Quote and Credit

Quote and Credit

CLICK TO ORDER OR PREVIEW JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS

Design Art of the Pamphlet A Tribute and Essay by Jim Linderman






Waiting rooms. The domain of the pamphlet. Public Service or propaganda, these graphic little printed booklets are probably the most common art form never really appreciated. They are seen but neglected. A million artists have worked on them without credit. Your doctor will tell you about smoking. Your Secretary of State will tell you about driving safety. Your employer will tell you rules, give advice and describe the procedures. Each will be printed in stapled form, some eight pages or so, and they will always be free. Sometimes the cost is born by the government, sometimes by a corporation hoping to score points. But the common theme to all is a lack of artistic credit. As the purpose is to spread the news like wildfire, they often carry no copyright. No library holds them. Once the rack is empty, a new one will come along to fill the space.

Everyone of these splendid and striking little works of art come from one of the millions and millions of pamphlets sitting in racks now waiting to be left in the car, then weeks later taken in and forced into an overfilled kitchen trash can. They'll help you push down the coffee grounds without getting your hands wet.

The artist is unidentified. He worked in the orange color used in traffic signs as that has been determined to be the brightest shade to attract the eye. His or her graphics are simple, easy to understand but accomplished. There is room for creative expansion but little abstraction to confuse.


Images from "Do You Have Mile-A-Minute Eyes?" Employee Rack Service of Western Electric Company 1959. Pamphlet Collection Jim Linderman

At the SCIENCE FAIR USA Education Leads the WORLD!







Dr. Wizard remembers when the good 'ol USA ranked #1 in every educational category. I don't think too many kids today could create fractional distillation at home if it came in an ipod.

Collection of Science Fair Photgraphs circa 1950, Illinois. Anonymous. Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

Jailhouse Tattoo Billy Cook John Gilmore and Hard Luck, Two Fisted Writing NOT for the Faint (or Kindle)


Every picture tells a story, but this one didn't have one for me. I found it at a flea market. It is a small original glossy press photograph dated on the reverse 1951, with a brief note that the hand belonged to one William E. Cook. I never tried to find out who Mr. Cook was, nor why his apparent jail number was written in the margin of the photo. Obviously, his jailhouse tattoo had been embellished with a pen before publication to make the letters, and the drama, more clear...I knew I could find out who he was when I needed to.


Imagine my surprise a few years later coming across a different picture of THE SAME HAND in a book by John Gilmore! John Gilmore is one of those guys who seems to have been everywhere. I mean, everywhere. Name me anyone with a sleazy Hollywood connection from the last 50 years and I'll bet you Gilmore either met them at a party, slept with them or knew their murderer. He met Kerouac. He met Bettie Page. He met James Dean and may have even boffed him. He knew Hank Williams, Janis Joplin, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Brigette Bardot, Jean Seberg and Jayne Mansfield. I can't even begin to describe him to you, but if you think James Ellroy is tough, if you thought Hunter S. Thompson had a pair, if you imagine Charles Bukowski let his hang low on the pavement and scrape it a bit with each step... get a load of Gilmore. There are a half-dozen books and I have read them all. Real books though...his work is too good and graphic for Kindle.


Gilmore's Wiki entry calls him a Gonzo Journalist. True, but you might find his official website a bit more entertaining. This is some dark stuff, my friends. Be fearless...Gilmore is.

By the way, the hand gets its own page on Gilmore's site, it was indeed Billy Cook's claw and he was a no good drifter. The site has an excerpt...and leads you to Gilmore's other books. You are warned.


Anonymous Press Photograph, embellished by hand, 1951 Collection Jim Linderman



Mannequin Dummy! Mannekin Manniken Manikin and More


Aieeee! A startling image, but harmless. A photograph taken at a Manhattan Mannequin factory in 1948. Could the Garment district or your local mall survive without them? I guess the only rule is that they be life-sized, or you have to call them dolls.

