African-American Yard Show Folk Art in the Black Eden Idlewild, Michigan Black History 1915 RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

Dated 1915 (which makes it likely one of the earliest photos of an African-American Yard Show) this scarce RPPC comes from Idlewild, Michigan. The city was founded in 1912 specifically as a resort town for black tourists who weren’t welcome most places at the time. A refuge from Jim Crow laws still rampant. Here, Black citizens could legally buy property, relax, use the facilities, fish the lake and take up residence. Numerous black notables visited and vacationed in Idlewild…even Louis Armstrong purchased a home there. The famed Flamingo Club operated and attracted countless famous Black entertainers. Members of the Black intelligentsia from Chicago and further established a foothold and the city flourished. By the 1920s Over 6000 people had purchased 17,000 lots in the area. Many articles and several books tell the history of the birth, decline and ongoing restoration of this Black Eden. The owner of this establishment is unidentified. The awning identifies the place as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the rock creature has “Swannee River” written on it. Both problematic now, but during the earliest days of the 19th century black condemnation of Uncle Tom was not as strong as today. As for “Swannee” River, it could refer to the actual waterway (which ran from Georgia to Florida) rather than to the Stephen Foster song “Old Folks at Home” by written in 1851 and STILL the official state song of Florida. The song has a controversial history well-documented (having been composed as a minstrel tune) but it is surprising to see here in this context. Several of my posts have received informative comments from Michiganders. I hope some can add more information on this unusual find. The Folk Artist from Black Eden. African-American Yard Show art Idlewild, Michigan 1915 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb I have posted numerous other yard show photos on the Dull Tool Dim Bulb blog over the years, but this one is the oldest. #yardshow. #yardart. #blackfolkart. #african-american. #rppc. #idlewild #michigan. #realphotopostcard. #outsiderart. See the Wikipedia article on Idlewild HERE

Lonnie Simmons The African-American Musician and Photographer who never slept

Samuel "Lonnie" Simmons is an Unsung Hero of Photography, so let's  bring another great African-American artist out of the dust of obscurity.  Once known as "The Man Who Never Sleeps" Samuel "Lonnie" Simmons was an African-American jazzman (more than anything else) in his younger days playing with no less than American treasures Fats Waller, Hot Lips Page, Chick Webb and more.  Many more. He recorded under his own name as well, including "I Can't Get Started" on the Parrot label (in which he played both organ and saxophone, probably at the same time.)  If you are not yet impressed with Lonnie's musical chops, his Jet Magazine obit reports he also played with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie.  Parrot was a label which lasted only three years in the early 1950s, but some of the recordings were reissued later on Chess Records. 

Though Simmons performed up until the the end, He passed after a fatal stroke at age 80 according to Euguene Chadbourne, it is his work as a photographer of primary interest here.

A photographer too?  I'm getting a little tired of finding great talented people no one taught me about in school.  

So Lonnie, or Samuel, is called "a free-lance photographer" in passing in the few places you might find information about him. 

Born in Charleston, South Carolina (Actually, in Mt. Pleasant, an isolated pocket in the low-country coast and a plantation-era place near where slaves landed. A bridge to Mount Pleasant was built in 1928.

Lonnie's father was a blacksmith who went back nearly to slave days, passing at the age of 82 in 1955. Lonnie's father was just one notable blacksmith named Simmons from the Charleston area.  On his father's passing, Lonnie went back to Mt. Pleasant to bring his mother back to Chicago with him, and it was her first plane airplane ride.  His appearance at the funeral was notable enough for the local paper to interview him, where Simmons is reported to have "gradually drifted into take pictures for newspapers and magazines" and that he maintains his own darkroom in his Chicago home.  The headline reads "Mt. Pleasant Negro Musician Becomes Press Photographer" and adds a few more musical giants among his playing partners.

