Apache Harry will Tattoo your Social Security Number on your Skin on the Bowery

The color photographs of Apache Harry which ran in Life Magazine in 1936 are fascinating, as color photos of tattoo artists from before World War Two are scarce indeed. I do not think the picture here has ever been shown (at least since 1940) and while not identified by photographer name, it ran in the Volitant publication Laff, an early Life wannabee copycat.

Apache Harry's studio in the 1930s and 1940s was way at the south end of the Bowery.  Today 22 Bowery, at the corner of Pell Street and Bowery in Lower Manhattan is part of Chinatown…which continues to spread north and has eclipsed Little Italy.   He didn't have much space there.  In 1938 he was interviewed by Joseph Adams for the North American Newspaper Alliance (an early wire service) who reported "Hour by Hour, he sits in his little two by six cubicle…" as he lamented the loss of interest in folks asking for tats.  At the time, he was making most his money tattooing social security numbers on folks.

Apache Harry's Dump Today

Harry gives the reporter the business, telling him he's giving up the tattoo business and becoming a coin collector…but he was joking about paying top dollar for a buffalo nickel which "nobody can keep long enough to find out if it has a hump."  Adams sarcastically calls Apache Harry the "tattoo tycoon" and reports on the declining business.

Why would folks pay Apache Harry to tattoo their social security number on them?  Because at the time the "Social Security Law" was new…and for a time it became fashionable for folks hoping to receive their reward in their golden years to be ready with their number inked on them for good.  They did it to prevent amnesia from taking away their claim!  Today, of course, that number is hidden so scammers don't steal your identity, but back then crime was more physical.  Like with a sap in the head.

In 1938, Coronet Magazine picked up the story and ran an article titled "Apache Harry: Who Has Reaped Social Security's Most Generous Dividend."  You see, the naysayers in the ruling class back then never thought the system would work…and they lampooned it using Apache Harry as their shill.  Screw them…it's been seventy five years and the system is still solvent, despite what you'll hear Republican scare-mongers say.

Harry charged from fifty cents to ten dollars a tat.  Presumably, the numbers were the cheapest.  Harry says the late night crowd is still his big money customers, but the social security folks come in during daylight.  They want the simple designs…a small bit of embellishment, not the flourish Harry was capable of.

IN 1936, Apache Harry is reported to "put beauty spots and initials on about a dozen women a day, but still my mail clientele is soldiers and sailors" in the Milwaukee  Journal.  He is also mentioned in the book New York City Tattoo by Hardy Marks which came out in 1997.

Later, Apache Harry did a better business in tattoo removal than in tattoos  According to Laff magazine in 1940, which I cribbed the photo here from, he also specialized in doing make-up to cover black eyes.

I am afraid I do not know who ended up with Apache Harry's original flash.  It looks great.  I also do not know Apache Harry's real name, but I am inclined to think he was no more Apache than the white dudes from Brooklyn who dressed up like Indians for early silent pictures.  He did have some long hair though.

Apache Harry was  rendered by master printmaker Eli Jacobi, the study for the portrait is shown HERE on the Child's Galllery.

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Outsider Art Fair Post In Absentee Asa Moore Drawings

Because it is Outsider Art  Fair weekend, and I would be there except I moved...It is a nice day to show a few pieces by Asa Moore, circa 1935.  He qualifies.  Click to Enlarge.

Three works on pencil by Asa Moore, circa 1935 Collection Jim Linderman

SUPERMAN and SUPERWOMAN superboy and supergirl RPPC collection Jim Linderman

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Real Photo Postcard circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

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Tom Mix ? Or Just a Big Cowpoke ? Dull Tool Dim Bulb Cowboy Mystery

Whoa, boys,  It's silent oater star Tom Mix (or is it?)  "Tom" is sporting a pair of homemade chaps and an ACTUAL pear so his big size can be determined.  I purchased this wrangler at an antique show for a price so low it doesn't matter, but since he was called Tom Mix I'd like to know. 

