African American Motorcycle Club Pair of Original Polaroid photographs

African American Motorcycle Club Pair of Original Polaroid photographs 
Collection Jim Linderman

Fun with Furzies ! Flocking the Furzie way from Zenith Toys of Brooklyn

We have quite a few artists followers on Dull Tool Dim Bulb, so you might be on the lookout for some Furzie inspired works to show up at your local gallery soon.  FURZIES are "an exciting new style of picture in brilliant colors of breath-taking beauty…WITH A FUR LIKE FEEL!

 "Hello?  It's Larry "Go Go" Gagosian on the phone?  Tell him I'm busy.  The open studio tour is next week."

Zenith of Brooklyn made a few cheap toys in the 1950s for the young members of the baby-boom.  Furzies failed (as this will be the first time it appears on the web) but I'm glad to contribute.  The idea was to paint on some glue (included) and then use the cardboard sifter (included) to sprinkle on colored fur.  I won't open the individual bags to feel the texture, but the kit also includes a SAMPLE hastily made on the production line.

"Dear? How was work today…I wore something special and made your favorite meatloaf?" 

"I must have painted twenty thousand effing furzies…I'm too tired!

The Furzie sample is above.  Of course, the theme is cowboys and indians.  No comment there, but you know.  OH…there is also a tiny easel included to display your flocking set of furies!  "Flocking" is noted on the box cover.  It is the process of depositing many small fiber particles (called flock) onto a surface."  Another reason not to open them.  Mask NOT included.

Zenith Have Fun with Furzies Cowboys and Indians Flocking Set circa 1955 Zenith Toy Company Brooklyn, NY  Collection Jim Linderman

The Amazing Story of Jesse T. Stubbs Monument Builder Orange Tree Promoter and Hero The Road to Peace on 42nd Street

IN 1947, a strange man entered a Kansas City pawn shop and left with $750 dollars in his pocket.  He had pawned an amazing book.  It was handmade and two feet long, covered in the finest red leather, encrusted with jewels and titled "Orange Blossoms Over America."  The author, and the man pawning the book was Jesse T. Stubbs. The book was locked and encased in a box a foot thick.
 
There were 13 stones.  Diamonds, rubies and sapphires.  Mr. Stubbs told the pawn owner he needed money to travel to Washington.  He said he would return in a few months to reclaim the book.  He never did.

Two years later, Pawn owner Phil Tobias had a duplicate key made to open the book, and the story of Mr. Stubbs was revealed.

Once a wealthy man, Mr. Stubbs had lost it all during the stock crash of 1929.  His wealth had apparently come from prospecting and then selling securities. He also obtained a small orange grove and began tending orange trees as a hobby.  At some time, an accident left him unable to straighten up…hit by a steam shovel.

Stubbs came upon a notion.  He decided to spread orange trees to every corner of the country.  He uprooted a tree and planted in on the back of a trailer and began his travels.  He reached too many cities and states to count.  Ending up in NYC, he built a large glass encased box for his orange tree.   He took a job as a parking attendant to pay for the project and to protect his tree.  The parking lot, (apparently the very same one Kramer on Seinfeld found a condom in George Costanza's car) was on 12th Avenue and 42nd street.  By 1939, his tree was living in a corner of the lot.  The glass for the case came from discarded window glass.  Below is Jesse's Orange tree standing in the shadow of the New York Skyline, a detail from the painting above.

At one time in Jesse's life, he took a break from tending the tree to walk to Alaska.  The famed humorist Will Rogers and his buddy Wiley Post were killed in an airplane crash in 1935, and the tree-tending parking lot attendant had a "retroactive" vision of sorts…he decided to travel to Alaska and build a memorial to Will Rogers 15 years after their plane went down in the most remote area of the state.  At the time, Stubbs was 72 years old.  He made it to Anchorage, but the last 850 miles would be tough.  He left with a 60 pound Siberian husky named Quacco pulling an 80 pound sled.  They made nearly 450 miles on their own, and upon reaching Fairbanks and he accepted a plane ride to the site in Barrow, Alaska.

There ARE powerful miracles made by man, and Jesse Stubbs not only made it to the crash site, he completed his stone and concrete monument to Will and Wiley!   The statue, an obelisk ten feet tall with four square blocks was completed.  it is still accessible only by airplane.

The "more official" monument gets most of the attention, but here is Jesse's on the right, still standing, in a photograph from the National Register of Historic Places.

Jesse Stubbs passed away in 1960 at the age of 81. 

The image above is a real photo postcard  which shows a painting of "The Traveling Memorial" by Jesse Stubbs depicting an orange tree in full bloom that he transported from coast to coast in an exhibit so that people could see the growth of an orange  After V-J Day he decided to exhibit a painting of his exhibit at Times Square in New York City to honor the sacrifices made by the military during WW II.  This card is a photograph of that memorial.  It appears in the book AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN SITU AVAILABLE HERE.  The back of the image is below.

 Real Photo Postcard circa 1945 collection Jim Linderman

Antique Blueprint Drawings Staten Island Ferry and Wacky War Machines

Antique Blueprint Drawings.  Staten Island Ferry and Wacky War Machines! We can thank Alphonse Politevin for inventing the blueprint drawing in 1861. He determined a chemical (gerro-gallate) was light sensitive.  It turns blue when exposed!  These splendid examples come from a collection bound by staples.  The group collects numerous transportation examples from the 1920s.  One shows the Staten Island Ferry (which I recognize from the three times I visited Staten Island (in 24 years) while living in Manhattan.  Others reveal cockamamie war machines and a motorcycle with a picnic basket.  Let's go motoring!  As you can see, the technique wasn't perfect…still it was the primary technique for copying and sharing diagrams for decades. 

