Articulated Figure Graphic Design Postcard from the USPS (Chicago Branch)

Articulated Figure Graphic Design Postcard from the USPS (Chicago Branch)

No Date Collection Jim Linderman
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Vintage Art of the Tattoo Gag The Lost Art of the Tattoo Cartoon

(Like a third of the country, I am dealing with frozen formerly cumulus cloud...so here is a post from my other blog from a year ago, "The Lost Art of the Tattoo Gag")


You don't see too many tattoo gags anymore. At one time, the staple of the stapled joke digest, I guess the now all too familiar "tramp-stamp" on women's lower backs helped make the tattoo as a joke topic less funny somehow. I can also assure you if you DO laugh, you won't be seeing it for much longer. Either SHE will pull them up and leave in a huff, or HE will kick your ass.

I'm not quite sure the relationship between the tattoo artist and the cartoonist. Both are certainly adept at drawing babes...but did Sailor Jerry draw cartoons? (His "official" site now seems to be owned by a booze company, so instead you get a link to wiki with no pictures.) Of course tattoo decoration goes back to Caesar...but then busty women were drawn on the walls of caves. Now that I think of it, maybe those early erotic cave drawings were primitive flash and the dens actually parlors.

Tattoos of dames are closely related to the hot babe nose art painted on the cones of WW2 Bomber Planes and pinups drawn on duffel bags. Most platoons had a fellow who could draw hot ones, and they often did in trade for a few cigarettes. It is also a quite common subject category in postcard collecting...both actual photographs of them and goofy cartoon sailors.

Certainly the skill was, and is, interchangeable. Once you can draw a gal with gams, you can put it anywhere. A carny's arm, a sailor's chest or a biker's bicep in days gone by, or on the most friendly gentle person of either gender today, but for the life of me I can not think of a cartoonist who started as a body inker. Of course today there are hundreds of tattoo artists who create paintings and fine art as well.

The stigma is gone. So is the once common "joke" about getting drunk and waking with a decorated arm, the muscles which could be tensed to make a dame on your chest shimmy, and the ship design which "sinks" as a fellow ages.

If anyone out there needs a topic for a doctoral thesis, consider erotic body illustration and how it relates to girly pin-up gags of the 1950s and 1960s.

by Jim Linderman

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Mr. T. B. Jackley, Sore Foot Fortune Teller and his 25,000 Mile Honeymoon (Grifters with Blisters?)

Mr. T. B. Jackley is shown with his new wife as they embark on a 25,000 mile hike, hopefully not the entire distance wearing wooly chaps. Mr. Jackley, a fortune teller from Boise, Idaho decided to walk from San Francisco to Maine on a $1500 bet and apparently depended on the kindness of strangers...this card was handed out along the way for donations. Did they make it? It appears so. In 1915, they arrived in New York City, blabbed to the press, and started walking BACK to claim their money! This wasn't the first trip Jackley took...note similar card which indicates he took a long bike ride with his brother too! (A note from the editor...as "fortune tellers" have an unsavory reputation, and I can not verify the route...if a train ticket for a pair of grifters with blisters turns up one day, I won't be surprised)

Mr. T.B. Jackley and Mrs T. B. Jackley Post card, 1912. Collection Jim Linderman

Horrors in Wax #15 The Dangling Dudes

AIEEE! Most wax "chambers of horrors" are hardly that...a few familiar Hollywood villains to scare the kids and a damsel in distress for Dad. This setup, however, would warp a kid for a decade. What demented wax sculptor dreamed this up? Vintage grain rake hangs in the back to add a pointy "what is THAT" object to further scare the kids, and a few presumably wax chickens scratch around the "barn of death" floor. A question? Who would SEND this?
From the Dull Tool Dim Bulb "Horrors in Wax" series. Collect them all.

Horrors in Wax #15 Postcard c. 1965. Collection Jim Linderman

Busy Workers Homemade Biblical Postcard

Handmade Postcard with Biblical Phrase and Applied Cut-out (Busy Work?) Collection Jim Linderman Also posted on old time religion blog.

Whereaway Bull Shores Button American Eagle (?) RPPC

I confess to having no idea what or where a Whereaway is. And until I have more coffee, I am not inclined to try to find out. Someone there did have the time to make a button eagle, and the gumption to have it documented with a real photo post card.

American Eagle at Whereaway Bull Shoals Arkansas RPPC c. 1930? Collection Jim Linderman

The ARK Strange Man Strange Wagon Strange Poem

Poem printed on reverse of card, with no address or contact information


My kind friends should ever speak
Of the strangest man you know
It would be strange did you not wish
How strange he was to show
Strange pictures on strange cards I have
Telling in a way new
Where you can learn many strange things
Which are both strange and true.

From these strange cards you'll also fine
How very strange I be
And then perhaps you'll purchase some
Strange books written by me
It matters not how strange your church
Or how strange be it's Creed
In my strange teachings you will find
Strange lessons that you need.

To those who see not my strange car
Or look in my strange face
Will your dear friends tell them that I
Am strangest of our race
Then should they wish strange cards or books
My strange writings to see,
Let me know the strange ones they wish
I'll mail them C.O.D.

Cheap photo postcard, c. 1890. Collection Jim Linderman
(also posted on old time religion blog)

A Little Birdy Told Me To INSULT Your Ass.

I have trouble imagining the bitter rancorous old goat who came up this idea. "Prize Sap" indeed. At least they weren't mailed.

