Before I move back to Florida I spent two years in Coney Island Photographing the beach boardwalk and people I did a lot of great portfolios under that pier and above portraitsofnewyork.com go to the Coney Island days category I also have topnewyork.com
The year 1951 we are entering the Korean War Sal was an undercover photographer for the OSS that was CIA back then He traveled around the world photographing ships in transit and ports he did his undercover work through the seafarers union as they’re a photographer you could see all these published photos on this website
This was my second studio between 1989 and 1993 I have done over 200 nude and so my new exotic dancer portfolios and published 1200 dancers between New York and New Jersey under my name I also published dozens of girls for the 900 numbers you know talk to a girl for $.99 a minute I’m the guy took the photos I also supplied Howard stern with a lot of those Snapple girls
They called her tiny A 320 pound bull Dyke with a Mike Tyson overhand right And she was 6 foot tall this was Captain Tony’s bouncer from 1972 through 73 if any man was bothering a woman she would warn him once if he didn’t stop she would either drag him out or knock him out I heard many stories about her they say she hated men in 1978 I got to meet Her and it wasn’t pleasant
May 1980 I landed a great job with the Key West Citizen newspaper at the same time the Cuban boatlift exploded into the Florida Keys thousands of refugees and Tony Montana’s flooded key west I ended up doing 12 Front page photos and stories I became a professional photo journalist overnight I also did two major drug bust I have been rolling ever since over 40 years ago
This photo was taken at the Broadway lounge sometime in the late 40s it’s an original negative taken by Sal Terracina in the late 40s I don’t know who the girl is maybe he was cheating on Marilynn Monroe
The most recognize face on planet earth for the last four years Donald Trump back in 1972 my great uncle Sal was performing at the Strawhat lounge in Manhattan playing the piano hypnotizing people and taking portraits of the jetsetters that came there this is a 4 x 5“ negative definitely One of the sharpest images you can get out of a camera at the time When I printed it up it seems like Sal hypnotized him
Between Sal and myself we have four incredible websites it took that many to start downloading all our images of the last 90 years trust me we’re not normal photographers this is one of the websites right here portraitsofnewyork.com there are seven categories this one here is Coney Island days I spent two years in that area to capture it pretty wild place there’s also another website just dedicated to Coney Island topnewyork.com I did a lot of portfolios under that pier
In 1995 my great uncle Sal passed away leaving me with A incredible Estate of photography and art I have thousands of his large format negatives I have been editing for over 20 years this is one negative that I pulled out I put it in front of my front living room window you could actually see my backyard in the background this image is from the late 40s I printed it up it’s amazing
So you have an idea how long Sal has been entertaining and photographing this photo was taken in 1939 the Chicago worlds fair he did a little piano playing and mind reading in some clubs Wayback in 1928 he worked for his fathers cousins clubs in Chicago the Otis beer tunnel and the Peacock lounge you can look up all the original ads in photos on this site to make the story believable and exciting Sal was booked way back then as the worlds youngest mind reader And clairvoyant he also played the piano and those clubs