Horrors in Wax # 14 The SECOND Wax Oswald!

Another installment in my Horrors of Wax series, and this one is my SECOND Wax Oswald. In 1966 Richard Popkin wrote a book with that precise title "The Second Oswald" in which he posits young Lee handing out leaflets for the FBI while pretending to be "pro-Castro" and giving radio interviews a year prior to the shooting to help him infiltrate the anti-Castro squads. Both, more or less, now understood to be 100 percent true. The other Oswald was in Moscow getting cozy with the relative of a major KGB operative. Guess what? THAT was true too, and he married her! So which Wax Oswald did the dirty Dallas deed? Neither...but there certainly were at least two made of wax, and to prove it to all you conspiracy buffs here they are, BOTH IN THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME!

The other post focuses more on Wax Jack Ruby. Click Blue subject heading below to see the entire "Horrors of Wax" series.

"Wax Oswald patiently waits for triangulation fire signal from Umbrella Man" (my title) Wax Museum Postcard, circa 1965 Collection Jim Linderman

Sparse Circus (At the Circus in Black and White)

Click to enlarge. Hard to believe, but I THINK they've set up a ticket booth, so they're CHARGING for this ride. Snapshot, circa 1925? Likely Michigan. Collection Jim Linderman

Jim Linderman "Best Art Books of the Year" Oxford American

HERE Oxford American selects Jim Linderman and Lance Ledbetter Take Me to the Water for "Best Art Books of the Year" column. A subscription to this magazine would be well received by anyone, I have admired and read it for years, in particular the music issue.

The Greatest Masterpiece and The Missing Painting

Circa 1935 postcard with "missing painting" gummed insert "canvas" to affix a picture of a loved one (or to mail a picture of yourself to one) Unmailed. Colllection Jim Linderman

Lonely RPPC Real Photo Postcard Any Ideas?

Azo c. 1917 Abandoned? Disgusted? Flat down broke? Broken down flat? Salesman?
Real Photo Postcard, Collection Jim Linderman

Ta DA! Flipped Mirror RPPC from ANITA

Pretty hot, eh? Dearest Anita flipped it over for me! She's the BEST. We've corresponded, she is a bright young woman with a splendid eye and splendid blog and seemingly splendid life! Follow!

http://AnitaNH.blogspot.com

Novelty Reverse Risque Real Photo Postcard RPPC

Now HERE is an unusual real photo postcard. I apologize for not having mirror software...you'll have to lug your computer over to the mirror in the hallway. Caption reads "SOME CALVES AT THE ROPING CONTEST July 4th Dewey OK" but what appears to depict some hooves passing a fence is in fact some lovely legs of well-heeled women taken from under the grandstand bleachers. I suppose in 1911, it was so taboo to show dames gams, they had to resort to this convoluted deception. Note: Photoshop has a mirror effect, reverse technique which will allow one to "flip" an image. If anyone out there has the time, mail it back to me and i'll post it!

Real Photo Postcard Dewey Oklahoma 1911, Collection Jim Linderman

WORK

Illustrations by Nellie Farnam and Clarence Biers, 1939.

A BIG HAND of Giant Cards

Fred Kaplan at the National Bridge Tournament 1938
Original Press Photograph 1938 Collection Jim Linderman

Busy Workers Homemade Biblical Postcard

Handmade Postcard with Biblical Phrase and Applied Cut-out (Busy Work?) Collection Jim Linderman Also posted on old time religion blog.

Sherman Alexie The Hardy Boys and Kindle

So I saw Sherman Alexie on Colbert. He is a great writer with more guts in him than just about anyone I can think of, and if you don't believe me find his ten minute lecture on you tube from 2001, you'll see an example of the courage of a Native American. It is unfortunate he seems to be loosing some of his splendid Northwestern Indigenous patois, but that is beside the point. He doesn't allow his new book to be sold on Kindle. For him, it's about digital privacy and royalty payments for the most part, but here's another scary little gem I came across.

Say there is a "mistake" in the "first printing" of your book. Kindle plans on always selling the latest version. That's right...without the permanence of the paper page they will be continuously selling the um..."corrected" version.

