Jersey Summers

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I bought this clutch of postcards for a few dollars at the recent postcard extravaganza. They all depict the early days of the shore area where I grew up and now have my mom’s house. Like most areas it has largely been built up and built over, but some of the buildings remain or did during my childhood. All of these postcards appear to be from approximately the same period. Only the one from Rumson at the bottom was mailed and that is dated 1910.

If I had my way we would have spent a lot more time in Asbury Park when I was a kid. It was on hard times in the ’60’s and early 70’s and generally we migrated to things north of us rather than south of us in Monmouth County. This pier, as above, remained and even back then I was fascinated by it. It was somewhat derelict although still in use. There was a carousel in another building that I never got to ride. To my knowledge that remains – it was used in the recent Bruce Springsteen bio pic (which for a Jersey girl like myself was a wonderful compendium of places I grew up hanging out at) so I assume it is in reasonable repair.

The boardwalk is in all its glory here with women in long white cotton dresses of a turn of the century or early ‘teens summer. Parasols and hats abound. The amusements are largely hidden although there is a place for your photo to be taken and where film is sold. (Sadly absolutely no evidence that you could have your photo taken with a giant Felix doll. It just doesn’t seem to have been a thing in the US.)

The North End Hotel is the large building in front of us and below it is identified as Boardwalk and North End Hotel. Asbury Park, N.J. North End Hotel or not, I’m pretty sure the lower pier is what goes out toward the water, the boardwalk above and the sand leading to the water to our right below. I assume some of the long building was bath house space where you could rent a locker for the day, change and leave your things. Although the pier in Long Branch existed into my young adulthood (it was eventually consumed by a fire), it is the only one of the long piers into the water I remember – although maybe Asbury did or does still have one. I am scheming to get there for an ephemera sale this summer if possible and to spend the day checking it out.

*Boardwalk at New Point Comfort Beach, Keansburg, NJ. Fronting the three largest hotels.*

Keansburg was north of us, however I was (sadly) never taken to the beachside amusement pier there. It too still exists in some form. (There used to be ads for it on local television – Keansburg Amusement Park.) I don’t think any of these beachside hotels still exist however. To my knowledge only the tinier waterside homes still stand in that area. I have to admit I have never been on their boardwalk, although I spent much time in neighboring Highlands and even Matawan where my sister lived for several years.

This is what the towns of Long Branch and Sea Bright would have also looked like, the shore dotted with large hotels and rooming houses on the water which largely no longer exist. The trip down Ocean Avenue between Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach and then to Long Branch is still lined with some of the old single-family mansions overlooking the ocean and somehow surviving both tides and progress, mixed with new construction and the occasional beach club.

Until just a few years ago, the highway referred to in this photo of a swath of Atlantic Highlands would have been the very same one which people routinely walked over in order to go to and from Sandy Hook state park and connecting to Sea Bright. A new much higher and larger highway was installed to much construction mess, expense and fanfare. I guess you can still walk (and bike) across the new one, but it is vastly larger for more cars and most importantly, more boats below it. (It is no longer a drawbridge.)

*Scene from the scenic highway highest point on the Atlantic Coast Highlands, N.J.*

While likely more crammed and with contemporary stores and some more modern homes, my guess is that this view has remained somewhat the same with small cottages dotting the shore. This would have the Shrewsbury River just in view to the left with the bay to the ocean (and New York City in the distance) behind the viewer. The ocean is just on the other side of the tiny spit of land that is Sandy Hook and Sea Bright and the photographer, standing on the highway, could easily have seen all these things by turning around.

There was a time when this was a major stop on passenger pleasure cruises heading south and I assume for day trippers, even as it is by ferry in the summer today. (I could take the ferry today but beach traffic will snare on the weekend so instead I will take the train which will leave me closer to the house.) One of my ancient novels had a stop there on a cruise which I enjoyed finding immensely.

