Family with television
By: usermattw
Tags: 1953, photography, television, vintage photography
Category: Bert & Slim, Families, Groups
What it is:
Three snapshots measuring 3.5 x 3.5 inches each. Mounting traces on the back.
What I know about it:
Each photo is dated February 1953 in ink on the back.
Comments:
Several things to say here. 1.) I know that having a TV set was a rare and special thing in those days, but it’s funny to see how much it is included in the poses here, and how much attention it gets, even though it seems to be turned off. 2.) I left these photos “as is” to demonstrate what I mean by “mounting traces on the back”. Many of my photos were previously mounted in photo albums. I don’t know why they were taken apart (possibly after someone’s death by a family member distributing photos to other heirs or an estate dealer breaking up an estate for sale, possibly by someone trying to salvage photos from an otherwise damaged album, etc., etc.). But many of my photos have traces of being mounted, such as the scraps of black album paper still glued to the backs of the above snapshots. I generally leave them alone, though sometimes I try to remove them since the traces can obscure identifying information previously written on the backs of the photos. 3.) The man and woman on the right appear numerous times throughout a large assortment of random snapshots I bought all at once. I’ll probably post more pictures of them over time. I know very little about them from these photos, except that they were a couple and seemed happy together. He served in WWII. And their pet names for each other were “Bert” and “Slim”, though to be honest I’m still not quite sure which was which. The photos I have generally indicate that they were childless, in which case I’m not sure how, if at all, they were related to the woman on the left and the toddler. I also don’t know whose house this was (was it Bert and Slim’s house, or where they just visiting?).
Pics of Then 
I look forward to seeing the other photos of Bert and Slim. How do you know that the husband served in WWII? Do you have a photo of him in uniform?
I wonder if these pictures were taken right after the TV was purchased. It looks pretty shiny.
Yes, a pic or two in uniform, stationed somewhere in Florida if I recall, but dated 1943.
The fact that the toddler and Bert/Slim are both looking at the screen in the center photograph makes me think the television might have been turned on, at least in that picture. In the early 50s the TV picture was often more “snow” than not, grainy and, of course, black and white – definitely no HD. With the flash at an angle and an image that may have been predominately white, the picture may be totally washed out.
Yes, I was thinking that might be the case with the center photo. It may just be the fascination with the new item, or the baby is seeing his reflection in the screen, but it is likely on at an angle we can’t see.