When I was young, like all boys, I was mesmerized by the Hardy Boys. GAWD, I was horrified to find 30 years later while browsing the same book I had owned that the fellows had joined a ROCK BAND! In a book with the same title! Cripes...nothing is sacred. I don't remember if they had their fat friend Chet playing the drums, but I think so. I shudder. I didn't want my heroes to be practicing in the garage in a lousy group that probably sounded like the Monkees or the Jonas Brothers or whoever...I wanted them chasing scoundrels in outdated language and wearing outdated knickers while they chased them. It was atmospheric and exciting.

Use a Nancy Drew analogy if you like.

So what's to prevent Kindle from "correcting" something stupid a stupid politician says in a subsequent "edition" of the one for sale today. Or changing (they'll call it "updating") a statistic to more "accurately" reflect a situation?

There is a REASON books on paper stay the same. Because they are BOOKS.

Battling Queens of the Bronx Bad Girl Warfare Gang of the Fifties

Anonymous illustration from "Battling Queens" a short story by an anonymous writer, circa 1950, which describes a female shoplifting squad that operated as an auxiliary to the Battling Kings. "They sometimes even take on a boy gang, and they could use tire chains and sand-filled bobby socks as expertly as any of the boys." The Bronx is looking better these days.

Playing with a Marked Deck

6" x 10" Photograph of marked cards, cropped, dated 1928. Evidence Photograph?
Hand embellished dated 1928
collection Jim Linderman

GRAMMY NOMINATED Jim Linderman, Lance Ledbetter

December 3, 2009, Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music And Photography 1890–1950 
Steven Lance Ledbetter & Jim Linderman, compilation producers; Robert Vosgien, mastering engineer (Various Artists) 
[Dust-To-Digital] was nominated for a Grammy award, Category 24 "Best Historical Album"

PUBLISHER

REVIEWS, FILM

Things to Make Paste Paper Pin

Instructions not necessary

Gals Gams Garters the BOOK

Selected Pages from Gals Gams Garters Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books (#2)

The Heartbreaking Home Health Care Scrapbook of Miss Ruth Miller

A testimony to loving, respectful care compiled by Ruth Miller, who earned her Red Cross badge and then some. These images from her homemade scrapbook not only contain carefully clipped tips for the well-managed home, she has compiled a compendium on health, welfare, positive thinking and attitude. Among the manilla pages of the book, which she titled "Caring for the Sick in the Home" are included everything from tips to finding pasteurized milk to "39 points to avoid functional nervous disorders." She has a page for a well-made bed, glued pamphlets indicating how to properly light a room, a page listing the proper elements of posture:

Just square your shoulders to the world
You're not the sort to quit
It isn't the load that breaks us down
It's the way we carry it

From "What to look for when buying children's shoes" to the ravages of syphilis, Ms. Miller has it covered and in considerable detail. She has notes to remind her to be patient and wait while her charge performs a task, Her attention to detail and creative arrangement of visual cues gives me no doubt she was the kind of woman I would trust with anyone I love.

"Caring" a homemade scrapbook compiled by Miss Ruth Miller, circa 1930. Collection Jim Linderman

Confidence man and Confederate in Cahoots with a Co-Conspirator the Clairvoyant Criminal. (And Carnac)

Those of you old enough to remember Johnny Carson's "Carnac the Magnificent" might understand this photo. The master talk show host conspired with his straight man Jolly Ed R.I.P to produce a skit which never got tired. Here, Some poor woman having turned over her life savings for one brief message from her dearly departed has no idea the news from heaven is actually coming from the proverbial man behind the curtain. Slick! Known as "Billet Reading" the message could read "withdraw funds from bank and give to man with moustache.

As for Carnac, I would link to them all if I could, but you'll find the good ones.

Original Press Photograph 1924 Collection Jim Linderman

Tijuana Bibles for slightly more Polite Company The Risque "joke" Book

All these examples, I believe, were published by the Ceagee publishing company in the 1940's, although none have publisher imprints or dates. The same size and format of the famous Tijuana Bibles (or 8-pagers as they were also known) they contain dirty jokes and racist humor, but of a more gentile nature than the X-rated ones. They each have something of a formula...a gentle racist joke, a gentle "boner" joke, a "whoopsie" of some type, maybe a effeminate man in some situation, some women conspiring to get a fur coat and of course, the housewife home alone and a plumber. Each page has an illustration, but many are blurry and appear to have been handed down and passed around before, so the print bleeds and some are virtually indecipherable. Some have been cribbed and a new punch line typed in. Curious little giggles probably traded at drinking establishments, carnivals and such.
Group of Ceagee Publications, circa 1935-1935. Collection Jim Linderman

Open Air Baptism Under the Lights Georgia 1938, a Christmas Gift Suggestion and a Milestone!

