Bob Dial's Memories
The Shreveport Photographic Society and how it started:
In January of 2010 I became friends with Bob Dial and this is Bob’s account of the early history of the SPS. Bob and I spent a lot of time visiting at his home and e-mailing back and forth exchanging information from SPS’s distant past and the present. Figuratively speaking it was like time travel being able to step back through the memories and images provided by Bob to the mid 50’s when our predecessors gathered together and, as Bob put it, “were just having the most enjoyable times of our lives in a hobby we took to heart!” Those words still ring true today as SPS members still share that same passion.
This is a compilation of memories provided by Bob Dial who was one of the founding members and I want express my appreciation to Bob for his time and effort in providing me with this invaluable history of the Shreveport Photographic Society.
Bill Carroll
How it all started as told to me by Bob Dail:
In 1956, a select group of members of the Shreveport Camera Club banded together and founded The Shreveport Photographic Society. The founding members of the SPS were a group of men who were, for the most part, working professional photographers. Only two of the original members, Hank Rush and Bill Razey, were amateurs.
Original Membes:
1. Bob Dial (co-founder)
2. T.C. Smith (co-founder)
3. Gordon Maxcy (co-founder)
4. Henry L. “Hank” Rush (co-founder)
5. Bill Razey *
6. Jack Barham
7. Bill Alexander
8. Bill Cowan
9. George Shorter
10. Ben Kinel
11. Maury Toomey
Early Members: (not an all-inclusive list)
1. Don Graham
2. Jack Barham
3. Langston McEachern
4. Frank McAneny
5. Bob Wiseman
6. Cliff Smelzer
7. Adrian Snyder
8. Ben Bacon
9. Tom Drummond (Tom was the first new member addition to SPS)
10. Paul Skipworth
11. C. G. Graham
12. Bob Menasco
13. Jim Hampson
14. Joe Townsend
Tom Drummond was the first new member. Bob said he got Tom Drummond to join just months after establishing the SPS, so he was the first new member addition.
Gordon Maxcy was the second individual that Bob solicited to help get SPS started, and he complied. Bob said that Gordon was known as "Maxcy" to everyone and half the city had no idea what his given name was.
Gordon shot the first live operation from a stepladder in the operating room at the old Tri-State Hospital located at the intersection of Greenwood Road and Virginia Avenue in the old Queensboro section, now a Willis-Knighton property. He used a 16mm Bell & Howell DL70 camera and when the film was viewed, doctors "went ape". Skipping all the red tape in getting the opportunity, Maxcy made the most of it. His film was so much better for the teaching elements than actually watching from the viewing area hospitals provided for their "in training" purposes. He then initiated photography with biopsy materials and did "before and after" pictures of unusual medical cases of vastly assorted natures. In short, he led the area and most of the state in establishing photography as a highly viable tool in medical treatment. There's so much more to add but let it suffice to jump ahead to when Gordon headed a major hospital's specialized department with a number of assistants and was given an appreciation banquet by the Shreveport Medical Society when he retired.
Bob said, on a personal note, Maxcy and I became close friends in my later teens, before he married. We often did special projects, like making huge mural prints when no one else in town was doing them. City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce used some of those prints like wallpaper to adorn the walls of their meeting rooms. Bob said that he and Maxcy had a habit of making midnight raids on an all-night ice cream, malt, and coffee shop at Greenwood Rd. and Hearn Ave. that originally had been a Jo-Ann's Ice Cream business. A fellow by the name of Bruce Jones owned it later and kept a Myna Bird that whistled at all the cute girls who came in and said a few "spoken lines" that it had been taught. Bob said it wasn't unusual for some of the ladies to turn beet red with blush! Their juke box selections were then installed in the booths, and Maxcy had a thing for a popular ditty then going strong, the main lyrics "...my heart goes where the wild goose goes, mother goose, brother goose, which is best?" It brings back great memories. Bob said wasn't able to attend Maxcy's funeral, but that song should have been played very softly, in the background!
Bob said Gordon took portraits of his then girlfriend, whom he later married and Gordon took their wedding pictures. Bob said his and Maxcy’s close association took a long break when Korea came. Along with a lot of other guys who belonged to the US Marine Reserves Bob left Shreveport to serve on active duty in August, 1950 and Bob said was glad to have had a mentor like Maxcy.
Bob said he, Jack Barham, and Jim Clark (a local shooter and National .45 caliber pistol champ) and about a hundred other guys got on a coal burning, non-airconditioned train headed for Camp Joseph H. Pendleton near Oceanside, Calif. Barham and Clark were both being recalled to active duty after WW2. Bob said that he and Jack Barham were first assigned to the base photographic lab, Motion Picture Production Unit, at 13-U1 but there wasn't any movie activity, just thousands upon thousands of inductees who needed photographic ID Cards, now and then they made a few USO shots of movie stars like Bob Hope and his troupe who came to pep up the servicemen.
Hank Rush:
Bob said Hank Rush was a family man, quiet and unassuming, but exacting in the things he chose to do, he was an Advalorem Tax Accountant for Texas Eastern Transmission. He married a wonderful lady named Katherine and they had two children, Hanky and Sandy. Katherine had a penchant for good picture ideas, and she was often the one who prodded Hank to get him going on a project. Bob said that if Hank had any character flaws, he kept them well hidden because he got along famously with everyone, and was well liked.
Bob said that Hank’s home and his were only a couple of blocks apart so each Saturday morning they were usually together doing gold toning prints or some other photographic activity. Katherine would turn their children's TV programs on and all three of them would go into planning or execution, and sometimes just studying the style of prints certain judges found irresistible. Bob’s workday was normally 2pm to 10pm seven days a week at the Shreveport Times so he would call in a phone number where I could be reached should a breaking news event pop up outside that time. Hank's work hours were 8 to 5, five days a week so Saturday mornings were about the only time they had to work on projects. Katie didn't mind because half the time she was working with them.
Bob said he and Hank tried to steer the Shreveport Camera Club into a more Salon oriented direction but some of the regular members were outspoken in opposition. Rather than argue with them they sidestepped, got some talent together, and formed the Shreveport Photographic Society.
Bob said that all of the members of the new Shreveport Photographic Society were still members of the Shreveport Camera Club, and they continued to attend SCC’s meetings. If individuals in the SCC expressed interest in joining the SPS they would hold a vote and if no one was opposed, they were then invited to join. At some point, the "membership by invitation" requirement was rescinded and most of the active members of SCC started paying dues to SPS.
Our First Light Box:
Bill Razey was Newspaper Production Company's electrician with responsibility for everything of an electrical nature from replacing light bulbs to getting the presses rolling again if they stopped due to some electrical failure, for both the Journal and Times papers. Bill wired up our light box to my specs for the Salon, three stations with 5 toggle switches each of which was graduated from 1 to 5 and lit up the total to an illuminated box visible to the gallery only when the last of the three boxes made its selection. (that box remained in operation until 2009 when it was finally retired) Bill Razey shot a baby Linhoff (graphics style 2 1/4x 3 1/4) with an assortment of lenses and did nice work. His wife, Lila, was a registered nurse and they had no children. Both Bill Razey and his wife, Lila, have passed away.
Professional Photographer's of America, Chapter 9:
Bob said that only a few years elapsed between establishing the SPS and Chapter 9 of the Professional Photographers of America. There were additions to the SPS in invited memberships during that interval and most of the pros in the SPS were also charter members of the new PPA, Chapter 9.