Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s plaster figure is the second entry about and part of the recent auction haul from Britain. This is the second little statue of this kind to enter the Pictorama collection. (I wrote about it and my love of auctions in a post that can be found here.) Today’s is a little beat up and seems a little fragile for the relative rough and tumult of Deitch Studio, home to Kim, Pam and cats. As I penned last week, a box of Felix related items was purchased and expelled all sorts of bits and pieces and while I am not disappointed that this was among them, but I may not have otherwise sought it out.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.The design of this Felix was enough to convince me to add it to my collection a few years ago.
Felix lovers know his famous walk, hands clasped behind back pose quite well, although it is usually accompanied by a furrowed brow instead of this genial smile. He is not the most squared-off earliest model of Felix, but is an early rendering nonetheless. I do like his somewhat blocky body, a good version of the Felix design. He is a tad grimy and some of his white bits are chipped, but his expression is there and he sports a big black button of a nose. He is about five inches high and bears no markings at all.
Variations on these early statuettes are abundant which makes me wonder if there was a time in Great Britain in the late twenties when you could barely see a desk without one or another, or perhaps an ashtray. Maybe he will join me at the office. The Felix representation is fairly low there these days.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
In considering Felix’s contemplative walk, somehow he, an early animated cartoon of course, was always in motion and that even seems to bleed into the early toys, which walk, toddle, jump or use variations on this pose. Or maybe that is just true of all toys and I am over thinking it.
As for me, I do like to work things through in my mind while walking, not to mention running which is especially good for it. There is something about being in motion which helps my brain untangle its knotty thinking. I used to set aside time at the office, not quite weekly, to spend a half hour or so just thinking which I generally did sitting in my chair contemplating the ceiling or the view, always a bit nominal, out the window. It was always good to take myself out of the weeds some and just try to adjust to the broader picture and be strategic. I have fallen out of the practice but maybe it is just the thing for returning to the office this fall.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yesterday, the first day of my vacation, started quite poorly with a migraine. I am an occasional sufferer and although certain food (good-bye red wine!) will trigger them unfailingly, otherwise they arrive largely unannounced several times a year. For a period of time they manifested as vertigo which was really nasty business. I don’t take anything for them although I try to remember one doc’s advice that they would dog me during times when I wasn’t eating and sleeping sufficiently.
If I had to guess, yesterday’s migraine fiesta can be attributed to a long winter and spring of stress with mom’s illness and work. Regardless of cause, yesterday saw not one but a rare two rounds with it. Bright lights in one eye which melt into sort of fascinating, undulating psychedelic patterns. (Think caterpillars examined on acid.) Interesting though, in tandem is the feeling that someone has poured crushed glass behind your eyes, followed by a dullness and a sort of well, sore head. I gave in after round two and slept through the afternoon.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
When I woke later in the day, generally revived, I had a rare and unusual treat awaiting me. An entire box of Felix items had arrived from an auction in England! As a general rule, I do not purchase blocks of items as my limited space does not invite duplicating items, nor storing them against future resale. (Although now that I own a house too, watch out I say!) However, this is the second auction where I did purchase a lot and I have been quite pleased both times. The first time was a few months back and it was in order to purchase this rare Felix bottle, shown below. (The full post can be read here.) It was paired with a pencil sharpener. All in all, a satisfying experience.
This time I went a bit further out on a limb for a multi-faceted package and those of you who are willing and interested can be along for the ride as I examine this odd lot of booty. I will start with some of the small items which I did not buy the box for, but are in their own way, a wealth of stuff.
Back of pin with information as below.
Starting with some of the smallest items, I offer two pins which came my way. The one is is very poor shape, however I am not sure I have ever seen this exact version before and in its day he was a jolly little bar pin. (A prior Pin Post of Felix specimens can be found here.) A barely visible Felix shrugs his shoulders in a familiar pose with a sad face. While well beyond wearing, I think it is fair that he should come to rest in the Pictorama collection.
