Out for the evening at Los Angeles’ Cocoanut Grove nightclub. And no I can’t figure out just what is levitating over the gentlemen’s heads in image #1. What makes it interesting LOL. The Cocoanut Grove was a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel located at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard. It had nothing to do with the Boston nightclub.

*Mrs. Harold Lloyd and Friends*, the photograph caption being dated January 30, 1937 and reading “In one of the most charming parties in recent weeks, a group of the society set is pictured at the Cocoanut Grove the other evening when Mrs. Margaret L. Smith of Honolulu and Los Angeles, entertained in honor of Mrs. Frederick Conger Bryan on the latter’s birthday. Left to right, Mrs. Smith, the hostess; Roy Brooks, Mrs. Harold Lloyd and Alexander Black. The tables were beautifully decorated for the event.” The group is seated at a table with floral arrangements and candles. Other diners and waiters are in the background. American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper Collection, TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/33985/rec/58

Filmland Fetes New Veterans: the photograph caption being dated June 29 1942 and reading: “Lieutenant William C. Carrithers, who helped bomb Japanese troop movements, and his partner, Betty Grable, have a chat between dishes. The heroes will leave here for Texas to resume their nation-wide tour.” Lieutenant Carrithers was one of a group of fifteen American and British soldiers on a nation-wide tour to help defense efforts by asking the public to buy war bonds. The veterans were honored at a gala reception held at the Cocoanut Grove in Hollywood, California. The soldiers pulled from a bowl, names of movie stars who became their dining and dancing partners for the night. Lieutenant Carrither’s partner was Betty Grable. American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper Collection, TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/30735/rec/33

Parade of Fashion Held at the Cocoanut Grove: Gathered here from all over the nation to get a preview of the newest and smartest Los Angeles-made styles, buyers are shown viewing the parade of fashion at the climax of the Fashion Fortnight held in the Cocoanut Grove. On the runway Ruth Stevens models a spring negligee of white jersey embroidered with rhinestones. It has the new lowered waistline and the jersey is draped across the shoulders to fall at the back in a long train. The Fashion Fortnight was sponsored by the Los Angeles Associated Apparel Manufacturers. Photo dated: January 27, 1938. American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper Collection, TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/12575/rec/155

Cocoanut Grove. Ambassador Hotel. View 1: Interior view of the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel located in Los Angeles, showing the elegant decor of the room, where palm trees are set amongst the table. American. Undated image, 1930s-1950s ish perhaps. Photographer not given. Security Pacific National Bank Collection, TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/99950/rec/170

At the Cocoanut Grove, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California with the photograph’s caption dated February 19, 1938 and reading: “Eddy Duchin, orchestra leader, and Glenda Farrell, film actress, are pictured helping Lanny Ross, radio singer, light his cigaret [sic] with a candle during an informal chat between dances at the Cocoanut Grove the other evening.” American. Len Weisman, photographer. Photographed for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper Collection, TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/33785/rec/261

*Cocoanut Grove Conga Line; Guests at the Cocoanut Grove on June 22, 1940, are shown doing a hot La Conga after the show.* Los Angeles, California. American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper Collection, TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/20359/rec/276

*The logo for the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California. At least in 1945, the date on this one.* American. Shades of Los Angeles Photo Collection. TESSA, the Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/80121/rec/288

An envisioning. 1985, Seattle on an October Friday and sitting on the bench at the end of the pier waiting on the ferry out to Vashon.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1985-seattle-on-an

Oh to be here.

Only for the long weekend, and that being for Christopher Columbus, so not bathing-suit-and-sunscreen time. The children playing pine cone toss in a front yard filled with something more garden-store-pretty than sea pebbles that got put down after the roses died. No, out where they have farms instead of grocery stores. Grass that semi-seeds itself and doesn’t care if you can only grow plants indoors.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest . The image is from 1967 and is in a Massachusetts archive-

Desserts delicious enough to snack on for days. Imagery from “Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery.” Written by Ms. Mellish, it was published in 1901 in London. There are two volumes; these are from Volume II.

