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Startling Detective Work for Genealogists! A Genius Tool from Patterson Smith











A group of Startling Detective Magazines I keep in a library periodical box behind me, just like in a real library! No, I do not keep them in date order. So that these were all published in the 1950s by Fawcett publications, a company founded by Wiliford "Captain Billy" Fawcett in 1919 is a good story, but I wanted a better one. So I fished around.


My definition of genius is putting something old to a new use. Patterson Smith qualifies. Why? He uses his enormous database of True Crime magazines to help family members, genealogists and collectors find grisly tidbits from the tons of pulp produced from the 1930s to the 1990s. Now personally, If I were doing some family research I would selectively NOT include this source. Some of the goobers in these tales don't belong in any family, certainly not mine. But there you go. An enormous resource, as just one issue here includes 14 lengthy stories, all true, and each has dozens of names, though I am going to guess Mr. Smith doesn't index the names with an asterisk. You know...the names changed to protect the innocent. Check THIS out.

Group of Startling Detective Magazines, 1956-1957 Collection Jim Linderman
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Ladies and Gentleman! THE WORLD'S GREATEST WRESTLERS! GORGEOUS GEORGE IN A GORGEOUS SCRAPBOOK













A drag my puny scanner can't handle these giant wrasslers from the past, but then the ring couldn't hold them either. It is nice that Junior built this colorful collection, as he most certainly was watching them perform in black and white.

Of course Gorgeous George is here, down in the lower right corner of one page with blond hair but black eyebrows. The star of the Golden age of Wrestling and the first to use music to mark his entrance. Before the fight, George would have the ring sprayed with Chanel number 10 ("why be half safe?") he said. His first TV appearance was in 1947. He sadly died at age 48, a turkey farmer and lounge owner at the time, of liver problems.

The others, which you can see part of, include The Great Moto, Farmer Don, Ivan Rasputin, Nanjo Singh and his Cobra Deathlock, Max Marek, Poffo, Lord Blears, Drake, Ruff, Cyclone Anaya, and two pictures of Tarzan White!

Large Homemade Wrestlers Scrapbook, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
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Vintage African-American Magazines Hot Black Romance







Black romance! Other than the dynamite duo of Jet and Ebony from Johnson Publications in Chicago, African-American magazines are surprisingly scarce, which is why the examples I pick to show here likely will not look familiar. Smaller circulations, segregated neighborhoods, institutional racism (did YOUR public library subscribe to Jive?) and other reasons account for their rarity. Plus, museums and serious collectors are now purchasing them to compensate for their earlier neglect. Unless you find a box somewhere, you might expect to pay 25 to 50 bucks apiece and more for a mint condition black romance magazine from the 1950s and 1960s...if and when you can find one.

Group of vintage African-American Romance magazines collection Jim Linderman

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Atomic Ranch Magazine PRINTS MY LETTER (!) Mid-Century Chair with Amateur Design Mastery








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Having abandoned Manhattan for Michigan three years ago, and having been fortunate enough to purchase a 1963-built ranch house in beautiful condition, ATOMIC RANCH has become one of my favorite magazines. Which is why I sent them a few photographs and a question about the child-sized mid-century design chair I found in an antique mall. I thought it a most sculptural homemade piece with superb design...a tiny Calder in my living room! But it had no manufacturer listed, it is clearly a homemade or, hopefully, a prototype.

Two years went by and I never heard back from the magazine. Much to my surprise, here it is in the Summer 2011 issue with my photos, my chair, my question and my bananas! They seem as puzzled as I was, but the effort sure is appreciated.


Now what Atomic Ranch doesn't know is that in the intervening two years, I FOUND THE ANSWER! I'm not printing it here, who wants to spoil the fun? I'm going to wait and see what kind of guesses come in and send them the answer after.

It is a beautiful little chair...and since I now live less than a gallon of gas from Herman Miller, My eye is increasingly shifting from folk art to retro modern whatever. Plus, I have a house to fill!


Thanks to Atomic Ranch. It is a superb magazine, I recommend it highly, and their website HERE provides a generous sample of what they do. I only wish it was a monthly instead of a quarterly.

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Folk Art Dancing Dan Limberjack Jig Doll Jiggerman Limberjim Dancin' Dan the Yankee Doodle Dancer Articulated Figure




A limberjack, AKA jig doll, slapjack, jiggerman, limberjim, dancin' dan, paddle puppet and yankee-doodle dancer (and articulated figure if it is mounted on a museum base) is actually a wooden musical instrument which consists of a doll with loose joints on the end of a long stick, the legs of which the human performer causes to tap rhythmically on a thin wooden board like a clog dancer. The one here happens to be tied to a ruler, thus giving a measure of the man while he dances. The photograph of a REAL limberjack is an original snapshot from the 1930s.


Clog Dances ARE like songs...trace them to Ireland or Africa, take your pick. Wiki says clogging may even be traced to the Cherokee. John Lee Hooker did it sitting down like a stationary tap-dancer. "Buck dancer" is probably the most common term, or flat-dancing, foot-stomping and
like the whittled doll it is also known as jigging, hence the jig doll name. Whatever, it is the percussive sound made by clogging which is important and also why the dance itself looks ridiculous. Stay loose!

Original photograph and carved wooden figure, both circa 1930, both collection Jim Linderman

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Early Paintbox Set Fraktur Pigment in Bottles Art History Early 19th Century Paint Set


COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN / DULL TOOL DIM BULB


COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN / DULL TOOL DIM BULB


COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN / DULL TOOL DIM BULB

The collapsible tin paint tube was invented in 1841, and by 1860 or so they were in general use. Early watercolor paint sets with powered cakes are seen on occasion, but sets like the one above with corked and bottled colors to be mixed by the artist are scarce indeed. In around 1827 (?) the British company Ackermann sold a paint box, but an auction catalog indicates "early marked pigment bottles are almost unheard of to be found..." so certainly an entire set such as this is scarce indeed.

"PIGMENT ANALYSIS OF EARLY AMERICAN WATERCOLORS AND FRAKTUR" by Janice H. Carlson, & John Krill is an analysis of the composition of early American Fraktur paints published in the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation in 1978. It concluded fraktur painters used commercially available pigments and illustrates a similar kit (without bottles) HERE, a paint set from the Mercer Museum of The Bucks County Historical Society. It is called a Fraktur Painter's Box. The article has been cited frequently, but I find few other examples of sets this early either illustrated or discussed.

Certainly the earliest painters had to mix their own pigments with oil, and some materials were even stored in bladders. It was apparently dangerous work...the chemicals were toxic when inhaled. Considerable study has been done on British painter J.M.W. Turner's paint box HERE which also includes analysis of dry pigments found in test tube like bottles after his death.

The box itself, which I presume is original (?) has hinges and flat head screws which were in common use around 1900 or so.

I welcome comments or contributions to the history of a set like this. Could this be one of the earliest commercial paint sets existing?

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