Divided back, unused postcard with writing. Publisher and distributor:  Bob Petley, Phoenix, Arizona. From a Kodachrome original by Ray Manley of Western Ways. Made in the U.S.A. Series or number K140. Photo circa early 1950s. Postcard circa 1963.

Price:  $5.00

The caption on the back states:  “Indian War Dancer. Bedecked in brilliant feathers, paint and beads, these tireless dancers carry on the same tribal rituals practiced by their forefathers who inhabited the southwest long before the coming of the white man.”

The website for the Arizona Historical Society has information on the company Western Ways, and mentions the photographer of this photo, Ray Manley. Western Ways was founded in Montana as a “loose association of photographers and writers” in the late 1930s by Charles W. Herbert, who ran the company, along with his wife Lucile, until the late 1970s. After WWII the company re-started in Tucson, Arizona and expanded to a photo-production agency and plant, portrait studio and a base for Herbert’s film and television projects. The company’s top photographers, Ray Manley and Naurice Koonce left Western Ways in 1954 when the company downsized, so the photo used for this postcard was taken maybe ten or so years earlier than the circa 1963 or maybe early ’60s postcard production date.

Source:  “The Western Ways Feature Files Collection” Arizona Historical Society. Web. 15 June 2014. [http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/upLoads/library_Western-Ways.pdf]