Spectacular Circus Banners Hanging in 1963 At the Circus in Black and White (and Color) #34 collection Jim Linderman

A group of exceptional circus banners in a pair of 1963 snapshots of the Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey Circus.  Folks often think the glory days of the circus banner was long gone by then, but these look pretty good.  A real phantasmagoria!  Note matronly visitors standing near the entrance.  

Pair of original snapshot photographs dated 1963  Collection Jim Linderman


AT THE CIRCUS IN BLACK AND WHITE is a occasional feature on Dull Tool Dim Bulb. This is number 34 in the series.

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

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

Some of the Free Acts at the Iowa Fairs 1925 At the Circus in Black and White series #32

At the Circus entry number 32 is "Some of the Free Acts Season 1925 Iowa Fairs.  A snapshot and a beauty.

Collection Jim Linderman

AT THE CIRCUS IN BLACK AND WHITE is a occasional feature on Dull Tool Dim Bulb. This is number 32 in the series.

Original Snapshot 192 Collection Jim Linderman

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

Hagenbeck Wallace At The Circus in Black and White #31 The World's Lowest Type Human

Caption on reverse "September 2, 1938 L.A Calif. Afternoon crowd now leaving the circus. Sideshow Band was playing in the midway."

Look close and you will see one of the acts was "The World's Lowest Type Human" and I hate to speculate on that one. Suzie born with the Skin of an Elephant.

If the date on the reverse of this photo is correct, you are seeing the sun go down in the afternoon and the lights go out in the evening. Hagenbeck-Wallace ceased operation the same year.

For those of you animal rights folks out there, in 1913 the circus lost 8 elephants, 21 lions and 8 performing horses in a flood in 1913. That pales in comparison to the train wreck they had five years later, in which an engineer further down the track fell asleep at the throttle and crashed his train into the rear of the Hagenbeck's. Kerosene lamps on the circus train spread fire immediately to the wooden cars, and 86 circus members died, another 127 were injured.

AT THE CIRCUS IN BLACK AND WHITE is a occasional feature on Dull Tool Dim Bulb. This is number 31 in the series.

Original Snapshot 1938 Collection Jim Linderman

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

The Animated Chocolate Eclair and World's Smallest Perfect Woman Princess Wee Wee RPPC

A previously "unposted" real photo postcard of Princess Wee-Wee, A.K.A. Princess Weenie Wee, Winnie Wee, The Animated Chocolate Eclair, The World's Smallest Perfect Woman and Harriet Elizabeth Williams. Wee Wee was weaned in Bryn Mawr, PA, born 1892. Her "Linked-in" profile would today include stints at Dreamland Circus Sideshow 1908-1917 and Barnum and Bailey, dates unknown. She also apparently toured on shows with Count Basie, Pine Top Smith and other prominent "Negro Vaudeville" routes. She appeared in one film, "The Music Goes Round" in 1936 according to one source. I haven't seen the film.

Not surprisingly, there are dozens of photographs of Ms. Wee Wee, nearly all with her standing next to a prop (either a person or a piece of furniture) which puts her wee-weeness into perspective. Whether this chair is normal-sized is unknown. There are numerous claims made as to her height and weight. I think wee suffices.


Real Photo Postcard circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

See Dull Tool Books and Tablet Download Catalog HERE

Jolly Ollie of the 101 Circus At the Circus in Black and White #30

Jolly Ollie 538 Pounds Real Photo Postcard Collection Jim Linderman

AT THE CIRCUS in BLACK and WHITE is a continuing series on Dull Tool Dim Bulb This is Entry number 30.

Mexican Circus Performers At the Circus in Black and White # 29

Entry number 29 in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb AT THE CIRCUS IN BLACK AND WHITE Series is a trio of original circa 1950 snapshots of a most handsome traveling circus troupe from Mexico. México circo ambulante!

Original Photographs Collection Jim Linderman

AT THE CIRCUS in BLACK and WHITE is a continuing series on Dull Tool Dim Bulb This is Entry number 29.

Perfect Practice At the Circus in Black and White #28 Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Untitled Photograph (Practice) Circa 1960 Collection Jim Linderman


AT THE CIRCUS in BLACK and WHITE is a continuing series on Dull Tool Dim Bulb This is Entry number 28.

Fanny Rice (You All Know Her) At the Circus in Black and White #27

Well, maybe you don't know Fanny Rice having confused her for the much more famous Fanny Brice, but a Fanny is a Fanny. (And Fanny Rice had a big hit with the song "You All Know Her" even if you don't)


Original Vaudeville/Circus/Burlesque Photograph circa 1890 with players Identified Collection Jim Linderman


AT THE CIRCUS in BLACK and WHITE is a continuing series on Dull Tool Dim Bulb This is Entry number 27.

Ventriloquist Dummy Vent on a Box At the Circus in Black and White Jim Linderman collection of Circus Photographs #26

Number 26 in the series AT THE CIRCUS IN BLACK AND WHITE

Ventriloquist Dummy Head (at rest). Original Snapshot circa 1930-1940 collection Jim Linderman


DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS HERE
Tweet

Bike Tricks in the Dark Bicycle At the Circus in Black and White #25

#25 in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Series "At the Circus in Black and White" isn't really at the circus, but certainly this pair of balancing artists did their share of work at them. Floating!

