April Fool – Fun

Pam’s Pictorama Post: As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Kim and I traveled to the West Village for the (roughly) quarterly Metropolitan Postcard Club Show. Although I am not a member (something I continue to mull as I would do it to support them, but I am not sure my participation goes beyond going to the sales), I have been attending on a fairly regular basis for maybe as long as two decades. (For some reason it was one of the things I anticipated reappearing greatly after Covid.)

I remember it best for when I rediscovered it in an aging Holiday Inn on West 57th Street (an earlier incarnation had been in the New Yorker Hotel), on an occasion that fueled my Louis Wain postcard mania. Since finding its new home in the church, sales are Saturday only or, as was this one, Friday and Saturday since Sunday is church! My postcard enjoyment has not yet reached the level of taking a day off from work so we felt that perhaps the savvy dealers had gotten in first. Nevertheless, cards and a few other things (those things being featured today) were purchased.

More now than in its earlier days, there generally isn’t a lot of non-postcard offerings. (If I remember correctly, back at the Holiday Inn, Kim used to even find film stills and paw through some movie memorabilia.) However, yesterday one of the first things I saw was a small box of magazines and ephemera. The dealer was new to the show and said he’d bring more in the future as it was his primary gig and postcards secondary.

This Sunday supplement, simply called Fun was from the New York World, Sunday, March 30, 1913. The World had a longish run, 1860-1931 and was evidently a leader in the yellow journalism realm. It merged with the New York World-Telegram (which appears to have stumbled along in one form or another until 1966). It is, as noted, the April Fool’s issue.

*Page one of the color comics, this by Jack Callahan.*

This cover was drawn by William Steinigans, a New York World cartoonist who was best known for his work on a strip known as Bill’s Bad Dream which appears to me to be heavily influenced by Winsor McCay, a fellow cartoonist on the same paper. Steinigans (1878-1918) was a Connecticut born artist who had a series of short-lived cartoon strips. He taught at the School of Practical Illustration which became the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in 1956. A nice little history of him and his work can be found here.

*Brudder Bear, says Paifue but strip evidently by Charles M. Payne.*

It was of course this (unlucky to some?) black cat sleeping on these stairs that caught my eye. He appears to be sleeping on a suit jacket and him and the jacket are going to get soaked thanks to this rotten kid spilling a bucket of water down the stair. The Sunday Fun section ran light on comics, a lot on bits of snippets of jokes and gag writing and fairly heavy on advertising.

*Greatest Nerve Vitalizer! Also, one of the cure all’s for drinking and the poem below.*

On the inside cover there is a bit of poem dedicated to April by Henry Tyrrell:

DONTS FOR APRIL 1

Don’t be too quick to wield your stick if from the rear there comes a kick:
Just be resigned, and look behind “PLEASE KICK ME” on a card you’ll find.
Don’t rashly go and smash your toe. (This being April Fool, you know.) Remember that the stovepipe hate is placed to had a hard brickbat.
Don’t try to hook the pocketbook that tempts you with its wadded look; else you’ll hear sung the cry of “stung;” from jokers who the string have strung.
Don’t be immersed on April 1st in business, and with care accurst. Take heed and note of all afloat, or they will surely get your goat.

The jokes and gag writing are very particular to the day with much reference to those new automobiles, women’s fashions and Wall Street. Another April Fool’s poem is further within and a page devoted a Love Story writing contest.

There was a two-page limited color comics spread – I like the one that features the adventures of some insects better than the other. The ads range from my favorite for Greats Nerve Vitalizer Known to not one but two offers to help someone stop drinking, obesity tablets and a Wonderful Offer to send 98 cents for Combination of 7 Articles which includes everything from a dainty ladies’ watch of a new composition metal that looks like SOLID GOLD to a sterling silver pocket knife.

*While inside you might find pills to end obesity, on the back cover you can get help gaining weight!*

Meanwhile, in the same box Kim scooped up what appears to be the second issue of pulp called Nickle Detective, February 1933. The name was changed after the first several issues, but the history is a bit obscured. Kim read one of the stories and reports that it is indeed readable. Seems like a bit of a steal for the $10 paid.

Thus is my first installment of the postcard show – not postcards at all as it happens, but interesting to us nevertheless.

Dr. Thomas’ Electric Oil

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: For those of you who have actually entered the doors of Deitch Studio, aka the home of Pictorama, you know that things are squirreled away in everything from flat files, cabinets and bookcases, portfolios which bulge and let’s not get started about under the bed storage! (We went searching for something last week which required taking the mattress of the bed.)

Kim was in the flat files (on the same day) when this surfaced. I have no real memory of where I purchased it although I vaguely think it might have been in France or England. Since this is an American company, I may be wrong although I don’t find many items matted this way for sale in the venues I frequent here. I keep a weather eye for early advertising and some other Victorian advertising posts can be read here and here.

*Evidently the antique bottles are highly prized.*

It is a sort of great but mystifying image. A small, pert cat (it’s a cat, right?), whose bowler hat has presumably been knocked aside by this enormous, angry windbag of a toothless kitty, waves an overdue Rats Bill at him. He says, Come settle up Mr. Howler. His yellow receipt book is on the ground next to him and his shadow leads us down the page. Mr. Howler looks like a giant wrestler, looming over the tiny bill collector. His gaping maw is open to display a mere two teeth! He’s a bit cross-eyed and his ears are flat. His mouth is all red tongue and his fur is a bit frowzy. Above him it simply says, What!

