A wonderful, breezy day at the Lido Beach Casino captured on 35mm Kodachrome in the early 50s. The casino was designed by Sarasota School of Architecture icon Ralph Twitchell in 1939-40 as a WPA project. Of note are the precast concrete seahorses barely seen here on the second story. Structure at end (above green benches) is an "entry tower." It was demolished in 1969 at the request of local politicians and businessmen. A good book on the mid-century works coming out of Sarasota is The Sarasota School of Architecture, 1941-1966 by John Howey.
Close-up of the sign from the previous Lido Beach photo. Scanner maxed at 6000 dpi.
Sarasota promotional brochure (Not dated, late 40s?)Modern youth, ready to be ruined by rock 'n roll, hang out under the precast concrete sea horses on the upper deck of the Casino. Note the delightful lack of development on the south beaches.
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I picked up a great TRAVEL mag from the fifties with an article on Sarasota - I'll try to post some images...
ReplyDeleteI have a great picture of my grandmother in her bikini standing on those precast sea horses in the late 40s/early 50s!
ReplyDeleteI love those seahorses. I wonder what ever happened to them. Would love to see you photo!
ReplyDelete—ES
nice
ReplyDeleteJust to let you folks know, that cute little blond, in the Lido Casino pic, standing on the far left, wearing the blue one-piece, is my mom.
ReplyDeleteAll those other kids are in her SHS 1949 yearbook. She's probably 16 there.
By the way, Rick, was your grandmother's name JoAn? Because that would be my aunt, who had her pic taken there in the late 40's, early 50's.
My mother was also a model and took many photos on that beach. She was also in the Shrine Circus. You can see her pic here...
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dkHse9X6RZs/ReN799ZOK0I/AAAAAAAAACc/Zc0ps7KPnIs/s1600-h/peaches+%23+4.jpg
She's front & center.
I have about a dozen or so B/W photos of my Mom and a few of her friends at Lido posing in front of the seahorses from around 1953/54. My Dad was a budding photographer in high School. It's nice to see a photo in color!
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