Set of Four Snapshots circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb BOOKS Here

The World's Most Wonderful Horses Frank Wendt and The Wondrous World of Wendt Carnival, Show and Sideshow Horse Photograph Cabinet Cards

These pictures were taken during the the agrarian United States on the cusp of Industrial Society. The horse played a role in both, and it is no wonder it also played a role in the traveling circus.


Horses with long tales can swat flies easier, but the mane seems purely decorative. Depending on genetics, many horses can grow spectacular heads of hair, but normal wear, tear and snags usually keeps the mane at a manageable length. Show horses are often allowed to grow it longer. They will even have it braided and let loose before the show in an attempt to create perfect waves, but even their splendid "dos" pale compared to a wild horse, of which I recently heard there was some 30,000 roaming in the states today. A number increasing through abandonment...it is expensive to maintain a horse, often costing far more than the horse is worth.


Horse were also taught tricks. Fake tricks, but then all tricks are fake. When you see an educated horse clomping off a count, or solving complex mathematical problems, it is usually because the trainer has tipped Trigger off. It is a fairly easy trick to teach your horse to go get their food bucket. Even a dog can do it without training. Teaching your horse to shake his head yes or no is easy as well, and we're not even into Mr. Ed territory here yet. But for the math genius horse who knocks off numbers like an accountant? Usually he has been taught to respond to cues from the boss, not to operate a calculator in his head.


First up is Mascot the Talking Horse. Looks like Mascot could shake hands and push a lever in addition to talking. What? You don't hear anything? Neither do I. Mascot was active in Connecticut, and the Syracuse University also holds one of these cards in their collection. Note the photo of the Professor making out with Mascot...the backdrop depicts hoards of painted customers watching in awe.


Next is Chief. The reverse of his card can tell you all you wish to know about the Shetland with the tail of steel. At right is Edward Daley, Chief's chief groomer. If you wish to avoid reading the small print, Chief travels first class in his own little baggage car.


The next horse has no name indicated, but someone has taken the time to point out his particulars. Eighteen feel and nine inches of tail!


Elsie Sutliff is the trainer, not the horse. The Syracuse University Library holds another Wendt image of Elsie, and in their copy a large dog is standing on the back of the horse, so Elsie must have trained several animals. (A "Dog and Pony" show.)


Happy Jack was "The original and world famous Lone Pacer" according to the barely visable text embedded in the image. Also shown is trainer Frank Schneider and Charles Fose the owner. A Lone Pacer is an archaic term for a lead horse which sets the pace, I believe...at any rate, the time shown (2:03) is for a mile. Happy Jack is also reported to have run the mile at 2:13 in Louisville, Kentucky in 1897.


There were several horses named Linus, and in fact one reason was so the folks in one part of the country would think they were seeing THE Linus, when the real Linus was appearing somewhere else! Suffice to say, "carny" folk aren't usually thought of as being the most honest cards in the deck. At least the two Linus horses follow here and both are the real deal. The website "Messy Beast" has the whole story, and numerous examples, including several photos of these same horses. A whole herd named Linus!


Linus and Linus II were both Long Haired Oregon horses. Through genetics and a little hocus-pocus, it seems the Linus long hair was a trait passed down among generations of Linus breeders.


Most of the horses shown here have extensive notes, personal history and such either printed or noted on the reverse.

All Photographs Frank Wendt circa 1890-1910


All Original Photographs from the Jim Linderman Collection.

Excerpt above by Jim Linderman from the forthcoming book
"The Wondrous World of Wendt" and copyrighted!
Not to reproduced without writing.

See ALL the Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books CATALOG HERE

See also The Wondrous World of Wendt (In Progress) HERE

Bernard Kobel Photograph Freak and Freak Photographer Tattoo Sideshow Abnormalities and More (Worse?)

I pride myself on collecting unusual photographs, but no one collected more and with more vigor than Bernard L. Kobel. It is a clear case of the freak collecting the freaks!

You see, Bernie didn't just take and COLLECT photographs of medical abnormalities, circus freaks, war atrocities, lurid and lewd crime scenes and such, he reprinted and SOLD them from the back of sleazy magazines! You have likely seen some if you are a bit adventurous...the woman with the world's largest whatevers, the guy with the giant stuff, the bizarre pair of thingamabobs...even I don't want to show them and I'm pretty much immune by now. I'm cheeky but Bernie crossed the line!

You have also seen reproductions of his collection without knowing it. The famous picture of armless and beautiful sideshow performer (and actress) Frances O'Connor who appears on the cover of the Re/search book Freaks (linked at right) is a Kobel photo, even if not taken by him, but he did take plenty himself. Some of the photographs shown on the billboard at Hubert's Museum in Times Square (and later, on the cover of the Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street album) were Kobel shots. His reprints sold fairy well, at least well enough to have entered the sleazy underground where gourmands of gore dwell. They continue to sell long after Bernie moved from Indiana to Florida and then Sideshow heaven, as bootleg reproductions and, I guess, authentic ones on auction websites.

