At the SCIENCE FAIR USA Education Leads the WORLD!

Dr. Wizard remembers when the good 'ol USA ranked #1 in every educational category. I don't think too many kids today could create fractional distillation at home if it came in an ipod.

Collection of Science Fair Photgraphs circa 1950, Illinois. Anonymous. Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

Pilgrim Centerpiece?

Pilgrim Centerpiece Anonymous Snapshot 1950s Collection Jim Linderman

Bump and Grind WAY too Early (At the Circus in Black and White #22)

Child labor laws seem not to have applied to carnival sideshow grinds during the 1930s as this photograph attests. The young dancer can not be much more than 16, but I guess it is hard to tell. She certainly doesn't quite match up to the painted silhouette on the barker's stand...for one thing her hands are hardly thrown up in joy. It is quite rare to see a photo of a dancing girl (literally) taken during the daytime at even the sleaziest carnival...but one "H. H." has done just that. Girl shows of this nature are as old as the carnival itself, but they frequently took place at night after most patrons (and the law, who was frequently paid off) went home. Hence the name "Midnight Ramble. In this case, they should have been checking ID around lunchtime. A young hoofer to be sure, but to me, a bit too young. Show business of any kind is hard despite the facade of glamour...this photo shows an underside not often (or easy) to see.

(Also posted on Vintage Sleaze the Blog)

Original Untitled Snapshot circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Sign of the Egg Rolling Out the Beatrice Trade Sign

Anonymous Snapshot, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

What's Your Sign? Horoscope Astrology Zodiac Unfurled.

Astrology sign with two lecturers. 
Original Snapshot circa 1925 collection Jim Linderman
The new book of photographs from the Linderman Collection is
THE BIRTH OF ROCK AND ROLL available from Amazon
Barnes and Noble and publisher Dust-to-Digital.

Tumblr...The Greatest Stunt of ALL! Internet Jobs Rant Tumblr The Depression and Stunts Stunts Stunts RPPC

We are clearly in a major and permanent depression, as the internet has replaced every job which required manufacturing, boxing, stocking, racking, packaging, shipping, typesetting, retrieving records, printing, filing, directing phone calls, ringing up prices (bar codes) and even advertising agencies. (A monkey can purchase click-ads with selected market parameters)

We seem about a year away from selling apples on the street, and I don't mean Ipods. I hear reporters over and over again say "when the jobs come back" and I wonder, have you EVER heard a commentator say "We are losing jobs because of the internet?" I suspect it is because they don't want to spread bad news.

When I shop at the grocery store, I leave my empty cart askew somewhere in the back forty of the parking lot simply because I know the company will have to hire at least one kid to bring it back.

I recently looked up some information on the most recent internet success story of late, Tumblr. Tumblr has 3 million users, gains 15,000 more every day, and the system handles 15 million posts a week. Guess how many employees Tumblr has? Go ahead....guess.

ELEVEN.

That's right. One of the most successful internet launches in years, and the company has eleven employees total. TOTAL. They created a huge population of folks who steal photos and help build their content, but they sure aren't paying any of them. Even if Tumblr announced "a major hiring flurry" of, oh...let's say ten percent they would only increase the staff to 12.

So how come we don't see pole sitters, sky dancers, waterfall walkers or dance marathoners anymore? When I pass a fellow with a sign reading "will work for food" I often wonder why he isn't laying on a bed of nails or living on a billboard for a month.

My guess is regulation and such...to set the world's longest record for goldfish eating today, you would probably need insurance and a permit.

Here is an assortment from the glory days of stunts. Click to Enlarge.
All Original Photographs and Real Photo Post Cards Collection Jim Linderman

Read the Back of your Photos (and Do NOT Leave the Stove On) Vernacular Photography of the Disaster Kind

We just "celebrated" the 30th anniversary of a killer tornado here in Michigan, the Kalamazoo doozy in which four folks lost their lives. The entire downtown area was destroyed, and I lived through it. It was the last house I lived in before moving to NYC, and I'll always remember sitting on the porch, drinking beer, ignoring warning sirens, and watching a poor soul drive up to the house on four flat tires, his arm covered in blood, to say "I just drove through a tornado" while shaking his head and trying to clear his ears. We didn't hear the typical "train sound" so often used by survivors, but the path was less than a mile away.

I was expecting this group of five disaster photos to be more evidence of a tornado. Lo and behold one has a barely legible note on the reverse which reads "Explosion at old Gilmore house" and sure enough...the offending stove is shown in one photo. Since these photos pre-date meth labs by a good hundred years, I am going to blame a gas line and hope no one was home. These would typically be called "exterior" and "interior" photographs, but the explosion has blurred those distinctions considerably.

