Images from a 30 page Untitled "Marriage Manual" No Publisher, No date c. 1920? Collection Jim Linderman
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Love Awakening Zones Marriage Manual
Images from a 30 page Untitled "Marriage Manual" No Publisher, No date c. 1920? Collection Jim Linderman
Announcing OLD TIME RELIGION! Vernacular Photography Ephemera and Miracles from the Jim Linderman Collection
old time religion!
The newest blog revealing miracles from the Jim Linderman Collection!
" Vernacular religious detritus from the Jim Linderman collection of photography and ephemera. Jesus is my jet plane and I have the Lord on speed dial. Old Time Religion is a natural line extension from Dull Tool Dim Bulb, where posts of this nature occur every Saturday night while the rest of you are sinning. Wake up, it is Sunday morning! Praise the Lord and Click to Enlarge! "
I will continue to post the sacred, the saved and the glory of salvation here of course...but then Old Time Religion has a link to send a prayer message directly to GOD.
old time religion
Barnum (Horrors in Wax #12)
Wax P. T. Barnum sizes up the purses of passing rubes as tiny wax Tom Thumb and huge wax mammoth look on. Barnum's first hoax was passing off a blind and paralyzed African-American woman as the 160 year old George Washington's former nurse. As 1500 paying spectators found out during her public autopsy (!) she was only 80. His next African-American spectacle was Man-Monkey William Johnson, a microcephalic who was taught to speak a "mysterious" gibberish language. He tried to purchase William Shakespeare's birth home. Two days before his death, Barnum gave the local newspaper permission to print his obituary so he wouldn't miss it. Before passing, he paid for a "life-sized statue" for Tom Thumb's grave.
Number twelve in my "Horrors in Wax" series. Click blue subject heading below to see them all.
Postcard, c. 1970 Collection Jim Linderman
Take Me to the Water Baptism Book Reviews and MORE
Just a brief reminder that reviews of TAKE ME TO THE WATER: IMMERSION BAPTISM IN VINTAGE MUSIC AND PHOTOGRAPHY 1890-1950 are being collected HERE along with press information, the film, selected images and more. The recent reviews here are from organizations I admire and am taking the opportunity to link their sites. Additional material (and much, much more) is available at the incredible Dust-to-Digital. There have been dozens of reviews, all glowing, and I am grateful for every one.
Living Blues is an institution, over 200 issues have been published since 1970. The magazine of the African-American blues tradition was incorporated into the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in 1983, an organization of considerable importance. We know what has happened to many "hard copy" music publications, but this one has a solid rock of authenticity behind it. See their website and programs HERE.
The Michigan Photographic Historical Society is one of the longer running and more active regional photography organizations. Since 1972 they have "focused" on the collection and preservation of photographic equipment, images, literature and history. Their coverage extends far beyond the Mitten State and I am proud to be a member, if you are interested in collecting photographs or the art of photography, membership is recommended. See their website and join HERE.
Thank you
Boy Preacher Charles Taylor
Charles Forbes Taylor, Boy Preacher.
During more than 80 years of preaching, Rev. Taylor lectured in more than 1,000 US cities and visited all 50 states and five continents. In the 1950s, he was also billed as "the jet-propelled evangelist."
Original press photograph with crop mark embellishment, 1913 Collection Jim Linderman
To follow my blog of similar material, click OLD TIME RELIGION
Frank Maresca Gallerist, Herman Bridgers Preacher, Artist, Grave Digger
(click image to enlarge)
The current issue of Antiques & Fine Art profiles Frank Maresca. It also shows his apartment in Manhattan, which is always a treat not only because I love Frank's collection and his skill of design, but because there is often shown an object or two which speaks particularly loud to me, the primitive and powerful work of Herman (Bridgets) Bridgers. More than anyone Frank has shown how to present American folk art sculpture as the art it IS. Well-lite, on pedestals, with room to be seen, appreciated and to breathe. Frank has been an influential gallerist. writer, curator and designer for nearly 30 years, and through his books and exhibits he has literally changed how a country looks it its own art. No small feat. Mr. Maresca has always championed the work of a modest artist who lived in Enfield, North Carolina I wrote about in 1996. Seeing some of his work again in the magazine reminded me it should be archived online, so here it is.
Elmer Anderson, The Third Worst Cartoonist in History Postcards
(Click to Enlarge)
The esteemed Elmer Anderson. Or as he is known anywhere a stamp would reach, the GENUINE Elmer Anderson. Biographical information on the prolific post card Picasso is precious... but his primary genres have been identified:
Tit Jokes
Stinky Things
Why did I get Married?