Finally, I get to my hometown of Rumson. There was a time when I knew the length of Rumson Road like the back of my hand from years of being a passenger traveling up and down it. A major artery running not just through the town but connecting the beach communities with the rest of the area, it is fairly long and famously heavily trafficked. (The Sea Bright bridge at one end was also a drawbridge and traffic during the summer would back up for miles for boat traffic. That bridge has also been replaced recently, leaving only the Rumson bridge in a state of sad decay and planned replacement.) Having said that I am puzzled by this view. While small water tributaries create a number of manmade and natural ponds and streams throughout the area, I am stumped by one of this size. (I wrote about a photo of a small pond near my house in the town of Fair Haven here.)

*Glimpse of Rumson Road Lake on the Rumson Road, N.J.*

I am wondering if this was ultimately filled in to make the golf course or country club. I will ask some of the folks who have lived there longer than I have. For all of that I like this card because it captures the feel of Rumson and Rumson Road. In the fall it is the most beautiful drive lined with old trees, leaves turned. It has always been a sort of millionaires’ row of mansions, old and new, despite being a few blocks in from the river which you would think would be more prime real estate. Perhaps the flooding discouraged the largest homes perching there and I grew up on an inlet of the river, a block off this road. If I calculate correctly though I lived much further east, where Rumson Road begins at the Sea Bright bridge. This would be on the western part as you head into the town of Little Silver, my current home in Fair Haven where these three towns connect.

As noted above, this card was mailed. On the back it says (in one run-on sentence), suppose you have been after chestnuts before this wish I was there to go along Harold. It was mailed to Miss Mary Crawford, Pine Bush, Orange Co, NY. It was mailed from Sea Bright, NJ on October 13, 1910. (Until a few years ago the post office in Sea Bright would have been this one. Sadly a larger and more modern building replaced it too.)

As I head out today I am tucking these in my bag to take with me. I will round up some frames for them and put them up at the house where both local images, beaches and piers in general and wider New Jersey images rule. (Some of those posts can be seen here and here – I have a passion for panorama photos but they are hard to document!) Keep an eye on Instagram for some garden pics. My project for the weekend is to acquire and plant some tomatoes.

In the Yard with Cats

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am heading to New Jersey tomorrow for a few days and this card has me in a pleasant mind of backyard time I hope to enjoy. My roses are in bloom and the gorgeous purple-blue hydrangea, both front yard and back, is starting its ascension into its first flowers of the season. The herbs are well on their way and I understand my grapes have finally come back with a will. Strawberries have already made an appearance and the dahlias are shooting up en force!

I will, of course, be greeted to varying degrees by the resident cats there. Beauregard will claim as much lap time as possible while Milty and Gus will shove in where they can. Stormy and Peaches, my girl cats, are my scaredy cats and although they may (or may not – thinking of you Peaches!) be glad to see me.

*The grapevine has returned with a vengeance I am glad to see. All the garden photos are via my friend Winsome.*

If you pay attention to all things cats on the internet, you know that catios are all the rage and you can purchase them pre-made (think screened tent for your cats) and less expensive, or you can build a more elaborate version. Ideally the cats have free passage from house to safe outdoor harbor in the catio, but there are an increasing number where the expectation is that you will plop them in and take them back out yourself. Of course, I have considered these but I am not carrying my precious pusses outside to put them in a flimsy screened enclosure. No, I would have to be one of those folks who built something solid and give them cat door access to it.

Although I grew up with cats that roamed free in the yard and divided their time in and out of the house as a matter of course, this is no longer the way in the area where I grew up and where we now have a house. At some point, keeping your cat inside, or with a collar for brief outside turns, became the way of things. Cats are chipped now in case they are lost, although something about putting that in her cats always made my mother nervous. Although all these cats came from living on the streets, none of them has set a paw outside since.

There is something wonderful however about my childhood memories of cats wandering in and out, more or less at will, without thinking about it. They enjoyed it so much and all the better if we were outside with them. As I kid I would sit outside and play with them for hours. I actually haven’t thought about it for years.