It was not unusual for Mr. Simmons to leap from the bandstand with his camera to capture events, including crimes. A one-man forerunner of the surveillance camera, his pictures were used by the Chicago Police for evidence and he earned honorary membership in the Chicago Patrolman's Association.  Much of his photography was taken at the legendary Chicago Club De Lisa and I now believe the photograph below was taken by Mr. Simmons in his "spare time" as picture maker who roamed the club supporting his income with snapshots. 

The dance photos shown above were Lonnie's. Scarce not only because they show the "Black and Tan" nightclub era (an era not generally regarded as worthy of documentation at the time by most photographers) but also because most of Mr. Simmons photographs have not been exhibited.  The originals may be lost. We can hope a relative finds this post, digs them out and produces the coffee-table book he earned but no one made.

Somebody has some, as Mr. Simmon's photographs were apparently used in the 1995 documentary PROMISED LAND narrated by Morgan Freeman for the History Channel, which while acclaimed was forgotten. You can read about it in web comments where people keep asking why it isn't available on DVD…one of whom writes "It is a shame that this great work of truth has been overlooked." Par for the course. The documentary is about the migration of southern African-Americans to Chicago. Lonnie Simmons was one of them, and fortunately he brought his camera.

Samuel "Lonnie" Simmons photographs appear in Ebony, Jet, The Chicago Defender, The Pittsburgh Courier, The Crusader and Cabaret (a magazine which documented burlesque in the 1950s and from where the photographs above were taken) and I suspect others once considered unsavory race and pinup magazines from the 1950s on. The portrait of the young musician is from the Charleston Jazz Initiative at the School of the Arts, College of Charleston, South Carolina. Jet Magazine recognized Lonnie's talents and skills…as well as using his photographs (including the astounding picture of a dancer flying above a drummer, which I have cribbed but credited) they also reported on his adventures, including being bitten by an eel and having his instruments stolen HERE.

PHOTOGRAPH OF SAMUEL LONNIE SIMMONS Charleston Jazz Initiative Archives

PARROT RECORD LABEL HERE 

Original Club DeLisa Photograph and Sleeve collection Jim Linderman 

JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS ARE AVAILABLE HERE ON BLURB

Black History Painting Original Handpainted Boycott A&P Handbill

In 1935, a white clerk at the A&P store in Atlanta beat a black customer.  An unemployed father of three, he had stolen a bag of sugar.  Black consumers of the store began to picket and organized a boycott. One demand was the hiring of black clerks.  

The following is from Black Politics in New Deal Atlanta by Karen Jane Ferguson.  "Despite visits from the Ku Klux Klan and a menacing police cordon which "protected" the store from vandalism with sawed-off shotguns, the picketers persisted…the boycott received wide community support, especially after schoolboys distributed handbills in the surrounding black neighborhood urging black consumers to stop patronizing A&P."

The boycott lasted five years and eventually the store had to close.

I do not know if this hand-painted handbill is associated with the Atlanta strike, but it seems to come from the time period.  I presume there were other incidents involving the grocery over the years. There was a significant boycott of the chain in the 1960s apparently organized by Albert Brinson, a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Original watercolor monochrome painting for a handbill, no date.  Anonymous. 
Collection Jim Linderman  Thanks to Curley's Antiques

Sepia Pin Up Calendar Storefront original photograph collection Jim Linderman

Sepia Pin Up Calendar Storefront.  This snapshot likely shows a photo studio associated with Sepia Magazine, which ran over 35 years but never achieved the reputation of the competitor Ebony or the mini-digest Jet.  Still, it was a popular media source for the Black country within the country.  Starting in 1947, Sepia was published in Texas by Good Publishing Company.  Good was also responsible for the few African-American scandal magazines of the mid 20th Century.  Hep, Jive and Bronze Thrills also came from Good.  Interestingly, The owner was a white man named George Levitan, but the staff was largely African-American, and Mr. Levitan was a civil rights supporter.