Pins from Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
The other is one in a series of pins that are somewhat available and my examples were among some of my earliest Felix purchases in a London flea market many years ago. I own two others in the series, but this third is the first time I am seeing one on the original card.
Some (most?) of these are marked with some variation on the back along the lines of, Pathe Presents Felix The Cat In Eve & Everybody’s Film Review. (I have grabbed that off an old Hake’s listing for this pin so I don’t have to take it off it’s aged card. Under any circumstances, it is a lot of text for the back of a pin which is only about 1.5″ long.) These are generally also marked sterling, which is additionally a bit surprising although silver was much more commonly used for costume pieces back at the beginning of the 20th century. Some were also produced on brass, copper or some other non-ferris metal.
Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Having said all of that, I have seen this mold, pattern or whatever, used in a vast array and variety of pins. I was only able to grab one other design off the internet, but over the years I have seen many variations on the pins, as necklace charms and otherwise utilized in a variety of ways. They are fairly available and one in good condition seems to run about $50 these days.
Bracelet by Charles Horner which I have seen for sale and occasionally been tempted to buy.
One interesting clue I ran into while researching these today is that they were designed by a man named Charles Horner who is best known for his Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau pin designs. Horner’s company, Charles Horner of Halifax, (23 Northgate Halifax), was founded on a design for a new and improved thimble. The Dorcas thimble sported a reinforced top to reduce needle pricking. (In my mind this does raise the question of what the heck good were they before that.) It was patented in 1884 and remained in production until the 1940’s.
Horner Mickey Mouse pin, sterling, sold by Liberty of London according to one source. A bit more rarified than the Felix pins, these will cost you a bit more.
Mr. Horner did a similar turn for Mickey Mouse in a series of pins, but I don’t know if they were also a premium tie-out or if Felix proved so remunerative he struck a deal with Disney. (From what I can find there is only a Disney copyright and the Horner hallmark on the back of these.) One of Charles Horner’s hat pins is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art according to their online catalogue – it does not bear Felix’s image. After his death in the 1890’s his sons took over the company and expanded to watches and tableware and continued production until the 1980’s.
A reel of Pathe Felix film.
What I cannot find is specifically how Pathe films distributed these pins, although I assume that it was they who were the origin of them, and that Horner just kept using the designs in the other pins and bits of jewelry that one finds which do not all appear to tie out to the Pathe name. Pathe did not limit themselves to pins as premiums and they also produced an odd line of largely useless pieces of decorative china – ashtrays, pin trays and the like. I wonder if the premiums were give aways in theaters or with the purchase of their line of home movies, a Baby Pathe Felix film is shown below. To my knowledge (which is limited) these premiums seem to have been entirely the purvey of the alternate universe that was Felix the Cat promotion in Great Britain.
Another Pathe premium, not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.The odd marking on the bottom of one of the china premium pieces.
And this folks, is merely the tip of the iceberg for the wonders that wandered into the house yesterday. Stay tuned Felix friends! It promises to be a very Felix summer ahead for Pictorama.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: While I was trotting back and forth to New Jersey on an odd schedule with mom’s final illness, I kept a couple of potential Pictorama Post items in my computer bag in case I was caught out of town and wanted to write a post. While I also would put photos on my phone for this purpose, I had this and another item (an odd and seasonal one, which I will now likely save for a more appropriate time of year).
I barely remember, but I think I scooped this up in a bunch buy on Instagram. (It may have been that midwest maven @MissMollysantiques again – she and I have done a lot of business in the past few years.) It’s a strange item, thin cardboard, lightly embossed. It is smallish, only about five inches across.
While cute images of cats going after a goldfish abound as a trope both in pictures and three dimensional trinkets, this one hardly qualifies for cute and makes an odd decoration. Our tabby spotted kit appears to have been served up a bowl of small (live?) fish and has one hanging from his or her mouth, right before chomping it merrily down.
