Painting a Little Wooden Folk Art Dog for the Garden
Original Snapshot circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman
The Day I Spoke to Captain Kangaroo
The Day I Spoke to Captain Kangaroo
My first real, paying job in Manhattan was working at CBS News, and at the time the Captain was still around. Way at the end of the building (a converted Milk Factory on West 57th Street) Captain Kangaroo was still being broadcast, though the year I started they had just shorted him to a half- hour a day…to concentrate on the CBS Morning News rather than educating the kids. The Captain didn't like it and eventually quit. Still the props were around and it was pretty cool to see them.
Bob Keeshan was certainly a part of my life, as were the libelous dirty jokes we told about Mr. Green Jeans behind the barn when I was older. We were being mean, as I don't think "Lumpy" Brannum, who played the barnyard buddy, would do the things we described. Other regulars on the show, which you have forgotten, were Dr. Bill Cosby, Dr. Joyce Brothers and Dr. Cosmo Allegertti as Mr. Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose, Miss Frog, Mr. Whispers, Dancing Bear, Grandfather Clock, Uncle Ralph AND the Magic Drawing Board!
Anyway, I was working in the library fielding calls like "How do you spell Hosni Mubarak's first name" and "Did anyone ever cross the Pacific in a balloon" when to my surprise the next call didn't ask a question, didn't say hello…it just said "This is the Captain" in a soothing voice which put me right back on the couch before school in the second grade. He really called himself the Captain! I can't remember what he wanted…but I'll never forget hearing his voice.
Bob Keeshaw marketed the "googly eyes" drinking cup here himself. The eyes are "lenticular" which means they follow you as put the milk carton carefully back into the fridge all by yourself. "Captain Kangaroo" is a trademark of "The Cashin Comedy Company" which he did. The cup on the base has "Robert Keeshaw Associates" scrolled around the center.
Captain Kangaroo "Sip" Cup. Collection Jim Linderman
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Butch Austin Black Cartoonist for (and OF) Jive
Still no help a year later on my query for information on the hep jive talking African-American cartoonist Butch Austin, who worked for Jive Magazine in the late 1950s. Let's try again...
Anyone out there know the story of Butch Austin, Forgotten Black Cartoonist?
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Lingerie Show (with hat) 1959
I don't really know how enthused the fashion editors are, but this is a wonderful pair of snapshots. I guess one could say a ritual seldom seen?
Anonymous "Lingerie Show" 1959 Collection Jim Linderman
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Harry McGregor Pulls a Wagon
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Original Paintings by Nyla Gladine Thompson Mouth Painter c. 1950 Polio Survivor Collection Jim Linderman
Ms. Thompson painted flowers, landscapes, animals and more. A family genealogical site speculates she also painted (in sections at a time) decorations for a "Tee Pee" restaurant in Texas, this would likely be the Tee Pee Motel which was recently restored and put back to service by a lottery winner (!) but I can find no photographs of the decorations on the standing buildings. They were certainly painted over or cleaned over the years.
Ms. Thompson was fairly well-known during her time. The website shows letters she received from both President Franklin Roosevelt (another polio survivor) and Lady Bird Johnson (a Texan who certainly loved flowers as much as Nyla.) As such, it is odd that she has not been included in the many books published in the last 40 years or so on "outsider" artists. She would seem to be right up Herbert Hemphill's alley, but I do not recall seeing her work in print. I sold my Texas Folk Art books years ago, maybe someone can help here.
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Dollhouse Old Sparky MIniature Electric Chair
Early Folk Art Whirligig Man (or Whirling Arms Toy) Collection Jim Linderman
Wooden Whirling Arms Toy Circa 1880 Collection Jim Linderman
Fish Jack In A Box THE PAPER WIGGLEFISH
I probably should have saved this for Shark Week, but I post them as I find them. Another of what Poet William Carlos Williams must have been thinking of when he wrote one of my favorite lines: "The pure products of America Go Crazy."
"Wiggle Fish" Paper Fish "trick" novelty gag 1943 The Lester Game Co. Toledo, OH. Collection Jim Linderman
The Big Goodyear Tire (Less Annoying than the Blimp?)
