A Mystery Photo

by R.G. Pelley

Back in 2008 I bought from an antique dealer in New York the great photo of Gander shown below.

(some blow ups of the photo above L - R)

It is a professional photo taken by or for "George Valentine Enell and Associates, Hanger 4, La Guardia Field, New York". Their phone number was the old style HAvemeyer 0-5411.
 


From the information gathered after publication in the old website, there is a general consensus that this is most likely very early 1950s.

One would presume that if Enell and Associates sent someone to Gander to take the photo, it must have been a fairly important occasion (though somebody local with a good camera could have done it and sent it out). 
 Maybe it had something to do with Nfld becoming a Canadian province or a visiting dignitary. Two suggested occasions could be Coronation 1952 or the visit of Prime Minister Louis St.Laurent during the 1953 federal election.

It would appear that there are many people from Gander in the photo and they dressed in their "Sunday best", so there was likely something big going on. Some of the names that were suggested are Jack James, Jerry Wakeham, Ruth Miller, Dorothy Wyatt, Vern Locke and Bill Dooley.

I was lucky enough to obtain, now five years later, another photo on the same theme that originated with the same group at La Guardia. It is exactly the same style of paper and developing and I am pretty sure that it was taken at the same thing.

While I was growing up in Gander, my father being with Shell, I spent a lot of time in the old terminal. I don't remember much in terms of uniformed security, so to me it looks like something out of the ordinary. They seem to be waiting for someone to arrive, as would be expected by protocol. Also, I don't know if having flags on the individual counters was normal procedure.

Maybe this new photo will jar a few more memories!

 

Researched and contributed by R G Pelley from his personal historical aviation collections.