Dull Tool Dim Bulb Celebrates old time religion!

The network of blogs under the DULL TOOL DIM BULB umbrella will reach ONE MILLION PAGE VIEWS this week!

TIME FOR NEW SHOES! The Circle of Footwear for Women

The Circle of Shoes Circa 1950 Hand-drawn and pasted copy for Department Store Newspaper Ad Collection Jim Linderman

Top Secret Hush Hush Expose Lowdown! Inside Story of the Vice Squad

Would Cuba's Number two boy rather be a girl? Well, Raul does seem to be eying Jayne's sweater puppies with considerable envy...I'd say yes. Let's report it.

Now you have to realize these came out long before Rupert and Fox News set rigorous standards for journalism, so facts seldom get in the way, but as Dan Rather famously said "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..." Or to put it another way, where there is smoke, there is a hot tabloid rag to toss on the pile and make the fire bigger.

You know, when I was young and working as a library clerk, I don't remember re-shelving any of these...what's that about? I thought librarians were all against censorship!

It is no wonder news stands are looking sparse these days...What with TMZ and Smoking Gun, we can get our gossip fix without having to pay a quarter at the checkout. No bar codes on these...the clerk would have to study them for the price and then give you the stink eye for your questionable taste.

These are all from the 1950s, when Liz had a revolving carousel of men, George Clooney's aunt was all the buzz, Pat Boone kept a harem and Sammy Davis, Jr. was the only Black man who created news. ( In retrospect, from what I have read, Sammy certainly DID have his share of partners for a little guy with an eye-patch.)

Confidential was the big gun, but the little guns worked just as hard to snatch a quarter. How it was determined 25 cents was the price to learn "WHY ERROL DIDN"T TAKE HIS SHOES OFF" is beyond me. I'd have paid a buck!


Jumbo Group of Fifties Facts Collection Jim Linderman

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Football Flummoxed, Fouled by Financial Fumbles, Fans Forgotten! No Glee in Paradise

So I don't really care if they can't come to an agreement over the 9 billion dollars, I only watch one game a year and they've run out of bands for halftime. Seriously. Who is going to rock the Superbowl now? Lady Gaga? Not really the football type. Foo Fighters? Maybe, and if so they would make a great "F" headline for me. A FEW folks could pump fists and wave lights during "Hero" I guess.

There there ain't no bands left. Maybe they'll put that creepy Josh Groban in an Elvis costume and drop him from a helicopter. Arcade Fire? Too Arcane. An "American Idol" reunion? The Cast of "GLEE" is already being planned at Fox, but that show jumped the shark when they stole the original version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" from astounding Iz Kamakawiwo'ole.




By the way, I apologize for the stupid commercial you might have to ignore while waiting for the link Here. Corporate interests have already ruined You Tube! The copyright lawyers scrub it every day for good videos not sanctioned by what is left of record labels, and anytime a video reaches twenty viewers, they sell ad space to help rich get richer.

It's over. Downloading has killed the Great American Rock Band. I didn't really want to watch the Superbowl on my hand held anyway.

Images from Stan Johnson's Scrapbook, Muskegon, Michigan circa 1925. Collection Jim Linderman

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Sunny Jim Letterhead and his Slogans

(Click to Enrapture)

Sunny Jim the Evangelist had more slogans than Burger King. The problem was, no one knew what the hell they meant. They all sound like T-Rex song titles. The content of the letter has Reverend Jim "calling in the big guys"...that is requesting legal help "from out of state" but it does not reveal his digressions. A shame. I suspect Sunny Jim has a Shady story.

Letterhead of "Sunny Jim" The Evangelist Dated 1916 Collection Jim Linderman

(A post also on the old-time-religion blog)

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The Art of the Pot Holder A Traveling Exhibition

The Art of the Pot Holder is supported by a grant from the Makers of Rayon and generous funding from the Skillet Foundation.

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Folk Art Masterpiece Pieces of RICE Folk Art Masterpiece

Folk Art Masterpiece. Four feet long and entirely made of hand-dyed rice kernels, each single piece placed by hand. I thought it was a pretty good (and pretty large) hooked rug until I got about fifteen feet away. 100% rice, whole-grain....and each tiny kernal vegetal dyed. Click to enlarge. I am inclined to run a "guess the number of kernels" contest but then I would have to count them myself.


When does a now extinct child's craft become a work of art? Well, for one thing, when it gets this big. No child made this. 4 feet x 3 feet and framed like the serious construction it is. This took longer than the hardest puzzle and I presume tweezers were involved.


Now tedious and repetitive folk art pieces like this used to be common, or at least smaller versions were. Certainly television took away much of the motivation, I suspect sleeping pills and sedatives have as well...obsessive art is far less seen than it used to be. This certainly would have won first prize at the State Fair around 1900 had it been entered, but there is no attribution other than the Midwest.


I have seen portraits of clown heads made of aquarium sand. I have seen entire buildings made out of corn-cobs. I have seen a Harley Davidson motorcycle constructed of dried beans. If there is a person bored and a wooden board, something will be made. But I could look 20 years full time and not find a piece as balanced, as big and as beautiful.



