Fires

The Gordon Archive houses a huge collection of original WeeGee shots.





The tonal quality of these negatives are, for the most part, quite stunning. All the more so when you realize that many were developed in the trunk of his car! Sadly, the lack of washing facilities and shortcuts taken to make deadlines have left many of them stained and discolored with mineral and chemical deposits. Many have also suffered from poor storage and mechanical damage. Where possible I have tried to include the entire negative including the damaged areas. A number of the negatives have grease pencil marks indicating the preferred cropping. On these I have also kept the entire image ignoring cropping marks in the hope that this will aid research. Some negatives, like the Chicago series (#64-#69) were cropped with black tape that can no longer be safely removed.

(From WEEGEEWEEGEEWEEGEE.blogspot.com:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weegee
"He maintained a complete darkroom in the trunk of his car, to expedite getting his free-lance product to the newspapers."

This is not exactly true.
It's funny that this myth is perpetuated, since one of the most famous pictures of Weegee is him sitting at the trunk of his car and typing while holding a flashlight... Clearly visible are boxes of cigars and flash bulbs, and film holders, two Speed Graphic cameras, and a pair of boots, but no film processing equipment, no enlargers or trays of developer, stop bath, fix, etc...

On the less-accurate-than-Wikipedia Temple University photographer's web page about Weegee there is the above image, with the caption: "Weegee used the trunk of his car as a darkroom.")

On page 52 of Weegee by Weegee, Weegee writes:

"My car became my home. It was a two-seater, with a special extra-large luggage compartment. I kept everything there, an extra camera, cases of flash bulbs, extra loaded holders, a typewriter, fireman's boots, boxes of cigars, salami, infra-red film for shooting in the dark, uniforms, disguises, a change of underwear, and extra shoes and socks."

Salem Massachusetts burns, 1914





PARIS FRANCE, New 45 metre ladder


Fifth alarm, Sacred Heart School Brooklyn
Mayor La Guardia & Chief Mc Elligott


12/13/39
1179 51st Street, Brooklyn

Visit the 200+ shots at the website.

Subject Dies

Read entire story and several obits at:
http://weegeeweegeeweegee.blogspot.com/2008/04/apes-men-and-morons.html

Sherry Britton, burlesque performer and subject of a great Weegee photo, and subject of a series of photos that begin with Sherry Britton performing, then backstage, then outside the theater, then she drives away in the back of a taxi, has died, aged 89.

Here is most of an obituary from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/04/02/2008-04-02_burlesque_legend_sherry_britton_dies.html
Burlesque legend Sherry Britton dies
BY OWEN MORITZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, April 2nd 2008, 7:03 PM
Sherry Britton, a brainy, sexy stripper who was the queen of Broadway burlesque in her 20s, was barred from the World's Fair in her 40s and graduated from college in her 60s, has died.
"She had an IQ of 165, lived on Gramercy Park and aged gracefully," said a cousin, Karen Britton.
Britton, dubbed Great Britton and once made an honorary brigadier general by President Roosevelt for her work entertaining World War II troops, died Tuesday in Beth Israel Hospital of natural causes. She was 89.

Tabloid Death

From WeeGee site, no official attributions.









Wee recently found this Eye - "I" - witness account of the Fifth Ave. gun battle and mayhem caused by the brothers William and Anthony Esposito in True magazine, Vol. 8, Number 47, April 1941. The story is an eye witness account by John McCarthy.

Some Interesting Shots

This is one of several versions of this shot:









4. Nazi in Yorkville, who ran for Congress, was committed to Bellevue, c. 1941
$1,875
gelatin silver print
titled in ink and '5 Center Market Place' copyright credit stamps (on the verso)
13½ x 10½in. (34.2 x 26.5cm.)



3. Hedda Hopper, 1948
$2,500
gelatin silver print
'ABC Press', 'Atlantic Press' and 'Weegee from Photo-Representatives' copyright credit stamps (on the verso)
9½ x 7¾in. (24 x 19.6cm.)




2. All Night Mission, Bowery, 1940
$2000
gelatin silver print
'Photo by Weegee' credit stamp and agency copyright credit reproduction limitation label affixed (on the verso); exhibition label affixed (on the mat)
10¼ x 13½in. (26 x 34.2cm.)



1. The Slumber Hour, Scrubwoman at 20 Wall St. Tower, Midnight, 1945
$5,625
gelatin silver print
'Weegee from Photo-Representatives' credit stamp (on the verso)
13 5/8 x 10¾in. (34.5 x 27.2cm.)




************************

"MAN SLEEPING ON A FIRE ESCAPE"

Estimate: $5,000—7,000
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: $4,375
13¾ by 10¾ in. (34.9 by 27.3 cm.)
The photographer's 'Photo-Representatives' and '6526 Selma Avenue, Hollywood 28, California' studio stamps on the reverse, matted, framed, 1943



7. Coney Island
$17,925
SALE 1039, 18 APRIL 2002
Gelatin silver print. 1940/1940s. Reproduction limitation stamp on the verso.
7½ x 9½in. (19 x 24.2cm.)





6. Mother and Child in Harlem, 1943
$18,750
SALE 2076, 17 OCTOBER 2007
gelatin silver print
titled 'Negroes Moving into Wight [sic] Neighborhood' in an unknown hand in pencil, 'Weegee the Famous' and 'Photo-Representatives' credit stamps (on the
verso)
13 3/8 x 10 5/8in. (33.9 x 27 cm.)





