Frank Wendt Sideshow Photography Master of a Neglected Nature

Frank Wendt has always been unfairly placed in the shadow of Sideshow Freak photographer Charles Eisenmann, his mentor. Wendt took over the Eisenmann studio on the Bowery in 1893 and ran it for five years before moving it to New Jersey. He continued making pictures there for a number of years, some quite extraordinary. In 1979, just as interest in collecting circus freak photos was rising (in part as interest in Diane Arbus was rising as well) a book on Eisenmann was published which dismissed Wendt's work as "perfunctory" and that the production of those years has all but been "obliterated." Au contraire! As we are just learning, MANY exceptional images remain. The photos here are certainly not obliterated.

Wendt specialized in the unusual, of course as you can see. But he had a wider clientele than Eisenmann. He shot all manner of performers, not just the strange. In fact, some of his most beautiful work is normal looking actors and child performers, who would use his cabinet card photographs as trade cards, mementos and such, frequently selling them to admirers for a dime each. Often the performers autographed the cards on the reverse, personalizing them to fans and the freaked. In the case of the carnival performers, vital statistics were often provided though frequently exaggerated. In fact, Wendt would take his pictures to emphasize the particular trait or deformity being marketed. As traveling shows passed through New York and New Jersey, they would stop to replenish their stock. Sometimes Wendt would republish Eisenmann's work on his own cards, but frequently a new photo was taken, and the same performers often appear in later pictures, with different imprints or logos on the cards.

I have posted work by Frank Wendt on this site before, they are worth looking at. As research continues, I plan to expand on the story with a book and exhibition.

Frank Wendt Five Original Cabinet Card Photographs circa 1890-1900 Collection Jim Linderman

SOON I WILL MOVE THESE TO THE WONDROUS WORLD OF FRANK WENDT
A site I am constructing.

The Subconscious Outsider Artist who Married a Billionaire and won over Houdini (!) Marian Spore Bush

Marian was born Flora May Spore in Michigan and became the first female dentist in Bay County, Michigan. After her mother died in 1919, she had a major transformation. She gave up her dental practice, moved to Guam and began painting. According to her sister, she had never shown any inclination towards art until that time. Like all aspiring artists, she soon rented a studio in Greenwich Village. Having her own style, self-taught, she laid the paint on deep, building the canvas up so thick at times it looked like sculpture.

A good story, but now it gets weird. Apparently Spore could somehow channel dead artists and attributed her skills to the spirit of her late mother. She explored her ESP talents with Dr. Prince of the Boston Psychic Society. Her paintings became a sensation, being exhibited at the finest galleries in NYC. The American Weekly printed a story titled "Pictures my Mother sends me from the Grave." No less than anti-spiritualist Harry Houdini was taken with her work and said, I am not kidding, “It is a great exhibition. I am certain of Miss Spore’s honesty. I have never excluded the possibility of supernatural intervention from my belief. I have been engaged in the exposure of criminal fakers… there is no question of that here. Miss Spore has something beautiful and is conveying it to her fellow men.”

With her success as a painter, which at the time was apparently extensive, she opened a soup kitchen for the hungry on the Bowery. Now 1/3 artist, 1/3 soup kitchen worker and 1/3 socialite, Marian met Billionaire Irving T. Bush, another whole story as big as the painting shown here...who married her in Reno one hour after the divorce from his second wife was finalized.

Now, at least seemingly, the artist has been forgotten. The last time her work was shown was a retrospective in 1946, the work has not been seen in public for over 60 years. I for one would love to see it. She wrote a book about her spirit paintings entitled "They" in 1947. Except for the incredible, detailed, extraordinary wiki profile HERE, on which I relied completely for this article, the remarkable work seems to have vanished into thin air. In fact, a Google search turns up only one photo of the artist and none of her work.

I found the photograph here at an antique show, it was taken in 1938. I've cropped it, labeled it...and I will be more than happy to share the entire photo and credits with any art scholar who can show me more of the work! There is a SERIOUS book tale and exhibition here...anyone want to do the work? I don't have the energy.

Jack Webb Stiff Dick with Deadpan Delivery The FIRST annual Dull Tool Dim Bulb Lifetime Achievement Award™

It was fashionable among my peers growing up to lambaste Jack Webb. At the time, he was busting happy hippy hedonists on TV but they looked like the GOOD guys to me. Of course, this was the second incarnantion of Dragnet, the one with the future Sherman Potter of M.A.S.H, one Harry Morgan, who was raised in Muskegon Michigan just 12 miles north of here. ( By coincidence, so was young James Osterberg, nee Iggy Pop, who just might be the winner of the second Dull Tool Dim Bulb Lifetime Achievement Award™ but that is another story or two) In retrospect, it turns out Jack Webb was not only a cool dude, the fellow you saw walking around on TV stiffer than a cast-iron Viagra pole was exactly the same fellow in real life, and how many actors can you say that about?

