Blackpool

Weather

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I have a philosophy about summer weather in the greater New York area. It is my belief that July is always worse weather than August and therefore I generally push my vacation to August because otherwise it is spent inside clinging to air conditioning and I might as well be in the office. (Furthermore, I would say that June is just too early in the summer for vacation and too busy at this particular job as well – although the June weather was lousy this year as well.) However, during the long beachy summers of my childhood the hot, sunny days of July were a feature event, better than the cooling days of August. It was prime summer. However, every single day that it rained did seem like a crime against my vacation.

I think for the most part we on the East Coast of the United States can agree however, that thus far this year the weather has been extreme and really a bit wretched. In addition to many days of heat over 100 degrees, we are now dealing with an air inversion, a heat dome trapping the smoke from wildfires in the north and turning our days tea-colored with a vague sense of the End Days hanging about them. Meanwhile, Kim and I need to make a trip downtown and both today and tomorrow threaten additionally with downpours.

British beach holidays have long been fraught with the likelihood of rain and the population intrepid about them in spite of that. I am guessing this one, from August of 1927 was no exception. Bonzo and his pale Ooloo, huddled companionably under an umbrella. Bonzo looks like his toy counterpart a bit more than his illustration and comics self and the black cat is a bit more generic than Ooloo. (For two Ooloo posts have a look here and here.) Although I will say, I have never been sure that Ooloo had a very decided design.

Here he (she? never sure) sports a big read bow that matches the umbrella and they look at each other fondly. No one is actually holding up said umbrella – a careful look just sort of shows it floats over them. Bonzo has a paw stuck out as if checking to see if it is still raining, although it is teeming down. Little drips come off the edges of the umbrella as if to assure the viewer that it is indeed keeping them dry despite the rain pattern across the image.

Above them it says, The weather, old friend, doesn’t matter a jot; But a card for Remembrance just matters a lot. (Jot isn’t a word you see a lot, right?) It should also be noted that there is no copyright or publication information on this card, helping to confirm my suspicion that it is a total swipe.

Blackpool evidently just had this flat Felix instead of a stuffed one. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

On the back, in pencil and as best I can tell it says, Blackpool Hello Dear, I am enjoying the last of my holidays and around Blackpool but tomorrow I leave for Liverpool and from…I’m…you. And in the top right corner, Love from P. Limson. It is addressed to Miss L. M. Horsepoof, Gedling, Nottingham. It is dated, as noted above, with a cancellation from Blackpool on August, 24, 1927 at 10:15 AM.

Pictorama readers well know that in my mind Blackpool holidays at the beach in the 1920’s were best known for having your photo taken with an over-sized Felix. (A post with a number of photos from Blackpool can be found here.) This would of course be reason enough alone for me to opt for a summer holiday there, weather notwithstanding. Instead, next weekend we decamp for our New Jersey shore digs. A few posts between now and then but we are starting to get ourselves ready.

British Bright Lights

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I was on a bit of a role recently with press photos on eBay. (See last week’s Felix-y post here.) I had to barter over this one a bit but it seemed to fit nicely within my purview of photo interests. This came to me via a dealer in Livingston, Texas.

On the back it is identified as a photo by Underwood and Underwood a stock photo company located at 242 West 55th Street here in New York City. On a scrap of paper glued to the back, NOVEL ELECTRIC SIGNS FEATURED AT BRITISH SEASIDE RESORT. LONDON. –PHOTO SHOWS: “Mickey Mouse” and the “Dancing Kittens” in electric lights at Blackpool. There was something below it that was neatly ripped off.

The candy shown here with Felix was sometimes referred to as Blackpool Rock. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Blackpool beach resort has been the locale of numerous Pictorama posts as a rather specific Felix wooden cut out was available for photos and even one errant donkey. (A mere sampling of posts can be found here, here and here.) Blackpool as a seaside resort goes back to the 18th century. There is what they refer to as the Blackpool Tower and Pleasure Beach which appears to be an amusement pier, probably not unlike the small one in Long Branch, NJ I grew up with but maybe larger since it was referred to as the Golden Mile as well. It reached its zenith of popularity around the time of this photo and although tourism has fallen off still exists largely intact today.

Posing with Felix in Blackpool. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I’m not sure who the brain child was behind this off-model Mickey and tow dancing kitties in what appear to be lederhosen and bow ties. The cats have luxurious tails that curl around and are clad in black boots. Mickey, on the other hand, while sporting an outsized bow tie had oddly small feet in some sort of white shoes.

Unfortunately the tops of Mickey’s ears are lost to the black sky behind him – Kim suggested a bit of white paint to rectify that. I am a bit surprised it wasn’t painted on for publication. I do wonder about publicizing what was so clearly a homemade Mickey in newspapers. Did the long arm of Walt reach them?

Another Blackpool Felix photo. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

All three are decorated in round white bulbs. They drift in front of something made to look like a fence. I thought it was a real fence at first but it is dotted with lights too. Oddly enough the cat’s booted feet do not seem to have bulbs.

Information on the back of the photo.

There is a tiny sign affixed to the bottom which says, DANGER Do not touch. I can only imagine that now it would have to be much, much bigger. There are shadows along the back fence that look strangely like black cats to me. The bulbs in the white areas of the cats and Mickey’s face look lit up under careful examination – but the lights on their pants and bows do not appear to be. Perhaps they blinked – maybe half are on and half off?

Of course my imagination goes wild with the idea of a day and an evening at Blackpool – getting my photo taken with Felix on the beach first and then seeing this at night! I am probably delightedly eating cotton candy and other junk food in the interim. A perfect day at the British seashore resort.