Not all Kobel's photos were gruesome or gratuitous, but plenty were...As you can see here, he advertised kinky tattoo photos in girlie magazines, (often showing far more than the tattoo) freaks and contortionists in entertainment trade magazines, and I suppose he advertised his gruesome war photos in whatever war folks read. A pair of originals are shown HERE.

I do not know much about Bernie, but I know as much as I want. Interestingly, a later advertisement shows he was trying to leverage his collection into a new direction....stamp collecting! "Lists sent, natch...Will trade for U.S. stamp collections."

Natch indeed...one of his catalogs from the 1950s lists nearly 500 photos which I don't even want to print the descriptions of. On the other hand, one of his photographs for sale in a catalog is "The First Official Hair Pulling Contest...held at the Palisades Amusement Park with 24 girls from the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency as contestants."

I'd trade a few stamps to see THAT one.

(A post on Vintage Sleaze the Daily Blog as well)

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE

Miniature Sausage Grinder and the Urban Word of the Year At the Circus in Black and White #24

Click to enlarge, and you will see this handmade tiny circus even has a sausage grinder. (?) Now as the term has come to mean "a very aggressive and active female sex partner" according to the Urban Dictionary (One of my favorite sites, and a reminder now is the time to vote for your Urban Word of the Year ("Vatican Roulette" another name for the rhythm method or "Hit the Slide" to leave a job in a particularly dramatic manner are my favorites) I am wondering what the carver had in mind here...

MONKEY grinders, or ORGAN grinders were common at circus and carnival gatherings, but they were hand-turned musical instruments with a simian dancer, not meat makers. You have to cook sausage first, and this little guy doesn't appear to have sterno. Maybe he was selling dogs in buns.

Pair of original snapshots of a handmade miniature circus, date unknown Collection Jim Linderman

#24 in Series "At the Circus in Black and White" on Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog

EGYPTIA and NASCA'S BAND Show Beautiful At the Circus in Black and White #23

"At the Circus in Black and White #23 (or in this case, more of a sepia) is an old albumen of a Girl Show. Like "Mermaids" from Figi, "Aztec" Children, "Mysteries from the Orient" and "Savages" who were really from Brooklyn, Sideshow operators played on our cultural ignorance when naming their acts. Presented here, some dancing girls from Egyptia!



Original Photograph, circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman (formerly Collection Captain L. Harvey Cann of Sarasota, Florida)

Bump and Grind WAY too Early (At the Circus in Black and White #22)

Child labor laws seem not to have applied to carnival sideshow grinds during the 1930s as this photograph attests. The young dancer can not be much more than 16, but I guess it is hard to tell. She certainly doesn't quite match up to the painted silhouette on the barker's stand...for one thing her hands are hardly thrown up in joy. It is quite rare to see a photo of a dancing girl (literally) taken during the daytime at even the sleaziest carnival...but one "H. H." has done just that. Girl shows of this nature are as old as the carnival itself, but they frequently took place at night after most patrons (and the law, who was frequently paid off) went home. Hence the name "Midnight Ramble. In this case, they should have been checking ID around lunchtime. A young hoofer to be sure, but to me, a bit too young. Show business of any kind is hard despite the facade of glamour...this photo shows an underside not often (or easy) to see.

(Also posted on Vintage Sleaze the Blog)

Original Untitled Snapshot circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

At the Circus in Black and White #21 Calcutta Monster 1957

Original Photograph 1957 Collection Jim Linderman

Virginia Roehl Photograph and the Art of Window Display The Display News Service

Do these circus banners look at all odd to you? Could it be that they are painted on a bathroom wall, or at least seem to be? At any rate, the display is a miniature of some kind, look close and you can see a shower head.

Virginia Roehl was a window display news service. Located on West 57th Street in the 1950s, upscale (and I mean way upscale) clients like Tiffany's , Bonwit Teller, Bergman's and such hired them to document their window installations. The photographers who worked at Roehl took photographs of some of the most beautiful (and artistic) retail displays in New York. They could well have included installations by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist, all of whom worked as window decorators. (Not too shabby, eh?) So did Salvador Dali. Warhol, in the last interview he gave, said "Everybody also was doing window decoration. That led into more galleries. I had some paintings in a window, then in a gallery."

Manhattan is literally full of art...and even the tiny spaces in storefront windows utilize it. When you consider up to a million people may pass your display in a week, a retailer best produce something interesting for display. It is also quite a showcase for an artist. How else might a young struggling visual artist reach an audience as large as a good day at the Met?

I can not find too much information on the Virginia Roehl Display News Service, but It would be a wonderful archive (and exhibit) should anyone find them. Obviously, they were connected. If I were still in NYC, I would be all over them.


As window work is temporal, the Roehl photographs may be the only pictures of some extraordinary work. The print here has their stamp on verso, as does one I locate in the Library of Congress of some work by Covarrubias.


The Ohio State University Exhibit Historic Costume and Textiles collection exhibit in 1999 used some Roel images, the catalog "The Art of Selling: A History of Visual Merchandising" is readily available on the web and is recommended.



Untitled Virginia Roehl Display News Service Photograph, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman