Photography Handbook 1955 and Universal Photo Almanac 1940 and 1941

It’s 1940 and you want to be a photographer… You could learn from the experts at the New York Institute of Photography, 10 West 33 St., NYC, (established in 1910!)… If you want to “Make good money for work that’s fun!” you could write to Universal Photographers, also, coincidentally, located at 10 West 33 St., NYC… If you don’t want to wait 60 years for the ubiquity of MFA programs you could “take the first step towards combining your photographic ability with that most enjoyable and profitable occupation – writing for publication!” Perhaps the Newspaper Institute of America can help get you started… “Hundreds of photographers have found that pictures sell faster, bring more money, when stories or articles are written around them! WHY DON’T YOU WRITE? It’s simpler than you think! You don’t have to be a genius!” Photo Almanac 1940 and 1941




Weegee, negative magic, Photography Handbook, 1955, pp. 4-9

Weary of humdrum, routine shots? It’s no trick to make fascinating distortions like this self-portrait of the famed news photographer…
The plastic lens offers the easiest and cheapest method I have found for making interesting, artistic and variable distortions…
Whether your bent runs to comedy, modern art, or personality trait emphasis, you will find this tool a help. I certainly hope that everyone who enjoys experiment and new horizons in photography will find it as rich and rewarding as I have. Weegee, negative magic, Photography Handbook, 1955, pp. 4-9

Ralph G. Pressing, True, June 1941, Vol. 9, No. 49, pp. 60-63
Dead Men Do Tell Tales. Weird revelations from the world of the living dead!

According to the Museum of the Macabre.org: “Ralph G. Pressing was a Spiritualist who founded the Psychic Observer newspaper in 1937. He and his wife Juliette operated the business out of a print shop(!) in Jamestown, NY.”

“Countless psychic manifestations have been witnessed by R. G. Pressing, (in the bottom two photos) editor of Psychic Observer, a Spiritualist publication… Many times he has heard the dead speak… Ralph G. Pressing is said to be one of the world’s best known investigators of manifestations from the world beyond… In publishing Mr. Pressing’s fascinating article, the editors offer True readers the other side of the picture, told by a man most able to speak…” True, June 1941, Vol. 9, No. 49, p. 60

No Ouija Board needed if you have emanating ectoplasm…


PM Daily, 04/03 or 04/1947

Found in the Collyer Museum as of April 3d or 4th:
14 pianos
2 organs
2 violins

An old fashioned gramophone

“The record collection had items that were a record-collectors dream:
Bugle Calls, by Chief Trumpet Cassi of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. One side, 7-inch, 1898
La Marseillaise, by Sousa’s Band. One side, 7-inch, 1898
American Republic March, Sousa’s Band. One side, 7-inch, 1898″