Scarecrow Bess and Jiggs American Laundry Picnic Campau Lake Michigan 1928

Scarecrow  Bess and Jiggs American Laundry Picnic Campau Lake Michigan 1928 Original shapshot found photograph Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll number five in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series. Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll number five is a snapshot circa 1950 (integrated dance) from the Jim Linderman Collection.  The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

Wheaties Meets Tony the Tiger in a Bizzare Art Breakfast of Champions Snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Wheaties Champion hovers in tree to escape Tony the Tiger???  Your Guess is as good as mine.

Original Snapshot circaa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946 Oregon
Snapshot embellished by hand collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll (Number Two) Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman Undated circa 1960

Richard and the Hollywood Puppet Show! Vintage Vernacular Photographs

Richard and the Hollywood Puppet Show.  Group of three original snapshot photographs, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Unidentied Lawman Reenacts His Hay Stack Capture Collection Jim Linderman

"He was hiding RIGHT IN THERE!"  

Snapshot circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Primitive Airport and Model Amateur Snapshot colllection Jim Linderman

Primitive Airport with Model. No Date  Amateur Snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Uncle Sam Points the way to Uncle Sam's Cabins

Uncle Sam points to his Tourist Accommodations.
Original Snapshot No Date Collection Jim Linderman

Orvil Richards Snow Car Ready for Winter

Orvil Richards (who bears an unfortunate resemblance to Shemp Howard) hauls freight in his "snow car" which John Deere would be jealous of.  Check out the skis in front.  Orvil is ready for winter.

Anonymous photograph (On reverse "To Grandma Orvil Richardson's Snow Car" No Date)
Collection Jim Linderman

Courtship from The Birth of Rock and Roll Book available NOW by Jim Linderman

"Courtship" (or The Birth of Rock and Roll) Vintage snapshot c. 1960.
FROM THE BIRTH OF ROCK AND ROLL BOOK by Jim Linderman
AVAILABLE FROM THE PUBLISHER DUST-TO-DIGITAL OR AMAZON.

Original Snapshot circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman

Snapshooter Snapshot taken by another Snapshooter

A perfectly centered snapshot of a snapshooter.  What?  Google doesn't recognize the word snapshooter and wants me to check my spelling?  The first use was in 1896 according to Meriam-Webster dictionary. Get with it Google.  Looks like Meriam Webster is kicking your robot's butt. 

Orignal Anonymous Snapshot (Dated on Reverse 1950) Collecton Jim Linderman

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

Painting a Little Wooden Folk Art Dog for the Garden

Painting a Wooden Cutout Dog.  At least I think it's a dog.  It has a collar...cat?

Original Snapshot circa 1950?  Collection Jim Linderman

Sublime Horizontal Performance A Photograph Good Either Way! Young Woman Gymnast Collection Jim Linderman

A beautiful snapshot, undated and anonymous, of a young woman with perfect balance and skill.

Circa 1950? Original 4 x 5 snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART BOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE (ebooks only $5.99)

Ghost Boxers (Rather, Ghost Boxer times two) Double Exposure Fighting Stance

A fantastic double exposed snapshot of a young pugilist twice, and a coincidence as a fellow found photo friend just published a lament on the lost art of double exposed images HERE on the Tattered and Lost website which is always full of surprises.   Great minds think alike...or in double.

Anonymous Snapshot circa 1930, Untitled (Double Exposed Boxer) Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS (AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS) BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE
 

Snapshot of a Pin Up Reflection in Black and White Identified!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 A pinup snapshot!  We can speculate. True love on the part of the shutterbug? An artist trying to document his painting in print? But guess what we need NOT speculate...as seen here, that the image comes from a 1952 issue of Esquire. Thanks to PROJECT B and Barbara Levine, vintage photography dealer extraordinaire for the snapshot. Thanks to Google and my well-trained eye for gams for solving my puzzle. Original Snapshot 1952 Collection Jim Linderman 

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Alligator Dance on the FLOOR An Obscene Dance from My Youth Confirmed!

 Alligator Dance.

If you try to tell a forgotten story every day, as I do, you will find despite billions of bits and bytes, the internet frequently lets you down.  There is no substitute for the library kids…just  remember that.

In researching the snapshot above, from 1955, showing an African-American man writhing on the floor, I was reminded of a brief fad from my junior high school days.  A dance move so bold, so racy, so damn filthy that the minute ONE boy did it, the party was OVER.  At the least, the offender was yanked up and sent home with a phone call to his parents .

It was called the Alligator.

To do the Alligator, when I was a kid, was to drop down and feign the male humping of intercourse on the floor of the gymnasium.  That's right.  To fake the fug.  To plunge to the floor and rut like a dog right near center-court when the chaperones were busy looking for smokers in the boy's room.  When I found and bought this snapshot  I was determined to bring it back.

I expected deep Gullah roots or something… a juke joint origin from the early days of rock and roll, when the Devil's music was just starting to ruin America's youth.  

Imagine my dismay when the almighty internet traced it to a 1980s move from Bob Saget's completely neutered TV show FULL HOUSE!  What a crock!   As in Crocodile, not alligator.   SURELY I wasn't wrong…and surely whatever the Full House claimed as their dance step involved fewer real humps than a camel without any.

To my great dismay that is where the trail ended, almost.  I still remembered back in my youth the big scandal and hallways in school following sock hops when so and so was yanked up off the floor after a brief, furtive "alligator rock" down on the floor.

I persisted.

And finally I found what I was looking for.  Read it yourself.  Sure enough, I wasn't crazy, and the dance had spread to Cincinnati.  The UPI even picked it up!  The date was exactly when I remembered it too!  1966!  Of course, in the original photo here, you can see, as always with dance, the brothers did it ten years earlier than we did.

But that is about all I found.  So the next time I am at the Dance floor at the Lincoln Center Library, I'll see what else I can find.  Obviously, the web sucks.


Original Anonymous Snapshot, 1955 Collection Jim Linderman

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Pretzels and Pepsi You ARE what you Eat Snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Pretzel earrings and Pepsi eyes.  Snapshot circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Ebooks HERE ($5.99 each)  

Mystery Miracle or Magic Snapshot Your Call

Click to enlarge this one folks.  If you think it a preacher who picked a mountainside to pontificate, I'll move this to the old-time-religion blog.  If you think it is a magician with a cheap backdrop in an odd place for a show, I'll leave it here.  (Actually, if you look close, I think our scenic sight evangelist has a tiny picture of a hand-clasped Jesus behind him)

Mysery Snapshot  No Date  Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Train with Human Caboose Snapshot 1939

Snapshot Anonymous (Train with Caboose) 1939  Collection Jim Linderman