Like this photo we might have had a light indoor chair outside, although it would likely be alongside a bunch of lawn chairs. (My father eventually bought heavy outdoor chairs and tables at garage sales, but I was older by then.) If we were outside at least a few of the cats and the dog would be out with us although, maybe someone was sleepy inside too. There were no particular rules. We just never thought about it. Everyone pretty much came in at night unless for some reason they had a mysterious kitty rendezvous and were off on a toot for the evening. Noted but not a cause for alarm.

*The dahlias are showing early promise.*

Looking at these folks and their cats in their backyard in the dabbled sunlight it makes me think about it. The women are in their long dresses of the day but summer versions and the man, seated behind them, is in a suit with a tie. (One could say he is sort of not quite fully participating.) Those summer cottons which while beautiful must have required difficult laundry and endless patient ironing. Hard to see but the woman in white is leaning on a bit of a chicken wire enclosure behind her. When we look closely there are beds of plants, something leafy and green climbing up an arbor to the viewers left and behind them.

It was clearly a bit of an occasion. Girl kitty (my assumption) is wearing a big bow and looks a tad unhappy about it although not in full on revolt. She perches in a timid way on the chair with a cushion. She is a light-colored tabby-ish kitty, orange most likely? The other looks like a tom and he is in a loving if tightly gripped hold for the photo. Look at the stripes on his legs! Those black bands! Both have white faces and front paws. Handsome fellow!

The yard has a high fence around it as far as we can see, although technically not one that would keep an interested (let alone determined) cat in or out. My backyard is also fenced, but given small spaces as entry points near the ground I have found all sorts of animals back there including a fox who got in and admittedly didn’t seem to know how to get out. (I opened the gate and invited him to take his time leaving.) Cats do come by occasionally – that is how Stormy and Gus came to live with mom. Some of you might remember the stray tom I christened Hobo who we fed on and off for several years.

This photo was never sent and nothing was written on the back. On the back there is a very faded company logo for Central Studio, and an address, 103 College Street, Burlington, VT. It is easy to imagine that this was taken in Vermont, a singular photo postcard and the cats were clearly rallied for the photo opp. It is a wonderfully distilled moment from a long ago summer.

Meanwhile, on my way to the Jersey shore so a Jersey summer specific card to come tomorrow!

How I Make Comics: Part 2

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Wowza. It has been a busy few months here at Deitch Studio and since we are getting ready to hit the pause button for the summer, I thought I would do a bit of a round up on things here. As Pictorama readers probably know, as Kim’s book How I Make Comics emerged into the world, he was barely a week out from back surgery and that complicated things a might. (A post on some of that can be found here and here.) Nevertheless, we hit the ground running and book promotion continued apace and grown like topsy.

I am not sure of the difference, but somehow when Reincarnation Stories came out it seemed to be less. Kim’s last event, at Columbia University, was just a week or so before the world shut down for Covid – seriously just under the wire. There were events and reviews but somehow there just seems to be so much more this time, maybe Covid just obscures the memory of it. (Full disclosure, I just asked Kim and he remembers Reincarnation Stories as more so this is just one woman’s opinion – or I just don’t remember it all. I did of course write a very biased review of Reincarnation Stories when it came out which can be read here.)

Reincarnation Stories has also been reprinted in paperback. It’s nice to see this old friend while out on the promotion trail!

There have been three podcasts and all are available now. The first was with Amusing Jews (here) and then one with some interesting questions from Robin McConnell on Inkstuds. Robin has interviewed Kim before and this was a good discussion. His new podcast can be heard here. Most recently Harry Siegel came and taped one right here at Deitch Studio for Lit NYC. (I got to chime in for this one!) It is the longest and most in depth of the three and just went live yesterday. It can be heard here. So much for my idea of doing a podcast with just Kim and I – at best it will wait for a quieter time!

