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Trio of Handmade Folk Art Marble Game Boards made by the same hand circa 1955



A trio of folk art game boards by the same hand.  Odd to see three like this together now… but they  collectively make up a "mid-century modern graphic" oddity for the wall.  Cabin decor class!   Circa 1955?  Each just over 16" x 16.

A commercial version of the game was manufactured in 1960, but I am going to guess guys had been making this marble game for decades in the basement.  Hobbyist and woodworking magazines were full of this kind of thing around the 1950s.  But how were three boards by the same hand re-assembled into one collection 50+ years later?

I speculate each was eventually given BACK to the maker long after they were gifted. Maybe Pop made a set for each of his kids?  All found and assembled into a collection by a picker?  All three have bread board ends, which were hand built, and all drilled with the same precision.  Each shows different use and wear, each has age and all three were found together at an antique shop.  One has a taped "rules" sheet affixed still.


Trio of Handmade Folk Art Marble Game Boards circa 1955 Collection Jim Linderman

Mysterious and Thrilling Atomic Energy Circus with Dancing Static Girl




Well, it's not really Atomic Energy which makes the little guys twirl, it's static.  Still, static seems to be a powerful force!  It's ripped the panties right from the paper-thin dancing woman!  Thrilling! "Mysterious"  Sorta like Fukishima!
BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR OF DULL TOOL DIM BULB ARE AVAILABLE HERE

Big Blly Cox and his Football Friends Art from the Sports Trades






Billy Cox and a few of his locker buds from 1950.  Source material for Billy, but the other two are, as yet (or as forever) anonymous.  If I liked football, I might take the time to ID them. Football, for all the gizmos and flying cameras and million dollar talking heads, is probably no better than it was in 1950.  I didn't watch then either, of course.  The last game I saw had Tom Brady, supermodel dater and super deflategate cheater.  He makes around 10 million bucks a year shilling products and the team pays him 20 million a year.  He used to support Trump until someone in the upper office told him to shut up.

Anonymous crayon drawings of football players, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Sounds from the AIR new book by Jim Linderman Preview




Vintage photographs of mystery and science. In SOUNDS FROM THE AIR one will find pictures of the invisible. The presence of audible waves as captured by anonymous photographers. Mysterious and beautiful visions in sepia. The language of ether. Collected and curated, the pictures generate the buzz of static without making a noise. 78 pages. Available in paperback and instant PDF download. Jim Linderman has produced numerous art and photography books on the obscure.  ORDER SOUNDS FROM THE AIR HERE

Vintage Shoe Design by Lucien Guilbert Circa 1940 - 1950 original drawings Spring forward in Style!







Vintage SHOE FASHION ILLUSTRATION SKETCHES BY LUCIEN E GUILBERT. Prolific Shoe Designer of the 1940's and 1950's.  The designer worked out of St. Louis during the 1940s and 1950s. Monseuir Guilbert designed shoes for high-end stores including some in New York City such as Nordstroms, Lazarus, Lord & Taylors and similar department stores as well as small specialty shops.  Some 150 drawings were sold in a lot several years ago.   Collection Jim Linderman 


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Long lost childhood craft? Antique Folk Art paper cut colorful whatever!



Folk Art paper cutting colorful whatever!  I don't know a name for the technique.  Paper cutting for sure, as the top portion was folded and cut...then glued atop a second piece of paper which seems to have been painted first.  Paper stained glass!  If there is someone out there with a name for this (or these) let me know. Maybe a school teacher who was working around the turn of the century? 

Collection Jim Linderman

Woman with Trombone Folk Art Carving Anonymous




Woman with Trombone Folk Art Carving highly reminiscent of the pieces carved by Earl Eyman.  Just over 6 inches tall.  No Date.

Collection Jim Linderman

Mexican VEA Magazine for Pinups 1950s. Rare South of the Border Pulp Magazine.







 
Can anyone make a blog post which isn't political these days?  To think a day would come (again…) when showing the Mexican people are just like us is necessary?  Look. They had pin-ups just like we did!  I am not surprised after the election, as we were given every indication the new choice of the Republican party was a horrid man.  Still a whole lot of people voted against humanity, civil rights and equality. Still we should seriously work on fixing that. I don't pray much, but pray for the midterms.  It might be our last chance. 
I first wrote about and scanned some issues of Vea five years ago and have continued to pick them up when I can.  So I am running the piece again below.  Enjoy it.  By the way, learn to get along with and appreciate everyone, will you?  Jeez!  Read these words and think about it this time.  The United States is a nation of immigrants and what makes us special is that we care about everyone.  Our culture, which is the greatest export we HAVE, wouldn't be what it is if we were not a melting pot.  

