In a previous post I've looked at a photograph Lewis Hine took in Alabama on one of his several trips through the state documenting child labor. This work is another by Hine, made during his October 1914 visit to Mobile. Hine came to Alabama four times; you can see other photos here.
Unfortunately, the collection of Hine's photographs at the Library of Congress gives no details about the subject of this one beyond declaring this youngster to be one of many such newsboys in the state. I've written here about a 1922 report on newsboys in Birmingham.
The photo itself does tell us a few things, however. The poster at left is for an event at the Lyric Theatre to open on October 24, 1914. Naturally I assumed "The Midnight Girl" was a silent film, but I was only partially correct. The show was actually a Broadway musical that ran earlier in the year from February 23 until May 23. The show, adapted from a German production, apparently went on the road once it closed in New York after 104 performances. A film version was released in 1919.
The Lyric Theatre opened at 251 Conti Street as a vaudeville house in October 1906 and seated 1200. By the late 1920's the Lyric had become mostly a movie house and remained so until it closed in 1950 and was later demolished.
What else do we find in this photo? Well, of course, the unnamed newsboy. I wonder if he could read that newspaper he's holding? There is a man's shadow in the lower right; is that photographer Lewis Hine? Finally, I've played with the image, trying to read the sign on what is apparently a bale of cotton in the upper right. No luck, except that the second darker word seems to be "Bale".
Lyric Theatre postcard
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