Archive for September, 2010
1940′s Hamilton Watch Company clock, used for advertising in watch shops.
The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in 1892, growing to operate out of a 13 acre campus in Lancaster, PA. Hamilton was known for creating the highest caliber of quality watches and commonly referred to themselves as “America’s Finest Watch.”
This clock is about 14″ in diameter and is electrically powered. It’s got a great glow to it when the lights are out, and still keeps time perfectly.
This is my shop clock.
-scott noteboom
September 26th, 2010
Second in my new “What’s Old Has Soul” series showcasing (and archiving for insurance and history) my old junk at my old haunted house….
Here’s a couple more pieces of art from my “collection.” By the way, does using the words “pieces” and “collection” make me sound more sophisticated? Don’t worry, I still know i’m really an idiot, haha.
This is a huge piece (5′ tall by about 2.5′ wide) that hung in the original old San Francisco Ferry Building beginning in the early 1930′s. There’s an old note on it that says “Off for the Kloudike. Excelsior leaving San Francisco, July 27, 1897. First steamer to leave for the new goldfields after word had come of the discovery.” So, it’s obviously gold rush related.
Here’s a picture of the famous building it came out, which is now the SF Ferry Building Marketplace:
Next, we have two ultra rare original lithographs made in 1908 (same year as our house was built) of the entire WWI fleet in SF Harbor. My favorite part is that the Golden Gate bridge does not exist in these, and the old city looks great:
This piece is about 5 feet wide x 1 foot tall.
This piece is about 3 feet wide by 1 foot tall.
Lastly for today, we have some cool Helck pieces. Peter Helck (1893-1988) was born in NYC in 1893 and studied art at the Art Students League in Manhattan. From the 20s-40′s he was a successful magazine illustrator and advertising artist. In the 1940′s he did a series of paintings / prints for Esquire magazine, in which he recreated the excitement of automobile races from the first decades of the 20th century.
My favorite depicts the 1915 400 mile International Grand Prix held in San Francisco, as part of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. This is Dario Resta, the winner, driving his 5.6L Peugeot (#6:)
We picked up all this stuff from estate sales. The SF Ferry building piece was kinda pricey, but the rest were like “i’ll give ya 10 bucks” or so great deals. Pretty special, rare junk….. that i love.
DISCLAIMER: Come here and try to steal our shit and security will be detected via technological measures and enforced via barbaric measures. Things would not be clean or pretty for either side, so if you’re a crook– please go crookin’ somewhere else. Thank you and God Bless.
Until next time…
-scott noteboom
September 23rd, 2010
OK, the garage is far enough along that i can start working on my cars– a key milestone of turning my life “back to normal” after focus being distracted by house project. The lift is in and i’ve got enough power and lights installed to function.
On the lift is Anissa’s 1940 Ford that i built her a couple years ago– doing some new mechanical tricks to it…. including original Edmunds heads & intake w/ 2×2 Stromberg 97s. Harman Collins ignition w/ dual 6 volt Holley Mallory Master coils. Couple other small asthetic and mechanical things happening. Look is early 40′s Bonneville push truck style– and reliable daily driver…. It’s a truck, after all.
Behind that is the ’29 Model A that i’m redoing. Pre-war street/salt style. Yes, the rear white walls are coming off– they’re just on to roll. Hopped up 4 banger w/ Winfield intake and dual updraft carbs. Old Mallory ignition. Still thinking how i’ll build my header. Body is currently raised off frame a bit, killing some rust w/ new metal in a couple spots on the body and new floor panels. As was typical in such a very early “gow job” era (say 1939 or so,) keeping the mechanical brakes. This car is a drive while working on type project: i.e. low budget fun driver. Had to move seat way back and lower it to floor for 6’6″ goon to drive chopped car. Putting back together rumble seat– cause they are fun. Banjo steering wheel that Stephanie and Romero found for me is on this car.
My timing is so ironic. I’ll have new stuff on the road in perfect timing……. for the rain. All that said, im glad i have a garage again. I’ll have to do some before and after pictures. They’ll be shocking to see– but first i’ve got to paint the exterior and finish my interior walls.
-scott noteboom
September 22nd, 2010
Sitting on a plane today, i just realized that we have a bunch of old stuff that we’ve collected over the years. I kinda think of it like my own little museum, so i figured i would take pictures and document some of the history– that way, if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, you’ll have good info for the estate sale… haha. Anyway– gives me something to do on the blog that doesnt take too much thought; and it serves a useful purpose. So, here it goes….
This painting was originally hung in the historic Cal Neva Lodge, located on Lake Tahoe, during the Adler and Gromer Era’s (1940s-1960.) It’s a larger piece sized about 55″x32″ and we bought it from a private seller. The painting is of Lake Tahoe, by the way. I dig it so much that it’s now hanging above our bed:
This hung in the lodge until Frank Sinatra bought it and remodeled in 1961. Here’s some interesting history of the lodge….
- Built in 1926.
- The founder and first owner died of depression in New Zealand after losing nearly everything he owned in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 (commonly referred to as “Black Tuesday”)!
- The second owner had a father that committed suicide because of reported mental illness. The son would also commit suicide with a shotgun blast to the mouth nearly 60 years after his fathers tragic death.
- Clara Bow, a famous silent film star of the 20′s and 30′s, lost $13,900 gambling at the height of the Great Depression. It was a epic scandal involving Will Rogers that made national headlines in 1930.
- The Cal-Neva was the site of multiple Prohibition raids which briefly closed the “speak-easy” operating there until liquor was legalized in 1933.
- Baby Face Nelson, a psychotic and ruthless American gangster of the early 1930′s, shot and killed a man who was set to testify at a Cal-Neva owners fraud trial in 1934.
- The Lodge burned to the ground on the night of May 16th, 1937 and was declared a total loss. The then current owners hired the prior owner who erected a new structure in 40 days using 100 men (not 30 days and 500 men as once thought). There are good reasons to suggest that the fire was deliberately set.
- The rebuilt Cal-Neva Lodge was the largest operating casino in the country when it opened in 1937!
- Judy Garland, who first performed at the Lodge in 1935 at age 13, was actually discovered there by a talent agent because she left a hatbox behind the stage and went back to retrieve it. Upon returning to Calneva, she met Al Rosen who eventually convinced Louis B. Mayer, head of M-GM, to audition her. See was immediately signed to a long-term contract without even making a screen test in October 1935.
- It is rumored that Marilyn Monroe almost over-dosed in Cabin #3 a week before she was found dead in her own apartment in Los Angeles.
- Although Sinatra had his gaming license for the Cal-Neva revoked in 1963, still owned the property until 1968!
- A terrorist extortion plot claimed that vials of the Bubonic Plague would be released in the casino if demands were not met in 1972!
Here’s a pic of Marilyn Monroe at Cal Neva the weekend before she died. Note Sinatra sitting down behind her, reading the paper:
LINKS WITH MORE HISTORY:
http://calnevarevealed.com/
http://www.sierranevadageotourism.org/content/cal-neva-resort-%26-spa/sie0D8C17093E53192D9
We’re lucky to have such a great piece of Western history…. it looks good too.
More to come in this series. We’ve got a lot of shit.
DISCLAIMER: Come here and try to steal our shit and security will be detected via technological measures and enforced via barbaric measures. Things would not be clean or pretty for either side, so if you’re a crook– please go crookin’ somewhere else. Thank you and God Bless.
-scott noteboom
September 21st, 2010
