Duffy's Pool Hall Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman

Duffy's Pool Hall Azo back Real Photo Postcard circa 1920? Collection Jim Linderman

See also Arcane Americana the book / Ebook HERE
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Rolling Stones Glitz, Glamor, Truman Capote and Authenticity

I seldom write about music here, as music is personal. I've said before, there is nothing more pathetic than a fellow making an "I love you" mix tape (or whatever they call a compilation these days) for a woman who has left him. It won't work, it never does, and don't do it. You can't talk someone into loving your music, OR you.

There is a point or two here, I guess. First of all, The Rolling Stones Facebook page has been posting extraordinary footage for their followers. So join up.

Second, one of the most audacious moves in the entire 20th century was for two pale, war-torn skinny British kids to somehow decide to become the greatest blues band in history. Read Keith's autobiography and marvel. How two kids, one of whom had obtained the mail order address for Chess Records in Chicago, met and not only dreamed but DID is one of the most extraordinary accomplishments to happen during my life. Their odds would have been better had they decided to be basketball players. I need not point out the two little goofballs were white and in the wrong country.

Second, in these clips, both from 1972 I believe, what you see is what you get. 7 or 8 guys on a stage playing. No bullshit. You hear it, they played it. Someone tinkered around with it a bit later, editing and such...but this was probably one of the last times a handful of guys, including the TRUE history of rock and roll Bobby Keys on saxophone (who figures prominently in Keith's book and is today a living connection to the entire history of 20th century rock) got on stage, plugged into their amps themselves and played their songs...simple. They could create this exact sound in Mum's garage or an estate in the south of France.

Am I nostalgic or a grumpy old man? Nope. I just like authenticity. And through all the glitz and glamour of Truman Capote on the plane with them for this tour writing the story up for Jackie O, Andy Warhol and the rich folks back at Studio 54 doesn't matter anymore. These guys were a blessing.

Hollywood Censorship Isn't New (Hands OFF the Web)

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Hollywood is the primary force encouraging our increasingly record low approval body of lawmakers (many of whom wouldn't know how to even ask their congressional intern how to look something up for them) to limit what appears on the internet. My contribution to the protest is not a blank screen, It is this not at all subtle reminder that Hollywood has been censoring what we see for decades.


Here some proud hired anti-intellectual freedom goons show off the fine job they are doing at keeping us safe from what we want.


Who were the DPS? I don't know, Wiki is down today.


This picture is from 1929 (the year before Hollywood clamped down on what was shown on the screen officially) and likely represents one of the several organizations which emerged to stop miscegenation, various words, various body parts, sexuality of any kind and insisting on happy endings (no, not THAT kind...the kind where anyone breaking the law gets caught and punished at the end of the movie.) A year after this picture was taken, the Motion Picture Production Code was accepted and practiced by the entire movie industry...thus insuring what we choose to pay and see is light, harmless fare, safe for all and neutered of anything challenging or controversial.

Thanks guys...how about going after what I read next?

So this is the track record of the folks who today want a bill passed to limit content on the web and give authorities the right to control what appears on domains.

Take a minute to contact your probably rich, probably male and probably Caucasian representative and tell him to keep his hands off the internet. It is working fine, the rich are still getting richer, not to worry (by FAR) and the minute they start to regulate it they'll muck it up like everything else they touch.

They think they are unpopular now? Just wait until they get 60 million school kids mad at them.

Original Photograph "Motion Picture Censorship 1929" by P.E. Genereux, E. Lynn, MA Collection Jim Linderman

Ivan Rasputin Will Use His Bear Hug

From WRESTLING the Scrapbook HERE

Primitive Stereograph Stereoview Homemade Handmade 3-D

Does this primitive 3-D stereoview (or stereograph) work? Stare at your own nose and see. YEP! Even an amateur can make a 3-D image. So why does Hollywood persist in spending 100 million dollars each on horrible big screen crappers in 3-D with plots no deeper than a serial murderers's hasty, hand-dug shallow grave? Same reason any media company does anything these days. Scared of the Internet! The only thing missing is a slow-motion bullet splitting a tree.

Amateur Homemade Stereograph card. 1952 Collection Jim Linderman

Time for the Accordion Class Portrait collection Jim Linderman

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"It's time for accordion class" is not a phrase heard often these days. A few years ago there was a big flap in certain circles when the Grammys eliminated polka as a category. They did it because the same performer won every damn year...his competition had dwindled to nil.

I don't play and never will, but I can guarantee the first lesson, on the very first day, went exactly like this: "All right children...let's start with how to hold the instrument."