This cat has no shame and stares out defiantly. He or she is perched on a bit of defined grassy turf with some other sticks and bits about. More fish are indicated in the shallow dish. While there is a bit of paper loss to the tip of kitty’s nose the rest is in excellent shape, right down to the fish and a bit of fluffy jowl hanging off one side below his whiskers.
What on earth was it? I cannot imagine it was advertising and hardly seems like a decorative image. A bit of a mystery I think.
Currier and Ives print of kitty and goldfish.
I have written before about my childhood adventures of keeping cats away from our fish-keeping experiments. (Some of this territory was covered in a post that can be found here if you wish to delve a bit further in the subject!) We started with small fishbowls of a gold fish or two. (I don’t remember if these were acquired at fairs or at pet stores – in retrospect our acquisition of them seems so unlike my mother who had strong feelings about animals in captivity I can’t quite add it up and my dad was not the pet guy when we were little. I can only assume that my sister or I were insistent about their acquisition and she acquiesced.)
Zebra fish also seemed to be denizens of our tank.
It seems to me that this was a doomed premise, the goldfish bowl. We started with a pair I remember quite distinctly (and because of this clear and somewhat possessive memory, it is likely that I considered myself in charge of these fish) from when I was about four years old. We were moving from a town, Engelwood, in Northern Jersey, down to Rumson where I would spend the rest of my childhood years.
The fish were being transferred in a large soup pot, one had nice black spots on him and I liked him best. The pot, a light blue enamel one, seems like an especially bad idea (Mom – what were you thinking?) and also in the car with the swaying pot of fish and water was our cat Snoopy. I do think Snoopy was too distracted by his own drama (oddly he also just seemed to be free range in the car – no cat carriers at that time in our lives) to bother the fish however. The fish must have made it through the hour or so journey because I do not remember this being the cause of their demise, although that said I do not remember under what circumstances they ultimately left us.
Cat and goldfish teapot for sale on eBay, not in Pictorama.com collection.
It was, however, the beginning of a line of fish which at first, lived atop of our refrigerator because for some reason mom thought the cat (which became cats shortly) wouldn’t notice them. Generally they didn’t, however eventually a single fish disappeared overnight. No sign of him or her. Just an empty bowl come morning.
I think Betty realized at this point that we were committing an ongoing act of fish cruelty and, having raised complex tanks of fish in her youth, she set up a proper fish tank for us. We purchased a handful of brightly colored neon tetras (I remember them best), a few angel fish and a gourami or two. There were some tiny shark-y looking things and something we just referred to as the algae eater.
In retrospect, this tank was a lot of work. I remember the periodic water changes and tank cleaning it required, the plastic plants to be scrubbed and the real ones replaced. Again, I amaze a bit at mom taking it on with everything else she had on her hands with three small kids, two cats and a large dog. (Dad would allow himself to only be marginally roped into fish care activities and would at best follow mom’s direction if he was around for a fish care fiesta day.)
Neon Tetra
I loved the fish however and I would often ask my mother to tell me about the exotic sounding saltwater tanks she had kept as a teenager. Mom was a resourceful teen it seems and also made it all the way into the upper ranks of the Girl Scouts. These tales created an image of teenage Betty as a pillar of resourceful early DIY-type industry and ingenuity which really was probably a fair analysis. (It is making me tear up that I can’t call her up and talk to her about it however. She would have enjoyed reliving it with me.)
I liked to sit and watch them and have some very specific memories of sitting with our cat Zipper and watching the fish together. The air filter would bubble away, rising behind a faux treasure chest nestled in the gravel creating a world unto itself. Meanwhile, Zipper was a feral tabby who came to live with us about that time and unlike Snoopy he had no compunction about his thieving desires where the fish were concerned. He would sit with me and gently pat the surface of the tank somewhat mischievously, looking at us with his huge green eyes full of deceptive faux innocence. After an early incident the tank had something heavy placed on top of it after one of his more adventurous attempts.
