For me historical photographs even if they are unpretentious and unassuming provide a different perspective & keen insight on life and in particular how it was lived and experienced. This series of 25 photographs provides a mere peep into that lost world. Whilst most of the photographs fascinated me, I ultimately chose this one of the Beatles a year before they became famous as the main picture.
Main picture: The Beatles play for 18 people in the Aldershot club before they rose to fame a year later. [December, 1961]
I suspose that the main reason why it enthralled me was when I considered those 18 people that they could attract to a dance were unwittingly witness to a musical sensation in the making. Imagine what they would tell their friends over a drink a year later.
In the late 1960’s Michael Baker & I had a similar, but not so earth shattering experience. During the interval of a movie at the Grand Theatre in Main Street Port Elizabeth, the Dealians, a hotel band from the Deal Hotel in East London, performed. Neither of us had ever heard of them. On the way home on the bus, we assessed their chances of making the big time. Neither of us was enamoured with their prospects. Yet shortly afterwards they cracked it and became a minor sensation.
In retrospect with 40 years hindsight they were a great band. Given the fact that both of us had discovered heavy rock – me in Grand Funk Live – and Michael in Black Sabbath, neither of us was besotted with standard pop music fare.
Neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne electrocuting a man’s face in order to study facial muscles. France. [1862]
The ‘walking machine’ at the National Bureau of Standards, for testing wear on shoes. [1937]
J.D Salinger working on ‘Catcher in the Rye’ during the Allied invasion of France. When he landed on the beaches of Normandy, he carried 6 chapters of the book in his pack. [c. 1944 – 45]
Jackie Mitchell, the only female in history to strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. [April 2,1931]
Transporting ‘The Apple’, India’s first satellite. [1981]
The only picture ever taken of the “Colditz cock”, a glider made of bed-sheets, floorboards and other material. It was built by British prisoners of war to try and escape the maximum security prison. [1945]
Another photograph of the Beatles at that “concert” for 18 people
Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett signing a baseball for Sonny Capone, the son of Al Capone. [1931]
Gas mask being fitted to a mule by a Sikh soldier of the British Indian Army. [c. 1939 – 1945]
Confederate veteran, Billy Lundy, born 1858, standing in front of an F-86 jet fighter. [1955]
Woman undergoing anti-freckles treatment with carbon dioxide. [c. 1930s]
A priest prays for the Titanic’s victims before they are buried at sea. [1912]
A candid photograph of a B-17 bombardier heading towards Germany. [c. 1940s]
A beggar running alongside King George V’s coach. [1920]
The unbroken seal on Tutankhamun’s tomb, untouched for 3,245 years. [1922]
The filming of the MGM screen credits. [1928]
Factory workers race on the roof of the Fiat Factory. Turin, Italy. [1923]
A 5 MB hard drive is loaded onto a PanAm plane. [1956]
The East Bay Dragons, the first black bikers’ club. Oakland, California. [c. 1960s]
One of the first ‘flight simulators’, moving the stick moved the model plane. [1942]
Test pilot George Aird narrowly ejecting sideways from a British prototype jet that nosedived. [1962]
Che Guevara and Fidel Castro gone fishing. [1960]
A Pakistani soldier, during Bangladesh’s war of Independence, checks to see whether a man is Hindu by seeing if he is circumcised or not. [c. 1971]
This highway was so deserted during the Oil Crisis that one group of people decide to have a picnic on it. [1973]
Queen Elizabeth II firing a British L85 battle rifle. Surrey, England. [1993]