Vintage shots from days gone by!

Item 22201 zoom Purchase a reproduction of this item on VintageMaineImages.com.


Description

Pair of tickets to an Elvis Presley concert scheduled for August 18, 1977, at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland. This concert, and one scheduled for the day prior, were cancelled because of Presley's death on August 16.

 

Item 11238 zoom

Description

Maine Public Utilities Commissioners voted 2-1 on June 25, 1982, to allow the nation's last hand-cranked phone system in Bryant Pond to modernize and update to a dial system. Pictured is Elden Hathaway who owned and operated the system for 30 years before selling it in 1981 to the Oxford Telephone Co. Hathaway retained ownership of the operating equipment. His children planned to sell it.

 

Machine shop, Portland High School, ca. 1920

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Thanks for showing these, YellerSpirit. I was driving home from work the afternoon of the 16th. As I recall, I usually tuned in Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxhall and listened to the Reds broadcast, if they were playing an afternoon game. But whatever was on radio, a bulletin broke in on Cincinnati's WLW that, as they phrased it, "The king is dead," followed by details. Frankly, I was surprised at how the news hit like a brick, just as if a member of the family had suddenly passed on. Likewise, I was further surprised that there was a grief period. I thought I'd written him off after he followed up the '68 TV special by (I felt) selling out to Vegas. His death just showed that nothing could erase the impression Elvis had made on a 6-year-old kid in '56.

Having grown up with Elvis' music since 1956 and the Sullivan appearance (after hearing "Heartbreak Hotel" the first time over the radio at age 6), I suddenly realized how much like "family" an entertainer could be. I'd followed it all, including Elvis answering the draft, to his homecoming and the undeniable realization that the pre-Army, high-energy electric, half-sneering, half-smiling Elvis was gone for good, replaced by an homogenized, packaged Elvis -- an image Elvis himself disliked but never could shake. But, like other red-blooded young guys who wanted to get gals, I continued to comb my hair like "The King" until well into the '60s.

It is very hard to explain to younger people today what the mania around Elvis from '56 to about '60 was like. He had innate talent and energy that made people stop, look, listen. You just had to live back then, I suppose.



Elvis' debut LP album, released by RCA March 23, 1956, shows
the "Hillbilly Cat" having a blast doing what gave him a jolt: enter-
taining live audiences all across the South. This photo clearly
shows the high-energy style that had made him a regional favorite
and budding recording audience by the time this was snapped by
"Red" Robertson in Tampa on July 31, 1955, at Fort Homer Hesterley
Armory. Seems everybody from Ed Sullivan and Frank Sinatra to Col.
Tom Parker dedicated themselves to getting Elvis to tone down his stage
antics. Sadly, they succeeded. Image thanks to Wikipedia.

 

Daniela Bianchi and Sean Connery in ‘From Russia with Love’, 1963.

 

Katharine “Jimmy” Hepburn

From Katharine Hepburn’s 1981 interview with Barbara Walters:

Hepburn: “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man…I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to and I made enough money to support myself. And I ain’t afraid of being alone.”
Walters: “Is that why also you wear pants?”
Hepburn: “No, I just wore pants because they’re comfortable.”
Walters: “Do you ever wear a skirt, by the way?”
Hepburn: “I have one.”
Walters: “You have one.”
Hepburn: “I’ll wear it to your funeral.”

 

Fay Wray

 

Sepulveda Boulevard tunnel opens

Sept. 27, 1930

 

This was the GLF Cooperative located on Canal Road in Gasport. GLF stood for Grange League Federation. It later merged with other cooperatives and became Agway. It closed in the early 1990's.


This was the Red & White Food Store in Middleport. This was on Main Street between where Peggy's Towpath Diner and the laundromat are now located.

 

Hindenburg, after 1st trip to New Jersey

 

Here's what the tree looks like today...