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Jean Lussier Balls the Falls ! Dapper Dry Debonair Devil of Dare




Jean Lussier balled the Niagara Falls only once, but he made a living off it for over 30 years.  As you can see here, he sold pictures of himself as a famous daredevil who defeated the mighty falls as a young man all the way into his old age.  He is looking pretty dapper in the last one, having apparently awarded himself some kind of "captainship" or something.  Dapper but dry as a bone...and dry a long time.


Lussier was smart enough to figure out a rubber ball was the way to survive the fall.  So he created a rubber raft inflated with inner tubes.  The round contraption with him inside went over in 1928.  The rubber beast is seen here poked with flags behind young Jean in the first photo, and it appears he has already started ripping sections out to sell as souvenirs.


I'm not kidding...Jean DID sell off his rubber, one patch at a time.  When he ran out, he sold random chunks of tires he purchased claiming they were historic!  He also toured the country giving lectures at special screenings of the film made while he bobbed and dropped.


After living off his 30 minute trip for 30 years, Lussier decided it was time to rekindle interest. He claimed he was planning another ball drop, this one three times as big around (no doubt to provide him with enough historic scraps to last him the rest of his life) but it never happened.  He passed away in a beat-up boarding house in Niagara Falls, New York.


COLLECTION OF THREE JEAN LUSSIER AUTOGRAPHED REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS circa 1928-1940  Collection JIM LINDERMAN


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Fred the Chain Man and his Carved Gun A True Crime Tale #2 by Jim Linderman



The Chain Man was found guilty October 19,1922 for kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison.  He stayed there three years.

The Chain Man earned his nickname for linking a few young women together in in a hole below his shack near Omaha, Nebraska.  He had tricked them by offering a ride to a nearby amusement park.  His victims were Jean Jenkins and Kathyryn McManaman. While his prisoners were chained to a cement block in the pit, Brown dug their graves nearby.  When H. E. Boyd tried to rescue the women,  Brown simply added him to the chains.

Chain Man was shot while being captured in Medicine Bow, Wyoming after a few days on the run.  He survived to face trial.

Chain Man's trial was delayed while the court decided what to do with hoards of high school girls who came to enjoy the show.  "We will continue the trial in the morning when the children are at their desks" decided the judge.

Brown didn't stay in prison long, unless you consider three years a long time.  He carved this dummy gun and used it in an escape attempt, but he was killed while trying. So was a prison guard.

Several years later, the skeleton of his apparent partner in the crime, Gus Grimes, was found buried near the shack Brown had held his victims.

There is at least one other example of this real photo postcard surviving.  There is no way to determine how many were developed, but the businessman who made them probably hoped to sell a few to the high school. 

Fred Brown's Dummy Gun "Azo" Real Photo Postcard 1925 Collection Jim Linderman

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Little Alvin Enck's Bible The Lord's Limousine and a Racy Poem


Little Alvin Enck is my kind of fellow.  On the first page of his Holy Bible he has marked his territory with a little drawing of the Lord's Limousine, but on the last page he has written what for the time would have been a most racy poem.  I think Alvin struggled with the same temptation we all did.  It was the depression...I hope this isn't the only thing Alvin got for Christmas that year...it looks like he was hoping for a toy car.)


( A Post on the daily blog old-time-religion as well)


Alvin Enck's embellished Holy Bible 1935 Collection Jim Linderman


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Here Come the Women of Rebekah #40 IOOF PARADE Collection Jim Linderman







 It's parade time and Rebekah has gone all out!  Mistletoe Rebekah Lodge Number 40


I AM A REBEKAH:
I believe in the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, and the Sisterhood of woman.
I believe in the watch-words of our Order - Friendship, Love and Truth.
Friendship - is like a golden chain that ties our hearts together. Love - is one of our most precious gifts, the more you give, the more you receive. Truth - is the standard by which we value people. It is the foundation of our society.
I believe that my main concern should be my God, my family and my friends. Then I should reach out to my community and the World, for in God's eyes we are all brothers and sisters.
I AM A REBEKAH!


Group of original snapshots, no date (1920?) Rebekah Independent Order of Odd Fellows Parade float  COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

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Basil Wolverton Draws Twins Panic Magazine 1954

Always trying to strike the perfect balance between "HIGH" art and "LOW" art, I may be leaning a bit to the low here.  Basil Wolverton (all bow) and his illustration for the 4th issue of Panic, 1954.  Which was apparently copied from the cover of Mad magazine earlier the same year.  Found last weekend for pennies, and as I am reading it, not putting it into a mylar bag...I can assure you it is worth every single one.  Each panel a miracle.  

Panic Magazine 1954.  Collection Jim Linderman


Show Card Colors ! Devoe and Raynolds the Oldest Company of Paint



Started in 1754, for literally hundreds of years, Devoe was one of the oldest companies founded and operated in the United States.  Sometimes I get really lucky with these posts and find a kindred soul along with the back story.  I certainly did this time.  Take a gander at the more than  splendid  Ryan Jones collection of Devoe vintage paint.

