Admittedly, today’s post is not my usual shtick.
But, I do love to stir the memory pot on occasion, especially when it involves a brush with fame.
As you already know, (if you have been reading all the way to the end of my long weekly posts), I’ve been participating in fellow blogger Terri Webster Schrandt’s weekly feature “Sunday Stills” since mid-October 2023. It has been fun cherry-picking photos accumulated in my 2023 excursions to match Terri’s weekly prompts.
So, when the February 25th “Fun with Photo Editing” prompt came along, I knew I could dig into my archive of vintage photos and rise to the occasion.
I really enjoy photography, a renewed hobby for me since starting my blog in 2013, but, save for adding a little text to a photo for holiday shots at a free image editing site, I’ve not yet ventured into serious photo editing. I know that in this age of Artificial Intelligence, I could easily put my image next to a celebrity’s image, living or dead. Today’s prompt lets me share a few fun photos from my past.
Laurel and Hardy … and Little Ol’ Me.
I attended Henry Ford Community College after high school, before finishing up at Wayne State University to graduate with a B.A. in Mass Communications. While at HFCC, I got involved in extracurricular activities, something I didn’t get a chance to do in high school as you had to be a “cool kid” – but here, at HFCC, it was different.
I was eager to work on the college newspaper The Ford Estate and it was a fun time as fellow staffers became fast friends and we hung out as a group every weekend, attended outdoor concerts in the Summer and remained friends after parting for our respective career paths.
Besides being a reporter on the school paper, I kicked my college experience up a notch or two by joining the National Model United Nations Club, Associated Student Government and also became the Editor of the Student Handbook.
I could fill this blog post with photos from those days, but instead I want to focus on photos taken at the ASG Banquet in the Spring of 1975. A fellow student government rep was Jim Mulleague, whose mother was “Gundella the Witch” an actual witch and local TV celebrity.
Well, Jim had an entertainment gig of his own; he and his friend, Rick Underwood, dressed and acted the part of Laurel and Hardy. They were the spittin’ images of the comic duo and these impressionists had their comedic routine down pat. Jim and Rick’s guest appearances at local events helped pay for their college tuition. For our end-of-the-school-year ASG banquet, Jim and Rick arrived dressed as this famous duo, (who made over 100 long and short films together between 1926 and 1940 and were considered to be the most successful comedy team in the history of Hollywood).
Because I never went anywhere without my trusty Kodak Pocket Camera, even if it meant smooshing it into the fancy little purse I was carrying, I was ready for the unexpected surprise, when the pair walked into the banquet room, dressed as this famous dapper duo.
Hurriedly, I snapped a photo of the two of them (yes, a bit off-center) …
… then I asked them to pose with me.
They brought along copies of photos used to advertise their services and autographed them …
Over Thanksgiving weekend 2017, I digitized all my photo albums and scrapbooks. This was no easy feat, especially since some albums and scrapbooks did not have removable pages, so this project is not complete since some images are raw and need tweaking. But happily, with just a mouse click or two, I can hop onto Shutterfly, the online imaging company where I store those digitized albums and scrapbooks, to reminisce over decades of memories.
A couple of years ago, I was in my Shutterfly online scrapbook in search of a particular image for a blog post. Flipping through endlessly, I paused at the photo of Jim, Rick and me. I decided the off-kilter belt on this long gown was definitely a distraction in this fun shot. So, I went onto Facebook to see if Shutterfly had a community where members might edit your images for free.
Bingo! They did have such a group, so I asked to join and here’s what happened next:
So, using “Image Compare” in WordPress, which photo below do you prefer?
Jessica did a great job and, as you see above, I thanked her, but zapping the belt from the dress and eliminating a spot on the curtain, seemed to make the photo blurry. Hmm – while it was fun to see what Jessica did with a little photo editing, I think I liked the imperfect photo better.
Yep, there’s no pleasin’ people sometimes is there?
Now, let’s fast forward a few years, shall we?
Foto Fun – so, are these photos the “real deal” or not?
So, while it was fun getting photos taken with “Laurel and Hardy” I was also mixing and mingling back in the day with a former Prez and the Royal Family, circa 1979.
Not everyone can say they had their picture taken next to a former U.S. President, but I can. Of course, it would be cheating if I didn’t add that the picture was taken at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London, England.
President Carter was the nation’s 39th president. His term was from January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981 and he was the sitting President at the time I visited Madame Tussauds in May 1979.
His wax likeness at Madame Tussauds was put in place in November 1976 after winning the election against incumbent President Gerald Ford.
