Movie Stars from WWII: Part 2

Her fur coat and outfit helped point me in the right dircetion

This is a follow up to an earlier post, which I’ll be referring to with the assumption that you’ve read it. If you haven’t, go here to get caught up. Then come on back for the surprising conclusion!

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    After David (of The Errol Flynn Blog) confirmed that it was indeed Flynn, Martha O’Driscoll and Olivia De Havilland in the photos I sent to him, it was time to figure out where the pictures had been taken. In addition to those names, I also took clues from the land in the pictures. It was rocky, barren and coastal. And by looking at the heavy, fur coat Ms. De Havilland is wearing in her photo, it’s clear that it was also a cold place.

These four look dressed for cold weather as well

    My guess was somewhere in Alaska since it fit the physical description and I knew there were bases there during the war. So I searched for “Errol Flynn Martha O’Driscoll Alaska” and was happy to discover that the two had visited Dutch Harbor, Alaska on December 4^th, 1943. 

Is this a Death Portrait?

  Something I always keep an eye out for when searching for old photographs are postmortem portraits. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept; back in the day if somebody died and the family didn't have any pictures of them, they would simply pose their deceased relative for a photo before burying them. Sometimes it would just be the dead person in the photo, sometimes the family would pose with them. But, no matter what, it was all really damn creepy. (Which, of course, makes it super cool.)

  I came across the above photo about a month ago and feel pretty sure that it's a death portrait. Look at her lifeless stare - out and above the camera with eyes that didn't move during the exposure. If this girl had been living, there would have been at least a little movement of her eyes and they wouldn't be so sharp in the photo.
  However a couple of my friends, to whom I have shown the photograph, disagree. They say that the girl was probably alive for the photo and that I'm willing myself to see it as a postmortem portrait because that's what I want it to be. But I just don't know about that.

  Please tell me what you think - Am I correct to think this is a death portrait? Or are my friends right when they say I'm just seeing what I want to see? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Ferdinand the Beach Bull

  Did a little digging and came up with this. It would seem our grandparents' generation was easily amused...

   "Ferdinand the Bull" was first published in 1938. Munro Leaf's story of the bull that preferred sniffing flowers in the shade of a cork tree to bashing heads with his buddies in the field became an instant classic.
   Perhaps to capitalize on the book, or maybe just because it seemed like a good idea at the time, in the 1940s, Ralph "Tex" Masden- a retired movie star appearing in such gems as "The Mighty Barnum" in 1934 and "Mama's Little Pirate" in 1934- brought a live bull to Daytona Beach.
   For 25 cents, tourists could climb up the wooden stepstool onto the beast's broad back and have a souvenir photo taken, guns a-blazin' (cowboy hat optional.)
Soon other critters horned in on the bull's business. By the 1950s, folks could choose between Ferdinand, a stuffed tiger, a stuffed bear reared up on its hind legs or a live donkey named Pedro - complete with sign asking, "Can you tell which is the real jackass?"

 Link

Movie Stars from WWII

  At Gas Lamp I found a Ziploc bag full of photos with a note saying they were a soldier’s entire private photo collection from World War Two. Needless to say, I was excited about the potential story the photos contained. This guy could have literally served anywhere in the world, faced any number of dangers, fought in one of the many famous encounters from the war. That almost limitless possibility is exactly why I’m drawn to old photographs. Each one is its own historical rabbit hole. They dictate the terms of the adventure, all I have to do is find and learn about them. It’s basically brain TV and I really wanted to watch this show…

Calling All French Speakers

Mr. Mustache

     Today I'm looking for help. 

     As you may recall, I received a REALLY cool old French photo album from my sister for Christmas and have begun trying to locate it's original owners. At the front of the album are a handful of loose photos that have managed to stay with it all this time. (The man above with the ridiculously awesome mustache, for example.) And many of those images have hand-written notes on them.

Back of the Mr. Mustache photo

     Unfortunately, I've shown these notes to a couple of French speakers that I know and they've only been able to make out individual words or phrases. Their basic response has been something along the lines of "this handwriting is so old school that I can't understand all of it."

IDing a WWII Ship

     Longtime readers of this brand new blog will recall that I once promised a post about a World War II U.S. Navy submarine chaser. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) I was sidetracked by my encounter with Bill, then by an old photo album I received for Christmas. But today I hope to begin to right that long forgotten wrong.

     I'm still researching the history of the ship in this image (which I bought for $1 at a store called Cool Stuff Weird Things). But in order to get to that point, I had to first figure out the class (type) of ship using only the clues available in the image. Clearly the number "1277" jumps out as a potential lead, so that's where I decided to start my search...

Challenge Accepted

Page from the French photo album I received for Christmas

    This is an old photo album, which my sister gave me for Christmas this year. She purchased the album at a flea market in Paris about 8-10 years ago. And I received it as a present exactly one week to the day after I returned Bill's photos and medals to him. At the time she gave it to me she said, "There's no way you'll be able to find the former owner of these." (Or something to that effect.) So of course, that's exactly what I intend to do.
    Seeing as it took me nearly two years to find Bill, this may take some time. But, nonetheless, the game is afoot yet again!

The outer cover of the album

    My plan is to dive into researching these photos this afternoon. But I thought it might be helpful to post some preliminary images here. Please let me know if anything jumps out at you about this album. I don't speak French, so I'm at an even bigger disadvantage with this than I was when I started with the cigar box. Any hints or thoughts anyone might be able to provide will go a long way towards helping me with this project. Please feel free to leave your ideas and/or observations in the comments section. Thanks!

Meeting Bill

The Shell in the distance on Highway 31

12.18.12
     I met Bill at a Shell station on Highway 31 and Epperson Springs Rd. in Westmoreland, TN. The trip from my house in Nashville took a little over an hour. Northeast into the Tennessee countryside; it was a great drive for a sunny winter day.
    When I pulled into the Shell, he was waiting for me, standing next to his buddy's white GMC pickup. I could tell he was excited because Bill made a beeline for my car. I, too, was excited but also a little bit nervous...