Yesterday we were in Philadelphia for a reading at Partners and Son bookstore. We hopped on the Amtrak and got in early enough to stop at a few used bookstores nearby I found online. We paused however to admire the sculpture in the station. Check out the wild relief, Spirit of Transportation, below.

Meanwhile the first shop was called Mostly Books and as Kim said, was the sort of rabbit warren of a space that you could spend hours and hours in and keep finding things. Obviously, we could only give it a superficial once over but came away with several books each. (Nothing like starting an afternoon of walking by buying some books to carry!) There was a floor and a half of bookcase after bookcase of books, dvd’s and cd’s. Prices were very good. I think if we lived there we would go frequently.

Then, after trying to follow the little blue dot on the map on my phone which tends to be a bit tedious and instead asking a local walking down the street, we found Brickbat Books. This is a lovely little store and to its credit it was full to the gills with folks. It is a mix of old and new books. We found How I Make Comics on a shelf in the back – our first sighting of it in the wild. (I took a quick pic which is up at the top of the post.) By that time, already laden with books, Kim acquired one more and signed their copy of his book at their request. (They spied his Mineshaft t-shirt and I was wearing a new Waldo one – see below and at the bottom for order link!)

Partners and Son is a lovely shop, all comics, graphic novels and related items. The proprietors, Tom Marquet and Gina Dawson, were so welcoming and organized. We dropped our bags there and went across the street to a French influenced bar-restaurant, Side Eye, for a quick bite. We immediately encountered the woman who had given us directions who asked if we’d found the store. Kim had an enormous burger and I had a polite (but very good) salad as it turned out to be a not very vegetarian friendly menu.

*The assembled group at Partners & Son.*

The crowd already had assembled when we got back to the store and it was a very nice audience. Kim read The Two Marie’s (my favorite story from the new book) and then answered questions which were many and varied, although mostly about his process.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned, I was sporting the new Waldo t-shirt which John Kelly over @dummyzine made from a new design by Kim. A rather splendid mug with the image (nice and big, the way I like ’em) and some other Kim related merchandise are available here.

So we head into summer with a strong wind behind us promotion-wise. I think we are both looking forward to summer and catching up before Kim hits it again in the fall. Meanwhile, I offer that Kim is already about one third of the way into his next book, Living the Dream!

The Well Dressed Puss

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Ah, what is the well dressed cat wearing these days? At work I saw a few sporting Knick’s attire (dogs wear it better I am afraid), some need newborn baby style onesies to keep them from a surgical site (kinder than the cone of shame if it works), and there is this strange meme on the internet to put them in yoga pants, which turns out to be a stunningly bizarre look. I may have mentioned that we have a policy against dressing the cats here at Deitch Studio and they seem to be grateful for it. Once again, this seems to be a fundamental difference between cats and dogs. I have handed over many a branded bandana to a pup at work and most seem to embrace it.

The imaginary sartorial bliss of these well drawn felines from 1908 certainly provides a counterpart in the space of time and imagination. I’m hazarding a guess to say this artist (it is unsigned) is an early US pretender to the Louis Wain throne.

These four gentleman cats all duff hats, jackets – three have monocles, two have walking sticks – one sort of shillelagh-esque on the end. Each kitty has a different model hat, but each one is stylish in keeping with the period. I was actually in New York City’s oldest hat store yesterday, JJ Hats, founded in 1911. It was doing a fairly booming business, and I admit I made a not insubstantial contribution to their income for the day. (Maybe some hat related posts in the near future. I stocked up.) It was there, several decades ago, that I purchased the black Stetson cowboy hat Kim wears as one of his first birthday gifts from me.

*It’s actually currently under scaffolding but it looks like this!*

These kitties have a variety of top hats, a stove pipe and a sort of bowler/deer slayer model. They wear fancy pointed shoes and dressy sort of smoking jacket style coats – one with a boutonniere. Their trousers, some cuffed and others not, all have a decoration down the leg I associate with tuxedo pants. (I just looked this up, the stripe down the side of tuxedo trousers is to hide the seam and give them a more cohesive look. Who knew?)

