The Case of the Tasteless True Crime Talisman Lindberg and the Most Famous Ladder in History by Jim Linderman

 

Gosh, didn't cops back in the 1930s have great coats?  Check them out...thick, rich leather and thigh-length long, with great leather boots too!  You won't see THESE guys on a Segway at the mall.  Anyway, the photo shows two hog-riding constables checking a barn for clues in one of our greatest national mysteries, the Lindberg Kidnapping Case.

I won't go into detail on the crime, as there is certainly enough for you to find yourself...and the tousled-topped national hero turned out to sorta be a creep anyway by nearly aligning himself with THE WRONG SIDE during World War Two. How the...?  At so called America First Committee meetings, the airman apparently lambasted our impending involvement in the war by lecturing others on American Jews and their undue influence.  Well...best left forgotten.
 
This post centers on a small aspect of the crime.  The same one our tuff-dressed crime busters were centered on as well.  They may look like the guys from "American Pickers" entering a honey-hole, but they were trying to find a connection to the central piece of evidence.

The ladder.

Bruno, or whoever, had to climb up to snatch the child, a horrible thing...and he built a ladder to do it.  The ladder became what used to known as "The Macguffin" in Alfred Hitchcock movies.  A recurring element which might mean nothing, but could just mean everything.  Literally the O.J. gloves of the 1930s. 

As the investigation progressed into trial, a spectacle unlike any before due to the nascent and emerging mass-media, slimy vendors sold miniature kidnap ladders outside the courthouse!  That's right.  Tiny souvenir wooden ladders, an early example of crime capitalism gone crazy!  The tasteless newspapers ran tasteless photographs of tasteless spectators holding tiny tasteless ladders for the camera.

I have looked for one of those wee ladders off and on for a long time.  I've owned a few miniature wooden handmade ladders, but had no way to tell if they were a legendary murder talisman representing the double horror of crime and unseemly opportunistic greed,  or simply something a father made for his kid's Farmer Brown playset.

I even consulted a Lindberg Kidnapping expert at one time to see if he knew where I could get one.  He brushed me off, clearly so as not to reveal his own pursuit of the holy grail of true crime novelties.

Guess who else was obsessed with the miniature ladder?  No less than Maurice Sendak!    He apparently traded one of his drawings for one, and used a similar image of a kidnapper's ladder leaned against a window in one of his works. 

Once in a while I do a true crime story.  You can see some of the others HERE.


Original 8 x 10 glossy press photograph March 7, 1932 with Handwritten description Collection Jim Linderman

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Michigan Republican Rich Men Pass a Law Affecting your Daughter.

Without WANTING to enter the pathetic debate encouraged by Republican election tactical squads making women who already feel terrible about having a pregnancy terminated feel even WORSE by using their reproductive hard choices as a pawn in their efforts to keep rich white men in charge of our laws...here is a lovely homemade postcard mailed in 1905 I assume was used as a birth announcement.

The Republican House of Michigan passed a law last week requiring all fetal remains over 20 weeks be given a "proper burial" and that the cost be born by the woman who already feels terrible over the choice she had to make.

It requires all aborted fetuses after 8 weeks be buried, cremated or interred under exactly the same guidelines as any dead body. The cost of a burial or internment for an infant is an average of $4,600. The cost of cremation for an infant ranges from $250 to $400.  A fetus at 8 weeks is the size of a few paper clips. 

That's right.  The bill also makes any woman who has an abortion (be it your wife or your daughter) a criminal liable to prosecution if she has an abortion after 20 weeks.  It does not indicate the cost of hiring a lawyer to bail your daughter out of jail and defend her against charges (presumably murder) in court.  Would YOU like your daughter brought up on charges in a public court for having to have an abortion? 

There is stupid and there is stupider.  The wealthy Republican men in Michigan who voted to approve this bill fall well into the latter category, every single one of them, and anyone who votes for any of them does as well.  So does any Governor who would even consider for one second supporting or signing such a pinhead, ignorant, pathetic, shameful, obscene, hypocritical, ill-advised law.

