Make-Do Folk Art Reddi wip Watering Can

Make-Do Folk Art Reddi wip Watering Can No Date Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND $5.99 Ebooks by the author available HERE

Shot from a Cannon F. O. Gregg Daredevil, Stuntman, Astronaut and Fearless photo collection Jim Linderman

 

Shot from a Cannon.  Fearless F. O. Gregg went on to daredevil fame with automobiles, but It would be hard to beat his "shot out of a cannon" stunt.  He poses like an Olympian while flying...and this pose had to come while in transit.  

Original 8 x 10 photograph circa 1930 Van Fossen Photo Chicago, IL and Beckers, Davenport IA, and Real Photo Azo Postcard circa same.  Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE

David Blom and his Big Oxen Pete and Punk visit the Fair!

Although I did find an article about Pete and Punk in a 1954 newspaper, it adds little to the big story.

Pete and Punk Postcard circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Amateur Porky the Pig Folk Art Mask and the legendary Porky Son of a...Son of a....Son of A.... Clip

A child's school project of Porky the Pig.  See Porky swear in the clip below.

Amateur Folk Art Porky the Pig Mask.  Plaster of Paris circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

A Complicated 6 Figure Antique Whirligig Folk Art

An early 20th century piece, but as it had a rotating circle atop the figures and mechanism while it lived outside, the piece is in pretty good condition.  Two sawing men and four hammering men work as the gears turn by the wind.  It would require a good deal of repair to be put back in working order, but the effort which went into the making is much evident.

Six Figure Whirligig, early 20th Century.  Collection Jim Linderman

Early African-American Beauty Pageant circa 1955? Original transparent Slide Collection Jim Linderman

A striking, and notable photograph slide from the 1950s collection Jim Linderman

A decade or more before the chant "Black is Beautiful" some history appears to be happening here.

While the promoters likely wish you didn't know it now,  "Rule Number Seven" prevented women of color from participating in the Miss America contest until around 1970!   The rule specified contestants had to be of the white race, although much earlier pageants had used them in dance numbers as slaves.  During the nascent days of the 1970s women's movent, they had reasons to hate the show they didn't even know.  That is, the show did not objectify women equally!

This pageant, on the west coast by an unidentified photographer certainly not only proves how wrong the Atlantic City promoters were, it seems to break serious ground.  As I wrote in the book "Secret History of the Black Pinup" it was photographer Howard Morehead who organized the first black beauty pageant in Los Angeles in 1958.  This slide could document one even earlier.

In 2002, PBS aired a documentary in The American Experience series reporting Black communities organized their own, and they did.  This is a splendid example, and one I believe was not widely reported.  Further study?  Black Beauty Pageants.  The documentary mentions a 1968 pageant, but not this one.

Let's hope some doctoral students pick up on this.  Black History Month is on the way. 

Untitled Slide Photograph Untitled (Black Beauty Contest) circa 1955?  3" x 3"
Collection Jim Linderman

Young Girl Tintype with Pine Tree Painted Backdrop Folk Art Primitive Painting and Portrait

A folk art portrait and painting in one!  The book THE PAINTED BACKDROP explores the relationship between folk art limners and early photographic painted backdrops.  Available now as a $5.99 Ebook download for iPad  HERE

The Painted Backdrop by Jim Linderman DULL TOOL DIM BULB 

Flash Ray Gun

Check out my new Pew Pew Pew gun!  Everyone knows Jihye Yuk now…the Pew Pew girl….but I thought of her when posting my ray gun, so here you go. Pew!  Pew!

GIFSoup

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 8 Jazz with Guitar, Trumpet and Clarinet Snapshot

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 8 in the series.
Original Snapshot circa 1935 collection Jim Linderman  Unidentified Musicians  

A Funny Box

A Funny Box

Ventriloquist Hell Snapshot 1961 Collection Jim Linderman (and Free Preview of I'm With Dummy the Book)

 

The Book I'm With Dummy is previewed below.  Available in Paperback for 19.95 and Ebook Dowload for $5.99 at Blurb.com

I'M WITH DUMMY Vent Figures and Blockheads by JIM LINDERMAN |

Polaroid Snapshot 1961 collection Jim Linderman

Winter Whirligig Folk Art Man

The fellow who guards my blueberry plants in Summer and Fall is having a BAD Winter.

Working Whirligig in Ice collection Jim Linderman

Success Boulevard Failure Avenue Happiness Lane and the Prosperity Inn Christmas 1937

Success Boulevard Failure Avenue Happiness Lane and the Prosperity Inn Christmas 1937
Christmas Card 1937 Collection Jim Linderman

Boydell Paint Salesman Sample Card

Early (and lovely) "paint chip" sample card for the Boydell Prepared Paint company.  Boydell Paints were founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1865.   Interestingly, the paints were here distributed by Crawford and Travis Druggists.  Drug stores have come full circle...the Walgreen's not far from here tries to carry everything in addition to drugs.  

Boydell Brothers Paint Salesman Sample Card.  Circa 1900?  Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number Seven in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Untitled (Dance Lessons?)  Undated original snapshot no date.  The Birth of Rock and Roll Number seven in the series.  Performer Unknown.  Collection Jim Linderman

Last Night's Christmas Program in 1914

Hand painted program December 18, 1914  Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number Six in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number six in the series.  Original publicity 8 x 10 glossy photo by W. M. Byrnes June 1956!  Performers Unknown.

