Sylvia Roberti "Birds in a Border" Outsider Art collection Jim Linderman

Sylvia Roberti was from near Chicago and her drawings were created in the 1960s and 1970s. About all that is known comes from the information she diligently provided on the reverse of each work. It isn't unusual for outsider artists to boast of their accomplishments. Also common is her technique of "framing" her work through a decorative border. In her series of bird drawings, some are so contained within her frame that they seem walled in! "Cereal Box" cardboard cut and glued together. "Bird and design creative original by Sylvia Roberti Artist Italian descent. Water color+perm+ in crayon on pencil color. Free lance pen + ink" Two works by Sylvia Roberti, 1969, 1971. Collection Jim Linderman

Cracker Jacks, Chicago, Marx, Frito-Lay and Junk Food. A Century of PROGRESS ????

When I was a child and received a BOOK inside my Cracker Jacks box, it was a disappointment.  You can't blame the company for this one though…when the Century of Progress exhibition was in Chicago, it was in the hometown of Cracker Jacks and they were appropriately proud.  I'm surprised they didn't "jack" up the size of the surprise toy, but this little fella is only around two inches long.

One of the powers of the internet (and the reason both that my blogs are successful and I have space left to live in) is that what was physical small can be huge on the web.  I'm blowing the little booklet up to epic proportions, the way the artist and the fair were intended…and if Cracker Jacks wants to sue me, good luck,  I'm broke.

Cracker Jacks was born in Chicago and not long after, Take Me Out to the Ballgame came along and gave them all the advertising they needed.  "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks" is running through your head now, and you don't even hear it.  THAT is good advertising.

Cracker Jacks is still one of my favorite foods.  Even though it is now owned by the evil despot known as Frito-Lay.  I don't need to find the latest data…as this statistic from several years ago will suffice.  Frito-Lay has 40% of the world's snack food market.  FORTY PERCENT!

Do you have ANY IDEA how many effing bags of chips that is?  Forty percent of the snack market in the ENTIRE WORLD?  Borden wanted to buy Cracker Jacks, but Frito-Lay had the bucks to big higher, and they did.  Frito-Lay can not stand to have anyone else in the business making crunchy things.  I'll go on record here and say that's just wrong. 

Marx did not realize large companies would gobble up smaller companies like snacks.  Or in this case, like junk food, which is what Frito-Lay sells.  Some sources claim Cracker Jacks was the world's first junk food, but neither Marx or anyone else could have predicted the development of junk food.  Like "cool ranch" crap, which as nothing to do with a ranch.  Or why snack food advertisements almost never have obese actors playing the part.  Snack food ads always have young, healthy, involved and frequently horny kids crunching away, seemingly ready to bring the girl home from the laundry as soon as the chips are gone.

 

Ha Ha Ha!  MONKEYS!

When Marx was calculating the brutal effect capitalism would have on the masses, he got his crackers out of a barrel that was shipped from down the street.  What HAS been calculated, though by food scientists rather than political thinkers, is that human beings have a affinity for crunch and salt which borders on obsessive.  Frito-Lay simply feeds that need, right?  Well…maybe so…but I would like to think there is more than one snack food company in the world.  Somehow it just tastes unhealthy.

Tiny Cracker Jacks Miniature Book Prize No Date (1933 - 1934) Collection Jim Linderman

An Auction Photograph worth Auctioning off. C.G.Bradley and C.C. ONeil Auction House Collection Jim Linderman

Now here is a fellow who knows how to open a business, or at least celebrate his new job.  It is C. G. Bradley, standing on the side proudly as every street urchin he could round up helps him announce the big auction!  I am surmising Bradley was a recent immigrant, hence the ultra-patriotic flag tableau.  Proud of his job and his place in America. The fourth of July was in a few weeks, so flags were in stock around town.  Chicago.  The photo is dated June 14, 1904.  C.G. identifies himself as "Auctioneer, Salesman and Advertising" on the reverse.  Some of the kids are identified as someone's daughters, and the chumps at the door are probably the mugs who hold up the things for sale and berate you into bidding.

Original Photograph 1904  Collection Jim Linderman

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Chief Paul Protects the Public from Peep Show Perversion Second City Smut Vintage Sleaze Midget Movies

Chicago citizens will sleep better knowing the pin-up peep shows have been unplugged by Chief Investigator Paul Newey. Since there was no other crime in the second city on this day in 1959, Chief Paul invited the press over to see his collection of confiscated coin-op smut. Paul's pursuit of the peep shows was crime-bustin' action of the highest order. To celebrate (and convince the public Newey was on top of the situation) he flicks his ashes on the filthy coin slot in distain!

Original Press Photograph (8" x 13") Unknown Chicago Paper 1959 Collection Jim Linderman

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Nightclub Photography Club DeLisa Hard-boiled Nostalgia Evidence Blackmail and Dames with a Camera

Club DeLisa in Chicago's Bronzeville was THE place for African-American floor shows and Jazz during the 1950s. It was run by four brothers and presented the finest in African-American entertainment (all the while allowing gambling in the basement.) From Albert Ammons to Joe Williams. "The Harlem of Chicago"


Like to be your own boss? Consider the Nightclub photographer. One of the few photography genres seemingly without scholarship or museum shows (If you know of one, let me know.) They were and are often women (Noted photojournalist Ruth Orkin started as one, so did a female character in Dick Tracy) Weegee also worked the clubs.


I could probably compile a long list of photographers who started out with a speed-graphic and a tip tray, but I'll leave it up to a doctoral student needing a project.


Big operators in famous clubs printed their own cardboard frames to sleeve the photos. One could go late...folks are more likely to spend the money for a portrait after a few drinks. They appear in hard-boiled novels all the time...being in the club affords them opportunities for both evidence and blackmail. Many a plot turns on the appearance of a "surprise" photograph taken by a pretty dame with a shutter. Nightclub photographers also have provided many historical images of performers as they often had the only camera in the club.


As popular today as it was in the 1950's, I am not sure how long it will last. Whether the cellphone camera will kill the nightclub photographer is questionable...there is glamour missing in a digital picture, and If I were a young photographer starting out today, I would get a big camera with a collapsible bellows and carry it around clubs.


Anonymous Original Nightclub Photo Club DeLisa circa 1950 with original sleeve
Collection Jim Linderman

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