The algae eater more or less as I remember him. Usually we saw his tummy as he stuck himself to the glass to munch on the available algae.
Sadly over time it became clear we were just not destined to be good fish caretakers. Eventually the gourami grew huge from eating the other smaller fish – alarmingly we’d find remains in the morning. He was sent to a new home in a larger tank (where perhaps someone ate him dad would darkly speculate), but somehow after that the tank seems to have petered out. Our investment in stray cats and dogs increased over time, tales for the future, but the Butlers left the world of the aquatic behind.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sometimes even I wonder about the vast amount of cat detritus I tend to accumulate, but I continue to find all these cat related bits and bobs that interest me and here we are.
Recently in an attempt to plan a tidying up of my jewelry (currently heaped on my dresser) during my summer vacation, I reached out to a dealer in Great Britain who sold me one a year or so back. Mia has sold me a wide ranging number of objects and jewelry as well, and several of those have found their way to being posted here over time. Among those many items and posts is the cat door knocker shown below (post here), and a truly curious item also shown below with a post here. (A post about the other jewelry box can be found here.)
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. (I wonder how he’d look on the door in Jersey?)
I found Mia on Instagram during the pandemic. In addition to her meandering stock of goodies, she lives in the British countryside and treats followers to stunning photos of her walks and long distance runs (she was among those who inspired my nascent running) in the lush green area around her home. There are outings on the water with her son and husband and a running photo diary of her multiple cats, dogs as well as a bevy of foxes and hedgehogs who come for respite and repast at her home. (Her moniker on IG is @therubyfoxes in fact and her night photos and videos of the aforementioned are always fun to see.)
A wonderful curi-oddity! Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Mia dug around in her stock and produced a dandy vintage box, if slightly larger than I was looking for, and offered it at a price I could not resist. The deal was forged! However, less than 24 hours later she had a clutch of these listed on Instagram and of course I had her pop one onto the order. Both arrived last week to great satisfaction.
This token is a product of the Samson Novelty Company which, although it was an American company, was the dominant producer of arcade machines and games in Britain in the late 20’s and 30’s. These were used to play their machines and perhaps also sold as novelties as well.
Lucky Pams-Pictorama.com
The fat cat on one side is the main event for me, promising no less than Good Luck Always and reassuring us that I Bring You Luck on the back. I would have been tempted to pocket one of these back in the day if they weren’t available for sale and I think it would have enhanced my day at let’s say Brighton, where eventually I would have had my photo taken with Felix as well. It is perfectly satisfying with its bright gold appearance and just enough heft. I would recommend making legal tender of them and minting them in gold myself.
A machine of chance, shown for sale at the time of publication, originally distributed in England by Samson.Presumably our token or one like it would give you a lucky roll.
The internet offers dribs and drabs about Samson Novelty, most interesting was that the founder Jack Holloway was a Mason and the Samson company name somehow came from that affiliation. The company was founded in 1925 and although evidence of its machines (one armed bandits and the like) and tokens abound on the internet, the history of the company and its fate are not easily found. Jack brought his brother Charlie and three nephews into the business which seemed to thrive at least into the 40’s where information trails off.
I have great hopes for the promised luck (which I can always use) and this little item will continue to live safely (emanating good luck) in the jewelry box it was shipped with. Over time I am sure I will report back on what other items are added to the Pictorama archive and housed there.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: If there’s an area I am a bit completist in my collecting it would be Felix photos. Really, no early 20th century photo of someone posing with a Felix (of any size) is beneath my notice and consideration. Quite simply, I want them all.
As a result, in a safely dark corner of the apartment, in a hall (to the extent that one room can have a hall, but I will discuss that another time) near the bathroom a number of these tintypes hold court. I have written about some of them before, (posts can be read here and here) and some are clearer than others. I bought a collection of them from a reader that were remarkably clear (read about that here), but most are variations on murky.
