Quote and Credit

Quote and Credit

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Gertie Cochran Mental Wonder Vaudeville Performer (First Human Computer?) Photograph by Frank Wendt



CLICK TO SEE WHAT GERTIE KNOWS, AND YOU DO NOT

She answers like a flash on lightning, purely from memory, thousands of difficult questions on all subjects.  Biblical history, national history, population of all the large cities of the earth, dates of discoveries, dates of great battles, with generals officiating and numbers killed and wounded, national debt of all nations, including our own national debt…"

Gertie Cochran was speaking at age seven months and was not long forced to memorize everything!  Well, maybe to everything, but certainly more than I feel like taking the time to copy!  Gertie was on the road was on the road at age 5, and "she…created a perfect "furore" wherever exhibited."  Click to enlarge the patter…and be prepared to ask questions.  Gertie takes them all on.  Prepare to be dumfounded.

A cabinet card photograph by Frank Wendt, likely used, and sold, as a souvenir at Little Miss Gertie's shows.  Wendt was understudy to the famed circus  freak photographer G. Eisenmann, and worked out of both New York City and later Boonton, New Jersey.  The card dates to a performance in 1898 in Lake Chautaugua, New York.  Wendt was also known for his circus and sideshow photographs, but the book below collects his numerous photos of young women forced on the road at an early age.




See the book HOOFERS AND SWEETHEARTS: THE Little Women of Frank Wendt.  Vintage Photographs from the Collection of Jim Linderman.  80 pages.  Paperback $21.95 Ebook $5.99.  

FaceTime Etiquette Secret Codes Handwriting Analysis Typewriter Tracks and Cam Communication in the 21st Century


Since touch pads and keyboards have finally eliminated handwriting, and the long anticipated "face to face" telephone has arrived through camming with surprisingly little fanfare, I thought it time to rerun the "Eye Flirtation" chart here which one should always keep in mind when having some FaceTime.  Let's see…do I have to put a trademark next to FaceTime?  No…but when I type it on my Apple, they automatically add the capitalized T for me.  Strange. 

Anyway, one used to be able to analyze potential dates through their handwritten requests.  I guess delivered by hand through calling cards, butler to butler?  So gentile.  Not anymore.  I write every day, but even signing a check hurts my fingers now.  They are out of shape.  Writing by hand, and the ability to tell if a written by hand letter was composed by a serial killer is now officially over. 




Remember back when criminals were convicted because one of the keys on their typewriter had a distinctive character?  Now, as everything we type is stored forever somewhere, it's been a long time since anyone was called to testify about a little chip out of the comma key on a crook's Underwood.
Anyway, for your delight and despair, if you have been giving out messages you wish to have kept private, here is the official guide to "eye flirtation" I posted long ago.  It is back, but through technology, it is growing more useful every day.

BOOKS (AND EBOOKS $5.99 each) BY JIM LINDERMAN are available HERE

It's OFFICIAL

Proud (and OFFICIAL) participant in the system!

Mastercraft Decal Company, No Date Collection Jim Linderman


Two Sided Bathing Beauty of Wood Folk Art What does your Swimming Suit reveal? # 6





It is a bit early, as Spring is not even Spring yet here, but it isn't too early for number six in the "What does your Swimming Suit Reveal" series.

Folk Art wooden Bathing Beauty in a Bikini circa 1940  (From an upstate New York Motel Swimming Pool) Collection Jim Linderman 

BOOK AND eBooks by Jim Linderman HERE

Pair of 19th Century Folk Art Children's Drawings by Harry Moar More Folky than Children's Drawings of Today?



Two consistent drawings by young Harry Moar which I am dating to around the turn of the century.  The 19th one.   They are signed on the reverse, so young Harry had an idea of his own capabilities as an artist, or his parents did.  Some young and naive artists have no idea they should imprint their stamp on a work until they are told to claim it.  It would take a mighty precocious child to sign his work before being told.

Lined paper such as this came into being around 1900.

19th century drawings by children look more like folk art to me than those done today.    A children's art specialist could tell me more (and maybe one will write in) but these just look more folky than kids draw today.  


Now that kids draw with the "help" of touch pads these days... I won't have anything to find at antique shows, and I suspect they'll all start to look more or less the same.
 
Pair of original 19th century drawings by Harry Moar.  Collection Jim Linderman

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Risque Hurly Burly Hootchie Cootchie Dancers of Professor G. W. Van Sideshow Burlesque

CLICK TO ENLARGE COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN
CLICK TO ENLARGE  COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

 
COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN
COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

Professor G. W. Van presents his talent in this, frankly, remarkable group of photographs I was able to purchase recently.  They are unusual not only for the content, which shows a pleasant afternoon full of hurly-burly, hootchie-cootchie and risqué behavior for the time, but also splendid examples of period dress, gentlemen when hats were virtually required (even for dusty fairgrounds) and a wonderful group of original painted sideshow banners.

