From the monthly archives:

September 2009

Spooky Comics

September 30, 2009
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In case you couldn’t fulfill your need for frights at the movie theater, comic books were there to pick up the slack. All sorts of ghastly subjects found their way to the pages of comics, many being sufficiently gruesome as to inspire the establishment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954.

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DVD Review: Monsters Crash the Pajama Party

September 29, 2009
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Monsters Crash the Pajama Party (Spook Show Spectacular) is truly the ultimate collection for those seeking to take a nostalgic trip back to Halloween as it was long ago. I should state at the outset that this disk has a polarizing effect on viewers, some singing its praises as others denounce it a snooze-fest. This [...]

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Atomic Halloween

September 28, 2009
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Halloween is about a month away, so between now and then I’ll be featuring all sorts of vintage “spooky stuff” here at Atomic Antiques. This will include old Halloween posters, postcards, photographs, and a gaggle of horror film reviews. I might even share a story that’s been passed down through my own family, a creepy [...]

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Black Hills Vacation

September 27, 2009
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The Black Hills of South Dakota became a major vacation destination with the construction of Mount Rushmore, the colossal rock carving that depicts presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Work concluded on Mount Rushmore in the early ’40s, and the area became particularly popular in the 1950s. It’s still a fabulous [...]

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Wisdom, Montana, 1942

September 26, 2009
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I don’t know much about Wisdom, Montana, except that it was, and is, small. This 1942 photograph, one of many taken in the town at that time, is a real beauty. The scan is from the Library of Congress archives, and is the only one with this level of quality. But there’s another photo that [...]

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The Sport Mart

September 26, 2009
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This is the Sport Mart at 905 F Street N.W., Washington, D.C., as seen in 1920. The man pictured is said to be Simon Oppenheimer, possibly the owner of the establishment. There are several familiar brands of sporting goods visible in the store’s display windows, including Spaulding, Converse and MacGregor.

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Film Review: The Black Scorpion (1957)

September 25, 2009
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In 1957 Willis O’Brien, the master of stop-motion effects, worked his magic on The Black Scorpion, a fun and very ’50s giant critter movie. O’Brien, whose resumé already included The Lost World, King Kong, and Mighty Joe Young, had talent that was limited only by a film’s budget, and in the case of the Black [...]

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20th Century Transportation

September 25, 2009
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This 1910 lithograph by E.S. Yates is a marvelous snapshot of the new technologies that came to define the 20th century. It’s interesting to note that while the subject is transportation, the significance of the telegraph and telephone could not be ignored and are included in a circular inset at the top-right.

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Bronson Howard’s Shenandoah

September 24, 2009
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Described as a “military comedy”, 1889’s Shenandoah was one of many popular plays written by the well-known American dramatist Bronson Howard. Howard (1842-1908) was married to a sister of the English actor Sir Charles Wyndham, and maintained residences in both New York and London, where his plays also received critical acclaim. An amazing number of [...]

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The Boys of Trenton, 1909

September 24, 2009
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This image was captured at the Arcade Bowling Alley in Trenton, New Jersey, where the boys were said to work until after midnight. The photo was taken by Lewis W. Hine on December 20, 1909.

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Brooklyn Pin Boys, 1910

September 24, 2009
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The Subway Bowling Alleys, 65 South St., Brooklyn, New York. This photograph, taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in 1910, was was one of many that illustrated the unfortunate conditions under which children worked. These kids, called “pin boys”, usually worked late every night.

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The Colorful Phones of the Bell System

September 23, 2009
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Color was all the rage in 1950s decor, and Western Electric met the demand with a rainbow of colors for their new Model 500 telephones. The 500, introduced in 1949, was a Henry Dreyfus design, and initially available only in black. The color choices were used as a marketing tool by Bell, encouraging the addition [...]

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The Little Rascals in the Silent Era

September 23, 2009
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Many of us watched the Little Rascals on television in the 1950s and 1960s, and it must be said that without that syndication I doubt that many today would remember the comedies. If TV saved the Rascals, a different fate has befallen their earlier shorts, the silents. Produced between 1922 and 1929, the Little Rascals [...]

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Saltair in 1911

September 22, 2009
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I’m always on the look-out for vintage postcards, even though I’m hardly what one would describe as a serious collector of them. True collectors want cards that are in near perfect condition, and shy away from examples that have been mailed. That’s understandable, as I’ve collected a number of different things over the years and [...]

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Tip Estes on a Farmall

September 21, 2009
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This 1937 photograph shows Tip Estes operating a Farmall near Fowler, Indiana. The tractor is an International Harvester Farmall “F-20″, a model that was first introduced in 1932. They were offered with either a narrow or wide front end, and while we can’t see the front of Tip’s machine, my money’s on the narrow configuration.

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Born Again Bull

September 21, 2009
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Yesterday, right after I finished the post about my 1917 Big Bull Instruction Book, I got in contact with David Parfitt through his website, Steel Wheels, to see if he knew of someone that might be interested in the manual. I heard from David right away, and he did indeed know of someone that owned [...]

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Saltair Postcards

September 21, 2009
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I’ve been acquiring Saltair postcards for a while now, and even though I know of some holes in the collection I wanted to share what I have so far. (future acquisitions will be presented in a new post) For those who missed my Carnival of Souls review, I should mention that the Saltair Pavilion was [...]

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The Bull with the Pull

September 20, 2009
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As I worked on yesterday’s post about the steam tractor by Avery, I remembered a booklet that I’ve had for probably twenty-five years or more. To be honest, I don’t have the slightest idea how I came about owning a Big Bull Tractor Instruction Book, but it looks to me that they’re far from common. [...]

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