Accordion class Portrait Original Photograph by "The Camera Shop" Grand Rapids Michigan circa 1940. Collection Jim Linderman

The Most Beautiful African-American Model of the 1950s ? Lost and Forgotten Cheesecake Pinup of Color

She appears on the cover of "Tawny Models" in the early 1950s, a smut digest pretending to be "figure studies for artists" to avoid censors. She appears in 4" x 5" photo sets sold from the back of magazines...and was photographed at the same sessions which produced the most famous pinup model of all, Bettie Page.

Fifty years later, she appears on the cover of my book which could tell the story of every African-American model trying to find a place in front of the camera during the second half of the 20th century. She likely faced racism, prejudice...and as was the case for all nude models during the time, she may have faced arrest and prosecution. Today no one knows who this young African-American model and pioneer was.

"Tawny Models" though undated, was published between 1950 and 1955 with a Miami, Florida address, but that could be a mail drop or a ruse, as nearly identical booklets appear with New York addresses at the same time. Nude photographs were sold under the counter and by mail at the time, and arrests were common. "Tawny Models" was part of a large group of picture only "Art Study" booklets by a largely unknown photographer going under the pseudonym of Marno. "Marno the Photographer" actually, but he had other names too.

Likewise, the color picture here (color only because the photographer tinted the original by hand) was taken around 1955. The undated "stag picture" with the other models would have been sold as a "strip-set" of 8 depicting clothes being removed. There is no documentation available.

Light-skinned, short natural hair...the photographs, while cropped here for discretion, could have been taken then or now. Just one of the thousands of models who worked for five bucks a session, now lost, and always anonymous. Something of a rebel in a field which seldom took note of African-American beauty. This model who today would be called "a fresh face" would likely be well into her 70s, but since the racket was tough she might not be around at all.

Tawny Models Camera Digest circa 1950 Photographs by "Marno" and Hand-Tinted photograph by Rudolph Rossi circa 1955, Collection Jim Linderman

Additional, un-cropped and uncensored photographs of the model appear on the "adult only" website Camera Club Girls HERE

The Animated Chocolate Eclair and World's Smallest Perfect Woman Princess Wee Wee RPPC

A previously "unposted" real photo postcard of Princess Wee-Wee, A.K.A. Princess Weenie Wee, Winnie Wee, The Animated Chocolate Eclair, The World's Smallest Perfect Woman and Harriet Elizabeth Williams. Wee Wee was weaned in Bryn Mawr, PA, born 1892. Her "Linked-in" profile would today include stints at Dreamland Circus Sideshow 1908-1917 and Barnum and Bailey, dates unknown. She also apparently toured on shows with Count Basie, Pine Top Smith and other prominent "Negro Vaudeville" routes. She appeared in one film, "The Music Goes Round" in 1936 according to one source. I haven't seen the film.

Not surprisingly, there are dozens of photographs of Ms. Wee Wee, nearly all with her standing next to a prop (either a person or a piece of furniture) which puts her wee-weeness into perspective. Whether this chair is normal-sized is unknown. There are numerous claims made as to her height and weight. I think wee suffices.


Real Photo Postcard circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

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How To Start A Fire

Snapshots circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Woman Haters Club Albion Clough Royal Robertson Spanky and the Three Stooges

Painter, picker and professional woman hater Albion Clough of Maine strums up some attention here in a circa 1940 real photo postcard. His stuffed friend announcing the next meeting of the Woman Haters club is "Brother Bill" and the paintings are for sale, but I can't find one today. I haven't checked Sotheby's online yet. Clough seems to be playing one of those cheap Roy Rogers type guitars, but he later obtained a lovely resonator.

In the late 1930s, Clough appeared in a newsreel or two. He claimed his woman hater club had 100 members, and apparently a championship convention was held on occasion to pick the best woman-hater, but Albion always won.

To see his brother, active 40 years later, one Royal Robertson, click HERE. I am afraid Robertson out-hated and out-painted Clough, but they certainly would have gotten along. I'd have visited Albion too, but I wasn't born yet. Albion Clough passed away in 1944. More information on the hermit appears HERE.

The famous Little Rascals episode of the Women Haters club (titled Mail and Female) appears, in part, below along with the Three Stooges short Women Haters Club (which was shot entirely in rhyme!) made in 1934. I am not sure if Clough saw either.
World's Champion Woman-Hater Albion L. Clough Real Photo Postcard Collection Jim Linderman

Baldy Wetzel and the World's Longest Honky Tonk collection Jim Linderman

Baldy Wetzel, or Charles "Baldy" Wetzel played in speakeasies, tent shows, and for phony doctors selling snake oil. What he also did is shown here...setting the record for the longest continuous piano performance. 48 and 1/2 hours. That is one considerable piece of honky-tonk, but Baldy played for well over 50 years, so what's a few days?

