Why is Dinah Washington's single here rare? The answer lies not in the groove...but the censorship handwritten instruction to the disc jockey as much as the song title. How's a girl to get sales without any airplay?
You can listen and determine the obscenity level yourself. It IS filthy. In fact, it may be the most filthy song ever recorded, and it came without a parental guidance sticker! QUADRUPLE entendre!
I won't give away what the song is about, but it isn't a trombone.
Dinah Washington was singing in Chicago club "Dave's Rhumboogie" by the time she was eighteen, so I am going to guess she knew her instruments. Born Ruth Jones but soon to be known as Dinah. Her first record was written by Jazz scholar Leonard Feather. She was married seven times, all by the age of 39. It is not clear is the United States Post Office heard "Big Long Slidin' Thing before the put her on a postage stamp in 1993. It was a lickin' thing.
Thank you Dinah. You keep on, despite being hassled by the man!
BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILBLE HERE
As much as I hate to start a new trend in "outsider art" I present here what was likely the first CAKE made with obsessive scribbles. The medium? SUGAR. So there you go…a visionary piece of cake!
There is an art to making cakes (and Schimmack was good at it) but when was the last time you saw some Art Brut applied with a frosting bag? Among the proclamations made of sugary goo is that a trip to Neptune at 60 miles an hour will take over 20,000 years, so eat a big lunch before you go. The artist/baker also indicates the weight of the moon.
Paul K. Schimmack was a bread and cake maker by trade (he was named Secretary of the Washington Wholesale and Retail Bakers Association in 1910) As you can see here, his shop "The Lion Bakery" was capable of "40 buns in one minute!" The building no longer stands. A house was placed there in 1922. Still, if one can say "he is better known" for a guy not known at all…it was his astrology art for which he is best not remembered today. It is fair to speculate the great share of his work was eaten, but this recent discovery of a second obsessive diagram produced over 100 years ago is a good time to explore what is in the historical record. This one has missed being included in the record as it was consumed after the picture was taken.
Astrology, of course, is the most intricate and detailed bogus system in the world! Wiki calls it a pseudoscience, which means not science at all. It is an early scam and continues to be. I rank it just ahead of "magnet therapy" and Phrenology…the science of bumps on the head.
Paul K. Schimmack's work "The Weather Shark Predictor" of paint on tin is now in the Balsley collection and it has appeared in shows, in a 1997 issue of Folk Art Magazine and in at least one catalog. It is something of a masterpiece. The artist seemingly registered a print of the piece in 1913 as "a work of art" titled Farmers Morning Glory Chart with the US Copyright Office. It was published by the Schlesinger Company. I believe "work of art" means a postcard, as the company was also responsible for the once common"Indian with headdress" postcards, though they did also publish lithographs for wall display. No publisher is indicated on the postcard here of his cake concoction, but it dates to around the same time.
Folk Art Magazine Spring 1997
A more typical image from Schlesinger Brothers Publishers
The Daily Republican (Monongahela, PA) of March 31, 1931 gave Mr. Schimmack a nice feature and asked him for a few predictions. "Inch downpour of rain during May followed by a rainy June. July, August, and September will be moderately dry. During November and October the rainfall will be medium and a general cyclone will strike the eastern states, causing shipwrecks and endangering tall buildings. Schimmack forecasts a general peace-making among all nations with the end of the year 1931. Several years earlier, the paper had gone to Shimmack for his prediction on the Dempsey - Tunney fight! Dempsey will enter the sign "with the support of the moon" while Tunney has Mercury behind him.
In 1927, the Lincoln Star (Nebraska) filled lots of space with his predictions. They called him a "weather shark" and astrologer. The numerous, if mundane "crop reports" ran for several inches of copy. Most notable was a "A big flood In California" and "The lion will show his teeth the first part of March, but that month and April will be relatively springlike."
Schimmack was also apparently the "go-to" guy for the Pittsburgh Press. They called on his expertise in the January 26, 1932 issue. "The change In weather will start to be noticeable today or tomorrow, however. Prom then on, there will be blizzards, sleet, snow, rain and ice. Eastern States will be paralyzed. "Coldest days will be Jan. 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31; Feb. 1, 3, 5, 6, 19, 22, 23. 24, 25, 27; March 2, 13. 18, 29, 31; and April 6, 7, 9 and 17." The Washington seer also predicted heavy snows in Pittsburgh and New York Feb. 22, 23 and 24. The groundhog will see his shadow; rivers will be at flood stage about the end of March and this district will experience a "white" Easter Sunday, he said." He was referred to as the "astrological seer of Washington Pa." and that he had been "observing and charting planets for nearly 50 years…he's delved into histories of floods, cold spells and droughts for as far back as 1832, noting positions of planets for each." Whew.
