Famous Residents: The Original Gibson Girl & The Builder
Frederick C Flores, a successful home builder, acquired the newly renovated former Ketcham farmhouse in about 1924. May Callahan Flores, his wife, lived there for many years until she passed away in the home in January of 1953.
May Callahan Flores, Original Gibson Girl, Hollis Housewife... the Gibson Girl was to her day what a combination Marilyn Monroe-Zsa Zsa Gabor-Lana Turner is today... -- LONG ISLAND STAR JOURNAL, 1953
May Callahan Flores Departs this World from Her Home In Hollis
It was reportedly May Callahan's beauty and poise that inspired Charles Dana Gibson to create his sketches that so immortalised the beauty of woman. Born Mary Veronica Callahan to parents to Irish parents John and Mary Callahan, Mary was transformed into May Callahan, model, star of living pictures and more after her encounter with Charles Dana Gibson. She married Argentinian born Frederick C. Flores whom she met when he modeled for sculptors and fell back into relative obscurity until an exhibit of Charles Gibson's art pointed the spotlight back on her. A synopsis of her biography was reported in the papers when she passed in 1953.
Original Gibson Girl, Hollis Housewife, Dies
May Callahan Flores
The original Gibson Girl is dead.
May Callahan Flores, 77, a Hollis housewife, who was the pin-up queen of the Gay 90's, will be buried Monday. Mrs. Flores died Thursday in her home, xxxx Hollis avenue.
She was just another clerk In Cammeyer's shoe store in Manhattan, back in 1894, when a woman artist . . . struck by her beautiful red hair . . . asked her to model. Soon after she was introduced to Charles Dana Gibson of Flushing . . . and the Gibson Girl was born. In no time, the Gibson Girl was to her day what a combination Marilyn Monroe-Zsa Zsa Gabor- Lana Turner is today.
Mrs. Flores signed an exclusive contract to pose for Gibson's pen and ink sketches and was paid up to five times what other models of her day were getting. She was the subject of such songs as "Why Do They Call Me a Gibson Girl?" "I Wish I Had a Gibson Man"and "The Gibson Bathing Girl."
PROBABLY the best known of the Gibson pictures for which Mrs. Flores posed was "The Bathing Suit," in which she wore a ruffled suit with long sleeves and long black stockings.
"It was quite a difference from what they wear these days," she would say.
During her modeling days, Mrs. Flores weighed 120 pounds, stood 5 feet 5-1/2 inches, had a 20-inch waistline and a 36-inch bust.
The year after she became the Gibson Girl, she met her husband, Frederick, a model for sculptors at the time. They were married soon after.
Her husband now is a contractor who has done extensive building throughout Long Island.
Mrs. Flores quit full-time modeling in 1896 when Gibson married, and his wife became the second and last Gibson Girl. Mrs. Flores did part-time modeling for a few years and then became chief instructor at Bernarr MacFadden's physical culture school at Ronkonkoma in 1900.
Soon afterward, she retired to the quiet life of a Queens housewife . . . but returned to the headlines in 1950, when the Museum of the City of New York opened a Charles Dana Gibson exhibit. Mrs. Flores suddenly found herself in the limelight again, besieged for radio, TV and women's club appearances.
Born in Manhattan, she had lived on Long Island most of her life, the last 35 years in Hollis. She had been ill six months. Services will be held at 10:30 A. M., Monday, in the funeral home at 192-07 Jamaica avenue. Burial will be in Greenfield Cemetery.
--Long Island Star Journal, Saturday, January 24, 1953
May Callahan, the Original Gibson Girl & Queen of Living Pictures
During her modeling days, Mrs. Flores weighed 120 pounds, stood 5 feet 5-1/2 inches, had a 20-inch waistline and a 36-inch bust... Mrs. Flores signed an exclusive contract to pose for Gibson's pen and ink sketches and was paid up to five times what other models of her day were getting. -- LONG ISLAND STAR JOURNAL, 1953
Who or What is a 'Gibson Girl?
With her hourglass figure, her expertly upswept hair, and her decidedly aristocratic air, she was everything American women in 1900 aspired to be. src The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the satirical pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States and Canada. The artist saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls." src
Back in the gay 90's before her marriage to Mr. Flores
May Callahan was very successful in her modeling and acting careers and was even said to have been the model for the statue that sat atop Madison Square Garden.
The Daily Republican, Thursday, October 11, 1894
THE LIVING PICTURES - Miss May Callahan, the beautiful young model, who has won such a reputation for her graceful posing, is a gifted woman, not only in grace of form and figure, but in intellect as well. She has great taste for all that is artistic and beautiful and her sweet disposition, combined with her many accomplishments, has won her many friends among the talented and better class of New York society. Her strict attention and untiring abilities, as well as adaptiveness in catching and embodying the ideas of the artist for whom she is posing, has made her a great favorite. No one who has seen her in the living pictures express anything but the greatest admiration. It was she who posed for the statute of Diana, which graces the dome of Madison Square Garden, and that her great success is well merited is the universal opinion of the public. The managers of "My Wife's Husband" company have been fortunate enough to secure Miss Callahan for the Living Pictures, to be shown at the Grand opera house on Saturday evening next.
Friday, October 12, 1894 --
Interest was largely centered in Miss May Callahan, who so beautifully posed in the living pictures. She has the reputation of being America's loveliest model and judging fiom the applause she received, reports can not have exaggerated for without doubt she is extremely beautiful.
Charles the Builder Leaves His Mark Around Town
Charles Flores, brother-in-law of May Callahan Flores, built his success upon the many beautiful homes he constructed in elite communities throughout Long Island. In fact, one such home added to the scenic view from his bedroom window; he built a home right opposite the Ketcham House in Hollis.
Long Island Sunday Press, JAMAICA, N. Y., SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 1936
TWO MODEL HOMES OPENED IN ESTATES -- Two model homes have been recently completed in Jamaica Estates, by CHARLES FLORES. An English Manor type is on the corner of Midland parkway and Dalny road while immediately adjoining is a French Provincial model. The former contains 8 rooms and 4 baths while the latter has 7 rooms and 3 baths. Mr. Flores has also built an English home on the triangular corner at Hollis avenue and 191st street, Hollis. This house has 7 rooms and 2 baths, and was especially designed for a professional man. Philip Resnick, architect, of Scarsdale, planned all buildings.
THE DAILY STAR, LONG ISLAND CITY, NOVEMBER 10, 1931.
DOUGLAS MANOR BARGAIN --Will take your old house with cash in exchange for charming English Colonial home Just completed, situated in exclusive section with privileges to clubhouse, pier and beach: 23 minutes Penn Station; spacious rooms with outside dining porch; 2 colored tile bath rooms, including maid's room, 2-car heated garage. -- CHARLES FLORES. BUILDER.; ----- HOLLIS AVE. HOLLI8. L. I. ; For appointment phone HOllls 5-10122
THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 1929.
DOUGLAS MANOR ON THE SOUND. New attractive English Colonial cottage. brick and stucco, exterior, shrubbery and shade trees; 7 large, cheery rooms, 2 bathrooms, rural fireplace, slate roof, brass plumbing, private bathing beach; price $17,500, including garage; cash $2,500. 349 WARWICK AV. DOUGLAS MANOR, DOUGLASTON, L.I. CHARLES FLORES. BUILDER. PHONE HOLLIS 4880.
Business Booms for Charles Again in Florida
Frederick Flores' younger brother Charles Flores continued to live in the Hollis area until he retired and relocated to Florida in 1959 -- Frederick passed away in 1958 -- where he sustained his success in the property development industry. Although he left the city in 1959, records show that the property did not go up for sale until 1967.