Hmm – it looks as if President Carter was giving me a side-eye here? The photo even looks like it was spliced together, but it was because President Carter stood in front of a red wall and I was standing to the side of that red wall.
Out with the old, in with the new: if you click here, you will see a short video showing President Ford’s wax likeness being replaced with the newly minted President Carter and you can see the two different walls.
I was full of smiles, having just gotten my mouthful of braces removed a week or so before the trip. I sure didn’t mind the thin retainer over my top teeth after enduring wrap-around metal jackets on each tooth for almost three years? Ugh!
I am also including these two photos of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Prince Charles in this post. There were other folks waiting to have their photos taken with the wax Royal Family members, so it was a quick meet-and-greet photo event and no time for tea and crumpets.
Hope you enjoyed taking this stroll down Memory Lane with me.
As mentioned earlier, I am joining Terri Webster Schrandt’s Sunday Stills February 25th Challenge: “Fun with Photo Editing”.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Pingback: Sunday Stills: #Photo-Editing: Fun or Fraught? – Second Wind Leisure Perspectives
Linda these are so great! Excellent examples of editing on old pics–not as easy as you make it look. Honestly, the quality was lost on the Laurel and Hardy pic. The belt and curtain smudge are easier to digest in their original form. But the men playing their parts really look just like them! I love seeing the pictures of you from back in the day!
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Thanks Terri – once I saw this prompt, I knew I could have fun with it. You are correct – the enhancement did nothing really and the picture became blurry. I think everyone was posing with arms around waists and that’s how the belt got moved. Jim and Rick were really great – they had the dialogue, mannerisms and especially the look of Laurel and Hardy down pat. Thank you – glad to give you a glimpse of me in the 70s! I used my Kodak Pocket Camera for years and finally wore it out when the film drawer was letting in light – I hated to see it go!
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What a fun post!
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Glad you liked it Anne!
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The Laurel and Hardy boys are so like them, fabulous. Nice to see a hottie from the past 😁
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They really did look and act like the real deal and I had only seen Laurel and Hardy in old black-and-white movies at that point. Between them and two guys on the college newspaper staff who loved the Marx Brothers and the two of them would go into long dialogues they had memorized from some of their movies. I have never seen a Marx Brothers movie, so the first time I heard them, I really didn’t know what to think except rolling my eyes a lot. Thank you Brian – your comment about my 40-years-younger-self just made my day! 🙂
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This has been an interesting and fun read.
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Thank you Anne – I am glad you enjoyed it. I had fun reliving those nice memories when putting this post together.
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photography sure has changed from the seventies! Funny how a picture is like a time machine. It can take us back to that moment in time! Somebody else viewing it cannot travel back, just the person who was there.
Photoshopping is a art in itself.
Great post Linda!
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I’m glad you liked it Wayne. I love taking a trip down Memory Lane every so often. I really had fun putting this post together after I saw Terri’s prompt – I knew I could use all these photos from my old scrapbooks.
My parents and grandmother took me to dinner at a local nightclub when I graduated from college … my grandmother had come over for graduation but it was a sickening hot night and she had a heart condition, so I said it wasn’t necessary to go, so we did something else special. They had an Elvis impersonator there. Elvis Wade was great and I remember getting an 8-track tape that night. So, he looked and sounded like Elvis and we had seats near the stage and he came over to the table and gave me his sweaty neck scarf (which is something Elvis did to the ladies in the front row at his concerts). No I didn’t swoon, but my father grabbed my camera to take a picture and it didn’t come out – it was dark in there, but he got the stage and nothing else. He never could take a picture anyway. Yes, Photoshopping is an art and in this case it did not do the trick, but look how old the picture was too.
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Elvis has left the building!
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Yes, I liked they always said that after he departed … maybe so the women would stop screaming! 🙂
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I think they said that so as to clear the arena
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Yes, I think so too. I think people lingered, hoping he’d do an encore.
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I love this!
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Thanks Michael! I am fairly new to these prompts and challenges; I know you have done them for a while now. I knew I could do something fun with the Laurel & Hardy pics and the Madame Tussauds pics taken in your neck of the woods. I’m sure I saw other wax figures there, but these were the most-famous ones. 🙂
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All very cool
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Thank you Michael. 🙂
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Editing old photos is always challenging, but I think you did a great job! For the Laurel and Hardy shot, the original looks better, in my opinion. You could still erase the spot on the curtain, but the belt looks fine. The faces are too ruddy in the other version, and as you said, it seems blurrier.