Today’s photo is pretty much on the far end of overexposed and slowly over time sinking further into obscurity. Some readers know that I have made early process photographs and know the technique for tintypes (also known as ferrotypes) reasonably well.
From a collection of Katoomba photos I purchased as a lot from a reader. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
As I understand it, these tintypes which were made at beachside resorts, carnivals and the like, were usually made and developed on site in what amounted to a bucket of chemicals and then water to wash them off. As the chemicals became exhausted and the water dirtier the chemicals and the image became more fugitive. Over time (let’s face it, this is about 100 years old) the chemicals which were never properly set or washed off, continue to react to light and the image gets darker and more obscure. While tintypes were waning in popularity by the 1920’s (a period while Felix’s fame was ascending) this remained a technique for roving photographers and seaside pics for another couple of decades. (And not just Felix of course – Mickey was another favorite as far as I can see.)
A closer look. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Shown here in this post (close up above) this image has been lightened and enhanced some and sadly what you are seeing is clearer than what you’d get with the naked eye by a fair amount. While I can make out this little girl sitting in a chair in her finest, dress, coat and hat, Maryjanes and ankle socks barely visible, I cannot see what she is holding in her hand and I do wonder. The background she is posed against is too faded to see.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Featured in an early 2014 post.
Her other arm is of course around this nice big Felix. He’s a bit unusual actually, full circle eyes and smaller ears than most. For the record, he doesn’t look like any of the others I have in my half dozen tintypes of this kind on the wall presently. (See the one above however, which I briefly thought might be the same. Kim pointed out that the eyes are further apart though. I had to dig in my collection for it.) However, the large number of my tintypes are from Australia, several from a park in Katoomba, and this one hails from England, precise location also lost to us. I have another (equally fuzzy) one that is similar and also with a location unknown, but the Felix is different so it isn’t the same setup.
It’s hard to say why I have such a passion for these pics and rescuing them to reside here in the Pictorama archive. The postcard photos are easier to understand I guess. But somehow the appeal of these little tintypes which have been passed down through the decades of people cuddling up to Felix to remember a beachside holiday now long passed have also earned my devotion.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: There is an online antique store where, as part of my maniacal collecting mania, I have signed up for notification on a variety of cat and Felix related items. Every morning I receive one or two emails from them and wade dutifully through a variety of somewhat sad or uninteresting items. Annoyingly, on the few occasions something wonderful appeared it was already sold which made me a bit crazy – you can imagine. Simply stated, the in general the algorithm has not been kind to me. However, the other morning I rolled over in bed and flipped through my email and found this item which I managed to snatch up before my first cup of coffee.
Unlike many things executed in a pre-caffeinated state, I did not regret the decision when this showed up in the mail the other day. It is easy to see why this sprightly Felix has made it through the decades.
Felix would have sported a replaceable calendar and sadly we are not even left with an outdated example. I do wonder a bit if it showed each day of the year to be torn off or a tiny version of the month. I was unable to find other examples online so for now the mystery remains. Felix is cut out of a lightweight wood with his visage firmly affixed on. There is a sturdy metal stand on the back which makes it stand upright. In pencil, noted neatly in script on the back it says, No 29 11- Last one.
Back of Felix calendar.
This fine fellow traveled to the shores of Pictorama from Great Britain, as do so many interesting Felix objects. He is deep in his thinking position and giving us a charming roguish side glance. While he is somewhat off model, he has some of that early charming squared-offness that I am especially fond of. He paces atop a tiny brick wall and there is a tiny window of sky behind him. Even his pointy ears survive intact. I would find this jolly Felix very cheerful on my desk daily and delightful to travel through the year with him.
