Those are 1955 Bowman baseball cards in their hands. I believe with all my heart that the 1955 Bowman was the greatest baseball card design ever. Each player's photo appeared as though it was on a classic wood-grained television set. In hand-painted color! The best part of the 1955 Bowman series was that it included the umpires. Umpires with baseball cards! My dad used to drag me to auto swap meets all over the midwest, and while he looked for the car parts and whatever else he was after I scoured the endless rows of greasy metal for dealers who set out their old baseball cards (this was right at the beginning of the 1987-1991 bubble). One time we were down in Indianapolis and one of the dealers put out a whole box of 1955 Bowmans. I bought them all, and have them still. It's too bad they were printed on such lousy cardboard.
William Klein (b. 1928) is mostly known for his fashion photography, but he captured some great New York urchins in his Life is Good and Good for You, for which he won the Prix Nadar award.I suspect I'll be sharing some more of his work here soon.
Nearly all of these urchins were discovered in the photography archives of the Library of Congress (and available without copyright restrictions online). Otherwise, urchin photos will be credited to the appropriate photographer with a link to its source (unless they come from my own collection of photographs from unknown photographers). If there is ever a copyright concern, do not hesitate to contact me.