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The editing sure changed the integrity of the original picture – I agree with you Debbie D. I think the mark on the curtain might have even been part of the scanning process. Some of the photos I scanned in were under plastic overlays – this scrapbook was not, but I couldn’t remove the pages. If I had it to do over, instead of a flat bed scanner, I would have gotten a hand scanner.
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I love your take on the prompt and your stories behind the photos. I agree with you, the original photo is better than the edited one. It’s nice to have them in the image compare block to decide. It was fun seeing how you hobnobbed with the Royals and a President. That wax figure of Jimmy is kind of creepy…your smile makes up for it though! Great job on the prompt, Linda!
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Thanks Shelley – I’m glad you liked what I did with the prompt. I always have some type of convoluted backstory it seems. 🙂 I thought this would be a short post – short, me?? I changed titles to make two separate “stories” and couldn’t decide which pic to use up top, so I went with Terri’s photo for the header image. And, I learned yesterday, that “Image Compare” only works properly if you view the post on the actual site. So, when you post, we are directed from Reader to your actual site, so it works fine. Sunday night I read Terri’s post in Reader. I noticed Image Compare looked like a slideshow when it just makes the photos one right after the other, with no slideshow. Terri compared two flowers – it did that in Reader. So, then I saw my two Laurel & Hardy pics in Image Compare only worked on my site. Interesting, but it was fun to try it, because that time photo editing did not work as well, but it’s an old photo too. Jimmy gave me a side-eye. I was smiling big-time, no braces!
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Yes, you do have a lot of wonderful backstories and current stories to share. 🥰
Hmm…that’s interesting that Reader can’t show the BLOCK that WordPress uses. Oy…
The set up with Laurel & Hardy and no braces was a smile-worthy moment indeed!
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I hope I don’t run out of stories and back stories some day Shelley! I don’t know why Reader did that, but it also does not show a slideshow as it was intended, only a series of pics, one after the other, with a dot in between. That was the highlight of that evening and was a surprise. It was only members of student government, no other attendees, so when they walked in together, out came the camera … probably why I shot them off-center and no feet!
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I doubt you’ll run out of stories, ever. You’re a gifted story teller!
It’s hard to tell what WP does or doesn’t do with blocks. I think there’s another update coming soon. 🙄🤔
The memories you have of the event are smile-worthy!
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Oh no – not more changes. It took me a year to try Image Compare! Probably some AI stuff? Thank you as to the storytelling – I do like stirring the memory pot every so often and then telling a story or two. Actually, I have a few fun things I’m planning for Mother’s Day and Grandparent’s Day posts this year.
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Yeah, that’s what I thought about the changes! I do think AI stuff is on the list. It was too long to absorb in my “no….don’t change it again” brain! 😆
That’s so sweet you have plans for those dates already. 🥰
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I have to Google and try something AI like Ally’s blog post … although I thought I read you can generate an AI image in WP? I may run out of Mother’s Day and Grandparents Day stories eventually, but this year I hope to do two fun ones. They both require some work on my part though. 🙂
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That sounds interesting. I don’t know if you can or not, probably, though.
I don’t think you’ll run out of stories, you’re too creative to do that!
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You’re going to swell my head Shelley. 🙂 I saw the portrait photographer I follow took a photo of her young granddaughter (maybe 3 years old) and used AI to ad an umbrella, rain boots, then stuck her in a puddle with ducklings in the puddle.
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I’m looking forward to what you come up with!
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I hope to not disappoint!
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You won’t!
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How interesting, the editing did make the new picture blurrier. What a great “Laurel & Hardy” picture to have as a keepsake! Your friends look just like them. I’ve never been to a wax museum before. It looks like you had a great time there. Isn’t it wonderful how old pictures can bring back the best memories? Even with the the colors faded over time they’re great mementos. I love how happy you look standing next to President Carter.
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Barbara, I also thought it was odd that photo editing actually made the picture blurrier. I am glad I preserved a copy of the original. I do have some fun photos in my scrapbook, all which I’ve digitized, yet I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to use them in my blog. But this prompt/challenge, I knew I could have some fun with it. Before I asked at this Facebook site, I saw there were lots of people asking others to “wipe out” stray people or objects in photos. In my case, only one person did it fairly quickly. Sometimes there would be several others in the group that each use their photo editing software and come up with a different “take” – so how nice is that of strangers to do that for you? When I was doing this post, I wondered if it was possible to find that original FB “ask” and it took just a few seconds to find it. This was my first and only wax museum and the UK Madame Tussauds was famous as it’s been around forever (the 1800s), but there are several Madame Tussauds now in the U.S. They were very lifelike figures and you could get up close to them as well. The Royal Family was a big attraction as was President Carter – a fun visit.
