Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Sports Tattoos Lick 'em and Stick 'em Tattoo Flash

Needle Free!

Sheet of Vintage Tattoos circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

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Stump Dancing I know how to spell STUMP DANCING Dammit

Stupid Google. No, I am NOT looking for Stomp the musical. I know how to type. I'm doing a post on STUMP dancing. Just because a few million hand held smartphones are a pain in the butt to type on, does that mean I have to clear your stupid computerized "solutions" for me? And by the way, I'm not looking for "Jimmy Johns" either, I HATE their food. I'm searching MYSELF, you idiots.

STUMP dancing postcard 1904 Collection Jim (NOT JIMMY JOHN'S) Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Book available HERE

Promotional Comics Propaganda Pulp for the Long Haul STFU

There are several reasons for promotional comics. Some obvious, some not so. Most obvious is brainwashing of young minds. Studies show the nefarious concept of "branding" starts at a shockingly young age, and once hooked the fish is in the boat. A four-year old McDonald's fan has a good chance of being a fifty-year old McDonald's fan if blood clots and high cholesterol don't interfere.

Other uses are to sway young opinion. Nuclear power is fun and safe, Levi's are the only real rough and tough cowboy jeans, Remington BB-Guns let you kill small animals just like Dad kills big ones. but "B-B SAFE"

Also prominent is what I call the "STFU" factor. That's right, they are able to keep kids quiet on long trips. Hence crappy things like "Special Agent" above, a story which will keep junior occupied for that long rail haul through Texas (while he reads exciting tales of railroad cops tossing hobos off trains) The most common are probably Big-Boy, which are seemingly even more common than a pack of antacids on a trip across Route 66.

Shoe companies also seemed to be big users of promotional comics. I really don't know why, but there are tons of them. Crapass "Blue Bird Comics" put out this transparent rip-off of Caspar the Friendly Ghost they called Timmy the Timid Ghost. The funniest is certainly the fake "Archie" here for Taste-Freez...My God, could the blatant theft be any more apparent?. A fake Archie, a fake Reggie, a fake Bettie and a fake Jalopy! Plus a fake "extra guy" poorly rendered who probably gets killed off early in the story. Are these colorful propaganda pulps worth anything?

Nope, and they never were.

Except for THIS one. COOL!

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books Available for Ordering HERE

Paper Jungle Kalamazoo Paper Box Company Parade Float collection Jim Linderman

Original Undated Photograph, 8 x 10 Collection Jim Linderman

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS HERE

So, what's with this family? The New Book by Milton Simpson

Graphic designer and gentleman Milton Simpson has published a new book which tells the story of a most unusual set of erotic folk art figures he found, his attempts to find out why they were created, where they came from and what they were used for! I know the work as the "Woodbridge Figures" but here is the story, told visually, and it is a good one! So, what's with this family? Great objects and with Milt's visual sense a beautiful book.

Mr. Simpson is already recognized for producing two of the most outstanding folk art books, Windmill Weights and the influencial Folk Erotica. To preview and order "So, what's with this family" CLICK HERE and you can also see the facsimile edition of Windmill Weights he has made available as well.

Fanny Rice (You All Know Her) At the Circus in Black and White #27

Well, maybe you don't know Fanny Rice having confused her for the much more famous Fanny Brice, but a Fanny is a Fanny. (And Fanny Rice had a big hit with the song "You All Know Her" even if you don't)

Original Vaudeville/Circus/Burlesque Photograph circa 1890 with players Identified Collection Jim Linderman

AT THE CIRCUS in BLACK and WHITE is a continuing series on Dull Tool Dim Bulb This is Entry number 27.

Nurses Craft Day (The Greatest Show on Earth) Hospital Folk Art on Display

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Pure harmony as a group of nurses show their handmade constructions, crafts and creations!

Downey Studio Photograph, Indianapolis, IN Circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Card of Love Willie Strode Women Chaser Victorian Lothario

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Here is a tip for you Lotharios out there. The women do love the little lovely gestures. I imagine Willie Strode here did all right. I don't mind being a cynic, as the times certainly call for one, so let's guess how many Victorian innocents were recipients of Willie's love card. A beautiful little calling card, and I am guessing Strode frequently had company in the calling room.

Yours Truly Please Answer

Victorian Calling (Love) Card of Willie Strode circa 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

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Things to Make A Folk Art Bird Jigsaw and Paint

How simple? Every boy should have a Jigsaw and every yard should have a wooden bird.