I can't find any big dolls of Tom Mix online.  Is this an amateur sales stimulator put in a toy shop?  I dunno!  All his duds are homemade (and old) and there is on six-shooter made of lead.  He WAS a cowboy, as the hard composite boots are attached (as are the hands and noggin) but the body is soft.  The kerchief appears to be a found object, and the holster is handmade.  The chaps and vest, leather, have cool leather applied stars.  He really isn't very cuddly...so I don't think he is a doll.  I think some kind of display thing.

So is this Tom Mix, or a city slicker posing as him? I am going to put him on the Collector's Weekly "Show and Tell" pages and call him a unsolved mystery.  Someone will know.  Was there a commercial trade figure or toy 24 inches tall of Tom Mix?

Cowboy doll with homemade clothes.   Collection Jim Linderman

The Glory of Taxidermy (or Going Rogue) Dull Tool Dim Bulb

 

I am not sure why taxidermists so often freeze their subjects in fight rather than flight.  It makes for dramatic presentation, but most animals I have come across in my life have been either running or skulking away.  I even came upon a mother bear and her cubs once, and while it was us who did the running, I don't recall even a nasty look from mom.  She was just lumbering along the top of a ridge with the pups, but if I shot her and turned her over to the taxidermist, she would come back to me full grimace with extended claws.

It does make for an incongruous snapshot.  Kitty, Little Betsy and Rover…God's creatures frozen by embalming fluid, the camera shutter and a command respectively.

Our taxidermist uses a photography trick I use as well.  Putting a white sheet behind the subject for contrast.  In my case, it is seldom to hide anything from the neighbors.  I don't have a posing rock pedestal either. 

These photos all came from the same fellow, and I am pleased to see he was into his hobby deep enough to have visited a museum of same.

 If it sounds like I am being critical, I'm not.  If someone wants to mount a trophy, or even refer to a living creature now dead as a trophy, it isn't MY thing, but I am tolerant and secure enough in my own beliefs so as not to force them on others.  Usually.

I'll see if there are any interesting taxidermy facts online.   WHOA.  For one thing, I'm clearly living in hunting territory, as the first ten hits are for guys in my county who will mount your kill for you.  Thanks google…your search protocols are so effective, but my query is of a intellectual nature, and I do not have anything in the trunk needing gutting.

Well…taxidermy started with Egyptian mummies.  Fish are harder to do than mammals.  Freeze-drying is becoming taxidermy of choice.  The technique of creating jackanapes and such (fake Frankenstein creatures as a joke) is called "Rogue taxidermy" and is sneered upon by true taxidermists…but of course that is the folks I will link to.   
HERE

Lot of Taxidermy Snapshots circa 1930-1940 Collection Jim Linderman

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Sliding Dead Man in a Box Folk Art Whimsy Coffin Folk Art

 

Slide him in boys.

Hand carved folk art whimsy circa 1920?  Collection Jim Linderman

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Charles Cole Folk Art Miniature Architectural Houses of Cigar Boxes

Miniature cigar box tramp art houses by Charles Cole of Racine, Wisconsin.   Mr. Cole created an entire city, in magnificent detail, from cigar boxes he collected from Rehl's Book Store in Racine, and that was the city he recreated in meticulous, remarkable detail.   Actually, Mr. Cole created an idealized city, bringing in prominent buildings from Madison, Chicago and elsewhere, but he placed them in his perfect world. 

There were 75 buildings, of which four are shown here.  As far as I know, one is the only unfinished piece (unpainted, anyway) which shows some of the detail work before he painted them.  Precision cut with laser skill, though the laser was still fifty years in the future.  As you can see in one piece here, (with bolts and nuts shown for size) many of the houses were wired for light.  Which is probably why the unpainted house has SEVENTY-TWO windows!                                                                                        

Here is the kicker.  Cole made each house IN TRIPLICATE!  One for each of his children.  

Mr. Cole's work, or at least one set,  was apparently purchased as a lot and is now being dispersed on your favorite online auction site.  A shame, it could not be kept together, but then Charles may have been tickled to know how far his little creations have been spread. 