I personally mark the passage of time with a small wall calendar and the help of Outlook on my computer and phone. I am a visual person who often needs to look at how a whole month lays out in order to plan activities and workflow – in my work life I have always been that way as I figure drop dates for invitations and save-the-dates or plan to manage a project.
Truly delightful 3-D cat calendar I found online this morning which, sadly, is not in the Pictorama collection – yet!
The paper calendar generally helps with planning while Outlook keeps me on the straight and narrow for each day which in an early incarnation would have been a separate paper calendar. The home version is a small wall calendar from the Metropolitan Museum which neatly fits on the side of a bookcase across from where I sit now, which is also the nexus of Kim and computer; at work it is a free calendar, of the same size, gratis the New Yorker, in New Jersey it is a series of animal photos from a wildlife charity mom gave to. That calendar, which used to keep notes mostly on docs coming and going, now tracks the arrival of various workmen and contractors which seem to stream endlessly there.
Utility wall calendar here in NYC.
In my early working days I didn’t have enough money to embrace the File-o-Fax concept of the handsome holder and refillable interior. I employed dull looking, less expensive daily planners. I never kept them, nor have I been a journal keeper, so my comings and goings have drifted infinitely into the past which I think is just fine indeed. As we know, regardless of how we track it we cannot tame it, slow or speed it up, time continues march along at its own pace.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sometimes it is easy to forget that the purview of Pictorama is a cat one, although frequently a predominantly black cat and a Felix one. Today’s item crossed my path on Instagram, being sold by an antique store in Texas (http://www.getcuriosities.com) and whose denizens have become friends who keep an eye out for Felix-y and other cat items for me. Although Jason hadn’t lined me up for it I don’t think he was surprised when I reached out. It was inexpensive and admittedly purchased on the fly while I should have been doing other things.
I like this little fellow. As far as I can tell he hung on a wall where he offered matches and I suspect that the bit under his chin was once a place you could strike said matches now gone. Such wall hanging holders for matches, for use and those which were spent, proliferated at a time before mine yet I am fond of them.
Kitty is made of light balsa type wood and has shiny eyes. His tail is where he hangs from and you can imagine that you are seeing a whole cat condensed into a front view, tail in the air behind him. While simple I think he was mass produced rather than homemade.
I wrote about this match holder in a 2020 post – I think it also came from the crew @Curiositiesantiques.Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Matches were a daily need when gas stoves required regular lighting this way and of course that was long before the current demonization of gas stoves. (Of all the hazards of exposure in my life I continue to throw caution to the wind and happily embrace my crisply roasted veggies and sautéed comestibles with gas stoves and ovens both here in New York and at the house in New Jersey. In Manhattan our building just completed a six month turn off of our gas in order to check the lines and it was recently, joyfully, reinstated. A post on preparing for that period of privation can be found here.) I imagine a certain amount of lighting cigarettes probably also went on and matches in a time before inexpensive and ubiquitous lighters were handy to have.
Decorative cat matches in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Wooden matches, the type that I imagine would have most likely lived in kitty, were of course the sturdy workhorse over the books of them that you carried if you didn’t carry a lighter. (Matchbooks can be delightful cat items as well and both posts on matchbook art and match safes can be found here and here.) I keep some in the house in case the gas does need re-lighting on the stove pilot light and because they are easily lit in general.
There’s something comforting about the fact that these boxes of wooden matches can still be purchased and are pretty much identical to the boxes I would have seen as a kid. There are special devices for lighting your stove, but I favor matches whether they are held by kitty or not.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Among the casualties of recent months, while I was spending more time in New Jersey with my mom, has been neglecting my collecting passion. While I did continue to buy this and that (mostly on the occasional scroll through my IG feed), the items then often wandered into Deitch Studio only to be unpacked and put away with less than the usual consideration.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Therefore, these days now one occasionally rises to the surface, like this noisemaker, with no real memory of where it hails from. I believe it was a part of a small group buy of Halloween items or one I just added onto a buy. I am very entertained by it, but doesn’t seem like an item I would have bought on its own. Nonetheless, I am pleased to find it this morning, tucked on a shelf, patiently waiting its turn to bask in the light of a Pictorama post.
