Young girl in a foreboding Background Foreground Backdrop vintage photograph

Quite a photo setting...a wonderful photograph sent here for my birthday from a collector who has a better eye then I! It looks scary, but she's not alone. There are three other photos showing Mom, Dad and all three together. Vintage snapshot, no date. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Duckwalking man Vintage photograph

A duck walking man.  
Original Snapshot no date (c. 1935?)  
Missouri Lee Jellum Photo Shop.
Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Drilling Down in a Vintage Photograph. Stories inside a Photo

 Drilling Down in a Vintage Photograph.  Stories inside a Photo. 

Flynn's has The Evening Graphic, the Dispatch, the Tribune, The Observer, the World, the Telegram and the Sun.  Take your pic!  Plus Baseball Magazine for the fellas and Screen Romances for the gals.

Hmm.  Judge Crater is missing on one paper.  That will date the rack.  1930.  Political operatives croaked him.  Two women he was involved with left town quick when he went missing, and a third was murdered.  His safe deposit box was empty.  The third woman, a prominent hooker  (who entertained Crater) had mob ties and was a friend of Jack "Legs" Diamond.  They rubbed her out like bug.  She had been set to testify about graft, and Judge Crater's coat was found in her apartment after she was deep-sixed.  The scandal eventually led to the collapse of crooked mayor Jimmie Walker.

The Judge was never found, but was declared dead in 1937.  For years after, "Judge Crater, call your office" was a gag for comedians.  He is still missing.

HEY!  It's Jeanette MacDonald on the cover of Screen Romances!  October 1930.  It's the first issue!  She was on plenty of magazine covers back then.  She was quite an item, holding a secret torrid love affair with Nelson Eddy for years.  I guess.  I dunno.   A super popular redhead, a good singer and a starch conservative. Of course she had numerous flings, and she ended up married to Gene Raymond, who was arrested three times for having sex with men.  It appears to have been an arranged marriage, but it stuck.  He was once arrested in a vice raid on a "homosexual nightclub" and once after physically abusing the actress, Nelson Eddy rushed over and kicked his ass.  Oh Jeannette…whey didn't you marry Eddy?  I wonder if her complicated life was the motivation for founding of the magazine.

What else do we have in the press.  Car crash, sports shit.  You gotta know your team to place your bets. Then and now betting on your team was an expensive pastime for some.  All in all, 1930 was a cruddy time. The depression, illegal booze, segregated everything…and the mob was growing like Microsoft and Apple did in the 1990s.

Here is the Baseball Magazine.  October 1930 also.  The big article in this issue was the invention of night baseball!  They thought it was a fad.  

Collier's (up on top, but hidden) was a weekly, so it's not clear what was on the cover.

As for Flynn's Stationary, it was apparently founded in 1901.  After having retail operations for decades, is now primarily a web-based business.  If this is the same company, the location here could be 43 East 59th Street, from which they operate now. On the other hand, the way retail space changes in NYC, this cute little shop could have been anywhere.  With all the sunglasses on display (not to mention children's sand toys…) I was guessing this was a shop on the way to the beach… but then voila, it could be a block from Central Park!  One would enter the park on the south east side, near the pond.  I image in plenty of nanny's stopping to pick up some toys for junior and some shades.  Too bad their location is now sullied by being a stones throw from Trump Tower…Shudder.  Still a guess, but possible.  I have no idea if Flynn's operated a chain of stores or where this one was.  This shop could have been one of a dozen for all I know.  Who does a promotional photo without showing the address?  The Topic Sign Company who commissioned it.  They don't care.  It's just another page in their press kit…the photo was printed on linen and has punched holes for a book.

Back then the famous Central Park Sheep Meadow HAD SHEEP. On the other hand, it was also the depression and out of work men lived in shacks (and desperation) in the park. Known as "Hooverville"  I can only hope it never comes back.  Period photos show a pretty sparse and sad place at the time.  I'm not sure it was appropriate for kids except scruffy urchins.  I have walked on the rock here...it's still there.  Hooverville's were all over the country.  When it happens again, Hooverville will be composed of "the middle class" and the city will put up charging stations for your phone.

The Flynn's photo is credited to M. Baer Salov from Montclair, NJ.  It appears most of his work was done in the big city.  A shutterbug working stiff who didn't amount to much.  A similar photo by Salov on ebay now is shown below.

More of Salov's work is shown in the Montclair Public Library site

 

A Lending Library!  I suppose even then the big New York Public Library was a pain. The Mid-Manhattan branch, which opened far later, provides quick access to circulating books now, but then? I'm not sure what the circulation policy of the big library was then.  Let's borrow one from Flynn's.  I imagine pickings were slim at the shop…but it is a good idea to get customers inside.

They developed film…as did everyone before digital.  Drop it off, a day or few later, pick them up. A fine Kodak promotional sign.

The "Erected by The Topic Sign Company"  inscription on the photo is odd.  This hardly looks like an erection.  More like a haphazard window display anyone could do. 

