Looks like some photo artist at Curt Teich decided to make a rather bland post card more dramatic by drawing in what looks like a 10B in a power dive over the factory. Scary looking, though.
Anyway, the card dates to 1939.
Tobacco Sale
Tobacco sale. 1940. Big whoop, huh?
Well, as I write this in September of 2019, there are four instances of post cards on ebay that feature this exact picture, but for four different sales…and not one of those cards is this one. Curt Teich in Chicago really got a lot of use out of this photo, which was shot in b&W and colored in at the print shop, as usual.
WSM Radio Tower
WSM Radio in Nashville went on the air in 1925, but didn’t construct this tower until 1932. As it states on this post card from 1935, the tower was 878′ tall…until 1939 when, for technical reasons, the height was reduced to 808′. Read all about it here.
Vickers Viscount
The graceful Vickers Viscount as was flown by Capital Airlines, previously Pennsylvania Central Airlines, in the early ’50s.
They flew into Knoxville McGhee-Tyson, too. I still find Pennsylvania Central Airlines stuff here and there (and buy it whenever I can).
A Sentimental Christmas Card
There’s no attribution on the reverse, so I figure this is an example of the ribaldry you’d find back in the back of your favorite newsstand a few decades ago. Just for the gents, heh, heh.
It’s standard post card size and in rough condition, but, hey, Merry Xmas!
And admire that kid’s, er, penmanship.
VA Administration Center
Much old, great tan. This 1950 post card views the VA Center from the south, taken on an extremely tall tripod, or possibly from an airplane, whatever. The Curt Teich date code is just under the words “Place Stamp Here”.
Zimmerman & Torbett News Agency. I don’t find any informational citations on the web about this business. I seem to remember that it was a news stand.
You can get a good view of this area as it is now on Google Earth.
Goodyear Hot Wheels Blimp
This neat little model of the Goodyear Airship came out in 1992, according to information up on the web. On the bottom of the passenger car is “1991 Malaysia”.
Turning the tailpiece changes the display.
It’s 3.5″ long and about 1.5″ from bottom to top.
PT-19, Fairchild M62
This airplane debuted in 1940, so the date on the reverse is probably correct. Parks Air College (1928 – 1966) was the first federally-certified school of aviation. Located in Cahokia IL.
The card was printed by Curt Teich in Chicago.
Cunard White Star Lancastria
The ship was sunk just six months after this card was sent. Read about her terrible fate here.
And I hope the lady with the excellent handwriting was able to see Gone With the Wind fairly soon up in Marion.
Soldiers’ Home, Johnson City
This was probably printed in the early 1900s – 1907 – 1910 or so. “Commercialchrome” shows it was printed by Curt Teich in Chicago using their 4-color, halftone, lithographic process.
This vendor wrote their booth number and the price in ink. Annoys the hell out of me, but post cards are hard for vendors to control with too many people either altering the price or just slipping them into their pockets. It’s a hard-knock life, no?
A Couple o’ Subs
This is a K-class sub. Distinguished service between 1914 and 1923. The spray, no doubt added in the retouch department, conveniently obscures any identifying marks.
And this is the mighty Nautilus, decommissioned in 1980 to become a museum ship.
These “Defenders of America” cards came to you via boxes of shredded hay, er, wheat between 1958 and 1959.
Look, Ma! No Pods!
All the skinny on this aircraft is here.
After a disastrous, but highly educational, experience with its first Comet iteration, de Havilland has a 30-year success with this 4B.
Sleek aircraft, but there was some concern (from aircraft manufacturers who preferred engine pods) about the engines and the fuel tanks buried in the wings. Flew right well, though.
The card has been folded along its vertical axis. Still a good-looking card, I think.
Eight Names, One Ship
Before this ship was launched as a troop transport in 1944, it was briefly named General R.M. Blatchford (Spanish-American War, WWI). Upon launch, though, it was the General W.P. Richardson (explorer and geographer for the U.S. Army in Alaska). Then it was the LaGuardia, then the Leilani then the President Roosevelt. After that it was the Atlantis, then this Emerald Seas (1972 – 1992), and, finally, the Ocean Explorer I before it was scrapped in India in 2004. The full history is here.
I think the card dates to between 1963 (when Zip Codes went into effect) and maybe 1970. It was printed by Koppel Color Card Company in Hawthorne NJ, which operated in the 1960s, and distributed by the Color-Ads Productions noted on the reverse.
Elvis ’68
This was RCA doing a little promotion for the Elvis comeback tour of ’68. Size is 3.875″ x 2.25″.
U.S.S. Ranger
Behold the U.S.S. Ranger, the first U.S. Navy vessel designed to be an aircraft carrier. Plopped in the water in 1934, the ship made it through WWII (though, due to its relative lack of speed, it stayed in the Atlantic) and was scrapped in 1947.
Vrrrrm! 1932 Marmon
This card was light damaged, so I have changed brightness/contrast parameters to make it more viewable.
Another Cinderella Stamp
This a more developed Cinderella. It apparently came as part of a perforated sheet of stamps. It has glue on the back.
In May of this year, a second well had just opened up in the Permian Basin in Texas…on land owned by the University of Texas. Whoopee! Break out the bubbly!
I browsed the AGA monthly issue that had notice of this convention in 1923. The proceedings looked…well (pun intended), interesting to them what was there, I’m sure.
Nice poster design, though. The stamp is 2.25″ x 3.5″