Somehow this is all an advertisement for a patented medicine, Dr. Thomas’ Eclectric Oil. Perhaps the buyer whose eye was caught by this image was one who should have been beware! Our friends over on the internet give an overview of the rather shady history of the product. A sort of cure-all, it was sold all over Canada and the United States, which originated in the 1850’s and managed to stick around until the mid-20th century. (Is that really possible? 1940’s?) Although created initially by a doctor it, despite many promises, evidently had no healing ability.

In fact, it sounds a bit dangerous. Almost half was turpentine and the remaining half was made up of mostly camphor and pine tar or oil of thyme. Evidently the earliest version of the formula did contain some narcotics (opium!) but also hemlock and chloroform. Among the ailments it was marketed to resolve were: coughs, colds, lameness, rheumatism, tooth and earaches, cuts, burns, frostbite and even deafness after only two days of use!

*Not in the Pictoram.com collection unfortunately.*

While I could not find a through line of consistency in their advertising the methodology seemed to be just to get your attention as it does here. The mash-up made-up word Eclectric refers both to electric (a buzz word of the 19th century) and eclectic while saving themselves from any technical misrepresentations. (It is a bit unclear to me if it was originally Electric and was changed at a later date or not. I think yes.) Cats seem to be something of a theme but not a particular cat again and again.

This item, now surfaced here, seems to rate hanging up somewhere. I think maybe my office where for some reason I haven’t hung anything up. For now however, enjoy this advertising tidbit. Kim and I are off soon to the June edition of the Metropolitan Postcard show and you know that means lots more postcards to come.

We’re Fans – Putnam Dyes and Tints

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I have this rather remarkable item I purchased for Kim for his birthday this year. Mike Zohn (@obscuraantiques) has been sort of doing video sales on IG which I always try to catch – some great stuff and this isn’t the only Deitch birthday gift I purchased, more to come.

This antique advertising fan flashed by and I grabbed it right up for Kim – I knew he would see the beauty of it; perfect for his sensibility. It arrived and sat in a box under my desk for a couple of months. (Frankly, I am rarely this organized – for example I accidentally let Kim open his anniversary gift when it arrived in the mail having forgotten I ordered it.) I even remembered I had it when his birthday came around. (My mother was famous for buying things early, putting them away and forgetting about them or where she put them. As a result, she always wanted to give you her gifts early or was finding them and randomly giving them to you late.)

It is fragile and Kim has a vision for where he wants it hung on the wall in Jersey when we head there for the summer. It is resting back in the box under my desk for now. Lots stored up to go on the walls this year, but those are other stories and posts. The fan measures about 8.75″ x 6.5″ and the wooden handle about another 6″.

The rather psychedelic scene depicted is of a nymph painting this amazing, colorful butterfly. She has two sprites as her helpers, holding the jars of colors she is using like palettes. There is foliage in glowing green behind and around them and the helpers perch on purple limbs of a tree which grows and leafs up and around. At the center is this exotic butterfly critter – I say that as my knowledge of butterfly anatomy is admittedly a bit thin. His pinks, yellows, purples and blues play against all the green behind his glowing presence. At the bottom it says, Putnam Fadeless Dyes-Tints.

Putnam Dyes was an early player in the development of synthetic dyes with its origins tracing back to Unionville, Missouri in 1876 first as a purveyor of drugs and other ancillary products, but it wasn’t until 1893 that their line of synthetic dyes was developed. It rapidly took over the company which meant that by 1895 it marketed nothing else. In my opinion its most spiffy advertising saying was, Dying Saves Buying.

Of course, in the early 20th century these new synthetic dyes were used in boiling water (cold water dyes wouldn’t come along for years), and were replacing, I assume, the natural dyes of the day. Their fade-proof quality was another selling point, as I am sure, was the vast color selection. I wonder a bit about the difference between a tint and a dye which I think is answered by the info below.

Personally, I love the advertising patter on these items, so I share below. On the back we are told that this fan was Compliments of Alvin C. Walker Beavertown, PA but no information on what that company may have been. At the top it reads, Putnam Fadeless Dyes + Tints [to dye use boiling water] [to tint use warm water] Colors all materials. Below that it advertises bleach, Improved Putnam no-kolor bleach remaoves color without boiling. Try it. and Improved Putnam no-kolor will not harm any fabric. Harmless as water. Try it. (There are additional small pictures of a man riding a horse with his arm aloft – I guess spreading the word?)

Further below: Why Putnam Fadless Dyes and Tints are best for you. SAVE TIME – LESS WORK. Dissolve instantly – (no melting as with dyes in solid form) – leave no undissolved particles to spot good. BEST VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY. More highly concentrated, therefore dye better – go farther – last longer. Compare Putnam Fadeless Dyes with ANY DYE at ANY PRICE, ANYWHERE at ANY TIME – Putnam Fadeless Dyes will do what any other dye will do and more.

