Saturday, November 10, 2012

Mystery Locations, USA

I have a few random vintage slides that are kind of cool for various reasons, but I have no idea where they were taken. Maybe somebody out there will recognize one of these places!

This first one is fun, photographed from the back seat of somebody's car as it drove down the main street of some town. "The Young Lions" is playing at the local theater, so we can date the picture to 1958. Iit's a movie about three soldiers during WWII, in case you were wondering. Hey! That ambulance (or whatever the red vehicle is) is driving on the wrong side of the road I have the feeling someone is going to be able to ID this place!


The next photo (from July 1959) shows a cute little town nestled at the base of some imposing hills. Maybe we can make a pit stop at the Chevron station? This definitely looks like one of those places that was driven through on the way to someplace else.


And the last one, which is undated, but almost certainly from the 1950's... it reminds me of parts of Pennsylvania, but could be Missouri or Iowa or just about a zillion other places. Look at all those wonderful cars! 


I hope you have enjoyed today's Mystery Locations!


14 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
All great images. Damn, what did I do with my time machine-?

Chiana_Chat said...

Each of these are fantastic in different ways. I feel as if I ought to have a notion about the 2nd pic but nothing specific is coming to mind. It's dirty, industrial and not looking like it's an easy life but I'm fascinated with it none the less.

Anonymous said...

The first photo: Our car is in the left turn lane, with heavy oncoming traffic to our left. The orange police/emergency vehicle has left the oncoming traffic, and using its flashing lights drives around us against traffic to get to an accident scene. As a passenger in this car, I've grabbed my dad's camera on the back seat and grabbed a quick snap through the windshield of this exciting scene. We now return you to regularly scheduled programming.

TokyoMagic! said...

The telephone pole in that second pic is IN the street! I wonder how many people hit it while parking or just when pulling over to let oncoming traffic pass on that narrow road.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, isn't it funny how even the most prosaic scenes can look awesome to people 50 years later? You and I would step out of the time machine looking at everything with amazement.

Chiana, I can't really tell if pic #2 is dirty. The hills remind me of Gorman, California, which is not industrial at all. Maybe it's just the way the clouds have made shadows that give the hills a "slag heap" appearance…. although the hills ARE covered with hundreds of mysterious poles.

Anon, what do you think was going on with the car that is following the emergency vehicle? It's like you were there! ;-)

TokyoMagic!, ha, I didn't notice that… since the car in the foreground appears to be parked, and the road is very narrow, I wonder if it was a one-way street? Probably not, but it hardly looks as it could handle traffic in two directions.

Anonymous said...

I give up. In pic 1 all we have is Daniels Jeweler’s and Cardy’s Jewlery. So frustrating. The name of the theater is cut off, you can’t read the license plates and Chop Suey doesn’t help!

D-ticket said...

Here's my guesses:

1/ West Broadway, Muskogee OK

2/ Salt Lake City, Utah

3/ Main Street, Elmsford, NY

Anonymous said...

My guess for #2 is adjacent to the Kenicott (best guess spelling) Copper Mine in Utah.

Major Pepperidge said...

Anon, your comment sounds like what my brain was saying to itself!

D-ticket, your guesses are like Mr. Spock's guesses... they are probably right. Do you have a photographic memory?

Anon, you and D-Ticket seem to agree on Utah, anyway... I will do some further research.

Anonymous said...

They all look so familiar. I thought Gorman CA, also.

The last one could almost be a little town near where I grew up in central CA, but the businesses in the brick building are not right. But I remember the passenger cars all parked in the RR right-of-way just like that.

Change the signs, and I could just walk right into it, 8 years old, with an orange Nesbitts soda, walking back to my Dad's truck from the barber shop.

JG

Anonymous said...

That second photo looks like the hill is being readied for a residential addition. There are terraces that look like streets with electrical poles lining each. Then again, it could be switchbacks in a mining operation...and then... :-)

Anonymous said...

I believe this last one is downtown LA. The Chop Suey place is still there:http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/11/18/the_shutter_chop_suey_ballona_gorikee.php

Anonymous said...

The second photo made me think of the old Route 66 near Victorville in the Cajon Pass. You can still drive it and look up at the 15, and there are remnants of old commercial buildings there.

Anonymous said...

The second photo is Copperton Utah near the Bingham Canyon open pit mine. The area is all but engulfed by the mine now.