Soleil

1950 · 23320 — 1950. Clearwater Florida photo archive by George Fulmer documenting a Gulf Coast city in the early postwar Sunbelt boom: downtown storefronts automobile traffic tourism businesses beauty shops laundromats pharmacies loan offices civic buildings youth music programs local entertainments and everyday commercial life. George Fulmer identified here through the studio sleeves and the Clearwater job file context worked as a commercial and civic photographer in a period when Pinellas County grew quickly with new residents new retail construction and an increasingly car centered downtown. <br /> <br /> Photo archive of 70 items including 34 silver gelatin photographs with 36 corresponding and unique large format negatives contained in 15 studio sleeves with some annotations ranging from 3" x 5" to 4" x 5" Clearwater Florida circa early 1950s. Storefronts and signs identify Billie Moran Hair Stylist Spotlite Cleaners Launderette Family Loan Co. Loans Lane's Pharmacy Harris Drive In Pharmacy and a downtown block with the Capitol Theatre marquee and McCrory's along a traffic-filled street. Other scenes include audio equipment demonstrations musicians performing before seated audiences children handling rabbits a youth band rehearsal commercial laundry workers golfers near a clubhouse and staged presentation or prize events. Original sleeves strengthen the local identification with handwritten client names addresses dates and job numbers including "Portal Office U.S. Post Office" "P.G.A. Clinic" "Family Loan Office" "Lane Pharm" "Harris Pharmacy" and "Helpy Selfy Laundry." More scenes place people inside the social and commercial interiors of the city: a woman stands beside a microphone while another plays piano; accordion players and guitarists perform before a seated audience in a hall draped with streamers; children and an adult handle rabbits in what appears to be a club or youth program setting; a school band director leans into a room packed with young musicians and music stands; workers stand at wash stations in a commercial laundry; golfers pose and shake hands near a clubhouse; a woman and man stand on a small platform before a seated crowd during what appears to be a staged presentation or prize event.<br /> <br /> These scenes belong to the years when Florida's west coast cities were advertising modern storefronts widening their commercial appeal and absorbing the population growth that followed World War II air conditioning road building and the state's aggressive promotion of itself as a place to live shop vacation and retire. For institutional collections the group supplies named evidence of how a single city looked and conducted business during the first great Sunbelt surge: not only landmark buildings and downtown traffic but service counters display windows local entertainment children's programs and the ordinary businesses that usually vanish first from the record. Light wear minor surface handling and expected age toning to prints and negatives with some sleeves worn from studio use; overall in very good condition. A strong regional archive of Clearwater's commercial and civic life still anchored to the working paperwork that identifies who hired Fulmer and what parts of the city he was asked to record. unknown