Author: Pam's Pictorama

Quick

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: As those of you who have encountered me on Facebook know well, Lilian Harvey (German film actress best known for her early musical films) is one of my obsessions. I love the pre-war, early sound musicals she starred in, am amazed at how much faster the Germans developed in the sound era. Her films are not easy to see in English translation, although they are all there for the most part. Her popularity in Germany never fully diminished and many of her movies are available, tantalizingly widely available in German. Kim and I were lucky to see a number of her films, and others from the period, during a satisfyingly long festival at the Museum of Modern Art a few years ago. It played over the course of several months and we devoted as much free time as we could to seeing as many as possible – we were never disappointed. (The excellent catalogue, Weimar Cinema 1919-1933 is still available on Amazon.)

The other great thing about Lilian Harvey – and I will just touch on this briefly because there are a number of future posts to be done about it – is that she seemed to have a deep personal affection for wonderful stuffed animals, black cats and Felix in particular! Unlike many of the other photos I have shown of Felix and actresses (such as Mistinguett – Felix Goes to the Dogs and Felix Makes the Picture Better) you get the decided feeling that you are seeing Lilian among her very own stuffed animals. Here is another photo from the collection of Tom Conroy which he sent to us a while back. I’ve included details of Felix and Bonzo from the photo.

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During the Weimar Cinema festival we also saw a truly outstanding film (sans Lilian) called Abschied and it was directed by Robert Siodmak. It is the first sound film made by UFA and the mix of music and sound in it is fascinating and really thoughtfully and beautifully done. (In fact, Kim dubbed it one of the best films he has ever seen.) It is about life in a boarding house and one of the characters is a piano player and it is his playing that informs much of the sound track of the film. Leaving Germany, Siodmak finds his way to the United States, as does Harvey briefly, although he sticks and she does not. He goes onto make films such as Phantom Lady and The Spiral Staircase.

Shown in the photo above, hot off of eBay, we see them together, on the set of a film called Quick. In addition to the reproduction and credit information (it is a UFA film) it merely reads as follows: dans le nouveau film Ufaton “Quick” dans la production Erich Pommer Mise en scene par R. Siedmak. Direction de la production: M. Pfeiffer Supervise par Andre Daven. Below is a reproduction of the poster and a brief description of the film. I see it with changeable English titles here: Germanwarfilms.com (a site that now seems to go by the more politically correct name rarefilmsandmore.com) with a tiny snippet, in German, that you can view. I will report back after I acquire it!

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Quick – 1932 Lilian Harvey plays Eva, a young girl taking some time in a health spa and spending her evenings in the town’s vaudeville theatre enamoured by a heavily made-up clown called Quick. Quick takes a shine to her and tries to woo her without make-up and masquerading as the theatre’s manager. Unable to resolve her feelings for Quick and the theatre manager, Eva is angered when she finally learns that they are one and the same.

Little Red Riding Hood

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Sometimes even I am amazed at the unexpected things that turn up in this tiny apartment. The other day I came across this which I had purchased early in my photo collecting career and tucked away. While I do remember the purchase, on eBay, it was like it was new.

It is a photo postcard and it is printed upside down on the postcard paper – and sloppily as you can see, overexposed and with a messy bottom edge. Still, what a wonderfully whack-a-doodle card this is! Clearly an interesting and homemade (and somewhat terrifying) take on the Little Red Riding Hood story – the “wolf” a bit cat-like (which might explain how it even ended up in my hands) but that axeman more than scary enough to keep any wolf in line. Little Red Riding Hood pales somewhat in comparison to her angelic cohorts who seem to be additions to the story. Grandma does not seem to make the scene at all. By necessity, their story seems to take place on the barren prairie rather than the forest. Still, one assumes a good time was had by all and that it was one heck of a show.

Oddly, the writing on the back of the postcard makes no reference to the image. A neat script on the back says, I suppose you are farming now. I hope you were not sick long. Mrs. Walsh. It is addressed to Max McCandless, St. John, Kansas. It is not stamped and therefore there is no postmark date.

The Little Red Riding Hood story has always interested me. I loved the outfit – the red riding hood I suppose. I grew up on a sanitized version of the story where the woodsman just saved Little Red from the wolf – it was a while before I encountered the original where she has to be cut out of the wolf’s tummy. Ick. I always felt badly for that wolf whose sweet tooth for picnic baskets, little girls and grandmas got him in a whole lot of trouble.

