Saturday, August 20, 2011

Anything Goes Saturday - Atlantic City

It's Saturday, and that means it's time for another "Anything Goes" installment. Today we'll visit Atlantic City, New Jersey! AC is about 120 miles south of New York City (by road), and while it has experienced many economic ups and downs over the years, it is still widely considered to be the Las Vegas of the East. Ya gots yer shopping, and casinos, and fine dining. And somebody put the Atlantic Ocean right next to it too, which was a smart move.


This cheerful lady appears to be having a swell time at the beach. I imagine what life might have been like back then. Summers on the east coast can be hot and humid, and most folks probably didn't have air conditioning back then. So a drive to the shore was just what the doctor ordered! Heck, looking at that blue sky and bluer water makes me want to got to AC! In the background is the famous Steel Pier, originally opened in 1898. All of the hottest acts performed at the Pier... Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Mae West, and so on. And you could see the high-diving horse, a human cannonball, high-wire acts, ride the roller coaster... it was like a permanent carnival.


Here's our girl again, this time with her hubby. Hotels aplenty line the shore, with the famous boardwalk in between. We'll see some other photos featuring the boardwalk area in the future!


6 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

Bright and sunny. Happy times there, you can see it on their faces. B-D

TokyoMagic! said...

Where's Snookie?

Chuck said...

Considering the national population levels at the time (almost 166 million by the start of July, 1955), I wonder if this was considered a relatively crowded day?

Major Pepperidge said...

Chiana, yeah, sometimes the simple pleasures are the best ones! A little sun and surf on a beautiful day, what could be better.

TM!, this was "PS", pre-Snookie!

Chuck, not only were there 166 million people, but they were only three feet tall.

Orange Co Native said...

Kodachrome slide film was the absolute best. Look at the rich colors. The picture of the woman standing by the boat could have been taken yesterday, but obviously it wasn't. Looks like the 1950's or very early 1960's.

The second photograph was taken with a shallow depth of field. Since it was such a nice sunny day it should have been shot at f/16 or at least f/11. However, f/22 would have been best to get everything nice a clear. It looks like it was taken at f/4 or f/2.8

The sharpness of the images indicates that the 35mm camera and lens was one of quality. Not a cheap camera. Depending on the size of the slide, it could be a medium format camera.

Nice pictures of a bygone time in our country.

Major Pepperidge said...

OC Native, these were in the old red Kodachrome mounts, so I guestimate that they are from no later than 1957. By '58 they were transitioning to white cardboard mounts. I'll take your word about the f-stops, since I don't know diddly about that kind of thing. I agree about the good-quality of the camera (lenses)… if only you knew how many slides I have that look good by eye, but once they are blown up, you can just tell that the camera was cheap. Plastic lenses, bah humbug!