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Period images to relieve some of the stress


Walt G

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17 hours ago, John_Mereness said:

Hedy Lamarr

best of old hollywood on Twitter: "candid photo of hedy lamarr ...

 

 

Hedy Lamarr. Although mostly best remembered for her scandalous run through the woods (nude) in the 1932/'33 (depending on what source you read) German film "Ecstasy", she was in fact a genius in the truest sense of the word.

 

Back a few decades ago, when I was working in cutting edge communications systems, her name would show up occasionally. She was even the main topic of discussion for a couple hours at a systems seminar I attended about 35 years ago. Stories vary depending upon sources, and some "facts" are in dispute. Apparently, while still a young actress living in Germany, and married to a wealthy munitions manufacturer from Austria, she managed to be a "good hostess" for quite a number of high level military meetings. Between serving drinks, and lighting cigarettes, she listened in to discussions about what to do with this new radio technology. She apparently understood the concept, and electrical processes much better than most of the experts working on military uses did. A few years later, after being brought to America by Louis B. Mayer, and seeing a few other uses for radio frequencies and electronics in general, she invented a frequency shifting system that was so far ahead of its time, nobody then could find much of a use for it. She went forward and took out patents for the system, but was never able to collect much money for it. Eventually, the first round patents ran out, and she unfortunately did not renew them. A few years later, US military found uses in remotely guiding torpedoes and missiles. Additional military uses led to other ideas which in turn led to civilian ideas and the value of the patents had they been continued in effect would have reached an estimated dollar value in the tens of billions. Electronics experts and historians believe that had she stayed in Germany, and somehow been inspired to create that frequency shifting system for the Reich? The battle for Briton may have gone totally differently. Germany could have been able to control all those hundreds (thousands?) of robot bombs to valuable targets instead of just lobbing them en masse to fall randomly wherever they ran out of fuel. 

Today, her invention is used for many things. Your cell phone you use nearly everyday could not function reliably without her technology.

 

The amazing things one can find out studying history.

Edited by wayne sheldon (see edit history)
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8 hours ago, John_Mereness said:

Hollywood film shot in Christchurch in 1950s – and in a fake NZ in ...

 

Even though this movie first came out in 1935 this photo was taken a few years later. I note the cars have right hand drive so it might be Australia - maybe.

 

The small light coloured convertible is a Standard Eight a model that first appeared in 1938.

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12 hours ago, John_Mereness said:

109494426_10158904974177189_1211092479799677215_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=N84ucVge0woAX9MH4YX&_nc_ht=scontent.fluk1-1.fna&oh=b456b78592ebd4d022a3b5ff6be75f44&oe=5F398E2E

 

 

Underneath that "special", is a mostly model T chassis. The driver? None other than a young Edsel Ford, sitting in one of his first automotive creations. The car was rebuilt and redesigned several times, gaining a more complete body, and better lines. The engine. Somewhat of an unknown. Around this same time, Henry Ford had a special engineering department that built several (exact number is not known) special engines used in "special" racing cars made to look like common model T chassis, but with the special engines providing greater horsepower and designed to just fit into common racing categories. One engine actually had less displacement than the standard model T so it could be raced in a category the standard Ford was too large for! It has been postulated that this car MAY have had one of those special high horsepower engines. Several people have tried researching this car, both how it appears here, and in the forms it later became. Solid answers seem to be in short supply for it.

 

I believe this makes my official one thousandth post on this forum!

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Here is a Locomoile ( I believe that the same photo was used in a Locomobile sales piece) written in pencil on the back it ( I think ) says "Miss Farnamn eating a snow cone in July" location is the Alps.

Not sure of model or year but am guessing ca. 1911?

LocomobileALPS1911001.jpg

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12 hours ago, alsancle said:


John,  close but not the same.  I posted a picture of the 2 passenger convertible coupe.  Everything else you will find is the 5 Passenger phaeton.

So where did your car "hang out" when sold new and where did it go from there ?  And how many do you think they built (I keep seeing 3, though that is 3 x times more pictures that should be find-able)

Michigan2012-079-1024x768.thumb.jpg.0e405ca23517c95cc6708a8d9dd4d7fe.jpg

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10 hours ago, nzcarnerd said:

 

Even though this movie first came out in 1935 this photo was taken a few years later. I note the cars have right hand drive so it might be Australia - maybe.

NZ,

 

Could be. See there's a "Milk Bar" next to the Picture Theatre. In my Sydney Suburb, Eastwood, growing up the local Picture Theatre, the Odeon was flanked by Milk Bars on either side of the entrance. They did a roaring trade at intermission! Pic attached even has some cars in it, so right at home in this thread!

Eastwood Odeon.jpg

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1 hour ago, John_Mereness said:

So where did your car "hang out" when sold new and where did it go from there ?  And how many do you think they built (I keep seeing 3, though that is 3 x times more pictures that should be find-able)

Michigan2012-079-1024x768.thumb.jpg.0e405ca23517c95cc6708a8d9dd4d7fe.jpg

 

No idea where it was sold new.  It was in Massachusetts on a Cape Cod used car lot in 1949.    There are two known convertibles,  the two passenger coupe above chassis #0 and the 5 passenger phaeton chassis #5.  So you have 4 missing chassis numbers in between.   You also have the 5 passenger Hupmobile which besides the engine is identical to car #5.

 

All of the period pictures that I have seen with the exception of the newspaper clipping I posted show the 5 passenger car.  

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 Westinghouse Parking Machine , Chicago , Illinois

that is the caption typed on the back of the photograph.

No other information as to address but the painted information on the wall says 115 So. Dearborn Street  as the location for offices for rent

so that may give a clue as to the area at least. Really narrow windows on the building shown in the photograph to the left of the parking machine.

PARKingmachine1932001.jpg

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