Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: 1957

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A photo of a dock or a pier for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a 1957 snapshot of the Steel Pier , an amusement pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Billed as "The Show Place of the Nation," the pier hosted a variety of shows and acts, including a diving horse and a bicycle-riding bear. When I purchased this photo, however, I didn't realize that it showed a bear and a woman riding bikes on the high platform visible on the left-hand side (mouse over the image to see an enlargement ). After I spotted the bear, I still couldn't imagine that you could train an animal like that to climb a ladder and ride a bicycle. But a YouTube clip of the Bicycle-Riding Bear that's part of The Nieroslavski Family at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J. --filmed during summer 1960--provides a glimpse of how the bear performed its act. Attitudes toward animal acts have changed over the past fifty years, however, and making a bear ride a bicycle seems inhumane and dangerous by today's standards. As far as I've been able to determine, there are no longer any bicycling bears or diving horses in Atlantic City.

A photo of crowds, throngs, or hordes (a big bunch of people) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten note on the back of this real photo postcard: "July 1957. Our boat ride around canal in Gothenburg, Sweden. Beautiful day." More than fifty passengers are crowded into this "paddan" canal boat. Paddan means "turtle" in Swedish, and the boats are named for their turtle-like profile (imagine an upside-down turtle shell), which allows them to pass safely underneath the low bridges along the Gothenburg canals.

"Skating Skills, featuring Secrets of Roller Skating, presented by Chicago Roller Skates. 10¢." The cover of a 1957 advertising comic book for roller skates.

Handwritten on the back of this photo: "He just has to sample." See also Skip and His Birthday Cake .

Handwritten on the back of this photo: "Skip, 3 years, 1957." See also Skip Just Had to Sample His Birthday Cake .

An indoor seasonal photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park ( seasonal - indoors or out - if you have both, feel free to post 2 photos ). Printed on the back of this photo: "This is a Kodachrome Print made only by Kodak. Week of Feb. 24 '58."