Earl Carroll's Vanities

A couple of weeks ago I took a lengthy drive to a rather isolated little Kansas town to find a fabled thrift store that had aisles paved with gold…in the form of vintage clothes of course. I did find the store but sadly, it really didn’t warrant a blog post. I did however stop by a strange little roadside antique store. It was tiny and quiet and looked as if it hadn’t seen another customer in years. I was all alone in the place for several minutes until a very sweet woman in her 80’s, maybe even her 90’s, popped in the door and said: “oh, I’m sorry, I was out picken’ tomatoes and I just kept finding more stuff to do out there”. I was quite impressed by the whole scene. I sort of wished that I was looking into my own future. How great would it be to spend your golden years picking tomatoes and collecting antiques! I found one little treasure in the store that I just couldn’t resist:



This Earl Carroll promotional postcard was quite the source of amusement to this lovely older lady. When she saw what I had chosen she squealed and laughed and remarked that this card must have been quite racy in it’s day. Racy indeed! Earl Carroll was a club owner and producer from the 20’s through the 40’s whose shows could have made a modern burlesque dancer blush. A search for similar Earl Carroll cards and images turned up some fun promotional shots that I just had to share:







How funny is this one? I guess everbody loves a good ‘girls and guns’ photo op!