Sorry for the OT post, but I was hoping someone here would know about this. For years I've noticed the white writing that appears in a lot of early B&W photography. It usually gives a description of the scene and is always handwritten. What technique was used to create this? I've searched the internet a few times and never found an answer. Here is an example.
Using a fine brush most times, an opaque medium is used to mark on the negative. When prints are made the lettering comes out white.
when I was doing photography a few years ago you could buy a white pencil specialy for marking photos. They have been available for a long time cause I got the idea from my grandfather who was also a photographer.
You might also see some meaningless letters and numbers on the margin of the picture, the photographer's own inventory code.
There was a time when no respectable man (or woman, for that matter) would go out in public without a hat, unless he was working in some place that didn't allow for it. Our military still lives by that ethos, requiring a hat whenever you're outdoors...and no hat when you're indoors! I wonder just when all that changed? I'm old enough to have some recollection of it, but just barely. I wonder if it was a reaction from all the draftees after WWII? The varieties of hats are fascinating, and you can see some of that in the thread will all the old photos.
The hat manufacturing industry likes to blame President John F. Kennedy for killing the custom of hat wearing by men. At campaign appearances and his inauguration as president in 1961, he was the first president not to wear a hat. Since JFK and Jackie were considered to be the first presidential "fashionistas", soon many young and trendy people followed suit and hat-wearing eventually died out in most parts of the U.S. It depresses me that I'm old enough to remember that....
Yep ... and after nearly 50 years from discharge, it still frosts me in a minor fashion to see someone wearing a hat indoors. Barry especially if the bill is turned sideways so an ear is being shaded from the overhead lights.
So... the cowboys wear their hats indoors because there's no safe place to hang them for fear of theft? Bring back hat check girls!! Or because they'd sit on them when drunk (or someone else's and cause a fight?), or because they can't fold them up and put them in their pockets? I never understood that "western" habbit of keeping on the hats indoors either. Gary Wasn't this thread about rabbits with pancakes on their heads, or what?
Jesus Christ you wear a hat like that you must get a free bowl of chili... Uhh, It looks good on you though!
Hats are to keep my old bald head warm in the winter, and shaded from the sun in the summer. Working under a car, it gives some cushion from the ground And that's a fact. I notice a lot of them are of the Gatsby style, Cabby's to you New Yorkers, sometimes called a Pie cap, other times a Newsboy cap. Depending on the length of the bill and the way it's pulled down, a Andy CAPP cap. I see one in there with a straw hat. Not a "Boater" but a straw hat. There is a difference. More trivia, The guy next to the one with the straw hat, looks like a London Bobby there. Also, since this is a photo of what appears to be of some English decent, most of the working men would have wore those types of caps. The Beaver top hats over there were more of the gentlemanly type. Seriously, with those Gatsby type hats. they were and still are good when driving in a open roadster type of car. They can be turned around backwards and USUALLY the wind won't blow them off. HellRaiser
That is a myth. There are numerous pix of JFK wearing a top hat at his inauguration https://www.google.com/search?q=jfk...ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=598 Actually, I don't recall any president being associated with hat wearing in my lifetime. Ike didn't wear one, as a rule. Neither did Truman. I think the fashion of wearing hats had, simply, run its course and was over, except for Frank Sinatra and Ed Norton
Not really a MYTH. Kennedy did have a top hap during his inauguration, but did take if off during his swearing in ceremony. I don't recall Ford, Nixon or Carter wearing one though. Ike? Yep he wore a grey fedora, same for Truman. Truman's was more of a Stetson type. Same for Johnson. His was a Stetson. Regan his was a western when he wore one around his ranch. Clinton, nope.(Her maybe) Also, back at the turn of the century, the Gatsby types were cheaper to buy than a straw or fedora of the time. P.S. I did give up my Davy Crockett coon skin cap of the 50's. You still got yours?????? HellRaiser
The fashion of men wearing hats was already on the decline by the time Kennedy became President and then the baby boomers came of age and screwed everything up.
Back to the "white writing" -- many early Kodak cameras had a port on the back where you could write on the paper protecting the film. The pressure transfered an opaque material to the film back that stayed on during processing and kept light from going through, thus making a white area on the print. I've got a couple of those old cameras around -- some even came with a stylus to insure the right "point" for writing.
that pic is of one of the first attempts at paved roads. it would appear that ice is not the ideal pavement material in warmer weather
I should check to confirm this but I think all the Presidential Inauguration hats were made in Danbury, Ct. "The Hat City of The World". Sadly the only hats sole ther are imported and there isn't an old factory standing. I for one enjoy threads like this that get a little off track and add to the general knowledge of history. I think hats were required in the pre WWII era because of all the dirt in the air back then in large cities.
And protection from the elements. Instead of driving from parking lot to parking lot, people walked . or so my grandpops said
look again, there is one guy not weaing a hat. Look even closer and you can see the cop in the picture holding a doughnut!
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