Press cards in hats?

[Miss Neecerie]

Why is it that I now have visions of twenty FL'rs at an event...all with press pass cards in their hat....


The new equivalent of wearing the same dress out.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Sometimes it was a badge. Now wouldn't this look great on a lapel!

 

[Ben]

My guess would be that the ones you see in the comics or movies are just a generic representation of the real thing. I know the Chicago police department issues a pass to certain reporters, and city hall might too.

Even so, if you come up with a good generic one, let me know. I am also in journalism and wouldn't mind having one, even if it is just for the fun of it.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Check out this collection of press badges!

http://www.policeguide.com/Photo_Ga...aper_Press_Badges/newspaper_press_badges.html

 

[Starius]

I made a simple little modification to the World's Fair pass, with a FL twist.

Preview:

I have a 200dpi print quality version: FD_worlds_fair_press-200dpi.zip (1 MB, .TIF format Zipped. Only download it if you really want it. Preserve the bandwidth!)

 

[Fast]

Press Card/pass

A press pass is a credential, and very seldom if ever was a simple card with press written on it in sharpie. It lets the person giving a press conference know who is and is not supposed to be asking questions or taking pictures. If one tucked one in their hat band it was to be seen while both their hands were busy holding and writing or pointing and shooting.

they had other uses and came in other forms, most often depending on the issuer and function. Nowadays folks wear them in little plastic pockets strung around their necks on little stretchie cords.

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[panamag8or]

A press pass is a credential, and very seldom if ever was a simple card with press written on it in sharpie. It lets the person giving a press conference know who is and is not supposed to be asking questions or taking pictures. If one tucked one in their hat band it was to be seen while both their hands were busy holding and writing or pointing and shooting.

they had other uses and came in other forms, most often depending on the issuer and function. Nowadays folks wear them in little plastic pockets strung around their necks on little stretchie cords.

Carpe Diem
Fast

Mine is laminated and has a little clip, but sometimes I clip it to a neck cord.

 

[Helen Troy]

Seems to me that the hat would be the best for a Press-card in crowded situations, like press conferences. Imagine you are Elliot Ness, trying to give the press a brief orientation about the latest development in the case of The torso murderer. You are looking out over a sea of head, all pushing and jumping, firing of flashes in your face and trying to ask questions. In that situation, the only way you can see a PRESScard is if it's in the hatband. On the lapel it would have been totally obscured by the bodies of the other journalists around.

So I guess, seeing there is a practical reason, they might have been worn like that. And I suppose the only reason why journalists doesn't do that anymore is because they have stopped wearing hats.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Mine also is laminated and worn on lanyard when needed for identification.

 

[Smyat]

One photo of a press conference with carded hats must be out there, if this was ever real or widespread. Anyone?

 

[Helen Troy]

One photo of a press conference with carded hats must be out there, if this was ever real or widespread. Anyone?

That is a very good point. I tried to look around the internet, but has so far only revielded a schocking big hole when it comes to press card history. I have also failed in finding a single photo of a 30s/40s press conference, so I can neither conferm or falsify the theory.

This question has started to nag me, so if anybody had some solid proof, (like photoes,) please show!

fftopic:Somebody mentioned the reflector-thingies on cartoon-doctors heads. And that also made me wonder: Did real-life doctors ever use those? If so, when? So many things to make you wonder, so little time to find ouit. *sigh.*

 

[Smyat]

This question has started to nag me...

Been nagging me for a long time... join the club!

Somebody mentioned the reflector-thingies on cartoon-doctors heads. And that also made me wonder: Did real-life doctors ever use those? If so, when?

Yes, they were real, from perhaps the turn of the 20th through the 1960s or so. Then better lighting came along and they weren't needed much any more. But they're another cartoon trope you still see.

 

[Fast]

Cartoon Reflectors

Doctors in the Ear Nose and Throat clinic still use them, at least at the hosptial where my wife works. Probably another case of life imitating animation.

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[Smyat]

Doctors in the Ear Nose and Throat clinic still use them, at least at the hosptial where my wife works. Probably another case of life imitating animation.

No, they work extremely well. Any strong light somewhere behind the patient can be focused into a strong beam that's pointed right where your eye is looking through the hole. I'm not surprised they're still in use somewhere, and they always were an ENT thing.

 

[Helen Troy]

Thanks for clearing that up! Now, I only have to find out about the press cards, and I can start sleeping again at night.....

 

[VisforVictory]

Jeez, reviving an ooooold thread here...

But, yes, it was certainly done. It wasn't just an affectation, either -- in New York, it was even stipulated that that's where it belonged (alternately on the outermost garment) in the official memos of the NYPD. (Today, the wording on the cards merely says "it must be worn fully exposed.")

I do wear mine in the hatband sometimes, but the modern cards are thick plastic as opposed to cardstock which, over time, can deform the band on one's hat. Also, in the 1940s, press cards were valid for three months at a time; now, they have to last two years, so you run a greater risk of exposing them to the elements. They're also prone to getting knocked out and/or swiped up there, which requires a whole song-and-dance to get replaced. I spend most of my time trying to debunk/defuse the whole "oh, I get it, you're s'posed to be Clark Kent..." nonsense to those who notice it; once, at a fire in Brooklyn, a cop approached me and said "where's your press card?!" I thought I'd lost it, but realized he simply wasn't looking (at eye-level, mind you...) for it up there.

I am working on a major project to chronicle the history of the press card in New York City, in hopes of releasing a small illustrated monograph on the topic to coincide with the centennial in 2015 of the New York Press Photographers Association.

 

[rjb1]

Be sure to post at least the basics of your findings here. I would like to know more of the actual facts and I'm sure that others would, also.
I use a "PRESS" card in the brim of my fedora when taking photos of USO dances at WWII reenactments (using a Speed Graphic, of course).
I hope it's historically authentic, since most people seem to appreciate it at the dances.

 

[Espee]

Reminds me of reporter scenes in cheesy tv-movies and soap operas, where a politician or other newsmaker spouts off in front of a tv camera and a radio guy holding a mic, and then a fedora guy with a pad and pencil says, "Can we quote you on that?"
Because somebody is always supposed to say that...

 

[bolthead]

I realize this is an old thread, but all the photos are missing. Does anyone have any recent photos of a press pass?