It is almost as if there used to be an unspoken, institutional refusal to acknowledge the beauty and validity of Native-American Art. To admit the culture or peoples you are discriminating against (or unfortunately, slaughtering) is capable of creating art which reaches or exceeds the contributions of one's own dominant culture is somehow inconvenient. Thus Indigenous Antique Native American Art has for the most part (in the relatively short history of European culture in the Americas) been traditionally relegated as "artifact" rather then art. Somehow, it is easier to explain away the treatment of a culture if you dismiss or avoid their contributions of an artistic or spiritual nature. This has certainly changed over the last few decades, as splendid and exceptional examples have finally been placed in spotlights before the "correct" people and presented as the art it is rather than storing the objects in the back room of the Natural History Museum.
That there is moral, ethical and often legal baggage in collecting (and owning) Native American art is undeniable. It is a rather splendid irony that some of the most beautiful examples ARE baggage! The Parfleche. Although produced by the thousands by virtually every tribe within reach or trade of Buffalo skin, the word is not recognized by my spell checker. Parfleche, basically French for "against arrows" is applied to hard, durable cases and objects of dried hide as they could do just that. Deflect the tip of an arrow. The Indian backpack, saddle bags or suitcase otherwise known as Parfleche is itself a wonderful functional adaptation, but each tribe also imbued them with colorful patterns which appear similar, but as with all art forms, as one becomes familiar it is easy to discern between motifs and tribes. Collectors of American Indian Art may know about beaded objects, woven objects and pottery...but painting was involved as well! Painted Drums, Shields and Parfleche are, I believe, the best kept secret in American Art.
Among collectors, of which there are not too many, I suppose Plains tribe examples are most common. Other groups, Plateau even Southwestern, produced the Parfleche as well. The technique was the same...stretch it out, stake the ends to let it dry and fold the object like a giant wet burrito into a rectangle. It will stiffen hard as rock. Then decorated with vegetal dye, maybe some urine, (yep...just like Andres Serrano) or pigment with family, tribal or spiritual design. Each roughly two foot long case would hold family items, documents, clothing, even food as it was carried on horses, lashed to packs and hung in tents. Early Native American painted objects are rare, but exceptionally beautiful. The FIRST ABSTRACT ART produced within these shores, they belong not in museums of relics or artifacts, but exhibited as fine art alongside the art of European cultures.
To my knowledge, the Parfleche has never been presented in a major exhibition on the East coast, although they turn up in antique shows and isolated pieces are occasionally seen in folk art gallery shows. Santa Fe galleries and institutions exhibit them more frequently. The National Museum of the American Indian in New York owns splendid pieces but I don't think more than one or two are shown at any given time. They look like Mondrian, but they are much, much older and far less "valuable" though no less important.
The "best" are Buffalo, old and pre-reservation era. Later examples were produced for trade (and tourist trade) from cowhide. Reproductions, recent examples and even some made to deceive exist. Smaller items such as medicine bags were also produced, these often were stitched rather than lashed and have bayeta trade cloth "selvedge" sewn on the edges with sinew. Authentic matched pairs are particularly desirable and though "price is in the presentation" it is not to difficult to find splendid pieces on the market.
The major work and exhibition of Parfleche remains the 1994 book by Gaylord Torrence. The American Indian Parfleche: A tradition of Abstract Painting broke ground when it was published, and remains one of the most beautiful books on art ever produced. Jim Linderman
"Interest in Edward Hickman, Los Angeles "Fox Slayer" of Marian Parker has not laxed since his trial and death sentence, judging from this picture of the crowd journeying to Richmond, California to get a glimpse of the young slayer as he was hustled from a train to a ferry bound for San Quentin Prison to serve a life sentence. Hickman is bareheaded and sweater clad. Manacled to him and at the right is Welby Hunt, his pal in another crime, who was sentenced to life imprisonment."
