Going back to sorting out the photos found on the long lost hard drive, including the big slide collections, I had to look closely at this to make sure it was actually of New Orleans:

Two prominent things in the image rang zero bells for me: Three Feathers and WSMB and so I decided to dig.

WSMB turns out to be the original call sign of what’s evolved into WWL Radio, at that time broadcasting from the top of the Maison Blanche building (now the Ritz Carlton), which is where they derived the “MB” in their name. MyNewOrleans provides interesting background, but I’d never seen what was clearly a distinctive sign before.

Three Feathers has an interesting backstory as the name of a gin and whisky distiller that was embroiled in a lawsuit over their name. The New Orleans company had ceased operations during prohibition but picked up where they’d left off at the end of the period in 1933. In the meantime, their copyright of the name had lapsed, and a company in New Jersey with the odious name of Oldetyme Brands took it and ran, using a very similar logo.

Several years passed before the New Orleans company learned this was happening but although they sued, lost and appealed before losing again, they could not regain their brand. Three Feathers became popular through wartime but seems to have disappeared by 1951 although antique bottles are for sale on eBay.

Mississippi State University has an image in their digital collection that is almost the same perspective, taken during the day but otherwise quite similar, dated as being in the 1940s.