Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Ventriloquist Hell Snapshot 1961 Collection Jim Linderman (and Free Preview of I'm With Dummy the Book)

The Book I'm With Dummy is previewed below. Available in Paperback for 19.95 and Ebook Dowload for $5.99 at Blurb.com

I'M WITH DUMMY Vent Figures and Blockheads by JIM LINDERMAN |

Polaroid Snapshot 1961 collection Jim Linderman

Winter Whirligig Folk Art Man

The fellow who guards my blueberry plants in Summer and Fall is having a BAD Winter.

Working Whirligig in Ice collection Jim Linderman

Success Boulevard Failure Avenue Happiness Lane and the Prosperity Inn Christmas 1937

Success Boulevard Failure Avenue Happiness Lane and the Prosperity Inn Christmas 1937
Christmas Card 1937 Collection Jim Linderman

Boydell Paint Salesman Sample Card

Early (and lovely) "paint chip" sample card for the Boydell Prepared Paint company. Boydell Paints were founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1865. Interestingly, the paints were here distributed by Crawford and Travis Druggists. Drug stores have come full circle...the Walgreen's not far from here tries to carry everything in addition to drugs.

Boydell Brothers Paint Salesman Sample Card. Circa 1900? Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number Seven in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Untitled (Dance Lessons?) Undated original snapshot no date. The Birth of Rock and Roll Number seven in the series. Performer Unknown. Collection Jim Linderman

Last Night's Christmas Program in 1914

Hand painted program December 18, 1914 Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number Six in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number six in the series. Original publicity 8 x 10 glossy photo by W. M. Byrnes June 1956! Performers Unknown.

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Will Rogers Tiny House Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

Will Rogers Tiny House!

Will Rogers was born in 1879 and passed away in 1935.

The tiny house is mentioned in a 1942 newspaper article, so it existed then. I've seen another snapshot supposedly from 1939. The house (actually a sign) welcomed visitors to Dog Iron Ranch in Indian Territory Oklahoma. It replicates the house in which Will Rogers was born.

Mr. Rogers was one- fourth Cherokee Native American and his father was a Cherokee Judge. He dropped out of school in the tenth grade, and as a very young man, Will had already traveled to (and worked) in Argentina and South Africa. He was the first civilian to fly from coast to coast.

He was, of course and famously a Democrat, but in 1928 ran a mock campaign for the presidency on the "Anti-Bunk" ticket. He declared himself the winner, and resigned the same day.

The famous "I never met a man I didn't like" was a reference to Leon Trotsky.

While best known for his speaking voice, he made over 30 silent films.

A genuine hero. Wiki is HERE

Snapshot circa 1939 of the tiny Will Rogers house welcomes visitors to his hometown. Collection Jim Linderman.

Antique Folk Art Sculpture Large Articulated Doll Carving with One Leg Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Sculpture Large Articulated Doll Carving with One Leg
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.

The High and Ho of Weegee Bernard Bailey High Magazine and Ho Magazine from Periodical House Publish Weegee's Poison Portraits

I am not a Weegee scholar, but I am a fan, and also recognize the importance of his work. I also know the magazine High and Ho are today pretty scarce, as editor and art director Bernard Bailey's goofy idea of putting TWO narrow magazines on the top shelf in the place of one didn't work out. Note the prices. I don't think he had market research in the late 1950s which indicated a fellow was inclined to pay 35 cents for HO! (The LONG magazine) and 25 cents for HIGH (the TALL magazine) either. So few today have seen them. Each issue was 100 skinny pages and come from 1957 and 1958. The Golden Age of smutty glamor.

Bailey did have the good taste to either hire, or purchase, a considerable amount of Weegee's more experimental work. Distortions and treatments. They are titled "Poison Portraits" and Weegee's Weirdies" and they are that..

I have no idea if the copyright on High and Ho is abandoned or has been assumed by the International Center of Photography, where you can find lots of material on the photographer. I AM sure they own the images. The Weegee Archive was bequeathed to ICP in 1993 by Wilma Wilcox, Weegee’s long-term partner, and it is a treasure. Wikipedia tells the story, and as you can see the institution has exhibited some, if not all, the images here:

"In 1980 Weegee's widow, Wilma Wilcox, Sidney Kaplan, Aaron Rose and Larry Silver formed The Weegee Portfolio Incorporated to create an exclusive collection of photographic prints made from Weegee’s original negatives. As a bequest, Wilma Wilcox donated the entire Weegee archive - 16,000 photographs and 7,000 negatives to the International Center of Photography in New York. This 1993 gift became the source for several exhibitions and books include "Weegee's World" edited Miles Barth (1997) and "Unknown Weegee" edited by Cynthia Young (2006). The first and largest exhibition was the 329-image "Weegee's World: Life, Death and the Human Drama," brought forth in 1997. It was followed in 2002 by "Weegee's Trick Photography," a show of distorted or otherwise caricatured images, and four years later by "Unknown Weegee," a survey that emphasized his more benign, post-tabloid photographs. In 2012 ICP opened another Weegee exhibition titled, "Murder is my Business". Also in 2012, exhibition called "Weegee: The Naked City" opened at Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow"

Bailey's narrow magazines are bound well and not easily mashed onto my scanner…but let's take a look at some obscurities by Arthur Felig. Weegee's Weirdies is listed in the bibliography of his works HERE, but Weegee's Poison Portraits seems not to be, so here you go.

