Vintage Jacksonville

Men’s roller derby in the Jacksonville Coliseum. It is a little hard to see but a number of fans in the background are smoking. 1960’s.

Tags: Jacksonville Coliseum, men, roller derby, sports

Unidentified model on an unknown beach with a conch shell and a beautiful smile. Sorry guys, judging from the ring she is spoken for.  Late 1940’s?

Tags: beach, conch, model, swim suit, women

Photographer William “Bill” Elsner with models and his Hasselblad camera at the groundbreaking of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville December 12, 1967.  A graduate of Lee High School Elsner’s photographic career started in the military during W.W. II where he served as an aerial photographer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill during fighting in the Pacific.  In the 1950’s he took over his father’s photography business in Jacksonville that was started in 1919.  The two generations of Elsner photographers documented a broad sweep of Jacksonville history with their cameras. Elsner passed away in 2009 at the age of 89.

Tags: Anheuser-Busch, Bill Elsner, camera, groundbreaking, Hasselblad, photographer, women

Looking South East through downtown Jacksonville in the 1950’s.  About the only thing still in this photo today is the Main Street Bridge.  Lower left is the old Union Bus Station.  The light colored 4 story building housed Muntz TV on the ground floor.  Across the river behind the bridge is the Gibbs Shipyard.  Almost everything else on the North bank of the river downtown was warehouses and piers.

Tags: downtown, Gibbs Shipyard, main street bridge, Muntz TV, St. Johns River, Union Bus Station, warehouse

White protest march dated March 22, 1965 on the city parking lot near the location where the Jacksonville Landing now stands.  Warren Folks is leading the march with a sign that reads ‘This Small White March is in Protest of the Big Black March in Alabama’.  This would have been three days before the approximately 2,000 civil rights marchers arrived in Montgomery, Alabama after walking from Selma, the site of brutal attacks on protesters.

I remember talking with Warren on a number of occasions when I would run into him around downtown Jacksonville in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.  He was never shy about sharing his opinions.  Haven’t seen him in quite a few years…

Tags: civil rights, signs, Warren Folks, white protest

An unidentified model demonstrating a Beautyrest Adjust-A-Bed in a storefront window display in downtown Jacksonville.  1960’s.

Tags: Beautyrest, model, window display

“Another view of the Jacksonville Skyline from the Gibbs Shipyard on the Southside.  I waited for the bridge to go up to get this unusual  view.  8X10 Camera. 1950’s.” LS

Tags: 001459, John T. Alsop Bridge, main street bridge, raised bridge, skyline, St. Johns River

It seems like in the 1950’s and early 1960’s there was a beauty pageant for everything.   There was no information with this particular photo but I was able to glean a little from some other photos that look like they came from the same shoot.  This appears to be from a pageant sponsored by the Florida Photographers Association in 1958.  The winner was named Miss Florida Photography.  The person at far left is beaches photographer Virgil Deane.  I’d appreciate any help identify the other people in the photograph.

I’ve looked at this image quite a few times but just realized that her hat was decorated with photo flashbulbs. I trust the competition was held on a nice humid day as static electricity could have caused things to get really ugly with the flashbulbs.

Tags: flash bulb, model, pageant, photographer, virgil deane

Mayport Naval Station during WWII, dirt roads, what look like graded runways, lots of sand and scrub.  Just a handful of buildings near the West edge of the basin.  Loyd Sandgren served as the Navy Base’s photographer from 1942 to 1945 when according to what he told me, there was just a dirt road leading to the base.  The quality of the vintage print is not great but the contrast to what the base looks like today is amazing.  This military duty started Loyd Sandgren’s 30+ year career as a photographer in Jacksonville, FL.

Tags: aerial, basin, Mayport, navy, St. Johns River

Another photo of Ruthie Moore posing with the hydrangea wearing one of her outfits in Oriental Gardens.  As stated in a previous post she shows up in a number of Loyd Sandgren’s photographs from the early 1950’s when she was in her teens.

Tags: Flowers, hydrangea, model, oriental gardens, Ruthie Moore