SOUVENIR RESTAURANT PHOTO COLLECTION LOT 1940s-1950s - OVER 100!
Item #1428
108 Souvenir Restaurant Photo Folders made between 1942-1959. Folders range in size from 4 5/8” x 7” to 11” x 9 1/2”. Images are contained by slits for corners, glue, staples, or simply held in between the folder’s sheath. Images from Sloppy Joe’s Bar, formerly of Havana, Cuba, are glued on stiff card mount.
These commemorative photographs preserve these diner’s night out on the town. Restaurant-goers can be seen smiling with their dates, drinking Coca-cola out of glass bottles, donning leis, and retiring from their barracks in the case of some off duty marines and military personnel.
This collection of momentoes is an assortment of international souvenir restaurant photos with most of them made in the United States. New York is highlighted, also Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland. Other cities of note: San Francisco, Hollywood, Miami, Kalamazoo, St. Louis, Atlantic City, etc. This collection also takes the viewer to Toronto, Kyoto, Istanbul, and Havana, Cuba. Seven photographs were made in international waters on the American President Lines cruise ships.
Each photo folder offers a kitschy design and slogan associated with the restaurant. The Earl Caroll Theatre Restaurant in Hollywood, California alludes, “Thru these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world”, Radio Frank’s claims, “Never a Dull Moment!”, while a restaurant formerly of Greenwich Village incites, “Party tonight Big Doins at the Village Barn Restaurant” and is paired with a drawing of rural scene and farmer. There a handful of velveteen folders belonging to the following restaurants: Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe at the Paramount Hotel of which there are three (however, only two are velveteen texture) and the Starlite Club of San Pedro, California of which there is only one. On verso of certain folders it is told the price of the souvenir which proves repeatedly to be at a cost of just one dollar.
Two photograph in this collection feature seated crowds of all African American diners enjoying soft drinks, beer and good company at the China Doll which was located on 51st and Broadway and in Chicago, Illinois. Another image made at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati displays a nonsegregated table of black and white diners during the Civil Rights Era.
Prominently featured places with many souvenirs here, include: Jack Dempsey’s of , The Latin Quarter of Boston, MA, the Terrace Room of Newark, New Jersey, and Queens Terrace on Long Island, and others.
Four photographs stand alone, as they are not contained in a folder, little information is retained other than the guests smiling faces. Few photos are labeled with names of the guests, and exact date that the images was made. Collection is in good overall condition.
Price: $750.00