Dick Dillon's Mechanical City in Real Photo Postcards

I had a cheap promo RPPC of “Dillon’s Mechanical City” years ago but didn’t post it as the piece, or city was apparently from Denmark and I was concentrating on domestic folk art environments. Plus the photo was unclear. Over the holidays I was reminded by Natalie Curley who sent me a real photo postcard of the place. I found the rest! Enlarge these, it’s remarkable. I also found a few ads from Billboard Magazine, then covering the “amusements” market as well as music. There is little useful information on promoter Dick Dillon, who paid to move this mechanical masterpiece from Denmark to East Liverpool, OH in the early 1950s. He also TOURED it around some…it took three giant trucks to move it! The cards hardly show the size. Dillon took it around the midwest in a caravan and parked the trucks in a semi-circle for tours. I consulted the writings of Amazing A.C. Stencell, whose book is the only source I can find. “…Dick Dillon from Youngstown, OH…had acquired a miniature village made in Denmark that consisted of 251 animated characters, 30,000 working parts and 50 European scenes. He told people that the builder took eight years to carve it with a pocket knife.” Dillon covered it in canvas with a few carvings in front but charged for the full tour. I do not know where the thing ended up! When these RPPC images were produced the thing was called the “defenseless” mechanical city, which leads me it may have been a World War 2 reference (?) Group of Dillon’s Working Mechanical city real photo postcards c. 1950 collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb #folkartenvironment #DickDillon. #carnival. #sideshow.