Big Jack was born in 1920 and suffered from asthma his whole life. A trait I identify with, but you never saw jack turn from the camera and take a puff of albuterol. He was born in a slum in L.A, so he comes to his toughness through authenticity. He was a crew member of a B-26 bomber during the big one, and that assignment had just about the highest mortality rate in the war. So Jack was tough as nails as well as stiff as one. After the war he commenced his lifetime advocacy for the rule of law and hatred of the nefarious. He first played hard-boiled detective Pat Novak on the radio, where he delivered with sound waves as flat as his crewcut. Later, he played a character in "One out of Seven" who stood up against racial discrimination long before it was fashionable.

Of course, Dragnet is the stiff stuff of legend. There were two, the first black and white from 1951 to 1959. From this came "The story you are about to see is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent." The second, the one I grew up laughing at, started in 1967, in glorious anti-psychedelic color, and ran 3 more years. How many actors can you think of who starred in two TV series, both with the same name...with virtually no acting talent?

Jack spread his dragnet over some serious tail as well! He loved Jazz and played the cornet, so he romanced and married the most luscious MOR jazz dame of all time, Julie London. It was the first of FOUR marriages (including another hot score not of a musical scale, Miss USA Jackie Loughery)

At the time of his passing, Jack was working on another revival of Dragnet. Remaining true to his tight moral standards, he turned down the role of Dean Wormer in Animal House. When he hung up Badge number 714 for good, the flags of Los Angeles were ordered flown at half-mast.

So how can you get close to the now dead legend? First, read his book The Badge, fabulous true crime stories he wrote in 1958. Tough as shoe leather but easy to find on Amazon. Second, see if your hands measure up to his on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Third, listen to Jack's silver chords on the Rhino records compilation of singing actors. Fourth, watch his 1962 short subject The Commies are Coming, The Commies are Coming. (which features hot little minx Billie Jo from Petticoat Junction) also available on Rhino. 30 minutes of red-baiting bliss. Finally? The stunning minute long tirade below. Take THAT Hippie!

Illustrations hand-embellished additions to Jack Webb's Safety Squad Coloring Book, 1956. Collection Jim Linderman

The Shortest Sermon in History is 500 Feet Long

Fred T. Horton's 500 foot long sermon of rocks, Arkansas City, Kansas.


Original Press Photo, 1925 with crop marks and subsequent clipping. Collection Jim Linderman
(Also posted on Old Time Religion Blog)

Death Dodger Jimmie Lynch (Where the Rubber hits the Road)

Images from 1947 "Wonder Book of Rubber" Collection Jim Linderman

Vending Machines Read or Cut Bait (Meet the Press)

Pocket Books vending machine for paperbacks, Original Press Photo 1946 Collection Jim Linderman
Worms vending machine (open all night) Original Press Photo 1957 Collection Jim Linderman

Parlortone releases THE oldie but goodie Dust-to-Digital

Sound is so central to life we often enjoy it but take it for granted...that is until it startles you. Imagine how startled was the first person in history to hear his own voice come back to him. The ability to RECORD sound is equal is to any of the most dramatic accomplishments achieved, and yet how easy to forget only a few generations ago it became possible. And like most stories one looks into, the commonly understood origins actually lie muffled far deeper than we thought. We think of Marconi, of Edison and of Alexander Graham Bell because our textbooks drum the names in. Dust-to-Digital has done our collective being a favor by releasing the very first intelligible recording of the human voice, and in a format that all with an interest in things audible will appreciate...a 7 inch disc which plays at 45 revolutions per minute! The sound? A 20 second recording of "Au Clair de la Lune" which lay stored away in an archive in France. I will not give away the story (which is detailed in the liner notes and involves smoke) nor am I qualified to discuss the technical aspects, but I know beauty and this is it. Once again enlisting the considerable talents of one of the the most innovative designers working in any medium (but who has chosen music) Susan Archie (who did the label) John Hubbard and Rob Millis (an artist with such a dense list of accomplishments I'm not quite sure WHAT to link to) who did the package, this is a little marvel of art, technology and the senses. A limited edition published by the new wing of Dust- to-Digital. I won't give away their slogan or too many of the graphics, go to the source.

Video Killed the Chalk Talk Star

Chalk Talk. A throwback to the days when convincing the already convinced was entertaining and a bit nuts. As you will see by watching this clip of the master at work, one Peter S. Ruckman. To be fair, he does more than speak in tongues, but if you are interested, other clips of him at work will be seen by those who seek.

Chalk Talk for Young People J. W. Van De Venter No date (1900?) 96 pages
Chalk Talk Made Easy William Allen Bixler 1932 128 pages
Both Collection Jim Linderman

Practice Lines

What Does YOUR Swimming Suit Reveal #4

Last bathing opportunity of the season here (and the last swimming suit post of the year) The water temperature is around 65 degrees but that won't last long. The fences are going up on the beach to prevent drifting snand (a mixture of snow and sand). The Pronto Pup is closed and one may legally ride a bicycle through the 4 block long "downtown" again, though I don't think anyone was ever ticketed. The image is a tintype which will appear in the forthcoming book "The Painted Backdrop" in 2010. To see my other swimsuit posts, click blue subject heading below.

