Graffiti on a secluded stairway in Catalina, Arizona

To change world takes one random act of kindness

Be kind!

Postcard from my great-grandfather to my grandmother*

*I think

This postcard was mailed from Hotel Ruiz Galindo in Fortín de las Flores, Veracruz, Mexico, to Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City, Utah, sometime in the early to mid 1940s. (The six-cent Mexican stamp used was issued in 1940.)

The card was mailed to Mrs. J.G. Ingham. That would be my grandmother, Helen Chandler Adams Ingham (1919-2003), who worked at the hospital during World War II. She was married at the time to Jack G. Ingham. 

I'm pretty sure that the short note ("This is a gorgeous place. Expect to return home shortly.") was written by my great-grandfather, Howard Horsey Adams (1892-1985), who signed as "Poppa." But I'm not 100% on that. 

One of these days I need to see what I can find out about Jack Ingham. He and my grandmother had divorced by the early 1950s. I have a fair number of photos of him, but not much in the way of biographical information, and he was never discussed much when I was a child. 

Setsuko Hara's sketch of Toshiro Mifune in "Tokyo Sweetheart"

I finally came across the perfect companion to the 2021 post Hideko Takamine caricature from "Kita no san-nin." Maybe I'll start a subcategory of drawings shown in mid-century Japanese dramas.

In the 1952 film Tokyo Sweetheart, directed by Yasuki Chiba, actress Setsuko Hara portrays Yuki, a street sketch artist who has a meet-cute with Kurokawa, a good-hearted man portrayed by Toshiro Mifune. Yuki does the sketch of Kurokawa that's shown above. It's a pretty good sketch, though it only gets about three seconds of screen time; some artist definitely did their job well behind the scenes.

Tokyo Sweetheart is a fun film overall. It's full of misunderstandings, machinations and switcheroos, mostly involving a valuable ring and its less valuable replica. It's not all screwball comedy, though. This is devastated post-war Japan, so there are money troubles, the reemergence of the Yakuza (though they're comically portrayed) and a storyline involving a dying sex worker who wants only to reunite with her mother.

The scenes involving Hara and Mifune are the most enjoyable. They didn't appear in many movies together and this might be the film in which they have the most shared screen time. (I haven't seen Kurosawa's The Idiot, though.) It's fun to imagine an alternate timeline in which Hara and Mifune co-starred in a series of Thin Man-like films, or had their own Bogart-Bacall or Grant-Hepburn energy. 

A review of Tokyo Sweetheart on Japanonfilm notes: "Neither Hara nor Mifune were known for romantic comedies, so the arrival of this is a welcome extension of our understanding of both those stars. ... One extra layer of interest is the way it adapts the tried and true romantic comedy formula of western film into the context of Japanese society." 

Here are a few more images from the sketching scene in Tokyo Sweetheart:

Find someone who looks at you

the way Setsuko Hara looks at Toshire Mifune here.

Mifune does not enjoy behind laughed at.

And there are a few more images here.

Thursday shelfies

BONUS (Snugs, looking a bit evil, a few days ago)

Old ad for "The Black Cat" on WBKB's Shock Theatre in Chicago

This nifty old advertisement for 1934's The Black Cat popped up in one of my Facebook groups. Channel 7 in Chicago was known as WBKB from 1953 to 1968. Its "Shock Theatre" was one of many such shows that launched around the nation when Universal sold its syndication package of 52 classic horror films — called Shock! — to local television stations in 1957 (through Screen Gems). 

Thus was spawned the phenomenon of local TV horror hosts. WBKB's version ran from 1957 to 1959 and featured Marvin, his companion Dear and hunchback Orville, along with a band called the Deadbeats. Dear's face was never seen until the final episode, according to Wikipedia. "Shock Theatre" was remembered fondly by one commenter in IMDb.com in 2014:

"For early television played late at night, this show was the best. The goofy music and the scary things on the show scared a little kid like me half to death but I loved it. Especially Marvin's humor. The movies were old time horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein, etc. I wish I could get some of the episodes. I don't know if WBKB in Chicago kept any of them or not. Any show named Shock Theater in any other town just copied what was already done in Chicago. Marvin even took some of the show on the road to local ballparks like Comiskey. His band was great also. It even had a guy playing accordion in the band. I would love to see episodes of Shock Theater, even online somewhere."

