09/17/2026
🌟🌜Community Photo Booth 🌙 ⭐
We are excited to announce that the Paper Moon photo booth will be available for everyone to use again for this Fall season. The booth is located in the park on the Lewisburg square (Public Square Park) next to Parsons. Let's get creative this fall! Bring your kids, fur babies, and friends. Use costumes and props, experiment with different angles, and even try some fun filters. We want to see your photos!!! Use when posting your photos. Please be respectful to the booth so that everyone gets a chance to use it. In the event the booth is damaged please report it to us so that we can make repairs. Share this post to help get the word out!
It's Only a Paper Moon...
Before everyone walked around with cameras in their pockets, getting your photo taken was a big deal. This all started to change around the turn of the century as cameras became a little more advanced. From the early 1900s up until the 1950s, photographers often traveled with carnivals and fairs and set up booths so that people could have the opportunity to get their photographs taken. One of the most common photo booths was a paper moon. There are literally hundreds of paper moon photographs in existence today, mostly made with a bench, some paper, a fabric backdrop, and a little paint. And in all varying degrees of whimsy and artistic ability. No one knows who came up with the first idea of a paper moon, but it is theorized that they were made popular through silent films and the Victorians' overall fascination with space. The peak of their popularity was from 1900-1930s, which is epitomized by the song, "It's Only a Paper Moon" by Harold Arlen with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg and Billy Rose, for an unsuccessful Broadway play called The Great Magoo, set in Coney Island. The play failed, but the song grew in popularity and was recorded by such artists as Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. Once cameras became accessible to the general public, paper moons fizzled out of popularity.
