Young actors of the stage (or pulpit?) pose in pitch cards by photographer Frank Wendt Circa 1900, collection Jim Linderman
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Showing posts with label Frank Wendt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Wendt. Show all posts
Precocious Prosthelytizers
Young actors of the stage (or pulpit?) pose in pitch cards by photographer Frank Wendt Circa 1900, collection Jim Linderman
Gertie Cochran Mental Wonder Vaudeville Performer (First Human Computer?) Photograph by Frank Wendt
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| CLICK TO SEE WHAT GERTIE KNOWS, AND YOU DO NOT |
She answers like a flash on lightning, purely from memory, thousands of difficult questions on all subjects. Biblical history, national history, population of all the large cities of the earth, dates of discoveries, dates of great battles, with generals officiating and numbers killed and wounded, national debt of all nations, including our own national debt…"
Gertie Cochran was speaking at age seven months and was not long forced to memorize everything! Well, maybe to everything, but certainly more than I feel like taking the time to copy! Gertie was on the road was on the road at age 5, and "she…created a perfect "furore" wherever exhibited." Click to enlarge the patter…and be prepared to ask questions. Gertie takes them all on. Prepare to be dumfounded.
See the book HOOFERS AND SWEETHEARTS: THE Little Women of Frank Wendt. Vintage Photographs from the Collection of Jim Linderman. 80 pages. Paperback $21.95 Ebook $5.99.
Circus Acrobat Nellie Bellmore in Frank Wendt Cabinet Card Photographs 1895
Frank Wendt was a sideshow and circus freak photographer from the Bowery and later Boonton, New Jersey.
Announcing HOOFERS AND SWEETHEARTS : THE LITTLE WOMEN OF FRANK WENDT
Announcing Hoofers and Sweethearts : The Little Women of Frank Wendt. The newest photography book by Jim Linderman from Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books.
Sideshow and circus freak photographer Frank Wendt had another line of work. He made hundreds of cabinet card photographs of early vaudeville child actresses to be sold by the performers as souvenirs. Collected for the first time, these turn-of-the-century photographs have never been shown together and come from the collection of Jim Linderman. Young women "earners" from the tawdry and tainted early days of American show business when child labor laws did not apply.
Available in paperback OR as an Ebook download for only $5.99. Preview and Purchase HERE
"Show Business" by Frank Wendt circa 1890 collection Jim Linderman
The old Razzle Dazzle
Cabinet Card Photograph by Frank Wendt circa 1890 Collection Jim Linderman
Champion Sword Swallower of the World Collection Jim Linderman Cabinet Card
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Baby Adelina Cabinet Card by Frank Wendt Collection Jim Linderman
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| Baby Adelina Cabinet Card Photograph Collection Jim Linderman |
SEE CURRENT AUCTIONS HERE
Strong Man or Fat Man Circus Carnival Sideshow Freak of Sorts Frank Wendt
I Know it's been a long winter, but a few pushups might feel Good.
Circus Carnival Sideshow Freak cabinet Card circa 1880 by Frank Wendt Collection Jim Linderman
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Little Hoofers by Frank Wendt Cabinet Cards Collection Jim Linderman
Photographer Frank Wendt is best known for his sideshow photographs, but he took more than his share of little women.
Cabinet Card Photographs by Frank Wendt, circa 1890 collection Jim Linderman
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The World's Most Wonderful Horses Frank Wendt and The Wondrous World of Wendt Carnival, Show and Sideshow Horse Photograph Cabinet Cards
These pictures were taken during the the agrarian United States on the cusp of Industrial Society. The horse played a role in both, and it is no wonder it also played a role in the traveling circus.
Horses with long tales can swat flies easier, but the mane seems purely decorative. Depending on genetics, many horses can grow spectacular heads of hair, but normal wear, tear and snags usually keeps the mane at a manageable length. Show horses are often allowed to grow it longer. They will even have it braided and let loose before the show in an attempt to create perfect waves, but even their splendid "dos" pale compared to a wild horse, of which I recently heard there was some 30,000 roaming in the states today. A number increasing through abandonment...it is expensive to maintain a horse, often costing far more than the horse is worth.
Horse were also taught tricks. Fake tricks, but then all tricks are fake. When you see an educated horse clomping off a count, or solving complex mathematical problems, it is usually because the trainer has tipped Trigger off. It is a fairly easy trick to teach your horse to go get their food bucket. Even a dog can do it without training. Teaching your horse to shake his head yes or no is easy as well, and we're not even into Mr. Ed territory here yet. But for the math genius horse who knocks off numbers like an accountant? Usually he has been taught to respond to cues from the boss, not to operate a calculator in his head.
First up is Mascot the Talking Horse. Looks like Mascot could shake hands and push a lever in addition to talking. What? You don't hear anything? Neither do I. Mascot was active in Connecticut, and the Syracuse University also holds one of these cards in their collection. Note the photo of the Professor making out with Mascot...the backdrop depicts hoards of painted customers watching in awe.
Next is Chief. The reverse of his card can tell you all you wish to know about the Shetland with the tail of steel. At right is Edward Daley, Chief's chief groomer. If you wish to avoid reading the small print, Chief travels first class in his own little baggage car.
The next horse has no name indicated, but someone has taken the time to point out his particulars. Eighteen feel and nine inches of tail!