As you can see, Baldy was hurting when the photo was taken. Not only do his friends place a wet compress against his neck, one helper massages his foot sore from damping the foot peddle.

Baldy started out in Pennsylvania and was playing 42nd street in the 1930s. Soon he added musical director for Ziefield Follies and George White's Scandals. Baldy was Paul Shaffer before there was a Paul Shaffer. He was proud to claim to have led the first dance band to feature a vocalist. He passed away in Toledo at the age of 79 in 1970.

Original Photograph circa 1930 (Inscribed to Fritz Savers from "Baldy" Wetzel) collection Jim Linderman
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SLIDESHOW La Lettre de la Photographie Article on Arcane Americana Jim Linderman

SEE FULL POST AND SLIDESHOW CLICK HERE
Book and eBook HERE

The Devil Rock of Contested Canada? Real Photo Postcard

CLICK TO ENLARGE THE DEVIL!


Lake of the Woods has 14,552 islands, 65,000 miles of shoreline and one devil. Here he is, on a real photo postcard with no date. The United States owns part of the lake, Canada owns the rest. It is the 6th largest lake, and once in a while the two countries used to argue over ownership, but I guess things have settled down. I do not know who owns the devil today, but he is still there.

Communities which rest on the lake include Obashkaandagaang Bay, Anishnaabeg of Naongashiing, and Anishinabe of Wauzhushk Onigum. The devil is in the spelling, Google thinks I did them wrong. If you are planning on a vacation, the link is HERE.



Devil Watching Gap Lake of the Woods Real Photo Postcard, no date Collection Jim Linderman

19th Century Show Business Child Labor CDV Collection Jim Linderman

Three Child Laborers CDV circa 1875 Collection Jim Linderman

The Entire "Top Ten Picks of 2011" Music List from Dull Tool Dim Bulb Boddie Recording Company

No, that is not a Jamaican sound truck from Kingston in 1965, it is Cleveland, Ohio a few years later, and it is just one more reason to be shamed you wasted your youth listening to the "top ten" on the radio.

So here it is, the entire "top ten" music releases of the year list from Dull Tool Dim Bulb for 2011.

You can trust me, and the entire box will cost you less than $40.

More information is HERE

Rock and Roll Pulp

I'm working on something, so no words today. Great image though. Have your ears eat THIS, iTunes.

Civil War Amputee Tintype Photograph and a Naive Dream

The first amputee of the Civil War was James Edward Hanger, an unfortunate 18-year-old who promptly commenced carving his own replacement leg out of wood scraps. Three months later he was walking down the stairs on an artificial leg of his own construction which hinged at the knee.

His invention not only made him rich, the Hanger company he founded to help other amputees is still doing the work, 150 years later.

The number of American soldiers who have undergone amputation surgery in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is well over 1,000, a horrendous figure, but one which pales compared to the Associated Press estimate of more than 100,000 civilian deaths in the conflict. I resided in Manhattan during 9/11 and even the cab drivers knew Iraq had nothing to do with it. They told me.

As an optimistic youth, I fully expected war to become obsolete after we left Vietnam. I am sorry I was so wrong, and that dream seems now more elusive than ever before.

Anonymous tintype photograph, circa 1870? Amputee and friends. Collection Jim Linderman.

Vernacular Photography Linderman Style Vintage Photographs of Arcane Americana Book and ebook NOW AVAILABLE

Tooting my own horn here, my book of vernacular photography turned out really well, and since I hate to waste any new material on the blog during the holidays, I'll take the opportunity to shill baby shill.

VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF ARCANE AMERICANA is 120 pages of the real thing. That is, far less than pristine found photographs of what Americans do best: be really, really strange with a camera near.
If you have even the most remote interest in things unusual, and don't mind being surprised every few pages, feel free to order it up. I've kept the price as low as I can.

Paperback is $28.95 and the Ebook is $5.99. Indicate which you like on the Blurb order form HERE. There is also a free preview of the book.

While I am on the subject, all my books from Blurb, I believe, have been converted to ebook format for the iPad and iPhone. $5.99 each. See full list HERE.
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Candid Press from Chicago, Blogger First Amendment Rights and Media Credentials with a Recognized News Affiliation

It would be ironic and unwise for a blog named "Dull Tool Dim Bulb" to criticize any part of the "legitimate" press, but a recent court decision which found bloggers do not have the same first amendment rights or protection as journalists gives me a little pause. First, because even with my limited creds, I personally may have more journalistic experience (and I might even suggest integrity) than a good chunk of the journalists working today, and second because the so-called legitimate press is so damn questionable.

