Veteran News Photographer Kent Murdock stars in the very first graphic novel, published by Dell in 1950, as part of an intended mini-line of digest sized comic books. "Told in pictures" and it is. Not too many others were published, and the experiment failed. Consequently, the book is rare today and a $100 dollar item, but it was reprinted in full by Pure Imagination a few years ago. Look for the original. I found mine for three bucks at an antique mall.
Striking illustrations by Robert Stanley, who also did many of the covers for Dell's much-loved Mapback series, and the book was also published as one.
Kent Murdock was a fictional crime photographer from the early Weegee era. In the film "Murder with Pictures" you can see him portrayed by square jaw low-talker Lew Ayres. The flick is on Youtube in full but the book is better.
George Harmon Coxe created the character, and Kent Murdock was not his only crime shutterbug. He also created crime photographer Jack Casey. (AKA "Flashgun Casey")
Kent used his fists more than his camera, but he is always in the darkroom. The graphic novel is great, but the movie is the kind I haven't been able to sit through since college, when pot made any movie watchable.
Hardboiled, but soft back.
Four Frightened Woman by George Harmon Coxe (A Kent Murdoch Murder Mystery) illustrated by Robert Stanley 1950 Dell "Told in Pictures" book.
Books and ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE
A set of original 8 x 10 photographs taken by the American Commercial Photo Company of Detroit circa 1910-1930. All come from a scrapbook (with several other images) found in central Michigan, and while unidentified for location, each is stamped by the photo company which was active in Detroit. Unless it was a location assignment, these would show Detroit as a growing city before World War Two, when commerce worked and money was plentiful.
Other early photographs of Detroit by ACPD are HERE.
Photographs of Early Detroit (?) Circa 1910 - 1930 collection Jim Linderman
Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman available HERE.
Vintage Wire Funeral Topiary Cross
BOOKS AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN HERE
Chris-Craft Rosie Riveters! A lovely photograph of what is likely World War Two workers at the Employee Parking Lot of the Chris-Craft Boat Manufacturing Company. Snapshot Splendor. Chris-Craft factories were in Algonac, Holland and Cadillac Michigan and the company contributed to the war effort by building, among other products, landing craft out of plywood. After the war, they resumed manufacturing of the now prized boats like the one pictured in the ad below. Collection Jim Linderman
Father Wernerus built his gigantic ramshackle bedazzler to show other Americans that Catholic
Americans loved the President as much as the Pope. His Grotto
full of patriotic baubles was a tribute to both. Welcome to the
Dickeyville Grotto. Constructed 1929 image from a Real Photo postcard mailed 1945.
Collection Jim Linderman
Anonymous by Anonymous No Date Collection Jim Linderman
It's a fall football feeding frenzy from Frito-Lay. Not long ago, a strategist for Frito-Lay said what we have known for a long time, but few consumer product companies have dared to say. In an article discussing the snack market, a Frito-Lay exec announced they would be developing snack product in two categories: for the rich and for the rest of us. “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer,” said Ann
Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay North America. So henceforth, they will be aiming their empty calories at the "value" customer while continuing to create unhealthy crud for the long gone middle-class.
For the record "books" Frito-Lay, one company which is owned by Pepsi, has 40% of the snack food market in the United States, and 30% in the rest of the world. ONE COMPANY. Do you have ANY idea how many effing Cheetos ® that is? Enjoy the game!
Celluloid Football Player Doll from Occupied Japan, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
Who owns the rights to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's photograph of a lingerie model apparently being judged harshly by the office manager? I'm happy to provide the answer below. While I'm not a lawyer, it appears WE did for a time, but then someone stepped in and said the Kubrick estate owns it. Some 90 or so images Kubrick took for Look Magazine were given to the Library of Congress. I have absolutely no idea whether I can legally show this image in the amazing digital form now responsible for destroying the concept of ownership on a massive scale...
Some twenty years ago, I read that if "current statistical and demographic trends" continue, by a certain date every one of us would be either a lawyer or an Elvis impersonator. The prediction seems to have become half true.
Anyway, I would love to settle the matter for you, so I will posit a solution. If you would like to make a refrigerator magnet of of the model's tummy-shaper. I think you can only if you are using it for non-commercial purposes. You can make as many of them as you like, but you have to give them away.
I gave up counting how many times this image has appeared online.
Stanley Kubrick’s photographs are included in the LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection.
Access: Subject to P&P policy on serving originals.
Reproduction (photocopying,
hand-held camera copying, photoduplication
and other forms of copying allowed
by "fair use"): Subject to P&P policy on copying.