This could be a satellite office.  The magazine had nation-wide distribution, so it is possible a studio looking for glamour shots of African-American women would be in NYC or Chicago.  It is also possible this was simply a storefront set up by an anonymous photographer using the Sepia name.  What better way to attract talent?  There is a similar snapshot for sale on a website which identifies the date around 1930, but that is unlikely.

There is so little documentation of early African-American pinups.  My book Secret Life of the Black Pin-up is out of print., but many of the images have been shared and posted by others.  The phrase "Black is Beautiful" was intended to wake up all races…African-American residents were so abused, even they had doubts.  Yes, Black women are beautiful and they had their own subculture of pin-up beauty, but the history is buried and the issues scarce.

One reason so few of the original Good Publications magazines are seen today is due to the "pass-along rate."  Unlike, for example, issues of National Geographic, which are stockpiled in many garages in nearly mint but moldy condition, most of the race magazines were shared over and over until they wore out.  They cost from 25 to 35 cents…and before the 1960s, there was little disposable income for the minority.  They were seldom collected by libraries.  A few examples of Good Magazines are shown here.

See also HERE and HERE. 
Original snapshot Sepia Pin-Up Calendar Storefront.  No date, circa 1955?  Collection Jim Linderman.  Jim Linderman's book The Birth of Rock and Roll published by Dust to Digital is available for purchase HERE and HERE.

  

Vintage V African-American Weaves Wigs and Hair from Howard's of Harlem

Some SERIOUS Black wigs from just after World War Two.  And since hair is a serious subject for most African-American women, I am not going to even attempt much an essay here.  I do remember walking through the book fair on 125th street (where these images came from fifty years earlier) and it seemed every publisher, large or small, had a title devoted to women of color and their hair, wigs, weaves, hats and the culture around it.

There is also a serious amount of weaves in here, including  "crispy hair transformations and biscuit side puffs"  along with a considerable group of the necessary tools.  Beautiful essentials for already beautiful women.

My only other observations are the "V" for victory style,  which makes sense after the war,  and that from what I can tell "Howard's of 125th Street" was in business well into the long-overdue "Black is Beautiful" era of the late 1960s and beyond. 

The splendid artist, alas, is unidentified in the catalog, which is a whopping 44 pages. At one time Howard's owned a copyright on the phrase "Re-birth of Charm" though I don't think the women who received this catalog in the mail ever lost theirs.

Rebirth of Charm spring 1946 Catalog  Coiffures Created by Howard's New York City  44 page Pamphlet 5" x 7" Collection Jim Linderman 

BROWSE and ORDER Books and affordable Ebooks BY JIM LINDERMAN HERE at Blurb

BRONZE THRILLS ! George Levitan Goes Black and Goes Smutty

Astoundingly, or maybe not...Bronze Thrills was published by a Caucasian.  George Levitan.  Not only that, Levitan was originally from the Upper Pennisula of Michigan and once said he never even saw a Black person until he was 18 years old,  according to Texas Monthly magazine in October 1983.  As a teen, Levitan moved to Detroit but he didn't stay long.  He moved to Forth Worth, Texas and bought the Good Publishing Company.  It was a good move.  Bronze Thrills was already being published, but George spiced it up a bit (as you can see)  more and commenced becoming a very rich man.

Not only Bronze Thrills (Breaking the Cross-Dressing barrier here with the story of a husband who got his kicks wearing women's clothes) but Hep, Jive, Sepia, Soul Confessions, Soul Teen and Soul Confessions.  A one-man Black publishing empire which was white!

That isn't to say George was a creep.  He hired African-American workers, trained them well, paid them well and promoted them to important positions.  Sure, the magazine was thrashy, but at the time there really wasn't much else for the race.  Soon his primary title, Sepia, was a moving force in the Black community.  He also helped raise funds for the United Negro College Fund. 

Issue of Bronze Thrills  "Thrill Girls: Men meant only sex and a good time to me" and "My Husband was a Transvestitie: He got his kicks from wearing women's clothes"  December 1966 Issue  Original  Collection Jim Linderman

THE BIRTH OF ROCK AND ROLL book available HERE