The Spring 1997 issue of Folk Art magazine illustrated Mr. Schimmack's "Weather Shark Astrological Chart" along with a notice of an exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum. The piece is in the collection of John and Diane Balsley. It also appears in the catalog of the exhibition. A large color image of the piece is available HERE from the Ricco - Maresca Gallery.
I discovered a fellow tricking Uncle Sam way back in 1935. See anything wrong with the two examples of stamps on top here? The 1 cent stamp is supposed to depict Franklin, yet Lincoln fills the center! The 2 cent stamp is supposed to depict Washington, but this one has Nathan Hale. In the second example, Franklin has been replaced with Washington! What the? Both envelopes have been mailed and the rogue stamps cancelled. The four relevant and proper stamps follow below. Pretty good, eh? Actually, one Charles Bradley expertly clipped out and swapped the heads before mailing them back to himself. Why? I dunno. I think some folks just like to put one over on the government. A while ago I gave an interview in which I claimed not to be a stamp collector. I guess I am now.
Mixed up US postage stamps circa 1935 Collection Jim Linderman
Said to be a snapshot of La Push, Washington, which would indicate the pieces may have been carved by members of the Quileute Native American tribe. If so, I would love to hear from anyone who can identify the location or provide information on the carvings. The tribe has a fascinating history, which includes the breeding of special woolly-haired dogs in order to make blankets of their coats(!) I would also like the sculptures moved to my front yard, but that seems unlikely.
Untitled Snapshot, circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman
Wooden Lumberjack at the Snohomish, Washington Grange State Fair 1936. The fair continues to this day.
Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog
Bob Dylan once sang/wrote "Inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial" which is a good line. I have always thought it is collectors who do the work...and decades later the museums catch up. Case in point is folk art collector Herbert Hemphill, a major influence on my life. The things he collected even came to be known as "A Hemphill thing" for lack of a better description...now the Smithsonian owns them and they help define the American experience.
My point is not to detract from the work of curators, historians and scientists who work in lauded museums at all...just that they sometimes take forever to get things done. With history counting on them, they don't have the luxury of being flippant or smarmy, as I do...and accuracy really isn't my forte either, I will confess. They have to be.
But it is truly the individual collector, the independent researcher, the hobbyist and the local historian who do the serious ground work. They have the drive, the obsession and the gumption to break ground, put disparate objects together for the first time and in many cases even create a genre.
A case in point is Mr. Jay Moynahan of Spokane, Washington. I happened upon one of his books while doing some research for my Vintage Sleaze blog. "Oh..so you were RESEARCHING prostitution?" Yes, actually, I was!
Mr. Moynahan appears to be quite a story. By my count, which stopped when I reached double-digits, Moynahan has researched, written and published some TWENTY FIVE BOOKS on prostitutes. Mostly prostitutes of the the American West, which he calls "soiled doves." I truly am afraid to read one...not because I am in the least bit prudish...because I am afraid I will like it and be hooked. No pun intended. With spring gardening coming up, can I really afford to go on a 25 long book jag of Moynahan's ladies of the night?
I am truly in awe. Now I must confess most of my own personal knowledge of the role played by working women in the West comes from the Larry McMurtry books...Lonesome Dove and the like. He often has a female character, superbly defined and described, by the way....who turns tricks for the men and acts as a sounding board. Honest, hard-working, trustworthy women who happen to work in the sex industry. So although I dabbled in Native American Art for a time, I really have no first hand knowledge of Western lore. For all I know, Jay Moynahan is well known in that community and his books sell like the soiled doves themselves after the round-up was over and the pockets were jingling. But he was certainly new to me.
Mr. Moynahan is retired Professor Emeritus at Eastern Washington University in Criminal Justice. He happened to learn of a distant relative who ran a bordello in a mining town in the 1870s. Some folks doing their genealogy might be tempted to overlook such a find...Moynahan only dug deeper.