Handmade Postcard 1905 collection Jim Linderman

Three Nights Only One Big Show! At the Circus in Black and White series #33

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

Frederico Fellini meets Tod Browning in this crazy period photograph of a wandering troupe.  Since Blockhead and friend take up two seats on the truck, they get the middle of the picture.  A trick-shooter,  a cootch girl, a band (of sorts) and you've got four shows a day.  They were there a while, electric lights line the tent.  One of a hundred such touring shows during the 1930s and I wish I could identify the players.  I see ten good stories here, and one more on the dummy.  

AT THE CIRCUS IN BLACK AND WHITE is a occasional feature on Dull Tool Dim Bulb. This is number 33 in the series.

Original 8 x 10 photograph, circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

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Youngest Reenactors Boys Camp Outing with Uniforms Collection Jim Linderman

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Normally I would count the stars to date this photo, but they may be using an old one to create the proper environment for the boys...if you can call "playing war" proper in any context.  A wonderful photograph,  1890 maybe?  The Youngest recruits for the Spanish - American War?  The Earliest Civil War Reenactors?

You can ponder the details. My only observations?  There was not yet a national obsession with soda, so every boy is lean and fit.  This photo today would require the photographer to stand way back to fit everyone in.  The other?  Leave it to the adults to ham it up.  Every boy is doing his best to show the proper respect, but the hormone enraged goobers "running the show" are doping it up in back.


Anonymous Photograph, circa 1890?  "Boys Camp"  5" x 8"  (Mount 8" x 10") Collection Jim Linderman 

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Don't Take the Train

Real Photo Postcard circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Miles Labs Mrs. Shatwell and Nervine for the Blues

Dr. Miles may tell the jokes, but the joke is on you.  The man responsible for lauded legend "Miles Laboratories" was a snake oil salesman who gave away these real knee-slappers in order to advertise his "Nervine" for "spasms, fits and St. Vitus' dance"  all which are bad enough for you to seek a cure.  You'll grab for anything, even Dr. Miles Nervine which was also good for hysteria, sleeplessness and the blues.

It was so strong, it ALMOST made the jokes funny. 

Actually, as the recipe for Nervine seems to have disappeared like liver spots after a tonic, I had to dig around a bit.  Nervine was made out of Bromine, a product today used in pesticides and as a gasoline additive.  Ask the Tea Party if we need the FDA.  You know?  I wonder if that nutty Dr. Rand Paul found his Dad's supply back in a Kentucky shed.  His official photo here certainly looks like he got in the medicine chest..that is a relaxed expression if I ever saw one.

Miles made money on Nervine, of course, but the big bucks came when their bubbly mixture Alka-Seltzer™ had the good fortune of being introduced around the same time Prohibition was repealed.  Do you have any idea how many hangovers have been created since 1931?

Miles Labs ran from 1884 to 1979...when Bayer AG bought it in order to acquire another miracle cure, Flintstones™ vitamins!  Yes, Miles was famous for foisting Flintstones™ vitamins on the kids.   "Here.. eat a DINO, you'll feel better and pills are always good for you."

In 1995, Bayer AG removed all references to Miles on their products, as the population who remembered getting drunk on Nervine were all dead by then.

Here Mrs. Shatwell  (SHATWELL?  Are you sure this isn't a testimonial for  laxatives?) provides stirring evidence her insanity was cured by a Miles product.

Wait a minute...do I need to put a ™ after Shatwell?  It is available?  GREAT.  Call my lawyer pronto! 

Also shown here is Mrs. Love from Wigger Street, who drank NINE bottles. 

Now as for Nervine?  It is today a generic term for anything which affects the nerves.  You'll find all manner of wacky natural herb concoctions claiming to do it, including stalwarts of medicine such as Skullcap, Desert Pulsatilla, Western Moonwort, Monkeyflower and Golden Smoke. 

