Historic Hood River
Mystery Photos
Notes
Our collection is full of photographs like this one which I presume were from The Hood River Glacier archives. They all say “Please return to the Hood River Glacier” on the reverse and include a caption. In this case it is partial because someone carelessly clipped it, but it says,
“Hood River High School Basketball …. (left to right) Coach Flei… Ray Slavens, Jack Byers, Frank… Johnson. Please return to the Glacier Hood River Or.”
This one includes the date stamp “Mar 8 1921” as well as notes “3 col” and “19×3”.
So what’s the mystery? The Hood River Glacier published very few photographs, and I have not been able to find this image in any issue remotely near March 8 1921.
Someone has prepared a mask (the white paint) which will allow the publisher to separate the people from the background, and 3 col/ 19×3 are printers instructions. I just don’t know where these images were published. A 3 column wide image is pretty big, so how hard can it be to find? Solve this mystery, and you will be elevated to the Historic Hood River “Hall of Fame.”
A note for those who don’t know 1920s printing technology: A “continuous tone” photograph like this would need to be converted to a plate called a “halftone” which allowed a newspaper press to reproduce the image alongside type containing the headlines and text of the articles. I’ve presumed the “Return to the Glacier” message was for the company which had the specialized equipment to create a halftone for use by the newspaper publisher– but it could mean something else.
Tags: 1920s, basketball, Byers, Hood River Glacier, Hood River High School, Johnson, newspaper, Slavens
Jeffrey Bryant
Ray Slavens was in the class of 1921. The photo may have been used in the Hood River Mascot yearbook. I have pictures of the seniors, but none of the other photos. Copies are available in the public library.
L. E.
Maybe if they had returned the photo, it would be in a newspaper.
I didn’t come up with anything 1920-1925. Interesting that they played for a team called the Blue Diamonds.
Do you think that ball really bounced? Looks to me like it just went “thunk”.
L. E.
Ray Slavens played football for the Oregon State Aggies.
Arthur Babitz
The “yearbook theory” makes sense, except I can’t figure out why the newspaper had so many photos in an era when they rarely published any.
Jeffrey Bryant
In 1926 the Hood River High School was publishing “The Guide,” which also included advertisers. Perhaps earlier versions used photos that are in the Hood River Glacier collection. Does the History Museum have any issues of The Guide?