What an accomplishment! Not only for the accuracy of history and for the appreciation of the role women played in settling the west, but an accomplishment for all interested hobbyists, amateur researchers, writers and future museum curators. This is a man who has documented and created a previously ignored and shunned part of history, and I for one intend not only to read one, but I suspect many. Some of his books consist of reprinted material he has located and assembled, some are collections of photographs...Just browse the inventory and you will be as impressed as I.
Mr. Moynahan HERE. A complete list of Moynahan books and ordering information is HERE.
If I were involved in any way with an institution of higher learning, a museum or an archive, I would be fetting Jay big time. This appears to be one serious chunk of history compiled and written by one man with a mission, and I suspect historians will recognize it for decades and decades to come.
Take Me to the Water receives Grammy nomination for Best Historical Album "Best Historical Album is a Grammy category that never attracts much attention, but the nominees are usually excellent. This year is no exception: Among them are the Little Walter Chess recordings and a Sophie Tucker collection from the folks at Champaign-Urbana’s great Archeophone label. The excellent Dust-to-Digital label is a regular presence among the nominees, and this year it’s up for a fascinating package called Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950.
The 8.75" x 6" hardbound book includes a gorgeous collection of rare photos of riverside baptisms by both white and black congregations, taken from the collection of Jim Linderman; there’s also a terrific essay by Luc Sante. Accompanying the images is a wonderful CD featuring black gospel, blues, and old-timey country songs that touch on baptism—including tracks by ubiquitous preacher Reverend J.M. Gates, quirky gospel singer Washington Phillips (who also played a fretless zither he built himself and called a Dolceola), the Carter Family, and J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers. I don’t really think that baptism songs comprise a truly important genre, but the practice itself is obviously a huge part of religious life, and immersion baptism is still practiced today in the U.S. So while this may seem like a rather esoteric subject for a Grammy bid, that doesn’t make the music (or the photos) any less compelling." — Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
A wonderful folk art bottle whimsey of a telegraph tapper! I placed a photo of an actual piece below as I don’t think many remember the telegraph. Think S.O.S. Samuel Morse tapped out his famous “What Has God Wrought” from Washington to Baltimore in 1844 and communication was never the same. Dots and Dashes predated the telephone by 40 years or so, but the little device lasted for years beyond. I imagine a solitary telegraph operator waiting for signals, and filling his time (and this inkwell bottle) out of boredom. Only two inches tall! A beautiful little folk art sculpture with considerable historical interest.
Handmade bottle whimsey depicting a telegraph tapper in a bottle. Collection Jim Linderman. Circa 1850 - 1900.
#folkart #whimsies #whimsy. #whimsey. #antique. #telegraph
"Most of Gatto's paintings—scenes of everyday life in New York, exotic
cultures, historical events, and tropical episodes —are packed with
endless detail built up with many layers of minute brushstrokes. Gatto, a
bachelor and a former featherweight boxer, lived with his widowed
stepmother in the section of New York known as "Little Italy." Painters
Elaine and Willem De Kooning lived in the next apartment in the late
1930s, and Elaine De Kooning and other artists encouraged Gatto's
painting. His work received critical acclaim through several exhibitions
in New York galleries during the 1940s and 1950s, his most productive
period." Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990)
I don't get to use the word exhuberant very often, but this "edited" for publication press photograph certainly is. Nearly more paint than photo. From the flowers on the bonnet to the stripped tie, there isn't a whole lot of honesty left.
Leatrice Joy was a glamor celebrity and silent film star. By the time this photo was taken in 1921 she was well on her way to fame with dozens of short films to her credit. Her first films were shot during world war one! She also lived to the age of 91,passing away in the Bronx New York.
Leatrice among those credited with popularizing the Bob haircut. Joy came under a considerable amount of flak at the time for being kinda manly or something, but the cut allowed her to play both young men and women in the films. Gossip columnists were big liars then and now, but she does appear to have been one tough woman who didn't take much crap.
During 1921 Her films included half a dozen lost features. The following year she divorced big star John Gilbert citing his alcoholism.