The same banners are shown elsewhere in a photograph dated 1915.

Prof. G.W.Van was from Lockhaven, PA according to one of my heroes A. Stencell, who promised me an interview once but I am too intimidated.  His book Seeing is Believing is essential for anyone interested in sideshow history (or simply a good book)

I don't watermark items from my collection posted, but credit appropriately if you repost. 


The New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown owns a photo of the same touring troupe HERE


Group of Original Photographs Anonymous circa 1915 G.W. Van sideshow 
Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND ($5.99) EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE

Oddities Antiques and the Curiosities Business Not Dead Yet Reality Shows of Pickers Spur Interest in Antiques



To be honest, I am not sure if "OUF" is a name or a group of initials, but unfortunately she has passed away.  Memorial cards are among them most common cabinet card photographs, but this one has the distinction of delicate hand-tinting and the curious tribute to OUF apparently hand-stamped over her flowers.

Netflix is streaming the complete two seasons of Oddities, the Discovery series on curious and creepy antique dealers Mike Zone, Evan Michelson and Ryan Matthew,  master bone articulator.  The three ghouls are the Pawn Stars of the Dead and American Pickers of the Body Farm.  Twenty episodes in a row, a binge viewing totally unlike me, has left my mind with an odd and curious feeling of morbidity and mortality.  So the funeral card here is shared.

Hopefully, the popularity of Oddities will help the antiques business.  Everyone needs a hobby after all, and in these digital days a few actual physical objects on the shelves would be nice.

Cabinet Card circa 1900?  Reed Studio MA.  Collection Jim Linderman 


BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

Adbul "calls in sick" 1941 Penmanship Lesson Example




Those of you who might need just one more day after Spring Break may find this useful, a template page from New Model Semi-Upright Copy Book Number 6 used to teach writing to students in India. Bunder Road, Karachi.

New Model Copy Book circa 1941 Collection Jim Linderman

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Lund's Plywood Garden of Michigan











Lund's Plywood Garden of Maple City, Michigan.
 
E.K. Lund was a part-time magician who lived to the age of 100. From the looks of these rare postcards, that is about one plywood figure a year.

Photo Postcards from Lund's Garden, formerly installed in Maple City, Michigan.

See Also "Preacher, Artist, Magician, Centenarian" HERE

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS HERE

Strike Up the (Native American Peoples?) Band!


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I can't tell you how many, or if ANY of the players here are first nation performers, but there were authentic Native American bands.  Along with other enforced cultural changes, some had instruments forced on them.  On thing I do know is that there were not too many tribal trombones until not long before this picture was taken.

Curious Concert Band  Anonymous Photograph circa 1900?  Collection Jim Linderman

BROWSE AND ORDER BOOKS AND $5.99 eBooks BY THE AUTHOR HERE at Blurb.

Opening April 1, 2013 Art of the Potholder









The Art of the Pot Holder is supported by a grant from the Makers of Rayon and generous funding from the Skillet Foundation.

Confetti on the Floor Salesman Samples for the Basement Retro and Modern at the Same Time!








When I was a lad, one of these was the entire basement floor…I scuffed them up playing ping-pong down there.  Retro madness confetti floors of asbestos from the Matico Company and their line of "Aristoflex" floors.

I am a big fan of paint chips and floor samples.  For one thing, they are the only thing free at your local Home Depot.  They are also fantastic for art projects, and they look great on the shelf.  Unfortunately, you can not get the asbestos ones anymore…but I guess that is a good thing.


Group of Salesman Sample Flooring tiles Matico 1957  Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

A Full Yard of Grand Rapids! Yard Long Panoramic Photograph



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(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

A yard of Heaven! "Yard Long" or panoramic photographs are frequently seen but seldom as crisp as this pair showing 1942 Bible School Students and their teachers from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Too big for my scanner, and a shame as they are splendid. There is a slight "row" in one row...(second row on the left, detail shown) but all in all, the little monkeys behaved and each holds their little Bibles with respect. Photographed at the height of World War Two, it is exceptional to realize virtually all these children had a father serving in the Armed Forces. We can also surmise most of the teachers had husbands or sons serving. A beautiful pair of integrated images at a time when segregation was still common, and together a splendid example of what panoramic photos are for. The special cameras used for these giant pictures were developed as early as the late 19th century and their high resolution is still a marvel.Harshberger began commercial photography in Grand Rapids in 1921 and closed the shop in 1949.

Two Panoramic photographs, each 8" x 28" Charles I. Harshberger "Photos of Quality...Groups any time or place in Michigan" 1942 Collection Jim Linderman

Also posted on the old time religion blog