Show Business. Guess what? The same photographer took all three of these photographs. Marilyn Monroe, the iconic pinup of Betty Grable…and this staged disaster of makeup from Clarkson, Nebraska circa 1920. From humble beginnings, eh?
Frank Powolny was born in Austria, but grew up in Clarkson, Nebraska. He opened a photography studio there in 1914. Ten years later he was working for 20th Century Fox where for 40 years he photographed them all.
You can read about Mr. Powolny HERE.
Real Photo Postcard taken by Frank Powolny Clarkston Nebraska circa 1915
Collection Jim Linderman
Three Dimensional Magic of the Animated Fusion Chart
Thanks and a tip o the hat to Curley's Antiques
Photographs by Jim Linderman 2014
A curious snapshot comes by way of a friend. One Man Play? Bizarre Fetish? Magic Trick? Performance Art? Interrogation?
It's time to start preparing for Halloween again. Here, Gene Bilbrew, African-American fetish artist most prominent in the 1950s and 1950s shows what you will need to show up as Bettie Page. See also the book TIMES SQUARE SMUT for more about the illustrator.
Bad art from the 1950's. Too good to be good...not bad enough to be bad. A cut and welded Napoleon with tiny head, giant hat and rusty epaulets. It's a horrible mid-century bad painting come to life! From a bicycle repair shop in Michigan, and obviously one which didn't get enough business.
The hat is callled a bicorn (which means twice as corny) and rivals only the beret in Frenchiness. Why the bicorn didn't catch on with the beats is a mystery.
I am inclined to say the worst art is that made by trained yet amateur artists who are trying to be funny, at least during the "beatnik" modern art years, when things French were almost cool. I really don't know why he was satirized in art so often, except that he was a relatively short man who sent taller men into war. Apparently, he died a natural death of arsenic poisoning.
Strange Handmade "Folk Art" Napoleon Circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman
Books and $5.99 ebooks by the author HERE
The Measure of a Man Articulated Antique Folk Art Sculpture collection Jim Linderman
Erotic Folk Art Drawings by Ace Moore Collection Victor Minx
Taking a road trip with the kids? I'm sure, even today, you could pull over and find a tourist trap which will let you stick your head in a plywood painting and take a goofy picture.
Cutout novelty photographs were invented by the same guy who first painted dogs playing poker. That astounding fact may just be enough for you to purchase this, the most curious of books, but collector Jim Linderman throws in a few more encouragements. One, all the photographs included in the book predate 1930, and two, all are from Argentina. Cassis Marcellus Coolidge is credited with creating "comic foregrounds" which put a sitter behind a caricatured painting. Staple of carnivals, "just off the exit" rest stops and anywhere one wants to have fun looking stupid. Argentina Tintamarresque, as odd as it may seem, collects 70 pages full of them. OUT OF PRINT: Jim Linderman current books are available HERE
Will Forsyth's twin sons Arther and Earle. Photo by J. H. Blome from Ashcroft, British Columbia circa 1900. According to the site HERE Blome
"... operated as a photographer in Ashcroft in the 1895-1896 period and appeared in
Kamloops for a short time beginning in November 1898. He also worked in Clinton
and traveled throughout the Okanagan and Nicola valleys. Dempsey shows a Blome
working as an itinerant in Canmore in September 1896. Blome's obituary called
him " an artist of more than average ability."
Collection Jim Linderman
Sheesh...we seem to be moving backwards. Not only is the feed hormone-free and the seed not from Monsanto, but there is rapid transit right nearby! Rural Illinois Heaven depicted by a child on a postcard in 1906. Unfortunately, there is a good chance ten years later, the child who drew this would have their life changed by World War One. American Flag postmark is a bonus.
Child's Handdrawn Postcard, 1906 Collection Jim Linderman
