Receiving a hand-decorated piece of mail from a loved one is always a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, it is a practice falling by the wayside along with everything else done by hand. You can "personalize" an email but must use freehand software...or all you are doing is selecting a pre-designed piece of digitized junk some programmer thought was cute. And you are probably downloading it from a company stealing your IP address. If it blinks, squeaks, dances or wiggles it is even worse.Also annoying is when mail art becomes a "movement" with philosophical underpinnings like Dada, Fluxus, Merz, the Mail Art Network and such. I know there are all sorts of rational artistic justifications for the practice but it seems for the most part to be made up of people who are a little too impressed with their own cleverness. (And those who like to tease the post office, which along with the public library is one of the few true bargains left) Want a conceptual foundation from my mother? To get mail, you have to send mail. Not deep, but true.Group of Handmade envelopes, postcards, etc. c. 1900-1940. Collection Jim Linderman
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These circus banners, when strung in a row to attract customers, were known in the trade as a Banner Line or The String Show. "Ten in One" refers to the usual number of acts. The Lincoln Brothers, who apparently had only eight acts...lasted only a few months.
For other sideshow photographs posted on Dull Tool Dim Bulb, click blue "sideshow" subject heading below.Anonymous Photo Snapshot 1921 Collection Jim Linderman
James Montgomery Flagg was at one time the highest paid illustrator in America, having painted the famous Uncle Sam "I WANT YOU" poster, (actually a self-portrait in which he added a white beard to avoid using a model). He did use models however, eventually producing thousands and thousands of works for magazine covers and books. He was also judge of beauty, for he called the above woman the most beautiful in the world and used her likeness in many of his illustrations. This is Julia Eliza Bruns, a silent film actress from St. Louis who succumbed, as they say, to fame in a big way. This is the only photograph I can find of her (!) but trust there are mug shots somewhere...you can trace her decline on the web. Arrests, drug addiction, jewel thefts to pay her pusher and finally death of alcoholism in a fleabag Manhattan hotel. She even published articles about her drug addiction. A sad tale, and one which has become cliche...but this is the real deal. If she was in fact the most beautiful woman in the world, it is odd there are no photographs available on the web...and stranger still the press touched her up in this 1924 wire photo describing one of her arrests. Maybe they caught her on a bad day. Two years later she was dead.
Original embellished press photograph, Sept 1925, Collection Jim Linderman
Still (or finally) summer, so an excuse for another photo of beach beauties.
Hand-Tinted Photograph, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
Hand written on reverse "Kid Johnson's Mountain Lion when about 18 months old. Captured near Glacier Park Mont. March 1925. Now at Manhattan Mont. Showing a hold up stunt" and dated Feb. 11th 1926.
A powerful and rich photograph. Folks who collect pictures are often bitten and smitten briefly...an image is found, obtained, enjoyed and filed. Something about this one makes it an exception. Was there love and respect between the two, or a relationship based on something else? Cats are hard to train, and Kid Johnson seems a proud, loving trainer. On the other hand, we ourselves have been "trained" by now to believe animals belong in the wild, but who is to say here? Who captured who? I suspect life was difficult for all living creatures in Montana in 1926, be one collared or not. It was probably a "hold-up" stunt as Kid Johnson would feign a weapon and direct the performer to "stick-em-up." Did Kid take the time to lay out the canvas backdrop, or the photographer. Were they performing on a street corner for coins, or was the star performer taken out specifically for the photo shoot. Six months before this photo was taken, Manhattan, Montana was struck by an earthquake which damaged half the town's few structures. Manhattan thrived producing Malt until prohibition in 1916...I do not know how either event affected Kid and his pet, if at all. The town today has some 1500 inhabitants. Dig further and you will find the well-known "Real Food for Real People" advertising campaign was filmed there. I don't think that would surprise the folks at PETA.
Real Photo Postcard 1926. Collection Jim Linderman
