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Post Your Favorite Postcards Here.

Started by Rix Gins, May 08, 2016, 04:07:19 PM

Rix Gins

Now that rose bushes are starting to bloom with a vengeance, here are some postcard advertisements that were put out by a place called Jackson & Perkins Company.  The yellow rose is Irish Gold, Rose of the Year for 1970 and the red rose is First Prize, an All-America Rose Selection, also for 1970.  I guess it would be safe to date these postcards as being circa 1970 - 1971.

Rix Gins

Here is an unusual postcard advertisement for The Tonga Room.  The back of the postcard says, "The Tonga Room'  San Francisco's most unusual restaurant, featuring Chinese and American Foods.  Cocktails and Mixed Drinks.  Enchanting Music.

And at the bottom of the postcard, THE FAIRMONT HOTEL  Atop Nob Hill, San Francisco, California.  Ernest Drury, General Manager.

The establishment started up back in the forties.  Amazingly, the place is still there though they have changed the interior to a more tiki like decor as the bottom photo shows.   

Rix Gins

Here is a postcard of The Blue Bird Tourist Court in Arkansas.  This is an unused card (no message on the back) and a researcher estimates that it was printed sometime between 1930  and 1955.

The back of the card says,  'Blue Bird Tourist Court - Located 2 miles East of North Little Rock, Ark. on Highway 67-70 "Memphis Highway."  24 cottages completely modern with innerspring mattresses, fans, gas heat, shower baths and hot water 24 hours a day.  Private Garages. Telephone and Western Union Service. H.H. Lewis, Manager. Phone 2-9542.'

Pretty sure the Blue Bird is no longer there as I wasn't able to find any info on it.  I did find another card that was obviously printed at a later date (notice how the trees have grown up behind the  master cottage.)  Bottom photo...not from my collection.

I noticed that someone on ebay is selling one just like mine.  With postage, they want $9.99.  I saw another site that values the card at $15.95.







albrecht

Quote from: chefist on May 13, 2016, 04:29:38 PM
LOL...I know...it was their slogan back in the day...


I love seeing Wall Drug signs around the world. They were the first "viral" marketers, I think. Other than Kilroy Was Here, but that wasn't selling anything. "Free ice water" also, btw!

Rix Gins

Here is a typical 'scenic' type of postcard that is titled 'Pacific Ocean Seacoast.'  Another unused postcard with nothing on it except for a printed description.  'Pounding surf, sparkling sands and a profusion of native flowers make the coastal region of Oregon a mecca for the tourist who seeks natural beauty at its loveliest.'  Ektachrome by Walt Dyke.  (Mr. Dyke must have been a well known photographer.  You can find his work on line.)

Rix Gins

This postcard is a 'personality' type showing the actress/opera singer Reta Walters.  I really couldn't find much info on Reta but oddly enough, I came across a number of postcards with her picture on them.  (The one being shown here was not among them.)

Age wise, it would have been hard to guess how old the card is but thankfully this is a used postcard and there is a postal date cancellation on the back showing 190?  So 1900 something, right?  Well, we can narrow it down even further by examining the stamp used to mail the postcard.  That is a Ben Franklin 1 cent stamp with twelve perforations around the stamps edges.  The stamp was issued on February of 1903.  (It's worth a whopping 30 cents on today's market, in case you were wondering.)

There is also a hand written note scrawled on the back of the postcard.  Strange to think that you are reading somebody's note that was written more than 102 years ago.
     

albrecht

Not a favorite postcard but I found this cleaning out a drawer.


Rix Gins

Cool plane and train.  I like.  Thanks guys. 

I just bot maybe 1000 old postcards at a garage sale.  Seems like most are maybe 1900-1920, a bunch from around 1920-1940, and some into the 1960s.  Some pos peeled the stamps off a lot of them, quite a few were never mailed. 

Seems to be quite a few with Thanksgiving or Easter themes, National Parks, a lot of random tall buildings in various cities, the rest are a little bit of everything.  I was hoping there would be more with scenes from around here, but didn't see that many - although there are a couple dozen or so from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal.

vintage postcards are full of ghosts.