Elsie Sutliff is the trainer, not the horse. The Syracuse University Library holds another Wendt image of Elsie, and in their copy a large dog is standing on the back of the horse, so Elsie must have trained several animals. (A "Dog and Pony" show.)
Happy Jack was "The original and world famous Lone Pacer" according to the barely visable text embedded in the image. Also shown is trainer Frank Schneider and Charles Fose the owner. A Lone Pacer is an archaic term for a lead horse which sets the pace, I believe...at any rate, the time shown (2:03) is for a mile. Happy Jack is also reported to have run the mile at 2:13 in Louisville, Kentucky in 1897.
There were several horses named Linus, and in fact one reason was so the folks in one part of the country would think they were seeing THE Linus, when the real Linus was appearing somewhere else! Suffice to say, "carny" folk aren't usually thought of as being the most honest cards in the deck. At least the two Linus horses follow here and both are the real deal. The website "Messy Beast" has the whole story, and numerous examples, including several photos of these same horses. A whole herd named Linus!
Linus and Linus II were both Long Haired Oregon horses. Through genetics and a little hocus-pocus, it seems the Linus long hair was a trait passed down among generations of Linus breeders.
Most of the horses shown here have extensive notes, personal history and such either printed or noted on the reverse.
All Photographs Frank Wendt circa 1890-1910
All Original Photographs from the Jim Linderman Collection.
Excerpt above by Jim Linderman from the forthcoming book
"The Wondrous World of Wendt" and copyrighted!
Not to reproduced without writing.
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See also The Wondrous World of Wendt (In Progress) HERE
Sideshow Herpetology From the Past (Antique Dames with Snakes) Summer "Retread Reread"
Howdy, I'm still taking a short break to "work" on other projects, so this post slithers back from the past. Browse OTHER things a while, or read any of the books linked at right!
This post from my Wondrous World of Wendt Blog.
Snake Women! Frank Wendt, Photographer of the Sideshow 1890 As you can see, women with snakes were not entirely uncommon around 1890, but then if the circus came to your town once year, they must have been quite noteworthy. All these cabinet card photographs were taken by one man and each became a pitch card for the performer to sell to admirers or anyone with a dime to spare. Frank Wendt has always been unfairly placed in the shadow of Sideshow Freak photographer Charles Eisenmann, his mentor. Wendt took over the Eisenmann studio on the Bowery in 1893 and ran it for five years before moving it to New Jersey. He continued making pictures there for a number of years, some quite extraordinary. In 1979, just as interest in collecting circus freak photos was rising (in part as interest in Diane Arbus was rising as well) a book on Eisenmann was published which dismissed Wendt's work as "perfunctory" and that the production of those years has all but been "obliterated." Au contraire!
As we are just learning, MANY exceptional images remain. The photos here are certainly not obliterated, though he did have a somewhat poorly realized sense of contrast at times. Wendt specialized in the unusual, but he shot all manner of performers, not just the strange. In fact, some of his most beautiful work is normal looking actors and child performers, who would use his cabinet card photographs as trade cards, mementos and such. Often the performers autographed the cards on the reverse, personalizing them to fans and the freaked. In the case of the carnival performers, vital statistics were often provided though frequently exaggerated. In fact, Wendt would take his pictures to emphasize the particular trait or deformity being marketed. As traveling shows passed through New York and New Jersey, they would stop to replenish their stock. Sometimes Wendt would republish Eisenmann's work on his own cards, but frequently a new photo was taken, and the same performers often appear in later pictures, with different imprints or logos on the cards.
Group of Frank Wendt Photographs circa 1890 Collection Jim Linderman
Satan and Adam Sterling Magee and the One Man Band
One Man Band! This circa 1890 enterprising inventor in the top three photographs could do it all...and presumably without electricity! I can't tell if his fly is down, but he is certainly playing with everything else. What a contraption. Other famous one man bands you may or may not know? Dave Grohl, who did the entire first album by Foo Fighters, Sir Paul, who did it without the other moptops, and MY personal favorite Jesse Fuller, a blues man who played the "footdella" for the bass while busking on street corners. Fate Norris of the Skillet Lickers did the same but added bells.
I used to see Sterling Magee play on 125th Street in Harlem. No, not the Apollo...the STREET. Mr. Magee, also known as Satan from "Satan and Adam" a salt and pepper blues duo, had a regular gig worth taking the A-train for. Satan was once called "The Fastest Guitar Player in the World" and he might have been, but his amp was so cheap it all came out like one glorious distorted note. He used a foot operated drum and cymbal thing while plugged into a lamppost near the Studio Museum of Harlem.
Satan also made art, and I spent a day in his apartment while he showed me his trippy, cosmic, Sun Ra holograms made out of plywood and such. Sorta like primitive Rubic's cube toys but shaped like stars and each with their own particular logic only Mr. Satan could interpret. I went with a friend, he later told me that was the longest afternoon in his life. I wasn't surprised to learn he had a nervous breakdown not long after, but what DID surprise me was the extent of his Wikipedia entry! He never told me he played with a transvestite duo known as "The Illusions That Create Confusion" but he did mention James Brown and King Curtis, both which were true. He also made a few early singles and with Adam, a few LP records but they gave him a better amplifier. Too bad. He sounded great with the one he carried on a modified shopping cart. I don't think this fellow had as much soul, but I'd have taken the subway up to see him play too.
Group of Frank Wendt Cabinet Card photographs collection Jim Linderman
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