Here are a couple stills from The Black Cat, including Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff playing chess, and Karloff leading a pre-Code satanic ritual in a German Expressionist setting.

From the readers: Toys of yesteryear, Earle Cook Jr. and liminal spaces

It's ridiculously already 100 degrees outside, so it's a good day to try to type up a post while Bandit sleeps between my arms and Mommy Orange gives my right arm a bath. Here are some reader comments that have come in since early February:

Can we have a national discussion about this vintage toy advertisement? Anonymous writes: "The floor is lava. This is why the guy needs rescuing by a lift cage. Big Josh has pecs. But so did my Big Jim's roommate, GI Joe, with a taped-on leg. He was a Vietnam vet, but still highly deadly and capable."

Never underestimate the capabilities of an action figure and an awesome imagination.

A long-gone motor inn, longer-gone ancestors and a sketch: Anonymous writes: "I remember [Framingham Motor Inn in Framingham, Massachusetts] fondly. My now hubby of 50+ years and I had our 1st upscale date there."

Book cover: "The Second Hammer Horror Film Omnibus" (1967): Anonymous writes: "Five shillings was a pretty high price for a paperback in the UK in 1967. You could buy new paperbacks for 2/6, half that price. Probably first publication, royalties to Hammer and film script-writers, and Burke's own fees helped put the price up."

Thanks for the insight! 

Old postcard: "The World's Most Famous Chicken Dish": Anonymous writes: "My family dined frequently at MD's Chicken in the Rough in New Market, Virginia. As a child, the warm rolls and honey were my favorite. The chicken platters were generous and mounded high with shoestring potatoes. I believe MD's burned in the early 1980s. It is sorely missed!!"

Thank you for sharing that memory, and I'm very sorry to hear about the restaurant's fate.

Unfortunate apparel of 1980: The official Star Trek duty jacket: Anonymous writes: "I still have the LED jacket. The silver is flaking off but the LEDs still work."

Realms of the uncanny: Dreamcore, backrooms & liminal spaces: Anonymous writes: "Hmmm, it seems like this dreamcore and liminal space isn't ... imaginal enough. But I appreciate the pictures you already have. Keep doing what you're doing!!!"

Thanks! I'll have to wrangle up another post of my photos this summer.

Luckyday buttons — the talk of the town: Two replies on this 2015 post!

Anonymous #1 writes: "I have a half a card with a red head in a yellow sun hat and red ribbon around it. They must have been known for putting different models on the cards!"

And Anonymous #2 writes: "I have a 2.5" x 3.75" card with 3 of 6 remaining white baby buttons 1/4-inch wide, states size 12. Baby sitting in left upper corner wearing a blue hooded cape over white dress, shoes and socks. Card color is pale pink. Price imprinted in right lower corner is 5 cents."

A postcard of Earle W. Cook's house, for some reason: Anonymous writes: "Earle W. Cook Sr., the senator, was my great uncle. My grandmother had this postcard and I saw it in the mid 1960s. This house was torn down later in the 1960s to make way for the construction of Interstate 40 through Kingman, Arizona. Earle Cook Jr. died May 12, 1981, in northern California. The family, including me, to this day still believe Earle Jr. was innocent."

I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment and for providing these additional details. It's was certainly a strange, strange case, involving a bomb on a jetliner.

1938 holiday postcard from Leinhardt Bros. of York: Anonymous writes: "I have a dresser made by Thomasville Chair Company in NC (the name changed in 1961 to Thomasville Furniture). The paper tag stapled on the back of this beautiful mahogany chest of 4 drawers had 'Leinhardt Bros York, Pennsylvania' typed on it. The piece was probably manufactured in the 40's. Just guessing by the style. Anyway, it ended up in Florida!"

Postcard of vanished attraction:

Ed's Ghost Town in Indiana: Beth Michael-Chasse writes: "Ed’s was an awesome place and we loved stopping there when we were kids. Dad would usually stop on our way from Shelbyville to Chrisney to visit our grandparents. Ed’s was located about halfway between the two towns, making it a great place for a break. The time or two he didn’t stop saw us crying with disappointment and in dire need of a restroom stop. My favorite things to look at were the shells and rocks, the puzzles in the toy section and of course we had to get some of their stick candy. The many signs along the road informing us we were getting closer to Ed’s were each read aloud with growing excitement. We were so ready to get out of the hot car and hunt through souvenirs and interesting odds and ends. When the interstate was finished, we never saw Ed’s again. That was such a huge disappointment for us. We sometimes talk about Ed’s and we enjoy those nostalgic trips down our memory’s lane. I wish I could go back just once more."

Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories, Beth! And thanks again to everyone who commented.

If only we knew then what we know now...

On November 3, 1990 — 34 years and 5 months ago — I was a second-year student at Penn State University, learning the ropes of journalism and calling all of my sources via landlines. 

Also on that date, the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal published this short editorial about AT&T's new SmartPhone. Looking back, it's quite the curiosity...

Peeking inside 1916's "The Overall Boys in Switzerland"

Eulalie Osgood Grover (1873-1958) was a Minnesota-born author, primarily of children's books, who was best known for the "Sunbonnet Babies" series, according to an article by Barbara White on the Winter Park (Florida) Public Library website. The "Sunbonnet Babies" books were primers designed to build younger readers' vocabulary. They were informed, in part, by Grover's travels throughout Europe.

The "Sunbonnet Babies" did not, however, originate with Grover. They started with illustrator Bertha Corbett Melcher (1872-1950), who began drawing them in 1897 and published her first book, The Sun-Bonnet Babies, in 1900. After that, the subsequent books (about eight of them) were written by Grover and illustrated by Corbett.

Due to the success of the "Sunbonnet Babies," Melcher and Grover devised a second series of primers following exploits of young boys. Thus were born "The Overall Boys." And that brings us to today's book, The Overall Boys in Switzerland, which was published in 1916 by Rand McNally. It's a gorgeous and sturdy book, well-built to withstand being passed around the schoolhouse and passed down to younger siblings. 

Of course, to get to Switzerland you must travel through other areas of Europe, and the book documents that part of the Overall Boys' trip, too. It starts along the River Rhine before they arrive in Bern ("The Bear City"). And that launches adventures with chapter titles such as "Above the Clouds," "On Mount Rigi," "Shopping in Lucerne," "Saturday Evening on Lake Lucerne," "Over and Through the Mountains," "The Herdsman's Cabin," "A Summer Blizzard," and more. They encounter the legend of the Mouse Tower, the Fountain of the Child-Eater and other grim aspects of Europe's history. This children's book is pulling very few punches. 

The whole book is fascinating, and amusing at times. Here is just a small sampling of passages:

"Look!" shouted Joe. "I see the first castle! We are sailing right up beside it. I wonder if a really, truly King and Queen are living in it."

"Of course," said Jack, "unless they have been killed and their castle turned into a prison or museum."

"Do you suppose it has a dark dungeon under it?" asked Joe. "How I should like to see a real dungeon!"

***

Suddenly somebody screamed, and then somebody else screamed. The little boats began to hurry and scurry in every direction. It looked as if all the Chinese lanterns had gone crazy. Everybody's eyes were turned toward the sky, for up there, right above them, was a fire balloon. The fire had caught in the top of the balloon, and it was all ablaze. Now this blazing balloon was falling straight down, down, down, toward the little boats on the lake. Of course the boats were scurrying to get out of the way, and of course the people screamed. Each thought that the burning balloon would surely fall right into his boat, but it did not. It fell hissing and sputtering into the dark waters, right where the boats had been only a few moments before.

***

The boys bought a number of things to take back to America with them, and they bought a dozen or more post cards to send to their friends. The very prettiest of these cards were sent to their own little brothers, Tim and Ted, and to the Sunbonnet Babies.

***

But the boys liked best the carved wood shops. Sometimes they saw boys, not much older than themselves, carving jumping-jacks and bears and queer little dwarf men out of blocks of pear wood. ... The Overall Boys coaxed their father to buy a fine carved bear to take home with them. The bear was as tall as Joe.

I'm not the only one still reading the book in modern times. A Goodreads reviewer wrote this in 2020: "Years ago my grandma had to sell her house and move to assisted living. She passed many of her children's books to me. This book belonged to my uncle when he was young. ...  I enjoyed this book and also enjoyed learning what appealed to my uncle when he was a boy. I know Switzerland is a far different country today than it was when this book was written, but this book made me want to visit the country and have my own adventures there."

Here's a gallery of some additional images from my copy of The Overall Boys in Switzerland...

And here's a rare shot of Venus (the orange cat on the right). He's the only cat in the house who won't let me pet him, unless I've come upon him when he's sleepy and cornered. He's sitting here with his cousin Dusty.