Anonymous Press Photograph, hand-embellished 1928 Collection Jim Linderman
Linnea Eleanor "Bunny" Yeager is a pioneer woman photographer whose work you know but don't. Those in the art world may be tempted by pass her by as she worked in the pin-up business. That's right, a woman taking pictures of women for men...and in the 1950s no less. Yeager took some shots of a personal, patronizing kind as well: she was named "Prettiest Photographer in the World" by US Camera Magazine in 1953. (With competition from fellows like Weegee, I'm not quite sure how much of an honor this is) Likely the only professional photographer who has had her measurements reported by Celebrity Sleuth, she was also named one of the top ten women "Photographers of the Year" in 1959 by the Professional Photographers of America and has lived long enough to see her work exhibited in a retrospective at the Andy Warhol Museum last year.
Not only did Bunny photograph pin-ups for Playboy (and countless other men's magazines) she was a model herself. Born in Pennsylvania, Bunny moved to Florida and soon became one of the most in-demand models on the beach. No less than Joltin' Joe Di Maggio, himself a fine judge of female talent, crowned her "Miami Sports Queen" in 1949. But Bunny had artistic aims and brains along with her beauty and began taking pictures of her fellow models, many of whom posed for free to help her out. She reportedly had an additional advantage...some of the more modest models had no difficulty shedding ALL their clothes for a woman, and much of her early work was nudes rather than the "nearly nudes." made by her male competition. Her empathy and collaboration with the models helped her create stupendous glamor. One of her first works became a cover for Eye Magazine. A few years later she photographed vacationing Bettie Page and sent the pictures to Hugh Hefner. One became the centerfold and Bettie became Playmate of the Month in January 1955. She later took the famous beach photos of Ursula Andress used for the James Bond film Dr. No. She liked Hollywood...much of her work was for the industry even if her credits read like a "B Movie" festival. Bunny is still doing still work from what I can tell. by Jim Linderman
Uncredited Photographs published in "Scamp" magazine 1957
The Second Annual prestigious Dull Tool Dim Bulb Lifetime Achievement Award™ award goes to Michigan native Iggy Pop, nee' Iggy Stooge nee' James Newell "Iquana" Osterberg Jr. of Muskegon, Michigan.
One of my heroes since I was a child, King Iggy was born 12 miles north of where I sit today. By the time I was old enough to sneak out and see him perform, he was already hooked on junk and living across the state in a radical pig-stye in Ann Arbor performing as retarded baby brother to the MC5. (Another glorious group of talented misfits worth searching You tube for, and whose once thought revolutionary claptrap now seem like prophecy)
Iggy's first "big" record was probably "Search and Destroy" which not only managed to put the Vietnam war into perfect perspective a decade before Springsteen's "Born in the USA" it also managed to name check another prominent Michigan invention...Napalm.
I first heard of the mighty Iggy when someone, I can not remember who, told me they saw a performer cover his chest with an unknown sticky substance and chicken feathers while terrifying an audience of about 50 people. This would have been around 1968. Subsequent performances, which I always did my best to see, included peanut butter, blood, vomit and an abandon that makes Mick Jagger look as stiff as Richard Nixon (who I also saw the same year, running for president and already tricking the good folks of the state in the Civic Center of Grand Rapids) Just for the record, around the time Mick Jagger was pleading from a nice safe stage in limp fey voice "come ON people" as a man was being beaten to death by Hell's Angels in front of him at Altamont, Iggy was literally fist brawling with bikers while recording his live album "Metallic K.O."
Furthermore, Iggy is no fool. One can easily find the clip for the show in which a drugged out, wounded and near toothless Iggy discusses the difference between Dionysian art and Apollonian art with a stunned Tom Snyder. (I am not kidding here...there is a clear and pure artistic vision at work in this muscular addled and addicted musician) I am also sure he won every damn argument he ever had with David Bowie, even if he was slurring his words. Iggy also had the charm to romance no less than Dinah Shore on national television.
For his unswerving ability to make every other "rock" performer seem like a pussy, and in this I do not exaggerate, every damn one. For his uncanny ability to keep a waistline and torso hard as stone well until his fifties. For entering not "rehab" but a freaking MENTAL HOSPITAL to get cured (Man up, rock star wannabes) For his amazing celebration of life despite the adversity of commercial failure, drug addiction, the loss of friends and surviving in a world he invented but has profited from less than shallow imitators...and because "Search and Destroy" "I Wanna be Your Dog" "The Passenger" "Real Wild Child" "Five Foot One" and "Lust for Life" are among the greatest songs of my generation. For once being so desperate to PERFORM he hired Soupy Sales children to back him and finally because Iggy has managed to have ten lives in the time most of us have one, the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Lifetime Achievement award is bestowed. For most performers, selling a song for a commercial is a loser, pathetic thing. For Iggy, it is freaking just rewards and poetic justice.
