License Plates used to be made by the same folks who "turned big rocks into little rocks" and lived in the "Graybar Hotel"....prisoners. They still do in Michigan! The prisoners also make little fake toy ones, I would link to the site but it has an address a mile long.
Despite Detroit's woes, it is still car country out here, and antique auto shows happen all the time...fellas in their second childhood bring them out, put on Gatsby caps, take the top down and clog side streets at 30 miles per hour. On a given weekend you can follow an oldie but goodie to the nearest show. I guess they all need a plate to go with their cars. I can't really think of any other reason to collect license plates, except as roofing shingles.
Except maybe for the money. A 1921 Alaska plate sold ten years ago for $60,000 in a Wendy's parking lot. Many of the most valuable seem to be Southern license plates from around 1912 and 1913...20 to 30 grand is not uncommon. In general, I think the lower the number, the better.
Mr. Harvey Wilson was Champion Michigan License Plate collector, at least in St. Charles. There is no date, but as the last two 1940 plates look fairly clean, so that's how I'm going to date the photo.
There is an Automobile License Plate Collectors Association but since I am not a member, I can't look up "The Plate of the Year." My favorite license plate of all time was Kramer's vanity plate on Seinfeld. "ASSMAN" I can't link to it, but the 5 minute version on you tube is precious. It might just be the funniest half hour ever created for television. "Wait a minute, i'm not the Assman" "Sir, according to the state of New York you are." I wish Harvey had lived long enough to see it.Vernacular Photograph Harvey Wilson License Plate Collector, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman
If I am not mistaken, Flo-paque used to be a brand of Floquil, which if I am not mistaken again, was purchased by Testor's...the folks who help your kid paint his models. This salesman sample card not only shows "the actual colors" it was hand-painted! I assume the card was passed along a line and dabbed by each "color specialist" who specialized in...oh, let's say "maroon" before it went on to another expert. Pretty cool. Of course, after "copper" it would be set aside, likely overnight, before the reverse "lime" artist would start the back.Paint salesman sample trade card, circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman
Some good things come in chapters. Maybe not too many folks know Miriam Linna was the original drummer for the Cramps. Maybe not too many folks know who the Cramps were. Both shall be corrected by reading a thrilling, honest, well documented and highly entertaining biography of sorts being digitized by Miriam Linna on her site Kicksville 66. I've known who Miriam is for most of my life! You can know her too, and read a REAL rock and roll tale yourself. Probably one of the last real rock and roll tales unfortunately, but you'll love it. Personally, If I had her stories I'd sign up with amazon's e-book thing and sell it, but she's obviously too generous. Highly recommended high or not. I confess to have been in love with even the POSSIBILITY of a woman as cool as Miriam Linna for as long as I remember and intend to read every word.
KICKSVILLE 66
Snapshot, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
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 
Two Original Publicity Stills (unidentified) Circa 1945 Collection Jim Linderman
I hate to post a sketch of a sketch, but unfortunately the artist who drew the above masterpiece had horrible handwriting which I can not make out. Not that it would have mattered much...the painting here was done in chalk, and as such probably wouldn't be around to appreciate even if I could make out the artist's name. Certainly his initials were E.J. and his children were Floyd and Nellie. The biblical scene was 30 x 50 on a blackboard, dates to 1923 and "was one of the best I had ever drawn" according to the artist. Feel free to enlarge and help...but I suspect E.J's masterpiece will remain unidentified for now.A post also on the old time religion blog.Anonymous Snapshot of Chalk Drawing, 1923 Collection Jim Linderman
All songs come from somewhere. Quite a few of them passed through the Carter Family on the way to others, but even the songs A. P Carter found in the hills came from somewhere before he learned them. This previously unpublished photograph of Mother Maybelle Carter and her sweet angels gives me opportunity to discuss only one notable song and where it came from. I guess credit COULD go to the first family of country music shown here...but who really cares other than the lawyers? Songs float around, get grabbed by some kid's fingers and learned again. We all benefit.
Dylan's "The Times They are a Changin'" (One of his earliest, if not THE earliest version which was finally released on The Witmark Demos 1962-1964) was actually, some say "Paths of Victory" which was based on the Carter Family song "Wayworn Traveler" which sounds more like "One Too Many Mornings" to me, but then "Paths of Victory" actually came from "PALMS of Victory" which was also recorded by (guess who) the Carter Family way back in the 1920s. Except that it may have been first recorded by Uncle Dave Macon...I didn't check the dates. It was also apparently known as "Deliverance Will Come" which was written by a minister in 1836. I'm not sure where he got it from. In a Wiki article, scholars seem to have given up. "It is clear that "Palms of Victory" had to be written by someone in particular..." an anonymous and frustrated scholar writes. I suspect it came from either Clinch Mountain or Africa...and probably the latter.
My point is, I guess...that George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" was NOT based on Phil Spector's "She's So Fine." except that it was.
In January 1949 Victor Records signed the Carter Family, then known as "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" actually, to a record deal.1949 was also the year the Carter Family hooked up with Chet Atkins and they all moved to Springfield, Missouri. At the time A.P. Carter was running a general store in Maces Spring, Virginia, having left the group he founded years earlier. (What records he had on his Victrola has not been reported). In June of that year, they found time to dress up and go to a picnic...I'm glad someone was there with a Brownie. (Click to Enlarge...someone was selling Pies) Original Snapshot of the Carter Family June 1949 (Anonymous Photographer) Collection Jim Linderman