De Chirico painted them, but he certainly hadn't seen their close relatives the Crash Test Dummy, the CPR Dummy and the sexy blow-up-doll. Remember those fake humans created to allow selfish drivers to use the double occupancy lane? Mannequins.

There is even a psychological condition given to an irrational fear of them! Pediophobia! I'm suffering a bit of it now as I consider Christmas shopping! And of course, there is a term which defines those with an even more creepy ATTRACTION to them, Agalmatophilia. Both are words not recognized by my spell-checking software, but I typed carefully. I'll be sure to use the phrases if I ever put this photograph on Ebay!


The most extensive wiki entry on these dummies is so complete, I suspect it was written by someone who had one of the medical conditions or the other.
If you are ever interested in looking up the things, remember there are countless ways to spell it and all are acceptable! Mannequin, mannekin, mannikin and manikin are all approved.

"Manhattan Mannequin Factory" Anonymous Press Photograph 1949 collection Jim Linderman

Dust to Digital The Best Reissue Label EVER? Ayup!









Dust to Digital, the Atlanta-based juggernaut label headed by wunderkind Lance Ledbetter continues to continue...and I mean in large southern culture chunks. Just look...FOUR projects now ready for your holiday shopping, and each anxiously awaited here. Yes, there is still Christmas for adults, and this label proves it. Again and again.

Let's face it...you can't open a download Christmas morning. Put your hands on something! At Dust to Digital physical objects of artistic beauty and quality persist...and now is a particularly rich and fertile time to consider their projects. All are affordable and all will be appreciated by anyone you purchase them for. Buy Now. Simple as that. Seriously.

Let Your Feet Do The Talkin tells the story of 70-year-old buckdancing legend Thomas Maupin and examines music’s ability to form and to strengthen relationships and to lift us above our circumstances. Baby, How Can It Be? is a three-CD set from the 78 rpm record collection of John Heneghan with liner notes by Nick Tosches and a centerfold illustration by R. Crumb. The discs are organized by theme: Love, Lust and Contempt. The Hurricane that Hit Atlanta is a two-CD collection of archival recordings from Rev. Johnny L. "Hurricane" Jones. Culled from more than 1,000 tapes going back to 1957, every track on this set is available to the public for the very first time. Ten Thousand Points of Light is a documentary film that should be added to everyone's annual holiday playlist. The wry, understated and terrifically funny look at the Townsends, a suburban Atlanta family who, every holiday season for eight years, transformed their Stone Mountain area brick ranch house into a meteoric blaze of Christmas lights is available on DVD for the first time.

Graffiti from Hell's Kitchen NYC 1980s


I just spent a few days working on a little essay on a forgotten publisher from New York City (which you can read HERE if you like) but as the action centers around a building I passed many times in the 25 years I lived in Manhattan, it got me all New York weepy. (well, not really) But I did realize posting a photo from the file would take care of a post for the day. That is indeed your intrepid reporter above, complete with a "Man Purse" but before you laugh, note I lived on that island all that time without a car, and if you pass some good stuff on the street, which happened then every damn day...you had to sling it over your shoulder. Plus I went to the gym every day and likely had my supply of steroids with me. In glorious New York City, no one cares what you look like, where you came from or where you are going. They just want you to get out of their way...and they don't care if you like how they look either. So you can carry a damn bag if you like.

This space, which at the time was a bit ragged, has been spiffed up into Hell's Kitchen Park to serve the community, and it is quite nice. 10th Avenue and as you can see 47th and 48th Street. In case my girlfriend during one part of the time i was there is reading...I've seen a magical dog jump half way up the wall chasing a ball...and he was so damn intent on getting it he pooped in the air without even knowing it! And you know what? That is far from the most incredible thing I saw in Manhattan. When I get old, I will try to remember 1 year in Manhattan equals 5 years in America...so I am WAY ahead of the game. The Mural wasn't up long. I'm glad I had someone catch it.

