Motel Monday: Niagara Falls, Ontario

This week's Motel Monday spotlights some of the motels on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The Falls are such an enormous tourist destination that it is/was inevitable that there would be need to be quite a few places to stay. These 12 places represent a good cross section of the lodging choices in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Oakes Drive Motel and Restaurant

Tip Top Motel

Canadiana Inn Motel and Restaurant

Adolph B. Rice Studio Collection

A description from the Library of Virginia Archives:
The Adolph B. Rice Studio Collection constitutes a unique photographic record of life in Richmond, Virginia from 1949 to 1961. The collection consists of more than 16,000 4 x 5 inch film negatives from the commercial studio of Adolph B. Rice.

Adolph B. Rice Sr. (1909-1960) opened his first photo studio in Richmond in 1949. The studio remained on North Auburn Avenue until it ceased operation in 1961. Rice was an active member of the Virginia Professional Photographer Association and the Virginia Press Photographers Association. With a reputation for quality commercial work, his clients included businesses, industry, and state and local government. Photo assignments ranged from studio portraits, to aerial views to advertising shots for local department stores. After his death in 1960, the studio was owned and operated by his son Adolph B. Rice, Jr. (1937-1974). The collection was later donated to the Library of Virginia.

These just represent some of the images in the collection. Clicking on the images will take you to the flickr stream featuring a description/information.

Fizzies Store Display

Fundo Colorforms Store Display

Valentine Dance

Easter Bunny

Lowes of Richmond

Smiley's Motor Sales, Inc.

Nurse

Campbell's Fruit Soups Display

Listerine Store Display

Puss 'n Boot Store Display

Underwood Typewriter Display

Jack and Giant

Beauty and the Beast

Harvey Hudson

Boy's Bicycle

Doll

Clown

Madonna Inn - San Luis Obispo, California

The Madonna Inn is a hotel in San Luis Obispo, California. According to their website, "the first 12 rooms were completed December 24, 1958, and were given complementary for that night’s stay, to a very surprised group of travelers. An additional 28 rooms were quickly built, making a total of 40 rooms available to travelers.

Demand for public areas to handle the rooms encouraged us in April 1960 to start construction of the main inn, which was to eventually consists of the wine cellar, bakery, coffee shop, dining room, the cocktail lounge, banquet rooms, ladies’ boutique, men’s gift shop, and the gourmet shop.

One hundred ten unique rooms now exist, each decorated differently to suit many individual tastes...rock rooms, waterfall showers, rock fireplaces, European fixtures, and fine furnishings to name a few."

These postcards are by no mean the complete collection. These are just the ones I could find. I would really like to thank Ryan a.k.a It's Better Than Bad for the majority of these postcards. The only ones from my collection are marked with an asterisk. See all the postcards after the cut.

Madonna Inn - San Luis Obispo, California*

Night View

Full View of the Madonna Inn

Lobby of the Madonna Inn

Coffee Shop Counter

The Red Shell Game

This is a 4 page pamphlet given out in 1948 to stem the "RED TIDE". It was distributed on "Freedom Day" in September of 1948 in Chicago, Illinois. Due to the success of that (whatever that means) it is highly recommended that it be distributed throughout Gary, Indiana.

Adventure Along the Trans-Canada Highway

Have you ever wanted to see Canada along the Trans-Canada Highway? Did you ever want to see what that great Highway was like in 1961? This 1961 brochure put out by the Canadian Government Travel Bureau of Ottawa, Canada will help you achieve that goal. See all 34 pages after the jump.

Motel Monday: Salt Lake City

This week's Motel Monday takes a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake City has quite a few tourist destinations for the traveler. The Great Salt Lake, the Mormon Temple / Temple Square, and the Eagle Gate Monument are just a few of the things tourists of today and yesterday could see. These 12 motels feature a variety of designs but manage to keep it from being too gaudy or colorful, in keeping with the aesthetic of Salt Lake City. See all twelve postcards after the jump.

