Gypsy SHOPPING

Click on image to see it larger.

They have now been named, from the left to right: Cleo, Dolly, and Gypsy.

This time we have a photo of Gypsy aboard ship in the gift shop; this is how I've determined she's cruising the Pacific. The dolls in the shop are dolls that were very popular in the late '50s to late '60s, especially in Hawaii. The ones on the bottom shelf are Japanese composition dolls with faces coated with gofun (ground oystershell and glue). The ones on the top are Chinese.

I've got quite a few old, mid-century, Japanese dolls that my folks bought me when we lived in Hawaii. I know collectors pretty much ignore Japanese dolls, I guess thinking of them as just souvenirs. If I had the money I'd be buying them all the time. I love dolls from Asia. The colors, the clothing, the simple beauty draw me in. I'd much rather have a beautiful old Japanese Ichimatsu than a Jumeau in their ruffled finery. The little ones below are from my collection; still in decent condition considering how much I played with them.

I do recall running by the gift shop on the Matsonia. There was also a beauty salon. You didn't have a huge array of shops as current ships do (which are nothing more than shopping malls). You really weren't expected to spend your time shopping. There was too much to do outside on the deck in the glorious sun as you headed to Hawaii.

When I came back from Hawaii it was aboard a Navy ship. There were no fancy shops, movie theater, or beauty salon. There was a shipboard geedunk stand that was open for a short time each day. It was a narrow room with a walk-up window and counter. You bought candy and such from a sailor. They might have also had comic books and magazines, I don't recall. The photo here, of the Goofy comic, was aboard Gypsy's liner.

I do remember going to the shipboard library every day. It too was only open a short time and was very small, but it kept me amused for the 5 day journey. It would be nice to be in one of those old berths, the ship cutting through the waves, rocking from side to side, me reading and falling asleep. I could use a bit of that right now.

Gypsy at the CAPTAIN'S PARTY

I think Gypsy was a very social person even though I only have a few photos of her with other people. She certainly looks to be having a grand time at this shipboard party, but it's the other people who draw me in, specifically the two fellows eyeing each other across the table.

Now certainly, this was just a moment caught that meant nothing, but out of context it strikes me very funny. And the fellow in the background with the hat looking up at the balloon, I could easily delete that balloon and we'd all be left wondering why this partygoer was staring at the ceiling.

Click on image to see it larger.

I'm thinking this was a Pacific cruise. Tomrrow...the gift shop!

Gypsy SETS SAIL

Gypsy went on cruise ships back in the day when it was a pleasant experience. The ships were beautiful and didn't look like the horrors of today, tankers filled to brim with shipping crates. There was fun and excitement to sailing across the sea; it started before you left port as you listened to the band and threw streamers off the ship to the people below on the docks. Those streamers were the only thing that tethered you to those not going along. You knew you were starting out on an adventure.

As a child in Hawaii we used to go down to visit new military families when they arrived. The dock was at the Honolulu Tower and there beside it would be one of the beautiful Matson liners. To a kid playing in the streamers thrown from the ship was just as much fun as being the one throwing them.

No idea where Gypsy was heading, but she certainly looks very happy. Over the next few days there will be two more photos of her aboard ship and a hint that she is most likely aboard a ship in the Pacific.

Click on image to see it larger.

Alfred Kallman on CLIFF HOUSE TOUR

Only a single photo from my collection this week.

If you've seen past posts about the Kallman family you will probably recognize Alfred, patriarch of the family.

This is Alfred aboard a touring car in San Francisco, probably around 1919. He was on his way to see the Cliff House restaurant and Sutro Baths. The Cliff House still exists, the Sutro Baths not so much. And when I say the Cliff House still exists, it's not the Cliff House Alfred would have seen.

Click on image to see it larger.

The Cliff House has burned down several times. The photo below shows it at its most gorgeous, but it too burned down over 100 years ago.

I'll let good old Wikipedia fill-in some details about this San Francisco landmark.

The Cliff House is a restaurant perched on the headlands on the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach on the western side of San Francisco, California. It overlooks the site of the former Sutro Baths and a room-sized camera obscura and is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service.

Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House. The second Cliff house was built for Captain Junius G. Foster, but it was a long trek from the city and hosted mostly horseback riders, small game hunters or picnickers on day outings. With the opening of the Point Lobos toll road a year later, the Cliff House became successful with the Carriage trade for Sunday travel. The builders of the toll road constructed a two mile speedway beside it where well-to-do San Franciscans raced their horses along the way. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Soon, omnibus railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach. The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travelers in search of meals and a look at the Sea Lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks, just off the cliffs to visit the area.

In 1877, the toll road, now Geary Boulevard, was purchased by the City for around $25,000. In 1883, after a few years of downturn, the Cliff House was bought by Adolph Sutro who had solved the problems of ventilating and draining the mines of the Comstock Lode and become a multimillionaire. After a few years of quiet management by J.M. Wilkens, the Cliff House was severely damaged by a dynamite explosion when the schooner, Parallel, ran aground. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern. The building was repaired, but was later completely destroyed on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue. Wilkens was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three Presidents and dozens of illustrious world-famous visitors.

In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, called by some "the Gingerbread Palace", below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. This was the same year work began on the famous Sutro Baths, which included six of the largest indoor swimming pools north of the Restaurant that included a museum, skating rink and other pleasure grounds. Great throngs of San Franciscans arrived on steam trains, bicycles, carts and horse wagons on Sunday excursions.

The Cliff House and Sutro Baths survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage but burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907. Dr. Emma Merritt, Sutro's daughter, commissioned a rebuilding of the restaurant in a neo-classical style that was completed within two years and is the basis of the structure seen today. In 1937, George and Leo Whitney purchased the Cliff House, complementing their Playland-at-the-Beach attraction nearby and extensively remodeling it into an American roadhouse. The building was acquired by the National Park Service in 1977 and became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Many of Whitney's additions were removed and the building was restored to its 1909 appearance. In 2003, an extensive further renovation added a new two-story wing overlooking the Sutro Bath ruins.

The site overlooks Seal Rocks and the former site of the Sutro Baths. More than thirty ships have been pounded to pieces on the southern shore of the Golden Gate below the Cliff House.

The area immediately around Cliff House is part of the setting of Jack London's novel The Scarlet Plague (1912). (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To get a nice overall feeling about the Cliff House through the years click here to go to the official site and stay for the opening historical slideshow, including the Sutro Baths.

To see more images of these tour cars, including this very same No. 20, click here to enter the Cliff House project. And spend a bit more time clicking around the site to see other wonderful images.

There are so many interesting people in the car with Alfred; let's just be thankful he wasn't sitting next to this happy go lucky soul. Actually, I can remember touring Europe with a person with this same joie de vivre.

This is my submission to this weeks Sepia Saturday. Another photo from the George Kallman estate.

And for those who like old photos, but don't visit me during the week, I think you might enjoy the lovely lady I've been posting this week. An unknown woman from the San Francisco/Bay Area. I will resume posting more images of her tomorrow.

In Gypsy's OWN WORDS

Gypsy POSING WITH A CAT

The kitty in this shot looks like a calico. I can identify with that. I can also identify with the cat fur she now has on her dress. Packing tape. I'm just sayin' packing tape! The only thing I've found to take cat hair off of stuff is packing tape. If someone else has a better idea I'm open to your suggestions.

Gypsy again looking lovely.

Gypsy POSE

There's really nothing to say about this other than once again this woman looks lovely. I'm imagining this is 1940s to early '50s. People were still wearing gloves in San Francisco in the early '60s too.

Again, I'd love to see all of the colors in this.

The next few days are nothing more than a fashion show by a woman who had a lot of style throughout her life. Well, I have no idea what she was like as a child. She'd be a fascinating story. What was her childhood like that she grew up to be so fashion conscious? You'll eventually see the final shot that shows right up through her later years she was stepping out.

GYPSY

Maybe you'll see it, maybe you won't. I'm referring to this woman's resemblance to Gypsy Rose Lee.

No information about this photo, but I'm guessing she loved the person who was taking the shot. She looks beautiful and I've tried to imagine what color the gown is. According to the only color photo I have of her, taken late in life, she had red hair. So what color would have looked lovely with red hair and pale skin?