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Comments blog comments powered by DisqusThis short film, made in 1939, predicts what fashions will be like in the year 2000. Electric weather-control belts, aluminum clothes, and menswear with “pockets for candy for cuties” are all in the running! (via Vintage Fashions Youtube)
Vintage Future Fashion…
Sue Lillian Brown, better known as Betty Broadbent, was only 18 years old in 1927 when she joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus as the youngest professional tattooed woman in the U.S.
Basket Jim does his thing in Covent Garden, London in 1930.
(Source: vintagephoto.livejournal.com)
More Fun with Animals
There is something very compelling about vintage animal photos. They depict the consistent love relationship over the decades that most humans have toward animals. The kitten in the beard wins for cuteness.
(Source: izifunny.com)
“When attacked from behind, she grasps a hatpin. Turning quickly, she is able to strike a fatal blow in the face.”
Hatpin self-defense tactics are illustrated in these photographs excerpted from a 1904 article that was featured in the San Francisco Sunday Call newspaper. (via Bartitsu)
Victorian Headless Portraits
The Victorian era has many photographs, most of which show the subject sitting or standing with a stern expression. Since photography was still in its infancy, photographers were experimenting with novel ways to create photos that differed from the norm. Animals acting human was one popular concept, and then came the headless portrait. Funny and entertaining, a new genre of photography was born.
(Source: retronaut.com)
Creepy Vintage Ventriloquist Dummy Portraits
These are Vaudeville era performers with their creepy ventriloquist dummies. The first one actually looks like he might be funny, but I can’t say that for the rest. Some are eerily unsettling and others are just plain scary. Perfect fodder for the Twilight Zone or your nightmares.
(Source: gotopublicschool.com)
Balancing Acts of the Past
- This is an interesting picture of Mr. Reynolds, famous in the 1920’s for performing spectacular and dangerous balancing acts.
- Joe Steinmetz doing an egg balancing act on the edge of a knife. August 30, 1939.
(Source: vintag.es)
Yoshiwara Girls
Yoshiwara was a famous pleasure (red light) district, in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan. In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka. To counter this, an order of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to designated city districts.
The Yoshiwara was home to some 1,750 women in the 18th century, with records of some 3,000 women from all over Japan at one time. The area had over 9,000 women in 1893, many of whom suffered from syphilis. These girls were often indentured to the brothels by their parents between the ages of about seven to twelve. If she was lucky, she would become an apprentice to a high ranking courtesan. When the girl was old enough and had completed her training, she would become a courtesan herself and work her way up the ranks. The young women often had a contract to the brothel for only about five to ten years, but massive debt sometimes kept them in the brothels their entire lives.
(Source: Wikipedia)
