The lineup behind the scenes at Gosman’s Restaurant in Montauk in 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library Archives. The full collection of photographs, “An Inside View of Gosman’s Restaurant,” can be seen in a slideshow that returned this week to the Montauk Library’s Local History Exhibit Center. It can also be viewed online at the New York Digital Heritage website.Roberta Gosman taking reservations outdoors at Gosman’s on Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library ArchivesBridget “Bridie” Harrington, Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library ArchivesRobert “Emmett” Gosman in the kitchen, Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library Archives
An earlier version of this post was published on August 30, 2023. It has been updated with additional images and information to reflect the passing of Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D., on May 9, 2024 at the age of 87.
Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D., an anthropologist, was working as a waitress at Gosman’s Restaurant, whose owners she was good friends with, in the summer of 1975. Inspired by an anthropological angle as well as a photography class she was taking, she spent dawn to dusk on Labor Day photographing the restaurant’s kitchen and wait staff as they worked diligently behind the scenes. She managed to capture moments of both organized chaos, from lines of cooks to lines of servers loading up trays, and rest when there was downtime.
Vicki at work on Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library Archives
Maria-Louise had not expected to take as many photographs as she did that day, but ultimately, she said last year, “I used every drop of black-and-white film in town.” She and a friend who was a hostess at Gosman’s, Wendy Rosa-Monda, developed 59 prints and had them scanned, then presented a photo album of them to Roberta Gosman, who died in 2018. Over almost half a century, Dr. Sidoroff stayed in touch with a number of the people she had worked with over her seven summer seasons at Gosman’s.
A crowd of people waiting for tables at Gosman’s, Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library ArchivesWendy Rosa hostessing on Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library Archives
Last summer, Dr. Sidoroff donated her scans of the photographs to the Montauk Library Achives, which mounted a digital exhibit in the Local History Exhibit Center. “It was a really nice way to reminisce,” her daughter Oona Sidoroff (who also worked at Gosman’s) said in an obituary for her mother in the East Hampton Star last week, adding that her mother also got to enjoy an ocean swim last year.
Oona Sidoroff working at Gosman’s, Labor Day, 1975. Photograph by Maria-Louise Sidoroff, Ph.D. | From an album documenting the staff and kitchen during a 12-hour shift on Labor Day weekend, Montauk Library Archives
In honor of Maria-Louise, the digital slideshow, called “An Inside View of Gosman’s Restaurant,” has returned to one wall of the Local History Center. It can also be viewed online at the New York Digital Heritage website.
Reply or Comment