Dull Tool Dim Bulb will receive hit number 100,000 today though I only added the counter in August 2009. The figure includes all my sleazy sites as well, but STILL! I am amazed. This site started one year ago to occupy my time while my first book/cd project was being printed by the good folks at Dust-to-Digital. The book, Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 is something I am very proud of. The institution the original photographs were donated to will announce an exhibition soon.

You can read the reviews. In fact, this week I read one in DUTCH. They are all, I am also proud to say, great. If great reviews were coins, we would all be shaking our hips like Shakira at the American Music Awards. Not being available at your local Barnes and Noble, you'll have to click it on home. Needless to say, it will make an outstanding Christmas present, as will any of the discs at D to D. Don't expect to see my publisher's house on MTV Cribs anytime soon, this is most certainly, as they say, love labor... but I can promise anyone who receives the book will not re-gift. It is a keeper.

"THEIR CLOTHES DRIPPING AFTER THEIR BAPTISM IN THE OPEN AIR RESERVOIR IN THE HILLS NEAR HERE, MR. AND MRS. HOWARD MCGEE AND HUGGED BY THEIR THREE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, PEGGY, AS THEY EMERGE FROM THE POOL. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE DEEP SOUTH, THE BAPTISM WAS HELD IN THE OPEN AIR UNDER FLOODLIGHTS. THIRTY-ONE "APPLICANTS" WERE DUCKED"

Original Press Photograph, 1938. Collection Jim Linderman

A Giant Man with a Sad (dog) Tail

"Pet refuses to leave Master's bier; derrick Needed to Lower Coffin" 1922

Captain George Auger Cabinet Card by Frank Wendt, circa 1890 and attached newspaper clip, Collection Jim Linderman (To be posted on the circus sideshow photographer site Wondrous World of Frank Wendt as well)

First Snow Last Night (and each flake different)

Group of Child's homemade cut-out snowflakes mounted in book circa 1880. Collection Jim Linderman

Jim Linderman Books How to Purchase

Get your Christmas Shopping Done early. ALL of my books were published this year and all were small press books, so none of your friends have pawed them at Barnes and Noble. Surprise them! Preview and read reviews at each click. Thanks.

Shy Shamed Sec...

SSSSH! Vintage Vern...

By Victor Minx

Book Preview

Gals Gams Garters

The Virginia Stocki...

By Victor Minx with ...

Book Preview

Susan Archie Master Designer (World of anArchie)

The LP cover was the perfect medium for a visual artist. A 12" x 12" square one could fill with anything. It had a good run. Some of the images are so ingrained, I carry them upstairs all the time, though haven't owned an LP or record player for years. Sticky Fingers by Warhol. Talking Heads by Rauschenberg. The Richard Pettibon covers for Black Flag and the Minutemen. "What makes a man start fires" indeed.

Susan Archie is one artist who has been able to bring both classic and innovative esthetics to the music package. Despite dropping sales and the invisible format of the download, she has designed some of the most beautiful artistic objects you can imagine, and they often come in a 5" x 5" size! I once thought the CD was too small for art..I was wrong. I'll be wrong about the 2" x 2" screen of a handheld one day too.

Here are examples of Susan's work from the last few years. They are usually thick and juicy as well, a richness I can not show with a scanner... she specializes in packages, not just covers, and the damn feel of her product (a word I hesitate to use as they are so beautiful) makes everything she does just about the least expensive piece of serious art one can buy. It is difficult to be both pure and lush, her work manages to be both. She will jam in content and information, but still present a minimal beauty that is capable of creating awe. I have not asked Susan or the labels who have hired her for permission to use these images, nor do I have the time to list all their details. I am sure she would choose others, since she also manages to be prolific, thankfully...but if there is a way to search her name you can purchase ANYTHING and I do not exaggerate. I grabbed a few here, ignore the wear. They are among the most played discs in the house.

