Sunday, August 30, 2015

Pit Shows #1


The gentleman at right is operating a "Mug Joint".

Posted by Buckles at 8/30/2015 06:03:00 AM

11 comments:

Larry Louree said...

What is a 'mug joint'? If it can be explained in a family publication.

30 August, 2015 09:00
Bob Karczewski said...

It is just photography! You can get your picture taken against a background, which may be a wild animal in this case.

30 August, 2015 11:24
Chic Silber said...


They have started to inlcude a few

Mug Joints in the Broadway lobbies

Several with digital screens for a

choice of show related backgrounds

30 August, 2015 12:20
Chic Silber said...


Although the origin of the term

referred to photos of a "face"

some of them could actually do

the image on a coffee mug

I have a favorite gift of 1

with Mitzi Gill in her "Mothra"

UV outfit from a Vegas show

many years back

30 August, 2015 12:24
Ole Whitey said...

Mug joints used a direct (no negative) process, like those machines that used to be in the dime stores. Your pix were ready in a matter of seconds.

Often they would have some comedy backgrounds with holes cut in them thru which you could put your heads and give the folks at home a chuckle.

30 August, 2015 15:41
Harry Kingston said...


I have one of those type cameras in my camera collection and the image was printed of a piece of long roll photographic printed directly on the paper and went though a developer and fixer and out in a few.
No digital way back then as all done with paper and chemicals.
As a photographer I would have liked to have seen the set up E J Kelty had to make those 12 by 20 inch photos in a van. You had to develop a 12 by 20 inch film negative and then make a contact print and then develop it through 4 plus large developing trays all in the dark or a red safety lite.
Those were the days.
Harry in Texas

30 August, 2015 17:20
Dick Flint said...

Billboard used to have ads for these mug joint outfits. Al F. Wheeler had them on some of his shows in the 1910-15 period as their income shows up in his account books.

30 August, 2015 18:05
4pawfan said...

Harry is correct about Kelty working in the heat when he took all those photos on the road. I can't imagine being closed up in his truck working on photos all afternoon. ( I would think maybe the shows would at least give him power as they got a cut of the photos he sold) So maybe he did have a fan and the red safety light in his wooden work room, mounted on a truck. Took the photos in the morning, developed the prints and tacked the contact print on the back door of his truck to keep track of who ordered prints of the group shots. He would take a pencil and push a hole through your image to know who had ordered and paid for one of his photos. I have several of these along with a few that the newspaper stuck to when he got in a hurry in his truck.
I guess when he did the MSQ photos, he would take it all back to his office to process and take oders during the weeks of the engagment. p.j.

30 August, 2015 21:07
Roger Smith said...

I smiled the other day when I had to explain what a mitt camp is.

31 August, 2015 15:56
Tony Greiner said...

I'll bite. What is a mitt camp?

01 September, 2015 14:54
Buckles said...

.....while Gypsy lady reads palm......husband steals hub caps!

01 September, 2015 15:45

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