Not only that, according to David Ardia, co-director of the University of North Carolina center for media law and policy "There is no accepted definition of journalism or who is a journalist," The judge ruled against the blogger because she "failed to present evidence that she had any media credentials or affiliation with a "recognized news entity," or that she had checked her facts or tried to contact the other side to "get both sides of the story."

Hmm...Does Jimmy Breslin have a journalism degree? Did Studs Terkel or Mike Royko, both who were unfortunately based in the same town as the Candid Press above? If any of them do, they can easily prove it, which is precisely why I am phrasing it as a question rather than "reporting" it... I don't THINK they did, but they are free to sue me if they feel otherwise. Excellent reporters in every respect? Yes. In fact all three personal heroes of mine. But does the fact that they received a paycheck from a media conglomerate give them first amendment rights I as a citizen do not have?

Because Glenn Beck cashed a check from Murdoch for his chalkboard conspiracies mean he has more rights than I? (Can I say Murdoch again? I use his empire as an example because if ANY media is conglomerated-up with big time credentials, it is his, and we KNOW the journalistic standards he maintains.) I am inclined to send a few issues of the Candid Press, which enjoyed first amendment freedom, to the judge in the recent ruling.

Disgusting, ugly, sexist, offensive, putrid, obscene (to me anyway...) and gross. But fully protected by first amendment rights?

Ayup!

Chicago's Candid "Press" ran a long time and consumed plenty of forest. I might not have a degree in journalism either, but I suspect most of my pieces here would stand up pretty well if presented to a veteran fact checker at the New Yorker alongside any issue of Candid Press. I have a pile of them here. Don't take me up on my offer, I can't afford a lawyer.

Candid Press was so disgusting, I'd leave the second city over it in shame, except that I lived in Manhattan with Al Goldstein's Screw and survived. Al had first amendment rights because he was a fat, slob pig with media affiliation?

Who else has the credentials of media affiliation? Veteran journalist and not Pulitzer prize-winning beacon of truth Rush Limbaugh and George Noory, the voice of a late-night talk show I enjoy, but which "reports" on Big Foot, ghost sightings, voices from the dead and chupacabra on a nightly basis. I love Coast-to-Coast and so do many others apparently, as it airs nightly on no less than 25 radio stations in MY STATE ALONE...but does that give them any more rights than I have as a citizen? Hell, Bill O'Reilly HAS a journalism degree and he is wrong more often than a paid witness or a chiropractor.


Candid Press was a piece of pink-colored newsprint crap and completely devoid of the humor they tried so hard to provide. They claimed to be America's Largest Selling Adult Weekly. Well B.F.D. It stunk. The giant pile I have of them on the floor here still stink nearly five decades later. If they were protected any more than me simply because they dropped a pile at the corner news stand every Wednesday to stink up the hog butcher to the world, then we have a problem.


I know far more excellent journalists today who blog than I do judges. Many of them blog instead of receive a paycheck because big companies which provide "media affiliation" helped create a generation (and every future generation) who would rather watch ads on hand-held devices and flat screens than read. I can't claim to speak for our founding fathers (as judges and politicians do on a daily basis) but I think they intended first amendment rights to apply to all of us, not just those with a press pass and job re-phrasing press releases for the Huffington App.

World's Largest Gourd ? (Nice Gourds) Vegetable Folk Art Crafts

CLICK TO ENLARGE THIS WOMAN'S GOURDS
I think of them as the warts of the earth, but some folks really love gourds. For example, look at the gourds THIS lady has! NICE GOURDS!

An undated snapshot which reads on the reverse "Note size of the Bottle Gourd" and I guess you should.

More information on the Wild and Wonderful World of Gourds is HERE. (For example, the full story of New Guinea Penis Sheath Gourds, Can you get high on Yerba Mate (?) and the Amazing Wild and Squirting Cucumbers.

Original Snapshot circa 1930? No Date Collection Jim Linderman

Is Zat You Santa Claus ?

According to the notes on reverse, Santa is one Gene Crawford. Thanks Gene!


Christmas Party Group Photo (No date, circa 1950?) Collection Jim Linderman.



Satchmo Bonus Follows.

Michigan's Knapp Family R.I.P Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman

The last surviving member of Michigan's Knapp Family passed away December 7, 2011. Arlene was the bass player. Her obit, and a tribute, is HERE by Laura Misjak in the Lansing State Journal of December 9, 2011. Let's see if this post receives as many comments as my post on Rem Wall and the Green Valley Boys, another obscure and deserving Michigan band, which has so far received 29 comments.

Michigan's Knapp Family Real Photo Postcard, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS AND DOWNLOADS FROM BLURB.COM

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