And at the bottom: A FREE OFFER IF YOU HAVE GRAY HAIR. Write to Mary T. Goldman. Dept. X. Goldman Bldg., St. Paul, Minn. Give your Name…City…State…..Street….Color of Hair….
and receive FREE TEST PACKAGE of Mary T. Goldman Gray Hair Color Restorer, that clear, colorless liquid that you simply comb through the hair – the Gray goes and shade wanted is restored. (My gray undyed hair and I tremble to consider – and who the heck was Mary T. Goldman?)

On the other half of the back, Improved Putnam no-kolor will not harm any fabric, harmless as water. Try it. and, PERFUMED PUTNAM FADELESS DYES-TINTS. Leave the garment slightly perfumed. Beautiful pastel shades. (I suspect without knowing that pastel shades were harder to acquire and achieve.)

At the bottom, PUTNAM DRY-CLEANER the original dry cleaner. Putnam Dry-Cleaner works in gasoline and naphtha the same as soap in water. “You would not think of washing clothes in water without soap.” Renews the lustre, prolongs the life of suits, dresses and other clothing at very little cost. Save cleaner’s bills, dry clean at home with Putnam Dry-cleaner. WRITE FOR FREE BOOKLET – “THE CHARM OF COLOR” Address dept. 25 MONROE CHEMICAL COMPANY QUINCY, ILLINOIS. And, Printed in the USA, the…Steiner Corporation, Chicago.

Part of what I find interesting is that in telling you all about what is good about these dyes you get a litany of what the problems with dyes actually were – perhaps still are. It was hard to achieve success it seems.

*So tempted by this display case I took a photo last summer.*

Dye advertisements and displays have always interested me. The displays seem to often be wonderful little tin or wooden cabinets made up of a series of cubbies. Even contemporary dyes come in appealing and tempting brightly colored disks. I have been very tempted by these antique dye cabinets, as you can see above. That display case is (was, as of last winter) in the Red Bank Antiques Annex where it tempts me. Only having not a clue of where I would put it and what I would use it for have stopped me from buying it. More to come on whether I stay strong or the cabinet wins on that one. Our summer time in Jersey looms shortly on the horizon so we shall see.

Schimdt’s White and Gold Band

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: With Memorial Day behind us, and despite the fall-like weather this Saturday as I write, I thought I would pull out this postcard purchase. It both celebrates the summer season ahead and the town where my mother grew up, Long Branch, New Jersey. I snatched it up at a sale recently and will take it to the house in New Jersey where, among the images of cats, are a number of early local Jersey shore photos and postcards, an homage to my family’s history in the area and my own.

I find that Max Schmidt (1850-1951) was a violinist who immigrated to the United States in 1886 from Germany. He lived and worked primarily in New York City, even reportedly with the Met Opera at times, so this summer gig for his 24-piece orchestra was a short hop away and his orchestra enjoying some limited fame of the time.

Here is the Band White and Gold in all their 1909 glory on today’s card. Although it is somewhat standard of all the musicians with their instruments in hand, there are a few interesting elements. I like that the trumpets all have flags (pennants?) advertising the band hanging from them – three tubas, two more tuba-like things and so many drums! Behind the musicians is a sign that says Band White and Gold and a sort of gong hanging below it. At the bottom (a bit hard to read) it declares, Max Schmidt Celebrated Band White & Gold Ocean Park, Long Branch, NJ.

They appear here to be on a stage set of some kind and a careful look to the back reveals a painted column and some foliage. As best I can tell the area around them on the outside of the stage looks like a cave entrance. Most intriguing however are the three men, just behind the fellow I assume is Max himself (small child seated on the floor next to him), and they appear to stand behind wood stumps with anvils, hammers in their hands. I assume this is part of the opera music they were known to play. Tucked away, all the way on the left side and hard to see, is a harp.

This card was mailed on August 23, 1909 from Long Branch. It only says, Love from, Minnie. It was mailed to, Miss Amelia Freuzel, Sayreville, N.J. The card, produce by The Rotograph Co. NY, City was printed in Germany.

Meanwhile, this was the heyday of the band concert and his sported striking white and gold uniforms. They were hired in the summer of 1909 to play outdoor concerts in Ocean Park. (If I understand it, Ocean Park was subsumed by what is now known as Seven President’s Park – if wrong Jersey folks let me know.) Their repertoire would have been popular band music, evidently combined with excerpts from operas. At the time Long Branch was the summer haven for the very wealthy and even Presidents. (The most outstanding remaining example is Wilson’s summer home which now forms the core of what became Monmouth University’s campus. I understand that there is a building which will house Bruce Springsteen’s papers quite nearby.)

The fortunes of the town, like many, have waxed and waned over the decades. Despite my grandmother living in a residential area on the outskirts in the house my mom grew up in (I wrote about that house in a previous post here), the downtown area and even the waterfront was largely down at the heels during my childhood. The shopping district was usurped by an enormous mall (which in turn was ultimately killed by online shopping and an outdoor shopping center) and only a few essential stores hung on. There was a Foodtown supermarket by the train station (which I shopped in a few times when my sister was in the hospital across the street), a paint store called Siperstein’s, which mom frequented. (A quick look online and it appears to still be there, selling wallpaper and blinds now as well. It may be a chain.)

