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April 25, 2008 |
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Busy Beatniks
FOUND by Kurt
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This was found inside a book purchased from a local thrift store. I cannot pin down the year the photo was taken. From the typewriter, my guess would be in the '60s? And there's an old speaker or radio on the shelf in the background. I wonder what these two youths are working on so diligently? A JFK assassination theory? A letter to Nixon perhaps? Or possibly a letter to the Davy Jones fan club? Your guess is as good as mine!
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
they're both wearing black, and his beanie could actually be a balaclava ... very sinister. A ransom note for patty hearst?
also, he looks like a young john cusack.
I was also going to say he totally looks like John Cusack.
I'll third the Cusack look.
Her part is perfect.
Solely from the beanie, I'd go with the Mike Nesmith fan club! But it could very well be that the MONKEES kidnapped Patty Hearst!
@man behind the curtain, this photo was clearly taken back before colors were invented, so EVERYONE wore black. Well, either that, gray, or white.
Cusack seems amazed by what the girl is typing.
It's the early workings of "Being John Malkovich".
They look like Thespians. I'll bet they're writing a play. Maybe it IS Cusack, doing a Buddy Holly/Mike Nesmith impersonation.
Oh, I think working on the student newspaper for sure. Mid 60's.
My kids once asked me if the WHOLE WORLD was black and white when I was a child. LOL
She either has something in her teeth or she just does that weird thing with her mouth when she is really on to something good. Maybe Cusack is not excited about what she's writing, maybe he's just a mouth breather.
Priceless Find!
Must ask the requisite question: KURT!! What was the book??
As for my only other response, Megan already said it: the knit stocking cap screms Mike Nesmith, not Davy.
I think her hair was dyed to be lighter... look at the color below the ears on both sides versus above.
@chillin - What makes you think they're from Thespia? They look like Americans to me.
It reminds me of the shcool office, the speaker in the back being part of the intercom system....."Class, CLASS....ClASS! SHUT UP! Thank you."
@Ian - Well the one in glasses could be a thespian what with the short hair and bulky sweatshirt, probably wearing combat boots ... no, wait, that only rhymes with 'thespian'.
Never mind.
She's clearly typing out some biting political commentary and Cusak can't believe the word she used to describe President Johnson.
@Heather Elaine - I almost forgot about Sister Mary Elephant! Thanks for the flashback!
It has so much grainy b&w mystique! But it's probably just two high school year book staffers. Nerds from a different era look chic to us now...
The boy on the left reminds me of Maynard G. Krebs from Dobie Gillis. Anyone know who I am talking?
Yes, Nadine! aka Gilligan
My mind read that in Sr Mary Elephants voice-- even before I got to the end. 8D
BTW, this looks so much like a picture out of a high school year book! Not mid-60s, though, more like late 60s.
Yes, Nadine, you're talking about Bob Denver, later known at Gilligan.
Looks like the John Adams High Weekly Roundup is getting a thrilling expose on the cafeteria's health code violations...
@tiffany: yes! Ha ha! Investigative reporting in the era of Bernstein and Woodward...
Linus and Peppermint Patty working on the script for the Christmas pageant.
John Hinckley obsessively re-typing Catcher in the Rye.
They look like art students to me. She's a ceramisist and he's a graphic designer. She tried to make money from her pots after college, but never really got anywhere and is a bit bitter now, but trying not to let that rub off on her kids. He works doing the layouts for a computing magazine and writes a blog.
@Coorain: I think she's just a dirty blond. My cousin's hair is like that and she doesn't dye it~ it's just naturally dark on top and lighter on the ends.
The photo appears to be in good condition for being as old as it is/may be.
Here we have the angst-ridden, ever-loving parents of Waldo...and guess what!!...They just found him!!
I think she's chewing gum...that would explain the mouth.
We had a radio that looks very much like the "thing" in the background...the speaker was covered with what looked and felt like furnishing fabric.
Those old typewriters weighed a ton! You certainly didn't want to move them if you didn't have to. But no one ever got "repetitive motion stress syndrome" from a typewriter. Why can't they make computer keyboards that are stepped?
I think her facial expression is where the phrase "tongue-in-cheek" comes from.
I'd love to read their composition. Great Find, Kurt.
I didn't want to say anything but I bet they would be better off dead after that one crazy summer.
I don't think that this pic is necessarily from the 60's? There's still typewriters around. My Uncle is a poet/writer and has one or two older than the one in the pic.
Plus, on all pics you can change them to B&W now, and on the cameras, computers.
Their clothes don't really look retro, either.
Maybe it's just me. I'm 38 but it could still be a newer pic?
Anyone?
