Dull Tool Dim Bulb

What Does YOUR Swimming Suit Reveal #4

Last bathing opportunity of the season here (and the last swimming suit post of the year) The water temperature is around 65 degrees but that won't last long. The fences are going up on the beach to prevent drifting snand (a mixture of snow and sand). The Pronto Pup is closed and one may legally ride a bicycle through the 4 block long "downtown" again, though I don't think anyone was ever ticketed. The image is a tintype which will appear in the forthcoming book "The Painted Backdrop" in 2010. To see my other swimsuit posts, click blue subject heading below.

Untitled Tintype Photograph, c. 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

Nutty Neighbors to the North RPPC

Real Photo Postcard, c. 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

Al

Trust me, this is just too good to only be on the old time religion blog. You'll watch twice and think of it all day.

The Drunken Hubby (Pulp, Puke and the Post Office)

I always try to figure out my own posts. Witness this ad for a product claiming to cure alcoholism. I found it in the 1952 issue of My Romance (Actually, that would be a good post too, so here ya go!) Good enough...kitschy, graphically interesting, a nice cartoon image of a fellow in the throes of drunken misery. So, end of post, cool pics, g'night. I dug around a bit. The product is an emetic, that is, it makes you violently hurl (and I don't mean hurl your bottle at that hole in the plaster). The makers of the product were taken to court for mail fraud some 22 years after this ad appeared. Note the small print in the ad. "MAY BE TAKEN IN SECRET, a few drops eliminates desire for more alcohol" The manufacturers intended for troubled spouses to sneak it into hubby's drink and make him vomit himself into sobriety! Not good medicine, as the experts testify. Fascinating reading of the case HERE.

Evangelist Wilber R. Ogilvie Big Truck of Salvation

Wilber R. Ogilvie Salvation Divine Healing Revival
Linen Poscard, c. 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

She Loves Me! Pull the Ribbons Postcard

Imagine being the recipient of the card above.

"Pull a Ribbon" Love Card circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Near Pratfall (Meet the Press)

Two Original Press Photographs, hand-embellished, 1937 Collection Jim Linderman

Big Smooth Landboats (Drive!)

Images from Buick Airborne 1958 Promotional Poster General Motors, Flint Michigan Lithograph Collection Jim Linderman

Things to Make

Tiny Lord's Prayer from Zion Illinois RPPC

Well, I'm posting an enlargement to keep teeny tiny writer George Chenoweth honest. He claims this microfilm size Lord's Prayer is written NINE TIMES in the space of a postage stamp. 645 words, 2489 letters, and his name and address is also written in full. Squint. Count. Ta DAH!!!!!

Please also note I have started a "line extension" which is a term used in advertising to indicate a new flavor for an old product. That would be "OLD TIME RELIGION" on which I am posting just that, and every damn day rather than just saturday nights as I used to here. Feel free to follow! It's gonna be Heavenly!

The miniature Lord's Prayer on a Postage stamp sized piece of paper on a Real Photo Postcard, Collection Jim Linderman

Brenner, The Bozo of Baltimore (And Bozo vs. Brozo)

Stephen G. Brenner was not only the Bozo assigned the Maryland beat, he was also involved with carnivals and sideshows all his life. Brenner was born in 1894 and published his autobiography "My Life Story as a Clown" in 1978. He was an early, if not the first Bozo. Incidentally, There is a list of dozens of regional Bozos listed in Wiki. Larry Harmon is, of course, the most famous, but my favorite is Victor Trujilo of Mexico City who created "Brozo el Payaso Tenebrosco" (Brozo the Creepy Clown) shown here in a clip with his inspiration the Mexican Bozo.

Real Photo promotional card for Stephen G. Brenner, Collection Jim Linderman

The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder and American Popular Culture (and the delivery system missed)

An interesting read and a few tiny, hand-held examples the author missed. Jean Murley discusses the rise of "true crime" as a form of entertainment in a scholarly but readable manner. At least I read it all, and my attention span lasts as long as a grape fizzie in warm water. From pulp magazines in the 30's to websites trading rumors circling around the latest "missing white woman of the week" a very nice survey of media channels through history clamoring for the lurid market. You HAVE to love a book with the phrase "incendiary ambulance-chasing pseudojournalist Nancy Grace..." The trading cards date to the 1930's, a fabulous set of 240 true crime cards, each with the thrilling exploits of a lawman fighting a gunsel...and like it should be, the good guys always win. Book is linked at right.

Set of G-Men and Heroes of the Law Trading Cards, c. 1936. Collection Jim Linderman

Sing Along with Jesus and Roy

Several more children's gospel records are posted at old time religion

The Lord is Counting on You by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. 5 inch sound recording disc Collection Jim Linderman

Book and Job Printers Upstairs

Original Photograph, circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

International Center of Photography

Just a quick note to remind all to JOIN and FOLLOW the International Center of Photography. It is an incredible institution and the exhibits are outstanding. The course list, which I just received in the mail, is extensive and impressive. Membership is not only affordable, it is tax deductable. It also includes reciprocal memberships at many photography institutions around the country, likely one or two near you. Their website is state of the art and their blog "FANS IN A FLASHBULB" is intelligent, beautiful and manages to achieve a historical presence with a contemporary appeal. Plus, I wrote them a question in the comment field once, and the answer was informative, well-researched and appreciated!

Little Girls and Big Dogs: The Wonderful World of Frank Wendt Photographer

Five Cabinet Card photographs, Frank Wendt. C. 1895 Collection Jim Linderman

Love Awakening Zones Marriage Manual

Images from a 30 page Untitled "Marriage Manual" No Publisher, No date c. 1920? Collection Jim Linderman

Announcing OLD TIME RELIGION! Vernacular Photography Ephemera and Miracles from the Jim Linderman Collection

old time religion!

The newest blog revealing miracles from the Jim Linderman Collection!

" Vernacular religious detritus from the Jim Linderman collection of photography and ephemera. Jesus is my jet plane and I have the Lord on speed dial. Old Time Religion is a natural line extension from Dull Tool Dim Bulb, where posts of this nature occur every Saturday night while the rest of you are sinning. Wake up, it is Sunday morning! Praise the Lord and Click to Enlarge! "

I will continue to post the sacred, the saved and the glory of salvation here of course...but then Old Time Religion has a link to send a prayer message directly to GOD.

old time religion

Back to School

Large, Ugly Composite Photograph, 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

Barnum (Horrors in Wax #12)

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.

Postcard, c. 1970 Collection Jim Linderman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

Fair Use

Though the images, which I have myself largely scanned from my personal collection of photographs and ephemera, some are subject to © by the artist, syndicate that distributed them or otherwise the individual artists. The use here is regardless covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
1. The image illustrates an educational article; its inclusion in the article adds significantly to understanding the text because it is a historical sample of the art covered in the critical commentary, and shows use of an innovative style. Therefore the image substantially improves the educational value of the article.
2. The image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic, which directly concerns a visual artist, and is indicative of the style for which hethe artists are renowned.
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The copyright for some images are most likely owned by either the publisher, the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced them originally.

Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement.

Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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