*Another from the internet not in my collection.*

There was also a library which for some reason I found more interesting than both the tiny one in Rumson (the Oceanic Library – I must write about it one day), and the much larger and more modern one known as the Monmouth County Library. (It is out by Trader Joe’s so I have seen it and it has been expanded further since my childhood.) We didn’t go to the library in Long Branch often as it was a bit more out of the way, but we’d stop in occasionally and there was just something especially warm and inviting about the children’s section. I wish I could remember what books I found there, I was already reading chapter books, but it would likely be a false memory. I want to say the later Alcott children’s books like Jo’s Boys. Below is what the library would have looked like in my childhood (albeit more beat up) although it is a much more contemporary and entirely different building today.

*Undated photo of the Long Branch public library via the internet.*

In addition, there was another smaller commercial area closer to my grandmother, where my great-grandparents once had their bar and restaurant. (I wrote about the blue willow ware plates – the blue plate special plates – which I inherited and use. The post is here.) My vivid memories of that area from childhood were a Dunkin’ Donuts we frequented and the rarified early McDonalds. My parent’s accountant was also there – may still be for all I know but I doubt it. (Sadly, later in life, it is also where the funeral home the family used is and that is what I associate with it now.) There was a laundromat (strange word now that I look at it) nearby we sometimes used in the years before getting a washing machine although there was one closer to home, in Sea Bright, that I remember best. Mom may have been doing laundry for my grandmother.

And so the march to summer at the shore begins again today, even if I am drinking hot coffee and eyeing a sweater for my trip downtown in a bit. However, I’m sure there will be more shore and vacation posts coming soon.

The Corticelli Kitten

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Continuing on a bit with our classic cat theme here at Pictorama, this wonderful bit of early advertising came in the door this week. A former IG seller messaged me and asked if I was interested, remembering my feline predilections. I paid up a bit for it, but I think it is a great piece of advertising which I have never seen before.

*Go cats, go! Early print advertising for Corticelli using kittens.*

Evidently the Corticelli kitten began his (or her) advertising career all the way back in 1900, making it in the earlier era of emerging cat advertising. A kitten was stamped as a logo on each spool and advertisements showed a kitten or kittens playing with and chewing on the thread to show how strong it was – also that as superior thread that it was unlikely to tangle. Anyone with cats and threads knows pretty much what is likely to happen when the two are together and, strong or not, I would not want to put any thread to the test.

On the back it reads:

I am the Corticelli Kitten. As Corticelli silk costs you no more than poor silk you are saving your own time and money when you ask the cleark especially for Corticelli silk, because while you may pay as much you are sure of getting more silk, better silk, purer silk, brighter silk, longer silk and stronger silks every time you as for “Corticelli.”

When I Tell You that for over 70 years Corticelli silk has held the World’s Record for Superiority, having won 40 Highest Awards at Expositions at home and abroad,

You Will Know it was not the Corticelli Kitten that first made Corticelli silk famous – it was the remarkable smoothness, length and strength of the Silk itself.

The next time you buy silk for any purpose (sewing, stiching, crocheting or art needlework) JUST THINK of the Corticelli Kitten and the superiority of my silk and tell the clerk you just must have Corticelli or you will go to some other store.

FUN FOR THE CHILDREN. A Cortecelli Kitten given free by any dealer selling Corticelli silk in exchange for 2 empty Corticelli spools or send to us for one. As your mother to save all the Corticelli Spools for you.

Corticelli Silk Mills, Florence, Mass.

*Back of the card. You can see where the bit folds out so it can stand.*

The company, its roots go back to the 1830’s, has an interesting history which includes a period as part of a Utopian commune from 1842-46. It was purchased and in 1852 had a revolutionary development when the company figured out spool silk thread strong enough for sewing machines. The Northampton town where the factory called home was renamed Florence to capitalize on a desire for European millinery.

Meanwhile, the company had a vast expansion in the early years of the 20th century and their products included a line of hosiery. Their apex of their advertising is said to have been a neon sign in Times Square. I share the only image of it I could find. The company folds in the post WW1 years for a variety of reasons, around 1932.

*Corticelli Kitten neon sign in Times Square, undated photo.*

I think it is hard for us to imagine what a major role spools of thread played in the world of 1900. Ready-made-to-wear clothes for the rank and file had entered the public consciousness in this country with the rise of department stores and catalogue buying in the 1880’s but a majority of Americans still sewed either to make clothes, tailor or repair them.

*Reproduction advertising available on Etsy.*

A well supplied sewing box was a necessity in every home – I can remember my grandmother’s (Ann, my mother’s mother – I have written about her here and here) sewing box which was substantial and she wasn’t even an especially good seamstress but could swing a hem, a button or a simple adjustment.

So while today it is hard to even find a notions store, the idea of not being well stocked with thread, needles and buttons was unimaginable for the early years of the 20th century.