"Make-do" Applied Rice constructed "painting" circa 1900. Collection Jim Linderman

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Nightclub Photography Club DeLisa Hard-boiled Nostalgia Evidence Blackmail and Dames with a Camera

Club DeLisa in Chicago's Bronzeville was THE place for African-American floor shows and Jazz during the 1950s. It was run by four brothers and presented the finest in African-American entertainment (all the while allowing gambling in the basement.) From Albert Ammons to Joe Williams. "The Harlem of Chicago"


Like to be your own boss? Consider the Nightclub photographer. One of the few photography genres seemingly without scholarship or museum shows (If you know of one, let me know.) They were and are often women (Noted photojournalist Ruth Orkin started as one, so did a female character in Dick Tracy) Weegee also worked the clubs.


I could probably compile a long list of photographers who started out with a speed-graphic and a tip tray, but I'll leave it up to a doctoral student needing a project.


Big operators in famous clubs printed their own cardboard frames to sleeve the photos. One could go late...folks are more likely to spend the money for a portrait after a few drinks. They appear in hard-boiled novels all the time...being in the club affords them opportunities for both evidence and blackmail. Many a plot turns on the appearance of a "surprise" photograph taken by a pretty dame with a shutter. Nightclub photographers also have provided many historical images of performers as they often had the only camera in the club.


As popular today as it was in the 1950's, I am not sure how long it will last. Whether the cellphone camera will kill the nightclub photographer is questionable...there is glamour missing in a digital picture, and If I were a young photographer starting out today, I would get a big camera with a collapsible bellows and carry it around clubs.


Anonymous Original Nightclub Photo Club DeLisa circa 1950 with original sleeve
Collection Jim Linderman

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Travels with Charlie (McCarthy) Blockhead, Personality, Smartass, Dummy

A young boy or girl practices not moving his or her lips. Charlie McCarthy was once the world's most famous blockhead, sidekick and as unlikely as it seems (since the whole point is to SEE the ventriloquist) radio personality. He was owned by Candice Bergen's father.

Actually, now that I think of it, Charlie had a whole lot more personality than Ryan Seacrest.

W.C. Fields: "Quiet, Wormwood, or I'll whittle you into a venetian blind."
Charlie: "Ooh, that makes me shutter!"

Other Vent Figures HERE

Vernacular Snapshot of a child with ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy Circa 1940? Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE

Forget Art, Let's SWING! Sunglasses BEFORE Dark.

A randy rogues roundup of Ray Ban wearing rounders! In the old days, you didn't have to worry about your picture turning up on the web inadvertently and ruining your job chances (until I came along, that is.) The one without shades would now be 108 years old, so I think I am okay exposing him. All from an unnamed "Swingers" magazine which had a key for a logo (you know...put them all in a bowl and hope you don't select Wilber's) A 1973 issue for you cultural historians.

My favorites are the ones which indicate "have trailer in woods" and one I didn't select which reads "loves polaroid parties" but actually they all look like want ad killers to me. Thrill seekers...but what thrill is there is going to the mailbox every day to find only bills. One is clearly Tony Clifton, one guy seems to want the dames to pay HIM, and the brother had to paint his sunglasses on. All in all, I think I would stick to the regular meeing places...bars and amateur volleyball games.

I was going to post these on the Vintage Sleaze blog, but I'm saving that for a little essay on the women some day. Some of them are more creative in covering their mugs.

Group of swinger's shots from Swinger's Life 1973

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE

Walking Anachronism of Wood Folk Art Wooden Toys Jigsaw and Pine

An early "walking toy" which did just that when a youngster would hold the iron handle and tromp him around the parlor. I don't have to say wood toys are extinct...Benjamin Braddock was warned back in 1967 before he notched his college stick with Mrs. Robinson. Plastics.

Here is a brilliant idea for all you older siblings, uncles and grandfathers out there. Take junior down to the basement and show him a vice and a jigsaw. It will take 5 minutes, and despite the groans, you can point out the pause button first. He has never been to a lumber yard either...but the local craft shop might have a few slabs of pine.


Wooden Walking Toy on a Metal Rod, circa 1920 collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE

La Lettre Review International Center of Photography Take Me to the Water

A nice review in La Lettre HERE of the Take Me to the Water exhibit at the International Center of Photography which runs through the first week of May 2011. The book and CD is available from Amazon, the publisher Dust-to-Digital and at the ICP Bookstore.

Goofy Term Warfare and the Plywood Jesus Garden Outsider Art

Having pretty much given up the "term warfare" which surrounded "outsider art, vernacular art, self-taught art, eccentric art, art brut, amateur art, sunday painter art, institutionalized art, marginalized art, visionary art, folk art, naive art" and the like in favor of my all- inclusive term "goofy" I hear present a splendid exhibit of some of the goofiest.

E.K. Lund was a part-time magician who lived to the age of 100. From the looks of these cards, that is about one plywood figure a year.

Photo Postcards from Lund's Garden.

See Also "Preacher, Artist, Magician, Centenarian" HERE

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Amateur Impalement Art Knife Throwing and a Tarpaper House

There isn't a trick to knife throwing...you just practice. A LOT. On very rare occasions there may be a magician who uses knives coming from behind the board, and there is a trick to the blindfold finale...but for the most part, all that is involved is a good knife and hours of work. No easy solutions, kids. The fellow here is lucky...not only has the amateur missed him, but he is stationary. Obviously, our thrower in training has not yet made a tarpaper "wheel of death" to match his house.

Because their names are as wonderful as those adopted by mobsters, here is a list of famous impalement artists.

Texas Slim and Montana Neil
The Great Throwdini
Che Che Whitecloud
Lash and Steel
The Great Cindini
Jack Dagger
Joe "Brokenfeather" Darrah

Original Anonymous Photograph, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE


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