Dull Tool Dim Bulb

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 4 from Dull Tool Dim Bulb

The Birth of Rock and Roll number four is an original slide circa 1950 from the Jim Linderman Collection, and we like it so much we gave it a watermark! The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

Untitled Original Color Slide circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman

BIG Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet Collection Jim Linderman

About as big as they go, an Antique Folk Art Sculpture Articulated Figure of a Ballerina Puppet. Turn of the century or so, nearly 30 inches tall. Original paint. The mid-section is a sponge material which has deteriorated.

Collection Jim Linderman

Al Mohler Rustic Painter of Slabs of Wood

The Rustic Paintings of Al Mohler.

Did you ever wonder the story behind those paintings on slices of wood which are essential for a rustic cabin in the woods? Brother to the saw paintings, and sister to the slate paintings for sale in Jackson Square, New Orleans? Here's the guy! It's AL MOHLER and his wooden slab paintings!

If you follow this blog (gosh…6 years now) you know I love to elevate the lesser to the greater. So let's look at the king of the knotty pine painters! He picked an unusual medium, but he used it half-a century and created a serious body of work.

A Minnesota master, like most folk art painters Al painted on anything, but the most familiar are the oval shaped pieces of pine. He would paint animals for the most part. The bigger the better, and the Al Mohler tribute site mentions a painting of a bear on a slab 39 inches across! THAT is a big slice of tree. He did small ones too, and the little one here shows the reverse. Look for the authentic Al Mohler studio stamp. His career lasted over 50 years.

There is a creepy, right wing evangelist named Albert Mohler spreading ignorant venom around the south currently…needless to say that ain't the guy. I am going to guess the Al Mohler we are interested in here was a wonderful man who loved everyone and brought considerable joy into the world with his paintings.

Mohler sold his paintings from the little studio with the big sign shown in my photo above! I am hoping the photo is worth more than his paintings, but I doubt it. They are collected, and it seems every one on ebay sells.

The go to guy for Al Mohler paintings is Kirk Schnitker who runs the Al Mohler Art site from which I took the lovely logo here. He will do appraisals, may from time to time have work for sale and is documenting the work. Check out his site HERE.
Original photograph of Al Mohler and his studio Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

Wheaties Meets Tony the Tiger in a Bizzare Art Breakfast of Champions Snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Wheaties Champion hovers in tree to escape Tony the Tiger??? Your Guess is as good as mine.

Original Snapshot circaa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Dancing Man Articulated Figure in Original Mustard Paint collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Dancing Man in Original Mustard Paint collection Jim Linderman

A Book I Worked on Being Repaired at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

"IN REPAIR" Good. It's worth saving. 736 pages of Solid Gold Punk.

Holiday PARTY PLAY Cocktail Napkins

Stuck at home with the family? While you check flight status, here is a few things to keep you all friendly while under the same roof.

Party Play Cocktail Napkins Har Va Corp. 1954

The Birth of Rock and Roll Holiday Edition

Number three in the series The Birth of Rock and Roll comes from Cleveland, so I finally have to agree with the choice to locate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame there! Undated, but certainly 1940 or earlier, an obvious trouble-maker participates in planning for the Thanksgiving dance! I hope it got out of hand. An unusual early photograph of desegregated dance for the kids! On the reverse the person I HOPE chooses the music is identified as "Pete Owens African-American Young Man" at Thomas Edison High School Cleveland Ohio. It comes from a photo book, but I am going to guess it was taken for the High School Yearbook.

Original Snapshot Undated Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Jesus Sculpture

Antique Folk Art Jesus Sculpture 11" Tall collection Jim Linderman
(Also posted on old time religion the blog)

Hell Money of the Slain President Kennedy Hell Bank Note

A John F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note! "Hell Money" is a traditional Chinese offering to the dead. Hell dollars are burned as ceremonial offerings at funerals and near the graves of the departed. In this case, a Hell note which I assume dates to 1963 replaces the Jade Emperor. This looks like play money, but it's the real deal. I don't know how many were produced as tributes to the fallen president, and I see them for sale on ebay now. The Wiki story of Hell Money is HERE.

John. F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note circa 1963? Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE

Michigan Squiggle Street Photograph Republican Road Repair

One of my closest friends, the brilliant Kate Bloomquist, was riding around town with me when we both saw this "Squiggle Street" a few blocks from the beach. I loved it, but guessed out loud before I had a chance to take a picture, they would pave it over. To my surprise, Kate went BACK, took a picture and sent it to me from 750 miles away. THAT is a friend.

