Betty Mayfield - Photographs Clyde Umney

Not too long ago when the Drake Hotel closed, one of its former owners, Jack Cooney called me up and told me, “There are some pictures here. We found in the  dancers’ dressing room, in one of the drawers. They look like yours. Do you want them?”

 I went but they were not mine. The folder, with pictures, almost all in colour were faded and the colours were all off. The folder had the name Betty Mayfield. One of the contact sheets had a stamped name, Clyde Umney. I told Jack that I had never heard of the photographer. If Umney, was indeed the photographer. We looked at the pictures and we identified Betty Mayfield as a young woman both of us had known as Cheri Partridge. The only other clue was an address 757 Willington Ave in East Vancouver.

  

Jack told me that he was prepared to throw the folder away so I told him I would take it.  Just a couple of days ago I found the folder and decided to scan some of the faded pictures as they are rather good. They seem to convey a look of the time.

  

Google searches for Clyde Umney only had info on a Stephen King short story called Umney’s Last Case that was first published on line in 1993. Further investigation led me to Raymond Chandler’s Playback in which Clyde Umney is a lawyer.