True Crime Lost in Time ? Siple RELEASED? Hex Ridden Witchcraft Murder.
Well, I'm not quite sure how one makes a mistake about a faith healer killing his family, but sure enough, read the small notation scribed by someone down at the paper. "Siple was released"
Released?
"Father seized in "Hex" Death"
"Howard Siple, 33 year old faith healer and head doctor, has been jailed at Clarksburg, W. VA, charged with the "witchcraft murder," of his 12-year old daughter, Helen, and the poisoning of six others of his nine children. Siple migrated to Clarksburg from the Hex-Ridden farmland near York, PA. Siple is shown above left standing beside a state policeman. 7/3/34"
Now here is a real mystery for you. Why is Siple smiling if his family was murdered? I can only think it was a mistake, maybe involving a bad furnace and carbon monoxide? But even so, why is Siple SMILING? What is a "Head" doctor? For that matter, what is a "Hex Ridden Faith Healer?"
I looked around a little and found less. Short of calling the town historian, I'm not quite sure how to figure this one out. As you can see, they cops "collared" him…but the touch up guy at the newspaper actually drew in the collar.
Howard Siple Original Press Photograph 1934 Collection Jim Linderman
Folk Art Man Kicks Mule. What is left of a "Man Kicks Mule" Whirligig. Intricate mechanism inside allows the arm to be pulled down producing a firm kick in the rear. Circa 1930?
Collection Jim Linderman
Now that Junior Senator Crazy Cruz has somehow achieved the impossible: becoming as hated as it took fellow Republican Dick Nixon DECADES to do…the debt looms over us like never before. Cruz is formerly best known as an advisor to George Bush (the little one) also of Texas (purportedly.) He is now widely recognized as the biggest fruity pebble in the box. So it is appropriate Texas has offered to pay off the Chinese with the biggest bucks in history! Five times the size of regular dollars, each "Houston Buck" is worth one million dollars, and fully backed by the bank of the memory of Sam Houston!
With the motto "The Eyes of Texas" (are upon you) the huge currency lauds the city, but omits that the state has 25 million inhabitants without health insurance. Not to matter! With money like this, every one of us can afford the emergency room for even a hangnail!
BIGass Houston Dollar 1952 Premier Printing Houston Collection Jim Linderman
Richard and the Hollywood Puppet Show. Group of three original snapshot photographs, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
Woman with Checkered Dress Folk Art Lawn Art Collection Jim Linderman
See also IN-SITU: AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE book and Ebook HERE
Juvenile Gospel Singers with Hair Grease is a post on the Old Time Religion site as well.
The young Brown boys gussied up for performance with pomade!
Real Photo Postcard (no date)
Collection Jim Linderman
Articulated Figure Graphic Design Postcard from the USPS (Chicago Branch)
No Date Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS and $5.99 ebooks by Linderman HERE
Film predicts reality, as Catherine Zeta Jones has apparently decided to divorce Michael Douglas. I have no idea why, and it is none of my business…but what poses as "news" today brought it to my attention. Which is why I watched the most underrated Coen Brothers movie ever, Intolerable Cruelty. How well does she play the uber-litigious spurned spouse? You'll see if you take my advice.
Personally, and I'll go right out and say it...she reminds me of the first woman Bruce Springsteen married. Remember her name? Nope. An actress. Again, I have no idea of the irreconcilable differences between Catherine and Liberace...but I hope they can work it out.
Lost at the time, as it appeared to be yet another cruddy romantic comedy…guess what folks? It's a COEN BROTHERS MOVIE and it is great. A gift. It's like being given a present you couldn't even imagine.. FULL of Coen brothers odd film angles, weird perspectives, outrageous characters… and every bit as funny as the Dude's dream.
By the way...Inside Llewyn Davis isn't the first film making use of a folksinger by the brothers. Let's just say Paul Simon songs appears on the soundtrack. Often. Repeatedly. Hilariously.
Watch it while you wait for Inside Llewyn Davis.
You'll thank me.
Buck Barry Singing Cowboy of WOOD TV
Every town with a television station had their own local celebrities, and they still do. The local weatherman is still recognized when he goes to the mall, and local broadcasters still make their appearances at local food festivals and such. My local celeb as a boy was Buck Barry. Check out the primitive "cowboy style double B brand" signature!
I've found two pieces of Buck Barry detritus since moving back to Michigan and each brought a smile, as I was on Buck's afternoon show along with the other members of my cub scout troop. How my (Den) mother arranged for it is a mystery now, but it was just one of the things she did while raising me which I have learned to appreciate. No, I did not "buck up" in cowboy drag like the little buckaroos here…I wore my cub scout uniform, and remember being terrified to lead the pledge of allegiance at the start of the show.
I was prepared to slam Buck with my typical hip irony, but it turns out Mr. Barry the buckaroo had quite a career before settling in as the afternoon three stooges host. (He introduced a segment every day, and made sure we understood their gags were not to be done at home.)
Buck Joseph Barry was a singing cowboy with Gene Autry Credentials. He was born in 1917 and rode with the Col. Tim McCoy Wild West Show starting in 1938. He landed a radio gig on WOOD radio which eventually led to his afternoon television show. He often yodeled on the show and played a sunburst Gibson while doing it. He recorded one 45 rpm with The Countrymen and gave a lesson on the flip side.
There were two horses named Thunder (who also appeared with Buck at events.) One was lost in a fire, but everyone pitched in and bought Buck Thunder two. Both are shown in my "Thunder career-spanning" ephemera collection!
The Cowboy revival band "Riders in the Sky" have a special relationship with Buck's memory…Fred "Too Slim" LaBour who plays bass in for the band is a Grand Rapids native and credits Buck with their yodeling.
The Buckaroo Rodeo ran for nearly 15 years on WOOD-TV out of Grand Rapids.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum, who mounted a Buck Berry exhibit in 1997, provides the studio set photograph above. More information on Buck is HERE and his wiki is HERE
Buck is buried in Texas.
Official Buck Barry postcard swag collection LIttle Jimmy Linderman
Big Head Man with No Torso Folk Art Sculpture now living on my shelf. Photos (and carving) courtesy Rick Ege Antiques. Rick has a good eye and a great selection of objects d'curious! Visit his site HERE
Antique American Indian Folk Art Puppet circa 1890 in Buckskin and Beads. A fully articulated 24" tall handmade puppet with hide buckskin clothing, beads and Victorian cloth highlights. Original paint on face and feathers. Found in Central Michigan. More properly called a marionette, as the figure moves on strings attached to a wooden X control bar. The oldest and most interesting folk art puppet I have found, but the technique certainly goes back centuries earlier.
Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND ebooks by Jim Linderman are available for preview or purchase HERE
Vintage 1950 Handmade Paper Mache Cheshire Cat Grins.
Collection Jim Linderman
All Dull Tool Dim Bulb books are now available for $5.99 download HERE
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