Publication and other forms
of distribution: Restrictions include:
-
Subject Rights: Privacy and publicity rights of subjects depicted in the photographs may apply. For more information, see http://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html#privacy_publicity.
-
Donor Restriction: Cowles Communications,
Inc., transferred all of its copyrights in the LOOK Magazine
Photograph Collection to the United States, but asked that the
Library convey Cowles’ desire that the photographs are “Not to be used
for advertising or trade purposes.” The Library cannot
provide further interpretation of this phrase.
-
Photographer Rights: Copyright to
photographs not produced by LOOK staff photographers may be retained by
the photographer and/or his or her heirs. It is the
researcher’s obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or
other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing
materials found in the Library’s collections.
Updated Kubrick Rights Statement -- Communications from Kubrick Family and Estate:
Based on communications with Stanley Kubrick’s family in
2001-2002, this rights statement originally said that there were
no restrictions on Stanley Kubrick’s work for LOOK Magazine. In
2011, the Kubrick estate told the Library that Stanley Kubrick had
been a staff photographer for only some of the period represented
in the LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection. The Kubrick estate
recognizes that Stanley Kubrick was a LOOK staff photographer from
January 7, 1947 to September 12, 1950.
Contact Information: Stanley Kubrick died on
March 7, 1999. SK Film Archives, LLC, a company owned by the Stanley
Kubrick family trusts, has informed the Library that it holds all rights
in Stanley Kubrick's intellectual properties. Permissions requests may
be directed to:
SK Film Archives LLC
c/o Wilmington Trust Company, Trustee Stanley Kubrick 1981 Trust
Rodney Square North
1100 North Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19890
Attention: Managing Director
Credit Line: Stanley Kubrick,
photographer, LOOK Magazine
Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints &
Photographs Division, [Reproduction number e.g., LC-L9-60-8812, frame
8].
For more information, please read: Copyright
and Other Restrictions That Apply to Publication/Distribution of Images: Assessing the Risk of Using a P&P Image
Earl Leaf Master Photographer.
NOTE: A special "guest post" today from Jonathon H, archive editor at Getty Images! As Jonathon has worked with the photographs by master celebrity photographer Earl Leaf for quite a while, he took slight offense at my tongue-in-cheek post on Mr. Leaf on the other blog…so I am MORE than happy to let Jon share these images and write an essay on the artist. I hereby defer, and can't thank Jon enough for the story and the great selection of images he pulled from the vast Getty Archives of Earl Leaf's work. A link to the Getty Archives follows Jonathon's essay and selections...great work by a remarkable man, and much appreciated!
Born in 1905 in Seattle and raised in San Francisco Earl Leaf spent many years finding his calling. By 1936 he was the North China manager of the United Press Associations (later known as UPI) covering the Sino-Japanese war. Before that he was a cowboy, sailor, prospector, dude rancher, harvest hand, actor, teamster, bookkeeper, Salvation Army cadet, guitar player in a Hawaiian trio in a Panama cabaret, member of the Nevada state legislature, and a journalist on the road covering unemployed migrants for the Reno Journal.
During his time covering the war in China he was the only western journalist to interview and photograph Mao and his comrades behind communist lines in 1938.
By 1940 he was back in the US (in New York) and was appointed as an advisor to Chinese government’s Central Publicity Board, and was basically China’s PR man in America.
During the war Earl served with the OSS a precursor to the CIA but there is little or no documentation as to what he did for them.
After the war Earl decided that he would be both a photographer and a journalist and spent time after the war in New York shooting the city and taking assignments to shoot artists like Martha Graham and then on to France to record life there after the war.
By 1949 Earl had picked up and moved back to the West Coast arriving in Hollywood in the summer of that year. By the Fall earl had his first Hollywood celebrity session shooting the actress Cleo Moore at home. While there were many celebrity shooters in Hollywood at that time earl broke new ground by shooting the starlets at home in their bedrooms usually in a skimpy negligee. Press agents took notice and soon he was shooting the B list elites like Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood who were under studio contract but hardly household names. It was Earl’s job to get them into the papers and fan magazines.
By the early 50’s earl was well established on the scene shooting both candid sessions (never in a studio) and out on the town hobnobbing with the cream of Hollywood like Bogart and Bacall, Brando, john Wayne etc. all of them would willingly pose for him and ham it up for the camera. He was welcome everywhere from the Oscars to Ciro’s the Mocambo and the Cocoanut Grove. Unlike almost all of the celebrity photographers of that time Earl not only took the photos but wrote his own stories in the fan magazines and had several syndicated columns.
