Althouse: Who is it? Where is it?

August 10, 2008

Who is it? Where is it?

Another photo puzzle.

27 comments:

AllenS said...: It's Trooper York. Why is there crime scene tape over the doorway?; 8/10/08, 7:56 AM
Meade said...: It's Walt Whitman, who wrote Crossing Brooklyn Ferry; 8/10/08, 7:58 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Are you guessing this is in Brooklyn? It's not.; 8/10/08, 8:12 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I agree that it looks like Walt Whitman.; 8/10/08, 8:13 AM
Meade said...: In that case, it's one of the Smith cough drop brothers. Somewhere in Pittsburgh.; 8/10/08, 8:23 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I actually don't know who it is, but I know exactly where it is.; 8/10/08, 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...: It's Josef Stalin, in front of BHO's boyhood home in Hawaii.; 8/10/08, 8:37 AM
rhhardin said...: Marx's home in London.; 8/10/08, 8:42 AM
bleeper said...: Karl Marx, on Obama's new Presidential Seal.; 8/10/08, 8:55 AM
Bissage said...: It’s Jacob Marley. They’re doing construction inside so they had to move the door knocker.

He looks surprisingly healthy and serene, all things considered.

Got himself a whole new look. Luxurious hair. Kick-ass beard.

Good for him.

I guess he found a quality psychotherapist and he’s learned to move on.

John Edwards had that all worked out in advance, though, so he can stay the same.; 8/10/08, 8:56 AM
bearbee said...: Karl Marx, on Obama's new Presidential Seal

No, no, no..... to be shown on the proposed US currency he will use with his energy rebate program.

On the flip side will be a pic of Hugo Chavez.; 8/10/08, 9:06 AM
Palladian said...: It's the Ian Anderson Memorial Wall, where Anderson once suffered several broken bones and a concussion after attempting a one-legged pirouette while wheezing "Scotland The Brave" through the high registers of his flute. After lying on the ground for several hours staring up at the wall while waiting for help, he was inspired to write "Thick As A Brick".; 8/10/08, 10:49 AM
Ron said...: Clearly it's Jerry Garcia in front of Jerry Garcia's Waffle Mansion!; 8/10/08, 11:09 AM
Trooper York said...: Bearbee is correct that is Poseidon and that is Ernest Borgnine’s house in Nantucket that he paid for with the paycheck from the Poseidon Adventure.

It also looks like his wife Tova before her electrolysis.; 8/10/08, 1:16 PM
vbspurs said...: YAY!! We captured Saddam!; 8/10/08, 2:05 PM
blake said...: I don't know where it is. I don't know who it is. But, man, he looks pissed.

Actually, it looks vaguely familiar...; 8/10/08, 2:52 PM
campy said...: Looks like Chuck Heston as Moses to me ...; 8/10/08, 3:10 PM
D&D said...: In Chicago, on Dearborn near Chestnut ....I think; 8/10/08, 3:44 PM
Ann Althouse said...: d&d, you are absolutely right. A larger view of the scene has the address over the door at the left as 833 N. Dearborn. And Google maps has that here, just south of West Chestnut.; 8/10/08, 4:03 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Still don't know who it is.; 8/10/08, 4:03 PM
Robert Burnham said...: I think the plaque portrays Tennyson, and it appears modeled after the photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron.

If it's supposed to be Whitman, it's more idealized than it would be for Tennyson.

Where did you take the photo?; 8/10/08, 5:13 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: That's definitely Tom Hanks.; 8/10/08, 5:22 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: If I am not mistaken it is the home of the photographer Victor Skrebneski.; 8/10/08, 7:59 PM
Susan said...: "The
bust comes from the masonry gate in front of the Newberry Estate Houses, 827-833
North Dearborn. It's taken from Adler and Sullivan's lost masterpiece Schiller
Theater, where it was one many similar visages of the giants of German culture."; 8/10/08, 9:09 PM
Palladian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/10/08, 9:57 PM
Palladian said...: Susan is correct: it's a portrait medallion from Sullivan & Adler's demolished Schiller Building in Chicago. The building's facade featured portrait medallions of famous Germans. You can see the facade here, and zoom in on the portrait medallions. The medallion from Ann's picture was flanked on the left by (I believe) Goethe and on the right by (definitely) Beethoven. I don't know who the person in the medallion in Ann's picture is, but we know he's a revered German. Any ideas?

Here's a closer view of some of the portrait medallions in situ after the facade had been defaced.

The Schiller Building was demolished in 1961 and replaced by (what else!) a parking garage. Part of the facade was saved and was incorporated into the facade of the Second City Theater.; 8/10/08, 9:58 PM
bearbee said...: Thanks d&d, Susan and Palladian for tracking down info.

Image of Brahms perhaps?

Saw this quote on a researched site:

"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." Richard Nickel; 8/11/08, 6:14 AM