Daniel T. Ames

From Ames' Guide to Self-Instruction in Practical and Artistic Penmanship, 1884. There is no biography of Ames on wikipedia!

Pantages Theatre Lights

Pantages Theatre Lights, originally uploaded by disneymike.

This gives a small glimpse of the grandeur of this former deco movie palace.

Age

This angelic, Botticellian person turned into someone who looks 110. This is a flattering photo of him. But so what - Bob Dylan is the greatest.

Bottom photo is AP, Bob Dylan at Jazz Fest 2006 in New Orleans.

Halloween is coming

Witch, originally uploaded by yerffej9.

The Snow White ride at Disneyland. Photo from flickr.

Footlight Parade

A Busby Berkeley extravaganza from the entertaining movie, Footlight Parade, with James Cagney.

Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley, originally uploaded by vidalia_11.

From Wikipedia:
(August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) b. Phoebe Ann Mosey was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley's amazing talent and luck led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar. Using a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet (27 m), Oakley could split a playing card edge-on and put five or six more holes in it before it touched the ground.
...
She also engaged in extensive, albeit quiet, philanthropy for women's rights and other causes, including the support of specific young women that she knew...After her death on Nov. 3, 1926 at age 66, it was discovered that her entire fortune had been spent on her charities.

100 years ago

This fantastic site, http://www.shorpy.com/, has vintage photos of the USA early this century. The images are hi-res and perfect quality. It also lists the photographer and/or collection the photo is from. This one is called "Fifth Avenue Sunday", ca. 1913.

Dragon Gorge, Ocean Park

I'm not sure if this is an amusement park pre-dating POP in Santa Monica. This postcard was from the LAPL photo collection. Whatever it is, it's pretty impressive.

Harry Houdini

I don't know much about Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss) but he's in the news today. His grand-nephew wants to exhume his body from its tomb in Queens to see if he was poisoned by spiritualist enemies in 1926. He spent a lot of time debunking the spiritualists and they hated him.

Beverly Park Kiddieland

I used to visit this amusement park as a child. It's now the Beverly Center.

This description is from a site about rollercoasters: http://www.rcdb.com/ph1093.htm

The following list of attractions is thanks to Abraham M. Rudy who visited the park countless times from the late 1950s to the closing of the park.

* Train - that more or less circled a portion of the Park (individual "locomotive" type yellow and black cars that sat 2 to 3). The train ride had a "pay off" (a short and mild roller coaster-ish type ending that had you nearly running down a mannequin dressed as a engineer that swung out of harms way at the last minute).
* Autopia - Mini cars in bright colors that took a winding course around a portion of the Park but without any real control.
* Carousel - Parker Carousel #316.
* Boat ride - A very narrow boat ride that wound through a simple FantasyLand that was available for birthday parties. The area remained open for Birthdays through park's closing, but the boat ride ceased operating some years before.
* Pony Rides - A stable of sorts was West of the Park, same side of the street, sharing the parking lot to the West, around where the Hard Rock Café is today. The Pony Rides (nearly identical to those offered at the Griffith Park pony rides today) were open on the weekends, offered fast, medium and slow horses that would do two laps around a track of sorts (white wooden fences separated the concentric circles of track . . . innermost for slow, middle for medium, and the outside track for the fast horses). They gave you a short whip or crop for fast. (Editor's note: Ponyland was adjacent to Beverly Park, but was not owned by David Bradley.)
* Ferris Wheel - There was a Ferris Wheel right next to the ticket booth, with its back to LaCienega and circling E to W or W to E (depending on the direction). The cars was not enclosed, a simple bench seat with a rail in front of you.
* Fun House - A "Fun House" (mobile as opposed to walk through .. . 2 riders in a car, side by side) that came with it's own legend (or urban legend) -- this may actually have been confirmed -- about a famous dead body being used as one of the props. The old Long Beach Pike fun house may share this story . . . I'm no sure which, if any, is actually the proud owner of the corpse.
* Carousel - A small kiddie carousel with roundish fishes that 1 or 2 very small children could sit in. I don't recall if the fish went up and down or simply around.
* Food - A Hot Dog stand and the best roasted peanuts in red and white stripped I can ever recall tasting. Popcorn and cotton candy.
* Goldfish - At one time, goldfish in the little cement canal that carried the small boat. Whether for the taking or not, they were often taken.
* Grounds - The ground of the Park and of the parking lot was made up of gravel atop earth. Always clean, always raked, always light gray to off-white. And a chain link fence surrounding.

To see the entire pictured article: http://whimsicalwill.tripod.com/BeverlyPark1.html/

Electric Fountain, Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills

When I was a kid, we drove past this fountain on the way home from my aunt's. At night the water lights up with different colors. I loved the Indian statue at the top. This fountain is still there.

Tonga Room in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco

I've been to this bar which looks exactly the same today, at least I hope it does. This comes from a faboo site with vintage postcards of California.
http://www.alamedainfo.com

Chrysler building

Bottom: Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. The Mount Everest of Manhattan: The Silvered Peak of the Chrysler Building. 1930. Gelatin silver print, 8 3/4 x 6 13/16" (22.3 x 17.3 cm). The New York Times Collection. http://moma.org

Top: Probably a famous photograph, I don't have the credits.

This building is a concrete manifestation of fantasy. Does it represent the power and masculinity of modern USA in the 1920s? I don't know. It's amazing that such an art deco masterpiece got made and is still there.
http://moma.org

Submarine Lagoon

submarine lagoon, originally uploaded by boogah.

It was a blast from the past to see this on flickr. I used to go on this ride and thought it was really under the ocean!

Retro design site

Raybelle Linoleum, Surfray No. 80, Armstrong Cork, 1954
http://www.plan59.com

Rockin

Just rediscovered this artist - "Let's go, let's go, let's go" (aka There's a Thrill on Hill), "Finger-Popping Time", "The Switcheroo", "Work With Me Annie."

Dick Tracy

There was an article about surreal 1930s comic strips...where was it? I have to find it.

The Age of Innocence

ntf
Originally uploaded by vidalia_11.

I'm listening to this as an audiobook read by Brenda Dayne. It is a wonderful book by Edith Wharton. Beautifully written, sad, moving, emotional. Highly recommended. The movie is also excellent.

This audiobook is available as a podcast and on this website: http://brendadayne.blogspot.com/.

Theater Poster (c. 1894)

Image at NYPL Digital Gallery.

Berenice Abbott (II)

Abbott took this eerie photo of a Victorian mansion, probably about to be demolished. Wheelock Mansion, 661 West 158th Street, Manhattan (1937). At the NYPL Digital Gallery.