Some of the most remarkable buildings I know which were made of cigar boxes, and I aim to keep them together.


Four miniature houses, circa 1935, by Charles M. Cole  collection Jim Linderman

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The Eldoras Delicate Act of Balance A Different Novelty colllection Jim Linderman

It is a delicate "balance" of art, skill and athleticism as one of the Eldoras avoids looking up the skirt of the other Eldora.

The Eldora's (sic) A Different Novelty Real Photo Post Card Undated (circa 1940?) Collection Jim Linderman

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A Leggy Pin Up of Wood Folk Art Collection Jim Linderman

Folk art carved long-legged sculpture circa 1940.  Collection Jim Linderman

Call to the Colors Paint Set by Gold Medal Transogram

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Call to the Colors Paint
To celebrate the inauguration,  I would love to paint you a perfect picture of harmony...but I don't want to mess up my perfect cakes of star paint!

Call to the Colors Paint Set circa 1940  Collection Jim Linderman

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Alligator Dance on the FLOOR An Obscene Dance from My Youth Confirmed!

 Alligator Dance.

If you try to tell a forgotten story every day, as I do, you will find despite billions of bits and bytes, the internet frequently lets you down.  There is no substitute for the library kids…just  remember that.

In researching the snapshot above, from 1955, showing an African-American man writhing on the floor, I was reminded of a brief fad from my junior high school days.  A dance move so bold, so racy, so damn filthy that the minute ONE boy did it, the party was OVER.  At the least, the offender was yanked up and sent home with a phone call to his parents .

It was called the Alligator.

To do the Alligator, when I was a kid, was to drop down and feign the male humping of intercourse on the floor of the gymnasium.  That's right.  To fake the fug.  To plunge to the floor and rut like a dog right near center-court when the chaperones were busy looking for smokers in the boy's room.  When I found and bought this snapshot  I was determined to bring it back.

I expected deep Gullah roots or something… a juke joint origin from the early days of rock and roll, when the Devil's music was just starting to ruin America's youth.  

Imagine my dismay when the almighty internet traced it to a 1980s move from Bob Saget's completely neutered TV show FULL HOUSE!  What a crock!   As in Crocodile, not alligator.   SURELY I wasn't wrong…and surely whatever the Full House claimed as their dance step involved fewer real humps than a camel without any.

To my great dismay that is where the trail ended, almost.  I still remembered back in my youth the big scandal and hallways in school following sock hops when so and so was yanked up off the floor after a brief, furtive "alligator rock" down on the floor.

I persisted.

And finally I found what I was looking for.  Read it yourself.  Sure enough, I wasn't crazy, and the dance had spread to Cincinnati.  The UPI even picked it up!  The date was exactly when I remembered it too!  1966!  Of course, in the original photo here, you can see, as always with dance, the brothers did it ten years earlier than we did.

But that is about all I found.  So the next time I am at the Dance floor at the Lincoln Center Library, I'll see what else I can find.  Obviously, the web sucks.


Original Anonymous Snapshot, 1955 Collection Jim Linderman

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LET'S RIDE ! Bowlegged Early American Folk Art collection Jim LInderman

 Bowlegged Cowboy Folk Art

"Howdy Mam.  Can I get a drink around here?"  Obviously having ridden all day and night, a cowpoke finally makes it to his destination. Bowlegged...that is unless our unfortunate cowpoke suffers from Genu Varum.  I think he does, actually.

Horse and Rider Folk Art circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

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Pretzels and Pepsi You ARE what you Eat Snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Pretzel earrings and Pepsi eyes.  Snapshot circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

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Six Hoops at once! Arthur Ward and his assistant Florence Dane. Fifty Years of Juggling

 

Francisco Alvarez in his book Juggling: It's History and the Greatest Performers mentions Arthur Ward practicing the same 6 hoop trick for hours at Bothner's  Gymnasium on 42nd Street. Whether Florence Dane (below) practiced with him is unknown.  In fact Florence is unknown, period.  But Arthur?  check him out…the "dash of humor" is his facial hair.