The astounding clips here include an iconic, legendary, crowd-walking performance which belongs in the Museum of Modern Art collection (seriously) and the equally legendary performance 40 years later when Madonna, another Michigander, shamed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by choosing a REAL rock and roller to perform her songs when she was inducted.
As is tradition with the Dull Tool Lifetime Achievment Award™, a few little known facts about the award winner:
He did the voice of "Lil' Rummy" on the Comedy Central show Lil' Bush.
Elijah Wood is to play him in a forthcoming biopic, which keeps failing to get off the ground as no actor can come close to matching even a 30 second clip of the artist.
He reportedly called Moe Howard when naming his band, to make sure he wouldn't be upset there was another band of Stooges.
He invented the Stage-Dive
He ran away from school to learn drums with legendary bluesman Sam Lay, who played for Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Bob Dylan...Dylan himself once sent a telegram thanking Sam for playing on "what many say is my best album." So even as a child Iggy had the taste for the real thing. Jim Linderman
An unusual addition to the "At the Circus in Black and White" series as this is actually a unique photograph of a silent film being made at Universal Studios in 1915. Remarkable that even as early as this circus sideshow banners were familiar enough in the public consciousness to satirize them in a movie. Also remarkable that even back in the silent era, motion picture studios would go to the trouble to commission such elaborate (if primitive) backdrops for what would have been used only in a brief scene or short film. Add a scary clown, a fellow in drag and a miniature pony...it all adds up to a great photo!
Photo of Film Set Universal Studios 1915 Collection Jim Linderman
A personal note...I suspect I am going to be slowing down the posts on DULL TOOL DIM BULB. Many of you know I have breathing problems...living in Times Square gave me 25 years of diesel flavored air, running in the park every night after rush hour sucked in plenty more, and 9/11 gave me another solid dose of minuscule lung fibers, so only I'm good about half-a day. I do the posts and take my medicine but it's been a long winter, I'm wore out and hung to dry. Plus, I am having such a wonderful time putting together the VINTAGE SLEAZE blog, which is going very very well indeed.
I also have to do a few other things. Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books while unprofitable, deserves attention...and another book is on the way. I have an EXTRAORDINARY story to research, it will take some time and effort but I am anxious to get started. It's almost time to start growing the tomaters. Plus, somehow I'm going to scrape up the energy to scrape down the house and paint it. I'm going to do one square inch a day...unless it rains.
I am NOT abandoning the site! Merely devoting a bit more time to the OTHER sites. I expect to post at least once a week at Dull Tool Dim Bulb, so not to fear.
I recently found another photograph of Good Doctor Gonad...one of my favorite scoundrels of the past. Several books about him are linked at right. I wrote about the crook in a previous post, his gambit was inserting sheep glands into depression era men (apparently even one vice-president) in order to jump-start their waning libidos. Basically a medicine show fraud grown rich and powerful, his greatest accomplishment (other than ripping off "softies" way before the invention of Viagra) was the radio station he set up over the border in Mexico to avoid the scarce few government regulators around at the time. Yes, surprisingly, there used to be corporate shysters who would take advantage of the good folk of the country. A typical useless goat gland insertion would set a rural farmer back about $750...(think Bob Dole, except that the farmers were suffering ED at a time when there was no "magic bullet" which encouraged the engorging of spongy tissue) He also killed a few farmers and stole millions...and if it weren't for the American Medical Association and a few consumer rights advocates, his heirs would be still.
A brief aside and fun fact. Brinkley's border radio station played the Carter Family. They would record their "sunny side" songs onto giant transcription records, WAY larger than standard long-players...and mail them down so Doctor Sheep Noogies could pretend they were "live in the studio" in between his sleazy, unregulated pitches for his bogus cures. Years later, when researchers went looking for these precious discs to reissue them, it was found many were tossed out back the studio and the poor folks of Ciudad Acuna, right across the river from Del Rio, Texas, had used them as roofing tiles.