Good Doggie!

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Pam’s Photo Post: This is in the treasured family photo general category of pics. A handsome, faithful dog who is guarding this cat and her kittens. Of course I love the nice black and while (tuxedo-ish) pattern on the dog. What a very good doggie. Very serious and dedicated.  Looks like a farm or at least a backyard farm as such. Pretty timeless, but there’s something about it that makes me think 1940’s.

The mom is a nice striped tabby and she has her maternal concerned look on. Nature is so funny – mom cats are so protective when they are kits and about a year later they could care less about them. (When I was little our calico, Winkie, had kittens she moved all around the house – evidently to protect them from us humans. Smushing them under furniture, snarling at us if we came near. Then one day she woke up and looked at them and more or less said, “Where did you come from YA BUMS and how can I get rid of you?” Mom declared Winkie an abusive parent and she was right.)

The spotty strip-y kitten is very cute, but of course the black one is my favorite. Blackie’s great granddad perhaps – wonder if there’s a little white star on his chest and little white spots under his arms?

Monkey in the Middle

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This is one of those photos where no one really looks like they are having a good time, but is sort of amazing. There is some strange persistence in the universe that cats and monkeys be paired. I don’t know why – the monkey invariably looks bossy and the cat very unhappy. (I have never seen a cat look adoringly at a monkey. Have you?) Although we have a hard time seeing it, this appears to be true here as well. We can barely make out annoyed cat ears – the cat is in the monkey’s grasp! Poor kitty! Meanwhile, the children are taciturn – vaguely beleaguered looking. They don’t appear to be out for a romp with their trained monkey and kitty, do they? I do wonder what the story is.

I have never known a monkey personally, never petted one – although I am entertained by them when I see them, mostly in movies. There is one monkey story handed down in our family. It especially amuses me because it is about my mother who truly is the defender of all animals (domestic and otherwise) and, in the years I have known her, has never met an animal she didn’t like. However, I gather when she was younger and first dating my father they wandered into a pet store one day where there was a monkey in a cage. My mother went up to it and remarked aloud that she didn’t particularly care for monkeys. Well, evidently that little fellow reached out and grabbed the lapel of her jacket and pulled her up to his cage and had to be coerced into letting her go. Needless to say, it didn’t especially endear her to monkeys in the short term – but I know that she would fight for their rights as quickly and courageously as she does any other of our animal friends. That little fellow didn’t know who he was messing with.

Felix and His Early TV Turn

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today I share a composite of composition Felix statues. One is a variation on a common shot of Felix on his turn table famously posing for the tv camera to focus on. This photo comes to me courtesy of the very generous Tom Conroy. Thank you again Tom! (You may remember that Tom recently supplied the photo for my post Felix and Betty Boop Affair.)

The back of this photo describes this as the scanning-disk pickup of equipment of NBC’s experimental TV station W2XBS in New York in 1930. The internet weighs in with several sites identifying that this first broadcast, with Felix, occurred in 1928. In addition, one site states that Felix was used ongoing, nightly, to focus the cameras and as a sort of test pattern. I especially like this version – a longer shot than you usually see. It is fun to see all the equipment too. Imagine – most of that probably fits on a computer chip of one kind or another today – one that fits in your phone.

As one site devoted to the history of Felix points out – Felix was willing to work cheap and was extremely patient under the bright, hot lights which he was required to remain under as part of this assignment. Needless to say, he was much more cheerful and welcome than most other test patterns. (Late night test patterns! Television stations that went off the air late at night – and the little white dot that remained after you turned the tv off, until it faded away. Ah, childhood.)

The composition Felix in the tv photo is the same ubiquitous one in the Christmas photo I just purchased. (Kim would like to go on the record as not caring for this photo. It evidently does not live up to his standards.) It is a snap shot, nothing on the back and no date – it measures about 3.5″ x 4.5″. This jolly little homey scene of a Christmas long past features the very same standard issue Felix. Hard to say if he was a gift or part of the decorations. I like the small but heavily decorated and be-tinseled table-tree, familiar to those of us who live in apartments. Failing a fireplace the stockings are placed carefully over a chair and tempting packages are stacked up under around Felix and an elephant toy beside him.

I don’t own one of these composition Felix statues, although I wouldn’t mind scooping one up if the right opportunity came along. I always imagined that they were prizes at fairs, although it seems like you must have been able to purchase them as well. To my, admittedly limited, knowledge they seem to have remained consistent in size and appearance over a long period of several decades – a good design lasts.