Occupationals and Situationals (Bars, Fisherman, Doctors)
Animal Kingdom (Peeing Dogs and Unwelcome Storks)
And most notable, the renowned "Ugly People" series done at the peak of his Elmer powers in 1951. (Interestingly, the year before Mad Magazine debuted) Early Elmers were self-published with a plain reverse. As his fame spread, Elmer created a "stamp here" logo, presumably a self-portrait. All seem to have come from Waterloo, Iowa, certainly an artistic hotbed of the 1950's.
Group of Genuine Elmer Anderson Postcards, c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
(For previous entries in the World's Worst Cartoonist Series click blue subject heading, or use search box above)
Jackass 1939 Style and the Senator with Little Style
The show Jackass aired on MTV for only two years, but they left big, self-inflicted footprints. The show originated from Jeff Tremaine's "Big Brother" skateboard magazine which employed Johnny Knoxville and later brought the world former Florida clown Steve-O and the single greatest television performer of all time, (except for the now sullied Kramer)....Wee-Man!
To see the press release of whiny, disloyal Democratic senator Joe Lieberman's attempts to censor the show click HERE
Two Press Photos, New Jersey 1939. Collection Jim Linderman
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
Zoom Lite RPPC
Zoom: To simulate movement rapidly away from or toward a subject using a zoom lens. To cause text or other graphics in a window or frame to appear larger on the screen.
Lite: To avoid copyright problems with "Light" or to indicate a beer, food, brand or physical object with no taste, substance or significance.
Zoom Lite Real Photo Postcard c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
Camera Club Girls: Bettie Page and the Work of Rudolph Rossi Vernacular Photography
CAMERA CLUB GIRLS: Bettie Page and the Work of Rudolph Rossi
These are cropped detail portions of the extraordinary hand-painted photographs of Rudolph Rossi. Rossi was an informal member of the New York City Concorde Camera Club in the repressive 1950's. For a ten dollar fee, he photographed Bettie Page and a plethora of interracial models, then later meticulously hand-painted the photographs creating the illusion of color photography. An exceptional body of work by a previously unknown and unrecognized photographer and erotic artist from a time when such activity was taboo. Bettie Page, who passed away last year, is the most famous and most recognizable pin-up model of all time. You'll have to trust the first image here is indeed Ms. Page. A new website publishes some of the photographs, hopefully the first step in generating interest in the previously unknown and unseen work. To see the original works, you will have to "click through" a mature audiences page. visit "CAMERA CLUB GIRLS"
Rudolph Rossi Original Hand-Painted Photographs (detail) c. 1950, Collection Jim Linderman
Sandwich Board and Watermelon Heaven Can Wait
"This young member of the sect finds a little bit of heaven on earth, in the shape of a juicy watermelon slice"
Original Press Photograph, 1953. Collection Jim Linderman
To Follow my blog of similar material, click OLD TIME RELIGION
Missed Opportunity to Improve your Position in Life
Someone gave it a try but never mailed it in. This organization not only still exists, it is accredited! Known as the "Draw Me" school, they have an Alumni Gallery HERE.
Art Instruction Inc. Folded "post card" Application Form. c. 1935 with pencil embellishment. 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
True Crud from Newsweek and True Crime from David Jacobs
The Newsweek double issue last week was devoted to true crime, supposedly. Whadda ripoff...is anyone doing any research anymore? I paid $6.95 at the airport and received a mere ONE PAGE from the genius James Ellroy...but several more from Vincent Bugliosi...a yawn every paragraph from this whitewash writer of decades ago who couldn't even take a literary punch from tough-guy Truman Capote. Then a few vintage mug shots, the likes of which photo collectors on Ebay found so long ago they carry about as much shock as a hearing aid battery. I'd rather look at the new ones they post on the Smoking Gun showing pimps smiling through police brutality wounds and gold grills. Please...the reason magazines are going under is because they now "write" them with press-releases from publishers and wire stories linked on Drudge the week before. Don't they even have any INTERNS who know what is cool over there? The real true crime is the price I paid for this snore which crept over me faster than my sonata.
Here, however, is the real deal. David Jacobs, shown as "the man I would most like to have dinner with" compiles tales of true crime when it meant hoodlums, hopheads, hepcats, convicts, jailbirds, reform school girls, hellcats, vixens and vice dolls. All are true stories swiped from the SOURCE...pulp magazines from the 1950's Detective Rags. Each morbid tale written with few words over 7 letters and a punk gets what was coming to him at the end of every damn one. Each story a GEM edited tighter than the lyrics to a Hank Williams weeper. From back when hacks pounded typewriters..that's right....typewriters... on speed and had to backspace to cross out the mistakes in between gulps of vodka and smoke. Back when the spouse was the spell-checker. I link to the fattest one here..355 pages of greasy gals with gats in their garters. Now that's summer reading!
Lurid heaven from David Jacobs.
A Nice Try
Stecher "Betty's Painting and Cutout Book" and selected page c. 1920 Collection Jim Linderman
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