Vintage shots from days gone by!

CHER came along a long time later!

 

reply to #54267 the outhouse. my grandfathers outhouse is still standing. i dont know how old it is. a friend now owns the property and does not intend to tear it down. i am 75 and it is years older than i am

 

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Wow, Don, you saw a lot, first-hand, of the era when both 'rods and R&R were young, man! Among the first records I played to death was both sides of a 45 RPM from 1957 by Larry Williams. A lot of people may remember the A-side, "Bony Moronie," about as Rock&Roll as you can get, and with Larry's energetic Bluesy/R&B influence, as well (not sure the term Rockabilly was yet coined). But I also like Side-B, "You Bug Me, Baby," written by a struggling young Beatnik kind of guy called Sonny Bono. I remembered this 1957 Rock&Roll record when Sonny & Cher hit in '65 with "I Got You, Babe."

Since the subject came up, it's cool to peek at Sonny and Cher's roots and see how they came to BE Sonny & Cher. According to the site Black Cat Rockabilly, Sonny was born Salvatore Phillip Bono in '35 in Detroit and moved to Cali in '42 with his family. He sold his first songs while driving a meat truck in the mid-'50s. At the beginning of 1957, Specialty Records hired Bono to run Specialty's L.A. office, and he managed to place two of his songs, "High School Dance" and "You Bug Me, Baby", on the flip-sides of Larry Williams's hits "Short Fat Fannie" and "Bony Moronie". He followed with "Koko Joe" and "She Said Yeah." Sonny's salad days recurred when the Specialty label shut down. But according to Black Cat, when his writer-producer friend Jack Nitzsche started working as Phil Spector's arranger in 1962, Bono tagged along, becoming Spector's an all-purpose sidekick and gofer, sometimes joining the choir of backing singers or playing percussion.

After divorcing Donna Rankin in '62, Bono found a new friend in Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre (born '46), better known as Cher. She was 16, Sonny, 27, and they became fast friends, later very close friends. They were actually married in '69. Spector gave Cher a recording shot, one unsuccessful promotional single, "Ringo I Love You", released under the name Bonnie Jo Mason.

Sonny and Cher started singing together, first for the small Vault label as Caesar and Cleo (1963), then for Reprise (1964) and eventually for Atco in 1965. Their second Atco single, "I Got You Baby" [sic], written, arranged and produced by Bono, was a # 1 hit in August '65 (for 3 weeks), also # 1 in the UK and elsewhere. It changed their lives forever. Two struggling artists became international superstars, their eccentric, hippy style of dress copied everywhere. So, that's the skinny on how Sonny got his start, and how Salvatore and Cherilyn became a smash act, Sonny and Cher.

 

I always thought that these Streamliners were even more beautiful than the '30s Art Deco engines of Loewy. Somebody know if (and what?) these had a proper, or popular, name?

 

EMD E9 (Electro Motor Division of GM)

 

Yowee, 327, that's a gorgeous shot there. THANKS for filling me in on the EMD-E9. Seems I recalling seeing these a lot in the '50s, doing such jobs as pulling Vista Cruiser cars in the Rockies.

 

To keep this car related, Spector's girl friend was the owner of the MT Cobra coupe discovered after she went up in the hills and light her self on fire. Spector and her mother claimed she willed it to them, but lucky for us it wound up in Philadelphia.

 

Dot Robinson

 

Myrna Loy

Herbert Marshall & Norma Shearer in RIPTIDE

 

That picture looks just like the capitol building in Little Rock Ar even the lay of the land leading up to it.

 

Here's a fun shot from 1965, thanks to FlickR member Kokomo Jim. The postcard
legend states: "NYC System Railroad ABA lash-up with #1819 and EMD F7 on the
point." From my cursory searches, it surely looks as though the GM E & F series
had the similar ALCOs beaten on appearance. Thanks, Kokomo!



All us HAMBers have to appreciate the three-deck auto carrier, rear, full of Caddys!

 

Knew a policeman who worked the Hollywood area in the 60's and 70's. Among many celebrities that he ran into were Sonny and Cher. He recalled that he (Sonny) was quite affable and that Cher acted like the atypical teenager, replete with a bad case of acne. He later cited how his daughter and all her friends were going out and having their hair cut just like Cher. I wonder if this shot was taken at Capital Records Tower?

 

He fathered a different approach to production, with his "Wall of Sound" form, but Ronnie Spector didn't have many nice things to say about him.

 

Gary'll like these!



OOOWEE. I've always loved how cover artists (pop culture mags, pulps,
paperbacks, calendars, etc.) represented the times down through the de-
cades -- albeit often larger than life! Ha, ha. But there have surely been a
number of good painters who made the human female form a labor of love,
as well as art. Sometimes, they almost rivaled the real thing! Here, Peter
Driben takes a turn for the cover of the January 1953 Beauty Parade. Sorry
if this offends any female HAMBers, but if you're on the HAMB, you prob-
ably already know that hotrods/customs, classic Rock&Roll and the ladies
go together in this crowd!


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Driben again, December 1948. Rita Hayworth was a hot movie property
of the day, as was Maureen O'Hara, and Susan Hayward was coming into
her own as a movie draw! Beautiful redhaired actresses, all!

 

The old saying in the ad biz is that sex appeal sells. And the pulps didn't have a corner on the market back in the day, as squeeky-clean ventures (well, pre-Vanessa Williams) such as the Miss America Pageant and the Ice Capades showed.



Program cover for the Ice Capades, 1958, thanks again to KocoJim.
(Geo. Petty art?)

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1962, definitely George Petty, and again thanks to FlickR member KocoJim.