Friday, June 6, 2014

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! :)

9 comments:

  1. Hi Lisa, I'm just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris

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  2. Okay, I'm in love! Where's my time machine? That man is just too dapper for his own good!

    xoxo
    -Janey

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    1. UH. GREED. A regular cutenstein. And to be as doll like as Elsie, can you get over that forties' tiny top hat type thing? UGH.

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  3. These are so awesome! With his mustache, Edwin looks like a cross between Robert Donat and Tom Conway--definitely 30s thriller film material. I love all the photos and really can't pick a favorite. It's nice that so many of them have the year border, though. No guessing when they were taken!

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    1. I thought so, too! They're so glamorous I could die, and I wish they still did borders like that that were less antiseptic than those 02/05/2007 digital stamps you'll get on pictures sometimes. How nice/fancy are these?

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  4. Oh my gosh!! These pictures are incredible! What a gorgeous, glamorous couple.

    Lauren-it is so funny you mentioned Tom Conway, because in one photo I thought Edwin looked like George Sanders, who is Tom Conway's brother!

    He seems to also resemble Tom Drake-the boy next store from Meet Me in St. Louis. Does anyone else see that?

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    1. YOU AND LAUREN ARE EXACTLY RIGHT about the Tom Conway comparison, I am so glad to have fellow movie nuts as readers...I'd forgotten about Tom Drake but he does bear a resemblance to him as well! Re: the Conway/Sanders fraternal connection, I just found out Steve Forrest is Dana Andrews's brother (have you read "Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews"? I had to turn it in before I finished it but am taking it out again, it was pretty good as far as I got) ...they look much less alike than Conway and Sanders but I love learning about who's related to who in old Hollywood.

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  5. What? Steve Forrest is Dana Andrew's brother? I had no idea! They don't look that much alike, except around the mouth...

    I will definitely check out that book-I love Andrews in Laura and The Best Years of Our Lives, he is wonderful!

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