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I believe this took place a lot on the west side in the 1950s where a photographer would go down the street and take your photo on a pony. They'd have western outfits for the kids and it was a big deal for a while.
Did that happen to you or a friend?
I think this was a pretty common thing everywhere, not just Detroit. Later on, they would set up in shopping malls. I had my picture taken on a pony named Red at Wonderland Mall around 1974. Funny the things you remember...
The pony was named Peaches, my mom said NO, because the photographer mistreated the animal, I don't know how she knew that. The bricks and the window treatment look very familiar to the house I grew up in.
Sorting through my family pictures I ran into a shot of my mother on a pony like this in what must have been the mid 1930s. Mom described to me a few times that a cousin of hers who kept a pony in his barn on the west side used to take it around on the weekends to take pictures of kids sitting on it. So I assume that the pony in the picture was his.
Have a photo of dad sitting in a wooden cart being pulled by a donkey, 1925.
Funny this thread came up. I was just going through photos and came across a picture of me and one of my sister each on a pony somewhere in Detroit back in the 70's
I'll post when I have a chance
Guess it was more than a one trick pony if this practice lasted so long.
I have one of my mother around 1913 taken somewhere in PA - and one of a cousin around 1940 in southwest Detroit. I wanted to have my picture taken, but it never happened. I did get to feed the pony with something that looked like giant candy corn. All the kids would flock around the pony, but don't remember any takers - the guy with the camera was kind of crabby.
I have one from 1955-6 in Southwest Detroit near Holy Redeemer.
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now that's cute!Quote:
Originally Posted by SFDS
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The year 1981 I worked as a photographer at Blair studio on E. Grant Blvd. the owner was an older gentleman by the name of Max, he would sit for hours talking about photography back in the 50s and how they would secure business,
one method mentioned was how they would use a lead sales guy who would go door to door hoping to obtain work photographing neighborhood kids, if he were successful he would mark with white chalk a large X on the sidewalk in front of the house and the photographer would instantly know which house to stop at.
Max Was a meticulous record keeper; he had thousands and thousands of negatives of children photographed throughout the Detroit area over the years. Here's a photo of me on a horse, was taken in 1948 on the corner of Kercheval and Bellevue in Detroit. On the back is stamped Blair studio.
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Do donkeys count? My ma's brother, probably on Medbury.
great photo but you don't look to happy.Quote:
Originally Posted by brotherzeus
Awesome photos! What a cool thread. Brings back many memories.
I recall hearing about kid photos with ponies but never saw the pony or had a photo taken.
My wife, sometime in the summer of 1954 in Inkster.