*Spanish Pudding – Open Apricot Tart. Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 55, Image 187 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n187/mode/1up

*Princess Pudding. Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 44, Image 211 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n211/mode/1up but I found it here https://www.instagram.com/p/DbiFD28DO5E/?img_index=1

*Trifle. Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 47, Image 222 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n222/mode/1up

*Jelly a la Monaco – Assorted Ices. Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 52, Image 228 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n228/mode/1up

*Genoise Biscuits.* *Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 49, Image 238 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n238/mode/1up

*Nougat Baskets with Fruits. Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 48, Image 241 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n241/mode/1up

*Assorted Cakes in Paper Cases.* *Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 51, Image 254 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n254/mode/1up

*Ice Pudding.* *Theodore Kell and Son, lithographers.* Chromolithographic plate. Plate 45, Image 296 from *Katharine Mellish’s Cookery and domestic management, including economic & middle class practical cookery*. Katherine Mellish, author. Published in 1901 in London by the Standard Art Book Company. Collections of the University of Leeds. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/b21524403_0002/page/n296/mode/1up

Make that wildfire smoke go away or at least think you are. Hand fans that make their own breeze from Fan d’Eventails Paris.

*Colombine as Harlequin hand-fan. Wooden sticks and guards with the fabric leaf embroidered with multicolored ribbons and sequins and painted with Colombine dressed as a Harlequin.* ca. 1890. Maker not known. Image © Fan d’Eventails, Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/4727-colombine-as-harlequin-fan-circa-1890.html

*Pierrot at the carnival hand-fan, the fan leaf printed on satin with Pierrot and Colombine leading the carnival procession.* ca. 1900. Signed *G. Clairin* for the painter Georges Clairin (1843-1919). The design was reproduced for Moët & Chandon champagne advertising fans. Image © Fan d’Eventails, Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/fan-leafs/4723-pierrot-at-the-carnival-fan-leaf-by-georges-clairin-circa-1900.html

Two Pierrot Astronomer hand-fans with similar designs, both ca. 1910. One with a painted black silk leaf and blue-stained mother-of-pearl sticks and guards and signed *Van Garden*. The other with horn sticks and guards and a painted black gauze leaf, embroidered with sequins and signed *N. Fontte*. Image © Fan d’Eventails, Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/art-nouveau-fans/4731-the-pierrots-astronomers-fans-by-van-garden-and-fontte-circa-1910.html

An envisioning. 1958, high summer, and a spot to rest the rucksack under the smile of the sort of Man in the Mountain that grins at the waves up in Maine.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1958-high-summer-and

Oh to be here.

A traveling man investment pitching banker for a husband living life as an eternally circulating something, always having to be crisp with every collar and cuff perfect what with the clients all being Rockefellers or wanting to be Rockefellers and in need of advice on where to park their money long enough for a skiff and a little Herreshof sailing something to impress the ladies and gentlemen at the yacht club between regattas.

My new short fiction piece published over on my Substack at the link of you’d like to read the rest. The image is from Buildings of New England, another WordPress blog that I follow-

Heading out in a hat so huge there are three escorts needed to keep the hats from knocking the blossoms off the sunflowers and passersby into the gutter. The 1957 Los Angeles Headdress Ball was the 19th annual Las Floristas charity event held on April 29, 1957, hosted at the Cocoanut Grove inside the Ambassador Hotel. It featured elaborate, custom floral headpieces modeled by prominent society figures. Two of these images are from 1957 with the other ones being from 1958.

*Headdress Ball, 29 April 1957.* The ladies were members of Theta Chi Epsilon, Phi Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Chi Phi (Kappa Chi), Delta Chi Sigma (Alpha X) where were social (not sure of the name) sororities as opposed to the college student kind. Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California USA. American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper. Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Under copyright. Fair use license. via https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=2A3BXZ6SPK581&PN=4&DocRID=2A3BF1OPQ7UQ5

*Three women in gowns and headdresses at Las Floristas Headdress Ball at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California USA. May 3, 1952.* American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Daily News newspaper. Los Angeles Daily News Negatives Collection, University of California Los Angeles Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections. Cc0 License 4.0. via https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz0002pdp8

*“Las Floristas” Headdress Ball, 1958.* American. Photographed for the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper. Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Under copyright. Fair use license. via https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=2A3BXZ6SPGUHD&PN=11&DocRID=2A3BF1OPNTB9C

Learn more about the Las Floristas Headdress Ball which raises money to support the health and educational programs for special-needs and disabled children at the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center children’s clinic. here. The article includes a photograph of Lucille Ball dressed to join right in https://thewackytacky.blogspot.com/2016/04/havin-ball-headdress-ball.html

Mural designs for every room in your home. You can pretend you are a Renaissance princess going up and down the stairs or Hera Queen of the Skies instructing the maid on table settings for the next banquet for the goddess. Chromolithographs from the 1890 folio “Plafonds et peintures murales” which was put together by decorative painter Ernest David and his friend and fellow painter F. Lamy. Published in Paris. Where else?

