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Showing posts with label Carnival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carnival. Show all posts
At the Circus. Vintage photographs of Circus Performers and Trainers from the Jim Linderman Collection
Hit the Baby! Carnival Sideshow Knock down Tents Ball Toss and Shooting Gallery
Painted by Hand Carnival Sign with Innuendo old folk art sign
Folk Art carnival ride warning sign circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman
Ray Oakes and Sons Crooked Carnival Sideshow Games Add Em Up Dart Board
The Add Em Up dart game is an example of a razzle-dazzle. The vocal delivery of the carny is as important as where the darts actually land. During the 1950s, any game involving math was a pretty safe bet in rural America. Often the boards had numbers printed so small, they could not be read from the dart throwing spot. "NO LEANING". Some had numbers which would be subtracted from the total, so a player really never knew where he stood. Along with some confusing patter designed to bring the "total points" to a meaningless (and prize-less) number, the frustrated mark would leave and try the next game. Move along, or look even more stupid when you try to logic it out.
Oakes worked from Tampa Florida and Illinois during the mid 20th century. They sold carnival punks (the rack of cats shown here) and other sketchy sideshow games to operators all over the country.
ADDEMUP
Add-em-Up game cardboard sign or dartboard circa 1950 Thanks to our friends at BOX LOTS on Facebook.
The Yogi Predicts Lenticular Love for Valentine's Day Carnival Vending Machine Novelty,
The Yogi predicts Lenticular Love for Valentine's Day! Gazing into the crystal Ball reveals the prophetic picture change. "Moving" postcard published by the Yogi Company, Wheeling, WV.
Vintage Folk Art Sculpture Carnival Ball Toss
Vintage Folk Art Sculpture Carnival Ball Toss Collection Jim Linderman
Antique Bowling Game Sideshow Carnival Made by Hand Folk Art
Someone threw the ball too hard, but this is the only example I have seen. A make-shift carnival bowling game. Plywood with complicated workings...I am going to guess this comes from the transitional days of the sideshow, when handmade gaming objects and targets were changing from somewhat primitive contraptions to more modern. The mechanism might have been sold from a catalog, then assembled by the recipient...who knows. Sold with a template to cut and install the works? Ten pins and six llights. Seriously, who knows? The object, good from both sides, is 21" tall and 21" across. I'm guessing 1940ish?
Early Carnival Bowling Game collection Jim Linderman
NOTE: Friend and follower Harold Gaines found the answer!
Since pinball machines and the like were made in very small quantities, the old ones look pretty sketchy once you pop them open and look beyond the fancy glass and cool art to see how they were put together. They were basically hand-made, one at a time. However, being professionals at the coin-op compaines, they did things like countersink lightbulb recesses that even a good amateur wouldn't. Further, although your piece is in pretty bad shape, the quality is too high for a 1940's amateur job. They just didn't have the specialized stuff like routers to make the professional looking cutout sections, soldered ring connectors with multiple colors of wire, etc. It looks like the wiring is a combination of cloth and plastic insulated. Plastic insulated wire wasn't introduced until the 1950's. Finally, the rusty marks on the back side look way too symmetrical for an amatuer (especially a carny). It looks like it was mated almost perfectly to something metallic, which was also very precisely made. It just looks too well made to me even in it's (very) rough condition. The guys at link could probably take one look at your pics and tell you, though.
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