Dr. Miles Joke Book No Date Collection Jim Linderman

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Fawndolyn Valentine Special Report on Bernarr MacFadden Sex Book !

MacFadden Sex Books Fester and Mold  Photograph by Fawndolyn Valentine

I first made fun (rather I shared my pithy observations) on physical culture freak supreme Bernarr Macfadden several years ago, and hardly a day goes by that I wish I could drum up another post on him.  Imagine my surprise, not long after doing my SECOND post on Bernarr and his absurd criticism of the Kinsey Report, when I looked in the virtual mailbox to see it had reached the eyes of the brilliant Fawndolyn Valentine.   Fawn sent me a photo of a steaming, festering PILE of them moldering away on a factory floor fifty years after publication!  A mystery far too important and complex for me to figure out, but WAY too important for it to go away! 

So Fawndolyn has kindly agreed to share the story in all glorious detail!  Thank you Fawndolyn!

"I was directed to your blog when a friend saw a photo I took at an abandoned printing press.  The only book they printed was the Man's Sex Life book.


This is at "McFadden's Castle on the Hill", which is located in Dansville, NY.  It started as the Jackson Sanitorium, and housed 'invalids', the overworked/mentally exhausted, and ptsd'd soldiers, and was called a Health Spa.

When McFadden bought it, he used it as a fitness resort hotel (did you know the guy was a body builder? And he was one of the most successful magazine publishers in the world, founded on his fitness magazine). The cottages surrounding the castle housed the workers and caretakers, and the biggest cottage is where they pressed and stored Man's Sex
Life.  The whole place is littered with them (here is a closeup of the floor in front of the entrance to the cottage:

Photo by Fawndolyn Valentine

Now the castle and the cottages are falling to pieces, but they make for a great daytime adventure for urban explorers.

Here's a photo of the castle:

Photo by Fawndolyn Valentine

And here's where they housed the book:

Photo by Fawndolyn Valentine

Here's a good webpage about the castle's history, with lots of old pictures, and a couple of ace links."


OUTSTANDING!  FAWNDOLYN VALENTINE is a bright young artist, and craft person and much more. (Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/diello)

"The official biography I give people is: "When I was five, my parents left me at a carnival.  By the time they came back for me, it was too late.  I haven't been fit for decent society since."

Fawndolyn creates object of beauty.  Ask her about them

Rough Hewn and Hacked Vernacular Architecture Extreme RPPC

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Looks like they forgot the primer.  Rough Hewn.  To hew or shape by hacking.  Can't really call it a log cabin, as the logs have been squared off.  Well, sorta.  At least they got what they need.  Heat, water and a dog.


Real Photo Postcard circa 1905  "Cyko" stock.  Cyko was an early competitor to Kodak.  Collection Jim Linderman

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Redd Foxx Funniest Man in America and Visual Artist (Redd could PAINT)

Yes, master comedian and king of the risque joke Redd Foxx was more than a chittlin' circuit comic....he could PAINT. 

Shown is a DooTo disc, one of many Redd put out on the label.  

Redd was named Sanford.  That's right, his TV show was named after his real name, James Elroy Sanford.  How did James get his name?  From his red hair and because he was smart as a fox.  Why he put on an extra D and an extra X is beyond me.  Smart and talented, and at one time literally the funniest man in America.  Most of us didn't get to see him perform in his prime, as the gigs he got were unfortunately for the most part segregated.  I believe Mr. Sanford put out his record in 1956.  Redd started his entertainment career in a washboard band.  He ended it working.

