Scarce Early Photograph of a Jug Band with No Jug African-American Street Musicians

CLICK TO ENLARGE  COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

My second good blues musician photograph in two years.  Period original photographs of African-American musicians are hard to find, and I have been very lucky indeed.   See HERE for another find from the same period.  

A washtub bass, two guitars (one which appears to be decorated, or possibly having inlaid wood?) and a fiddle.  This is a small snapshot taken at what appears to be the train station, although it could be a streetcar, but the Western Union sign leads me to believe it is the railroad, and of course there is a porter who appears as interested as the others.  The performers appear successful with sharp shoes and good dress.   This would be a darn smart jug band if they had a jug.  I am going to guess the nurses were on the way home.

My first guess was that the bass player could be Will Shade, ringleader for a hodge-podge of Memphis musicianers and jug bands.  In part because of his nickname "Son Brimmer" which referred to his habit of wearing a hat with a brim to shade his eyes. (and I believe also the title of his first recording, but haven't looked it up)  The hat here is unusual and brimmed.

Shade or not, the performer plays a "bullfiddle" which is a garbage can, broomstick and one string.  If you have never seen a musician play who COULD play one, you'd be surprised how effective the rudimentary instrument is.  I believe what we are seeing here dates to the Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Gus Cannon era.  The snapshot is a mere 2.5" x 3.5" but crisp as can be, enlarge it and see the details. 

If any of you out there recognize any participants or the location I would be much obliging.  I have one or two experts scratching their heads.  More heads is better!  How unfortunate that a photo can not sing or play...I would have loved to be met by this splendid looking group on my arrival.

CHECK OUT WILL BELOW IN A RARE FILM PERFORMANCE

Original Street Photograph Snapshot circa 1930 African-American Quartet Perform at Train Station.  Location Uknown.  Collection Jim Linderman

See Jim Linderman Books (and inexpensive Ebooks for the iPad) HERE

COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

Tweet

Tinsmith Horse Weathervane with Barn Cupola Folk Art

Some documentation here from when Main street had a tinsmith, or maybe down the road a bit.  Barn Cupolas are wonderful, big throwbacks to the family farm.  I don't think those huge chicken factories hidden back behind chain-link fences so you don't go see how they are raised need cupolas.  They need FANS for sure...but our major bird breeding manufacturing processes aren't too concerned with the blowing wind direction...or making the factory stand out.  An indication of their shame, I think.  What they are interested in is hormone fed birds and clipping their beaks so they don't fight.

Tinsmith with Horse Weathervane Sample and Trade Sign circa 1890 Real Photo Postcard Olivia Minnesota Collection Jim Linderman

King of the Squirrels Sideshow Shooting Gallery Target Squirrel

My "King of the Squirrels" shooting gallery target comes courtesy Candler Arts, a fine web source for unusual American folk art, primitives and curiosities.  Run by Kevin Duffy, the site is always a visual treat.  The Candler Arts blog shows a wide variety of objects, consistently worth seeing, and the corresponding gallery offers select items for sale.  A good reason to look is posted now, as the wonderful sideshow "game of numbers" shown below is there now.

I bought King Squirrel as I have been overrun.  The house is surrounded by giant maple trees, and this seems to have been a particularly heavy season for helicopter seeds.  You know the kind.  Evolution designed them to twirl down to the ground slowly, whirling as they go, to provide the seed a soft landing.  They make a feast for squirrels.  They have become every bit as annoying as pigeons were to me in the city, but without wings.  Unlike pigeons, you see the young, and even they fly from tree to tree like tiny Tarzans with tails.  They can expect to live about six years...unless I get good here with King.

Early cast iron shooting gallery targets came in racks and this one has the original mount and cotter which held it on.  I suspect the KING tag is probably as that was the manufacturer or name of the touring carnival. 

Candler Arts blog is HERE and the.gallery is HERE

Game of Numbers Courtesy Candler Arts

Early 20th Century Cast Iron Shooting Gallery Target collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb books and Ebook downloads are HERE

Widdicomb and Adams Furniture Grain Decoration in Grand Rapids Folk Art and Fine Art

CLICK TO ENLARGE Collection Jim Linderman

Salesman Sample circa 1880 Collection Jim Linderman

Furniture graining has been done for centuries, it is a technique which adds fine (appearing) wood grain to lesser woods.  An embellishment and enhancement.  Until the late 19th century, this was done by hand.  Either by the hand of a trained furniture-maker in a detailed, "fool the eye" manner but as often by amateurs who frequently used a nearly inept, but often most exuberant manner.