VEA is a pretty hard magazine to find copies of these days.   Vea ran in the 1940s and 1950s, and when you figure in acid-based paper, climate and censorship, you’ll know why they don’t turn up often. Do not confuse it with Vea the Puerto Rican gossip magazine, or Vea which came from Chile.  Search hard and you will see a few issues on Fred Seibert’s flickr stream, but that’s about it.  I found a handful  to purchase recently, and I wish I had them all. 
VEA was a weekly pulp periodical which ran for years but was apparently often in trouble with the law, largely due to Niuglo’s spicy muchachas.  The magazine was a menudo of news, bullfighting reports, pulp fiction (with illustrations that look like Charles Burns on peyote) and breasts, which is where Nuiglo comes in.  There is really nothing to compare the magazine to in the states then or now, but it was similar to the Folies De Paris et de Holllywood magazine from France which was running the same time.  Some of the Harrison mags like Whisper maybe.  Large format, large on style and striking today.
Flipping through them makes me think it is time for a 1950s Mexican revival.  The best reason to find some VEA is the pioneer Mexican fashion and glamour photographer known only (but not known WELL) as NIUGLO.  Niuglo’s photos were so good they often graced front and back cover simultaneous in vibrant candy colors, but the ones inside were printed in burnt sienna brown.  There was frontal nudity, a considerable amount…but nothing below the waist.

Scarce and forgotten, but someone is paying attention.  These are worthy of saving.

Bright scholar Ageeth Sluis recently wrote “Projecting Pornography and Mapping Modernity in Mexico City” for the Journal of Urban History which drew upon the images in VEA.   A portion of the abstract reads:  By analyzing depictions of female nudity as conversant with urban landscapes in the banned magazine Vea, the author argues that pornography connected Mexico City to transnational ideas of the early twentieth century that held that sexually liberated women were part and parcel of cosmopolitan modernity. Vea exemplified and fueled concerns over “public women” and helps scholars understand larger debates on the gendered effects of revolution, urbanization, and transnational currents of global modernity.  NICE!
I’ve put in a note to Ms Sluis, and if additional information results I’ll be glad to add it.
Even better,  an outstanding set of original negatives of erotic images which have been attributed to Niuglo were discovered in 1996 and recently exhibited (in 2002) by photographer Merrick Morton at the Fototeka Gallery in Los Angeles.  Attributed might be too strong a word, as it was speculation, and there were several other “house” photographers doing the pinup photography for VEA.  Selected images of this cache were printed in editions and sold.  The certainly have the look, and they look wonderful.
Jim Linderman Books and Affordable Ebooks are available HERE

Antique Folk Art Fish Noisemaker Toy



Antique Folk Art Fish Noisemaker Toy.  A clicker-clacker!  
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The Birth of Rock and Roll Original Vintage Photograph


Original vintage photograph collection Jim Linderman 
From the Dust to Digital Book The Birth of Rock and Roll Available from the publishers HERE

Sounds from the AIR! The New Vintage Photography Book by Jim Linderman Available NOW





Vintage photographs of mystery, sound and science. In SOUNDS FROM THE AIR one will find pictures of the invisible. The presence of audible waves as captured by anonymous photographers. Mysterious and beautiful visions in sepia. The language of ether. Collected and curated, the pictures generate the buzz of static without making a noise. 78 pages. Available in paperback and instant PDF download. Jim Linderman has produced numerous art and photography books on the obscure.  ORDER HERE

Erotic Folk Art Nude Reclining Woman Relief Carved Sculpture



Erotic Folk Art Nude Reclining Woman Relief Carved Sculpture
11" x 21"
Collection Jim Linderman  
Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman & Dull Tool Dim Bulb available HERE

SOUNDS FROM THE AIR! New Book by Jim Linderman available from Blurb.

The NEW Book by Jim Linderman is SOUNDS FROM THE AIR!  It explores the power of vintage photographs to show that which is not there!  Visions of sound waves and the magic of radio is told in 78 pages of anonymous photographs.  The language of ether revealed!  $19.99 paperback, $8.99 instant PDF download. 


Drilling Down in a Vintage Photograph. Stories inside a Photo

 Drilling Down in a Vintage Photograph.  Stories inside a Photo. 