Laff of the Party Volume 5 (cover art by Redd Foxx) Dooto 45rpm sound recording collection Jim Linderman

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Biggest Folk Art Basket Trade Sign Basket Factory Stockbridge Michigan

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W. S. Kennedy Basket Factory was located in Stockbridge, Michigan from 1895 to 1915 or so, at least as much as I have found.  Interestingly, I find a 1903 note in "Crafts and Hobbies" which says they are seeking fire insurance!  Makes good sense to me.  They made baskets out of ash wood...and that giant trade sign basket on the roof could go right up in flames!

Plenty of cultural and historical content for one photograph, despite condition.  Looks like a staff of around twenty, counting the victims of child labor laws on the steps.  Likely Old Man Kennedy's kids. 

I sure would like that big basket.  It looks like it could pretty much hold the entire staff, that is if you stuffed them in tight. 

Original Photograph, circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

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Antique Folk Art Worked and Tufted Rug Folk Art Victorian Anonymous was a Woman

An antique folk art rug from Victorian days, when there was time to make things...and make things beautiful.  21" x 34" and dating to 1890 or so.  Since I am posting this piece, I would like to bring attention to my favorite folk art book title "Anonymous was a Woman" which while more often than not true, it is also a lovely sentiment.  The book discusses what was flippantly called "Women's work" in all manner of craft, art and more.  I am sure the book is long out of print, but used copies are very cheap and worth every penny.

Handmade Folk Art Rug circa 1890 collection Jim Linderman 

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What is New at Dull Tool Dim Bulb 2012 Update Jim Linderman

A few recent developments from the Dull Tool Dim Bulb empire!

MUCH pleased to have had no less than David Sedaris recommend the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Blog to his readers.  As one who has gone from sitting in Barnes and Noble watching David read to becoming a writer (of sorts) himself, this is a great honor.

Skilled writer and artist Emma Higgins has written a lovely profile titled "Jim Linderman Perpetually Ahead of the Collecting Curve" HERE on the Grand Rapids website H.A.C.K.  Grand Rapids, as you may or may not know, is a booming city in the culture department, with their annual Art Prize awarding $$$ and attracting many artist participants and visitors annually. HACK is a wonderful guide to the West Michigan Art Scene and much more.

Two new books, I'm With Dummy: Vent Figures and Blockheads: Vintage Photographs from the Jim Linderman Collection and PROTO-PORN: The Art Figure Study Scam of the 1950s are now available.  Each is available in paperback OR Ebook download for the iPad.  They lanquish on the virtual shelves of Blurb.com.  ALL the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books are now available as $5.99 downloads.  Save a tree and buy a virtual book.

Vintage Sleaze the blog now has an astounding 36,000 followers on Facebook and the network of blogs under the Dull Tool Dim Bulb umbrella is approaching 2.25 million page clicks.  If clicks were coins and followers were finance I would be rich...but I prefer happy.

In the not to announce category The World Erotic Art Museum in Miami may be doing a show based on the Vintage Sleaze series and Book Secret History of the Black Pin Up: Women of Color from Pinup to Porn which would be an honor.  More as, and if, this develops.  I think it will...and if so, linkage will result.

Design Weekly wrote a nice profile and recommendation to Vintage Sleaze, thank you very much. 

I recently made what I believe is a significant contribution to an important new book by an important comic book historian, but I'll report on it in the next update.

Music fans can now follow Bob Dylan Record an Album of Songs by Charlie Patton on Facebook.  The site grows out of a series of infrequent essays on Dylan...who, with a new album out any day now, has once again failed to do what I wish he would.  He will.

I also presume all have seen the recent Jim Linderman New York Times Profile?  The article uses a photograph by Michigan-based photographer Adam Bird which I much appreciate.  Mr. Bird is a young photographer with considerable style and skill.  The Times also quoted me in a recent article on the rebirth of pinup style.

I have discovered an original stag film of Texas Legend Candy Barr dancing.  This is not the common film on Youtube, but a film shot on the same set or stage around the same time.   I'm not quite sure what do do with the film, but It has been transfered to Digital CD and I'm pondering selling copies or using it as a gift to friends.  The only problem is that once the Candy is out of the bag, it will be bootlegged wider than Justin Bieber's next recording.  Any ideas?