This little fellow has a spool of bright red silk thread under his chin, as if he was wearing it like St. Bernard out rescuing folks with a bit of whiskey in a cask. A careful look shows however, that he holds the spool in his mouth by a thread – proving how strong it is! The label is cheated toward the viewer and of course he has this nice, tiny date calendar, still fully intact, on his chest for the year 1909. He is designed to stand up and still does – sort of. The calendar appears to have Clint E.M. written at the bottom.

While my own skill with a needle and thread is extremely limited, I do love the early advertising for thread. I have been tempted by the beautiful display cabinets from stores so we’ll see. If a Corticelli kitten one every came my way I think I would have to snag it.

Crying Kits

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I have cat tales. Cats are of course the foundational interest of Pam’s Pictorama although we do stray – Kim’s comics, the occasional dog. We are All Pam, all the Time, but albeit not quite cats all the time but much of the time.

Today’s card came as a purchase from the most recent incarnation of the postcard show and we have the Boulanger card with crying kitties to consider. I’m not exactly sure what in particular Maurice was thinking about. We have a dark gray and white matched pair of kittens who are looking at each other with tears running down their faces. The white one is a bit pudgier and a smidge bigger than the gray one, one with yellow eyes and the other a very light green.

In my opinion Boulanger (b. 1910, d.o.d. unknown) was something of a pretending to the Louis Wain (b. 1860, d.o.d. 1939) throne so to speak, as there are a few decades of overlap between them. I reckon there was more than enough demand for the images produced by two cat artists. (Some prior posts for Boulanger can be found here and here. Louis Wain Pictorama posts abound but a few are here and here.)

This image is evidently called, Tendrement (Tenderly) and on some versions evidently in German it is also written, Apfelblüte. Daut un daut lüschen Hoffen – Apple Blossom. That sweet, soft glimmer of hope. I did wonder about the image of weeping pusses. It does raise the issue of who you might have sent this card to and what their reaction might have been. Mine was not sent and does not have any useful information on the back.

Yesterday was a major cat event here as Blackie has been doing sort of poorly with a lack of appetite. Ahead of the holiday weekend I managed to get him into his local vet in the late afternoon. Have I ever mentioned that Blackie seems to have an uncanny need to go to the ER on a holiday weekend or otherwise inconvenient (reads as more expensive too) times? He does. Long story short, no sooner had we gotten home than the vet called to tell me that after looking at his tests (a small amount of ketones in his urine) he needed to go to the ER.

*The little man, feeling more himself, today.*

Of course, these days the kitty emergency room is at the hospital where I work. So yes, on what should have been an afternoon off I was hopping in a cab and rushing Blackie down there. (Kim, still recovering from back surgery did the first vet trip but we decided he should stay home for the second.)

I took him fully expecting that he would need to stay overnight. A young resident saw him and ran some more tests. Blackie hates going to my place of employment, but this time I had reason to bless working there. He enjoys a low-key celebrity status as an employee kitty (people came and visited with us and even with him in the back, reporting out to me) and despite it being the Friday night before the long weekend, one of the senior docs who has seen him before came by to have a look at him.

She mentioned as had the other two vets, that he had a lot of bowel not moving in his intestines – kitty constipation. The difference was she gave me instructions for giving him a tiny kitty dose of Miralax. Since eating and resolving constipation were the main issues we decided I would bring him home – he has an appetite enhancer and an anti-nausea drug. Even when we came home last night, he was ready to eat! That combined with the Miralax appears to have set him absolutely right today. I woke to a hungry boy cat and a rather impressively full litterbox. Yesterday reminded me of why I love the hospital where I work. Yay for Blackie!

Noted

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It is threatening to be a hot summer’s day in May today – we are having now you see it, now you don’t warm weather here in Manhattan this spring. We whiplash between our light down filled jackets and sleeveless dresses, and I gather today will be the latter. I am heading to New Jersey to get the dahlias in for the year. They sit out the winter in the garage, tucked in paper bags, but for all the fickleness of the weather I think we are past frost here and I want them to have maximum time to bloom.

After yesterday’s excitement of reviewing Kim’s new book, I am afraid I have created a hard act to follow. I hope this Wain card from the recent postcard show does the trick – a palate cleanser of cat images to get back to the general business of Pictorama.

Upon reflection I realize I was slow to cede to Wain adoration – I resisted for quite a long time (overpriced postcards I remember thinking), but when I fell, I fell hard. I am a Wain addict. Few things dependably make me chuckle than a Wain image even if I have seen them many times before. A few of my past tributes can be found here and here but there are many!

His cat postcard parade is an almost endless variation playing on human foibles and attitudes – sardonic, malevolent, self-satisfied, mystified, distracted for starters. There are types too, fat, thin, businessman, solid citizen, and of course troublemakers galore. For types he is partial to tabbies – those nice decorative stripes I suppose. They can be a variety of shades. Today we have a gray tuxie which seems a bit exotic for him.

Today we have a Raphael Tuck & Sons card with four choral kitties – a cat quartet. Each holds a score which is inscribed, Nothing New Latest New Songs. Starting on the end with our pudgy, contented (self-satisfied?) fellow, gripping his book with both paws. He’s a fat cat in the best sense. (Somehow, we know these are all boy cats, yes?) Next to him is a small and skinny gray tuxedo, sporting a red bow looking a tad waifish, paw on tummy to help him emote. The two on the end are sort of a matched set of two colors of tabby, one has a blue bow for good measure and the music books they hold are a variety of green, red and blue. Each has a singing pose all his own showing his enthusiasm for his chorale endeavors.

