Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread

The only author to write more books than she'd read?

723 including 23 in one year.

A fascinating character really.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Cartland

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Though not a fascinating author.... out of boredom and a lack of other options I once read one of her books (guest starring Sissi who was visiting England at the time).

Kind of a dry slog.... and nothing remotely romantic... the last ten pages the two leads basically engage in a debate about whether they love each other....

never..... again.....

I've never gone that far, though pre-internet I've read some real dreck left in hotels and offices.


Somehow that doesn't surprise me.


At least it didn't have gypsies or regency beaus in.

To borrow from Truman Capote: was she a writer or a typist?

Father and son: 2024



Wojciech Mann, an acclaimed journalist, satirist and a TV/radio presenter, became a father relatively late in his life (at the age of 43). He enjoys a very close relationship with his son Marcin. However, in a recent interview with Katarzyna Kubisiowska (see the latest issue of Tygodnik Powszechny), he stated that he sees no positive sides of becoming a parent so late, and that if there is one thing that he regrets in his life, it's not having children earlier and more of them.

So, dear PF readers who are approaching 40 (or 30 in case of women) and still haven't passed on their valuable genes to the next generation: take Wojciech Mann's words as a warning and get your fingers out (in more than one sense).

World Long Gone: 1934



Warsaw, 1934. Two filthy rich Jewish bankers sitting in front of their luxurious mansion and planning how to enslave the world in their vicious web of usury and Kabbalah black magic.

I dedicate this post to wslipach for his hefty donation to the 33rd Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow. Thanks, Wslipi!

Hey, you can see the hold dripping from every corner
...

And that ubiquitous smell of garlic.

A bit of capitalism in commie reality: 1957



Buick Super Eight parked at Dom Pod Orłami in Warsaw.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_Pod_Or%C5%82ami_w_Warszawie

Here's another famous car from the PRL days. The car actually still exists however its famous owner has long been scrapped.

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It's a heartache: 2024



Euro 2024: Poland drew 1-1 with France and is coming back home with only one point in three games, despite scoring more goals in the group stage than the bookies' favourite (before the tournament) England, and being the only team among all Euro finalists to score at least one goal in 9 consecutive Euro finals games.

Polish NT has to work harder on defence, Polish fans have to heal their broken hearts... until next time. :)

A car in Narnia?: 1935



Well, not exactly. The two gentlemen are standing in front of a public toilet in Three Crosses Square (Plac Trzech Krzyży) in Warsaw.

Violetta Villas

@Alien
There's no love without jealousy....

I know somebody who rented a cottage on her estate back in the 1970s. (It was actually the cottage that Beatrix Potter used as the model for Mr McGregor's garden.) He was a London-Irish guy, a professional musician, a drummer based in London and wanted a place where he could practise without disturbing the neighbours. He happened to know somebody in publishing (you know what the London arts scene was like back then, a village in many ways) and she arranged an introduction having put in a good word for him.

He was duly invited to afternoon tea at the 'big house'. He was warned by his publishing friend 'don't wear jeans' so he donned a velvet jacket and his only pair of trousers, mohair ones which he found he could barely squeeze into, not having had reason to wear them for some time.

On arrival at the Cartland house, he was met in the hallway by her son, fussing and flapping, who ushered him into the drawing room and there was La Cartland herself, in the ubiquitous pink froth and frills. He was waved to a seat and the son did mother with the silver teapot and generally danced attendance on his mama) She was quite loquacious and took a liking to her visitor, but as tea progressed the agony of his too-tight trousers was taking its toll and he began to suffer chest pains due to the inhibition of his blood circulation. Just as the mist was descending before his eyes and he thought he was about to pass out, she informed him that she was happy to let him have the cottage on two conditions.

1) He must never allow himself to be visible in the grounds when she was out there with visitors.

and

2) That he must never invite any guests with beards. 'I detest beards' she informed him.

Anyway a few weeks later after he moved in, he was strolling around the grounds and in the distance he spied her with a group of guests. She was leading the way, wearing a ball gown in the middle of the afternoon, carrying a parasol and dancing.

A couple of weeks after that he was summoned into the presence. She was not best pleased.

'I hear you had a visitor with a beard at the weekend. I told you I will not tolerate beards.'

'Well his name is ................ He's -'

La Cartland cut him off mid-sentence.

'Oh, yes, I know who he is. He has a First from Oxford you know. That's quite different!'

Anyway, apart from that he never had any bother with her. He said the son was far worse than she was!

Bay of Puck: 1933



People enjoying their summer holiday on our lovely Baltic coast, and not a single beach wind screen in sight! :)

Lucky winner: 1938



The winner of a Polish Radio competition for listeners posing with the main prize - a brand new Opel Olympia.

I may not be a big car guy, but I do like those old cars. The guy's smile tells it all.

A few weeks ago the family and I went to a local park and stumbled across a car show. Check out this machine.

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Nice! What is it? Some sort of early muscle car?

I think it may be a Duesenberg.

Milo is right, a Deusenberg.

That particular car won several races back in the 30's or 40's according to the owner.

Długi, czerwony i często staje: 1934



Tram no.17 taking a turn into Muranowska Street in Warsaw. Sorry for the title.

Like Titanic's Captain: 1941



"Many people hold it against me that I organise parties for children, that I open parks, that the orchestra is playing etc. I remember a movie in which the sinking ship's captain ordered the orchestra to play to keep the passengers' spirits high. I decided to be such captain" - said Adam Czerniaków, the president ot Jewish Council in the Warsaw Ghetto. He commited suicide on 23rd July 1942 upon hearing the news of German plans to liquidate the Ghetto.

He knew too much.

Five beers, please: 1937



International equestrian competition in Warsaw's Łazienki Królewskie, June 1937. Notice the clueless guy on the first horse, who thinks that he's in the pub, ordering five beers.

I see him, he is clueless like this guy Torq I once met, and he looks old. Why so many old people come on PF forum? Why old and obviously still smart folk come here?

Polish Amazon River: 2024



"I travelled hundreds of kilometres through the Amazon River and RioNegro, I inhaled the air and admired the breathtaking views. However, I discovered 2 years ago that we have similarly untouched by man kingdom of nature in Poland", said Jacek Pałkiewicz, famous journalist and discoverer, member of the Royal Geographical Society, best known for his discovery of the sources of the Amazon River.

Krutynia trail is one of the most (if not the most) beautiful kayak trails in Poland. It offers 90 kilometres of adventure that you will remember for a long time. This is the trail that Melchior Wańkowicz took with his daughter before the outbreak of WW2, and he wrote a book about it (Na tropach Smętka) that was hated with passion by the Nazis and burned in thousands of copies by them. Luckily, the book survived, just like the polishness of Mazury and the primeval beauty of Krutynia.

@Torq

Nice.

I go at least once a year on a two night kayaking trip.

In my kayak (we usually move as a convoy of several kayaks and one canoe for carrying heavy things), are always:

1) One pack of Marlboro Reds (even though I quit smoking seven years ago, I still smoke when camping).

2) 3-4 cans of cheap, warm beer

3) A bottle of very warm bourbon

4) Some merguez sausages

5) A small fishing rod normally used by children

6) My iPhone playing some WW2-era French music.

My favorite trip of the year - always.

It's not fun setting up camp in total darkness and while drunk to a point of numbness, and it's not fun waking up in the morning... knowing you have to row another 20 miles. But that's part of the joy)