the White Motor Company from my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio and I thought it would be cool to make my own personalized calendar from the images. Lucky for me the files are available in high enough resolution to print a normal size calendar through the Apple printing service. I selected about 14 of my favorite pictures (which seem to be copyright free, at least for this clearly non-commercial use) laid everything out in iPhoto and submitted the job straight through to Apple. About two weeks and $28 later I was in business.
More information about the photographs from the Library of Congress:
The black-and-white photographs of the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection are a landmark in the history of documentary photography. The images show Americans at home, at work, and at play, with an emphasis on rural and small-town life and the adverse effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and increasing farm mechanization. Some of the most famous images portray people who were displaced from farms and migrated West or to industrial cities in search of work. In its latter years, the project documented America’s mobilization for World War II. The collection includes about 164,000 black-and-white negatives; this release provides access to over 160,000 of these images. The FSA-OWI photographers also produced about 1600 color photographs.
The White Motor Company calendar was a nice way to celebrate some of these amazing and iconic images, not to mention my own hometown’s wartime industrial strength. I’m already thinking of a railroad worker themed 2011. [Additionally, do like me and be sure to thank the LOC for the personal pleasure (and totally non-commercial use) of their photos. Donate online here.]
Here’s a better look at the gent in the above image.
Pure Americana from the Rural South
Athens, Georgia based photographer Evan Leavitt has become a bit of a Flickr superstar through his documentation of the rural South. Leavitt’s photos incorporate a post production texturing effect to make them appear somewhere in-between a photo and a painting. In some instances it gets slightly too HDRish for me, an effect I’m not particularly fond of, but more often than not the photos turn out to be wonderful moments in a weathered and seemingly forgotten land. Somebody get Jen Bekman on the phone and get this guy on 20×200. I’d buy about 100 of these as photos if I could. The good news is, Evan is prolific with his art and continues to share through his photostream. Which means I continue to enjoy my daily trips to the rural South.
Friendship Baptist Church Estab. 1831 Wilkes County, GA
Barrow County, GA
Open for Business | Jeffrey’s Grocery
One day out of the blue I got an email from Gabriel Stulman — the guy behind a few of New York’s smallest and most loved restaurants (Joseph Leonard, et. al.) — inviting me to lunch sometime. If you have ever been to Joseph Leonard you will understand Gabriel and I share an aesthetic, something that was further established for me the first time we met. That was about a year ago and it was near the beginning of the process of planning Gabriel’s newest spot, Jeffery’s Grocery. The concept is oyster bar meets local grocery meets late night drinks-and-a-sandwich. destination. Eventually, our shared appreciation for vintage American aesthetics led to a series of discussions and meetings over the next several months where Gabriel and I would meet to talk about the look and feel for Jeffrey’s. We discussed everything from the colors of the wood that made up the bar, to the beadboard, the employee uniforms (which are from Levi’s, Gitman Bros. Vintage, Kenton Sorenson Leather, Stanley & Sons and The Hill-Side; more on that here soon) and all of the little design details and layout that goes into making a place unique. I’d even see Gabriel and his fiancé Gina up at Brimfield with all sorts of cool old stuff that was destined for Jeffrey’s. It was obvious early on that Jeffrey’s was going to me my type of place.