Is the CD gone? Actually this is the glory days. I'll let you all in on a little secret too...for collectors, the most rare and valuable items are always produced in the last days of a format change. As many of the small presses and labels Ms. Archie chooses to work with press in small quantities, there won't be enough to go around in the future...and believe me, she will have a museum show one day. These images from my rack don't even BEGIN to show what she has done and what she is capable of. The music too is above reproach, she has taste AND taste!

Susan's WEBSITE is here, She should crow louder than she does. I am linking as well to her testimonial page here so you can see some of her achievements. I don't know where there is a complete discography of her work, but the one HERE will give you an indication (and buying list) Her work is consistently beautiful and that she chooses to work in a small format is no indication of her giant talent, plus when I think of her I always smile.

At the Circus in Black and White #7 (or #8 or #9?) Look them up

Light posts today, it being Mad travel day, which ended for me the day I left Times Square, thank heavens. Boy, I used to hate going to Grand Central on holidays. All I need to do now is take the medicine and drive over to see the folks. No one is going to SEE this post, however, for artists, consistency is THE virtue, so here you go, my daily post.

Untitled (Three Clowns) Anonymous circus snapshot, circa 1955. Collection Jim Linderman

Traveling? Be Safe, Don't Text and Drive. EVER

"Thanksgiving In Ye Olden Times" Handmade Postcard, Mailed from Colorado to Kansas 1911. Collection Jim Linderman

Gals Gams Garters Sample Page

In the 1960's, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia was dumpster-diving and made a remarkable find. A scrapbook consisting of dozens of pages of the female form (in stockings) which had been carefully assembled into a fetish object of considerable girth! With 80 pages, and despite decay, the student saved the packet for decades. They have now been published in a book which is itself a little work of art. Our anonymous artist would be proud, though his family, who likely tossed the originals hoping they would be lost for good, might not be as pleased. There is NO NUDITY as with the convention of the times, but as you can see, risque might be the appropriate word. Art Brut with scissors and tape. A perfect gift for anyone interested in fashion or retro-fashion, stockings, legs, women...and, well...anyone with an interest in the unusual. It is linked at right, and there is a free 15 page preview HERE.

Christmas Stockings This Year? GALS GAMS GARTERS Available NOW

The SECOND volume in the new limited edition
DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS imprint.

Gals Gams Garters comes in a limited edition of 250 hardcover paper jacket books.
There is also an unlimited (for now) paper edition available.
Order in time for Christmas! CLICK to order or free 15 page preview.

Tent Revival of Ely J. Forsythe Missouri RPPC Pair

Real Photo Postcard Pair Rev. Ely J. Forsythe Missouri Tent Revival, c. 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

Things to Make Toothpaste Cap Earrings

Time for Bob Dylan to Record an Album of Charley Patton Covers

Bob Dylan once said "If I made records for my own pleasure, I would record only Charley Patton songs." For someone of his writing skills, that is a considerable proclamation and one I do not doubt. Gospel, Blues, Proto-Blues, Gut whoops and hollers, slide-finished words, gruff "voice masking" as old as Africa. Patton was so fugging good he could play 4 characters in one three minute song, make them all real and make every one of them sound like they were in a different room. His voice could be Man, Woman and God all at once and it was all done live in front of a primitive microphone while it was being etched into WAX. He could sing and talk to himself out loud at the same time! Nothing since has matched or met it. But Dylan keeps working at it and he increasingly SOUNDS like him, a compliment I am sure he would appreciate. It is no coincidence the most impressive song he has performed over the last few years is the one he specifically wrote for Patton. Like all his songs, he has played with it, shuffled it, jacked it up and down...even put a banjo in for a while. I've heard it scream with a guitar fed through a vocoder and a drum pound break Levon might be able to play, but with a sound he couldn't even imagine. I've heard a growl thrown at the song like Patton would, a genuine grit-teeth roar deep from inside somehow and as though each moment of the song was critical. A live version from 2003 was released on the Tell Tale Signs CD which spits and stutters to a fantastic finish. The song name-drops Big Joe Turner, another under-appreciated performer. They say Charlie Sexton's return to the band has brought vitality to the gigs. He certainly looks good from the audience clips I've seen.