Wooden Yard Folk Art Bird Circa 1940? Collection Jim Linderman

One Arm One Man Band W. C. Williams collection Jim Linderman

W.C. Williams Advertising Postcard collection Jim Linderman

Warm Rural Welcome (Pitchfork and Shotgun) RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

Real Photo Postcard circa (NOKO, circa 1910?) Collection Jim Linderman

NOTE: ROBERT REEVES WINS A FREE DULL TOOL DIM BULB T-SHIRT for taking the time to point (and gross me) out...with his comment, true, as follows:

"Those guys have been killing the rats in the barn. (see 'em laid out in front? Dozens!) I saw it happen when I was a kid.)

Robert has a better eye than I, always has.

Matches Salesman Samples Graphic Advertising collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Three circa 1940 salesman sample cardstock. Order by number! Collection Jim Linderman
DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOK CATALOG HERE

Mickey Mouse Celebrates his Eighth Birthday 1936 Screen & Radio Weekly

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(Copyrighted by the publisher. No rights are given or implied. Presented here for historical significance, magazine fans and Disney collectors)

A little treat for you Mouseketeers! A mint illustration from what is likely one of the few remaining issues of Screen and Radio Weekly, an insert to the Detroit Free Press of September 27, 1936. Obviously stored with great care, the newsprint, large format magazine is is wonderful condition considering newspaper pulp and age. Colors as bright as the day they were printed!

Back cover of Screen & Radio Weekly September 27, 1936 Detroit Free Press Collection Jim Linderman

A Great Totem Pole with Period Folk Art Enhancements

With a skeleton on top and a whole family of faces below, this is one wonderful pole. It was built in 1904, created for Matt Larkin on the northwest coast (possibly by the Haida tribe) but then altered upon arrival in Albany, New York. The skeleton on top was added, as were the gentlemen around the middle (friends of the owner, who it is said was "father of the jukebox" ) and mounted on the grounds of his Burden Lake estate.

No actual tribe is identified, but it is certainly what we might call a marriage of cultures. Possibly Northwest origins with touches of Northeast drinking buddies? As you can see in my worn postcard, it is huge, dramatic and preservation worthy regardless.

The pole stood until 1958 when a storm brought it down. 20 years later it went to the Marian E. White Anthropology Museum, who received it in 5 pieces. The museum contains one million artifacts with a concentration on Woodland tribes such as the Seneca. Being a composite project at best, and a "genuine Native American fake" at worst, the totem pole seems to be an anomaly. Maybe that is why restoration has been taking decades...a low priority? But then the museum world moves slow...The biggest pieces are displayed in the museum, others are still being worked on.

The laborious process is documented HERE with a really cool picture of the pole you can click on to to check progress.

Humorama Humor New Book on Old Gags Humorama by Alex Chun

Alex Chun has a new volume available from Fantagraphics Books in his series which profiles the "few dollars a drawing" gag writers who sold work to the Humorama line of digest publications during the 1950s and into the early 1970s. As I have been writing on the lesser known artists who contributed, with the scant information available...I eagerly await the book!

I also collect the original drawings, and a good share of them have been posted on my blogs over the last few years...great stuff, and neglected ever since the women's movement made them even more offensive than we thought they were.

For those of you who do not know the Humorama books, which literally filled the racks when I was growing up, here is a sample of my favorite "issues" (as if one was any different from the other.) You will note the colors on the covers I pick are similar to those used on traffic lights. No coincidence. They were intended to stand out (make you stop, look both ways and carefully proceed to the checkout.)

I try to sniff out, dig up and write about one dead Humorama artist a month on VINTAGE SLEAZE . Some of those articles have also been collected on HUMORAMA ART. Feel free to browse and share.

Collection of various Humorama Publications circa 1957-1965 Collection Victor Minx

Buy the Alex Chun Book Below from Fantagraphics or your favorite seller. Mine is on order!

UPDATE: MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK IS HERE on VINTAGE SLEAZE the BLOG

DULL TOOL DIM BULB / VINTAGE SLEAZE BOOKS HERE

Fotofun Game of Vernacular Photography 1934 Collection Jim Linderman

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Pre-Adobe! Laugh Your Heads Off! As found, with period heads cut from photographs (vintage, I didn't do it) with the same folks appearing on several pages. There was also a Fotofun postcard book with the same technique published around the same time. Created by William J. Glassmacher for Treasure Chest Publications.

Fotofun Book Treasure Chest Publications 1934 with cut and applied photographs.
Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books Available HERE

Check Your Hose Day! A Good Hose is a Household Necessity (Hose Humor collection Jim Linderman)

Yes, once again it is "Hose Inspection Day" so let's get to it. A good hose is a household necessity. I check mine even more frequently than necessary just to be sure.

Pair of Harley R. Lugibihl "Look Over Your Garden Hose" advertising cards circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

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Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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