*Tempted to buy Kim a new straw hat…these can survive a rain storm.*

Even their collars represent a variety of styles of the day, mostly the high, white stiff ones that would have been attached by a few buttons, although our fellow in blue with the top hat seems to be wearing a different, long flat one. We have a few different cat kinds here too – from stripe-y short hair to a fluffy Persian look. Hands (paws) are mostly conveniently tucked in jacket pockets, with the exception of one gloved one holding a walking stick on the end.

The top of the card poses the question, Are we top-notchers on dress? Well, look at our clothes. This seems to arise with a bit of smoking detail around it. Behind the gentleman cats a vague landscape of mountains and perhaps water and grassy fields is sketched in. I would have thought these natty kitties belonged in a more urban setting.

Someone has written, Love to Leslie From Margaret at the bottom. It is addressed to Master Leslie H. Stauffer, 5314 Addison Street, West Philadelphia, PA. It was mailed from Braddock PA on February 5 1908 at 9 AM. I always think about these lucky children getting these fun cards in the mail at the turn of the century.

*Cookie is, of course, always in formal dress, even when napping behind Kim on the couch.*

As it happens, Kim and I head off to Philadelphia shortly. He will be reading at Partners & Son bookstore tonight. I hope to report on that and a whole bunch of other Deitch Studio activity around Kim’s book, How I Make Comics tomorrow so stay tuned.

Dorm

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: At work we have graduation for our interns and residents at the end of the month, but I think folks have already mostly packed up their kids at school and have started the summer. I have vague memories of each of my dorm rooms although I never went in for decorating them much. (Yes, given my post-college attachment to stuff that seems surprising, yes?) As I remember the dorm rooms were designed to be impervious to hanging things on the wall. Early on I attempted a poster or two which promptly peeled from the wall and I gave up. I was an art major however so it isn’t like there was stuff around.

Two out of the three dorm rooms I had in college (one year I lived in London) were in the original or at least early buildings of the college. Connecticut College has these beautiful, old stone buildings and at least one of my rooms had original leaded glass windowpanes – I was on the ground floor and folks would occasionally take a short cut in via the window. I don’t pine for my college experience a lot, but this photograph does make me think about it. I always enjoyed the history of the college when I was there. It had been more than a decade co-ed at that point, but the ghosts of industrious, smart women past always seemed to lurk pleasantly around.

*Katherine Blunt, first woman President of the college and the dorm named for her. We just called it KB.*

I had a hot pot but wasn’t one of those people driven to attempt to cook a lot in my dorm room. I had a dark pink comforter on the bed (it came to NYC with me and stayed with me until it was in shreds a number of years later) and not much else in the line of decor. I have two coffee mugs from those days and quite unconsciously I happen to be drinking from one right now, also a dark pink. The other is a heavy old fashioned white stoneware one that I nicked from the dining hall. (Kim was just drinking out of it the other day and complaining that it doesn’t hold enough coffee which is a fair criticism.)

I purchased this photocard from a woman who said she collected this very thing (early dorm room photos) and if she was letting this one go, I do wonder what her collection looks like! It is an interesting genre – clearly the urge to document an early experiment of living on your own as a young person was strong. There is nothing that dates this postcard – it was never used so no postmark. It could in fact easily be Connecticut College, which was founded as a women’s only college in 1911.

A careful look quickly reveals that this is a woman’s room, purse hanging from the chair was the first clue, although it is overall quite feminine really – the chafing dish (the early 20th century equivalent of a hot pot – kids probably are allowed microwaves now!) which sits nicely on a side table complete with a flower cloth is another significant indicator. The carpet is flowered as well, and the dresser has a lacey doily. It is covered with photographs, as are the shelves above and we can even see a few more in the mirror.

