Author: Pam's Pictorama

Easter…1966 and Now

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is a pile of Easter bits. I looked and it appears I haven’t really written about Easter since 2021 which was a spring still fraught with pulling out of the pandemic. At that time I wrote a bit about the family Easter/Passover traditions from my childhood there including glorious Easter egg hunts at my grandmother’s house. (That post can be found here and another from an earlier post about my grandmother can be found here.)

When weather permitted we were outside in her yard and finding Easter eggs and treats among the nascent tulips and hyacinth planted there. In retrospect it was likely my uncle who did the Easter planning since mom and dad were with us and my grandparents were already older. I think there was at least one year when weather did not permit and we did it inside.

My sister Loren and I back on Easter 1966.

As it happens, I have a photograph from one of those Easter Sundays above. It is not an especially good photograph but it is family history for me so I am stretching the point. I (on the right in the yellow flowered dress) would have just turned two and my sister Loren (in a very unlikely pink dress), would be a month beyond her fourth birthday. We are seated on my grandmother’s green couch which was covered in impossibly scratchy fabric, flowered wallpaper behind us and and window where in particular the blinds were not raised in my memory. The living room was always cool and dark. There was matching green figured wall-to-wall carpet on the floor there.

Somewhere in my possession is a photo of us all outside on an Easter Sunday morning and I am wearing a light blue coat and Easter bonnet I feel like I can still remember being very proud of. Perhaps we’ll have that one next year if found.

Loren, true to form, looks like she is only seated reluctantly for the moment this photo took. She’s smiling but I recognize her tightly wound energy – she’s ready to go tearing around. While meanwhile yours truly was more of a jolly lump who would go along with whatever. We never wore dresses, let alone ones like this, and if I had to guess I would say these were a single symbolic for Easter only wearing.

This photo hung in my grandmother’s house forever, actually right near the couch shown here if memory serves, and this snapshot shows its wear. I can’t remember if this is before or after the egg hunt. I suspect they did it first thing before we had time to ruin our clothing.

Mom and Dad, Loren and I in November 1964.

I found it in an ancient plastic sleeve and behind it is a photo I prefer of the four of us, above. Printed neatly on the photo is November 1964 which makes me, shown in my mom’s arms, only 11 months old here; Loren in the plaid coat is only three. Mom and dad are very young here, Betty about 26 and Elliott 36. They are in what appear to be matching trench coats (normal for dad, a bit unusual for mom, dad must have bought it for her) and I love the little plaid jacket Loren is sporting. This the same front yard of my grandparents, my mom’s dad, Frank, would have still been alive, now a bit barren for fall. We lived in northern Jersey then, about an hour’s drive, and would have come in for a Sunday visit. This is more evocative for me – I can feel the fall air and smell that yard.

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Yesterday Kim and I shook the dust off a bit and went downtown. Ostensibly, I had new eyeglass prescriptions to fill and I dropped those off in the East Village but it was a gorgeous unusually warm spring day. I was pleased I decided to stop next door to the eyeglass store at Porto Rico Coffee Importers as my favorite Danish roast was on sale. Particularly with the expectation of rising coffee prices I stocked up.

I love his toes! look at the size of the Steiff button in his ear!

However I also detoured us to the John Derian stores where I heard there was a large display of Steiff toys. I was not disappointed. We were greeted in one store by the giant elephant below (I should have taken a close up picture of the Steiff button in his ear – it was enormous, consistent with his enormity) and at the one devoted to fabrics, by the even more spectacular nodding warthog! For me these were well worth the price of admission right there. All three stores were nicely done up for Easter with a lot of vintage bunnies.

This moving warthog greets you at the John Derian fabric shop!

John Derian and I seem to have a more or less separated at birth sensibility. I know where he acquires much of his antique stock (or at least the type of places) and how much he pays so I can’t really ever buy from him – the mark up is too high. That doesn’t mean I don’t like seeing what he’s found and how he’s put it together. I purchase this or that small item, sort of on the edges of what is available. Somewhere deep inside what I really want is to see his house which probably has all the really good stuff! Sadly I do not think an invitation is forthcoming. (Some photos of the shops to scroll through below.)

