shoeshine redux

Catherine, commenting on my shoeshine blog post (downtown DC in the early 20's) says that a detail from the photo contains boaters not rags and she's right.

LC's P&P Division has a second photo of the Grand Palace.


It reveals the dark interior a bit more clearly and definitely shows boaters and their bands as Catherine says.


This version was taken at a time of day when only the manager was present. The clock seems to show that it's 20 to 4 in the afternoon, but it seems to show the same time in the other photo (that's hard to say). Maybe it's 20 past 8 in the morning in this shot, maybe there's an unusually big second hand, or maybe the clock's not working.


In this shot it looks like the hat store next door hasn't yet set up it's display for the day. Its window shows a jumble of homburgs with a cloth cap where in the other photo it has neatly arrayed boaters and caps.


On this day you can see that the cigar store features fashion and theater magazines along with the racing sheets and a baseball paper. Given the masculine ambiance of the three establishments, I suppose it was expected that men would pick up these magazines for wives and sweethearts.


I can't read the titles of the pamphlets that the cigar store has out:


I like this advert in the hat store for its implicit assumptions about male attractiveness.