Flynn's has The Evening Graphic, the Dispatch, the Tribune, The Observer, the World, the Telegram and the Sun.  Take your pic!  Plus Baseball Magazine for the fellas and Screen Romances for the gals.
Hmm.  Judge Crater is missing on one paper.  That will date the rack.  1930.  Political operatives croaked him.  Two women he was involved with left town quick when he went missing, and a third was murdered.  His safe deposit box was empty.  The third woman, a prominent hooker  (who entertained Crater) had mob ties and was a friend of Jack "Legs" Diamond.  They rubbed her out like bug.  She had been set to testify about graft, and Judge Crater's coat was found in her apartment after she was deep-sixed.  The scandal eventually led to the collapse of crooked mayor Jimmie Walker.

The Judge was never found, but was declared dead in 1937.  For years after, "Judge Crater, call your office" was a gag for comedians.  He is still missing.

HEY!  It's Jeanette MacDonald on the cover of Screen Romances!  October 1930.  It's the first issue!  She was on plenty of magazine covers back then.  She was quite an item, holding a secret torrid love affair with Nelson Eddy for years.  I guess.  I dunno.   A super popular redhead, a good singer and a starch conservative. Of course she had numerous flings, and she ended up married to Gene Raymond, who was arrested three times for having sex with men.  It appears to have been an arranged marriage, but it stuck.  He was once arrested in a vice raid on a "homosexual nightclub" and once after physically abusing the actress, Nelson Eddy rushed over and kicked his ass.  Oh Jeannette…whey didn't you marry Eddy?  I wonder if her complicated life was the motivation for founding of the magazine.

What else do we have in the press.  Car crash, sports shit.  You gotta know your team to place your bets. Then and now betting on your team was an expensive pastime for some.  All in all, 1930 was a cruddy time. The depression, illegal booze, segregated everything…and the mob was growing like Microsoft and Apple did in the 1990s.

Here is the Baseball Magazine.  October 1930 also.  The big article in this issue was the invention of night baseball!  They thought it was a fad.  
Collier's (up on top, but hidden) was a weekly, so it's not clear what was on the cover.

As for Flynn's Stationary, it was apparently founded in 1901.  After having retail operations for decades, is now primarily a web-based business.  If this is the same company, the location here could be 43 East 59th Street, from which they operate now. On the other hand, the way retail space changes in NYC, this cute little shop could have been anywhere.  With all the sunglasses on display (not to mention children's sand toys…) I was guessing this was a shop on the way to the beach… but then voila, it could be a block from Central Park!  One would enter the park on the south east side, near the pond.  I image in plenty of nanny's stopping to pick up some toys for junior and some shades.  Too bad their location is now sullied by being a stones throw from Trump Tower…Shudder.  Still a guess, but possible.  I have no idea if Flynn's operated a chain of stores or where this one was.  This shop could have been one of a dozen for all I know.  Who does a promotional photo without showing the address?  The Topic Sign Company who commissioned it.  They don't care.  It's just another page in their press kit…the photo was printed on linen and has punched holes for a book.

Back then the famous Central Park Sheep Meadow HAD SHEEP. On the other hand, it was also the depression and out of work men lived in shacks (and desperation) in the park. Known as "Hooverville"  I can only hope it never comes back.  Period photos show a pretty sparse and sad place at the time.  I'm not sure it was appropriate for kids except scruffy urchins.  I have walked on the rock here...it's still there.  Hooverville's were all over the country.  When it happens again, Hooverville will be composed of "the middle class" and the city will put up charging stations for your phone.
The Flynn's photo is credited to M. Baer Salov from Montclair, NJ.  It appears most of his work was done in the big city.  A shutterbug working stiff who didn't amount to much.  A similar photo by Salov on ebay now is shown below.


More of Salov's work is shown in the Montclair Public Library site

 


A Lending Library!  I suppose even then the big New York Public Library was a pain. The Mid-Manhattan branch, which opened far later, provides quick access to circulating books now, but then? I'm not sure what the circulation policy of the big library was then.  Let's borrow one from Flynn's.  I imagine pickings were slim at the shop…but it is a good idea to get customers inside.
They developed film…as did everyone before digital.  Drop it off, a day or few later, pick them up. A fine Kodak promotional sign.

The "Erected by The Topic Sign Company"  inscription on the photo is odd.  This hardly looks like an erection.  More like a haphazard window display anyone could do. 

Tradition Cigar was a Philadelphia company.  A striking Tradition Cigar display which shows both cowboys and indians loved the brand.  Those filthy stogies were a big item then, and appropriately the shop gives them an entire window.  Tradition was owned by Bayuk (the parent company name) but they had more luck with Phillies. THEY were so popular other companies kept stealing their brand.  The oval painted signs atop each window were placed by the Garcia Grande cigar company.

Flynn's photograph by M. Baer Salov 1930.  Collection Jim Linderman