So, what's with this family? The New Book by Milton Simpson

Graphic designer and gentleman Milton Simpson has published a new book which tells the story of a most unusual set of erotic folk art figures he found, his attempts to find out why they were created, where they came from and what they were used for! I know the work as the "Woodbridge Figures" but here is the story, told visually, and it is a good one! So, what's with this family? Great objects and with Milt's visual sense a beautiful book.

Mr. Simpson is already recognized for producing two of the most outstanding folk art books, Windmill Weights and the influencial Folk Erotica. To preview and order "So, what's with this family" CLICK HERE and you can also see the facsimile edition of Windmill Weights he has made available as well.

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.

Nurses Craft Day (The Greatest Show on Earth) Hospital Folk Art on Display

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Pure harmony as a group of nurses show their handmade constructions, crafts and creations!

Downey Studio Photograph, Indianapolis, IN Circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Card of Love Willie Strode Women Chaser Victorian Lothario

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Here is a tip for you Lotharios out there. The women do love the little lovely gestures. I imagine Willie Strode here did all right. I don't mind being a cynic, as the times certainly call for one, so let's guess how many Victorian innocents were recipients of Willie's love card. A beautiful little calling card, and I am guessing Strode frequently had company in the calling room.

Yours Truly Please Answer

Victorian Calling (Love) Card of Willie Strode circa 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE

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Things to Make A Folk Art Bird Jigsaw and Paint

How simple? Every boy should have a Jigsaw and every yard should have a wooden bird.


Wooden Yard Folk Art Bird Circa 1940? Collection Jim Linderman

One Arm One Man Band W. C. Williams collection Jim Linderman

W.C. Williams Advertising Postcard collection Jim Linderman

Warm Rural Welcome (Pitchfork and Shotgun) RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

Real Photo Postcard circa (NOKO, circa 1910?) Collection Jim Linderman

NOTE: ROBERT REEVES WINS A FREE DULL TOOL DIM BULB T-SHIRT for taking the time to point (and gross me) out...with his comment, true, as follows:

"Those guys have been killing the rats in the barn. (see 'em laid out in front? Dozens!) I saw it happen when I was a kid.)

Robert has a better eye than I, always has.

Matches Salesman Samples Graphic Advertising collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Three circa 1940 salesman sample cardstock. Order by number! Collection Jim Linderman
DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOK CATALOG HERE

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Mickey Mouse Celebrates his Eighth Birthday 1936 Screen & Radio Weekly

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(Copyrighted by the publisher. No rights are given or implied. Presented here for historical significance, magazine fans and Disney collectors)

A little treat for you Mouseketeers! A mint illustration from what is likely one of the few remaining issues of Screen and Radio Weekly, an insert to the Detroit Free Press of September 27, 1936. Obviously stored with great care, the newsprint, large format magazine is is wonderful condition considering newspaper pulp and age. Colors as bright as the day they were printed!

Back cover of Screen & Radio Weekly September 27, 1936 Detroit Free Press Collection Jim Linderman

A Great Totem Pole with Period Folk Art Enhancements

With a skeleton on top and a whole family of faces below, this is one wonderful pole. It was built in 1904, created for Matt Larkin on the northwest coast (possibly by the Haida tribe) but then altered upon arrival in Albany, New York. The skeleton on top was added, as were the gentlemen around the middle (friends of the owner, who it is said was "father of the jukebox" ) and mounted on the grounds of his Burden Lake estate.

No actual tribe is identified, but it is certainly what we might call a marriage of cultures. Possibly Northwest origins with touches of Northeast drinking buddies? As you can see in my worn postcard, it is huge, dramatic and preservation worthy regardless.


The pole stood until 1958 when a storm brought it down. 20 years later it went to the Marian E. White Anthropology Museum, who received it in 5 pieces. The museum contains one million artifacts with a concentration on Woodland tribes such as the Seneca. Being a composite project at best, and a "genuine Native American fake" at worst, the totem pole seems to be an anomaly. Maybe that is why restoration has been taking decades...a low priority? But then the museum world moves slow...The biggest pieces are displayed in the museum, others are still being worked on.

The laborious process is documented HERE with a really cool picture of the pole you can click on to to check progress.