Set of Original Anonymous "Disaster" photographs, circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

Expect a major announcement of photographic interest this week. Stay Tuned!

One Way to Illustrate the Only One Way

Spiritual sisters with purloined street signs point to the source of their inspiration.

(Also posted on Old Time Religion blog)

Anonymous snapshot circa 1925 Collection Jim Linderman

Weathervane Auto Salesman Sample on Wheels

Original Snapshot, circa 1920? Collection Jim Linderman

American Portraits: Midwest Mundane by Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books #5

Jim Linderman American Portraits: Midwest Mundane.
80 Pages 2010 published by Blurb.com

Not celebration, but documentation of a people, place and time which existed briefly in captured snaps of Central Michigan during and immediately after the Second World War. In Middle America on the cusp of the 1950s, a family fights isolation with few choices, missing sons, distant neighbors and a seemingly bleak, unfortunate reality. Black and white portraits by an anonymous photographer, these are the images he left behind. Preview at right or HERE
Additional photogaphs from the book HERE
Original Photographs Anonymous, circa 1943-1948 Collection Jim Linderman

Jim Linderman Camera Club Girls: Bettie Page and her Friends: The Work of Rudolph Rossi

For over 50 years, the extraordinary Hand-Painted Original Photographs of Bettie Page and nude models of the 1950s taken by Rudolph Rossi lay hidden. Now, for the first time, over 100 have been published in Camera Club Girls by Jim Linderman. 114 pages, 35 pages of text and 180 pictures, the book tells the story of the informal groups of early camera enthusiasts in New York City who paid ten dollars each to photograph naked women, including Bettie Page, in dingy studios and outdoor excursions. As much the history of early erotic photography and Times Square smut as it is the story of the exceptional personal vision of an artist, master photographer and painter which has not been told until now. The photographic find of the decade, and an amazing story which combines passion, painting, photography and early porno in a tale never told. Preview 15 pages of the book at right and order.

One Man's Spring Another Man's Tornado Vernacular Photography Vortex!

Nothing like the aftermath of nasty weather to bring out the Brownie. A group of Tornado photos, likely Michigan and likely around 1930. There was a doozy nicknamed "The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak" which tore up 6 states including Michigan in 1920, these could be from that event, but so many strike the Mitten making an ID is a crapshoot. I hope no one was sitting down at the piano to play. One of the most striking events I lived through was a Tornado in the early 1970's. We were sitting on the porch, unaware of the carnage happening two miles away, until a fellow drove up on four flat tires, got out with blood on his arm and said "I just drove through a Tornado."

Group of Tornado Snapshots, circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Soft Landing Vernacular Photograph Snapshot

Untitled Snapshot (Model Airplane on Bed) circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

In Situ American Folk Art in Place

 COMING IN 2016 AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN SITU BY JIM LINDERMAN

Jim Linderman

Stretched Out

There are a few ways to elongate a photograph. One is to expose the image on paper while holding the plate on an angle...the other is to aim your camera right into a fun house mirror. This is the later.

Anonymous Fun House Mirror Snapshot, circa 1940. Collection Jim Linderman

Skydancers Betty and Benny Stunt

Betty and Benny Fox in the Death Taking Sky Dance. 18 inch Disc Dancing.
Group of Three snapshots, (with details) circa 1935 collection Jim Linderman

Stunt

Daredevil Real Photo Postcard circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman
(NOTE: Browse above for similar, no less dramatic stunt!)

Where the Whirligig Comes From Folk Art Sculpture

The second Vernacular Photograph of sailor whirligigs and others for sale. See HERE for earlier ( and more dramatic) photo documenting a Nantucket Sailor Whirligig Maker. This snapshot likely shows two travelers, circa 1930, who stopped to take pictures near a whirligig maker on the roadside. Familar Whirligig forms include the "Indian in a canoe" and a "Sailor" full bodied whirligig along with an unusual wooden bird in a hoop and a form I do not recognize (whirling!).

Anonymous Snapshot Untitled "For Sale" Whirligigs c. 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

HOT SNAPSHOT

Summer is just around the corner!
Amateur Vernacular Photograph circa 1955 Collection Jim Linderman

At the Circus in Black and White #15

"Get chur Program"

Anonymous Untitled Snapshop, c.1960 Collection Jim Linderman