When we look closely there is eye color variation and I assume Wain figured he could goose that a bit without anyone noticing – these cats have eyes of yellow, green and blue! They all are looking in different directions too which packs a smidge of action into this small image – and each singing with a different level of enthusiasm. Tails are curled in a variety of ways and directions, whiskers as well as eyebrows help complete the expressions. All these details are what Wain swaps out within his mental inventory of images he uses again and again. Finally, he supplies a sketched in shadow on the ground and nothing else aside from his signature which is sort of a visual element anchoring that side of the card, fat cat tail on the opposite side.

The title below is, The note duly reached in what I assume is Wain’s hand. Below that, in remarkably similar but lighter script someone has written, Hope I shall see you Thursday, Grannie. It was addressed to, Master C. T. Travers, Woolfanger, Warlingham, Surrey. The cancellation year is hard to read but appears to be August 13, 1905. Can I just say, how much fun must it have been to get a postcard like this when you were a kid? Yay for Grannie! Clearly enough that this card has survived more than 120 years.

So I leave you to revel in this smidge of Wain while I pack up my gardening togs and head out shortly. Look for some New Jersey pics on Instagram later.

How Kim Makes Comics: a Pictorama Perspective

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: The cats are lined up and bent over sheets of Bristol Board, brushes clasped in paws, working hard with tiny pots of ink at the ready. They produce their sheets in an anthropomorphic ballet as they pass them in an assembly line, one to another. Kim keeps a weather eye on their progress while creating the art they are inking. While I, on the other hand, dance through the room in my vintage custom cat decorated dress, bringing treats and encouragement – while also the voice of reason and sometimes critique. Waldo lurks in the corners or out the window, wrecking occasional havoc. That is how folks might imagine life here at Deitch Studio.

The reality is slightly different and Kim actually gives you a pretty fair sense of it in his latest book, How I Make Comics. (It is available now. You can snatch yours up here and here online or run to your local comic bookstore and demand a copy.) Our tiny one room apartment is depicted there, although much like when they advertised apartments for sale, it somehow looks slightly bigger and some of the piles exist but I am grateful it looks a bit neater. Cookie and Blackie wander through, but he has spared you my long chatty conversations with them.

*Kim’s workspace drawn in How I Make Comics.*

*…And a recent picture taken for an interview.*

Yes! Today is the day for my spousal and admittedly very biased review of Kim’s new book, How I Make Comics. For anyone who missed my earlier also biased wifely review of Kim’s Reincarnation Stories back in 2019, it can be read here. (And a new edition of Reincarnation Stories in trade soft cover can be found for sale here or here.)

What Kim has captured, to my thrill and delight, at the core of this book – is the unending conversation which is the background of our lives, much of which is devoted to developing storylines. Sometimes these are just little spurts of story. Kim will tell me something and I’ll say, Ha, there’s a story there! and he might spin it out a bit or I will read a wild snippet from the morning New York Times aloud and wind us both up. Some stick, most don’t. (As noted in the book, those that qualify earn a place on a bit of paper on his desk under the plexiglass he draws on.) I am the only one on social media and share the occasional choice tidbit – a cat that brings a stone to a fish store daily in exchange for a treat or the like.

*I love it when Kim creates new toys amongst my real ones. Detail from page 33 of How I Make Comics.*

Meanwhile, for those of you who like to see the Pam Butler character you will not be cheated. I sit here with my coffee, in my pajamas (Pictorama folks know I wrote about my favorite pair of pj’s in elephant toile here a few years ago) at my laptop, often on a weekend morning, while Kim sits next to me (really next to me, I squeeze past him each morning – while inking no less, talk about ballet) to get more coffee. He’s working and there is a stream of consciousness discussion between us. His desk complete with photos over his workspace is lovingly depicted in several pages – recognize any of those from prior Pictorama posts?

I’m not saying that it is only in the morning that we chat extensively, but it is the most time we have together during the week when we aren’t eating dinner and exhaustedly watching our current passion on television. (While old films continue to play a major role in our watching, we have recently worked our way through a Japanese serial, Jin, from 2011, followed by the Canadian series, Anne With an E, ’17 and now just catching up with Breaking Bad, ’08. As you can see we missed the early to mid-20 teens in television and are making up for it now.) Depicted in the book is our Covid/post Covid configuration of the apartment and much of How I Make Comics has at least its genesis in those years. (There is one sole visual reference to mask wearing on pages 66 and 67 – a true passage of that story.)

It is funny for me (and somewhat enlightening) to see the comic book version of myself with my words coming out of her mouth. My role as critic and top rejector of not-quite-up-to-snuff stories is played out in this book. Pam Butler sounds a bit hard at times, although frankly I recognize precisely what she says as my very own words or ones much like them so no argument. On the other hand, how could I reject a story about a 40-year-old cat in Harlem? Although I guess I don’t really and Kim plays it out for us, telling in true rollicking Deitch style.