"Doctor" J. R. Brinkley original press photograph, 1934 Collection Jim Linderman
Now that Beyonce has channeled Bettie Page in the new Lady Gaga video it is time for me to reveal a little secret and entertain all you gents and gals with even the slightest interest in the history of photography...at least as it relates to women with whips. First of all, every year it is increasingly evident NO model has influenced popular culture more than Bettie Page. So curious given her clumsy short movies and relatively short career. But the face and derriere? To die for.
One can't tell the story of Bettie Page without the fellow who first put her in a studio with bondage props...Irving Klaw. Wiki him up...or rent the underrated film The Notorious Bettie Page directed by Mary Harron in which Gretchen Mol makes Beyonce's bangs look glued on. Now here is the secret you will all thank me for. As part of the deal made with prosecutors in the 1950's, Klaw burned his negatives. We all know that, right?
WRONG!
Not only does a sizable archive still exist the family is STILL selling incredible glossy photographs of Bettie for pennies, just like they did in the 1950's from the back of sleazy men's magazines. The place is called Movie Star News and hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of glorious black and white photographs are shown on their website. Movie Star News used to print a big fat catalog when I was living near their little workshop and studio on west 18th Street, and walking into the place is like time-warp central. They still sell movie stills of B-grade actors, posters...and grumpy folks still look up suspiciously and growl "whaddya want?" when you enter. Well, we all know we aren't here for that old 8 x 10 of Vince Edwards as Ben Casey.
Ask for the Klaw catalog, circle the numbers you want, and skulk back in a week later to pick up the pics. The photographs are as gorgeous as the model. So if you want to taste a little of that "unmarked brown paper wrapper" spice, take a peek. Who says old New York City is gone?
You are welcome.
For more tales of the sleazy underbelly of our shared cultural closets, follow Vintage Sleaze the blog
Nothing like the aftermath of nasty weather to bring out the Brownie. A group of Tornado photos, likely Michigan and likely around 1930. There was a doozy nicknamed "The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak" which tore up 6 states including Michigan in 1920, these could be from that event, but so many strike the Mitten making an ID is a crapshoot. I hope no one was sitting down at the piano to play. One of the most striking events I lived through was a Tornado in the early 1970's. We were sitting on the porch, unaware of the carnage happening two miles away, until a fellow drove up on four flat tires, got out with blood on his arm and said "I just drove through a Tornado."
Group of Tornado Snapshots, circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman
So I have been playing with the idea of doing a project of some sort with CHALK TALKS. No, chalk can not talk, but that documented liar, charlatan and fraud Glenn Beck can, and he has forced my hand.
One of the most basic and rudimentary forms of visual communication and often used to influence children (and by Glenn Beck, his unsophisticated, vulnerable viewing audience who votes) chalk talks have been directing and developing damaged minds since a charcoal stick could mark a wall. Heavily used by schools, the military, churches, Alcoholics Anonymous and anywhere a, well...to put it bluntly, simple mind can be deceived or impressed.
The whole concept of presenting visual information on a simple black board to inform, trick and convince is visual propaganda. In fact, it may be the secret history of propaganda. Using humor, skill in rendering, confusing slight of hand and deception, the chalk taker also develops a convincing patter to go along with the images. At least Glenn Beck hasn't developed that...being a blithering bloated bag of confused wind...but he's resurrected the art, and even his amateur, pathetic version of the skill has convinced some to believe in things against their best interests...a testimony to the power of the chalk art.
And art it is...I pride myself at finding forgotten forms of art. The chalk talk is a primary example, never mind that it was, and is, aimed at the uneducated and often helpless masses. When used properly, it is as effective as any visual form, or at least it has been...and when you see Stephen Colbert or a political reporter drawing on the digital screen, the technique is the same but presented even simpler. It took years to develop true chalk talking skills, like magic...and most reporters lack the time it takes to master the art.So here I present to you some splendid examples of the visual skills which were used by chalk talkers.
Many of the images are religious...no mistake. Most chalk talkers had a religious agenda, and many were preachers (and in some cases, talented but let's face it, failed fine artists)...but the technique was heavily used in sunday schools and at church dinners. Magicians were used at birthday parties. Psychologists were used at business meetings and buffons with drawing skills were used at pep rallies and the school assembly. They are all fascinating and I hope my health holds out so I can bring you more.With a history going back to Vaudeville, the characters, the monologues and the graphic quirks produced by this forgotten league of competent doodlers deserves a bit of attention, and I aim to try!
