The Organ Grinder

Tracy from Tracy's Toys sent me this incredible card. She has a great eye and manages to find not only amazing toys, but also some beautiful and unique cards. I feel very fortunate to have this one.
The 1906 advertising card of an organ grinder and his monkey was published by Livermore & Knight Company, a publisher known for their holiday and color advertising cards. It was sent from Detroit to Miss Elenor Croop in Niagara Falls, New York in 1908.

If you pull on the monkey's head, you'll find that you can pull him out. And there's something attached to him, a folded note.

Oh, look, it's an advertisement for sheet music. When was the last time you saw an advertisement for sheet music? This advertisement seems to be directed at retailers. It's a creative approach; I wonder if it worked.

Just so you know what it sounded like, here's a 1909 recording of Harry Macdonough singing Sweetheart Days.


And here's the back of the card, showing the matching design around the stamp box that Livermore & Knight were known for.

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Your Next Vacation

Once again I am offering my assistance in planning your next vacation. I have selected some lovely motels for you as a starting point. The Motel Troy in Troy, Alabama is nice and it has some cute fake deer out front.

If you'd like to explore the Land of Lincoln, I suggest the Southern View Motel in Springfield, Illinois. I'm not sure what you'll see in that southern view, but there's plenty of parking.

As you head up north from Illinois, you may want to stay at Krueger's Motel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The motel manager, Freddy Krueger, seems very outgoing and energetic.

As you can see by the back of the first card, there are deals to be had. The card wasn't even mailed. I think it was just a note to remind the person what a good deal they got.

Stayed here Wed. nite July 25th 1962. $12 for the 6 of us. Supposed to be a 20 room.

Here are the backs of the other two cards:

Augusta, Georgia

This is how Augusta, Georgia looked in the 1920s.

And here's an aerial view from around the same time. If you look closely, you can see the memorial in the middle of Broad Street.

If you were visiting Augusta back then, you might have stayed at the elegant Bon Air Hotel. The hotel was built in 1899 and burned down in 1921. This card shows the rebuilt structure of 1924. The hotel attracted northerners looking for some sunshine and warmth in the winter months. It was an elegant getaway, attracting famous people such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Winston Churchill.  It was also the place you would go if you were attending the Masters' Golf Tournament, at least in the early days. In 1970, the Bon Air Hotel sued Time Magazine for reporting that the hotel had declined into dishevelment.

Over the years it lost its appeal and became a retirement community. Now it serves as government subsidized apartments for seniors and people with disabilities. 

In 2011, the Augusta Chronicle reported that a young man was shot there in what was believed to be a drug turf dispute. The arrested man also lived in the facility with his mother.

For more old postcard views of Augusta, be sure to look at Picturing Augusta, which features historic postcards from the collection of the East Central Georgia Library.