When I first opened up mentertainment studios And advertised through three magazines calls came in like crazy featured dancers porno stores girls want To advertise themselves in the back of newspapers
Live From The Field
In 1927 my great uncle Sal was 16 years old he was already a accomplished piano player and painter and was making a lot of bizarre crazy masks this was all at the age of 16 he wasn’t in school anymore he was performing at different clubs in New Jersey playing the piano A Cruise ship came in to New York and Sal wanted to photograph it his old art teacher Miss Wolf gave him a camera for his 16th birthday this is one of the images he took in 1927 on that ship in Port here is the bizarre thing when I was transferred to public school from Catholic school in 1964 I got to meet my new art teacher she was an old lady her name was Miss Wolf she remembered my last name right away and asked me how Sal was what a small world
This is a very interesting category on this site there is over 400 images that my great uncle Sal has taken and myself most of them are published as far back as the late 20s both of us had studios in New York City Sal Spent 60 years there and myself 30 we both were also photographers in Key West we definitely have some stories each photograph on this category has a cool little story about it for instance these two magazines the one on the right Sal did in 1949 for the bazaar traveling carnival the world of mirth he was a mind reader mask maker also played The Piano at burlesque shows A lot of great photos and stories in this magazine about him the other magazine 40 years later is what I did It had all the strip clubs in New Jersey and New York And all the exotic dancers that perform there I’m the guy who went to all the clubs and took all the pictures there’s also a great story in the air about me like Sal’s magazine funny coincidence the magazines with the same size and the sa
This site that you were on is my family website it’s been around for 20 years all the photographs are either from my great uncle Sal and myself there are other images that my great grandfather Luigi took and Captain Tony my grandfather and wild uncle Joey some of the images go back as far as the late 20s as far as Published Photos They start in the early 30s till present between all of us I have 300,000 images prints negatives class slides and digital chips I am still finding images that weren’t printed up yet Every two or three days you’ll be seeing new images here with stories
In the 80s and 90s I published over 1200 models, exotic dancers, and did hundreds of nude and semi nude portfolios I might have some world record from 30 years ago here is nine random girls that I photographed either in my studio or live on stage if you stay on this category on this website you will see hundreds Of beautiful women I have published
2011 that’s my uncle Keith on the left and John Feist on the right we were filming the documentary Maria’s journey they gave me a big part
A must read story most of you know about my famous grandfather Captain Tony the mob guy from Elizabeth New Jersey who fled to Key West in 1947 eventually he became a famous rum smuggler and worked for the CIA While all that was going on he bought the original Hemingway bar then after getting married a bunch of times and having a dozen children he becomes the mayor of Key West But before all that in 1942 he buys a little boat with a motor on it in Port Elizabeth New Jersey he would do a Lotta night fishing trips with my dad they never caught any fish they went to the Newark docs and picked up stolen merchandise My dad and grandfather told me all the crazy stories also my great uncle Sal who took this photo told me all the stories also, you got to love this family
I have been a published photographer for over 40 years besides that I have been buying vintage photography negatives and glass slides for the last 35 years i have over A quarter of 1 million cool images most of them I have taken myself when my great uncle Sal passed away in 1995 I inherited his incredible collection he has been photographing since the late 20s he had some pretty wild Studios like myself here is some images from his collection just from his collection I have 8000 original prints If you continue to stay on this category on this site you will end up seeing 500 images with interesting stories it’s my main family project I’ll probably be posting on this section for the next two years
This is my great grandfather Luigi Costello Terracina technically the whole family is Costellos not an Terracina‘s that’s another whole family wacky story you can read that in the book anyway this guy is Captain Tony and Sal‘s father He fled to America in 1910 he was one of those connected guys from Sicily When he arrived to America he started a scrap metal company in Elizabeth New Jersey He never bought any metal and never sold any metal Luigi did a lot of side jobs in Chicago where his cousin Frank Costello had a couple nightclubs during prohibition in the early 30s that’s where Sal got to perform playing the piano and booked as the world strongest mind reader The story sounds unbelievable but if you go to published articles on this site you will see all the original ads from Frank Costello‘s night clubs with Sal‘s face on them and name check out the video After this post