Set of Insult Postcards, 1945 Privately Printed in Chicago Collection Jim Linderman

Stanley Smolak and the Legs Inn RPPC

Not only is Stanley Smolak's creation, the Legs Inn still operating after 80 years, it is thriving! Live bands and the greatest Polish food outside of Poland. You HAVE to read the menu HERE. Only in America? Nah...only in MICHIGAN!

Three real photo post cards, c. 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Fresca Dog House and 7-Up Castle in Arcola

Just one of what was a whole slew of handmade bottle houses built by Arthur Martin in Arcola, Illinois. He started in 1939, and eventually the glass environment grew to 20 acres. This is the largest, it was made from 1200 7-Up bottles. There was also a "Fresca House" and a "Fresca Dog House" in the yard, which came to be known as "Rockome" and was opened to the public in 1958. As this was well before the days of diet soda, and the average 16-ouncer contains 12 teaspoons of sugar, I am going to guess Mr. Martin had bad teeth and a big waistline. (The Perky Perm woman is unidentified)

Dexter Press Post Card c. 1960 Collection Jim Linderman

Mail with Stamps on Both Sides

Waste not, Want not. I especially like the Columbus discovers America clock.

Group of Postcards with applied stamp decoration and paint. Circa 1900-1945
Collection Jim Linderman

Lew Moberly's Post Card Preserved Locks

Mundane post card with affixed Baby Hair, c. 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Painted Ladies Mail Art Mystery

Curious. I guess 1910 was a good year to paint huge hats on postcards. All are American, from various printers, but each has been doctored to the extreme. All were mailed, making the modern day contemporary "mail art" movement seem tame. I have no idea why these victorian ladies with hats galore were painted, but it is a trail I intend to follow. I suspect they COULD have been enhanced as a form of tramp art...painted by local artists on the street and peddled for pennies, a "value added" trinket. They are by various hands, but all similar. Any help out there?

Six Hand Painted Victorian Post Cards circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

Paul Bunyan Fakelore Urban Legend and Professor Dorson

Giant Paul Bunyan and his friend Babe the Blue Ox tower over parents and kids who have been in the car too long. Professor Richard Mercer Dorson invented the term "Fakelore" and used the big lumberman as a prime example. Somehow Paul was transformed from bawdy 19th century lumberjack tales involving seedy events, (such as peeing from a tree to make a giant urine icicle) to the lovable hard-working big guy we know today. The modern day Paul was created from authentic lumberjack tales collected by itinerant newspaper reporter James MacGillivary in 1906. Professor Dorson complained that the "real" Paul Bunyan tales were full of technical logging terms and were meaningless and obscene, whereas the popularized, kid friendly Paul became a "pseudo folk hero of mass culture" who in effect had smaller balls than a neutered Babe. (well, I said that, but he implied it.) Amazingly, the little known and under appreciated Richard Dorson also invented the term "urban legend".

Seven original postcards circa 1950-1960 Collection Jim Linderman

Conrad Schuck and his Wonder House

Conrad Schuck had more than a great name, he had a vision. The Wonder House was 15 years into construction when this postcard was published. Schuck started construction in 1925 after being told by his doctor he had only a short time to live. Rather than worrying or checking off his bucket-list...he built this eccentric marvel. It had natural air conditioning using rainwater, outdoor bathtubs and numerous innovative and downright strange enhancements. By the way, you all know by now I love postcards. So did Walker Evans. His postcard collection is on display now through the end of May 2009 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Evans built his collection for 60 years. The Met acquired the lot in 1994.
Conrad Schuck's Wonder House Curteich Linen Postcard, c. 1940. Collection Jim Linderman

Mrs. Albert Friedrich's Rattle Snake Deer

Life size deer made of 657 Texas Rattle Snake Rattles "the patient and artistic work" of Mrs. Albert Friedrich, San Antonio Texas.
"Life Size Deer" Curteich Postcard c. 1950. Collection Jim Linderman

Three Original Sponge Bobs

Must be HOT in these suits, note tacky air-conditioner and wire next to the fellow in the middle here. Some "museum." Sponges are alive but don't have any guts! They just sit around with water rushing through them for nutrition. If you want to read some big words, look them up...(gemmules, viviparous, spicules, syncythia, homoscleromorpha, halkieriids, chancelloriids, sessile, calcareous, cchonocytes, asconoid, endosybionts and on and on and on) No wonder we prefer plastic ones. By the way, these are indeed "bobbers" as they would float unless wearing lead shoes.
Three "spongeworthy" postcards, c. 1960 collection Jim Linderman

Roadside America

Imagine if your father's old train set could have filled an airplane hanger. (I hear Neil Young's does, and everything Neil does is cool) Well, "Roadside America" is a train set not only as big as a football field, it also has a fantastic creepy vibe from 1935, when it still was amazing that you could push a button and make things move. (Note bell-ringer button above) FOUR THOUSAND tiny industrious people and FOUR HUNDRED little buildings. Not only that, STILL OPEN EVERY DAY. I've been, more than once, and here is the spoiler: after letting you roam free a while to get value for your dollar, they line you up against the rear wall, stand you on bleachers, turn off all the lights and play a scratchy patriotic soundtrack while illuminating various things which make America great...first the churches, then various elements of throbbing industry, and finishing big with huge waving flags. Everyone leaves stunned and head further down the road to Hershey, PA for fresher treats. They have a website which could also use a little dusting off.

Three Roadside America postcards c. 1960 Collection Jim Linderman