Original edited by hand Press photograph 1921. Unknown Washington DC News? operation. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb
A little while ago, I noted on the blog a newly published collection of beautifully real and worn photographs of baptismal scenes from the earlier twentieth century, along with an accompanying CD, Take Me To the Water. This book comes from the collector Jim Linderman, who blogs about his own work on this particular project here, and reflects more broadly on free lance collecting, folk art, ephemera, and curiosities at Dull Tool Dim Bulb.
The combination of photographs, capturing emotional experience in unselfconscious ways, and the CD soundtrack bring alive a world of religious ritual in ways that the writer Luc Sante briefly suggests in his preface to the book. Below is an interview I've conducted with Linderman, in which he talks about this work, his feeling for these baptismal photographs, and his philosophy of collecting and presenting his work.
1) First, Jim, you are a collector of everything from toy plows to homemade dolls to old recordings, and have been for quite a long time. I'm not a collector; I always want to get rid of/throw out stuff. So, explain the collecting impulse to me -- what drives you in that direction? And, where do you find room for all your stuff?
Editing is the secret. What I've assembled has always been manageable. Other than a few pieces of folk art furniture, virtually everything fits in a few shoe boxes. That's one beauty of photographs...for a small flat object, they pack a large visual punch. I lived for decades in a small, narrow, four room railroad apartment near Times Square and never had a problem squeezing things in. Andy Rooney, who I worked with while at CBS News long ago, once told me to take out an old book from the house every time I brought a new one in. That's the key...weeding and upgrading.
Collecting comes naturally to me. Not only do I enjoy looking for things which have been neglected or passed over, the hunt wakes me up in the morning. When I was healthy and young, a 500 mile drive for a flea market was nothing...now I use the web. Everyone should collect something, even if only interesting rocks. Everything looks better in groups of three or more.
2) Most people who are into collections of folk religious stuff fall in love with the documents and recordings of religion. But you are not driven by a religious impulse to collect this material, but something else. What is that? What fed your passion for old baptismal photographs and recordings?
I had originally conceived the project as a response to Jimmy Allen's book Without Sanctuary, which documents through antique photographs African-Americans being lynched. It was a controversial but most successful project of considerable historical value. Jimmy's book was a model for future photographic projects. He presented the photos, many which were crumpled and torn, as historical documents as much as images. There was no embellishment, cropping or cleaning up. More importantly the pictures often had participants identified by pen marks or notes on the reverse. Photographs have age and wear like any other object, and over time, important ones gain legitimacy through the aging process. As you might imagine, original images of people being murdered are not easy to find, but Mr. Allen was fearless and he managed to ferret them out. Many of the photographs were what are known as "real photo post cards" which are actually "limited editions" of a sort, printed by a cameraman in quantities of a dozen or a hundred, depending on what he perceived as a market...possibly one copy for each attendee. As frightening as the photos were, the faces of the participants scared Jimmy the most, they often smiled into the camera seemingly not even affected by the horrible event taking place behind them.
I had seen a photograph by W.P.A photographer Doris Ulmann depicting a river baptism, thought it exceptionally beautiful and collected a few similar images when I could find them. When I saw Allen's book, I realized there was a need to assemble and preserve other events of a vernacular nature and that there might even be a market for them. At the least, the collection would be a contribution to our shared culture. I didn't initially recognize the collection as a spiritual antidote to Allen's collection, but the feel of the event, the spectacle and the participants had a similar feel with a more positive appeal. I was also on a sort of mission to convince photography collectors that condition matters far less than the "feel" of a photo...paper has texture, form and age...and I found photography folks were far too concerned with pristine condition. I like wear.
3) Your material has been put out by Dust to Digital, the remarkable Atlanta outfit best known probably for their collection Goodbye Babylon, for my money the greatest compilation of American religious music ever assembled. How did you hook up with them, and describe the experience of putting out a book along with a CD?
I've always prided myself at sorting through the commercial fluff and finding some authenticity. Early recordings, in particular blues, started interesting me as young as junior high...and while my older sister listened to Dylan, I was listening to the Harry Smith Anthology of American Music from my local public library. I pursue music vigorously, and had always held gospel in reserve as the last area to explore. Goodbye Babylon did it for me. I admired their work very much. Lance Ledbetter is a genius who has an amazing ability to actually produce solid, physical results from his passions. The design of Susan Archie was also incredible, and I not only recognized them as kindred souls, but had the notion of pushing them toward book publishing in addition to their sound recording projects. It certainly was a natural fit. I wrote them, sent some images and flew down with a huge file of photos. On my first visit, I left them in their hands.
