Search Results: Photography from Royal Books, Inc.

N.p.: N.p., 1979. Archive of 148 photographs of custom truck and tractor pulls, taken by amateur photographer Charles Lloyd Watson, circa 1978-1979. Many photographs with developer dates of 1978 and 1979 on the versos. A former racetrack photographer, Watson was a prolific amateur motorsports photographer from Jeffersonville, Indiana. Included in the archive are 142 standard color snapshot prints, five standard black-and-white snapshot prints, and one 8 x 10 color print. The photographs capture several indoor and outdoor events, and were likely taken in the Indiana area. Truck and tractor pulls became popular in the midwest and southern regions of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Pulls generally consisted of tractors in varying weight classes competing in towing a drag, which was either composed of dead weight or a group of people stepping onto a sled at fixed positions in order to increase resistance as the pull continued. The late 1970s would prove to be a seminal and transitional… Read More

New York: United States Rubber Company, 1950. Archive of fifteen vintage photographs of automobile tire testing by the US Rubber Company at the Lancaster, California proving grounds, circa 1950s. All with United States Rubber Company credit stamps and identification number stamps on the versos, and fourteen with printed mimeo snipes affixed to the versos. The tires presented in the collection are noted as US Royal Air Ride Tires and US Royal Master Tires, with the test vehicles averaging 760 miles a day in the desert terrain of the Lancaster proving grounds. Tests depicted in the photographs appear to assess the tires' endurance against a number of roadway factors, including flint causing chipping, steel cones, and excessive mud, and tracks designed to test the tires' performance with skidding, zig-zagging, and driving over potholes. 8.5 x 10 inches. Near Fine overall.

N.p.: N.p., 1960. Archive of 19 photographs of mid-century jazz and blues icons by noted jazz photographer Burt Goldblatt, all but one with his credit stamp on the verso. Included are photographs of Wes Montgomery, Woody Herman (4), Ron Carter, Dexter Gordon, Lionel Hampton (2), Johnny Hodges, Milt Jackson (2), "Cannonball" Adderley, Maxine Sullivan, Nat Adderley (2), Bud Freeman, Monk Montgomery, Buddy Montgomery, Phil Woods, and others. Goldblatt is known for his photographic work for album covers from the late 1950s to 1960s. His credits include photo artwork for LPs by Billie Holiday, Herbie Mann, Carmen McCrae and others. 18 of the photographs with Goldblatt's stamp on the verso (in various stamp formats over a 30-year period), all from his archive. 18 of the photographs approximately 8 x 10 inches, 2 approximately 5 x 7 inches. Very Good to Near Fine, one with a vertical crease (Phil Woods). Please note: copying for re-sale is illegal and no commercial rights are included in the sale of… Read More

Los Angeles: California Theatre, 1921. Archive of 41 vintage photographs of the elaborate stage sets and live performers which supported silent film screenings at the California Theatre in Los Angeles, taken during the theatre's first three years in operation, 1919-1921. 20 photographs with blindstamps crediting photographer Dick Stagg, and 14 with blindstamps crediting photographer J.C. Milligan. Photographs housed in an album, with typed labels on the versos of the adjacent pages identifying the film, screening dates, performers, and musical numbers. The first two photographs in the archive feature a day shot and a striking night shot of the theatre's beautifully elaborate facade, followed by a photograph of the "original installation" of the stage and grand staircase. The balance of the photographs, however, show theatre sets, usually with performers present, occasionally with the orchestra present, and always without the audience present, likely taken during rehearsals or after the completion… Read More

Chicago: Wagner Sign Service, Inc, 1960. Archive of 77 vintage black and white photographs from the Wagner Sign Service, circa 1950s-1960s. Each photograph features the name of the local manufacturer or installer, location, and the type of Wagner Sign assembly used, as well as Wagner Sign Service's Chicago address. Archive includes 69 single-image photographs, four composite photographs with two images each, and one composite photograph containing three images. A tremendous archive of photographs of novel marquee signage made during the midcentury American automobile boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Archive features photographs taken in over 20 states, with photographs of marquees for grocery stores, restaurants, motels, shopping centers, automobile dealerships, sports arenas, and a drive-in theater, among many other businesses. The marquees are usually comprised of a playful combination of neon and Wagner's signature plastic and metal copy letters. The Wagner Sign Service was founded in Chicago by… Read More

N.p.: John Margolies, 1991. Archive of ten vintage oversize photographs of drive-in theaters across America, taken variously between 1977 and 1982. Three photographs struck in 1981 and seven photographs struck in 1991. All photographs signed by the photographer on the verso, identifying name, date, and location. States represented in the archive are Texas, Virginia, Ohio, California, Washington, and Michigan. Architectural critic, photographer, and author John Margolies is best known for his photographs of vernacular and novelty architecture, most notably roadside attractions built during America's automobile culture of the 1950s, taken between 1969 and 2008. Approximately 400 of the photographs appear in his 2010 monograph, "John Margolies: Roadside America," and in 2016 the Library of Congress created the public domain, "John Margolies Roadside America Photograph Archive," consisting of 11,710 color slides of his photographs. All photos 20 x 16 inches. Generally Near Fine.

