Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Risque Hurly Burly Hootchie Cootchie Dancers of Professor G. W. Van Sideshow Burlesque

CLICK TO ENLARGE COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN


CLICK TO ENLARGE COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

Professor G. W. Van presents his talent in this, frankly, remarkable group of photographs I was able to purchase recently. They are unusual not only for the content, which shows a pleasant afternoon full of hurly-burly, hootchie-cootchie and risqué behavior for the time, but also splendid examples of period dress, gentlemen when hats were virtually required (even for dusty fairgrounds) and a wonderful group of original painted sideshow banners.

The same banners are shown elsewhere in a photograph dated 1915.

Prof. G.W.Van was from Lockhaven, PA according to one of my heroes A. Stencell, who promised me an interview once but I am too intimidated. His book Seeing is Believing is essential for anyone interested in sideshow history (or simply a good book)

I don't watermark items from my collection posted, but credit appropriately if you repost.

The New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown owns a photo of the same touring troupe HERE

Group of Original Photographs Anonymous circa 1915 G.W. Van sideshow
Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND ($5.99) EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE

Oddities Antiques and the Curiosities Business Not Dead Yet Reality Shows of Pickers Spur Interest in Antiques

To be honest, I am not sure if "OUF" is a name or a group of initials, but unfortunately she has passed away. Memorial cards are among them most common cabinet card photographs, but this one has the distinction of delicate hand-tinting and the curious tribute to OUF apparently hand-stamped over her flowers.

Netflix is streaming the complete two seasons of Oddities, the Discovery series on curious and creepy antique dealers Mike Zone, Evan Michelson and Ryan Matthew, master bone articulator. The three ghouls are the Pawn Stars of the Dead and American Pickers of the Body Farm. Twenty episodes in a row, a binge viewing totally unlike me, has left my mind with an odd and curious feeling of morbidity and mortality. So the funeral card here is shared.

Hopefully, the popularity of Oddities will help the antiques business. Everyone needs a hobby after all, and in these digital days a few actual physical objects on the shelves would be nice.

Cabinet Card circa 1900? Reed Studio MA. Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

Adbul "calls in sick" 1941 Penmanship Lesson Example

Those of you who might need just one more day after Spring Break may find this useful, a template page from New Model Semi-Upright Copy Book Number 6 used to teach writing to students in India. Bunder Road, Karachi.

New Model Copy Book circa 1941 Collection Jim Linderman

BROWSE AND ORDER JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS AND $5.99 eBooks HERE

Ventriloquist Dummy (Vent Figure) circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

Circa 1940 Handmade Ventriloquist Figure Collection Jim Linderman

SEE ALSO the new book I'M WITH DUMMY: Vent Figures and Blockheads Vintage Photographs from the Jim Linderman Collection. 78 Pages Softcover or ebook. Nearly 100 original photographs 1900 - 1980 of ventriloquists and vent figures never before published. Creepy? Yes!

FREE PREVIEW OF THE BOOK and ORDERS HERE

Lund's Plywood Garden of Michigan

Lund's Plywood Garden of Maple City, Michigan.

E.K. Lund was a part-time magician who lived to the age of 100. From the looks of these rare postcards, that is about one plywood figure a year.

Photo Postcards from Lund's Garden, formerly installed in Maple City, Michigan.

See Also "Preacher, Artist, Magician, Centenarian" HERE

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS HERE

Strike Up the (Native American Peoples?) Band!


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I can't tell you how many, or if ANY of the players here are first nation performers, but there were authentic Native American bands. Along with other enforced cultural changes, some had instruments forced on them. On thing I do know is that there were not too many tribal trombones until not long before this picture was taken.

Curious Concert Band Anonymous Photograph circa 1900? Collection Jim Linderman

BROWSE AND ORDER BOOKS AND $5.99 eBooks BY THE AUTHOR HERE at Blurb.

Opening April 1, 2013 Art of the Potholder

The Art of the Pot Holder is supported by a grant from the Makers of Rayon and generous funding from the Skillet Foundation.

Lawn Leporidae of Galvanized Steel Folk Art

Galvanized Steel, Iron, Paint. No date, circa 1950?

Confetti on the Floor Salesman Samples for the Basement Retro and Modern at the Same Time!

When I was a lad, one of these was the entire basement floor…I scuffed them up playing ping-pong down there. Retro madness confetti floors of asbestos from the Matico Company and their line of "Aristoflex" floors.

I am a big fan of paint chips and floor samples. For one thing, they are the only thing free at your local Home Depot. They are also fantastic for art projects, and they look great on the shelf. Unfortunately, you can not get the asbestos ones anymore…but I guess that is a good thing.

Group of Salesman Sample Flooring tiles Matico 1957 Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

A Full Yard of Grand Rapids! Yard Long Panoramic Photograph

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(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

A yard of Heaven! "Yard Long" or panoramic photographs are frequently seen but seldom as crisp as this pair showing 1942 Bible School Students and their teachers from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Too big for my scanner, and a shame as they are splendid. There is a slight "row" in one row...(second row on the left, detail shown) but all in all, the little monkeys behaved and each holds their little Bibles with respect. Photographed at the height of World War Two, it is exceptional to realize virtually all these children had a father serving in the Armed Forces. We can also surmise most of the teachers had husbands or sons serving. A beautiful pair of integrated images at a time when segregation was still common, and together a splendid example of what panoramic photos are for. The special cameras used for these giant pictures were developed as early as the late 19th century and their high resolution is still a marvel.Harshberger began commercial photography in Grand Rapids in 1921 and closed the shop in 1949.

