Jokes

In the 1880s, the North Wales Express, an English language newspaper for North Wales, UK, had a regular column called Varieties, full of excruciating puns and jokes that have not generally translated well for the present day. It is interesting to note their joke at the expense of Food for Thinking Christians in the issue for November 25, 1881, page 6.

The “joke” may have appeared first in the American humor magazine Puck for August 31, 1881, and then was repeated (with variations) in many other papers. However, for it to appear in a November British newspaper, and a Welsh newspaper at that, provides one key point of interest. For it to make any real sense to readers they would need to have heard of the publication's extensive distribution in the UK.

Photodrama Advertising Car - Detective Work Completed

Guest post by Sam

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Many readers will have seen the photograph of a Model T Ford being used to advertise the Photodrama of Creation as depicted below.

There is also another view from the other side, which has been colorized.

It would be nice to know where this scene was located and when it happened don’t you think?

 

Zion’s Watch Tower dated February 15, 1914 contains an article about the Photodrama and where it was being exhibited. This included Cleveland, Ohio, at the Temple, Prospect Avenue and E. 22^nd Street. This is the address seen on the side of the display.

 

Research on the internet about churches allowed us to identify the actual building. It was previously the Plymouth Congregational Church as shown in the postcard below.

Comparing this picture with the drama advertisement we can see exactly where the car was placed.

Correspondent Brian pointed out that, if you examine a high definition copy of the original photograph, there is a poster advertising the Photodrama in the doorway behind the car.

 

According to Wikipedia the Plymouth Congregational Church owes its name to Henry Ward Beecher. The Church disbanded in 1913 due to a loss of members and a lack of money. The Bible Students obviously were using it as their Temple for Photodrama showings in February 1914. Wikipedia suggests that the Congregationalists got it back and reconstituted it as a Community Church in 1916.

 

 

Extra note by Jerome:

 

Following on from meeting places being called Tabernacles (e.g. Brooklyn Tabernacle, London Tabernacle) it was easy to see why some large halls would be called Temples. So there was the New York City Temple, where the Photodrama was shown in New York. Probably most famous of all was the Chicago City Temple (formerly the old Globe Theater), which again was used for the Photodrama. 

The Chicago class produced a special brochure entitled Our Temple, which is highly collectable today. It shows how the Photodrama presentation worked, and as a bonus had a photograph from the first Bible Student convention held in Chicago in 1893. If you visited the Chicago Temple you would likely have been given a tour by Albert Franz, whose photograph is in the Temple brochure. As a link with more recent times, his younger brother, Fred Franz, was president of the Watchtower Society from 1977-1992.

 

One hundred years ago

With thanks to Tom who sent the images