Bernard Bailey, editor and art director of High and Ho is a bit more obscure, but like many folks working in the golden age of smut, came from the comic book environment. I'll say it again...Kefauver was right. He was an artist who worked for both DC comics and Atlas, which eventually became Marvel. His bio is HERE.

Not much has been published about his connection with High and Ho. Interestingly, High turned into a normal sized magazine after the tall experiment, but it didn't last much longer. Both magazines are chock-full of now prominent artists, photographers and models. Bernard had good taste, if not business sense.

Tall and Long issues of High 1957 and Ho 1958
Photography Books by the author include The Birth of Rock and Roll, Take Me to the Water and In Situ American Folk Art in Place.
Photographs by Weegee / INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Somewhat Anatomically Correct Man on a String Folk Art Carving Articulated Limberjack

Somewhat Anatomically Correct Man on a String Folk Art Carving circa 1930

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR AVAILABLE HERE

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 4 from Dull Tool Dim Bulb

The Birth of Rock and Roll number four is an original slide circa 1950 from the Jim Linderman Collection, and we like it so much we gave it a watermark! The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

Untitled Original Color Slide circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman

BIG Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet Collection Jim Linderman

About as big as they go, an Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet. Turn of the century or so, nearly 30 inches tall. Original paint. The mid-section is a sponge material which has deteriorated.

Collection Jim Linderman

Al Mohler Rustic Painter of Slabs of Wood

The Rustic Paintings of Al Mohler.

Did you ever wonder the story behind those paintings on slices of wood which are essential for a rustic cabin in the woods? Brother to the saw paintings, and sister to the slate paintings for sale in Jackson Square, New Orleans? Here's the guy! It's AL MOHLER and his wooden slab paintings!

If you follow this blog (gosh…6 years now) you know I love to elevate the lesser to the greater. So let's look at the king of the knotty pine painters! He picked an unusual medium, but he used it half-a century and created a serious body of work.

A Minnesota master, like most folk art painters Al painted on anything, but the most familiar are the oval shaped pieces of pine. He would paint animals for the most part. The bigger the better, and the Al Mohler tribute site mentions a painting of a bear on a slab 39 inches across! THAT is a big slice of tree. He did small ones too, and the little one here shows the reverse. Look for the authentic Al Mohler studio stamp. His career lasted over 50 years.

There is a creepy, right wing evangelist named Albert Mohler spreading ignorant venom around the south currently…needless to say that ain't the guy. I am going to guess the Al Mohler we are interested in here was a wonderful man who loved everyone and brought considerable joy into the world with his paintings.

Mohler sold his paintings from the little studio with the big sign shown in my photo above! I am hoping the photo is worth more than his paintings, but I doubt it. They are collected, and it seems every one on ebay sells.

The go to guy for Al Mohler paintings is Kirk Schnitker who runs the Al Mohler Art site from which I took the lovely logo here. He will do appraisals, may from time to time have work for sale and is documenting the work. Check out his site HERE.
Original photograph of Al Mohler and his studio Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

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

Antique Folk Art Dancing Man Articulated Figure in Original Mustard Paint collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Dancing Man in Original Mustard Paint collection Jim Linderman

A Book I Worked on Being Repaired at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

"IN REPAIR" Good. It's worth saving. 736 pages of Solid Gold Punk.

Holiday PARTY PLAY Cocktail Napkins

Stuck at home with the family? While you check flight status, here is a few things to keep you all friendly while under the same roof.

Party Play Cocktail Napkins Har Va Corp. 1954

The Birth of Rock and Roll Holiday Edition

Number three in the series The Birth of Rock and Roll comes from Cleveland, so I finally have to agree with the choice to locate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame there! Undated, but certainly 1940 or earlier, an obvious trouble-maker participates in planning for the Thanksgiving dance! I hope it got out of hand. An unusual early photograph of desegregated dance for the kids! On the reverse the person I HOPE chooses the music is identified as "Pete Owens African-American Young Man" at Thomas Edison High School Cleveland Ohio. It comes from a photo book, but I am going to guess it was taken for the High School Yearbook.

Original Snapshot Undated Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Jesus Sculpture

Antique Folk Art Jesus Sculpture 11" Tall collection Jim Linderman
(Also posted on old time religion the blog)

Hell Money of the Slain President Kennedy Hell Bank Note

A John F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note! "Hell Money" is a traditional Chinese offering to the dead. Hell dollars are burned as ceremonial offerings at funerals and near the graves of the departed. In this case, a Hell note which I assume dates to 1963 replaces the Jade Emperor. This looks like play money, but it's the real deal. I don't know how many were produced as tributes to the fallen president, and I see them for sale on ebay now. The Wiki story of Hell Money is HERE.

John. F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note circa 1963? Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

Fair Use

Though the images, which I have myself largely scanned from my personal collection of photographs and ephemera, some are subject to © by the artist, syndicate that distributed them or otherwise the individual artists. The use here is regardless covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
1. The image illustrates an educational article; its inclusion in the article adds significantly to understanding the text because it is a historical sample of the art covered in the critical commentary, and shows use of an innovative style. Therefore the image substantially improves the educational value of the article.
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Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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