Crazy Chiropractic Science BJ Palmer's Grotto of Greed


Chiropractic "medicine" is controversial still after all these years for a reason. It isn't science. It isn't even bad science. I have always suspected it had more to do with manipulating one's wallet than manipulating one's spine, and most serious scientists, doctors, scholars and legal professionals will agree with me. Yet it persists like chronic pain, bilking pain sufferers now for 100 years.

Since we recently had an election where candidates who deny evolution, climate change and even the legitimacy of social security not only were on the ballot but WON is an indication of how gullible a good percent of our population is...and since several bloated "entertainers" on the radio continue to line their pockets while spewing nonsense as news, things will only continue to get worse. Let's face it...the windbags (one with a crazy brush cut and chalkboard, the other an obese joke who avoided jail after doctor shopping for his Oxycontin addiction) have a hold of hundreds of radio stations, just like so many quacks of the past. And just like the earier generation of quacks, they blanket huge swatches of the country like a blizzard of bile and bilk.


In fact, the quack who invented Chiropractic "science" was a quack with a radio station. Like Dr. Brinkley, who planted goat gonads into people to cure their libidos, D. D. Palmer and his nutty son "B.J." factored in a radio station to broadcast their crazy ideas. BJ's station was WOC (by strange coincidence the station Ronald Reagan would later lie the sports news on) which stood for Wonders Of Chiropractic. Guess who fills the time slots on WOC now? I don't have to tell you.

D.D invented chiropractic after failing to get rich off his first "scientific" discovery, magnetic healing. Now THAT is a strong foundation for your research.

Anyway, the point of this story is
Crazy B.J. Palmer and his "Little Bit of Heaven" shown above. Can the story get any stranger? Well, BJ (who once ran over his father with a car contributing to his death...can you hear the bones cracking?) fancied himself an art aficionado. In fact he had an enormous collection put together on the fortune built from bone tugging...including a gigantic collection of phallic symbols, totem poles and salon nudes. Maybe B.J should have invented a cure for impotence instead of stretching limbs. Lil' Bit O Heaven was built to show off the tons of useless bric-a-brac he lugged home from his world travels. Among the live alligators and fertility objects on display, he added trite platitudes to the good, honest and healthy life he advocated along with his insane ideas of medical care.

I swear...what a country.

To learn more about B.J Palmer's Grotto of Greed see the sources highlighted.



Little Bit O Heaven real photo postcard circa 1920 Collection Jim Linderman


NOTE: I've been getting lots of mail from Chiropractic practitioners (not surprising since "marketing" is one of most intensive classes in the school of chiropractic stuff, another fact, look it up) I refer ANYONE who is either interested in, or disputes ANY PART of my essay above to consult the reasoned and detailed Wikipedia article on same...which is not only well-researched...to be fair upon reading I find I could have actually been far, far harder on both the "profession" AND those who pay for the services. At least I didn't refer to it as an "unscientific cult" as others have, but I would clearly been on solid ground if I had! If it helps anyone, fine, great...but as you can see in the article and the references cited...I'm far from alone. In fact, I seem to have been more than generous. Keep those cards and letters coming anyway!

Things to Make a PRETZEL PUP



I just realized it has been a year since I did a "things to make" so here you go. Get started now and your holiday parties will be pretzel pup perfect!

Carte de Visite Salesman Sample for Hot French Vintage Dames! (In which "vintage" is defined)





Everyone thinks the word "vintage" means old. Well, not quite. What it means is "of it's time" or a period of origin. So something "vintage" could be from last week, as long as it is indicated "Vintage 2010" like a cheap wine. So when searching the term on Ebay, you should consider it to mean the same thing "natural" does on food labels...nothing. There isn't any reason to put "natural" on the label unless it ISN'T really natural. When is the last time you ate "unnatural" food? My guess is the last time you ate.


Anyway, here is a vintage Carte de Visite size Salesman Sample which is EXTRA vintage! CDV is French for "visiting card" more or less, and came to replace the tintype, more or less, though both photographic mediums flourished at the same time. You'll also find both hidden in baskets at the flea market...the tintypes are the ones with rust, the CDVs are the ones on little cards, and no one wants either unless they show an early baseball player, or an unfortunate slave.


