A Folk Art Whirligig SO FAST it Needs a Spoiler Stabilizer!





This baby is ready for the wind tunnel!  Plus, it has "black and white cookie" wheels to keep it on the road.  All designed like a miniature production model of clay.  Still, this is a big 'un.  Couple feet long!  Also the only "modern" whirligig I've ever had.  I date it to around the introduction of Dodge Chargers, though the profile is a bit chunky by comparison.  Fearful passenger too!
20th Century Whirligig.  Wood, Metal, Plastic Collection Jim Linderman

The Noah's Ark of New Hampshire RPPC



I guess we could also call this "Ness moves his Mess."  Real photo postcard shows E. W. Ness moving 34 kinds of farm animals through town on a sled.  Why?  MY guess is that the locals had created a nativity scene downtown, and Ness agreed to provide the critters.  Human Nativity Scenes used to be fairly common.

Collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb.
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Real African-American Performing Minstrel Troupe The Georgia Strollers original photograph collection Jim Linderman




Yes, there were REAL black "minstrel" shows, and here is snapshot proof.  These performers didn't need to blacken their faces.  How were they received?  I am sure they put on a regal show.  "Twelve Talented Negro Singers and Dancers"   

For a time, Texas piano player and vocalist Curtis Jones toured with the group.  Jones recorded some one hundred sides for the Bluebird, Okeh and Vocalion labels.  Curtis had a long career and was eventually associated with Jazz Gillum and Alex Moore.  His most popular number was "Lonesome Bedroom Blues" which hit...but I prefer his Highway 51 Blues and Reefer Hound Blues.
 
As for the other members of the act, we seem to be out of luck.  I am sure there are a few local reviews in regional papers... but I find none. Until others get in touch, I guess we file this certainly magnificent group under "information needed."
Original snapshot circa 1925 - 1935 Collection Jim Linderman

Primitive Diving Helmet Handmade early 20th Century Folk Art






Primitive Diving Helmet Handmade early 20th Century Folk Art.  Michigan origin.  
Collection Jim Linderman

Nellie Bellmore Female Trapeze Artist 1895 Circus Cabinet Card Pair by Frank Wendt




Nellie Bellmore Female Trapeze Artist 1895 Circus Cabinet Card Pair by Frank Wendt.  Wendt was understudy to famed "circus freak" photographer Charles Eisenmann.  He took over the studio when Eisenmann moved on.

Two Nellie Bellmore Frank Wendt Cabinet Cards Collection Jim Linderman

Putt Putt Traffic Cop Vintage snapshot 1955 Miniature Golf




Putt Putt Traffic Cop  Vintage snapshot dated on reverse 1955 Miniature Golf.
Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Here Comes TOKEY WEDGE !!! The Diminutive Hard-boiled Dick from Novel Books (Chicago) Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks




Here comes Tokey, buzzing out of the pages of pulp history from the back cover of TORRID TWINS, just one of the capers solved with his tiny fists and subtly implied detective dong  pounding. Tokey's secret weapon other than his quick wit was his manhood.  You want sex and hardboiled action in your reading?  Put down that limp "best reading" from the New York Times Book Review and grab yourself a big deep toke...of TOKEY!


A man's man and a women's dream, Tokey raced around the twirling paperback racks when the top presidential philanderer of all time, Jack Kennedy was in the White House.  Did Jack care if his "arranged" girlfriend Judith Exner was usually in bed with mobster Sam Giancana and reported back to the wise guy after every presidential performance?  HELL NO! Because Jack was a MAN'S man, just like Tokey Wedge.  Screw that, and screw THAT, organized crime.  No wonder (and no coincidence) Tokey gets involved with some  anti-Castro gun runners in BROAD BAIT...just like big Sam!   

So Tokey had a buzzcutt instead of Kennedy's Nantucket tousle...when you are racing to action in your midget muscle-car, there is no time to brush anything out of your eyes.  Here comes Tokey, nostrils flared...nay SMOKING.  Never mind that Tokey was actually no taller than 5' 4"...he was big where it mattered.  One book adds an inch to his frame...but does not specify if he had bought some lifts.

Jack Lynn wrote the Tokey Wedge novels.  Who was Jack Lynn?  WHO CARES!  This isn't about some fussy, anonymous, elite font prissy with an underwood, it's about Tokey Wedge.  The paperback community speculates who Jack was and you are more then welcome to browse around to speculate while REAL men just read the novels (from Novel Press) a sleazy Chicago outfit with questionable organized crime ties but outstandingly bad fiction! 

There were at least twenty one books by Jack and all of them had a serious problem with inaccurate perspective and unrealistic rendering on the covers.  So the real question is not who wrote this stuff, but who the hell did the art?  Check out the Torrid Twins Tokey is running down.  Not only are they twins, their burning breasts have exactly the same flame pattern!  Tokey had a thing for twins...witness Mary and Beth in another split zygote thriller "Double Seduction" which is no problem for Tokey.  He loves them and leaves them...looking exactly the same.  And yet AGAIN...there are twins in the later Desire in Duplicate...in which a $5000 a night hooker charges that much because she is...a twin! So the price is really $2500 each.  Does Tokey get a discount?  You have to ASK?

Other Jack Lynn books are listed below, but not all feature the diminutive dick Tokey.  In fact, one of them introduces a far taller character, a Danny Thomas look-a-like who actually towers over the dames who moan his name!
Tokey Wedge fears nothing as he solves the case of Nympho Lodge.  In another, Tokey struggles with a trio of "women loving women"  In Wild Women.  AS you can see, another cover with burning dames for Tokey to struggle through. 


Clearly Tokey's biggest challenge was Ten Shockingest (sic) Seductions, in which he has do do just that...seduce them all to determine which were guilty of murder and which were guilty of lesbianism.  There is only one man for the job...look down.

It's TOKEY.

Vintage Folk Art Tramp Art Miniature Dresser made of Matchsticks and Glitter




Vintage Folk Art Tramp Art Miniature Dresser made of Matchsticks and Glitter.  Circa 1960?
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 Collection Jim Linderman