Bodybuilder Gene Hill with an unidentified bathing beauty at one of Jacksonville’s beaches in the early 1960’s. Admit it, as corny as it is we’ve all taken one of these shots at some point in our lives.
Tags: bathing beauty, bathing suit, beach, bodybuilder, Gene Hill, man, ocean, pay phone, phone booth, surf, waves, woman
“The Honeymoon Suite at a motel on Philips Highway, about 1951. Picture was taken at night, with two flashbulbs on the inside of room. This room was a great showcase, as you drove down the street, you could hardly miss it. A 4X5 view-camera was used.” LS
Things have changed a little bit at the Philips Highway motels since 1951…
Tags: bedroom, historic photograph, honeymoon suite, hotel, night, Philips Highway, vintage photography, window
“This shows the mine that was laid in many places at Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and many other places around our area. I have no idea how many were put in our waters but this was the way it was done. 1943, 1944.” LS
From the US Navy web site reference to Mine Warfare: “The cost of producing and laying a mine is usually anywhere from 0.5% to 10% of the cost of removing it, and it can take up to 200 times as long to clear a minefield as to lay it. Parts of some World War II naval minefields still exist, because they are too extensive and expensive to clear; some of these mines might remain dangerous for hundreds of years.” And you worry about getting bit by a shark…
Tags: Atlantic Beach, explosive, historic photograph, jacksonville beach, mine, Naval Station Mayport, navy, vintage photography, WW II
There is no information with this photo but the little sign in the upper right corner led me to what looks like the IBM 803 Proof Machine. According to information from a site with information on vintage IBM equipment this was used to “sort, list, prove and endorse checks, sales tickets, vouchers and other business documents in a single operation. Containing 32 sorting receptacles, the 803 had a number of compartment adding tapes. A control tape recorded all transactions in the original sequence, with sub and final totals of distributions. The ten-key electrified adding machine keyboard simplified the 803’s operation. The machine also had signal lights to indicate the near depletion of the tape supply and other operating conditions.” The IBM 803 became available in 1949. If for some reason you need even more information you can find it here. If you know where this photograph was taken or the identities of any of the young ladies working with these technological wonders, please share that information with us.
Tags: Banking, banking machines, business, historic photograph, IBM, Proof Machines, vintage photography, women
Update on this previously posted photo: This is not The Great Malenko as the note with the print led me to believe but after a heads up by Vintage Jacksonville viewer LP Steve who is obviously more knowledgeable about vintage professional wrestling than I am, it looks like it it actually Jose “El Grand” Lothario.
Lothario’s professional wrestling career started in the early 1960’s and continued into the early 1980’s. He fought tag team with Eddie Graham and Jacksonville wrestler Don Curtis and won the NWA Florida Brass Knuckles title in 1968 by defeating Boris Malenko. A full profile of his career can be found here.
Tags: coliseum, historic photograph, Jacksonville Coliseum, Jose Lothario, Malenko, professional wrestling, vintage photography
A night scene of a Budweiser beer billboard in an unknown location. No date is included with this photograph but this label style went into use by Budweiser in the 1940’s and was not changed until around 1960 so the sign predates the Jacksonville brewery which began construction in 1967.
Tags: advertising, beer, billboard, Budweiser, historic photography, night, sign, vintage photograph
An aerial view of Jacksonville Beach looking West from over the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to a little help from the Beaches Museum & History Park we decided that this was from the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. It looks so underdeveloped and small compared to what it has become today and there is nothing on the horizon beyond “the ditch”.
Tags: aerial, Atlantic Ocean, Beach Blvd., beaches, development, historic photography, Intracoastal, jacksonville beach, vintage photograph
“This picture was taken at the farmers market on West Beaver Street. It was taken for the Bing Company, the sign tells it all. 40’s.” LS
This was about the same time that window unit air conditioners first started becoming available to cool homes. I really don’t want to think about life in Florida before that.