The other Goodyear Blimp: The Big Rolling Tire
As I looked up to confirm it was actually the Goodyear Blimp hovering over the putters during the U.S. Open this weekend, the first thing which came up was a question from someone asking "Am I the only person to dislike the noise of the Goodyear Blimp engines on sky sports coverage of the US golf open?" so I guess I'm not alone.
Well, it's more about the brand than it is the blimp. You THOUGHT of the blimp, and that's all they needed. Brand AWARENESS is what they are after, and they've been doing it over 100 years. The blimp first rose to the skies over 100 years ago. 1912. Since then, I presume we have put cameras on the moon which could read the brand name on Phil's ball, but still..."Look in the Sky! Goodyear!"
I'm not sure when this tire appeared, but not long after the blimp. In 1926 Goodyear became the world's largest rubber company and they went public a year later. This photo probably dates to then.
As I strive to be balanced in my reporting, let's see what Wiki says about Goodyear!
"Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst identified Goodyear as the 19th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 4.16 million lbs of toxins released into the air annually. Major pollutants included sulfuric acid, cobalt compounds, and chlorine.[24] The Center for Public Integrity reports the Goodyear has been named as a potentially responsible party in at least 54 of the nation's Superfund toxic waste sites."
Well, I still like this big tire.
Original Snapshot Anonymous circa 1925? Collection Jim Linderman
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When the Going Goes Tough, the Tough Go Bowling (and WIN) Ten-Pin Patches
WIBC Bowling Prizes (enough to SPARE!)
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Ships of the Air Newspaper Collectibles for Scrapping
One page from an enormous scrapbook found at an outdoor weekend flea market. There are hundreds and hundreds of illustrations arranged a week at a time by subject. Others include Inventions, Leaves, Transportation, History, Flags, Famous Men, Famous Women, Birds, Reptiles...a homemade encyclopedia one week at a time.
The Sunday Funnies went color around 1900, and while the strips today receive the most attention, there was a week's worth of work in each edition for the kids. Puzzles, paper dolls, quizzes. Some even included entire dioramas to be assembled.
Each of the miraculous airships here are 2" x 3"
Scrapbook Pages (Inventions) From an undated scrapbook. Collection Jim Linderman
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Tire Turtle Turtle Recycled Folk Art
Folk Art Turtle made from Tires Collection Jim Linderman
Harry Ingalls Scams Swindles Steals Frauds (and Tells your Fortune!) Crook with a Zodiac Astrological Turban and a Checkerd Past
(Sure enough…the first article I found is "THE BEST" astrology apps for Android. Suckers.)
Read it here. It is a scam. It doesn't even qualify for "pseudo-science" or for that matter an art form. It's crap. A lie. Fraud. In my opinion criminal and actionable. Which means one could sue their psychic, except that you probably agree not to in the small print.
It is 2013 as I write this. We've had centuries to weed out those who prey on the ignorance and blind trust of the people, yet still I hear advertisements for psychics and such. All that has changed is the turban. Now most are women.
By all accounts (and there are very few) Harry Ingalls, self-proclaimed "Greatest Fortune Teller in the World" had a normal childhood in a well-to-do family which dated way back to the earliest days of the country in Massachusetts. So why did he begin a career in scams, swindles and fraud? Maybe the family cut him off from the old money. I've gone over the box of cards here looking for the standard disclaimer "for entertainment only" but my third eye fails to find it.
Harry wrote one book. Tea Cup Reading: Tell Fortunes by Tea Leaves, which he published himself out of Swampscott, MA around 1930. Yea…your fortune is shown in your tea leaves. At that time, he was calling himself "The Master Mind" I guess. Here he is the same year appearing with "The Checker Girls" whoever they were. If my understanding of show business is true, one of the checker girls fell under his spell, he started drinking and it ended miserably.
The deck of cards above are not scarce at all. Harry sold a TON of them. Even today, on a "Tarot" website I found a thread of seers discussing them STILL, so they turn up all the time.
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