Dylan's "never-ending tour" is an enormous misnomer, as musicians PLAY. I suppose it is born from his reclusive days, when he took time to start and raise a family, something which it is increasingly obvious he did well despite what must have been enormous pressure. I was shocked to read Sara turned 70 in October. I do not follow the offspring, but one is an accomplished performer and another a film maker who has been involved only in most laudable projects. That their father chooses to work is no surprise at all, and we should only HOPE it never ends. I recall when he did hit the road again (after what is now realized as only a brief respite) it was such an out-of-scale, stadium-filled steamroll no less than Bill Graham had to handle the ticket requests, millions of which were unfulfilled and the performers had to shout to be heard. Geffen bought the product and it set Dylan adrift a bit after, but he got back to Hammond's label and although there were some ups and downs, he's since had an artistic 5 disc run which has now matched the first one. And that is a considerable proclamation as well.

But this is about Patton. And that quote. It has been 8 years since the magnificent Charlie Patton box set by Revenant dropped. Literally. It is time to listen to it again. It is called "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues" and it is with no question the greatest CD box-set ever released. From the pea-vine graphics to the erudite texts, it was as fitting a tribute one could create for this part Cherokee Black man who was born and died on plantations within 20 miles of each other in Sunflower County, Mississippi. It has taken me eight years to fully appreciate the box and Mr. Patton, though I first heard him in headphones in junior high school on an LP put out the year before I was born.

Dylan had a song on an album way back in 1978 titled "New Pony" which smells just a little bit like Patton. The tribute song "High Water" which refers to the floods that put Delta citizens atop the levee (the lucky ones anyway) is even closer. But to my knowledge, Dylan has never covered the master. It might be time. In fact, might I suggest an entire album of covers? I bet I could find him a label to put it out.

SERIOUS film making from the 1930s

WHOA! Kindly suggested by a Dull Tool Dim Bulb follower, it appears to reveal the source for the image titled GHOUL which was my post from two weeks ago. JEEPERS! Now THIS is an opening to a film! What I called "Ghoul" was cropped from an 8 x 10 original photograph I have, shown here as well.
Original still photograph, collection Jim Linderman

Adding some Color from Jim Linderman Sites

I took a look at the last few weeks here and decided to add some color. All images from my OTHER blogs.

Wallpaper Decline a Perfunctory Post RPPC

Sorry for no vibrant colors of late, I've been busy. THIS would have colorful, but the camera wasn't capable. Ever wonder why wallpaper isn't a happening thing much anymore? "She thinks alot of her Unk. D, Aunt Pearl, Cousins Grace, Leland, Lloyd and Frankie"

Azo Real Photo Post Card, c. 1920 Collection Jim Linderman

Blackface

To those who study or simply enjoy old time music, the interplay between minstrel shows, blackface and musicians has been understood a long time. Musicians give up prejudice as soon as someone tunes up. Some recent hyped controversy over fashion models with too much make-up points out again that race and racism is real and for the most part, like always, still manipulated for profit and power. If you think some arbitrary distinction between race matters, or even exists anymore, I suggest a train ride into Manhattan from Queens at 7 am. There IS no white or black. We are all of the human race and at 7 am all equally miserable.

Anonymous Snapshot Untitled (Children musicians practice for crappy minstrel show) 1956 Collection Jim Linderman

Review Luc Sante Folk Photography

Luc Sante was kind enough to write an essay for "my" book "Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Music and Photography 1890-1950" and Lance Ledbetter from Dust-to-Digital and I were thrilled to have him involved. Both of us knew his reputation and he gave the project authority and legitimacy. It was flattering as hell.

Mr. Sante's new book "Folk Photography: The American Real Photo Postcard 1905-1930" has just been published. I collect Real Photo Postcards as well and waited anxiously for the publication. Presto! I have some favorites...the shooting gallery rack on page 55, the Nebraska carnival girls on page 59, the Wall "o" Rabbit, a Canadian woman reading with her eyes closed while a Micmac beaded bag hangs over her head...and "STRUM" will simply break your heart with scale, beauty, form and joy...but you will most certainly have your own favorites.

This is serious book. It is tough, real and glorious. Well over 100 images, all killer, no filler and the bonus of a sizable essay from a great New York writer who edits tighter than a Hank Williams song but aims even higher. Browsing the text to find Luc walking that section of Astor Place the same year I moved to the city is tenuous, having left two years ago...but I will muster the strength to read twice. It is a beautiful book and anyone who grazes this blog for the real deal will find sheaves of it in this book. It is linked at right.