Lastly, a teaser, something I can’t remember doing before but we have the chance today. I leave you with this photo of Cookie atop box she has happily commandeered. It contains a major toy purchase so she won’t be enjoying it for too long as I plan to open it today and share the contents with you soon. To be continued as they say.

Cookie on the mystery box…

Orange, New Jersey

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s Felilx loving post is an unseasonal Thanksgiving tribute, but I couldn’t possibly wait that long to share it.

In addition to the neatly typed ORANGE NJ on the front of the photo, handwritten on the back it reads A Rubber Felix Thanksgiving Day East Orange, NJ. It is also stamped with what appears to be…CMA L. Simpson…17 Pleasant Ave. Montclair, NJ. It was glued onto something black at one point much of which remains here, likely a photo album, and the full address is obscured.

Back of the photo.

This is an overexposed and not especially good print so this establishment must have just processed and printed pictures for people.

Still, it clearly has its charms and I am glad to take the trip back in time to see the scene. In addition to this large Felix balloon, what I like best is the Felix headed and clad retinue around him, like Felix-y mice around the big cat! We can see four, my guess is there was at least one more who is out of the shot.

I thought at first that this could be the same balloon butclose inspection says no. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

It is sadly undated but a very close look reveals that many of the women are wearing distinctive cloche hats. Those were popular from the early 20’s to the early 30’s. Randomly I would guess this is the mid-to-late 20’s given Felix’s rise to popularity and the rest of the clothing I can discern. Someone smarter about cars could probably tell more about the date from the one or two in this shot.

Thanksgiving is already a wintery scene here and people are bundled up to watch this parade. A close look reveals that the crowd extends up the stairs of this unidentified but official looking building. (If there are any Montclair historians or residents who can identify this building give a shout.) You can’t see it without magnification but in reality most of the people across the street seem to already be looking at and pointing to something coming up next.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I have written before about my love of Thanksgiving Day balloons in the parade and how I always wanted to go see them as a child. As a young adult here in New York City I would often go to see them blown up and strapped down the night before although I have never made it to the parade. My father had the freezing detail of filming it and the night before in his days as a junior cameraman for ABC News and there was no enticement I could find to get him to take me.

I love that New Jersey had their own rival, early Thanksgiving parades complete with balloons and I have shared a few parade pics here from my collection. Felix was popular coast to coast and one of these photos which lives by our front door in NYC is from Portland. The posts for those photos can be found here and here.

So while today would have been more appropriate to have an Easter parade this weekend, I conjure up another long past if somewhat unseasonable holiday for you today.

I Am Enjoying Myself Very Much

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s card is so painted and embellished that I almost hesitated to say it was a photo but of course it is. There was something about this card when I spotted it recently, the evocative mood of this little girl and kitty, that appealed to me. She is dressed up for her photo and posing nicely for the camera but so is puss. (While not quite enthused he is submitting his beautiful Persian self passively to the pose anyway.)

I grab up Blackie like this not infrequently. Cats don’t especially like to be hugged and held this way, especially while you are not seated and if it isn’t their idea, but he will permit me that. Once in a rare while Cookie is hounding me for attention and I will even pick her up and carry her around for a few minutes. Oddly it quiets her down but to do it of my own accord would be inviting wounds.

A somewhat peevish and demanding Blackie on my lap in front of the tangle of junk on my desk.

Little almost glowing dots of paint have been applied to the trim on the little girl’s dress, like tiny pearls, probably even brighter when the card was new and cleaner. Her hair ribbon is sumptuously velvety holding her abundant curls, a gold bracelet on her arm. An artificial blush to her cheeks and rosiness to her lips have been applied via a paint brush in the same tones as the flowers on her dress. She is not a child having her photo taken for her doting parents, she is hired for this reproduction card.