A note...I'll spare the good, hard-working legitimate teachers working on your children's behalf every day in school in the REAL chalk jungle. Far from being charlatans, millions of selfless and underpaid educators used the board in a similar way, but for a far more noble purpose...and they deserve our thanks.
For decades, it has made no sense to me that common commercial paper dolls usually created as branded products from licensed characters attract more attention from collectors than folk art, handmade versions which are MUCH scarcer and more beautiful. Mark it up to marketing, I guess...after all, a child who watches 24 hours of television a day is going to prefer the latest Disney creation more than a doll in a homemade burlap sack, and that seems to be a preference which stays with us until adulthood and beyond, unfortunately. I've always much preferred the charming handmade versions children created when the money was short and even paper scarce.This little group of fairies was found in a pile of ephemera in an antique mall for one dollar. Made by a little girl, dating probably to the 1920's or earlier, the whole lot was packed into a very old envelope, browned with age, and reading in script "Fairyland" "SAVE" which someone did. Each is only a few inches tall, and if you click to enlarge they'll be bigger than they should be, but go ahead.
A few years ago my giant collection of vintage handmade and homemade paper dolls was used to illustrate what is, to this day, still the best essay and investigation in to the handmade doll. Since most attention in the toy literature has been devoted to commercial toys, including those which were premiums in products and provided in newspapers...very little published material on the folk art paper doll exists. The much missed magazine FOLK ART which used to be published by the American Museum of Folk Art has a back issue department and the Francine Kirsch article "Costumed by Hand" (along with many pages of illustrations which make these little fairies look even more primitive than they are) is in the Spring/Summer 2007 issue. After the article appeared, the collection was dispersed, but I still can't pass a set by.
Handmade set of Paper Doll Fairies, circa 1920. Collection Jim Linderman
"Well, Pauline, I've landed on the old homestead again. Left Portland March 20 and landed in Hayburn the following day. Did you ever see a picture of a real hay ride? This is one of myself and a hay stack on my place. I'm on top of the stack. I had 3 stacks like this last year."
Real Photo Postcard mailed from Idaho to Salt Lake City, Utah March 31, 1914 Collection Jim Linderman
Did you ever want to get lost in a magical world? Go to Colon, Michigan. Home of Abbott's Magic for over 70 years, the 50,000 square foot shop and factory is the official home of magic. The catalog, which is now over 475 pages and from which I cribbed these beautiful, evocative images is not only still being produced, you can DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING FOR FREE! My treasured copy is #22 from 1976, but all the beautiful retro magical graphics are still in the digital catalog. And what a show it is...hundreds of tricks, books, machines, devices, card tricks...It is truly an amazing spectacle, and despite having one of the most entertaining collection of websites around (the site turns and twists from one video to another, vintage flicks of tricks run continuously, there is a live chat room for sharing, a used marketplace for, well...torture tricks) and that's not all. They also print a newsletter (The Newest Tops) act as a clearinghouse for traveling magicians, list shows...you name it. If misdirection or slight of hand is your thing, this is the place. Colon, Michigan is the burial place of Harry Blackstone. Over 1,000 magicians gather there every year for a convention. Harry would be pleased, and I suspect plenty of them make a pilgrimage to his resting place.
There are still 19th and early 20th century folk art collections and bodies of work to be found. I had thought the last gasp for searchers of work by undiscovered eccentric carvers may have been the first few years of Ebay, when folks in Middle-America started listing things they found in the attic as they learned to use their computers. Scarce few groups of work remain, but husband and wife team Heidi Kellner and Robert Zordani found some, the eccentric pieces of comic book carvings created by Archie Zimmerman. They won't change the world, and there have certainly been better folk artists, including many who worked in a similar manner. (Fred Alten, Earl Eyman and dozens more...whittling used to be done until the sun went ALL the way down) But the recently found cache is unique in their comic book quality. Each seems stretched and skewed in a way that characters in the Sunday Funnies and matinee cartoons used to be. Zimmerman passed away in 1961. A few examples are shown above, the biography and more examples of his zany creations are shown at the Z & K Antiques Website.