Tradition Cigar was a Philadelphia company.  A striking Tradition Cigar display which shows both cowboys and indians loved the brand.  Those filthy stogies were a big item then, and appropriately the shop gives them an entire window.  Tradition was owned by Bayuk (the parent company name) but they had more luck with Phillies. THEY were so popular other companies kept stealing their brand.  The oval painted signs atop each window were placed by the Garcia Grande cigar company.

Flynn's photograph by M. Baer Salov 1930.  Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Folk Art Rubber Band Gun Kids

Vintage Folk Art Rubber Band Gun Kids.  Tough ones!  I date this original photograph to the 1950s, and wish the weapon were adequate today.   A plank of wood, a clothespin, some rubber bands and a foe.

Vintage Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

The Original Homeless Eight Vintage Photograph of a Drawing

Thanks and a tip "o" the homeless hat to NATALIE CURLEY ANTIQUES

The Boss Leaves Early. The Workers do Not Original vintage photographs collection Jim Linderman

The Boss Leaves Early.  The Workers do Not.  Original vintage photographs circa 1900
Collection Jim Linderman

Dapple Painted Honky Tonk Piano and a few Burleskers photograph collection Jim Linderman

No date, but a nice photograph of the "glory" days of burlesque.  Note folk art dapple-painted piano at left and performer slugging hooch.

Original photograph no date Collection Jim Linderman

Petroliana Cities Service Oil Company and a Blue Checked Dress American Pickers and Image Advertising

Here is one for those guys on American Pickers who are always looking for oil cans.  I am going to guess the blue embellishment was done by a proud little girl who had a calico blue dress.  Dad is also proud, he is living the American Dream.  Mom, not Mcdonald's would make the sandwiches, and I'm going to guess once in a while give one to a passerby who was hitching.  Who would think 75 years later the petroleum companies would be so hated they have to spend millions of dollars on "image advertising" to make us think they are still the good guys.

Original cabinet card photograph, circa 1925 Collection Jim Linderman

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Walter Main Circus Photograph in 1922 Collection Jim Linderman

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Original Photograph 8 x 11 1922 by Andrew Downes "Walter L. Main 1922" on reverse collection Jim Linderman

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Turn of the Century Well-Stocked Grocery Store

Click to enlarge (and shop?)  Might be time for a clearance sale.  You won't see a store like this anymore...the cops can't see in and watch the stick-up.

Original Photograph circa 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

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Some Tough Women in Overalls Pipes and Suspenders

Some pretty convincing role players!  Original Photograph circa 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

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A Good Game of Horseshoe Pitching Picture collection Jim Linderman

Collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Close.  

Link to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association HERE

Original Photograph, no date (c. 1900?)  Collection Jim Linderman

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Scarce Early Photograph of a Jug Band with No Jug African-American Street Musicians

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My second good blues musician photograph in two years.  Period original photographs of African-American musicians are hard to find, and I have been very lucky indeed.   See HERE for another find from the same period.  

A washtub bass, two guitars (one which appears to be decorated, or possibly having inlaid wood?) and a fiddle.  This is a small snapshot taken at what appears to be the train station, although it could be a streetcar, but the Western Union sign leads me to believe it is the railroad, and of course there is a porter who appears as interested as the others.  The performers appear successful with sharp shoes and good dress.   This would be a darn smart jug band if they had a jug.  I am going to guess the nurses were on the way home.

My first guess was that the bass player could be Will Shade, ringleader for a hodge-podge of Memphis musicianers and jug bands.  In part because of his nickname "Son Brimmer" which referred to his habit of wearing a hat with a brim to shade his eyes. (and I believe also the title of his first recording, but haven't looked it up)  The hat here is unusual and brimmed.

Shade or not, the performer plays a "bullfiddle" which is a garbage can, broomstick and one string.  If you have never seen a musician play who COULD play one, you'd be surprised how effective the rudimentary instrument is.  I believe what we are seeing here dates to the Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Gus Cannon era.  The snapshot is a mere 2.5" x 3.5" but crisp as can be, enlarge it and see the details. 

If any of you out there recognize any participants or the location I would be much obliging.  I have one or two experts scratching their heads.  More heads is better!  How unfortunate that a photo can not sing or play...I would have loved to be met by this splendid looking group on my arrival.

CHECK OUT WILL BELOW IN A RARE FILM PERFORMANCE

Original Street Photograph Snapshot circa 1930 African-American Quartet Perform at Train Station.  Location Uknown.  Collection Jim Linderman

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Carnival Cut-out Standee AKA Faces in Holes People Posing in Plywood

Carnival Cutout Standee. Three lovely woman on a "girls day" at the carnival! (Does this suit make me look hippy?)

Who doesn't have a photo in the basement or the attic of the kids in fake stockades at some western tourist trap? They are back, if they ever left, that is. Here is a company which will make them, disco-style.

Original carnival cutout snapshot circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman



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