On a Slow Train Thru’ Arkansas – with Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Despite the lousy condition of this postcard I couldn’t resist it. As in previous posts, I wonder about the addition of Felix. In this case, a very low-rent prop indeed. Of course, part of the whole charm of this photo is the vaguely primitive look about the set.

This couple does not personify what I usually think of as capturing the joy of the moment. Barely cracking a smile, they do, nevertheless, have a gentle look of pleasure when you look at them closely. I cannot figure out what the woman has on her head – a paper hat that waitresses wore as part of their uniform is what comes to mind, although given the circumstances perhaps something purchased at the fair or boardwalk resort where they had the photo taken.

It is not used and there is nothing written on the back indicating where or when it hails from. The photographer was a sloppy sort, to say the least. Overexposed and perhaps a bit underdeveloped, with messy edges around the image to boot. However, saved through many decades, this couple clearly felt it was deserving of being saved, and so do I.

Felix Family Photo

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo: I have devoted several posts to stars of film and stage wishing to enhance their appeal by posing with Felix, (see my posts Mistinguett – Felix Goes to the Dogs and Felix Makes the Picture Better among others) however Felix most frequently joined family gatherings in the late twenties and early thirties as shown here. The small photo is a new purchase, from Great Britain. (It is quite small, about 2.25″x3.25″ with nothing on the back.) The beach postcard scene is also from Great Britain I purchased a number of years ago.

So, when I look at the small photo I ask myself – was the family taking a photo that was a knock off of those you paid for at beaches and resorts? Or was Felix just such a part of the family that they spontaneously included him? Their Felix is decidedly smaller than the one in the beach photo. He is a ‘home model’ if you will. Not unlike one (or two) I own. (A frequent fantasy of mine is finding one of these enormous Felix dolls like the ones in the beach photos – some the size of a small person! – and purchasing it. I thought I was on the trail of one once but alas, the trail went cold.) I like the cheeky looking girl in the plaid dress, standing above Felix. Makes you wonder if including him was her idea. And what’s with the kid on the fence a bit further down? Is he part of the family or did he just happen to be on the fence when they took the photo?

The family in the beach photo is more prosperous looking. It is a much larger gathering and everyone is beautifully turned out, despite being at the beach. They have made that lovely sandcastle and I like the way they have tucked Felix in as part of the family (he almost looks like he’s holding the baby!) so it takes a moment or two to even see him at first. There is nothing written on the back of the postcard, but clearly it was a treasured photo of a large family gathering. Who wouldn’t want to join that party? Frankly, I can’t say we ever had family gatherings in my New Jersey childhood that lived up to that. It does set the bar high however.

Men and Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I guess it wouldn’t surprise anyone to find out that I have a soft spot for photos of men and cats. There’s something about these big tough guys scooping up their cat when their photo is going to be taken that I particularly love. (Previous examples in this category would be my posts Men in Hats with Cats and Tricks) In this one the great little tuxedo is looking up at the man adoringly. Nothing on the back of the card, a bit grimy. There’s a strange symmetry – two of the men wearing matching hats (a third hat is strangely hung high on the fence, does it belong to the man on the end?) and the men on each side with his arms across his chest in an identical pose. Love me, love my cat!

While I was growing up, my father seemed to only have a passing interest in the parade of cats that populated our world and I cannot recall a photo or image of him holding one of them. There was one or two he was perhaps a bit more partial too – our first cat Snoopy comes to mind. And there was tell of a cat he and my mother had before us kids were born, named Nudge, another orange striped fellow, who would hide and jump out and attack my father. (Never my mother – orange striped cats tend to be one person cats. Having said that, my father ultimately took up with my orange tabby, Pumpkin, after I left home and fed him smoked salmon from the table on a regular basis. Needless to say, they were tight.) My father neither objected to, nor paid a lot of attention to the cats of our lives. The German Shepard, Duchess, was his dog though and would wait by the front door for him to come home – even from long trips.