4) The well-known writer Luc Sante has prepared a preface and short introduction to your book. How did he become involved, and describe what you think drew him to this particular work?
The project began long before Luc was involved. I had initially thought a prominent religious figure should do the introduction and essay and didn't anticipate having trouble finding one. One day I showed the collection of original photos to Brian Wallis, the bright and innovative director of the International Center of Photography in New York, and he immediately recognized their historical value. He put my donation of the originals to the collection into motion. Later, he happened to ask if I had seen "Luc's show" which was an exhibit of ephemera and photos he found interesting, and apparently it contained a few baptism scenes.
I was familiar with Sante's music essays and reporting, and had read his landmark book Low Life. I knew Luc was a wonderful writer, then learned he was a professor of photography at Bard College....AND that Lance Ledbetter at Dust to Digital had sold him previous releases, including Goodbye Babylon. The fit was kismet.
5) When people went to "wade in the water," what do you think they were experiencing? How do your photographs capture (or not capture) that? What about the participants standing on the banks, or on the bridge overpasses overlooking the water?
As I mention is the book, I have always felt performers and artists work harder when they are working for the Lord. Years ago, when I was meeting and encouraging folk artists and primitive painters, they would ask "what should I paint" and I always suggested something from the Bible. Everyone knows the stories and everyone immediately visualizes their favorite scene the minute you suggest it.
I grew up next to Lake Michigan. Living close to a body of water is in itself a deep, moving experience. Like a turtle you place on the ground, I always sense the direction of the nearest lake. Add a touch of spiritual cleansing and you've got a highly personal AND public event. All the senses are at work...the individual feels it physically and emotionally at the exact same time. They are nervous, anticipatory, shocked and relieved. The viewers senses are also working...they share the passion, they feel the sun, they hear the splash, the preacher's powerful words, the crying out, the shout. What I admire most about the production of Take Me To The Water is how Lance was able to PERFECTLY combine an aural melding of the events with the visual. It is uncanny and not only a testament to his skill, but I think never done as well with a physical book.
6) When I first blogged about this book, a skeptic in the comments section wrote the following: "Can someone help me out with the theology here? These are churches that don't believe in baptismal regeneration and that one "chooses" Jesus, making them far outside the mainstream of historic Christianity. If the baptism effectively "means" nothing, why is it so important that immersion be used? --Clueless Lutheran stuck in the Bible Belt" How would you answer that query?
One should look at the images. Can anyone look at the faces of those emerging from the water here and say it means nothing? I believe at the moment captured in each photo, it means EVERYTHING.
7) How would you suggest first-time viewers/listeners approach the CD of music included with the volume? I ask because I'm an fan of these recordings, but those who aren't coming with that kind of knowledge may find them strange, distant, and primitive (as do my students). What would you saw as part of a "listening guide" to your photographs?
Pictures strike one immediately. Eyes being our first line of defense, an image is immediate. Music takes a bit longer. One has to reach a certain level of familiarity to experience it...part of the reason music works is that on repeated listenings we can anticipate the sounds we heard before. Even I like the selections here the more I listen to them. I guarantee after a few listenings, "Sister Lucy Lee" will make all the sense in the world, and if the quiver in Washington Phillips voice as he describes the differences between denominations doesn't reach you... just give it another play. As for a guide, the track listings and notes Lance wrote are astounding. Many of these performers are today genuine cyphers...but he finds them. We truly did create a little world there. The music stands alone on many levels, the photographs stand alone on many levels...but together the become even greater.
8) Speaking on this blog specifically to those interested in American religious history, explain what you think is most important about your work, and how perhaps classroom teachers might be able to use your work.
As I hope to do a few lectures and presentations, I am actually trying to figure that out now!
Among outsider art enthusiasts, The phrase "real deal" comes up often. Those who have become familiar with the material know what it means. It could be a certain look to the work. It can also be as much the artist's motivation as skill. Harry Bentz is what once would have been called the work of a Sunday painter or a folk artist. An amateur. Maybe he was an American primitive. Maybe not.
Actually the most accurate label would be Cowboy Artist. Mr. Harry Bentz was the real deal when it came to roping, riding and even mining. A real cowboy who made art. Untrained, but highly motivated to learn and create.
