I don’t know the date on this Marilyn Monroe color photograph, but I’m going with late 1940s. Regardless, it’s a stunner.

The reason I say late ’40s is that Marilyn appears to be a little older than when she shot this series of fishing photos in 1946, but she’s doesn’t look to be in full 1950s glamour mode yet. As I’ve stated before, this is my favorite era for her. She just looks so happy and full of life.

Courtesy the Seattle Municipal Archives Flickr feed, here’s a neat shot of a rather ordinary scene. It’s Dick’s Drive-In Hamburgers on Broadway East. This was taken in 1955, not long after this location opened. Dick’s started right around the same period that McDonald’s started to take off with their franchise model.

Click for a larger version.

This location is still open today, and it certainly doesn’t appear as if things have changed all that much. There are more trees and the prices are higher, of course, but you can’t expect hand-dipped malts to cost 21 cents forever.

Sometimes the coolest photos from Life magazine were crammed into incidental articles in the back of an issue. Take, for instance, an article on coin-operated machines — “Brave New Machines” — from the March 17, 1947 edition. The original images, taken by staff photographer Wallace Kirkland, showcase beautifully designed machines that would now probably fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars on the antiques market. But in ’47 they warranted little more than small pictures tucked into the very back of the magazine.

Here they are in their original splendor. Click on any image for the full-size version.

I’ve been collecting wire photo images from the internet for several months, and I’ve been struggling with just how to best share my favorites with all of you out there. I thought about creating a new section in the Ephemera section of this site, and I may still do that, but not now. I also thought about putting them on my Flickr feed, and I’ll still do that for some — but that’s more of a personal storehouse than anything else.

What I’ve settled on for now is a brand new, single-topic Tumblr feed. It’s called And Through the Wire, and yes that’s a reference to the Peter Gabriel song. It’s a separate endeavor from my regular Tumblr feed, which is more of a free-for-all thing. This feed will be wire photos and only wire photos, and it’ll cover just about any subject area you can think of. Sports, celebrities, cars, you name it. If that sounds as fun to you as it does to me, head over and follow it now!

The very best wire photos I find will still be shared here, so think of And Through the Wire as the unfiltered version. And by all means, let me know if you’d like to see a photo on a particular subject.

I love this set of vintage photos featuring the lovely Marilyn Monroe doing some fly fishing, circa 1946. These three images were shot on color safety by Andre de Dienes (1913-85), and capture Marilyn before she had fully transformed into the blonde bombshell that captivated America in the ’50s and ’60s. In fact, she had barely transitioned away from her given name of Norma Jeane Mortenson at the time of this photo session.

The Marilyn we see here is not a star, but just a really pretty young woman full of life. That’s how I like to remember her.

(Click for the full-size version of each picture.)

Felt like I should say something or, in this case, show something positive in light of today’s darkness. The Boston Marathon will return, of course. As it should. No amount of sickness, evil, or insanity can prevent it. As it should not.

(via Flickr)

One of my favorite past-times is combing the vast archive of press wire photos on eBay. I’ve found all sorts of neat things there, but one of my current obsessions is old automobile press photography. So here is the first of what I hope will be many galleries featuring ten classic American cars, mainly from the mid-century period. Apologies in advance if I get some of the years or models wrong — I can only go off what the original auction listed. Also, those marks you see on some of the photos are original editorial markings, so you know these are 100% real!

For much more detailed looks at classic American cars, check out my ad galleries for the 1970 Dodge, 1975 Chevrolet, and 1982 AMC lineups.

(Click on any picture for the full size.)

If anyone can tell me what the model is for this ’37 Dodge I’d be most appreciative.

You could never get away with sitting on the hood of a car now, unless you feel like removing a big dent.

Designs inspired by the Jet Age lived on into the early 1960s.

German-made Opel automobiles appeared under their own name in the U.S. from 1958 to 1975, when they were sold through Buick dealers as captive imports.

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Another trip to the Life photo archives has yielded another great set of classic NFL photographs. These were snapped by Robert W. Kelley at a game played between the Green Bay Packers and the visiting Baltimore Colts at Lambeau Field — then known as New City Stadium — on October 8, 1961.

Tracking down the date for this game was a little tricky, as the Life photo pages provide no details. How I figured it out was by using the visual clues.

• Weeb Ewbank is pictured on the Baltimore sideline. He coached the Colts from 1954-1962.
• One of the Baltimore players pictured is wearing jersey #34, and he appears to be a back of some kind. Only one player from this era was a back and wore #34 — Joe “The Jet” Perry. Perry was a fullback in Baltimore for the ’61 and ’62 seasons only.
• One of the shots shows Green Bay (at home) up 30-7. Of the two home games the Packers played against the Colts in ’61 and ’62, the only scored 30 or more in 1961. The final score of the game was 45-7.

So there you go, and that’s how I arrived at this being the Week 4 contest from the 1961 NFL season. So with that, let’s look at the photos! Some of them are a bit blurry, but color game action pictures from this era of the NFL aren’t terribly common so they’re still worth seeing.

We return to New Jersey for this week’s vintage photograph, specifically Franklin Township. This shot, taken in February 1936, depicts a woman in front of a small grocery store/delicatessen. She’s either fixing a tattered awning or taking it down, I can’t be sure which. This is from the days before big supermarkets were a common sight.

A few brand names figure prominently in this scene — Coca-Cola and White Rose Tea. Everyone knows Coca-Cola of course, but fewer know about White Rose. It is a rather large independent wholesale food distributor in the New York/New Jersey metro area and has been in operation since the late 19th century. They got into the tea business in the early 1900s.

Below the display window it’s all about tobacco. I see a sign for Granger Rough Cut (pipe tobacco), OCB (which stands for Odet Cascadec Bolloré) French rolling paper, and Stud (another tobacco brand). All the other signage is not particularly legible.

The Library of Congress caption for this mentions Bound Brook, which is several miles away from Franklin Township. What gives this away as Franklin instead of Bound Brook is that the caption also mentions Lincoln Highway. Lincoln Highway is how parts of state highway 27 are named in New Jersey, and goes right through Franklin Township. Bound Brook, however, comes nowhere close to Route 27.