When you run around with a very official press pass for the only exotic dancer magazine in New York and New Jersey you can get away with some pretty interesting ideas that’s the bar owners like I would have mini beauty contest sometimes over 50 girls would show up this is Gold Fingers One of the top clubs in New York they called it a Gentlemens club back then from 1989 through 1992 I published over 1200 dancers in the tri-state area and in hundreds of portfolios there’s over 1000 images on this category on this site you’ll see some very sexy girls of course with Sal‘s gangsters from the 40s and a bunch of Captain Tony photos through the 50s and 60s you’re getting to see a birth of an amazing book
When I started editing great uncle Sal‘s estate 18 years ago I came across some very interesting negatives from the late 30s this is one of Sal‘s head shots it was in A old box that said Sal‘s prizes every negative in the box was special to him and to me every one of them was a photographer way ahead of his time if you stay on this category you will see over 1000 images that I picked out of Sal‘s work Captain Tony’s photos from Key West an mine you have the opportunity to watch the birth of our book
One of those funny stories I was on the second floor of my friends wife’s photography studio in Westfield New Jersey the downstairs used to be a dance hall called Arcadian Hall Sal actually performed there in the 40s And now we were doing a photo shoot 60 years later with the masks where ever Sal performs he always took a couple masks and hung them In 2002 we did a cable show at this location and a photo shoot
In the mid 30s through the late 40s my great uncle Sal threw a new addition to his act he would hypnotize people he was taught by three different hypnotist he always had a giant masks in the background just for the effect I ran into a box of images that said people I have hypnotized these are large format negatives I believe I’m looking into their soul or something something is different
To me what makes this category fascinating is my great uncle Sal shot black and white since 1927 that’s what he got his first camera and he stayed with it till his death in 1995 if you do the math that’s around 70 years of taking pictures that’s why there is boxes and boxes of thousands of negatives this came out of a box that said Joni Rocco‘s party 1943 I’m going to print it up one day
If you want to know more about what’s going on with her book go back to published articles on this website very interesting story
Bob Kennedy from Kennedy studios in Key West published this poster for me He sold it in his nine locations Key West,Miami, the Bahamas, Provincetown, I sold it all it was the Jersey shore it was my money making baby for one year and a half Back in the late 70s and early 80s Kennedy studio Published All my work
This was one of the underground ads That was in Chicago when Sal performed for his fathers cousin Frank Costello who operated this nightclub also the Peacock Lounge
35 exotic dancers I published in 1989 also did their portfolios in my studio that year nude and semi nude it was my first year in the business I am eventually tripled those numbers in the 90s
What’s very unique about this category is most images on it most people have never seen before there is actually over 1000 photos with some pretty funny interesting stories you also get to witness the birth of our book This photo was taken 1949 at Sal’s mask photography studio he actually made these masks in 1937 For the New York 1939 worlds fair yes they have special powers for 60 years they were used in Sal’s mind reading acts and hypnotizing people The three masks in the middle are use them in my studio 20 years ago for background images Lisa and I actually have them in our mask room here in Florida with 40 other ones if you stay on this category you will see over a thousand images with some pretty funny stories, Gangsters exotic dancers burn west girls from the 30s very interesting New York characters in Key West in the 60s and 70s it’s a very interesting category on the site