Bob Dylan once sang/wrote "Inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial" which is a good line. I have always thought it is collectors who do the work...and decades later the museums catch up. Case in point is folk art collector Herbert Hemphill, a major influence on my life. The things he collected even came to be known as "A Hemphill thing" for lack of a better description...now the Smithsonian owns them and they help define the American experience.My point is not to detract from the work of curators, historians and scientists who work in lauded museums at all...just that they sometimes take forever to get things done. With history counting on them, they don't have the luxury of being flippant or smarmy, as I do...and accuracy really isn't my forte either, I will confess. They have to be. But it is truly the individual collector, the independent researcher, the hobbyist and the local historian who do the serious ground work. They have the drive, the obsession and the gumption to break ground, put disparate objects together for the first time and in many cases even create a genre. A case in point is Mr. Jay Moynahan of Spokane, Washington. I happened upon one of his books while doing some research for my Vintage Sleaze blog. "Oh..so you were RESEARCHING prostitution?" Yes, actually, I was!Mr. Moynahan appears to be quite a story. By my count, which stopped when I reached double-digits, Moynahan has researched, written and published some TWENTY FIVE BOOKS on prostitutes. Mostly prostitutes of the the American West, which he calls "soiled doves." I truly am afraid to read one...not because I am in the least bit prudish...because I am afraid I will like it and be hooked. No pun intended. With spring gardening coming up, can I really afford to go on a 25 long book jag of Moynahan's ladies of the night?
I am truly in awe. Now I must confess most of my own personal knowledge of the role played by working women in the West comes from the Larry McMurtry books...Lonesome Dove and the like. He often has a female character, superbly defined and described, by the way....who turns tricks for the men and acts as a sounding board. Honest, hard-working, trustworthy women who happen to work in the sex industry. So although I dabbled in Native American Art for a time, I really have no first hand knowledge of Western lore. For all I know, Jay Moynahan is well known in that community and his books sell like the soiled doves themselves after the round-up was over and the pockets were jingling. But he was certainly new to me.
Mr. Moynahan is retired Professor Emeritus at Eastern Washington University in Criminal Justice. He happened to learn of a distant relative who ran a bordello in a mining town in the 1870s. Some folks doing their genealogy might be tempted to overlook such a find...Moynahan only dug deeper.
What an accomplishment! Not only for the accuracy of history and for the appreciation of the role women played in settling the west, but an accomplishment for all interested hobbyists, amateur researchers, writers and future museum curators. This is a man who has documented and created a previously ignored and shunned part of history, and I for one intend not only to read one, but I suspect many. Some of his books consist of reprinted material he has located and assembled, some are collections of photographs...Just browse the inventory and you will be as impressed as I.Mr. Moynahan HERE.
A complete list of Moynahan books and ordering information is HERE.
If I were involved in any way with an institution of higher learning, a museum or an archive, I would be fetting Jay big time. This appears to be one serious chunk of history compiled and written by one man with a mission, and I suspect historians will recognize it for decades and decades to come.Photographs collection of Jay Moynahan.
Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE
I am pleased to add a new phrase to the teen vernacular..."SUCKING UP THE CHECK" inspired by this splendid illustration from JIVE magazine in 1962. No artist identified.
The Circle of Shoes Circa 1950 Hand-drawn and pasted copy for Department Store Newspaper Ad Collection Jim Linderman
Would Cuba's Number two boy rather be a girl? Well, Raul does seem to be eying Jayne's sweater puppies with considerable envy...I'd say yes. Let's report it.
Now you have to realize these came out long before Rupert and Fox News set rigorous standards for journalism, so facts seldom get in the way, but as Dan Rather famously said "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..." Or to put it another way, where there is smoke, there is a hot tabloid rag to toss on the pile and make the fire bigger.
You know, when I was young and working as a library clerk, I don't remember re-shelving any of these...what's that about? I thought librarians were all against censorship!
It is no wonder news stands are looking sparse these days...What with TMZ and Smoking Gun, we can get our gossip fix without having to pay a quarter at the checkout. No bar codes on these...the clerk would have to study them for the price and then give you the stink eye for your questionable taste.
These are all from the 1950s, when Liz had a revolving carousel of men, George Clooney's aunt was all the buzz, Pat Boone kept a harem and Sammy Davis, Jr. was the only Black man who created news. ( In retrospect, from what I have read, Sammy certainly DID have his share of partners for a little guy with an eye-patch.) Confidential was the big gun, but the little guns worked just as hard to snatch a quarter. How it was determined 25 cents was the price to learn "WHY ERROL DIDN"T TAKE HIS SHOES OFF" is beyond me. I'd have paid a buck!Jumbo Group of Fifties Facts Collection Jim LindermanDull Tool Dim Bulb BOOKS HERE
(Click to Enrapture)Sunny Jim the Evangelist had more slogans than Burger King. The problem was, no one knew what the hell they meant. They all sound like T-Rex song titles. The content of the letter has Reverend Jim "calling in the big guys"...that is requesting legal help "from out of state" but it does not reveal his digressions. A shame. I suspect Sunny Jim has a Shady story.Letterhead of "Sunny Jim" The Evangelist Dated 1916 Collection Jim Linderman(A post also on the old-time-religion blog)
Club DeLisa in Chicago's Bronzeville was THE place for African-American floor shows and Jazz during the 1950s. It was run by four brothers and presented the finest in African-American entertainment (all the while allowing gambling in the basement.) From Albert Ammons to Joe Williams. "The Harlem of Chicago"
Like to be your own boss? Consider the Nightclub photographer. One of the few photography genres seemingly without scholarship or museum shows (If you know of one, let me know.) They were and are often women (Noted photojournalist Ruth Orkin started as one, so did a female character in Dick Tracy) Weegee also worked the clubs.
I could probably compile a long list of photographers who started out with a speed-graphic and a tip tray, but I'll leave it up to a doctoral student needing a project.
Big operators in famous clubs printed their own cardboard frames to sleeve the photos. One could go late...folks are more likely to spend the money for a portrait after a few drinks. They appear in hard-boiled novels all the time...being in the club affords them opportunities for both evidence and blackmail. Many a plot turns on the appearance of a "surprise" photograph taken by a pretty dame with a shutter. Nightclub photographers also have provided many historical images of performers as they often had the only camera in the club.
As popular today as it was in the 1950's, I am not sure how long it will last. Whether the cellphone camera will kill the nightclub photographer is questionable...there is glamour missing in a digital picture, and If I were a young photographer starting out today, I would get a big camera with a collapsible bellows and carry it around clubs.Anonymous Original Nightclub Photo Club DeLisa circa 1950 with original sleeve
Collection Jim LindermanDull Tool Dim Bulb Books in print HERE
A young boy or girl practices not moving his or her lips. Charlie McCarthy was once the world's most famous blockhead, sidekick and as unlikely as it seems (since the whole point is to SEE the ventriloquist) radio personality. He was owned by Candice Bergen's father. Actually, now that I think of it, Charlie had a whole lot more personality than Ryan Seacrest.
W.C. Fields: "Quiet, Wormwood, or I'll whittle you into a venetian blind."Charlie: "Ooh, that makes me shutter!"
Other Vent Figures HERE
Vernacular Snapshot of a child with ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy Circa 1940? Collection Jim LindermanDull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE
