Vintage shots from days gone by!

Great run of pics SWI66. Brings it to 1500 pages!

 

This photo, posted recently by swi66, caught my attention -- especially what appears written and posted on the open door of what might be a Roaring Twenties speakeasy(?).

In a related note: Hotelier/casino owner/car enthusiast William Harrah had his mechanics/fabricators create a hybrid, Jeep Wagoneer/Ferrari, back in the 1970's, and commissioned a cloisonné badge with the image of Krazy Kat for same. He dubbed the creation "Jerrari". Leon Mandel wrote about it in Sports Car Graphic #3, Fall 1979

For those patient enough to research, try these key words: George Herriman, Krazy Kat, Jerrari

 

Yes, that is an entrance to a Speakeasy......

 

swi66 what is the fire picture from? ^^

 

some cars

 

To each his own, I guess. Pro consultants I've known (many of them official card-carrying BITOANs) mix Scotch. It's bourbon they only knock back "neat" -- no mixer, but chasers OK!

 

Burned out car dealership.
Pretty devastating isn't it.........

 

From the available clues, I'm thinking that's a blind pig -- a lower-class dive -- rather than a speakeasy. Both peddled bootleg booze and beer under the facade of some other legit business, such as serving food and, sometimes, offering entertainment. Also, the clientele of BOTH types of establishments understood that tippling there was a service offered "on the QT"! Though they tried to fly under the radar of the authorities, crooked cops would sometimes keep mum for regular payments of "hush money" -- and maybe an off-duty free drink or two!

The MAIN diff between a flashy speakeasy and a blind pig (aka blind tiger, dive) was the class and means of their clientele. Most speakeasies had been restaurants or clubs BEFORE Prohibition hit in 1919, anyway, so serving alcohol thereafter had to be done as inconspicuously as possible. At a blind pig, a customer might "pay" a charge at the door, ostensibly to see some odd or exotic type of entertainment (thus, the moniker "blind" pig," "blind tiger," etc.). But once IN, he or she'd get a "free" drink -- strictly complementary, ya know? In BOTH cases, the facades were no insurance against police raids. Owners would go before a judge, and all the bottles and kegs would get smashed to smithereens. But speakeasies and dives were such steady moneymakers that they rarely STAYED shut down!

In the big cities, speakeasies even required evening wear and served fancier wine, champagne and spirits, while dives typically provided only whiskey and beer. Examples: New York's 21 Club, Washington, D.C.'s Mayflower Club, Chicago's Gold Star Bar and New Orleans' Green Door were well-known speakeasies (wink-wink, nudge-nudge! ).

 

...and for those of you who have visited "drinking establishments" on the México/US border...may I recommend James McMurtry's song "Safe Side"?
A drain in the middle of the floor of the bar kinda' tells you what kinda establishment you are in...hah.

 

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i loved this post,
now i finally got some from disc to the computer,it's time to post some of my grandpa's photos....

 

some more..

 

more....these are of my family.my uncles stripping "junk",my mom & aunt going to town,uncle gary just sitting around?

 

hey swi66,
that bottom picture,what is it?

 

Which bottom picture.........I was on a roll and posted a lot.
The laundry delivery truck?
I don't know the model.

 

...

 

They sure took an ass-kicking at Midway! There are no surviving Devastators on display but that may soon change. There are two on the bottom of Jaluit Lagoon in the Marshall Islands and there's a very good chance one will be recovered. http://tighar.org/Projects/Devastator/tosave.htm

 

my grandmother who passed in 1959.what a looker!

 

Thats a Willys around 40 or 41. Very rare.