CLEVELAND — Milk was around 50 cents for a gallon and Cleveland was the nation’s fifth largest city. The ‘Roaring Twenties’ were a much different time in Northeast Ohio. However, nearly a century after the photo was taken, a Pittsburgh man is trying to reunite a family heirloom with its rightful owner.
Paul Klatzkin purchased several photos from a memorabilia store in the Pittsburgh area. In his trove of historic photos was a portrait of what appears to be a newly engaged or married couple that was date stamped May 1927.
Unable to sell the pictures or identify the owners, the assortment of black-and-white stills would remain in his basement for another five years.
“As fate will have it, I decided to spend some more time on it,” Klatzkin said. “You hear these feel-good news stories all the time of people reuniting with things that have been lost and forgotten about so I’m hoping that that’s the case with this as well.”
At the bottom of the photograph appears to be the name of the couple: “Mr. and Mrs. Kinnard Hoyt.” The photo also suggests it was captured by Horton-Guest Studio, which was located in the Cleveland Arcade and billed itself as the city's largest portrait studio, according to newspaper advertisements.
If you know the identity of the people in the photo or any of their surviving family members, please send us an email: Jordan.Vandenberge@WEWS.com
