Helen Curry (right) poses for a photograph.
Item
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Title
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Helen Curry (right) poses for a photograph.
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Description
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Helen Curry (right) poses for a photograph with a man and a woman on Chicken Bone Beach in Atlantic City, NJ sometime in or around 1950.
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Helen Octavia (née Curry) Branker (May 5, 1920-September 2, 1990) was a barmaid at a nightclub in Atlantic City around the time this photograph was taken, according to United States Census records (Ancestry.com 2022). Helen has short hair, is wearing a bathing suit and a small coverup covering her shoulders and arms down to her elbows. Her father Sharpless Edgar Curry (1894-1955) was an Atlantic City fireman, was the acting captain of Engine Co. 9 at the time of his death, and appeared to be very involved in Atlantic City civic life (Atlantic City Press 1955).
The man (center) and woman (left) posing with Curry are not identified. The man is wearing a captain’s hat, cheetah print robe, white pants, and white shoes. The woman is in a white summer outfit carrying a large purse and is barefoot.
“Chicken Bone Beach” (also dubbed “Sunshine Row” by showgirls or simply “the place to be”) of which was famously popular and frequented by local and visiting families of all classes, celebrities, entertainers, and politicians in and of the Black community (Hart 2022; Stephens 2014; UMBC Interdisciplinary CoLab, n.d.). It was a place of fun, rest, resilience, pride, and leisure. It is said that fried chicken was eaten frequently and the leftover bones buried in the sand, hence the name “Chicken Bone Beach” (Hart 2022; Stephens 2014). The beach location, and other hot spots including Kentucky Ave in the surrounding area at the time, can be viewed below, courtesy of University of Maryland, Baltimore County (see “Chicken Bone Beach”). From the early 1900s until the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the beachfront accessible from Missouri Avenue was the only space that African Americans were permitted to use due to segregation and the desire of resort/hotel owners to restrict African Americans from their beachfront properties (Hart 2022; Rosenberg 2022; Stephens 2014).
This photo is part of the John W. Mosley Collection at the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University Libraries, of which was acquired in the late 1980s from the Mosley family (Hart 2022). John W. Mosley (1907-1969) was a Philadelphia-area African American photographer who photographed many prominent figures, places, and culture between the segregation period of the 1930s to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s (Temple University Libraries n.d.). He moved to Philadelphia in 1934, and photographed frequently in Atlantic City, NJ amongst other areas in the region.
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Contributor
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The Blockson Collection
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Creator
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Mosley, John W.
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Rights
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This material is subject to copyright law and is made available for private study, scholarship, and research purposes only. For access to the original or a high resolution reproduction, and for permission to publish, please contact Temple University Libraries, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection (blockson@temple.edu; 215-204-6632).
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Identifier
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BPA001X0319500000062
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Format
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Image
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Extent
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1
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Place
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Atlantic City, NJ
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Publisher
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Temple University Libraries, Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
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Subject
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African American women
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Fashion--African American influences
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Atlantic City (N.J.)
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Leisure
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Bathing suits
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Date Created
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(c. 1950's)
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Is Part Of
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John W. Mosley Photograph Collection