Clarence Herbert Woolston Unsung Hero of Song and Object Jesus Loves the Children

I'm not all about satire, and neither should be any questioning soul...there ARE some good guys in the Jesus racket, and one of them, nay, one of the greatest and most astounding, is the extraordinary and charming Clarence Herbert Woolston.  How we need this humble man today, and how he makes what passes for our public preachers look like the big walking bags of wind and shame they are.

I am not kidding one little bit.  I may have spent the last five years making fun of bible thumpers on old time religion the blog, where this post originates,  but one man has finally cured my heathen ways.   Although this one man should be at LEAST as famous as Billy Graham's idiot son...he is unknown.   That's right.  A cipher.  Not only forgotten, hardly ever heard of.

Let's start with this: 

The refrain to the greatest children's song of all time:

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Are you humming it in your head?  You should be.  Know who wrote it?  Nope. 

Clarence Herbert Woolston, Doctor of Divinity wrote it.  The rest of the song is HERE along with a lovely, simple piano backing which will allow you to sing along and share it with others.  The fellow above with sideburns and a big cat in his hands. 

Song writers will give up their left nut (or if they have no nuts, a left hand) to write what is known as a "standard" and this is one big glorious standard children love still, but their more racist and unforgiving parents (and politicians) have forgotten.  Seriously...more children have sung this song than Sir Paul's "Yesterday" or Willie Nelson's "Crazy" but how often have you read the phrase "Clarence Herbert Woolston's "Jesus Loves the Little Children?"

I know how often.  You have now read it exactly once.

The equally extraordinary "Bible Object Book" shown here is but one more accomplishment of this dear man history has forgotten.  Each chapter, each PAGE is a delight.  As you can see, my copy cost 49 cents.  Now THAT is a sin.  A HUGE sin when you consider the opening price of, oh, let's see...Sarah Palin's piece of bile was $28.99.  That's right.  Almost thirty bucks for an Alaskan fraud, you shallow and deceived followers.  Thank GOD you can now buy Palin's book used (and unread) starting at ONE PENNY as long as you will pay postage.  True!

Here is an example from Dr. Woolston's book, using as the object a postage stamp, from the chapter titled "The Postage Stamp as a Preacher"

"The postage stamp is a non-combatant.  When it is licked, it does not hit back.  It is a peace-lover."

"The postage stamp does what it is told to do...it does not seek to know the contents of the letter, but to deliver the letter to the party named." 

Lovely.  There are 61 chapters in the book, each one using an everyday object children are familiar with to teach a lesson.  It is not only a teaching tool which is a model of effectiveness, but tolerance and love and it is all told with astounding beautiful and simple prose.

Perhaps we would know more about the book if Woolsey hadn't passed away less than a year after it was published.  Search "Jimmy Swaggart" and you get well over one million hits.  Search "Clarence Herbert Woolston" and you get few indeed, and a good number are used bookstores selling this book.  It is enough to make me cry more than the disgraced buffoon and sinner Jimmy Swaggart...and although that charlatan will sell you HIS music, (boy will he...an entire website is devoted to selling you his music)  they all suck by comparison to Woolston's masterpiece.  In fact, they all suck by comparison to "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley.  But I love Sheb.

Swaggart, however, should just ship all those CDs directly to the flea market where they belong and will eventually end up...the sooner the better.

Woolston was pastor of the East Baptist Church in Philadelphia.  How lucky were they to have him.  In this picture, Woolston brings a baby bear cub into church to illustrate the sin of stubbornness.  Woolston was also known to use a baby leopard in lectures.  A photo in the book shows his church filled to the rafters, literally, with children craning their necks towards the lectern.