Untitled book of blueprint images (amateur?) circa 1920.  Collection Jim Linderman

William Young Invents the Tiny House Fad 1935! From the book In Situ American Folk Art in Place by Jim Linderman

William Young is shown with his less than regal sleeping accommodations in 1935.  Yes, it is only a pushcart with a bed, but they were desperate times.  Mr. Young attempted to travel from New York to Florida, and I believe he made it.  Note on the side of the cart reads "All Aboard to St. Petersburg Florida" and it appears he brought his wife along!  Note Whirligig on the right chimney, carved bird on the left.
FROM THE BOOK IN SITU AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE by JIM LINDERMAN available in paperback or Instant Download HERE at Blurb.com

 

Fourth Dimension Blows Up! Japan Transfer Sticker Space Travel

Well, not "blown up" but scanned at a high resolution and enlarged.  I am a sucker for vintage Japanese graphics.  There are several sets of these for sale on ebay currently!  See link below. 

After the big one, we helped Japan return to sound financial footing by giving them a market for cheap toys.  Our own baby boom!  All manner of celluloid toys, tricks and yes, stickers, could be sold to the offspring in our expanding suburbs.  In that manner both economies grew.  It was early globalization and all benefited.  I love stories with happy endings.  But then some politicians with no positive agenda to push other than A) denying women the right to make their own decisions and B) helping the rich came along.  So, they invented the boogie man: Job-taking "others" to scapegoat.  Want to ruin the economy of us AND them?  Close the borders.  

See other sets for sale HERE on ebay.

Raw Vision reviews Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries by Jim Linderman

Raw Vision Magazine is essential for any art collector or library of art books.  Subscriptions, the current issue and back issues are available HERE

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Colors of the Month Lettuce Green and Princess Blue Artnamel

There is no date on this Cochran Artnamel salesman sample, but one source indicates 1930s, more or less.  Hmm. A shame, as this seemingly defunct brand had a good name.  Artnamel!  I like it.  I would use a product called Artnamel to paint my little models(if I had any) and what-have-you(s?) and I used a trademark search to see if it is available. It is!  My scan was brief and I am no lawyer, but it seems to be another trade name in the graveyard of color.

Billy Burke's Toothpick Park American Folk Art in Place IN SITU the BOOK by Jim Linderman

As the note on the reverse asks, how could anyone have so much patience?  He was in stir.  The Greybar Hotel.  The slammer, the cooler, up the river.  Actually Billy Burke was in Folsom Prison and time kept dragging on.  Joe Yerz helped.  There is a FILM!
  
Billy Burke Toothpick Victory Funzone c. 1940  Collection Jim Linderman from the book
AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN SITU now available HERE in paperback and instant
PDF Download.

FREE PREVIEW of the NEW BOOK AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE:IN SITU by Jim Linderman

American Folk Art in Place IN SITU

By Jim Linderman

 260 Pages! 

 Available in paperback $24 dollars plus postage or instant PDF Download

for $10.00

ORDER HERE

Vintage Photographs of Folk Art Environments and Outsider Artists at work.  Many never before seen and many gone forever.

From the Collection of Jim Linderman

Ephemeral Folk Art on the Beach Sand Sculpture by a Crippled Artist original vintage snapshot

Ephemeral Folk Art on the Beach  Sand Sculpture by a Crippled Artist original vintage snapshot
Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Photograph of Uncle Sam Folk Art and Friends

Vintage Photograph of Uncle Sam Folk Art and Friends Anonymous, no date circa 1940 collection Jim Linderman

Mystery Item from Dull Tool Dim Bulb

I will admit to knowing what this beast of burden is...do you?  3 feet long with neck extended.  Whatzit collection Jim Linderman

Real Photo Postcard of the Week Ride 'em! RPPC

Real Photo Postcard of the Week  Ride 'em!  (detail) No Date  Collection Jim Linderman

Sherlock Holmes solves the puzzle of the Plummeting Pound

That globalization is a bitch, eh?  Some tousle-headed Donald Trump wannabe who looks like Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits on a REALLY BAD DAY effs up the whole world's economy with his ill-planned racist myopic campaign to reach the similarly ill-informed voter.  They ruined my 401K and I didn't even get to vote!   Look at that tool.  Remind you of anyone?

Damn that Murdoch and his media domination.  Every time I hear some Republican complain about the "lame stream" media, I want to tell them that little evil prick Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Sky News in the UK and that filthy rag The Sun Newspaper over there too.  Trump just had lunch with him while the UK watches 40 years of stability and progress leave town.  Murdoch is the real mainstream media.  Together, the whole lot has the journalistic credibility of that closeted Matt Drudge, the fake Walter Winchell.  We have let journalism shrink to the stature of a supermarket pet cage bottom.

Brexiter is just another way to say Idiot…which also happens to be the very same group of constituents supporting Trump.  (Shudder)  I hope some of them learn their lesson from this debacle and try actually thinking before pulling the handle down.   You want a REAL return to recession?  Vote for Trump and watch the dollar sink like the sun goes down off the white cliffs of Dover.

Still, globalization is here to stay, as our real leaders are big corporations and big brands…not buffoons like Trump.  I just wish they had seen Brexit coming.  They underestimated the stupidity of the scared, white voter who won't ever fit into the world coming.  I wish the news reporters would call them that instead of xenophobic.  None of them even know what the word means! 

The Brits should be used to globalization by now.  Here, we see their greatest creation, Sherlock Holmes, was repurposed in TURKEY or somewhere.  It is a small world.  MY vote goes to Serlok Holmes.

Antique Erotic Folk Art Debauched Bacchanal Nude Women Carving

Erotic Folk Art Antique Carving Two Nude Women in Debauched Revelry! Circa 1930 Pennsylvania origin Collection Jim Linderman. Thanks to Mark Smerkanich