I am making the audio track to this post as optional…but it does have a special meaning. James, aka Pop Pop was born and raised in Brooklyn and this song always brings a smile to my face and makes me imagine him as a boy…
So without getting in the bush and tangle of my family tree and Ohhhh all those attached, let’s keep it simple. I spent a few years of my youth with a family…amoungst them was Peter Xeller….fast forward many many years and we reconnected, thru Facebook. Fast forward a few more years and I met Dan Xeller, his son and a photographer…met him thru Facebook …thru his father that I reconnected with thru facebook….you get the drift…
And where am I going with all this? and how in the world does it relate to the title of this blog???? I’m getting there. So let’s flash back (yeah they do it on TV all the time) Last year I wrote a few blogs about a very special man in my life, James V Antizzo, he was a Public Relations photographer that worked for the “Aviation News” which at the time was located at Kennedy Airport, well actually at the time it was call Idlewild Airport, but I digress….
Anyway before I loose you all, Last summer I had the opportunity to meet Dan Xeller for the first time, which after only communicating on Facebook, is really quite thrilling!!! Besides meeting him and his lovely wife and his son Johann, he had a gift for me. Somewhere in the years of family collections he had ended up with many of Jim’s (aka POP POP) photographs and he presented them to me, in archival sleeves over a glass of iced tea at the beach house that I grew up in…. What a thrill!! I don’t know if he and his dad appreciated how much that meant to me. It’s been nine months since that special gift was presented and since then I have really not had the time to focus and devote to identifying many of the photos and scanning all the care that goes into sharing until now….I thought it about time, well long overdue…
So what is to follow for the next few blogs is a collection of photos of celebrities of the time…the 1950’s. Many of you will have no idea of who these folks are, many of you will…I hope you enjoy the walk down memory lane….I thank the photographer James V Antizzo and the present photographer Dan Xeller for making this possible Thank you both
If you have not gone back to view my previous blogs on JVA, you will notice that most of the photos have TWA Icon somewhere in the photo….that was free advertizing back in the good ole days 🙂
More to come….
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Judy I have two photos of Marilyn Monroe & Arthur Miller taken by Uncle Jim…framed & hanging on my wall and a few others he’d given me of celebrities I don’t recognize. I’ll copy the Marilyn ones & send to you. xxx Judy
Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your education and intellect by your modesty; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices, and your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others.
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In the picture with Gene Kelly, that is not Donald O’Connor, that is Fred Astaire.
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