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Category / Lost & Found

A Backstage Pass to Hidden London

I lived in London for twenty-five years and never got to see the inside of the 1930s decommissioned Battersea Power Station. Nobody did! But the guy that took this picture (above), Peter Dazeley– he even got them to switch on the control room’s art deco lights for him. And it turns out, getting this kind…

America’s Forgotten Jules Verne

I’ve just spent the morning geeking out on an online comic book library, as you do, discovering a forgotten superhero of American sci-fi history. The world’s first science fiction periodical, Frank Reade dime-novels had helicopters and airships before Jules Verne, but while the famous French adventure novelist is still considered a major literary author around the world today, who’s…

Finding Ancient History in the Grecian Sea

A photo posted by messynessychic (@messynessychic) on Aug 25, 2016 at 1:41pm PDT When I posted this photograph on Instagram a few days ago, it received quite a lot of interest, so I thought I’d update you on what happened. To fill you in, if you’re just re-joining us after the holidays, I’ve been…

Chicago’s Forgotten Magazine of the Jazz Age

Who knew the New Yorker had a copycat over in Chicago during the 1920s & 30s? Trying to glaze over the reputation the city once had as a hotbed for organised crime and mob violence, The Chicagoan painted a new image for the town with colorful animated monthly magazine covers, portraying the mid-western metropolis as a place of glamour and stylish…

The Violin Maker

‘The Violin Maker’ – a beautiful short film on New York violin maker, Sam Zygmuntowicz. The film was shot and directed by Dustin Cohen as the first part of the promising ‘Made in Brooklyn’ series.

The Man who Shot the Sixties (and burned most of his work)

“That’s the sort of turd David Bailey is”, says Duffy remembering David Bailey being ‘absolutely useless’ as they watched Duffy burning most of his life’s work in the back yard of his family home. If you want a candid, no-frills account of the legendary 1960s photography scene, revisit it through the eyes and words of…

Before the Eurostar: Remains of the Flying Rail Plane that Never Was

In a slight twist of fate, we might have been traveling between London and Paris in one of these thing-a-majigs– or more accurately, a propeller-driven ‘Flying Railplane‘. This fancy futurist contraption was invented by George Bennie and launched in 1930 as a prototype, designed for a more economical and rapid transport system between the two European capitals. The test track was…

Lost Facades of the 1970s Anti-Walmart

Does anyone remember the American retail chain BEST Products? The last store disappeared in 1997 after forty years in business selling cheap home furnishings, consumer electronics, jewellery, housewares, toys from their catalog showrooms. Their retail concept might not have worked so well, but their architecture in the 1970s and early 80s made shopping trips to the strip…

Calling on her Cell Phone in 1922

Found by a researcher in the Pathe vaults, this clip from 1922, possibly filmed in New York, shows that 90 years ago, the idea mobile phone technology was not only being thought of, but being tested…. Of course, Eve’s Wireless is not technically a mobile phone, it’s a mobile ‘wireless’, which is what they used to call…

The Anti-Nazi Teen Gang that Beat Up Hitler Youth and Danced to Jazz

A band of adolescent music-lovers, swing dancers and snappy dressers– not exactly the type you’d expect to take on the Nazi Hitler Youth. But in pre-WWII Germany, the Nazi regimentation of society inadvertantly gave rise to massive teenage street gangs who beat up the Hitler Youth, tagged anti-Nazi graffiti at train stations– and listened to…

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