*Palmer Library, Connecticut College for Women New London. This was turned into classrooms I think when a new library was built* *well before my time there.*

Pennants hang all over – one in the mirror says Amsterdam, but the others are for schools or places I don’t recognize and since I can’t have both a mirror and magnifier I have trouble reading. A pincushion, a calendar (which I cannot read the year or the month on) and a few other baubles decorate the walls and an envelope is also pinned to the board next to the calendar on a sort of pinboard there.

There are two chairs and I wonder if this room was shared and we are only being shown one person’s half. At Connecticut College the majority of the original dorms has single rooms with only a few suites of shared rooms. (Newer dorms introduced in the 1960’s had more double rooms.) However, this could also be a guest chair.

The seller had several other versions of dorm photos for sale (presumably rejects from her collection) – all great although the others appeared to all be men’s dorms, often with them in the photo. I would have purchased more, but they were relatively expensive and I was already loaded up with cat cards. I assume, as there were fewer woman’s colleges, that there are fewer photos of their rooms so I like that aspect of this one. You get the feeling that it was a moment when after much hard work it was just right and she had to take a picture.

Write Soon

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Saturday is dawning very bright and hot again today, although it promises to be a bit better than the last few days which have felt much July than June. We shall see. There could be ice cream in my future.

We here at Deitch Studio are regrouping after a long week of work including some promotion for Kim’s, How I Make Comics. Kim taped a podcast yesterday with Harry Siegel (I even got to chime in), and that will be showing up on Lit NYC in about a week we are told. (Kim has done two others, one with Amusing Jews which can be found here and another with Robin McConnell on Inkstuds, which has not come out yet.) Next week we head to Philadelphia for Kim to do a talk at Partners and Sons bookshop and then things seem to calm down a bit as we drift to New Jersey for the summer in about a month. We will have the summer to recoup.

I try to take my part-time job as the in-house promoter for Deitch Studio seriously. Yesterday the interviewer asked if I was going to pursue doing a podcast with Kim. (I ventured some speculation on that in a post here.) I answered honestly that maybe after all the initial promotion for the book is over. Right now we are pretty deep in it without starting anything new – yikes!

*Artwork advertising for the gig next week. I love seeing a selection of my toys in this one!*

As I sit here, Kim is writing a letter to his friend Zach Sally about Zach’s book, Folrath, which he sent to Kim via a friend at MoCCA recently. Cookie is enjoying the approximately 30 minutes of sun she gets on a certain chair each morning this time of year. Blackie though is having an off morning not eating his food and I am eyeing some meds I might need to put in him to help.

The coffee is on, the smell wafting into the living room, (the end of a loaf of Orwashers excellent sourdough bread awaits us as toast) and I realize I truly digress, but it has been on one those weeks and Saturday morning finds us a bit exhausted. Fresh Direct will be dropping off some groceries soon, however other than maybe making a quick soup I would say this weekend is all about collapsing a bit and resting up.

*Orwashers last weekend. It is always so cheerful and jolly that I find myself taking pics while waiting in the line that generally goes out the door.*

Meanwhile, for the main event today (if a bit belatedly and far down in this post) I share an embossed, die-cut style cat card purchased last weekend. A scaredy cat threatens I’ll get my back up if you don’t write soon! The cat has a deep 3-D quality and highlights (you can see he even casts a small shadow), which make him stand out further on this paper which has a faux linen quality and tooth to it. He is a true miniature version of a German embossed Halloween decoration. There is no copyright or publisher’s information on the card.

On the back there is a postmark of Janesville, Wisconsin, with a June or July date I cannot read, 1908. Rather plaintively it says, Why don’t you ever write to – Lucy. And it is addressed to Mrs. M. C. Vosburg, Ft. Atkinson, Wis. R.F. D. No. 3. Poor Lucy. So I guess this card was chosen to the point here. I do hope Mrs. Vosburg wrote to Lucy eventually.

April Fool – Fun

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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

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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

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

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

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

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.