N.p.: N.p., 1940. Archive of 26 vintage photographs of mid-Atlantic roadside alert signs with advertisements, circa 1930s-1940s. Includes 21 double weight photographs and two matte-finish. Three photographs bear annotations in manuscript pencil on the verso. The collection contains thirteen photographs of alert signs advertising Champion spark plugs, seven advertising hotels (the Biltmore in Dayton, Hotel Sinton in Cincinnati, Hotel Adelphia in Philadelphia, Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh, Hotel Webster Hall in Detroit, and two for Hotel Elizabeth Carteret in Elizabeth, New Jersey), three advertising radio stations (WJW and WADC of Akron and WSPD of Toledo), and three for various automobile and travel-related businesses. Ostensibly designed to warn drivers of forthcoming crossroads, turns, or junctions, the roadside alert signs presented here were perhaps more effective for the prime advertising real estate of their plinths. The circular "alert" section, containing text or symbols of approaching… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1991. Collection of nine vintage photographs of drive-in theaters in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, 1978-1991. Two photographs with photographer "Steve Perille" and "Jul 10, 1978" stamps on the versos, one with a newspaper caption clipping affixed to the verso with an "Apr 14 1986" stamp. One with a "Charlotte News Photo by Elmer Horton / Apri 19 '82" stamp on the verso. One with a "Chuck Burton," photographer stamp, and "Charolotte Observer" and "Jul 30 1982" stamps on the verso, and a newspaper caption clipping affixed to the verso with an "Aug 1 1982" stamp. Four with labels, two affixed to the verso, two affixed to the wide bottom margins of the rectos, with photographer, Laura Mueller, 3/16/90, credits with photograph captions, and with "Mar 18 1990" stamps to the versos. One with photographer Laura Mueller, 7/27/91, and multiple captions printed on the verso, and an "Aug 11 1991" stamp to the verso. All the photographs in the collection appear to be from the Charlotte, North… Read More

New York: T.J. Maloney, 1937. First Edition. First Edition. Lengthily INSCRIBED and dated 1949 by co-author Gene Fowler on the front endpaper, with brief, additional annotations in manuscript ink and pencil to the title page and page nine. A penetrating, satirical take on the film industry, illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs. Gene Fowler was an American author, dramatist, and screenwriter who enjoyed a long and varied career. Fowler found early prestige as a journalist in New York, most notably a lengthy tenure as a managing editor of The Morning Telegraph, where his staff included a number of luminaries of the period, including Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner, Charles MacArthur, Westbrook Pegler, Martha Ostenso, Walter Winchell, Nellie Revell, among others. Fowler also worked as a screenwriter for several years, penning a dozen screenplays in the 1930s and early 1940s, including "What Price Hollywood?" (1932), "The Call of the Wild" (1935), and "Billy the Kid" (1941), and also… Read More

Charlotte, NC: The Charlotte Observer, 1965. Vintage photograph of a disintegrating screen of an abandoned drive-in movie theater near Charlotte, North Carolina, taken by photographer Hank Daniel for The Charlotte Observer, 1965. On the verso is a "Hank Daniel" stamp, a "JUL 21 1965" stamp, and a Charlotte Observer newspaper clipping of the photograph's corresponding captions with an "AUG 1 1965" stamp, as well as the annotations in manuscript ink of "Now Showing / Holes / An abandoned drive-in theater screen stands near Old Monroe Road / Between Charlotte and Matthews," and "Theaters." 10 x 8 inches. Very Good plus, with light creasing at the extremities.

N.p.: N.p., 1932. Vintage photograph of the Bayonne Bridge, connecting Staten Island in New York City with Bayonne, New Jersey, spanning the Kill Van Kull tidal strait. Shot by photographer F.S. Lincoln, circa 1932. "American Architecture" labels and specifications of the Chief Engineer for the Port of New York Authority on the recto and verso. The photograph was shot and struck in the same year the bridge's completion. An artful, "head-on" geometric viewing of the massive structure, the sixth-longest steel arch bridge in the world, one of four connecting New Jersey with Staten Island. The other two bridges are the Goethals Bridge (Elizabeth, NJ) and Outerbridge Crossing (Perth Amboy, NJ). Photograph 7 x 9.25 inches, mounted to gray art board measuring 11 x 14 inches. Near Fine.

New York: Bulfinch Press / Little, Brown, 1997. First Edition. Hardcover. First Edition. A collection of photographs by Richard Gere, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama and a poem by Patti Smith. Very Good plus, with no dust jacket as issued, with faint foxing on the text block and endpapers.

New York: Fred Plaut, 1955. Three vintage borderless double weight photographs of author Truman Capote and Colombia Records vice president Goddard Lieberson, taken by Columbia Records recording engineer and photographer Fred Plaut, with Plaut's photographer stamp on the versos, circa 1953-1955. In 1953 Capote made his first spoken word recording for the 1953 "Columbia Literary Series," a twelve lp box set of noted authors reading short stories, essays, and novel excerpts, conceived and edited by Lieberson, then Columbia Records vice president. Capote's contribution to the set was his 1948 short story, "Children on Their Birthdays." Capote's only other spoken word recording for Columbia Records was in 1955 for a 10" lp for Columbia Masterworks of the 1950 short story "House of Flowers," published in 1950 in the literary journal Botteghe Oscure VI and reprinted in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in 1958. It is one of these two recording sessions, likely the former as we find no evidence Lieberson was… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1910. Two vintage borderless photographs of two Bioscope shows at the Oxford St. Giles Fair, circa 1910s. Both photographs with the stamp of Oxford-based photographer Henry Taunt on the verso, along with a provenance stamp and manuscript pencil annotations regarding cropping. From the archive of film historian and author Joel Finler. Bioscope shows were a form of early traveling cinema that rose to popularity in music halls and fairgrounds in the early twentieth century. The films shown in the Bioscope were typically primitive, and, in the attraction's earliest incarnations, often made by the showmen themselves. The booths also used live music and acrobatic acts to entertain audiences waiting to enter the booth, as shown here. One photograph 8 x 6 inches, one photograph 8.25 x 6.25 inches. Very Good plus.