Sepia Saturday 98 - A Religious Outing in Stanley Park, Vancouver

Here's a happy group, all dressed up and on their way somewhere. They're not exactly in a bus, but a big observation car from the BCE Railway.  The photo was taken Aug. 2, 1910 and it's a group called the St. Andrew's Y.P.S.C.E. (Young Peoples Society of Christian Endeavor). This is actually an interfaith religious group whose goal was to promote religious understanding. We could use a group like that now, couldn't we? At one time they were 1,000,000 strong with over 18,500 societies. I found societies on the internet that are still in existence today.

The photograph isn't signed by the photographer, but doing some research on the Stanley Park area, I discovered that the most prominent photographer of that era was Phillip Timms. Could he have taken this photograph? I'm not sure, but the time is right and the area is right.

"Phillip Timms was born in Toronto in 1874. He lived to one month short of his 99th birthday having lived a long life filled with many interests and considerable accomplishments.

He considered his greatest professional accomplishment to be the photographic record that he created of Vancouver between 1900 and 1910. The photographic record that he left behind affords us a valuable glimpse of the province during its period of growth from a frontier outpost to a well-established center of industry and tourism.

All of Timms' photographs have a certain recognizable quality about them; much of the kindness and gentleness of the man himself comes through. His shots are candid and uncluttered and capture dramatically the feeling and mood of the time.

He closed his shop on Commercial Drive in 1968 at the age of 94, after 70 years as a photographer."

So does this photograph seem candid, uncluttered and have the feeling and the mood of the time. I think it does. So I'm going to say it's by Timms. What do you think?

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Sepia Saturday - My School Mate Has Become Famous

We were never the best of friends. We didn't run in the same circles. He was a jock and I was (actually I'm not quite sure what I was). But we were forever bound together because of the first letter of our last names. Mine was Finwall, his was Flanagan. We always had to stand next to each other in school every time we students had to be in alphabetical order. Our school pictures were always right next to each other.

Here we are as Sophomores in 1958 (Pomona High School) Pomona, California:
 

Since Pomona High School burned down, we had to enter a new school for our Junior year. So here's Mike and I as Juniors in Ganesha High School, 1959:

 And now as mighty seniors in 1960:

Now several years later (like 51 to be exact!) Mike Flanagan is one of the attorneys in the Michael Jackson manslaughter trial. He's one of the defense attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray. I see him on the news almost everynight. And I'm always so amazed when I see him sitting there on Dr. Murray's left. He's just a kid like me from Pomona. Amazing. He hasn't changed a bit - except he and I both ended up with white hair.

You just never know what's going to happen to your classmates in life, do you? But I must say I'm pretty impressed with my classmate from Pomona. He's come a long way.

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Sepia Saturday - My Brush with Celebrity

In keeping with the theme of chairs for this week's Sepia Saturday, here I am sitting in a chair, next to none other than Dan Dailey.  I don't remember much about this photo except that it was taken at a catholic church which was having some sort of fund raising thing. Dan Dailey was a friend of the priest so offered to suffer through sitting and having his picture taken with lots of snotty nosed kids. He really doesn't look too happy, does he? Don't you just love the backdrop that was made for this occasion? - lots of tin foil stars to represent the real Hollywood glitz and glamour.

For lots of you, Dan Dailey might be unknown. So here's a little bio about him. He was born in New York in 1915 and started his career in vaudeville. He was signed by MGM and made many musicals during the 40s and 50s. He was a frequent costar of Betty Grable. As the musical genre waned in the mid 1950s, Dailey moved on to dramatic roles and later his own T.V. series. He died in 1978.

One interesting thing I found out about him - he costarred with Donald O'Connor in "There's No Business Like Show Business" and later married O'Connor's wife, Gwen. That's Hollywood for you!

Here's a little sampling of Dan's talents:



Did you notice that the opening dancers are all men? The scene is from "Call Me Mister. I'd love to see that movie! I'll have to check and see if Netflix has it.

Don't forget to check out the other Sepia Saturday posts at http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com