Tag: Philadelphia

Jan282014 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
To (Well-Tailored) Arms! (Botany 500 Ad, 1960)

To (Well-Tailored) Arms! (Botany 500 Ad, 1960)

Retrotisements
It took more than five decades, but Botany 500 is finally getting the props from me that they so richly deserve. Well, their advertising agency anyway. I speak of this 1960 ad, which seemed awfully familiar when I spotted it on an eBay auction yesterday. Faithful readers of mine will remember this as a modified version of a recruitment poster from the Quasi-War (1798-1800), as first seen in my gallery of wartime recruiting posters. That is some damn fine design and ad copy right there, and I think it deserves to be typed out for your enjoyment. TO ALL BRAVE, HEALTHY, ABLE BODIED, AND WELL DISPOSED YOUNG MEN who have any inclination to express their individuality, maintain freedom of thought and dress, resist the pressure to conform to mob rule, THE WILES AND BLANDISHMENTS...
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Oct232013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 40: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Philadelphia, 1908

Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 40: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Philadelphia, 1908

Vintage Photo Wednesday
I'm sure this must have been an odd sight to Philadelphians back in the day. It's a posed group photo of famed soldier and showman William F. Cody with the members of his "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" traveling show. Click for the full-size version. That's Buffalo Bill seated roughly in the middle of the picture, behind a group of Native American children. Cody started his first Wild West show in 1883, and he toured the world with it until it went bankrupt in 1913. Many people hold the belief that when Cody died in 1917 at the age of 70, it marked the end of the Wild West in America. The rather imposing building behind the group is the famed Wanamaker's, the first department store in Philly and one of the first in the United States. You can see some interested onlookers peering thro...
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Jul162013 by Chris Holmes3 Comments
This 1846 Anti-Slavery Alphabet Is Fantastic

This 1846 Anti-Slavery Alphabet Is Fantastic

Ephemera, History
I'm currently in the middle of re-watching the excellent Civil War documentary by Ken Burns, so this particular item feels extra significant to me at the moment. It's The Anti-Slavery Alphabet, published for an Anti-Slavery Fair in 1846 and created by Quakers Hannah and Mary Townsend of Philadelphia. The alphabet consists of sixteen leaves, printed on one side, with the printed pages facing each other and hand-sewn into a paper cover. Each of the letter illustrations is hand-colored. The target audience for this book, as you might expect, was children who the Townsends hoped would adopt an Abolitionist point of view. History tells us, of course, that it would take more than 20 years and a bloody Civil War for the Abolitionists' dream to become reality. All images courtesy the Mississ
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Jun212013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: AFC South

Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: AFC South

Football Friday, Sports
Since it’s the off-season I thought I’d start a fun project involving NFL history. So I’m going to go division by division and post galleries of football cards (when available) featuring all NFL players who have had their jersey numbers retired by their teams. This week it’s the four squads of the AFC South — the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans. Previous galleries: AFC East, NFC East, AFC North, NFC North Houston Texans (0) The Texans have yet to retire a number in their decade-plus of existence. If I had to bust out my crystal ball, wide receiver Andre Johnson (#80) is a potential future candidate. He holds a number of team records (some by a sizable margin) and is poised in 2013 to become one of the NFL's top 20 receivers ever for c
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Apr192013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: NFC North

Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: NFC North

Football Friday, Sports
Since it’s the off-season I thought I’d start a fun project involving NFL history. So I’m going to go division by division and post football card galleries (when available) featuring all NFL players who have had their jersey numbers retired by their teams. This week it’s the four squads of the NFC North — the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings. Previous galleries: AFC East, NFC East, AFC North Chicago Bears (13) #3 -- Bronko Nagurski #5 -- George McAfee #7 -- George Halas I couldn't find a card from Halas's playing days, but how could I leave off Papa Bear? #28 -- Willie Galimore Galimore was killed in an automobile accident on July 27, 1964 in Rensselaer, Indiana at the age of 29 with teammate Bo Farrington. #34 -- Walter Payton
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Mar292013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: NFC East

Retired NFL Jersey Numbers: NFC East

Football Friday, Sports
Since it’s the off-season I thought I’d start a fun project involving NFL history. So I’m going to go division by division and post football card galleries (when available) featuring all NFL players who have had their jersey numbers retired by their teams. This week it’s the four squads of the NFC East — the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Redskins. Previous galleries: AFC East Dallas Cowboys (0) The Cowboys do not officially retire jersey numbers, opting rather to induct players into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. The Ring, which began in 1975, is made up of the players listed below (as of the end of the 2012 season, in order of induction). Sorry, no cards for the Cowboys, since they insist on being so different. #74 -- Bob Lilly #17 -- Don
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Aug222012 by Chris Holmes1 Comment
Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 9 — Republican National Conventions

Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 9 — Republican National Conventions

Vintage Photo Wednesday
As the GOP prepares to party in Tampa and nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to take on Barack Obama this November, I thought I'd take a look at Republican National Conventions gone by. Here's a selection of vintage photographs from GOP pow-wows starting with 1908 and ending with 1976. 1908 -- Chicago (William Howard Taft) 1912 -- Chicago (William Howard Taft) 1916 - Chicago (Charles Evans Hughes) 1920 -- Chicago (Warren G. Harding) 1936 -- Cleveland (Alf Landon) 1940 -- Philadelphia (Wendell Willkie) 1944 -- Chicago (Thomas E. Dewey) 1948 -- Philadelphia (Thomas E. Dewey) 1952 -- Chicago (Dwight D. Eisenhower) 1956 -- San Francisco (Dwight D. Eisenhower) 1960 -- Chicago (Richard M. Nixon) 1964 -- San Francisco (Barry Goldwater) 1968 -- Miami Beach 1...
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Mar222011 by Chris Holmes1 Comment
Movies That Defined My Youth, Part 3

Movies That Defined My Youth, Part 3

Movies
Waaaay back in 2007 I looked back at five flicks that made a big impact on me during my formative years. The next year I ran through four more. And today I drag out another five. Let's reminisce! Better Off Dead (1985) — There is not one part of this movie that isn't 100% awesome, even more than 25 years later. This Savage Steve Holland masterpiece was perfectly cast and written, which makes its more surreal vignettes feel like integral parts of the movie instead of just absurd asides. It never really sunk in when I was a kid that this was a pretty dark film. Hell, the lead character (John Cusack as Lane Meyer) spends most of the it trying to kill himself. Over a breakup. Fortunately he fails and gets to see an Eddie Van Halen-esque hamburger wailing a Frankenstrat to "Everybody Wants S
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Oct192010 by Chris Holmes2 Comments
Well that wasn’t so scary: GFS goes to the opera

Well that wasn’t so scary: GFS goes to the opera

Music
Like most people my age, my main exposure to opera has been through Bugs Bunny cartoons like "What's Opera, Doc?" and "Rabbit of Seville".  The genius of those shorts was that they took high art and made it into something even attention span-challenged American kids could enjoy.  But I imagine they spurred a greater interest in opera for only a very few. So it was for me.  I always thought of opera as something other, unattainable and likely too difficult to enjoy.  I can hang with a foreign film once in a while, but the thought of watching people singing in Italian or German while wearing tights was too much to take.  I guess I always just regarded it as Broadway with more elaborate costumes and different languages. Classical music was a different story - while I still haven't grasp
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