Alan Mays

Alan Mays club

Posted: 25 Aug 2016


Taken: 25 Aug 2016

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Mr. Three of Diamonds, 1909

Mr. Three of Diamonds, 1909
A photo of someone who looks like a character from a book for the Vintage Photos Theme Park.

When I first saw this real photo postcard, I thought of the Queen of Hearts and her retinue in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Wikipedia, in fact, specifically mentions The Playing Cards as characters in the book, describing them as "playing cards with a human head, arms, and legs. They are loyal servants as well as guards for the Queen of Hearts. They mainly carry spears with the tip shaped as a heart."

Could this fellow have been an actor in a stage production of Alice in Wonderland? But did the court of the Queen of Hearts include human cards from the diamond suit who carried spears tipped with diamonds rather than hearts?

Another curious detail in this photo is the disk affixed to the front of the guy's hat (mouse over the image to see an enlargement). It's decorated with a club, diamond, spade, and heart, and numerals indicating the year--1909--appear in the center of the disk. Unfortunately, though, there are other words above and below "1909" that I can't make out.

Have you ever seen someone wearing a similar costume? Was Alice in Wonderland adapted as a theatrical production as early as 1909?

Canafornian, , , Stan Askew and 2 other people have particularly liked this photo


Comments
 Stan Askew
Stan Askew club
great find, great photo !!!
8 years ago.
Alan Mays club has replied to Stan Askew club
Thanks, Stan!
8 years ago.
 Deborah Lundbech
Deborah Lundbech club
Great photo - but aren't those indistinct words maddening! (I have quite a few like that!)
It certainly looks like an Alice production, but I thin the costumes in amateur theatricals were often very well done (so many seamstresses in those days )- so I think this could also be a small town or village play.
8 years ago.
 RicksPics
RicksPics club
I'm thinking that this fellow is in costume as part of an annual celebration of a fraternal/social society rather than an "Alice" character for the reason you raised Alan of not being of the hearts suit and also because of the dated disk. Perhaps he's part of a Mardi Gras krewe. Either way, he's a good character even though he's only three.
8 years ago. Edited 8 years ago.

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