The Church Army and a Puppy RPPC

Church Army Real Photo Post Card, c. 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Things to Make (Newspaper Puppet)

Primitive Handmade Newspaper Puppet c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

The Manipulated Paperback Privacy Pestering and Pervs

Women on the subway, particularly prior to the acceptance of ipod plugs, will bury their nose in a book so as to avoid attention from creeps. They often use homemade book covers as well, to mask the title from straphanging men who either claim to have read the book or ask if it is good. (ummm...guilty)

Never, however, have I seen a book which has had a fake cover applied by someone permanently, in particular in such a curious manner. Some goofball, in the early 1980's, covered this paperback in a design of his own making composed of shopping bag paper, a cutout from a men's magazine, and a handwritten spine. He even wrapped her arm around it. She doesn't even appear to have red hair. Certainly not the book I would choose to read in public, but I would liked to have seen his whole library. Book courtesy of William Smith, Hangfire books. (He has better ones, and his website is great)

"Betrayed by Rita Hayworth by Manuel Puig. Vintage Books edition 1981 with handmade applied cover. Collection Jim Linderman

Alaska Tlingit and the Bear Totem Store RPPC

I feel sorry for Alaska, by FAR one of the greatest states in the Union. Since the collective attention span of the United States has been scientifically determined to be only several months, unfortunately, for most Americans when the state is mentioned they think of future failed talk show host Sarah Palin and her grandson Tripp, the future governor of the state. However, Alaska truly has a rich, historic past which reaches far beyond our increasingly shrinking memories.

Wrangell is one of the oldest non-Native cities in Alaska, yet still only has a population of a few thousand. For a little town, it has an Alaska-sized history. And I mean Petroglyph era history. The Tlingit lived there, a tribe of people with a great cultural heritage of their own and superb artistic skills. Wrangell was actually founded because of a Russian, Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, the Russian "go-to guy" in Alaska, in 1834. The intention was to trade with the Tlingit. And no wonder...they trapped sea otters, harvested beaver and made sublime crafts, of which the Totem Pole is one of the best known.

In 1920, Walter Waters established the above shop, The Bear Totem Store, to sell Tlingit art. Walter was a former mailman who, considering the size of Alaska, probably went though a pair of shoes a day. However, along his travels he met many natives and acquired not only a wonderful collection, but established good relations with the artists and craftspeople, thus opening the curio shop above to trade in their goods. It must have been an extraordinary place. Unfortunately, The Bear Totem Store burned to the ground along with virtually the entire town of Wrangell in the 1950's. For those of you with family who purchased items there, the phone numbers for Sotheby's and Christie's are available online.

The Bear Totem Store Wrangel Alaska Real Photo Post Card c. 1941 Collection Jim Linderman

Old Old Maid Cards and an Old Old Card Game

Since even the name of the game is "Old Maid" we shouldn't be surprised the images might be a bit sexist. In the gaming world, the concept is known as a "going out game" as the idea is to get rid of your cards. From Victorian days, Old Maid is a card game with a universal spread and each country has a funny name for it. "Scabby Queen" in the UK, "Ungguy-ungguyan" in the Philippines, "Baba-nuki" in Japan, "Blind King" in Egypt, "Gir-Gir" in Turkey, "Stink" in Brazil. The Dutch call it "Black Pete" and play it in the "jackass" style. You do not need vintage sexist cards, any deck of cards will do, but you have to remove one and give it a nasty name. I don't think I want to see the commercial versions of "Stink" or "Scabby Queen" at all.


Sample Old Maid cards, c. 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

At the Circus in Black and White Aerial Girls

Untitled (Acrobats) c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Erotic Vernacular Photography Shy Shamed Secret Shadowed Hidden

Victor Minx Informs us
Shy Shamed Secret Shadowed Hidden is now available!

Preview the first 15 pages FREE and PURCHASE HERE
Limited edition of 100 Hardcover with Book Jacket
Unlimited edition (for now) in Paperback

Collector Goes Overboard. Cigar Band Man

I spent plenty of time at the 26th Street Flea Market and the Pier Shows in NYC. I was a regular. I don't know if folks noticed me and said "there's that guy again" but I certainly said it to enough to myself. My favorites? The one legged man entirely dressed in a pirate uniform asking each dealer for cast iron cookware. The large man asking repeatedly "poker chips? poker chips? poker chips?" while dressed in a dingy t-shirt which read of course "POKER CHIPS" and the most flamboyant fellow in stripped tights...and I mean tight. Here is another fellow who seems to have taken his hobby a bit too far...a man dressed in cigar bands. At least he is appearing at the International Cigar Band Society convention in New York City in 1947. I hope he took a cab right to the show, but if not, I guess no one would have looked twice.