Two Panoramic photographs, each 8" x 28" Charles I. Harshberger "Photos of Quality...Groups any time or place in Michigan" 1942 Collection Jim Linderman

Also posted on the old time religion blog

Guests

Sorry if I'm late...we had guests last night and they wouldn't leave.

Anonymous Snapshot No Date Collection Jim Linderman

Miniature Handmade Whittled Wooden Pliers Folk Art Whimseys

Depression-era Miniature Handmade Whittled Wooden Pliers Folk Art. Whimsical but good only for using up time.

Miniature carved tools, circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by the author are available HERE

Who Moved the Anvil? Blacksmith Occupational Tintype

Tintype photograph circa 1870 of a Blacksmith with his anvil, hammer and a horseshow. What I want to know is if he moved the anvil to the photgrapher's studio, or if the cameraman moved his machine to the blacksmith?

Original Tintype Photograph circa 1870 Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman HERE

Denying Dinah Washington Airplay Big Censored Slidin' Thing

Why is Dinah Washington's single here rare? The answer lies not in the groove...but the censorship handwritten instruction to the disc jockey as much as the song title. How's a girl to get sales without any airplay?

You can listen and determine the obscenity level yourself. It IS filthy. In fact, it may be the most filthy song ever recorded, and it came without a parental guidance sticker! QUADRUPLE entendre!

I won't give away what the song is about, but it isn't a trombone.

Dinah Washington was singing in Chicago club "Dave's Rhumboogie" by the time she was eighteen, so I am going to guess she knew her instruments. Born Ruth Jones but soon to be known as Dinah. Her first record was written by Jazz scholar Leonard Feather. She was married seven times, all by the age of 39. It is not clear is the United States Post Office heard "Big Long Slidin' Thing before the put her on a postage stamp in 1993. It was a lickin' thing.

Thank you Dinah. You keep on, despite being hassled by the man!

BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILBLE HERE

Awaiting Salvation in the Woods ? Baptism Photograph

I believe this to be a photograph of two folks waiting to be baptised, or having just BEEN baptised, but it could be any rite which inspires awe and trepidation. Mystery. Why, or for whom, would these people gather at the edge of a forest?

Original Anonymous Photograph, circa 1900 collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR HERE

Circus Acrobat Nellie Bellmore in Frank Wendt Cabinet Card Photographs 1895

A pair of Frank Wendt Cabinet Card photographs circa 1895 depicting a lovely young acrobat named Nellie Bellmore or Nelli Regina. One would likely be a stage name (?) but which? I frequently hear from relatives on this and the other sites, so I always try to include names. If anyone has information on the performer, please write in.

Frank Wendt was a sideshow and circus freak photographer from the Bowery and later Boonton, New Jersey.

Link to Collector's Weekly articles

An editor at my favorite Collector's site COLLECTORS WEEKLY wrote to say they had redesigned their pages, with a new layout and more. Which gives me an opportunity not only to encourage all with an interest in any collectable to use the site (which has grown into a most useful tool no matter your interests) but it also lets me link to the interview and guest posts I did for the site.

Collectors Weekly is paricularly useful for finding popular items up for auction, and it has grown to be enormous database for help identifying things you have questions about. Their feature articles, written by a serious group of clever and innovative writers, are always a delight.

Click for my own modest contributions, and add the site to your bookmarks.

Homespun Beauty: Jim Linderman on Folk Art's Authentic Appeal

Hellfire and Damnation in Your Back Pocket

Playing with Fire: A Boys Matchbox Collection

Total Immersion Collecting: Baptism Photos

Items from my personal collection on the site

Original Drawing of Lone Ranger Costume from the 1950s. Johnny Depp and an excuse to show Iggy Pop (!)

Lone Ranger costume in Ink Johnny Depp and Iggy Pop ???

Normally, folks post images of Halloween costumes only on the day. It's a problem with holiday-related collectibles. For a painter, putting Santa in a painting means no one will hang it…except in December. There are many serious collectors of Halloweniana (yes, a real word) but they don't collect the plastic masks and costumes much. I'd like to say because so many burned up, but that would be horrible.

I have a better peg for this drawing here. It is, of course, the Lone Ranger movie coming out with Johnny Depp as Tonto. It looks from the previews that the Lone Ranger is dressed pretty much like junior here, but Johnny has opted for a more realistic Tonto. One accurate and hopefully with more respect to the spirit of the first nations people he is characterizing. It is a risky and delicate career move, as he will not only be depicting a representative of an entire group of cultures we wiped out, but also one finally speaking up about being stereotyped in horrible manner by the still dominant white culture. I'll see it just to see if Mr. Depp pulls it off, and I fully trust he will. Johnny is serious about his craft and an actor we are fortunate to have. His earlier film on Native Americans is the fantastic but forgotten Dead Man, which in addition to having amazing recreations of North Western tribe material culture, had a soundtrack by Neil Young which never gets tired.

It also had Michigan's own Iggy Pop. One can NOT go wrong with anything Iggy has ever done, and his turn as a shaker-bonnet wearing country and western cross-dresser is typical of his artistic output. By which I mean great. The film also had Robert Mitchum (!) Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Crispin Glover, Billy Bob Thornton and more, all of them quirky as hell. View it. In fact view any Jim Jarmusch flick.

There are numerous curse words here. And a cross-dressing Iggy Pop, fearless as always. Have the children watch!

The new Lone Ranger, one of a long string of masked men in blue…will be a huge hit

The drawing top is an original ink piece of an imagined Lone Ranger costume produced by an anonymous artist for the Collegeville Costume Company. I assume it dates to the television show. It is a small drawing of only 4" x 8" but check the detail!

"Hi-Yo Silver" ink on cardboard, circa 1960? Costume Company Fashion Drawing Collection Jim Linderman

See also books and affordable ebooks by Jim Linderman 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

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