Both are enjoyed, but for me the crazy swirls and outlandish whorls of the amateur are far most interesting than those of a trained professional.  It is that old fine vs folk argument.  Do you like pretty or primitive?  Fancy or free-hand?  Some were done with hand-held combs, some appears to have been done with whatever was at hand, or even the hand itself!
The super-primitive style shown below on a piece of furniture I own is a good example of my preference, but others certainly enjoy a more accurate representation.

Until I found this bronze salesman sample for a wood and furniture graining machine, I never even thought about it being done as part of a manufacturing process.  It was new...and as you will see below,  the company represented on this little advertising plaque was responsible for patenting a portion of the technique.

Grand Rapids has been known as Furniture City, so it makes sense the machine emerged and was produced there.  Widdicomb Furniture began as a cabinet making company in 1858.  George Widdicomb, and after the Civil War, his numerous sons and relatives,  grew the company into increasing larger facilities with a growing payroll. 

The company was not limited by style or look, eventually becoming a most well respected manufacturer of "Chamber" style, American Empire, Colonial Revival, Chippendale, and in the 1930s Art Deco.  Later products were influenced by modern Scandinavian, Japanese and Shaker design. 

Several companies over the years manufactured under the Widdicomb name, and the family had a few subsidiaries and branches operating as well.  In 2002, Whiddicomb was absorbed into Stickley, Inc. and John Whiddicomb continues to be manufactured in Manlius, New York.

There was interest in improving the graining technique among the several Grand Rapids furniture companies.  The fine photograph below is from the Rare Victorian websitehttp://rarevictorian.com/2008/12/graining-machines-simulate-hardwood-grains.html which mentions other companies, and refers readers to the book Grand Rapids Furniture by Christian Carron.

Robert A. Adams of Grand Rapids invented and received the patent for his graining machine in 1880.  He indicates "by this method all the fine lines and fibers of the natural wood can be transferred to cheap wood, dispensing with the tedious and expensive process of veneering" which must have been of interest to the Widdicomb family. Two of the Widdicomb brothers went into business with Mr. Adams, possibly as investors?  At any rate, John and Harry are listed as officers in the short-lived company on the sample here.

The company records and archives, which are stored at the Grand Rapids Public Library contains stock receipts dated 1881 for the Adams Graining Company, and one for Widdicomb has turned up HERE shown below.
 
The Adams company (or rather division or subsidiary?) was located at 62 West Bridge Street.  Adams Graining and Decorating was absolved in 1900, so it would appear the machine founded to utilize the technique was either absorbed into Widdicomb, or abandoned.

Note the brass "card" above was "Grained and Decorated By Our Process" and you can see it ranges from fancy to primitive.  The sheet is two-sided and gives a good example of the techniques available.  It measures 4" x 6"  or so, about the size of a cabinet card photograph, which is what I assumed it was until I picked it up. The Brass or Tin is no thicker than a tintype photograph.

Adams Graining & Decorating Company Metal Salesman Sample circa 1880 Collection Jim Linderman

ORDER JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS AND EBOOKS HERE

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

BROWSE AND ORDER JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS AND DOWNLOADS HERE

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

Order Dull Tool Dim Bulb / Vintage Sleaze / Jim Linderman Books and Tablet downloads for iPad HERE

Youngest Reenactors Boys Camp Outing with Uniforms Collection Jim Linderman

CLICK TO ENLARGE

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 

Order or Browse Jim Linderman Books and ebook downloads HERE

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

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS AND eBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN CATALOG HERE

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

CLICK TO ENLARGE

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

 See Dull Tool Dim Bulb Art and Photography Books by Jim Linderman HERE

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

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS AND EBOOK DOWNLOADS HERE

Biggest Folk Art Basket Trade Sign Basket Factory Stockbridge Michigan

CLICK TO ENLARGE GIANT BASKET!

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

Books and eBooks by Jim Linderman may be previewed, ordered and downloaded HERE

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 

See Jim Linderman Books and eBooks HERE  

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?