Devoe Show Card Colors Salesman Sample Card 9 x11 circa 1900 - 1920?  Collection Jim Linderman

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BRONZE THRILLS ! George Levitan Goes Black and Goes Smutty

Astoundingly, or maybe not...Bronze Thrills was published by a Caucasian.  George Levitan.  Not only that, Levitan was originally from the Upper Pennisula of Michigan and once said he never even saw a Black person until he was 18 years old,  according to Texas Monthly magazine in October 1983.  As a teen, Levitan moved to Detroit but he didn't stay long.  He moved to Forth Worth, Texas and bought the Good Publishing Company.  It was a good move.  Bronze Thrills was already being published, but George spiced it up a bit (as you can see)  more and commenced becoming a very rich man.

Not only Bronze Thrills (Breaking the Cross-Dressing barrier here with the story of a husband who got his kicks wearing women's clothes) but Hep, Jive, Sepia, Soul Confessions, Soul Teen and Soul Confessions.  A one-man Black publishing empire which was white!

That isn't to say George was a creep.  He hired African-American workers, trained them well, paid them well and promoted them to important positions.  Sure, the magazine was thrashy, but at the time there really wasn't much else for the race.  Soon his primary title, Sepia, was a moving force in the Black community.  He also helped raise funds for the United Negro College Fund. 

Issue of Bronze Thrills  "Thrill Girls: Men meant only sex and a good time to me" and "My Husband was a Transvestitie: He got his kicks from wearing women's clothes"  December 1966 Issue  Original  Collection Jim Linderman




Craig Yoe A Yeoman's Work Yoe Books Comics History for the Ages



Craig Yoe is astounding.  A one-man machine guided with precision and passion.  Those of you in comics culture certainly know of him, but "cross-category" exposure, surprisingly, is increasingly lost in the web these days.  It has become to easy to form your own cult, tribe and cloudy circle of friends in this the decade of social media...but what we really need is a service which locates interesting people NOT in our immediate circle.  If you came across Craig, there is NO question you would "like" him you Facebook folks.  But when is the last time you went out of your friend list comfort zone to discover something new without a damn software program doing it for you?  Friends of friends of friends indeed.  Look up from the screen!

Not that Craig Yoe is new or particularly obscure, having already made major contributions to our world and the art world.  Here is the OFFICIAL blurb on Yoe:

Vice magazine has called Yoe the "Indiana Jones of comics historians." Publisher Weekly says he's the "archivist of the ridiculous and the sublime" and calls his work "brilliant." The Onion calls him "the celebrated designer,"The Library Journal,"a comics guru. "BoingBoing hails him "a fine cartoonist and a comig book historian of the first water." Yoe was Creative Director/Vice President/ General Manager of Jim Henson's Muppets, and a Creative Director at Nickelodeon and Disney. Craig has won an Eisner Award and the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.

Yoe has six patents for toy inventions. Before founding YOE! Studio, Craig was Creative Director/Vice President General Manager of Jim Henson’s Muppets and a Creative Director at Nickelodeon. Dubbed “Dr. Seuss on acid!” by Animation Magazine, Craig Yoe is a wildly entertaining speaker on creativity. His worldwide travels as a lecturer have taken him to Italy, France, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and Singapore. Closer to home, he teaches for the Master’s program at Syracuse University and at other institutions of higher learning. He has curated fine art exhibits at museums from Japan to New York.


All true, but it hardly begins.  I fortunately found Craig a few years ago, and he has been nothing but generous when he could easily slap me down like a fly. Witness Yoe's output HERE, a good share of which has been produced in the last few years. 

Yoe splits his brain among Yoe Books and Yoe Studio  (with the help of his notable designer and partner Clizia Gussoni)  and what spills out is considerable.  He is also associated with the I.T.C.H blog.  a collaborative effort of a comic creativity which you may have been missing for five years.  I was.

I cannot pick the best Yoe project for you.  I can suggest you browse and pick one yourself.  Click the link HERE, drop your jaw and choose.

 
           JUST A FEW OF THE YOE BOOKS

Elephant Train !

CLICK TO ENLARGE ELEPHANTIDAE LOXODONTA TRAIN
It's Dumbo...or Jumbo, or Horton, or Babar...what do I know.  All I can guess is that the train is leaving in FIVE MINUTES and you better get on board.


Original Snapshot 1959  Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Retrospective 2 Million Clicks






























The three blogs which comprise the Dull Tool Dim Bulb empire went to two million hits yesterday. To celebrate, some images from the first year.


Dull Tool Dim Bulb


Vintage Sleaze


old-time-religion


Thanks! Jim Linderman

A True Crime Tale by Jim Linderman


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.




Original Press Photograph Wide World Photos 7/5/29 Collection Jim Linderman

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Strong Man or Fat Man Circus Carnival Sideshow Freak of Sorts Frank Wendt


I Know it's been a long winter, but a few pushups might feel Good.

Circus Carnival Sideshow Freak cabinet Card circa 1880 by Frank Wendt Collection Jim Linderman

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Three Begging Bears Snapshots Collection Jim Linderman



























No comment here, really. I could tell you the story of being chased by a bear, which is true...but these photos are just too depressing. I will say for all you hikers out there, the key is to run DOWNHILL...bears don't run so well going down, but they excel at running up.


Pair of Bear snapshots No Dates Both Collection Jim Linderman