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Those are great pictures of YOU! I have photoshop which I use occasionally, mostly to lighten up a picture. Helps a lot.
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Thank you Kate! Hard to believe those pics were taken that many decades ago. I wore that camera out taking so many photos over the years. I would like to try some of the photo-editing sites sometime – my problem is I take so many pictures on walks, that it would take forever to do more than just crop them to enhance the image, but I’d like to try it for Wordless Wednesday when I have less photos.
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Your photos don’t really need it. I do a lot of indoor shots and those need lightening up.
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Thanks – my indoor shots are mostly dark, but part of that is because my kitchen is so dark. I have a floor lamp, a desk lamp plus the overhead swag lamp – the swag lamp bulb is an LED bulb, but it is a country fixture with a frosted chimney. Most of the kitchen shots are too dark. You could do surgery in the bedroom – it is too bright there – no happy medium.
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If you are ever tempted, Photoshop is an easy program. You can do amazing things but mostly what I do is lighten up so you can see my cat’s fur better! Priorities, priorities! 🙂
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That is good to know Kate. I would like to learn how to do some things down the road. Blogging, pretty AND handsome cats are all priorities in my opinion!
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Cats are tough subjects. They don’t stand still!
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What a lot of fun! The first time through I was just skimming the photos and I thought that was Laurel and Hardy! Of course, if I’d thought about it I’d have realized you were nowhere near old enough to have posed with them. Your friends did a great job.
I’m in favor of photo #1. Not because of the belt buckle. She tried to do some color correction and left everyone with a sunburn. Nice job on the curtain though!
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These guys did look like the real deal Zazzy and I’m not an old movie buff at all, but I had seen photos of Laurel and Hardy and their mannerisms and Jim and Rick were great impressionists. They did events like state fairs and went around the country doing so.
I know the retouched photo looks blurry to me, especially our faces. Considering the age of the photo and it was that smudge-proof, almost grainy-looking, surface that was popular back then, it scanned pretty well. I am inclined to think the curtain was a scanner blob maybe? Unless whomever took the picture, just looked at the subjects and not the background?
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Such a fun post, Linda. I enjoyed looking through and hearing about your memories of these photos. It is amazing how easy it is to make quick and easy changes to photos.
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Thanks Rebecca – I am glad you enjoyed this post! It was fun to put together as well. I love looking at old photos and not only have I taken a lot of photos through the years, but my parents did as well and with no siblings, I got all the family albums. I have some really vintage pics of my mom as a baby and she would have turned 98 on Valentine’s Day – perfectly preserved!
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I do like the original picture better.
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Yes it seems much clearer to me too Ruth.
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They really do look like laurel and Hardy! Great post and you look fabulous!
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They had a great little act going and with guest appearances, they were really successful around here at fairs and car shows. Thank you Susan! I appreciate that. It is fun looking back almost four decades ago. I really am happy I digitized all my old photos.
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What an interesting post Linda! It’s crazy how much editing a picture can improve the picture. Soon you will have plenty of time to become an expert!
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Thank you Diane – I am glad you liked it. I would like to know how to do some fancy editing, maybe for my “wildlife pictures” I have on Wednesdays, but, as you say soon I will have plenty of time to become an expert! I still use the camera on automatic focus. I spent some time trying to learn how to use the camera manually but even when I had the 35mm camera, it was just easier to let the camera do the thinking for me. So I do know I could learn how to do that as well.
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That’s a fun look at your past, Linda. I’ll bet those guys made a little money as Laurel and Hardy – they look the part! I did not notice the belt at all until you pointed it out. The doctored photo is blurrier and the color was enriched making all the faces really red.
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Glad you enjoyed the post Eileen. Yes, the guys had a busy schedule doing guest appearances, at car shows or summer fairs across the U.S. I know anyone would do a double-take if they saw them. The edited photo was just not as clear unfortunately, so good thing the belt was not as noticeable as I thought it was.
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I can’t say I’ve ever been to a wax museum, even though there were several in the LA area near where I grew up. But the Laurel and Hardy impersonators are impressive. They strike me as the type that stay “in character” even when they’re not on stage. You’ll find similar people wandering the streets of Colonial Williamsburg: Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, etc. They even speak the Queen’s English and don’t understand the happenings in modern society if you refer to one. The realism is a little eerie.
