Impromptu Indoor Performance by Firelight, 1950s

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Impromptu Indoor Performance by Firelight, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Impromptu Indoor Performance by Firelight, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-BFED31

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Somewhere in the 1950s, probably at a private gathering in someone's barn or large back room, two men have decided that the evening calls for performance. The younger man in the grey sweater has spread his arms and extended a pointing finger with the full conviction of someone who believes he is making an important theatrical statement, while across from him an older man in a work jacket and wool cap plays what appears to be a clarinet with the focused sincerity of a person who has been waiting all night for exactly this moment. Behind them, a large open fireplace or furnace fills the room with enough warmth and haze to justify the general atmosphere of loosened inhibitions. A small audience watches from below — the cropped head in the foreground belonging to someone who came for the party and got the floor show instead. This is the 1950s understanding of spontaneous entertainment: two men improvising something vaguely folkloric in front of a fire while everyone else held their drinks and decided whether it was brave or embarrassing, a question that the decade never quite resolved.

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