The Mark Strand Theatre, Broadway and 47th Street in New York, was built in 1914 and tottled along presenting shows and exhibiting moving pictures until 1951. That year, it became the Warner Theatre. In 1952, it became the Warner Cinerama Theatre. This card was issued sometime in 1953 to promote the brand-new Cinerama movie experience.
The building was demolished in 1987 to make room, eventually, for the Morgan Stanley building.
The artist is Eugen Hartung (1897 – 1973). He painted many dressed cat pictures, which were published by Max Kűnzli in Zűrich, Switzerland. After WWII, these were published in the United States by Alfred Mainzer, Inc. of New York. This is an original Swiss offering, a lithograph (not a screened print), with the unusual deckle edges. This was a fun research project for me. I’d never heard of these cards before. Any comments or corrections will be appreciated.
Note the boy cats in the windows laughing at the girl cats. And the artist’s signature, which should have been in the lower left, has been cropped out.
The Good Year Blimp “Valiant” NC-11A. Built in 1929, it was wrecked when it ran into a mountainside near Piedmont AL on November 22 (or 20), 1930. No one was injured. The car and fins were used to build the “Columbia”, which lifted off in Akron OH in 1931. It encountered devastating winds while attempting to land at Queens Airport in New York on February 12, 1932. The mechanic on board died when the aircraft shifted and dropped him 50 feet into a gravel pit. The pilot survived.
The reason I mention all this is the noting of the 1930 census in the Chamber puff piece on the back. Because of the Great Depression, there was a great political need to find out the extent of unemployment, so the results were hurried out. I doubt if the Chamber of Commerce of St. Pete would have had the information quoted before the second quarter of 1931. This picture was taken in the summer of 1930 (can’t tell from the vegetation, since the picture was hand colored at the printing plant, and, by gum, it’s always summer in St. Pete, I’ve heard) and, by the time this card was published, the blimp was long gone.
Uncle Bob's Pix 