Get this...Woolston also wrote a book Harry Houdini prized.  I'd be honored if Harry Houdini had even browsed a pamphlet of mine, but he had the entire "Seeking Truth: A Book of Object Lessons with Magical and Mechanical Effects"  which is 207 pages of REAL miracles, not the kind faith-healers and charlatans claim to make every day.  Yep.  Woolston also wrote a book in which you can entertain children while performing magic tricks from the Bible.

Now as for all those frauds out there roping folks into their gigantic crusades or evangelistic election schemes...will they ever repent and do some good for a change?  I dunno...can a leopard change his spots?

 In addition to "Jesus Loves the Little Children" Woolston wrote "Penny Object Lessons"   "Seeing Truth"   "The Curiosity Book"  and produced what were known as  the "Seeing Truth Packets"  which were small versions of his notions. 

Pictures from The Bible Object Book by Clarence Herbert Woolston  The Judson Press 1926.  Collection Jim Linderman.

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Folk Art Game Board Radiator Paint Aggravation

A folk art game board made from plywood.  I know, you folk art snobs, plywood is sneered at.  Well, as I have said before, plywood is now an antique  and THEN some.  The earliest plywood is now well over 100 years old.  I'm going to say this is around 1950?  I'm also saying it is Radiator paint and Boy Scout Blue.  A primitive version of the game Aggravation? 

Folk Art Gameboard Collection Jim Linderman

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Under Canvas and Coming The Lewis Stock Company

I don't know if the lovely ladies posing here are part of the Lewis Stock company, but they are coming to town.

Original Snapshot, circa 1920? Collection Jim Linderman

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Tintype with Glasses Hand-Painted Bespeckled Bas Bleu

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A considerable step beyond tinting, and one of those painted tintypes in which the embellishment is far more extraordinary then the sitter.  A Full-Size plate, 6.5" x 8.5 and found in one of those ungodly fat frames which is now in the basement. 

Untitled (Woman with Painted Gold Glasses) circa 1880 Ferrotype Tintype Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

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The Little Girl Who Invented the Hot Dog (Holiday Special Dull Tool Dim Bulb)

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Just in time for your holiday cookout, Dull Tool Dim Bulb presents the origin of the Hot Dog!  Share it over the campfire.

Real Photo Postcard 1948  Huntington Indiana Collection Jim Linderman

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The Nuts and Bolts of Apothecary Cabinets Folk Art Primitive Decor

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So desirable for that comfy country decor, you'll see what are called  "apothecary cabinets"  in upscale shows, shelter magazine spreads and increasingly being reproduced in that horrible fake milk paint "antique while you wait" primitive style seen in shops full of potpourri.  If I walk into an antique shop met with waves of "fragrance" I usually figure it is there to mask a recent paint smell.   I feign enough interest to be polite, get in the car, cross the divider and pee at the fast food joint.  I hate that fake country crap.  The style comes in and out of vogue, especially when we are emerging from an economic downturn and folks want to feel honest, homey and authentic again.

Apothecary chests are usually nothing more than guys hardware holders anyway, like this one I found yesterday.   Dealers call them apothecary chests as the notion of potions being stored and retrieved by the country doctor is a good selling point, but truth is these things held dad's screws and washers as often as secret cures and chemicals.

Here is one I found yesterday.  It came of the "distressed" surface from work in the basement, not a furniture factory...and certainly not from old Doc Bones at the general store.


Nuts and Bolts Holder circa 1940?  33 drawers, 55 inches long.  Collection Jim Linderman 

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Perp Walk Press Photograph 1928 Collection Jim Linderman

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Pictures DO lie.  Heavily embellished and cropped Press Photograph 1928.  Murderer "hustled to a train" on his way to prison.  

Original photograph by unidentified Press Photographer N.E.A 1928 Collection Jim Linderman

A Worried Man with a Worried Mind Folk Art Sewer Tile Clay End of Day?

End of Day Sewer Tile Whimsy Folk Art Pottery Clay Head.  A worried man with a worried (clay) mind.   Collection Jim Linderman

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