0 comments

Will Rogers Tiny House Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

Will Rogers Tiny House!

Will Rogers was born in 1879 and passed away in 1935. 

The tiny house is mentioned in a 1942 newspaper article, so it existed then.  I've seen another snapshot supposedly from 1939.   The house (actually a sign) welcomed visitors to Dog Iron Ranch in Indian Territory Oklahoma.   It replicates the house in which Will Rogers was born.

Mr. Rogers was  one- fourth Cherokee Native American and his father was a Cherokee Judge.  He dropped out of school in the tenth grade, and as a very young man, Will had already traveled to (and worked) in Argentina and South Africa.  He was the first civilian to fly from coast to coast.

He was, of course and famously a Democrat, but in 1928 ran a mock campaign for the presidency on the "Anti-Bunk" ticket.  He declared himself the winner, and resigned the same day.

The famous "I never met a man I didn't like" was a reference to Leon Trotsky.

While best known for his speaking voice, he made over 30 silent films.

A genuine hero.  Wiki is HERE

Snapshot circa 1939 of the tiny Will Rogers house welcomes visitors to his hometown.  Collection Jim Linderman.

Antique Folk Art Sculpture Large Articulated Doll Carving with One Leg Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Sculpture Large Articulated Doll Carving with One Leg 
Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll number five in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series. Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll number five is a snapshot circa 1950 (integrated dance) from the Jim Linderman Collection.  The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

The High and Ho of Weegee Bernard Bailey High Magazine and Ho Magazine from Periodical House Publish Weegee's Poison Portraits

I am not a Weegee scholar, but I am a fan, and also recognize the importance of his work.  I also know the magazine High and Ho are today pretty scarce, as editor and art director Bernard Bailey's goofy idea of putting TWO narrow magazines on the top shelf in the place of one didn't work out.  Note the prices.  I don't think he had market research in the late 1950s which indicated a fellow was inclined to pay 35 cents for HO! (The LONG magazine) and 25 cents for HIGH (the TALL magazine) either.  So few today have seen them.  Each issue was 100 skinny pages and come from 1957 and 1958.  The Golden Age of smutty glamor.

Bailey did have the good taste to either hire, or purchase, a considerable amount of Weegee's more experimental work.  Distortions and treatments.   They are titled "Poison Portraits" and Weegee's Weirdies" and they are that..

I have no idea if the copyright on High and Ho is abandoned or has been assumed by the International Center of Photography, where you can find lots of material on the photographer.  I AM sure they own the images.  The Weegee Archive was bequeathed to ICP in 1993 by Wilma Wilcox, Weegee’s long-term partner, and it is a treasure.  Wikipedia tells the story, and as you can see the institution has exhibited some, if not all, the images here:

"In 1980 Weegee's widow, Wilma Wilcox, Sidney Kaplan, Aaron Rose and Larry Silver formed The Weegee Portfolio Incorporated to create an exclusive collection of photographic prints made from Weegee’s original negatives.  As a bequest, Wilma Wilcox donated the entire Weegee archive - 16,000 photographs and 7,000 negatives to the International Center of Photography in New York. This 1993 gift became the source for several exhibitions and books include "Weegee's World" edited Miles Barth (1997) and "Unknown Weegee" edited by Cynthia Young (2006). The first and largest exhibition was the 329-image "Weegee's World: Life, Death and the Human Drama," brought forth in 1997. It was followed in 2002 by "Weegee's Trick Photography," a show of distorted or otherwise caricatured images, and four years later by "Unknown Weegee," a survey that emphasized his more benign, post-tabloid photographs. In 2012 ICP opened another Weegee exhibition titled, "Murder is my Business". Also in 2012, exhibition called "Weegee: The Naked City" opened at Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow"

Bailey's narrow magazines are bound well and not easily mashed onto my scanner…but let's take a look at some obscurities by Arthur Felig.  Weegee's Weirdies is listed in the bibliography of his works HERE, but Weegee's Poison Portraits seems not to be, so here you go.

Bernard Bailey, editor and art director of High and Ho is a bit more obscure, but like many folks working in the golden age of smut, came from the comic book environment.  I'll say it again...Kefauver was right.  He was an artist who worked for both DC comics and Atlas, which eventually became Marvel.  His bio is HERE.

Not much has been published about his connection with High and Ho.  Interestingly, High turned into a normal sized magazine after the tall experiment, but it didn't last much longer.  Both magazines are chock-full of now prominent artists, photographers and models.  Bernard had good taste, if not business sense.

Tall and Long issues of High 1957 and Ho 1958
Photography Books by the author include The Birth of Rock and Roll, Take Me to the Water and In Situ American Folk Art in Place.
Photographs  by Weegee / INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Somewhat Anatomically Correct Man on a String Folk Art Carving Articulated Limberjack

Somewhat Anatomically Correct Man on a String Folk Art Carving circa 1930

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR AVAILABLE HERE

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 4 from Dull Tool Dim Bulb

The Birth of Rock and Roll number four is an original slide circa 1950 from the Jim Linderman Collection, and we like it so much we gave it a watermark!  The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

Untitled Original Color Slide circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman

BIG Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet Collection Jim Linderman

About as big as they go, an Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet.  Turn of the century or so, nearly 30 inches tall.  Original paint.  The mid-section is a sponge material which has deteriorated. 

Collection Jim Linderman