Turn up the sound for Kim playing
The sound of this noisemaker made both of the cats here a bit crazy this morning when I gave it a spin. Kim and I were discussing how, regardless of its actual age, the design seems like it could go back to 1900 or earlier. However, I found a website (Lisa Morton) however which says that although noise makers of this type, called rachet style noisemakers, were found in Germany earlier they became popular in this country in the 1920’s. She says wood ones like this were produced until the 1950’s when they shifted to tin. (To this day one can find a tin and plastic variation sold on the street for New Year’s Eve here in Manhattan, along with old fashion tin horns!)
The black cat version – although this is a silent fellow. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection from a 2021 post.
Noisemakers were designed to chase ghosts and the bogeyman away, an essential to staying safe on Halloween when you were a child. They were an inexpensive accessory addition to the Halloween celebration. I will say that my quiet loving parents never introduced me and my siblings to the simple pleasures of noisemakers. We can draw our own conclusions about that.
Mine here has an odd looking pumpkin head which seems to sport a sort of spotted mushroom cap. (Were he larger I think he’d be a bit frightening or at least creepy in his own right.) He still bears his crisp black paper ruff. The handle is worn very smooth from many years of hands handling.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection also from a 2021 post.
My foray onto the web researching a bit about Halloween turned up this sort of fascinating reference for the origin of jack-o-lanterns (wowza!) came from as below:
The legend of the most familiar Hallowe’en symbol–a lighted pumpkin–comes from a tale of an old Irish miser named Jack. Jack made several pacts with the devil. He also tricked the devil. When he died, he could not get into Heaven for his sins and because he had tricked the devil, he could not get into Hell. The Devil gave him a coal and Jack placed it in a hollowed out turnip, which lit his way as he wandered the earth until Judgment Day.
(More from this vintage Halloween collecting site can be found here.)
Being a black cat collector I am very Halloween adjacent without really being a Halloween collector. (Some of my other Halloween posts can be found here, here and here.) Halloween collecting is glorious and in another life I would collect everything from the early costumes (still holding out for a great black cat or Felix costume however) to paper decorations. For now though, Pictorama will mostly stay in its black cat lane with only occasional forays into the broader world of Halloween treats and tricks.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: A friend shared his pic of this nifty item months ago and I was full of admiration. Despite a rather robust program of constantly searching for early Felix ephemera and toys over several decades had never uncovered this rarified item. Therefore when one turned up on eBay it was a great surprise and after some careful deliberation and no idea how much it would sell for I managed to purchase it. In the end it went for a surprisingly reasonable price and found its way to the Pictorama Felix haven.
There are no tracks for these that I can find online. I thought the one belonging to my friend was perhaps a one of a kind, handmade item although it would require some craftsmanship. I still think there is a chance these are handmade and homemade.
A frame grab from an unidentified early Felix cartoon.
It is my thought that instructions for making such items were available and the somewhat ambitious home woodworker might have assembled them over a series of weekend afternoons and evenings. (I have a vision of some gent sitting around after dinner putting the finishing touches on this, circa 1930. Smells of my grandfather’s workshop rise unbidden in my mind from childhood – although while very handy, he was not to my knowledge, a Felix fan.)
Back of pipe rack, hooks for hanging attached at top corners.
While this may not have been a mass produced item, Felix himself was known to sport a pipe and there is at least one wooden toy where he displays one and a film or two where he is having a smoke of one kind or another…Kim reports having seen one where he gets stoned smoking a hookah in Chinatown which we have not yet turned up.
Felix toy not in Pictorama collection – I like the mismatched feet! My version of this toy does not have evidence of a pipe.
