March 31, 1924
Oh dear. What’s going on with between Mary E. and William J. Moon, the dynamic couple who ran the popular Moon photography studio in Charlotte , NC? The following notice appeared in the Charlotte Observer newspaper 100 years ago today on March 31, 1924, a notice that indicates that all was not well with the professional and personal partnership of the Moons:
Mary E. and William J Moon [aka John William Moon] were from New York state, where they ran their first studio together. They moved to Charlotte, NC in 1915. In addition to their studio business in Charlotte, they also became the official photographers for the Charlotte Observer newspaper.
The newspaper has a nice little write up about them in 1916:
By the way, here’s a couple of those “splendid pictures” taken of President Wilson by “The Moons” at the May 20th, 1916 celebrations:
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library website has a brief bio about the Moons, and some photos related to their studio, includng a photo of the Moons themselves. One of other photos connected to the Moon studio is a photo of their “photo car”. Unlike other “photo cars” I’ve talked about before, this one was an automobile, not a railway photo car.
Now, getting back to 1924: it’s not clear what was going on with the Moons in March 1924, but by June of that year they seem to have settled their differences and are doing photos for the newspaper again, with their photo credit still “photo by The Moons”.
They continue to both live together and run the Moon Studio together through the rest of that decade.
They even vacation as a family together with their children. In 1926 the newspaper carries a story about a trip a back to their native New York. When interviewed about the trip, the Moons’ 8-year-old son Jack, who is North Carolina-born-and-bred, comments that the he liked the North just fine, except there were “too many Yankees there”. (Charolotte Observer, August 5, 1926) .
William Moon dies in 1931. At that point, Mary closes up shop, gives up running a photography studio, and moves north with her children.
Hopefully young Jack was OK with being surrounded by all those pesky “Yankees” after that. 😉
P.S. In researching Mary E. Moon of Charlotte, NC, I ran across her contemporary, another photographer named Mary Moon, specifically Mary L. Moon of Andalusia, Alabama. That Mary Moon ran a studio in Alabama with her husband, C.C. Moon. As far as I can tell, the two Moon couples share the same vocation, but have no other connection.
But who would have thought there would be so many Moons — i.e. so many Moon photographers — particularly two couples running studios where both wives were named Mary.