There are a few brief biographies. My guess is that Bentz found himself some time and started using it to make art. In the 1960s he painted what could be some 200 works. Along the way, he learned that through some primitive xerox (ayup) and a goofy photo stat process of some sort (ayup) he could make editions! Of a sort. The cowboy took advantage of modern technology available to the common man. Again speculating, I believe the artist wanted something to sell in a rack alongside his paintings at events. How many of these could range into the hundreds.
As with many primitive painters, he used found material to paint on. Some were uneven, large boards. Many of the sketches are on the reverse of used paper from the Bureau of Mines.
Apparently Bentz was working on a book. Among his papers are handwritten captions for "Sketches of the West" which would have been 60 pages.
The drawings would not have been shown art fairs, but at western events. In some ways, as far outside of the contemporary art world as one can be. He fished, hunted, broke horses, played the guitar and took out pack teams as a hunting guide. In 1951 he became a member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association. He began serious painting while working on a ranch near Kennewick, Washington. Reflected in his work is the life he lived. All paintings and drawings collection Jim Linderman.
"Most of Gatto's paintings—scenes of everyday life in New York, exotic
cultures, historical events, and tropical episodes —are packed with
endless detail built up with many layers of minute brushstrokes. Gatto, a
bachelor and a former featherweight boxer, lived with his widowed
stepmother in the section of New York known as "Little Italy." Painters
Elaine and Willem De Kooning lived in the next apartment in the late
1930s, and Elaine De Kooning and other artists encouraged Gatto's
painting. His work received critical acclaim through several exhibitions
in New York galleries during the 1940s and 1950s, his most productive
period." Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990)
Two Views (of a two room house with view!) Stump House of Washington. First pic a photo with dimensions (18 feet) and the other a Real Photo Postcard with inhabitants. Both collection Jim Linderman
Various Artists - Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950
The latest release from Grammy Award-winning reissue label Dust-to-Digital gives music fans another reason to rejoice. A stunning 96-page hardcover book of historic baptism photographs, taken between 1890 and 1950 and compiled from the collection of noted folk art collector Jim Linderman, is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78 RPM records (1924-1940), featuring artists Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and more. Produced by the 2009 Grammy winner for "Best Historical Album," Steven Lance Ledbetter. The CD could easily be seen as the seventh disc of Goodbye, Babylon (DTD 001CD), Dust-to-Digital's critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated box set from 2003. Original 78 RPM records came from the collections of Joe Bussard, Steven Lance Ledbetter, Frank Mare and Roger Misiewicz. "Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water ... You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled." --From the introduction by Luc Sante. 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) with 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950; CD includes 25 songs and sermons from 1924-1940. EAR/Rational April 2009
Wax P. T. Barnum sizes up the purses of passing rubes as tiny wax Tom Thumb and huge wax mammoth look on. Barnum's first hoax was passing off a blind and paralyzed African-American woman as the 160 year old George Washington's former nurse. As 1500 paying spectators found out during her public autopsy (!) she was only 80. His next African-American spectacle was Man-Monkey William Johnson, a microcephalic who was taught to speak a "mysterious" gibberish language. He tried to purchase William Shakespeare's birth home. Two days before his death, Barnum gave the local newspaper permission to print his obituary so he wouldn't miss it. Before passing, he paid for a "life-sized statue" for Tom Thumb's grave.
Number twelve in my "Horrors in Wax" series. Click blue subject heading below to see them all.
I am pleased to have the following article published in THE CHISELER this week! The Chiseler is a highly regarded web magazine edited by Daniel Riccuito. It is a site much worth following. Special thanks to Jarett Kobek, who inspired the story, having transcribed "The Oldest History of the World" book and the story from which I originally found the information I used for the story. I purchased the photograph above intending it as a post on the old-time-religion blog...imagine my surprise at learning what was in my hand.
FAITH HEALER LEFT HEADLESS: A True Crime Tale by Jim Linderman
In 1932, according to an AP wire story which ran in several newspapers, including places as far afield as Sarasota, Florida and Spokane, Washington, Robert Harris, a negro and leader of a religious order with a membership of “about 100 negroes in Detroit” confessed to the brutal murder of James Smith, also a negro. Harris admitted that “he crushed Smith’s head with the rear axle of an automobile, then stabbed him through the heart.” Robert Harris apparently dragged Smith to “an improvised altar” in his home to finished him off.