While we have no shiny beloved pipes to perch in here I would like to find a spot to hang it so I can admire it daily. As you can see, hooks have been provided although I worry a tad about carefully threading wire through these and gently hanging it in a quiet corner of the apartment – as if such a thing exists in our two rooms.
For those of you who know that I will inherit my mom’s house in New Jersey, yes, I am indeed considering how toy and other overflow might make its way there. However, there are five curious felines who roam that house with impunity, so at least for now, soft toys that could tempt kitty claws will remain in Manhattan where the cats live in close quarters with us everyday.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: This might best be described as a you may never have seen it coming post, but I do like to mix things up occasionally and these earrings were a recent unusual acquisition.
I believe my introduction to Reddy Kilowatt was the lightbulb lamp. I can’t now remember if I saw it on American Pickers or if it was an auction – I want to say I saw it both ways maybe and just can’t remember which first. I fell hard for it, but me and extremely fragile objects like this don’t have a promising future so I never pursued ownership of one especially at the rarified prices these fetch. Still, a seed of fascination was born.
Listing photo from a Hake’s sale catalogue.
I am surprised to learn that Reddy was designed all the way back in 1926, hailing from Alabama as a commercial ploy to increase electric consumption. (Yes, it is hard to imagine a time when we perceived the need to increase our use of electricity.) Wikipedia says he was imagined as an “electrical servant” and notes that his ears are wall sockets and of course his nose a light bulb. It is interesting to find that his image is still currently under copyright.
Also via the Hake’s listing.
As for the earrings, I was late to stumble on a sale by one of my favorite sellers on Instagram a few months ago (I think it was a @marsh.and.meadow.overflow sale) and realized that I had just missed these rather splendid Reddy Kilowatt earrings. I had never seen this rarified item before and I had a significant ping! of disappointment. Much to my surprise and delight howevr, this pair which sports their original card, turned up in my feed about a month later via @oldghostsofhollywood who happily sent them right off to me.
From the Reddy Kilowatt comic book?
As someone who cannot wear pierced earrings I was additionally pleased that these earrings re screwbacks so I can actually wear Reddy. The front of the card reminds you that Reddy is, The Mighty Atom and the Symbol of Your Investor-Owned Utility Company. Inside he greets you, Hello: I’m Reddy Kilowatt, your good Electric Servant who works long hours for low, low wages. Just think of the many jobs I do in YOUR home…office..farm…store or plant…then think of how little each job costs! The copyright here is 1955.
Inside of earring card. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.Back of card.
He is also Your Favorite “Pin-Up” and on the back it reads, I’m a Busy Little Atom, I split myself in two and multiply as many times as I have jobs to do! I’ll work for you for pennies, I’m fast, efficient, steady…so any time…to ease your work – Just “plug in,” folks – I’m Reddy! Your Electric Servant!…
When I revealed today’s topic to Kim he shared that there was a Reddy Kilowatt comic book of some note. Although our research did not turn up one that precisely matched his memory, there was indeed a comic book which came out in 1946 as an EC giveaway. Stories and art are identified as by Del Porter and others in one listing. I am told that the book relates Reddy’s story from ancient times until modern day and evidently includes a special Reddy Kilowatt polka complete with music. A reprint seems to team him with the story of Thomas Edison in another edition.
Not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
The post war period created an opportunity for increased electric usage and Reddy grew in evidence with a proliferation of trinkets (tie, stick and lapel pins, cuff links and bracelets are all available online) and a litany of other giveaways. Disney was approached for a cartoon in ’43 which never moved forward and it was Walter Lanz who brought him to animated life in a short film which came out in March of 1946 and the comic book was actually produced in conjunction with this film.
Page from the comic book which is available on various sites online.
Wikipedia says that there was an attempt to trot Reddy back out in the 1970’s as a mascot for energy conservation, but somehow this spiffy little energy spendthrift dynamo could not make the transformation and he did not achieve renewed fame in his new role.
Pam's Pictorama 