23 July 2008

Bryn Mawr 1959

Above: The yearbook staff of The Revue. "Sixty cents a copy. Souls smell in Hades. Perhaps." Laying out copy at three in the morning with coffee and cigarettes and making up obscene captions for photographs. My kinda fun.

Above: Maybe she's needle pointing a belt.

Above: I don't know why but I love this picture.


Above: Bryn Mawr Noir

J Crew did a catalog in the late 80's. Bunch of 20-ish kids and some greying older folks at a beach house. A striking brunette girl who was fairly large framed. The other women were much smaller and blond. Four maybe five guys. Pick up truck. Wire Fox Terrier. The catalog ran with the same group of models for about two years. Looking at the pictures, I would make up stories about who was sleeping with you. Couldn't help it. The large brunette, I was pretty sure, slept with everybody. Wish I knew what happened to her.

Anyway, I like to buy yearbooks in used book stores for pretty much the same reason. I can put together a screenplay for one year depending on how well the yearbook was done. This is Bryn Mawr in 1959. You can pretty much be assured a couple of these girls went to work in the ad business in New York. And some wound up in the Village doing the Bohemian thing and partying with Lenny Bruce backstage.

I love looking at these pictures. A yearbook is a screenplay. A story of these people at a certain time. All of it coming together. Not bad for sixty cents. The graduating class are 70 - - 71 now. I'd give anything to meet them. I feel like I already know them.

6 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure one of those girls is Fawn Liebowitz (the little minx) before she met her end in that tragic kiln explosion.

    Scott

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the noir shot. All those black dresses and pearls!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those were days of roses, of poetry and prose.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just love how you said a yearbook is a screenplay. It's totally true and these photos totally capture that feeling. I'm just in love with them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome posting!! Thanks for publishing those pictures. I went to a small all women's college, didn't end up in the Village, but I did end up in Bohemia! Happy weekend, Becs

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chums,


    Bryn Mawr girls okay. Certainly better than Barnard, who had the reputation for being the most frigid.

    ReplyDelete