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This was the only wax museum I’ve ever been to Dave and it is the original Madame Tussauds which opened up in the 1800s. It was fun and the figures are very lifelike. They have two people who inspect every wax figure daily for smudges, even kisses and/or damage. I had seen pictures of Laurel and Hardy and maybe snippets of their movies before I saw Jim and Rick do their Laurel and Hardy routine – they really were great impressionists. They had the mannerisms down pat. That sounds like it would be interesting to see at Colonial Williamsburg, but that is odd that they are so in tune with their character portrayal, they essentially lose touch with the world. In Holly, Michigan every Christmas, they turn the town into a Dickens fest. They have all Dickens characters in period costume strolling the streets, especially at the Holly Hotel. That Holly Hotel burned a year or so ago, but they vowed to rebuild and once again recreate this unique tourist attraction.
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Miss Linda…………………………………………..you are amazing……………………………….thanks to your strict upbringing from your mother………………………………….you had many interests and various learning programs along your way……………………………..I love your middle picture with your friends Laurel and Hardy…………………………….I went to Wayne State too but in 1988
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Thank you Ann Marie – you swell my head. 🙂 And yes, my mother always wanted me to do more things and I did make the most of my time at HFCC. I remember you were studying Spanish at HFCC a few years ago in conjunction with your volunteer work. That was a fun night with fellow student government members at that banquet and a surprise when Jim and Rick showed up as Laurel and Hardy. I did remember you went to school for your degree in teaching for elementary school education.
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This was a fun post. I know that the right person can change a photo into just about anything. I’ve tried to enhance some of our old photos, but with little success. Love the photo of you and Laurel and Hardy!
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Thanks Ally, I am glad you enjoyed this post. It was fun putting it together too. I’d like to learn how to edit photos, but maybe just for my Wordless Wednesday posts of wildlife as I have less photos in those posts (usually, though I know tomorrow’s WW has five pics in it). I am so glad I had the camera with me so I could get that shot of the three of us. These days everyone would have their phone with them, but I had the camera for my own use, plus I was taking photos of the event for the college newspaper.
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I have really enjoyed the various responses to Terri’s prompt and yours was no exception. I don’t think I would have noticed your belt if you hadn’t pointed it out. Unfortunately, anytime you make an edit to a digital photo, the quality is degraded a bit. Like others have commented, I like the original best because the faces are so much more important than the errant belt.
I’ve never been to a wax museum but I’ve seen pictures of various celebrities done in wax and how well each is captured varies. The one of Jimmy Carter makes him look odd… but you look marvelous!
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I also enjoyed seeing Terri and the other’s recommendations as to editing programs. I take and use a lot of photos in my walking posts, but I would like to learn how to enhance the wildlife photos I use for Wordless Wednesday as there are less photos. This post gave me some ideas of programs to use. I was surprised to see that the photo was not enhanced after tweaking it and the original photo was better. They have several Madame Tussauds now in the U.S. now. I thought that Jimmy Carter’s eyes look a little odd – thank you for the compliment on my 70s self Janis!
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How fun!!!
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Every so often I step away from nature and Terri’s Challenge gave me a good reason to do that! Glad you liked it Kirstin. (Sorry your comment went to SPAM.)
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Like you, I prefer the original photo with Laurel and Hardy. The edited version is slightly blurry, and everyone’s faces look a little red.
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Yes, it was clearer and everyone looked much better … good to know about photo editing techniques and whether they work on old photos or not.
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Wow! Great shots, Linda! I really like your sweet. long hair! Kodak cameras!… Those were the days!
Don’t know if you’ve watched/heard this one, but it’s super cool. Laurel and Hardy dancing to Billie Jean:
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I thought this would be a fun post and a break from the weekly walks Tom and a chance to show off my “famous encounters” back in the day. 🙂 Thank you Tom – I have always had long hair and now, it’s still long, just a little shorter at shoulder length. My Kodak Pocket Camera went everywhere I went. My mom gave me her Baby Brownie which I had when I was younger, but I only took B&W pics with it. This camera was a real workhorse. I did not see that video before and I really enjoyed it Tom. It’s amazing how the person who did this synced Laurel and Hardy’s song-and-dance routine to Billie Jean. Very cool – thank you for sending it to me!
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Great post, Linda! Loved seeing the pictures of you and your editing. Your smile is so lovely!!
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Glad you liked the post Esther and thank you! I was pretty excited to show off my smile after getting my full-mouth metal braces off and just wearing a retainer. 🙂 I knew I had some fun pictures for this Challenge.
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