To step back and have a real fan girl moment, it is a just thrill to have this book in my hands. We both love its shiny, metallic cover which portrays us in a sort of grinning, gaping cartoon grin, cats flying off, Kim working hard at his table with me over this shoulder. Pages are piling up around him – that’s real too.

Last night Kim had a signing at Desert Island in Brooklyn and Gabe Fowler had thoughtfully stocked many of Kim’s earlier books and others were brought in by people for signing. It was a glorious bunch of Deitch to sort through – Beyond the Pale (my own square one first Deitch book purchase about a year before meeting him); Smilin’ Ed; even The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley (arguably Kim’s favorite book of his); even Hollywoodland, and the equally allusive Shadowland, which might be the best size and printing ever of one of Kim’s books and sold out so quickly that they are hard to find. Having said that the work is well represented in this new volume with the space needed to investigate the tiny details in the images. It was a mini-career retrospective which I pawed through with delight while he was signing.

Fantagraphics has thoughtfully brought out a great trade paper edition of Reincarnation Stories at the same time and I admit with both on the table I felt like a mom who can’t decide between her children who are both beloved. In many ways though, How I Make Comics is a logical heir to Reincarnation Stories and even has a reincarnation tale told within. I really like the physical design of the trade paper volume. Seems to me it will be a pleasure to read that way.

*Copies of the new softcover edition of Reincarnation stories showed up here the other day too!*

It is a special thrill for me to see one of my actual storylines developed in How I Make Comics, Rat-Haven. It has been given a liberal Deitchien touch, but the original bones for it were, as depicted, from me – a story that popped into my head full-blown one morning on the way to work. Meanwhile of course there are liberal amounts of performing elephants, romance, retribution, cat people and other Kim Deitch essentials teeming throughout this book. A pro tip: look at the front and especially end papers carefully and you will get a bit of a story postscript.

*A young Marie Deitch reveling in science fiction magazines.*

Lastly, I am compelled to share that my favorite story in this book is, The Two Maries. There are stories of his that I have gently rooted for Kim to tell over time, and this is one of them which I am so glad to see executed. To me it is the perfect blend of things (real and might have been) and the visuals of Kim’s mom, Marie, and her science fiction reading addiction is one of the highlights of this volume. It kicks off the sort of appendix section at the back of the book – these appendixes are sort of like the kitchen at the party where everyone turns out to be hanging out – savoring some of the best bits for last.

So that readers is my heavily biased review of Kim’s new book. A prouder wife does not exist than Mrs. Pictorama Deitch today! I say, enjoy!

Scratch That

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: At the heart of my collecting are odd bit postcards and photos that just appeal to me and today it is one. It has been a little while since I have featured a real one-of-a-kind photo postcard that was made of someone’s pet – my indulgences at the postcard show have turned up more illustrated cards and professional photo postcards. However, in some ways these one-offs epitomize something about why I collect cat photos.

Photos are usually tributes to the puss in question, many mice caught, had kittens and the like, today’s is a different sort of good kitty notice. It took me a bit to realize that this missive declares that this Miss Cat (I believe kitty to be a girl), sweet little thing we see in the sun here, has not scratched our sender.

*Beauregard is a very thoughtful cat and was always extra careful around mom.*

Now, I am the first to say when you live with a kitten, you generally walking around like the bleeding wounded on some horror film set, arms and hands particularly mangled, until you convince them that there are things for scratching (and biting for that matter) and slowly it ceases.

It must be said that an odd flaw in my beloved Blackie is he never learned to use a scratching post or box. His sister Cookie is happy to tear furiously into one, as are the Jersey Five. I have set scratching boxes up in strategic places and they are used not only for scratching but Peaches in particular likes to sleep on them, as if on a little cardboard throne, as well as tear them to bits.

*Mr. Blackie without a care in the world, showing his tummy recently.*

As a result, we occasionally get a negligent scratch from Blackie’s nails, although he hasn’t actively scratched either of us since kittenhood. I used to worry about those kinds of unconscious scratches with my mom and her cats. At the end of her life her skin was very thin and as a diabetic, scratches could be a problem. However, her cat favorite lap cat Beau always seemed to be extra careful and we rarely if ever had a problem. In an adult cat clearly scratching is a clearly a sign of unhappiness – Back off buddy! You’ve crossed a line.

*The cat in the photo reminds me of Peaches. She’s a terror and to my knowledge no one has actually ever touched her. She will get within two feet of me when I am putting out food and that’s it.*

Our kitty here has been captured in a benign mood, although something has caught her attention out the window. She appears to be white with some stripe-y patches on the bottom half of her and some of the same color up around her head and ears. She’s not a kitten but does appear to be a fairly young cat. We see just the tip of her curled tail, mirrored by her shadow on this small table – she is barely staying still enough for this photo to be taken. She’s a sprightly cute little thing – clearly a scratcher though!

There is a cannister, such as would hold something like flour, behind her. (Dollars to donuts that got knocked over eventually if this was her favorite viewing table.) Puss is a little sassy, you can tell that from this pic. All this is captured in this circle printed at the top of the card.