5. Their First Murder (ca. 1936)
$23,000
SALE 7902, 21 APRIL 1994
Gelatin silver print.
1945.
Weegee The Famous; Arthur Fellig credit stamps; Popular Photography layout stamp and typed narrative text on a trimmed page affixed to the verso. 11¾ x 10 5/8in.
LOT NOTES
In response to Mr. Whiting's request to reproduce the picture offered here (see Lot 166), Weegee wrote on September 13, 1946 in a letter which accompanies the lot: Thanx for your kind letters. & excuse the delay in answering them...As I am having my teeth fixed and a new set of STORE TEETH ordered from my favorite MAIL ORDER house...You might be intested (sic) that I have changed my act once more...NOW I am doing the photos for the SCRIPPS HOWARD newspapers full page ads in papers and magazines all over the country....$$400.00 yes I said four hundred bucks for a nights work.



4. Woman Cab Driver and Macy's Clown
$25,850
SALE 9432, 12 OCTOBER 2000
Woman Cab Driver and Macy's Clown
Gelatin silver print. Circa 1942. Credit stamp on the verso.
10½ x 133/8in. (26.7 x 34cm.) Framed.




2. Naked City. New York: Essential Books, 1945.
$37,000
SALE 2110, 10 APRIL 2008
Octavo (234 x 164 mm). 239 black and white photographs. Original tan cloth, spine and front cover lettered in blue; original photo-illustrated dustjacket, printed in yellow, red and black (a few short tears, a few very small chips at extremities); cloth folding box. Weegee's signature in green ink on the title page, dated "1948".



1. Weegee, A Portfolio (1940s-50s)
$47,000
SALE 9484, 13 OCTOBER 2000
New York: Privately published, 1981. 49 gelatin silver prints, printed by Sidney Kaplan. Each with PHOTO BY WEEGEE N.Y.C. and PRINT: KAPLAN stamps on the verso. One of four complete portfolios realized from the original edition of 25.
Each approximately 163/8 x 125/8in. (41.7 x 32cm.) or the reverse.

******************
1. Coney Island (Joe's Penny Arcade)
$240
gelatin silver print, 'Weegee' credit stamp, titled 'Coney Island' and inscribed 'from European' in pencil (on the verso)
11¼ x 14 in. (28.4 x 35.3 cm.)
SALE 1538, 12 - 13 JULY 2005



Rent Party
Unsold
"Rent Party." Ferrotyped silver print, 7 1/4x9 1/4 inches (18.4x23.5 cm.), with a caption label and the "Estate of Peter B. Martin Sr. Collection" hand stamp on verso. Circa 1950
Estimate $1,800-2,200
From the estate of Peter B. Martin, Sr.; by agent to A Private West Coast Collection.
Weegee: The Village, unpaginated.


Empire State Building Distortion
$1,600
Lot 208
Empire State Building Distortion. Silver print, 6 3/4x5 1/4 inches (17.1x13.3 cm.), with penciled numeric notations and a "Photo by Weegee, From the Collection of Suzanne and Hugh Johnston" hand stamp on verso. 1955
Estimate $2,000-3,000


Movie Theatre Projection
$2,000
Lot 207
Movie Theatre Projection. Unique ferrotyped silver print, 8x10 inches (20.3x25.4 cm.), with 2 "Photo by Weegee, Collection of Suzanne and Hugh Johnston" hand stamps on verso and penciled notations. 1955-1957
Estimate $2,500-3,500
This unique photograph was commissioned by the Johnstons and was then subsequently gifted by Weegee to the couple. An variant "straight" version of this image appears in "Weegee''s People," 1946.


Frank Sinatra Fan at the Paramount Theatre. $2500-$3500
$2,000
"Frank Sinatra Fan at the Paramount Theatre." Ferrotyped silver print, 13 1/2x10 1/2 inches (34.5x26.7 cm.), with the "Weegee The Famous" and Photo-Representatives hand stamps on verso. 1944
Estimate $2,500-3,500
From A Private West Coast Collection.
Naked City, 119; Weegee (Stettner), 165 (variant); Weegee''s World, 207.


128: Weegee (Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968) Untitled (CrimeScene), ca. 1940; Gelatin silver print (framed); Stamped; 10" x 8 1/8" (sheet); Provenance: Private Collection, New York
US $2,600.00

Researching the "Gun Girl".

Researching the "Gun Girl".

"My favorite part is the passing mention of "Norma Parker, the Broadway Gun Girl," who robbed restaurants with a cap pistol. I ought to look up more information about her, or better yet, someone else should do it while I lie down".
"Weegee sometimes bribed the police to bring a perp in a different entrance, “so he’d be the only guy standing there with his camera, while everybody else was waiting around the corner,” Mr. McLoughlin said. One of his most striking perp-walk shots was of Norma Parker, a pretty young woman who in 1936 held up a number of restaurants on lower Broadway using a cap pistol, for which The Daily Mirror nicknamed her the Broadway Gun Girl."
"

BROADWAY GUN GIRL RECAPTURED IN WOOD; Norma Parker and Three Other Women Who Fled State Farm Face Longer Terms

Four women inmates of the Westfield State Farm, who escaped last night by climbing a seven-foot fence topped with barbed wire, were captured at 1:40 this afternoon in a woods three miles from the prison."

I am wondering if that caption is incorrect and maybe added later by someone.
***********

Wandering Flickr

Weegee Crime Scene - Chelsea Inn, W. 17th Street, Manhattan.

La femme obus 1943

Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber Use Their Top Hats to Hide Their Faces, January 27, 1942

NYC GCS Crash

The drowning victim
Coney Island

1940´s
Weegee

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Vintage Erotica

It's ART dammit!

Classic Kirkbride

Danvers State Hospital

Wineville Chicken Murders

Followers

Blog Archive

• ▼  2008 (16)
  • ▼  December (3)
    • Merry Christmas
    • Weegee: The man
    • Life and Times
  • ►  November (13)

About Me

shadow

View my complete profile

The Arts

Daily Painters Art Gallery contemporary original art for sale www.dailypainters.com