1930s Uncataloged Self Developing set w/ Cuyler, Hartnett etc....

[mcadams]

Great thread. I had a couple of observations:

1) There is a picture on the bottom row of US Battleship Alabama. The USS Alabama wasn't built until 1942 and was commissioned the same year. Impossible for this picture to be used in a 1931 photo series.

2) If these are really "negatives", then wouldn't the team names appear backwards on the jerseys? I read "Cleveland" from left to right, so these appear to be positives, not negatives. I am obviously not a photo expert.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by mcadams

Great thread. I had a couple of observations:

1) There is a picture on the bottom row of US Battleship Alabama. The USS Alabama wasn't built until 1942 and was commissioned the same year. Impossible for this picture to be used in a 1931 photo series.

2) If these are really "negatives", then wouldn't the team names appear backwards on the jerseys? I read "Cleveland" from left to right, so these appear to be positives, not negatives. I am obviously not a photo expert.

Good questions. I made my assertion based on the Hartnett card in Huggins and Scott being the exact same pose as the one in this group. Them not being reversed negatives doesn't bother me as much as the other revelation about the ship. I will have to think about it and research it some more. I still think they are from Sun Pictures but maybe not 100% sure now....Any more thoughts are appreciated.

[nolemmings]

I'm no battleship expert, and I always lost when playing the board game, but I don't believe the card of the ship depicts the USS Alabama that was commissioned in 1942. According to Wikipedia, there have been at least seven naval ships named Alabama, and this one looks like the ship commissioned in 1900 and scrapped in 1924, which would still make your early 30's estimate possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_%28BB-8%29

[rhettyeakley]

The fact that they are not reversed doesn't mean anything as the negatives for these (and other sets like Foto Fun, etc.) are simply clear pieces of celluloid/plastic that were placed over the photo paper and the sun was allowed to pass through produce the "image". If Leon took the negative out of the mount and flipped it over it would be reversed. Obviously, though the person mounting them wanted to be able to read the captions, etc. so they mounted them so they could. That's my opinion, I still think they are the 1931 Sun items or something very similar.
-Rhett

[Leon]

Thanks Todd and Rhett....I have them classified as 1931 Sun Pictures negatives and am back to feeling comfortable with it. These negatives do seem to be quite scarce though as I am not sure I remember seeing too many of them. Maybe, in actuality, the negatives are better than the cards as I could potentially make unlimited cards from them (with the right kind of paper).. ...best regards

[Ease]

Originally Posted by Leon

Maybe, in actuality, the negatives are better than the cards as I could potentially make unlimited cards from them (with the right kind of paper)

That would actually be a cool project to try with one of them, just to see what happens.

[toppcat]

Can anyone show an example of Hokus Fokus then, which I believe came a couple of years later. I've only seen one or two references to that set over the years.

[mcadams]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

I'm no battleship expert, and I always lost when playing the board game, but I don't believe the card of the ship depicts the USS Alabama that was commissioned in 1942. According to Wikipedia, there have been at least seven naval ships named Alabama, and this one looks like the ship commissioned in 1900 and scrapped in 1924, which would still make your early 30's estimate possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_%28BB-8%29

I agree Todd.