I'm not sure what it is about this image but it seems so familiar and staged. It reminds me of a movie or tv show if it is a photo maybe a play...Either way it looks as if they are acting the outfits seem like poor costume choices from a kids show or all a highschooler could find for a play.and the expressions scream chesy shocking momment. Maybe the kids just realized the typewriter is typing out stuff in real life or it's ghost typing on it's own. I really do like the find just wish i could place it with it's familiarity...
guy looks like rivers cuomo
I can't believe that no one recognizes Woody Allen and Mia Farrow! Now we know who really wrote "Annie Hall"!
(Really? I'm the only Woody Allen fan here?)
I say the picture is old. The kid's glasses are old and the typewriter is old. Who wears their beanie like that these days, besides Colin Farrell? (I can hear my dad saying, "It's not a beanie, it's a knit cap" I digress).
They write for the school paper. They're socially inept, they pretend they're ok with it because they're smart and that's better...who wants to be good looking and popular anyway? Well, smart kids who write for the paper let me tell you something, try being average, you get to be smart, they get to be popular, what did we get? Maybe we were ok looking, maybe we got b's and c's, but we were invisible, at least people knew who you were and maybe they even hated you a little because you made everything look so easy. So, put on your funny glasses and your beanie and write your little stories, quit crying into your pillow every night because Chad McCan thinks you're dorky. There are worse things in life than being awkward OR shallow, you could be average.
Woo! That felt great.
I love Maynard G. Krebs in Dobie Gillis. I watched it as a kid on Nickelodeon. People rarely know what I'm talking about.
Coincidentally, I hate John Cusack and his stupid face. Please don't insult the young man in the pic by saying he looks like him.
What a neat find.
I think they're working on the school newspaper.
The piece of lint makes me think the photo was developed in the school darkroom. I agree; looks like a photo for a late 1960s high school yearbook.
Beatniks were in the late 1950s, when these kids were probably in kindergarten.
Maybe it is John Cusack's father or uncle. This was probably taken about the time he was born.
Is it just me or does it look like there is a false nose attached to the glasses?
i'm assuming that the finder can tell by the picture that it is older. all those older photos are usually on heavy almost cardboard stock.
and how could you hate john cusak?
I can't agree with Holly -- if this were a staged modern photo (why??) it would be technically better, e.g. the girl's face is out of focus (in fact the 'thing' on the shelf behind them is in focus and everything in front of it is not quite sharp).
Is that a blackboard behind them? Or a window with a blackout blind?
This could well be me working on the school newspaper ('Farrago') in 1967, only (a) I didn't wear a hat like that, (b) I'd have been wearing a shirt and school tie, and (c) it was an all-boys' school.
They're concentrating so hard (she with her tongue in her cheek, like you do) because they're typing the wax 'flimsy' for the Roneo machine and they mustn't make any mistakes.
And their lazy co-editor, who hasn't done any work actually writing the mag but fancies himself as a bit of a photographer, thinks it would be fun to have a picture of The Editors At Work, for the end-of-school-year glossy number.
I swear, they look just like 2 of my friend.
The backgroung look like my Highschool.
... when i saw it, the fact the picture was 50 years old never occured to me. I was more feeling it was a picture sent over the net and printed at the student council room... which only have a old black and white printer.
I guess being 20, you forget about "old times" ?
It just definitly have a modern look to it for me >.< sorry!
Super cute find and I love Kurt in Philly's (the finder) comments- they add to it!
If he's John Cusack, which was also the first thing that jumped into my head, she is the younger version of the actress who played Macaulay Culkin's mom in Home Alone
I don't know offhand who played the kids mom in Home Alone, but she reminds me of Tea Leoni.
Wasn't Katherine O'Hara the Home Alone mom? I have to agree more with Nothing Doing. I was trying to think who that girl reminded me of and Tea Leoni is she!
I like his hat! :D
That is definetly waldo before they painted him red and white.
I don't see John Cusack, I see Matthew Broderick, and she looks like a young Annette Benning to me. I like this picture!
Okay, Thanks for the feedback, guys!!
New rule: You submit something you found in a used book you gotta identify the book.
Ok this one intrigued me so I blew it up and took a closer look. I dont think she is typing at all (notice her slumped shoulders). They are reading something on the typewriter and both are a little stunned by what they see. She might be a little irritated or on the verge of irritation but he hasnt soaked it all in yet. And yea I believe that is PA speaker behind them, no knobs or tuning bar can be seen. Having lived in this era I am quite sure its early 60s, probably before the Beatles. Rebellious but not quite out there yet, notice no sideburns and relatively short hair. This is out there though, maybe its actually a teletype and they are reading an announcement of JFK's death ...