Romney Motor Lodge

Hotel Utah Motor Lodge

Continental Motel

Blossomtime 1959

Here we have a program from Blossomtime 1959. Blossomtime is an annual Festival that takes place in Southwest Michigan. Here's a little background from the Blossomtime Festival website:

In 1923, a local fruit processor, Fred L. Granger, and the Reverend Joshua O. Randall conceived the idea of a floral parade to promote the expanding local business .They secured assistance from the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club and the Exchange Club. Initially, the publicity consisted of the circulation of a decorated truck around Chicago's "loop" inviting people to come to southwest Michigan. The first Grand Floral Parade was held on a Wednesday afternoon. The second parade was held on May 14, 1924. It included 30 floats, two marching bands and hundreds of private automobiles, which made a tour of the new "Blossom lanes" of southwest Michigan.

Also in 1924, Catherine Burrell of Benton Harbor was chosen by newspaper ballots to reign as the first Blossomtime Queen. In subsequent years communities began to hold their own contests selecting queens to represent them in a collective pageant for the title of Miss Blossomtime.

The festival temporarily ceased in 1943 with the advent of World War II. In 1951 the St. Joseph and Benton Harbor Chamber of Commerce created Blossomtime, Inc., a non-profit organization of some 75 members governed by a board of directors. The first post-war parade in 1952 attracted approximately 105,000 spectators who viewed 56 units.

The Blossomtime Festival is still going strong. This year's events will take place on March 14th. You can catch a glimpse of the official 1959 program and festivities after the jump.

Easy-to-make Gifts...for the Small Budget

Here we have a brochure produced sometime in the 1950s(?) by Johnson's Wax of Racine, Wisconsin. It's full of all sorts of ideas about what to make for people if you are on a limited budget. Every single idea features wax of some sort. Strange.

See all 16 pages after the jump.

Snake River Valley Schoolmasters In Concert - February 18, 1949 - Payette, Idaho

This a leaflet/program for the Snake River Valley Schoolmasters Present Association Band and Choral Groups in Concert in the Payette High School Auditorium in Payette, Idaho on February 18, 1949. I don't much about this specific concert. I just found the program and noticed that it was the 62nd anniversary and here we are.

The Life and Times of Marjorie Casper: The Hollywood Paladium

Here we have a souvenir photo of Marjorie and some unidentified friends at the Hollywood Paladium in Hollywood, California. My guess is that this photo was taken sometime in 1943. Marjorie is the woman on the far left.

The Life and Times of Marjorie Casper: Happy Birthday!

Marjorie Casper was born on this date in 1922. I wanted to celebrate her 89th birthday by posting some of the birthday cards in her scrapbook. Most of these cards are from her 21st birthday (1943) when she was working at AiResearch in California.

The Life and Times of Marjorie Casper: Friends and Family

I am posting these pictures a little out of order, but due to the Valentines rush, I had to post those first and these second. These are loose pictures from the scrapbook of Marjorie Casper. There are some notes in the book as to who these people were, but I really don't know too much more about them. I added a description under each image and, if possible, a little note about the people pictured. I will be referring to Marjorie as Midge throughout this post because that was her nickname and there are multiple Marg-ish names.

There are more pictures in the scrapbook but I have yet to scan them and/or figure out where they belonged in the book. When I figure them out I will post them. In the meantime, here are 14 pictures starting with Midge's family.

Midge's Mom and little sister Genny in front of their house in Breckenridge, Minnesota.

Genny Casper (Midge's little sister)

Kath Casper and Genny Casper (Midge's sisters)

Michael Casper, Age 16 - Midge's Brother

Midge and her Brother Michael

Marg Foley - Midge Casper's friend

Another picture of Marg Foley

Marg Foley & Midge Casper

Katie - a friend of Midge's

Midge Casper

Bette & Midge - I don't really know who Bette is. It might be a relative or a friend

Faf (Francis Ann Boll) - Either a dear friend or relative

Dayd (Elmer A. Seifert) in Seattle, Washington - Dayd was Midge's boyfriend

Day Dreams (Not sure who this is) It might be Jack Nolan  another of Midge's loves.