*Cookie likes to curl up under my desk. This was her during a zoom call last week.*

Under it, the fellow in question has written, “Hasn’t scratched yrs” Yours Samuel Jackson. It was mailed from Schenectady on June 11 at 11:30 (maybe 12:30, hard to see), 1906. It is addressed (to the best of my decoding ability) to Miss Emma Crisppen, Coxsackie, N.Y. It arrived in Coxsackie at 4:00 PM of the same day. A miracle by today’s standards we cannot imagine. (Not that they could imagine sending an email or this blog post in all fairness.)

So there we have it, our slice of time out of 1906, very close to exactly 120 years ago today.

Ring Tale

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: So once in a while I drift a bit and devote a post to another of my passions, antique jewelry. (Sorry, cat folks – more and more on those to come.) I recently devoted a post to an amazing ring I purchased of Cupid chasing Psyche in the form of a butterfly. (That post can be found here.) Today I need to start by saying Kim purchased this for me, knowing I had a serious hankering for it, and of course that makes it a bit more special. Thank you! I love it!

Although I admittedly have a sort of insane fondness for opals (a post or two about them can be found here and one on a very beloved boulder opal ring here, if you are somewhat new to jewelry posts), and their constantly shifting shafts of light. My other passion, highlighted today, is a bit of a story or symbol I find motivating. I like my collections where I can see them (photos lining the walls here at Deitch Studio and increasingly in New Jersey.)

Antique bone skull set in a ring that is another favorite of mine. Ring designed by Muriel Chastanet of LA. Pams-Pictorama.com collection. They recently turned a slightly larger skull into a necklace for me.

Rings. Yes, I do wear several on each hand most days, and they are a constant morale boost for me. To have them either winking light at me or motivating me with their stories and symbolism can inspire me all day. The ring I am sharing today was on the site of a British vendor (@heart_and_serpent on IG or their website here) for several months before I caved and grabbed it up. I saw it once on Instagram and it caught my eye and then tugged at my brain. I just kept visiting it on her site – hoping it would not have sold. Luckily it had not and I realized that I really needed it. Somehow this one was meant for me I think and I wear it pretty much daily.

I am not sure the world at large currently shares my interest in a certain kind of cameo or intaglio rings. (Yes, I have bought another cameo ring, this one depicting Hercules, coming soon. I was deeply interested in the symbolism of his endurance and perseverance. Seems like a good message for me right now.) Their loss! Luckier for me as they don’t just fly out of the store and I have the sort of pause I tend to need before making a significant purchase I plan to wear frequently like I do these.

I must say, I can just get lost in the little story depicted on this ring. A woman in a long dress and her large dog (dog really sold it for me) are walking in front of what I think of as her house. The cottage is made of bricks and there is also a brick wall next to it – this creates great textures and there is incredible depth to the image. There manages to also be a sort of a bit of fence and bushes. Another house, with trees behind it, is in the distance and there are even clouds in the sky. There are sort of four layers to the space in the image.

*This was unusual for me but something I found when clearing out stuff of mom’s in New Jersey. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

According to the seller, the ring is circa 1890 and the rose gold setting is 9k, which is a karat I think of as more frequently used in Britain than the US. Although in reality while I assume the ring is British (as it came from there and the 9k setting) I don’t actually know. The Victorian nature of the ring, the depiction and enjoyment of the natural world, is a bit of a giveaway though. I will add that the rose gold plays off very nicely with the shell cameo color. Meanwhile, let’s just say it is just as well I don’t live in Britain because I purchase a lot of jewelry (not to mention toys and photos) from there and can only imagine how much worse it would be if I could actually visit these folks and not pay shipping and now tariffs!

There is a mark where the ring was made a bit bigger and me, even with my somewhat arthritis swollen hands, can and do wear this on my index finger. (Index finger is somewhat new territory – I expect to get to my thumb one of these days. I have seen women wear old, chunky gold men’s rings on their thumbs and love the look. I have my eye out. Poor thumbs should not be jealously unadorned!) The majority of my cameo rings are actually quite small and I wear them on my pinky.

Lauren over at Heart and Serpent has many stunning mourning pieces in her generously stocked online store. (She just put a photo of herself up on her IG account today as it happens, sitting in front of some gorgeous early tiles, at a historic site I think.) I have a smattering of mourning objects (I wrote about one in a post here several years ago with a very moving story), although have not worn many of the pins lately as I wear fewer jackets to sport pins on, and I found the necklace I wrote about a bit fragile to wear frequently – no scarves to tug at it but even without that. (My jackets are also the display area for my collection of gold, school merit medals, also with encouraging messages like Improvement or Excellence. Those are credited with helping get me through some rough days as I found my footing at a new job. Posts about those can be found here and here.)

*Antique horse cameo ring designed by the incomparable Muriel Chastanet Jewelry of Los Angeles. Probably the first big jewelry investment I made. Still a favorite. Pams-Pictorama.com.*

I think my current job (raising money for an emergency animal hospital) has peaked my interest in dog imagery. I meet many more dogs these days and am giving them their psychic due. The large dog here definitely caught my eye and just between us, there is a very beautiful dog stick pin which has landed at Pictorama which may eventually find its way to becoming a ring or even fitted for a necklace. Cats watchout! The dogs are on the move.