They say all press is good press, but not the one below, which I cribbed from the Miami News in 1951, in which Florence is not only referred to only as "a shapely lass clad in black" sucks because Arthur dropped his hoops!  He shoulda practiced a bit longer.

Jeez, cut him some slack.  Arthur is reported doing the same act FIFTY YEARS EARLIER IN 1915, unless there was more than one Arthur Ward, the Hoop Juggler.  Can you imagine being on the vaudeville trail fifty years?  I wonder how many shapely lasses he went through!    He got good, as for quite a while he was the ONLY six hoop performer and held the record.  At that time, his assistant  was referred to as an "eccentric dancer" which makes me think I would have enjoyed the act, then taking place in Canada.  What exactly is an eccentric dancer?  Elaine at the Christmas party on Seinfeld?   

I do see he redeemed himself with a good review in 1935.  Persistence.  In 1950, the LA Times calls him "toothy" but I can't tell if they mention his traveling partner than, as the paper requires a "Pay per View" just like Arthur and Florence.  He WAS clearly using Florence two years later though…in Spokane.  At the time he was traveling with a bill which included "Brats, unicycle and trampoline…monkeys…and sway pole."

Miami showbiz scribe Herb Rau reviews his act briefly that year, but he is far more impressed with a bird which whistles tunes. 

IN 1959 Arthur was still a juggler, comedy dancer and 72 years old according to the American Guild of Variety Artists.  But that's about it I guess, and sadly even his record has been broken.  Some other juggler has mastered SEVEN hoops, I am afraid.

What about Florence Dane?  Well, she's mentioned appearing with Arthur at intermission of the First Annual K.C.  Aviation Ball in 1953…just before the article mentions the door prizes will be an electric toaster and a set of steak knives.  Good gig!

Super sexologist Gloria Brame, who I have been fortunate enough to cyber-acquaint myself with, ran this very picture of Florence, but I think she cribbed it before I bought it on ebay.  Alas, I fear Florence will always be playing second fiddle with the hoops.

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Original Photograph of Florence Dane with press clippings collection Jim Linderman
Photo of Arthur Ward from ebay.

Hotpoint Man Head Sales Stimulator Designed by Joseph Kallus of Cameo and Kewpie designs Creepy

Hotpoint got their name from their first product, the electric iron in 1911.  The hottest point was the point.  They dicked around with General Electric for a while, but now it is fully owned by Indesit, an Italian company. 

I have no idea why Hotpoint had to sell to GE when their marketing was as good as the goon above…(snicker) but his name was "HOTPOINT MAN" and he dates to the 1930s.   They propped him up in stores to keep the kids busy while Mom and Dad bought modern appliances, and I think they sent a few home too. Gee...a doll you just couldn't help to love.

Hotpoint Man was designed by Joseph Kallus of Cameo and today he is pretty rare apparently, so i'll just make do here with his head.  Kallus was a sculptor and designer who is associated with the Kewpie doll.

 "In 1916 Kallus himself founded the Rex Doll Co. to produce composition Kewpie dolls, as supplies from Germany were halted by the war.  These dolls were distributed by Borgfeldt, who controlled all production rights to Kewpie dolls and figurines.  With permission from Borgfeldt, the Rex Doll Co. also made a line of composition Kewpie dolls that were distributed by the Tip Top Co., a distributor of carnival prizes." according to the website of the Cameo Doll Company

Well, the guy above ain't no Kewpie, so I guess Kallus could design cute AND creepy!

Believe it or not, and if you can believe Wikipedia, Hotpoint branded products are made by GE Consumer in Louisville, Kentucky.  In the United States!

Head of Hotpoint Man Composition sales stimulator doll circa 1930  Collection Jim Linderman

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Antique Lanky Limberjack dances a Jig Folk Art Bull Dog Sal

This lil fella can dance, and I made an academy award winning (not) short to prove it. Music graciously provided by copyright expired and unfortunately dead "Ashly and Foster" playing their stomper Bull Dog Sal. 

Limbjack collection Jim Linderman
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