The package says "Beautiful Cypress Gardens, Florida" (which closed in 2009) and you got 12 postcards for $0.50. On the bottom of the packaging it says "Reproduction From Kodachrome Originals." Kodachrome is a type of color film produced by Kodak between 1935 and 2009 (according to Wikipedia). There is no date anywhere to be found, but based on the quality of the photographs and the bathing suits worn by the "aquamaids," I think it's safe to assume they are from the 1940s or 1950s.
Check out this awesome video from 1956 of the water ski show at Cypress Gardens.
Apparently, Cypress Gardens is slated to re-open as Florida's Legoland in 2011, which I think is very very sad. See this article for more info.
Anyway, some of the postcard photos are credited to "H. W. Hannau." I wasn't able to find much information about this photographer online, although I did come across the name in reference to some other postcard photographs, and more interestingly, photos of the famous pin-up model, Bettie Page.
The postcards in the pack are from 4 different publishers:
- Natural Color Publishers in Miami Beach, Florida
- Palm Color Card Co. in Miami, Florida
- Lakeland News Co. in Lakeland, Florida (which I could find no information about)
- Robinson Color Process in Orland, Florida (couldn't find any info about this one either)
Fun! What a neat find!
ReplyDelete(Although that clown one is going to give me nightmares)