Original Press Photograph, Man with Cigar Band Clothing 1947 Collection Jim Linderman

Whereaway Bull Shores Button American Eagle (?) RPPC

I confess to having no idea what or where a Whereaway is. And until I have more coffee, I am not inclined to try to find out. Someone there did have the time to make a button eagle, and the gumption to have it documented with a real photo post card.

American Eagle at Whereaway Bull Shoals Arkansas RPPC c. 1930? Collection Jim Linderman

The World's First Voice Mail and who we can Blame

I reckon this is the fellow we can blame. The world's first answering machine, now known as voice mail, but back then known as Televoice. The date? 1933. I am going to guess the first "early adopters" were stockbrokers who after laying off their secretary, were thrilled to be able to screen calls, even if the unit took up their entire office. Note the tiny little wheels. I am sure Mr. Keiser was hoping to claim it was portable. Oh...if only I had HIS number. On the reverse "When the phone rings, the machine lifts the receiver, a record advises "Mr-----is not in, but requests that you leave your message, which will be automatically recorded" Great, eh? Can you imagine Keiser lugging the thing around and setting it up in the offices of potential investors? "I'll get it set up in just a minute...It worked just the other day fine!"

Original press photo 1933 Collection Jim Linderman

David Byrne Kindle Obsessive Text and the Porter

Click to enlarge (not that it will do much good)

Ahh, Kindle. I'll give in one day soon. I do not lack for reading material, the web has loaded the content of so many things my fingers wear out far before my eyes. But I thought I would address an issue seldom discussed, but will become increasingly evident as we progress. David Byrne on his blog recently said he enjoyed his kindle as he didn't have to lug around books in his luggage. Well, neither did anyone else. Including baggage folks. No one has to deliver the book to his house either. No one has to print it. No one has to do the typesetting, the binding, the paper...Every step of production is gone or going, and all of them were good union jobs at one time. My first real job was paperboy. We don't need no paperboys. We don't need no mailman. We're not going to need no librarian, except to scan our card keeping track of which computer we're using. This analogy extends to so many once physical activities which provided jobs that it is scary. Whenever I hear a reporter claim "jobs will be back in 18 months" I cringe. There are no jobs coming back. Nothing needs to be done made, boxed, carried or delivered. So for now, I'll just say "Kindle this, Amazon"...and I hope a certain percent of the cyber-royalties are going to food distribution...and that they pass a low requiring all Barnes and Noble stores be turned into roller rinks.

Religion fanatic diatribe on postcard Obsessive script mailed from Chesterton, Maryland to Burlington, Iowa 1911 Collection Jim Linderman

At the Circus in Black and White Ray's in La Crosse and Helen Mae Hoeft, Early Woman Photographer

A circus photo (of a sideshow banner for a "midnight ramble" show) taken by, or developed by, Ray's Studio in La Crosse Wisconsin. One Edwin Hill recounts the tale of La Crosse early photographers in his Master thesis in 1978. Ray's photo was in fact Helen Mae Hoeft, who used the shop name as a pseudonym to avoid sex-discrimination in the photo field. She feared customers would not buy photographic services from a woman when she started up in 1924. The name of the business has changed since, but as of 1978 was still in operation. I do not know if Ms. Hoeft took this photo or merely developed it at the studio for another, but the stamp is here. (Click "At the circus in Black and White" to see other posts in the series)

Untitled circus photo c. 1930 La Crosse, WI collection Jim Linderman

Wendts upon Wendts! Composite Cabinet Card of a Tiny Contortionist

Frank Wendt, who I have devoted an entire site to HERE composed this cabinet card photograph made up of eight earlier photos he took of the same wiggly boy, Albert Powell Jr. A contortionist quality photo! And just when I thought I had collected them all, I now have 8 more to look for.


Albert Powell Jr. Cabinet Card by Frank Wendt, c. 1890 Collection Jim Linderman

Eating a Philly Cheesesteak in SIX SECONDS the Lenticular Way

Chewed fingernails and Lenticular Baseball Player collection Jim Linderman