CSP 024 – Frames & Fragments - Mid-Century American Photos
Discovering Mid-Century America Through Found Family Photos
Hey Creative Souls,
I hope you are safe and well. Over the last few years I’ve been digitising a lot of old photos from slides found in an old box of my parents. It was time consuming, yet somewhat mesmerising. The process itself was calming but also the photos bring back memories — and are snapshots of a time that has been lived.
Amongst some of my Dad’s photos were also some from my Grandparents. They were spellbinding in that they captured some part of mid-century America. The cars, the people, the theatre!
They were also spellbinding in how colourful they were, how the negatives were blurry and clearly something is going wrong with the film / camera / processing. This lack of clarity — and perfection — is what makes these photos so interesting. Today’s modern “perfect” photos seem so drab sometimes in comparison to the gritty nature of old photos.
So, I went on a bit of an internet crawl to find out when and where these were taken.
The Hollywood Palladium - Enough clues to set the scene
It didn’t take long to find the date and time though, as this photo of the Hollywood Palladium was an instant clue!
It took a few minutes to find a photo of it online — given there are a few “Palladiums” in the US. I also know my grandparents (and I!) have relatives in San Diego, California (I’ve never been btw). So, it seemed reasonable to assume they were in Hollywood — and sure enough, this is indeed the Hollywood Palladium.
But when?
Well, this same photo also gives clues. A quick internet search for “Jerry Gray” came back with a few pages about it being the early 1960s. From the first source, I discovered that he recorded a radio show there on January 20th 1961.
Of course, he could have also done multiple other shows, in different years. Then I also discovered this source, that again, confirmed this show was recorded on this date - at this venue.
So, I did a quick search for what day of the week January 20th 1961 was — it turns out its a Friday.
As you can see from the photo, the signage says Friday and Saturday night.
It seems pretty conclusive that this photo was taken sometime around Jan 20th 1961— depending on how long that signage would have been up promoting the show before and after.
I do wonder whether my Grandparents went to this show — is this why they were taking a photo of it? And then I got pondering that idea further. If that’s the case, then the radio show recording from this performance will have my Grandparents in the audience clapping — captured in the audio. Nostalgic.
Pershing Square
I then discovered a photo of a crossing — and in the background a sign clearly says “Pershing Square”.
Given my poor knowledge of the US, I assumed that Pershing Square was also in Hollywood. Not so. It is apparently a park in downtown Los Angeles — so, still in California.
I love this photo. The cars for one thing are epic but then there’s the guy crossing the road looking cool and calm. Then there’s the two men behind — dressed very late 1950s.
Zooming in closer you can also see a number of other people, including one man in a blazer. There’s also the car parking charges — although the resolution is not good enough to pull them out clearly.
And of course, the driver of the red car - it looks like a scene from Back to the Future.
Rizzo’s Pizza - to be identified
The last photo is a puzzle though — Rizzo’s Restaurant — presumably also in Los Angeles or somewhere in California.
Internet searches bring back a few Rizzo’s restaurants, past and present. Interestingly, there is one in Walt Disney World….called PizzeRizzo.
Even adding the “King of Pizza” yielded no clarity. Although, a few internet searches for the 1950s/1960s puts the only known “King of Pizza” in New Orleans — but I suspect this photo below is still from California.
I guess someone may recognise the buildings in the background — and be able to locate this photo. Anyhow, let me know if you can locate this place.
Lacking Context
So, yes, it’s been great to look through these images and imagine my Grandparents touring California (Hollywood, LA, San Diego), but it was also a fun little journey decoding when and where.
I assumed from the cars that this was late 1950s — and I wasn’t far off. Amazing how easy it is now to research this stuff with the internet.
But what I really like about these photos is that the context is missing — as in, there’s no narrative, no explanation of why my Granddad took these photos. I don’t know what he found interesting and why he took the photo — nor what memory he was trying to capture. I get to fill in these blanks and use my own imagination.
There’s typically two ways to “read” a photograph:
Realism — the actual content of the photo; trees, theatre, cars, people
Conventionalism — this is about interpreting the story, meaning, and narrative behind the image
That’s what I like about trawling through old photos like this — I get to use my own knowledge, emotions, creativity, imagination and thinking to create the story, the meaning and the narrative.
This is why I like photography so much — there’s so much you can say with a photo — and there’s so much you can leave out, letting the viewer make up their own mind about it.
I’m surely not the only one who likes to imagine a time in the past — and what was going through the minds of the people who took the photos.
Thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed this edition of CSP, feel free to share it with others.
Until next time
Cheers
Rob..
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