Dull Tool Dim Bulb: 2013

Flash Ray Gun

Check out my new Pew Pew Pew gun! Everyone knows Jihye Yuk now…the Pew Pew girl….but I thought of her when posting my ray gun, so here you go. Pew! Pew!

GIFSoup

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 8 Jazz with Guitar, Trumpet and Clarinet Snapshot

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 8 in the series.
Original Snapshot circa 1935 collection Jim Linderman Unidentified Musicians

Ventriloquist Hell Snapshot 1961 Collection Jim Linderman (and Free Preview of I'm With Dummy the Book)

The Book I'm With Dummy is previewed below. Available in Paperback for 19.95 and Ebook Dowload for $5.99 at Blurb.com

I'M WITH DUMMY Vent Figures and Blockheads by JIM LINDERMAN |

Polaroid Snapshot 1961 collection Jim Linderman

Winter Whirligig Folk Art Man

The fellow who guards my blueberry plants in Summer and Fall is having a BAD Winter.

Working Whirligig in Ice collection Jim Linderman

Success Boulevard Failure Avenue Happiness Lane and the Prosperity Inn Christmas 1937

Success Boulevard Failure Avenue Happiness Lane and the Prosperity Inn Christmas 1937
Christmas Card 1937 Collection Jim Linderman

Boydell Paint Salesman Sample Card

Early (and lovely) "paint chip" sample card for the Boydell Prepared Paint company. Boydell Paints were founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1865. Interestingly, the paints were here distributed by Crawford and Travis Druggists. Drug stores have come full circle...the Walgreen's not far from here tries to carry everything in addition to drugs.

Boydell Brothers Paint Salesman Sample Card. Circa 1900? Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number Seven in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Untitled (Dance Lessons?) Undated original snapshot no date. The Birth of Rock and Roll Number seven in the series. Performer Unknown. Collection Jim Linderman

Last Night's Christmas Program in 1914

Hand painted program December 18, 1914 Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number Six in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number six in the series. Original publicity 8 x 10 glossy photo by W. M. Byrnes June 1956! Performers Unknown.

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Will Rogers Tiny House Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

Will Rogers Tiny House!

Will Rogers was born in 1879 and passed away in 1935.

The tiny house is mentioned in a 1942 newspaper article, so it existed then. I've seen another snapshot supposedly from 1939. The house (actually a sign) welcomed visitors to Dog Iron Ranch in Indian Territory Oklahoma. It replicates the house in which Will Rogers was born.

Mr. Rogers was one- fourth Cherokee Native American and his father was a Cherokee Judge. He dropped out of school in the tenth grade, and as a very young man, Will had already traveled to (and worked) in Argentina and South Africa. He was the first civilian to fly from coast to coast.

He was, of course and famously a Democrat, but in 1928 ran a mock campaign for the presidency on the "Anti-Bunk" ticket. He declared himself the winner, and resigned the same day.

The famous "I never met a man I didn't like" was a reference to Leon Trotsky.

While best known for his speaking voice, he made over 30 silent films.

A genuine hero. Wiki is HERE

Snapshot circa 1939 of the tiny Will Rogers house welcomes visitors to his hometown. Collection Jim Linderman.

Antique Folk Art Sculpture Large Articulated Doll Carving with One Leg Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Sculpture Large Articulated Doll Carving with One Leg
Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll number five in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series. Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll number five is a snapshot circa 1950 (integrated dance) from the Jim Linderman Collection. The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

The High and Ho of Weegee Bernard Bailey High Magazine and Ho Magazine from Periodical House Publish Weegee's Poison Portraits

I am not a Weegee scholar, but I am a fan, and also recognize the importance of his work. I also know the magazine High and Ho are today pretty scarce, as editor and art director Bernard Bailey's goofy idea of putting TWO narrow magazines on the top shelf in the place of one didn't work out. Note the prices. I don't think he had market research in the late 1950s which indicated a fellow was inclined to pay 35 cents for HO! (The LONG magazine) and 25 cents for HIGH (the TALL magazine) either. So few today have seen them. Each issue was 100 skinny pages and come from 1957 and 1958. The Golden Age of smutty glamor.

Bailey did have the good taste to either hire, or purchase, a considerable amount of Weegee's more experimental work. Distortions and treatments. They are titled "Poison Portraits" and Weegee's Weirdies" and they are that..

