BATH BED AND BREAKFASTS

I bought this big old box of photos at Brimfield---it must have a thousand or more photos in it. I started looking through it to take out what I wanted and only pay for that, but I hadn't got very far before I realized I would be paying more individually, and spending more time, than if I just took the whole box. The dealer was asking $75, but he said he would take $50. How about $45, I said. No, he had to have $50. So I gave him the $50. Since I didn't want to be stuck carrying around a big box of photos, I took it back to my car, which was at another field across the highway, maybe 1/2 a mile. I hadn't even got to my car before some fellow came up to me and said "That's a lot of photos you got there," and without invitation started poking through it. He grabbed some post cards that were mixed in with the photos. Soon enough he had eleven postcards. "I'll give you $4 for these," he said. I told him I had to have $5. Grumbling, he gave me the $5. I'm sure the postcards were worth more than he paid. Who knows, maybe they were worth a lot more. I don't like postcards, and would find it an imposition on my time to do the research to find out what they were worth. Anyway, that was fun.
I searched through this box maybe three times before I turned this photo over and saw written on the back, "Fairmont Hotel San Francisco picture of Norma Talmadge 1924" Of course, not a lot of people know who Norma Talmadge was now---in 1924 (Wikipedia knowledge) she was at the heighth of her fame---Angelina Jolie territory, I guess. She was the biggest silent picture star whose career did not translate to the talkies. However, she had invested wisely, and was set for life. Wikipedia has this little anecdote: "Once leaving the movie world, Norma Talmadge rid herself of all the duties and responsibilities of stardom. She sweetly told eager fans who were pressing her for an autograph as she left a restaurant, 'Get away, dears. I don't need you anymore.''"
I kind of like that, to be honest.
In her honor, I'm inaugurating a new set, "Accidental Celebrity Gallery."
Since I don't go out looking for pictures of celebrities, the members of this set are random. They just happen along in the ordinary course of things. It's really more fun that way. This photo is among the best, because I didn't even know it was a celebrity until I read the back.

The colorful Tonga Room of the fabulous Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, famed for Cantonese food and exotic drinks. Thrill to exciting tropical storms - dance to soft romantic music played by native musicians aboard a raft adrift in the Tonga pool,