However, after retirement my father has, in many ways, gradually become the center of the Butler cat universe in NJ. Sitting on his lap is a prize spot and several denizens expect brushing and other attentions. There is another great orange cat in residence presently, Red, who adopts me for the night when I visit, on leave from my father’s room, to spend the night on my bed. (Don’t the Japanese have inns where you can rent a cat with your room for the night? Or am I conflating something else with the tea houses where you can go and pet cats?) During numerous visits last year when my father spent some time in the hospital, my mother (Queen of the various animals, domestic and otherwise, of their house) and I tended to many of the various cat needs – a visiting cat outside who needed feeding twice a day, one example – but they missed my father’s presence very much. That was about the time Red first adopted me, I guess he needed me and he has not forgotten me since my father’s return. Below is a photo of him on my father’s lap, and another of him watching over me in bed in my childhood room in NJ. Good kitty!

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Felix Plays a Prime Prop

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This gem comes to me courtesy of my terrific husband, as a birthday gift. We were both very entertained by the photo – as well as the appearance of Felix and friends in it.  Sadly, there is no identification – someone has written German film? on the back in pencil. Otherwise, just the reprint credit information from something called, Culver Services.

Kim suspects that the actor is Dwight Frye. This gave way to another iPad internet search in bed one night and a lively discussion of whether or not we could figure out what movie this might be from his bio. I have failed to tie this out – the woman is not familiar to either of us and I invited anyone who knows about it to speak up. We are curious! Here are a few photos of Dwight from what must be more or less the same time. As you can see, the photo is identified as being from Universal, which is rubbed over in red for some reason.

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Meanwhile, the babe, surrounded by rather excellent stuffed toys, is letting all hang out in would could be a pre-Code or very European way. Dwight looks unconcerned by her state of undress and urges her to look at these plans or whatever those sheets of paper are. The maid just wishes to get on with serving tea it would seem.

Oh, but let’s talk about the toys! There is the glorious big Felix which is what caught my attention to begin with – oh, lucky woman! He’s a pip! Behind her head is a black cat pillow I would acquire instantly given half the chance. Then there are two of these somewhat mysterious stuffed dogs. As far as I can tell they are made by Dean’s Rag Co. of Britain (for some of my posts of praise for these fine toy makers check out my post Pluto) and here is an example of a similar dog that was recently for sale on eBay – didn’t sell if you are interested!

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And then below, my own acquisition of a similar odd duck dog in Paris a few years ago. He does not have a maker mark however. I do not know if the one above does or not.

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Felix is also probably a Dean’s Rag or perhaps a Chad Valley version. I can’t help but wonder where they all came from and who had the excellent eye for set design. Too much to hope that they were part of the plot – if we cannot figure out what film it is I will probably never know for sure either way!

Velox Demonstrations

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This great card is one that almost got away – not just at auction, but due to a prolonged detour through the mysteries of the US Post Office. I was greatly relieved when it arrived safely on my doorsteps after a nail biter of a week or so. (The eBay seller, lovesoldthingstoo, was wonderful and was ready to refund me when it showed up about ten days late and we both cheered!) Anyway, it landed safely in my hands and I must say I don’t have anything else remotely like it.

Not only does it have these wonderful bunch of kittens romping among photography equipment (two of my favorite things in the world), but it is an ad for the very Velox paper photo postcard were printed on!  And to think, on May 6 and May 7, 1907 you could go to the Chas. Kuhn Company at 500 Fulton Street and get a demonstration. Man, I would have been there with bells on! (I wonder if the kittens were working that day.)

This card was sent to Miss Anna Kuhn (a relative we will assume) in Woodstown, NJ on September 2, 1907. Brooklyn, NY is printed in pencil at the bottom and T.H. Tuohy in script, the same hand as addressed the back, at the bottom.

I was very entertained to learn that the Chas. Kuhn Company of Brooklyn had an exhibition space on the second floor. It can be found under listings of artist exhibition bios of the day. It is also mentioned in the context of photo suppliers of the day. One of the places to see and be seen in the Brooklyn of the teens.

Although photo postcards date back further, Kodak’s introduction of Velox paper in 1902 – the ability to print an negative right onto a ready postcard – is the beginning of the form’s real popularity. Collector’s Weekly has a handy history of real photo postcards, found at Real Photo Postcards, and they mention the Kodak 3A folding camera that was made for use with this film. Priced at $20 it was a princely sum – but very appealing either to wealthy amateurs or, more likely, those setting up shop as itinerant photographers. Suddenly everyone was a photographer and your blogger’s future as a collector crystalized decades before her birth. The format was available at least into the 1970’s, but I could not find a definitive end date for production. The postcards will bring endless pleasure.