Rix Gins

Quote from: Paper*Boy on May 19, 2016, 10:03:05 PM
I just bot maybe 1000 old postcards at a garage sale.  Seems like most are maybe 1900-1920, a bunch from around 1920-1940, and some into the 1960s.  Some pos peeled the stamps off a lot of them, quite a few were never mailed. 

Seems to be quite a few with Thanksgiving or Easter themes, National Parks, a lot of random tall buildings in various cities, the rest are a little bit of everything.  I was hoping there would be more with scenes from around here, but didn't see that many - although there are a couple dozen or so from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal.

Sounds like a cool find, especially those Panama Pacifics.  I hardly ever find postcards at garage sales, seems like mostly just paperback books, cassette tapes and old vhs movies.  Antique stores usually have shoe boxes filled with postcards.

You mentioned a number of topics they cover and that's what I like about them.  You can find just about anything on postcards..  I like the ones that have a person's actual picture on one side while the other side has space for a note and a stamp...because it is after all, a real postcard.

 

albrecht

Quote from: Rix Gins on May 19, 2016, 11:09:22 PM
Sounds like a cool find, especially those Panama Pacifics.  I hardly ever find postcards at garage sales, seems like mostly just paperback books, cassette tapes and old vhs movies.  Antique stores usually have shoe boxes filled with postcards.

You mentioned a number of topics they cover and that's what I like about them.  You can find just about anything on postcards..  I like the ones that have a person's actual picture on one side while the other side has space for a note and a stamp...because it is after all, a real postcard.


I find a number of old postcards and worse old photo albums, family Bibles with inscriptions, and photographs at estate sales and garage sales. It actually makes me sad, but some of the stuff is interesting. But, really, it make me sad because I'm trying to find some cool stuff but then you see some personal history of a person/family that is, apparently, no longer cared for or line ended, just being sold off. And some people, receivers, auctioneers, etc will price everything. Sort of sucks.

Rix Gins

Quote from: Evil Twin Of Zen on May 19, 2016, 10:48:36 PM
vintage postcards are full of ghosts.



So true.  Nice clear postal date there.  Cool, hand stamped cancellation mark over the stamp, too.  Interesting how the barest of an address would still get mail to its proper destination back then. 

albrecht

Quote from: Rix Gins on May 19, 2016, 11:19:22 PM
So true.  Nice clear postal date there.  Cool, hand stamped cancellation mark over the stamp, too.  Interesting how the barest of an address would still get mail to its proper destination back then.
Believe-it-or-not: it still will. My mom told me she got a letter from an aunt who is well into her 90's (I verified later) for a addressed wrongly letter, in cursive and hesitant script (due to some age issues though she is still sharp as a pin.) I would post if I had and not make spam or whatever. But it was amazing. Hard to read, penned, cursive and wrong address (by some extra zero) and "zip" wrong. Delivered. Hails out to Postmen!

Rix Gins

Quote from: albrecht on May 19, 2016, 11:25:52 PM
Believe-it-or-not: it still will. My mom told me she got a letter from an aunt who is well into her 90's (I verified later) for a addressed wrongly letter, in cursive and hesitant script (due to some age issues though she is still sharp as a pin.) I would post if I had and not make spam or whatever. But it was amazing. Hard to read, penned, cursive and wrong address (by some extra zero) and "zip" wrong. Delivered. Hails out to Postmen!

Wow.  Chalk one up for the postal service. 

Lt.Uhura

The Fillmore East/West and other music venues used to send out postcards (replicas of the posters) announcing upcoming shows to folks on their mailing lists.  Now collectibles!

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albrecht

Quote from: Rix Gins on May 19, 2016, 11:40:30 PM
Wow.  Chalk one up for the postal service.
The Postal Service is a weird deal. They are caught between two-worlds and also exhibit things like you see in more retail environments (depends what neighborhood you are in etc.) The small local (outside the city) Post Office? No lines, everyone friendly, will stay open for a bit, etc. But new system says I have to go into city to get packages or certified mail. Longlines, staff just talking to each other etc? It is weird. My local one even (one place now is a newer so has one of those community mailboxes, which I hate, but it is based on when neighborhood is built.) But even there sometimes I get a letter with improper postage delivered and a hand-written note with a brown envelope saying "postage due"!! I asked the gal at the post-office and she said it was "option" of deliver or post-master based on where the item was in the process or just the postman's choice.  I bitch about the guvmit but actually will praise the post office, from a kid getting cool stuff from a comic book catalog or to the service today. They are in trouble due to regulations, pensions, and being quasi-government but not really so can't compete.