Humorama Humor New Book on Old Gags Humorama by Alex Chun

Alex Chun has a new volume available from Fantagraphics Books in his series which profiles the "few dollars a drawing" gag writers who sold work to the Humorama line of digest publications during the 1950s and into the early 1970s. As I have been writing on the lesser known artists who contributed, with the scant information available...I eagerly await the book!

I also collect the original drawings, and a good share of them have been posted on my blogs over the last few years...great stuff, and neglected ever since the women's movement made them even more offensive than we thought they were.

For those of you who do not know the Humorama books, which literally filled the racks when I was growing up, here is a sample of my favorite "issues" (as if one was any different from the other.) You will note the colors on the covers I pick are similar to those used on traffic lights. No coincidence. They were intended to stand out (make you stop, look both ways and carefully proceed to the checkout.)



I try to sniff out, dig up and write about one dead Humorama artist a month on VINTAGE SLEAZE . Some of those articles have also been collected on HUMORAMA ART. Feel free to browse and share.


Collection of various Humorama Publications circa 1957-1965 Collection Victor Minx

Buy the Alex Chun Book Below from Fantagraphics or your favorite seller. Mine is on order!


UPDATE: MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK IS HERE on VINTAGE SLEAZE the BLOG


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Fotofun Game of Vernacular Photography 1934 Collection Jim Linderman

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Pre-Adobe! Laugh Your Heads Off! As found, with period heads cut from photographs (vintage, I didn't do it) with the same folks appearing on several pages. There was also a Fotofun postcard book with the same technique published around the same time. Created by William J. Glassmacher for Treasure Chest Publications.

Fotofun Book Treasure Chest Publications 1934 with cut and applied photographs.
Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books Available HERE

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Check Your Hose Day! A Good Hose is a Household Necessity (Hose Humor collection Jim Linderman)

Yes, once again it is "Hose Inspection Day" so let's get to it. A good hose is a household necessity. I check mine even more frequently than necessary just to be sure.

Pair of Harley R. Lugibihl "Look Over Your Garden Hose" advertising cards circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

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Merchants of Death Camel Cigarette Pushers circa 1935 Vernacular Photographs Collection Jim Linderman

Spreading black death with every stop, a slimy pair of smoke addicted mugs travel the country sharing their misery with others. They don't use gangsters anymore (well, not gangsters, but certainly the kind of traveling salesman one would hide their daughter from.) Now they use sophisticated "advertising agencies" to trick the young. I have always thought pushing tobacco was the lowest morally an individual can sink. It was true then, it is true now. Committing slow murder with every stop.

Set of Original Snapshots, circa 1935 "Traveling Tobacco Salesmen" Collection of Jim Linderman

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOK CATALOG HERE

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Survivor Real Photo Postcard Collection Jim Linderman

Real Photo Postcard circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Know Your Pornographer Stag Film Projectionist 1953 Mug Shot

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"Settle down fellas...we'll get this show going as soon as Bobby gets it rolling."

Stag Film Projectionist Mug Shot 1953 Collection Jim Linderman

SEE ALSO SMUT BY MAIL: Vintage Graphics from the Golden Age of Obscenity by Jim Linderman\
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Stay on the Safe Side with Jerry McSafety, Dummy.

Another blockhead, this one with a job.

Blockheads! Folk Art Dummys

Anonymous Photograph circa 1935? Collection Jim Linderman

American Primitive

TRESPASSER FIGURAL SIGN



DRIVE IN SPEAKER HEAD


RAYGUN CHECKERBOARD


IRON DOG DOOR STOP


LADY AND THE CAT

When it is predicted to reach 100 degrees in New York City, one of the best things to do is to visit the cool space of Aarne Anton's American Primitive Gallery. I never waited for the elevator...it was just a flight up, and the door always opened to a curious world. Aarne has the goods to prove his good eye. Folk Art collector Herbert Hemphill jr. once told me it took a more sophisticated collector to see in the round (meaning 3-Dimensional and sculptural.) I don't know if sophisticated is the right word, but certainly things you can see from many angles are often more fun than a painting on the wall. Just a small sample of the sculptural things available.

Click each title for description. Aarne posts six new items a week on Tuesday or Thursday, and there are literally over 100 objects to see on his site.




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