So anyway here is an example of a composite salesman sample CDV by an enterprising fellow selling OTHER CDVs of what passed for sexy dames around 1890. "Allow me to present my card...of ZAFTIG HOT BABES!" Some 19th century Larry Flynt would hand these out, take down orders, and deliver the spicy goods a few days later. One could take out a loupe and get a rise, I guess, but probably better to spring a quarter for 6 of your choosing full-sized. Then each would be like 2" x 3" and they would be as big as women on your smart phone, easy to shuffle (and hide from the wife.) You can "click to engorge" but "French postcards" didn't get good until about 30 years later, I am afraid. Funny, but they are all built the way woman are today. So when did "sexy" come to mean "skinny?" Topic for another post.


CDV Salesman Sample for early risque photographs, circa 1890. "Six for 25 Cents" Collection Jim Linderman


Justin Kent Eddie M...
By Jim Linderman


Behind the Sitter i...
By Jim Linderman DUL...

EGYPTIA and NASCA'S BAND Show Beautiful At the Circus in Black and White #23



"At the Circus in Black and White #23 (or in this case, more of a sepia) is an old albumen of a Girl Show. Like "Mermaids" from Figi, "Aztec" Children, "Mysteries from the Orient" and "Savages" who were really from Brooklyn, Sideshow operators played on our cultural ignorance when naming their acts. Presented here, some dancing girls from Egyptia!



Original Photograph, circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman (formerly Collection Captain L. Harvey Cann of Sarasota, Florida)

ALL KNEEL BEFORE umm...THIS THING


Without insulting some culture, tribe or environ, I'll just post the snapshot and let others figure out who the grand Kahuna is. Guesses?

Anonymous Snapshot circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Postcard Generic Stops Along the Road (Deja Vu Road Trip)



Ever get the feeling you've driven down that road before?

"Generic" Postcards "GOOD FOR ANY PART OF THE COUNTRY" Colourpicture Publishers Postcard catalog 1946 Collection Jim Linderman

New GENE BILBREW BOOK by JIM LINDERMAN Times Square Smut



Jim Linderman tells the true tale of an artist, an author and a mobster from New York City in the Fifties, a time America was learning of many strange things for the very first time. INCLUDES over 30 rare drawings by the noted African-American fetish artist Eugene Bilbrew unavailable and unpublished since being confiscated over 50 years ago! Rare graphics and images from the Victor Minx collection and a faithful reprint in full of a novel written by the author "Justin Kent" not seen since being confiscated as evidence by the police. A snitch, a gangster and a junkie meet to create a true story which literally moves from the 42nd Street Times Square gutter all the way to the Supreme Court. Over 50 B & W illustrations. A landmark book on censorship, New York City, Times Square and the artists who brought vintage sleaze from the deuce to the Supreme Court! Click below for Free Preview or Purchase!
TIMES SQUARE SMUT THE BOOK (AND EBOOK)

Homemade and Handmade "Gag" Postcards from the 1960s







What is funnier than a bunch of old sexist gag drawings? Umm...not these. HOMEMADE POSTCARD erotic "gag" drawings by an anonymous amateur. What could he have possibly been thinking? Was he intending to mail them to friends? Send them to a printer to have them run off? Send them into a professional postcard company to see if they were interested? Since he appears to have had trouble writing the captions, I'm going to suggest he get a professional printer, at least. Hilarious. But not funny. At least they are colorful. I have over 50, so who knows how many he did. The standard gags are all here...women of the night, the wife, the sleazy boss, a fishing joke. Standard fare for the sixties, but done by hand? As common as clean dirt.

Collection of Homemade and Handmade "Gag" cartoon postcards, circa late 1960s. Collection Jim Linderman

Also posted on Vintage Sleaze the Blog