Lt.Uhura

Another favorite of mine.   :D   Nimoy volunteered Spock's support for that year's American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout

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albrecht

Quote from: Lt.Uhura on May 19, 2016, 11:56:30 PM
Another favorite of mine.   :D   Nimoy volunteered Spock's support for that year's American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout

[attachment id=1 msg=816948]
I suspect an infernal tobacconist conspiracy, why choose sorta alien-looking character (Yul Benner also) to talk about tobacco dangers! I'm surprised "vaping" companies haven't bought rights to a "West World" Brenner or Spock to sell those devices.


Rix Gins

Quote from: Lt.Uhura on May 19, 2016, 11:41:39 PM
The Fillmore East/West and other music venues used to send out postcards (replicas of the posters) announcing upcoming shows to folks on their mailing lists.  Now collectibles!

[attachment id=1 msg=816934]

Now how cool is that?  I honestly didn't know that they did that.  Would be fun to have the whole set. 

Lt.Uhura

Quote from: albrecht on May 20, 2016, 12:00:06 AM
I suspect an infernal tobacconist conspiracy, why choose sorta alien-looking character (Yul Benner also) to talk about tobacco dangers! I'm surprised "vaping" companies haven't bought rights to a "West World" Brenner or Spock to sell those devices.

Spock was a trusted figure and the underlying message was clearly that it wasn't logical to smoke. 

albrecht

Quote from: Rix Gins on May 20, 2016, 12:03:48 AM
Now how cool is that?  I honestly didn't know that they did that.  Would be fun to have the whole set.
I don't have them but just a few years ago there was a weird phenomena of bars having free post cards to take, various gins etc. Also, in another country, a weird, I thought, a Deutshche Bank president campaing, put in post cards into papers and magazines. I sent some home because it was so weird. Also some Dutch postcards for that wedding (controversial because gal was a daughter of a strong-man) were good. (But better, i need to find it was a rubic's cube thing I bought where you could switch around and "find" the various wedding pictures.

Ciardelo

Quote from: Rix Gins on May 13, 2016, 03:50:38 PM
Here is a postcard of The Blue Bird Tourist Court in Arkansas.  This is an unused card (no message on the back) and a researcher estimates that it was printed sometime between 1930  and 1955.

The back of the card says,  'Blue Bird Tourist Court - Located 2 miles East of North Little Rock, Ark. on Highway 67-70 "Memphis Highway."  24 cottages completely modern with innerspring mattresses, fans, gas heat, shower baths and hot water 24 hours a day.  Private Garages. Telephone and Western Union Service. H.H. Lewis, Manager. Phone 2-9542.'

Pretty sure the Blue Bird is no longer there as I wasn't able to find any info on it.  I did find another card that was obviously printed at a later date (notice how the trees have grown up behind the  master cottage.)  Bottom photo...not from my collection.

I noticed that someone on ebay is selling one just like mine.  With postage, they want $9.99.  I saw another site that values the card at $15.95.
I live just off of Route 66 here in Tulsa, and ever since you posted this I've wanted to go to the The Blue Bird Tourist Court in Arkansas. Damnit.

I found a faint reference on a posting about a long-gone movie theater with the poster claiming his folks ran a Blue Bird Tourist Court...but i don't know if it was The Blue Bird Tourist Court in Arkansas.  :D

We made the trek out West to California when I was a kid. I had no idea it was a special time, with all the little roadside motels. I remember meeting kids out in the pools. Some were going East, some West. My Dad even had a Super 8 camera. Lots of video, and we even got it converted to VHS two decades ago. It's probably time to get it to a more permanent medium. Any suggestions?

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