Untitled Tintype Photograph, c. 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

Nutty Neighbors to the North RPPC

Real Photo Postcard, c. 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

Al

Trust me, this is just too good to only be on the old time religion blog. You'll watch twice and think of it all day.

The Drunken Hubby (Pulp, Puke and the Post Office)

I always try to figure out my own posts. Witness this ad for a product claiming to cure alcoholism. I found it in the 1952 issue of My Romance (Actually, that would be a good post too, so here ya go!) Good enough...kitschy, graphically interesting, a nice cartoon image of a fellow in the throes of drunken misery. So, end of post, cool pics, g'night. I dug around a bit. The product is an emetic, that is, it makes you violently hurl (and I don't mean hurl your bottle at that hole in the plaster). The makers of the product were taken to court for mail fraud some 22 years after this ad appeared. Note the small print in the ad. "MAY BE TAKEN IN SECRET, a few drops eliminates desire for more alcohol" The manufacturers intended for troubled spouses to sneak it into hubby's drink and make him vomit himself into sobriety! Not good medicine, as the experts testify. Fascinating reading of the case HERE.

Evangelist Wilber R. Ogilvie Big Truck of Salvation

Wilber R. Ogilvie Salvation Divine Healing Revival
Linen Poscard, c. 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

She Loves Me! Pull the Ribbons Postcard

Imagine being the recipient of the card above.

"Pull a Ribbon" Love Card circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Near Pratfall (Meet the Press)

Two Original Press Photographs, hand-embellished, 1937 Collection Jim Linderman

Big Smooth Landboats (Drive!)

Images from Buick Airborne 1958 Promotional Poster General Motors, Flint Michigan Lithograph Collection Jim Linderman

Things to Make

Tiny Lord's Prayer from Zion Illinois RPPC

Well, I'm posting an enlargement to keep teeny tiny writer George Chenoweth honest. He claims this microfilm size Lord's Prayer is written NINE TIMES in the space of a postage stamp. 645 words, 2489 letters, and his name and address is also written in full. Squint. Count. Ta DAH!!!!!

Please also note I have started a "line extension" which is a term used in advertising to indicate a new flavor for an old product. That would be "OLD TIME RELIGION" on which I am posting just that, and every damn day rather than just saturday nights as I used to here. Feel free to follow! It's gonna be Heavenly!

The miniature Lord's Prayer on a Postage stamp sized piece of paper on a Real Photo Postcard, Collection Jim Linderman

Brenner, The Bozo of Baltimore (And Bozo vs. Brozo)

Stephen G. Brenner was not only the Bozo assigned the Maryland beat, he was also involved with carnivals and sideshows all his life. Brenner was born in 1894 and published his autobiography "My Life Story as a Clown" in 1978. He was an early, if not the first Bozo. Incidentally, There is a list of dozens of regional Bozos listed in Wiki. Larry Harmon is, of course, the most famous, but my favorite is Victor Trujilo of Mexico City who created "Brozo el Payaso Tenebrosco" (Brozo the Creepy Clown) shown here in a clip with his inspiration the Mexican Bozo.



Real Photo promotional card for Stephen G. Brenner, Collection Jim Linderman

The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder and American Popular Culture (and the delivery system missed)

An interesting read and a few tiny, hand-held examples the author missed. Jean Murley discusses the rise of "true crime" as a form of entertainment in a scholarly but readable manner. At least I read it all, and my attention span lasts as long as a grape fizzie in warm water. From pulp magazines in the 30's to websites trading rumors circling around the latest "missing white woman of the week" a very nice survey of media channels through history clamoring for the lurid market. You HAVE to love a book with the phrase "incendiary ambulance-chasing pseudojournalist Nancy Grace..." The trading cards date to the 1930's, a fabulous set of 240 true crime cards, each with the thrilling exploits of a lawman fighting a gunsel...and like it should be, the good guys always win. Book is linked at right.

Set of G-Men and Heroes of the Law Trading Cards, c. 1936. Collection Jim Linderman

Sing Along with Jesus and Roy

Several more children's gospel records are posted at old time religion

The Lord is Counting on You by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. 5 inch sound recording disc Collection Jim Linderman

Book and Job Printers Upstairs

Original Photograph, circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

International Center of Photography

Just a quick note to remind all to JOIN and FOLLOW the International Center of Photography. It is an incredible institution and the exhibits are outstanding. The course list, which I just received in the mail, is extensive and impressive. Membership is not only affordable, it is tax deductable. It also includes reciprocal memberships at many photography institutions around the country, likely one or two near you. Their website is state of the art and their blog "FANS IN A FLASHBULB" is intelligent, beautiful and manages to achieve a historical presence with a contemporary appeal. Plus, I wrote them a question in the comment field once, and the answer was informative, well-researched and appreciated!