Photo Friday: Ed and Elsie Edition (1938-1940)

Good morning!

It's Friday! We made it! I'm stuck at the library this morning/afternoon, but later I have a lunch/shopping date with a friend and yea-bo aren't I excited to get out into the wide world that isn't work. I'm going to, too! :) Before I make tracks, however, what kind of Friday would it be without other people's family photos? No kind of Friday at all, that's what!

This flickr account features a number of photos of the user's parents in the late thirties' and early forties', and you want to talk about some sharp dressed folks...they really do look like Errol Flynn and Sylvia Sidney's stand in's on some Warner Brothers picture of the time. Sharp dressed and good looking, if I were them , I would have taken a million photos of myself, too! Let's take a look, though, here's Ed in 1938:

That foulard makes Ed look particularly dashing, though the sweet car he's standing in front of and his neatly tailored sports jacket aren't hurting his case, either. Here's the car from the same set in a long shot:

Does it or does it not look like something out of the Sunday morning comics in the late thirties'? This car is something straight out of Dick Tracy, all sleek thirties' Art Deco lines. My kingdom for a coupe! I wish you could get a car with half this wagon's handsomeness on the market today.

Let's not forget Elsie, though:

There's something about her wardrobe in all these pictures that perfectly captures a kind of thirties' ladies' clothes I like...I don't know what you'd call it! All the soft edge, round collars, and dainty details...she's pretty to begin with but these clothes make her look like an absolute doll.

Edwin later grew a pencil mustache, which gives him even more of a movie star look:

And I really like this series of photos taken at home. Something about them reminds me of early Hitchcock movies made in England, think The 39 Steps or The Lady Vanishes. I think Ed in particular looks like Robert Donat or another actor I cannot think of to save my life... I'll have to scribble it in later when it comes to me in the middle of the night. At any rate, the couple's dramatic clothing and the starkness of the black and white photography is something else, isn't it?

And closer up:

NOW we're talking though, look at Elsie's high collar, flat shoulder coat, belted, with that HAT, THAT HAT:

I think this is the same ensemble maybe later, as taken by a professional photographer and with a matching handwarmer (you know I'm well nigh choking down jealousy here to even type out a description-- this is AMAZING in that exotic elegant way the thirties' were so famous for).

In street clothes the year before (check out Elsie's pocketbook and shoes) :

This is my favorite Elsie outfit other than the Travis Beaton looking thing from the earlier photo spread. The bell sleeves on that coat! The round hat! The dress clasps on her coat!

Paging Rita Hayworth? Also, where can I get a hat like this, please?

Elsie in slacks and a pretty turban, Ed in rolled up sleeves with their first born, 1940:

From there, the photography starts to center (as it should) on their cute little kids. But wasn't it fun to look at them as just engaged and newlyweds in their dapper-to-beat-the-band young people's clothes? I'm copying that fur ensemble as soon as I can get the pieces together...unh! Such style!

I gotta get going, but have yourselves a FABULOUS weekend. Maybe I'll see you out at the sales! I'll be back Monday in any case with more vintage finds and we'll talk then. Be good! :)