ANTICHAMBRE. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie A. Janniot and Cie, Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. David. Image 8. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n8/mode/1up

PLAFOND RENAISSANCE. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie A. Janniot and Cie, Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 10. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n10/mode/1up

ESCALIER. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie A. Janniot and Cie, Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Nouveaux modèles de Plafonds et Peintures murales par E. DAVID. Image 12. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n12/mode/1up

SALLE DE BAIN. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie A. Janniot and Cie, Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 16. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n16/mode/1up

TENTURE RENAISSANCE. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie A. Janniot and Cie, Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 20. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n20/mode/1up

PORTE ORIENTALE. *Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie F. Hermet, Paris – Orléans*. lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 32. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n32/mode/1up

*PLAFOND LOUIS XIV. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie F. Hermet, Paris – Orléans*. lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 34. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n34/mode/1up

*CROISEE MAURESQUE. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie F. Hermet, Paris – Orléans*. lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 40. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n40/mode/1up

*MUR VESTIBULE. Ernest David, pinx. Imprimerie F. Hermet, Paris – Orléans*. lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID. Image 52. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n52/mode/1up

PEINTURE MURALE ET PLAFOND. F Lamy, pinx. Imprimerie Bourgerie Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Nouveaux modèles de Plafonds et Peintures murales par F. LAMY. Image 52. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n64/mode/1up

PEINTURE MURALE ET PLAFOND DE SALLE À MANGER. F Lamy, pinx. Imprimerie Bourgerie Paris, lithographers. E E. Thézard fils, publishers, Editeur à Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise). Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Nouveaux modèles de Plafonds et Peintures murales par F. LAMY. Image 74. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n74/mode/1up

*CHEMINÉE DE CABINET* (the captioning on this page is very faded out). *Bibliothèque du Peintre en Bâtiment, Plafonds et Peintures Murales par E. DAVID.* Image 80. Collections of the Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History New South Wales. CcO License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/David10636/page/n80/mode/1up

Gardens of Flatbush back before they built the big Sears Roebuck store. Flatbush is part of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. These images are from 1908; I’m not sure how accurate they are. My mother was a baby in a different part of Brooklyn but they moved long before she could have remember the neighbors’ flower beds.

Front cover, Image 1 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/mode/1up

*Albermarle Road*. Image 4 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/page/n4/mode/1up

*Tennis Court.* Image 6 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/page/n6/mode/1up

*Boat House – Prospect Park.* Image 22 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/page/n22/mode/1up

*Melrose Park, Residence of W. A. A. Brown.* Image 35 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/page/n35/mode/1up

*Beverley Road*. Image 42 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/page/n42/mode/1up

Ocean Avenue Entrance to Prospect Park. Image 50 of *Brooklyn’s Garden, Views of Picturesque Flatbush.* Published and copyrighted 1908 by Charles Andrew Ditmas, Brooklyn, New York. The Albertype Company, Brooklyn, New York, printers. In the public domain due to age. Collections of the Library of Congress. via https://archive.org/details/brooklynsgardenv00ditma/page/n50/mode/1up

I have other relatives who live or have lived in New York City too and a large chunk of my following too. So here is a Substack link – this author has a very interesting substack with an article on a different part of New York City nearly every week. This is his Flatbush article.

https://theneighborhoods.substack.com/p/flatbush-brooklyn?utm_source=publication-search

An envisioning. 1982 with December reaching for January as the snow comes down at the ski house on Pine Cone Way.

Oh to be here.

Aspen. Three apres ski outfits to wear sitting around the roaring fire trying to look like you fit in what with the new inlaws not having met a pair of skis they don’t like, and not knowing the lady in their midst is more of a New York City girl, habituated to going up and down in elevators under someone else’s propulsion, not with knees bent and ski poles to wave around, while the wind goes woosh in your ears as sparkly light bounces off the trees.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. The images are from Florida Memory, the Florida Archives.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1982-with-december