During this time Earl also shot for the “girlie” magazines between assignments with the stars, mostly shooting fully clothed but sexy sessions of wannabe starlets roaming around Hollywood. Some of those starlets went on to fame and fortune in other fields like the luscious Joan Bradshaw who became an A list Hollywood producer in the 1980’s.
He also shot semi nude and nude sessions but these were not his main focus. For his men’s magazine persona Earl created a lascivious, boorish beatnik character that in today’s world is way over the top but he was beloved by his models and celebrities alike. He was the favourite of stars like Debbie Reynolds, Kim Novak and Jayne Mansfield.
During the 50’s he shot many musicians such as Elvis and Ricky Nelson but mainly because they were TV and movie stars but by the early 60’s earl had moved his focus to the burgeoning music scene both home grown and the British invasion. If they had a hit and were in Los Angeles Earl shot them. the Beatles, Stones, The Kinks, Hendrix, Joplin, Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, an incredibly young David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen and The Doors when they were the house band at the Whisky wearing suits and ties. And of course the Beach Boys. Earl was their main photographer and shot many of the iconic images of them and they even had a track called ‘Bull Session With "Big Daddy"’ written about Earl.
He slowed down in the 70’s and by 1980 at the age of 75 he was dead. Judging by his basic diet of coffee and cigarettes he had a pretty long life and it was certainly eventful.
The Getty Archives is HERE
Links Getty Images Getty Images Blog Getty Image Archive Tumblr
Additional comment from an anonymous follower: "In the early 60s, when I first started buying 'Teen, he was a faux
beatnix with the beard and beret. Then as the 60s moved along he just
became a weird old man. It's actually fun to look at the old columns and
photos to see people who at one time seemed so hip but weren't. I
should ask a friend of mine who knew a lot of the people featured in the
columns if she knew him. She danced on Bandstand, Where the Action Is
and, the best of al, Shindig. Then she was a go-go dancer at Gazaries
which was just down the street from the Whiskey. She'd hang out at the
Whiskey with Morrison. Let's just say she knew a lot of people in a
biblical manner. Went on to become a William Morris agent before going
into business onn her own and discovery people like Leonardo DiCaprio.
That town feeds on itself and Leaf was a prime example. The old eating
the young followed by the young devouring the old."
Folk Art Sculpture Carving
It IS a hot day here. The Soda Jerk is doing big business.
Good Luck Carved Horseshoe with folks sipping and sitting in the shade.
Circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman
I presume this is a funeral...and if so, it was for a notable indeed. Town founder? No indication on the reverse to indicate what is going on here, but it is some some serious somber sepia.
Original Anonymous Photograph, circa 1880 Collection Jim Linderman
Not only cowgirls, but cowgirls with big balls! Presumably the winners of the World International Bowling Congress…and a badge too! Those are some damn tough athletes…I'd hate to meet one in an alley. (Get it? Alley?) Haw.
The Women's International Bowling Congress was formed in 1916. The organization lasted until 2005, when they merged with another group.
Original 8 x 10 glossy photograph by Laughead Studio Dallas, Texas 1948 (with affixed 1948 stickpin) Collection Jim Linderman
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Why
would Bunny Yeager, my favorite Bettie Page photographer reject this photograph of
Jungle Girl up a tree? She had BETTER ones! An original contact print,
"edited out" by Bunny Yeager, but it remains a little treasure today.
Signed by Ms. Yeager on the reverse. The orange grease pen provides a
reminder that an artist was behind the camera as well, and while Bettie
had the look Bunny had the eye.
NOTES: Original photograph of Bettie Page circa 1955 Signed by Bunny Yeager on Reverse Contact Print collection Jim Linderman. More information on the Jungle Girl series is HERE on an earlier post. Layout below taken from eBay…unknown source, sorry.
Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available for preview or purchase HERE
Mid Century murky corporate history in nice bright colors! A salesman sample of unearthly colors! Maybe when someone writes the "history of mid-century modern" the history of Masland Vinyl will make sense, but today it's just lawsuit after lawsuit and merger after buyout after who knows what. Looks like they abandoned the trademark for Duraleather after spending a fortune to proove it was leather...I guess. Well, it wasn't. I do know, having spent the day at an outdoor antique show...they should make duct tape in every one of these colors so repairs in the "Monitor Quality" upholstery would be easier to achieve. Some kid must have stabbed every damn chair he ever sat in with a fork.
I'm tired of telling stories, let's just look at the pretty pictures. They got sued...they changed hands...end of story.
Salesman Sample Sheet for Masland Duraleather Yearling Haircell Grain Elastic Fabric Back Vinyl Upholstery. No date 1950?
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