Tags: advertising, air conditioned, B.J. Bing, Beaver Street, farmers market, fresh, Frigidmist, historic photograph, men, produce, sales, vegetables, vintage photography
“Here is a view looking South towards the Main Street Bridge. The picture was taken from Duval and Main Street. The first building on the left is, The Railroad Building. Next was Cherry’s Bar, next was the Clark Building. Across the street was the Masonic Building with the Temple Theatre, next was the Stericha’s Furniture, across the street was Walgreen’s Drug Store, then the Lynch Building. Across the street was the Dyal-Upchurch Building then the bridge. 1952.” LS
An amazing view of Jacksonville buildings that no longer exist. With the exception of the Lynch Building and the Dyal-Upchurch Building, the rest have been replaced by a pocket park, a parking lot, and a parking garage along the East side of Main Street.
Tags: 001887, Buildings, demolished, downtown, Dyal-Upchurch, historic phtotograph, Lynch Building, Main Street, vintage photography
When I first made contact with Joe Dube’ he told me that after Loyd Sandgren passed away someone delivered an envelope of photographic prints to him at his office in the Independent Life building from Loyd. There was only one print of Joe that I have seen in the roughly 15,000 images in the Sandgren collection so I was eager to see what else was he had. These two are from those photographs which Joe generously shared with Vintage Jacksonville along with another great story to go with the first image.
“Now this picture was taken by Loyd at the old Jacksonville Arena. (at Main and Beaver Streets) The Jacksonville promoter and owner of the Arena was Jimmy Murdock, he was something else…Paul Anderson (known as The World’s Strongest Man) gave a weightlifting exhibition there, that’s back when Paul Anderson was wrestling. He lifted this weight up that’s on the mat here where they wrestled, he did some squats with it on his shoulders. They put it down and the took it of the racks and they had this dumbbell, big dumbbell and they say it was a 200 lb. dumbbell but I think it was a little more than that actually, it was about 220 lb. dumbbell. They asked anybody in the crowd, Paul Anderson did a one armed bent press with it, Jimmy Murdoch announced that if anybody out in the stands wanted to try that he would give them three ringside tickets, free tickets if anybody could lift it over their head or even get it up to their shoulders. Two guys, pretty big guys tried to lift it but they couldn’t get it up to their shoulders. And here I am, I was 180 something pounds, and I’d been lifting and training and weightlifting and all, and the guys I was with, some of my old buddies in the neighborhood I went down to the wrestling match with kept pushing me to go down there and try it. They finally talked me into it so I went down there and said ‘well, I’ll try it’, raised my arm up and I went down there. There was a big crowd in there, so I jumped up on the side there were the ropes were at and slung my leg up over the rope and when I did the whole seat of my pants ripped out. And when it did, people cracked up and started laughing. Well Jimmy Murdoch got a towel, a white towel, and put a towel behind my pants so no one could see my whole pants ripped out. So I bent down to lift this weight here and I used two hands to clean it up to my shoulder, to get it up to my shoulder I used both hands. I almost jerked it over my head with one arm. You see right there, I dipped and I jerked and it went arms length and I didn’t quite lock it out. I held it there for just a matter of a couple of seconds and then down it came, crashed onto the mat. Paul Anderson, he looked in amazement, he was shocked. Here this little kid going up there under 200 ponds, almost lifted this weight over his head. He walked up to me and kind of whispered to me, ‘do you weightlift?’ and I said ‘yes, yes sir’. He knew right away that I was a weightlifter. But anyway, they give me ringside tickets and all. I was 16 or 17 years old.” Joe Dube’
Another early photo of Joe Dube’ Sr. at a competition. According to Joe he had just turned 16 and was pressing 260 pounds in this photo. Pretty amazing but not that surprising for someone who would go on to set Junior weightlifting records, win a Bronze Medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and then win the World Championship in the super-heavyweight class in 1969, beating the two weightlifters that bested him for Gold and Silver in the Olympics.
Tags: Beaver Street, historic photograph, Jimmy Murdock, Joe Dube, Main Street, Olympic Medal, Olympics, Paul Anderson, vintage photography, weightlifter, weightlifting
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