I have no idea if the copyright on High and Ho is abandoned or has been assumed by the International Center of Photography, where you can find lots of material on the photographer. I AM sure they own the images. The Weegee Archive was bequeathed to ICP in 1993 by Wilma Wilcox, Weegee’s long-term partner, and it is a treasure. Wikipedia tells the story, and as you can see the institution has exhibited some, if not all, the images here:

"In 1980 Weegee's widow, Wilma Wilcox, Sidney Kaplan, Aaron Rose and Larry Silver formed The Weegee Portfolio Incorporated to create an exclusive collection of photographic prints made from Weegee’s original negatives. As a bequest, Wilma Wilcox donated the entire Weegee archive - 16,000 photographs and 7,000 negatives to the International Center of Photography in New York. This 1993 gift became the source for several exhibitions and books include "Weegee's World" edited Miles Barth (1997) and "Unknown Weegee" edited by Cynthia Young (2006). The first and largest exhibition was the 329-image "Weegee's World: Life, Death and the Human Drama," brought forth in 1997. It was followed in 2002 by "Weegee's Trick Photography," a show of distorted or otherwise caricatured images, and four years later by "Unknown Weegee," a survey that emphasized his more benign, post-tabloid photographs. In 2012 ICP opened another Weegee exhibition titled, "Murder is my Business". Also in 2012, exhibition called "Weegee: The Naked City" opened at Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow"

Bailey's narrow magazines are bound well and not easily mashed onto my scanner…but let's take a look at some obscurities by Arthur Felig. Weegee's Weirdies is listed in the bibliography of his works HERE, but Weegee's Poison Portraits seems not to be, so here you go.

Bernard Bailey, editor and art director of High and Ho is a bit more obscure, but like many folks working in the golden age of smut, came from the comic book environment. I'll say it again...Kefauver was right. He was an artist who worked for both DC comics and Atlas, which eventually became Marvel. His bio is HERE.

Not much has been published about his connection with High and Ho. Interestingly, High turned into a normal sized magazine after the tall experiment, but it didn't last much longer. Both magazines are chock-full of now prominent artists, photographers and models. Bernard had good taste, if not business sense.

Tall and Long issues of High 1957 and Ho 1958
Photography Books by the author include The Birth of Rock and Roll, Take Me to the Water and In Situ American Folk Art in Place.
Photographs by Weegee / INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Somewhat Anatomically Correct Man on a String Folk Art Carving Articulated Limberjack

Somewhat Anatomically Correct Man on a String Folk Art Carving circa 1930

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR AVAILABLE HERE

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 4 from Dull Tool Dim Bulb

The Birth of Rock and Roll number four is an original slide circa 1950 from the Jim Linderman Collection, and we like it so much we gave it a watermark! The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

Untitled Original Color Slide circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman

BIG Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet Collection Jim Linderman

About as big as they go, an Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet. Turn of the century or so, nearly 30 inches tall. Original paint. The mid-section is a sponge material which has deteriorated.

Collection Jim Linderman

Al Mohler Rustic Painter of Slabs of Wood

The Rustic Paintings of Al Mohler.

Did you ever wonder the story behind those paintings on slices of wood which are essential for a rustic cabin in the woods? Brother to the saw paintings, and sister to the slate paintings for sale in Jackson Square, New Orleans? Here's the guy! It's AL MOHLER and his wooden slab paintings!

If you follow this blog (gosh…6 years now) you know I love to elevate the lesser to the greater. So let's look at the king of the knotty pine painters! He picked an unusual medium, but he used it half-a century and created a serious body of work.

A Minnesota master, like most folk art painters Al painted on anything, but the most familiar are the oval shaped pieces of pine. He would paint animals for the most part. The bigger the better, and the Al Mohler tribute site mentions a painting of a bear on a slab 39 inches across! THAT is a big slice of tree. He did small ones too, and the little one here shows the reverse. Look for the authentic Al Mohler studio stamp. His career lasted over 50 years.

There is a creepy, right wing evangelist named Albert Mohler spreading ignorant venom around the south currently…needless to say that ain't the guy. I am going to guess the Al Mohler we are interested in here was a wonderful man who loved everyone and brought considerable joy into the world with his paintings.

Mohler sold his paintings from the little studio with the big sign shown in my photo above! I am hoping the photo is worth more than his paintings, but I doubt it. They are collected, and it seems every one on ebay sells.

The go to guy for Al Mohler paintings is Kirk Schnitker who runs the Al Mohler Art site from which I took the lovely logo here. He will do appraisals, may from time to time have work for sale and is documenting the work. Check out his site HERE.
Original photograph of Al Mohler and his studio Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

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