Michigan, with a millionaire, former venture capitalist Republican Governor, "can't afford" to fix the roads, so they tar them up and hope your car suspension isn't remembered at election time. He isn't the worst politician, but he sure isn't the best. I would vote for Mark Schauer, a Democrat in the upcoming election anyway, but now that I was gifted this photograph, It's a definite. Maybe HE can fix the roads.

I hope his campaign uses this photo in an ad…and the incumbent, who can well afford to buy me a new set of tires, will hear from me too.

Original Digital Photograph 2013 by Kate Bloomquist

Spark Magazine Magazines Aren't what they Used to Be (continuing series)

Magazines aren't what they used to be.
Two issues of Spark, one of numerous Life magazine imitators which didn't last as long.

Spark 1940s

Mexican Comic Book Fantasia Horror Mystery and Gore Which Knows No Border!

Fantasia Ad circa 1954 Scanned by Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Fantasia from Mexico! Mexican Comic Book Graphic Novel Fantasia

There was a Fantasia not produced by Disney, and it was a comic book which came from south of the Rio Grande. This one had "all the imagination of the most extraordinary and rapporteurs of the fantastic real, poured in..." according to the pitch and my translator. From the illustrations I can believe it. A graphic novel or comic book from Mexico circa 1954. I don't find a copy on my least favorite auction site, but I had to scroll through plenty of hits for the one in which Mickey runs from brooms.

Horror, Mystery, Fantasy and Reality you will find on the creepy pages of Fantasia! It makes me want a time machine and a border pass to go find some issues. 60 years ago. I don't know if the Mexican comic book industry had a "golden age" but it seems the illustrations are universal, as these resemble all those Dr. Wertham found offensive. Gore knows no border!

MAKE SURE TO BROWSE THE BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN BELOW. ALL AVAILABLE FROM BLURB.COM HERE

Tintype Occupational An Actor

I'm not sure if "occupational" counts when it comes to photographs of actors, as they spend more time in lines hoping for a gig than working...but this Shakespeare performer takes HIS work seriously. Thanks and a nod to painter J. J. Cromer who found this for me, if I am not mistaken.

Tintype Photograph circa 1870 Collection Jim Linderman

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946 Oregon
Snapshot embellished by hand collection Jim Linderman

Bettie Page and Dog visit Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Bettie Page Original Contact Print signed by Bunny Yeager on reverse and photograph from the same session on the cover of Sunbathing and Health Magazine March 1956.
Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

The Slipper Shaped Calling Card of Pearly White collection Jim Linderman

The Slipper Shaped Calling Card of Pearly White, signed by hand circa 1880
Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

Girl with Purse in Painted Backdrop Tintype

Now available in eBook for $5.99

THE PAINTED BACKDROP: BEHIND THE SITTER IN AMERICAN TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY by Jim Linderman
The previously untold story of 19th century painters and their influence on American photography during the tintype era. Never before examined in detail, the book contains over 75 rare, unpublished original tintype photographs from the Jim Linderman collection. A Grammy nominated writer and collector who has been called "the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic" this book is informed with Linderman's wit and continues his examination of previously overlooked art and photography subjects. 80 Pages, 8' x 10" with essays by Jim Linderman and Kate Bloomquist. ORDER HERE

Salman Rushdie and Snakes and Ladders

"All games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake a ladder will compensate. But it's more than that; no mere carrot-and-stick affair; because implicit in the game is unchanging twoness of things, the duality of up against down, good against evil; the solid rationality of ladders balances the occult sinuosities of the serpent; in the opposition of staircase and cobra we can see, metaphorically, all conceivable oppositions, Alpha against Omega, father against mother." Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children. Random House. p. 160.

Common Cardboard Snakes and Ladders game, no date, no manufacturer Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll (Number Two) Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman Undated circa 1960

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

Fair Use

Though the images, which I have myself largely scanned from my personal collection of photographs and ephemera, some are subject to © by the artist, syndicate that distributed them or otherwise the individual artists. The use here is regardless covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
1. The image illustrates an educational article; its inclusion in the article adds significantly to understanding the text because it is a historical sample of the art covered in the critical commentary, and shows use of an innovative style. Therefore the image substantially improves the educational value of the article.
2. The image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic, which directly concerns a visual artist, and is indicative of the style for which hethe artists are renowned.
3. Images are of lower resolution than the original. The image is not used here for profit.

4. It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the work referenced in the article

The copyright for some images are most likely owned by either the publisher, the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced them originally.

Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement.

Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Any Trademarks used in this item listing are used for strictly descriptive purposes only. No association or endorsement is implied or inferred. No character or trademark ownership is given or implied.

If you are the owner of any aspect of an item which you believe to be copyrighted, please contact us immediately at j.winkel4@gmail.com