Detroit in the late 1920s and early 1930s had a problem with religious cults.
Three years earlier, on a July 4th weekend, not far from where Harris killed Smith, Paul “Benny” Evangelista, known as a “Divine Prophet” was murdered along with his wife and four children. With an axe. Few axe murders are not gruesome, but this one was particularly so. The entire Evangelista family was hacked to pieces. The bodies in bedclothes. The divine prophet’s head was severed from his torso and placed on a chair in the family living room.
Also “cruelly hacked” was Santina, the prophet’s wife and Jeanne (eight years old) Angelia (nine) Margaret (ten) and the three-year old son Mario. One account puts Mario’s age at eighteen months. In addition to the prophet’s head, one of the girl’s arms was severed. Police suspected that wound was the result of a “miscalculated blow” intended for Santina’s neck, as it too had been hacked but the head was left hanging by a thread. Leaving the house on St. Aubin avenue, in the Italian district of depression era Detroit, the fiend and pervert left a bloody trail for police which went nowhere.
Benny was downstairs in pieces when found by a neighbor, real estate broker Vincent Elias. A friend of the family, just a day earlier Elias had completed arrangements for the purchase of a farm near Marine City, MI for the Evangelistas. Elias opened the unlocked door, saw the head and without looking further ran for the police. The children and wife were found by authorities upstairs.
In an understatement, Wayne county coroner James Burgess called the murder “an unusual case.”
A week later the entire family was wheeled down rain-slicked Woodward Avenue, parade-style, each in a coffin of appropriate size. The public funeral was an opportunity for police to look for the killer in the crowd, but to no avail.
A relative of the Evangelista family living in Coraopolis told police they must have been murdered by members of a “Black Hand” organization.
Benny was Benjamino Evangelista, a Neapolitan immigrant who claimed to be an herb doctor and faith healer. In other words, a criminal and fraud using religious superstition and jargon to steal. Like all “faith healers” he bilked rubes out of savings like a carnival barker, but his tools were voodoo, false claims of health, black magic and superstition rather than sideshow swindles. He overcharged desperate people for “love potions” and promises of cures. He provided “readings” for ten dollars. For these things, it appears, he and his entire family were sent to a violent and blood-sticky end. Benny pissed off a client with an axe.
Prior to being murdered, Evangelista wrote an enormous, self-published book of religious ravings based loosely on the bible. It took him 20 years. “The Oldest History of the World: Discovered by Occult Science” It is unreadable, useless and no one bought it. In the fictional account three prophets travel to “Afra” in order to “see what the colored people were doing…” but all they were doing was eating their food uncooked.
The book has been hand-typed from one of the few existing copies and digitally reproduced by the extraordinary Jarett Kobek. http://kobek.com/
Kobek is a brilliant scholar and is most certainly, despite the extraordinary story of Divine Prophet, himself a better story than the people and events he writes about. He also provides the most complete bibliography of period articles about the crime, and details such as the characters in the book existed also as puppets in a shrine in the Evangelista basement.
The gruesome crime was still unsolved three years later when the “rear axle murderer” above, Robert Harris confessed. Briefly, The police thought the crime solved. So did the press. “Confession by King of Weird Cult clears up Detroit Murder” read one headline, but it was not to be. Harris didn’t do it.
Neither did Angelo Depoli, arrested the day of the murder with a blood covered curved knife used for chopping bananas in his barn. A year later the family dog was still being sought as a witness. Detroit police were so desperate to solve the crime they tried to pin it on a man who escaped from a lunatic asylum and was presumed killed by a freight train two years BEFORE the crime. They didn’t have much, but they did have a pair of bloody fingerprints from the door latch. They were figured prominently in the bulletin from Superintendent of Police James Sprott along with the reward of one thousand dollars which was distributed far and wide to no avail.
The case is as cold as wind from Windsor blowing across the Detroit River in December.
by Jim Linderman
Jim Linderman uses photographs and ephemera from his personal collection to tell true stories. He is author of the Grammy-nominated book / CD Take Me to the Water and the forthcoming Heroes of Vintage Sleaze. His daily blogs are DULL TOOL DIM BULB, VINTAGE SLEAZE, and old-time-religion. He has also self-published a number of books which are available from Blurb.com.
