Category: True Stories

Photo Restoration

The story behind the picture: Someone posted restored photos on r/interestingasfuck and I made a comment that received no replies or likes, but despite that photo restoration artist u/LadyAkane reached out to me via DM and offered their help.

My comment: “My uncle died way back in 1937, 2 years before my dad was born. He was only 5 years old and my grandparents went through hell all around that time—they lost him to polio, then lost their home and most of their belongings to the Ohio River flood.

Only one photo of him survived—one of him with my grandmother just weeks before he fell ill. [I realized when I took the photo out this was wrong since he’s too young in the pic. I was mixing up illnesses—my grandmother contracted TB shortly after this pic and would spend the next few years in a sanitarium.] We found while going through my dad’s things after he died, but it got put in a back jeans pocket then in the chaos of the time went through the washing machine. It made us all sick to see it so faded.

That little pic has been stashed inside my jewelry box ever since, hoping to find a way to restore it (and for technology to advance to where it could be successfully done) over the last 13+ years.”

[Found here.]

Fred G. Johnson’s Contributions To The World: Sideshow Banners

The Picasso of circus art.

Fred G. Johnson’s (1892 – 1990) banners were used to illustrate A Century of Progress for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair His artwork also advertised the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey and Clyde Beatty circuses.

Hired by banner painter Harry Carlton Cummins to clean equipment and stick up banners, Cummins taught Johnson how to paint them, which he did, producing as many as four a day. The art is fast, subjective and made to deadline.

Not to be confused with the great Fred Johnson, bass singer for The Marcels.

[Images and story found here, via here. ]

Sixth Avenue Between 43rd and 44th Streets, New York, 1948

Todd Webb composed Sixth Avenue Between 43rd and 44th Streets, New York, 1948 from eight separate images. It depicts the west side of Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and 44th Streets, taken on the afternoon of March 24, 1948. Realizing he had to work fast to retain the same light, Webb plotted the shoot beforehand, lining up the edges of each photo with chalk marks on the sidewalk. The image was exhibited at the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair, and he became internationally recognized as the “historian with a camera.”

“Where am I off to? Gonna check out a record store on 6th. I’ll be back in  a few. Weeks.”

What a treat for the earballs. Imagine what the people of 1948 considered oldies.

[Record store photo found here. Panorama (with caption) and others from here thanks to a Tineye search.]

A Never Completed Film: The House at the Last Lantern

The House at the Last Lantern

“Doing some research, I happened to come across a rare cache of stills from a never completed film by Hans Richter [1888-1976] which is possibly the only example of an actual dadaist horror film. It seems the film was a parody of sorts of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, but is ostensibly a tale of the life of Gustav Meyrink. The title of the film was to be ‘The House at the Last Lantern’.” – Lanny Quarles

Date of the movie stills unknown, possibly late 1920s. More images with story here.

[Via this isn’t happiness.]

Random Mug Shots Arkansas State Prison 1915-1935

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[Found here, via Hanuman.]

My WebEx Meeting Notes 13 April – 26 July 2022

9AM daily. Pen on paper, 8-1/2 x 11, approx. 2 square inches per day.

Elephractals

SHANGHAI, June 8 2021 (Reuters) – A roaming herd of 15 wild elephants is on the move again after resting for a day in a patch of forest on the outskirts of the city of Kunming in southwest China, resuming a year-long, 500-kilometre trek that has captured the public’s imagination.

Drone photographs taken on Monday by the provincial forest fire brigade showed members of the herd sleeping in a clearing in the middle of a forest in the district of Jinning, which has been hit by heavy rain and thunderstorms.

[Found here, story with video here.]

James A. Williams’ Contribution To The World: Automatic Varmint Killer & Burglar Alarm

[h/t L. Dez D.]

The Electrical Wonders of 1919

Electrical Experimenter, December 1919 issue.

1.  Electric Vase Light Attachment [turns a collectable into a lamp]
2.  Dishwashing Machine
3.  Rug Washer
4.  Vacuum Cleaner

5.  Electric Cooking Utensils [coffee pot, blender, etc.]
6.  Electric Stove [radiant heater]
7.  Electric Washing Machine & Motor Driven Wringer
8.  Electric Light Bath [tanning bed]

9.  Dental X-Ray
10. Radio Direction Finder
11. Electric Dairy [milking machine]
12. Coin Slot Sales Machine [vending machine]

13.  Electric Siren
14. Cloth Cutting Machine
15. Wireless Telephone
16. Electric Trucks

 

Meet Krystal

An example of good workplace presentation.

A 1960s Krystal fast food training film included instructions such as:

– Keep your teeth clean and white. Anybody can have a pretty smile.
– Naturally, you don’t want to get too familiar with the customers, just be really pleasant and friendly. Let your personality show through.
– The customers aren’t interested in your private jokes. That kind of horseplay just won’t go.
– Keep your fingers off the food and don’t put the butter on top of the waffle.

[Found here. Unfortunately there’s no link to the video.]