I’m not sure I really have many other photos in my collection that are like this although they exist in abundance. It relates most closely to the sort of birthday greeting cards of a small child and Felix that I might have,

I cannot blame cats for disliking that loss of autonomy. I am quite sure if I was small enough to be carried about I would resent it as well and I feel a bit guilty every time I turn the bathroom water off while Blackie has commandeered the sink there. He would of course have me turn it on and off all day and I have other plans for my time but it is unfortunate he has been unable to acquire the needed skill.

I always had a strong disliked not being in charge of my own destiny, even in the smallest sense, since I was a child. I was a quiet kid but I remember that I seethed a bit at the casual bouncing to and fro you are subjected to as a small child – left to stay with grandma or required to go somewhere or do something when you would prefer not to. I looked forward to adulthood as the end of that and I was right. Some of that attitude has lingered, although my reluctance to learn to drive a car has bedeviled it a bit – if you cannot drive you are dependent on others, unless of course you live in New York City which I do for the most part.

Back of card.

The back of the card shows it was mailed on June 20, 1912 – although the year is a bit obscured. It was mailed to the Missis Speedays in Keswick, but I cannot see if it says where it was mailed from. In a bold black hand it says, I am enjoying myself very much. I don’t think I will come home when you come back. Peter. We’ll assume it was tongue in cheek but there is something about it that maybe seems a bit serious too. Alas, what were the Misses doing in Keswick and where was Peter? Poor Peter was left out.

Despite what I wrote earlier, Blackie is on my lap and positively insisting on hugs and pets – both handed mind you. It isn’t just what we don’t want, but equally the attention we insist on too. I suppose this holds for people as well as cats.

The Commanding Officer

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Another in the long line of postcards from the show earlier this month. Although I am somewhat judicious in my acquisition of this avenue of cat photography they do slip in occasionally. Pictorama readers know I have a bit of a weak spot especially for kittens posing with the moon cards. (Read about one of those here.) Cats in clothes can be worthy of my notice, like this one.

Recent photo of Milty, senior cat of NJ.

This senior fellow of a puss in this picture is peeved at his human constructed accoutrements. Maybe his longstanding role at the photo studio was more mouser than model normally – he is an elder statesman of cats no doubt and I am sure claws in teeth sufficed for his real world duties. (He reminds me of my cat Milty whose age seems to hover in the early 20’s.)

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Someone has given him a tiny sword to wear at his side and a homemade tri-corner hat with plume stuck in, but again he seems decidedly displeased with the decoration. He does have a battle weary mug and the aging physique of an old guy. His tail must be wrapped around him on the other side as no sign of it. His white paws are a bit grotty and the whites around his chin not quite white any longer either. His fur is that of an elderly cat.

The card has a copyright by the Rotograph Company from 1906 on the front. And this particular one was mailed in 1909, on August 13 from North Hackensack, NJ. It was mailed to Miss D. A. Brown, River Edge, NJ. I was not familiar with River Edge and it turns out to be near Paramus in northern Jersey.

The slightly illegible back of the card.

I have to say, although the handwriting on the face of it looks legible I am having trouble decoding the message address to Dolores. A card from Dolores seems to have arrived by a later train then it should have and there are plans here for the evening in question. It gives some thoughts about places they may go (Maeks? she has written clearly) and R.E. and ends with instruction to come in the surrey with your Dexter and it is signed Aunt Lila. Of course I can’t be sure but Aunt Lila probably didn’t care what card she grabbed for this purpose, however she too may have been aptly named The Commanding Officer. Just a guess.

Actually, I pulled this card out of the stack because I think I too am a bit weary from my roles and responsibilities right now as captain of this particular ship. Demands of work, taxes, wrapping up my mother’s estate and even the imperative to make soup on this rainy Saturday, seems like more than I should have taken on – however understanding that much of it arrived unbidden and of its own accord. Maybe it is just a case of the April blues, but this commanding officer (such as I am) is tired today and I too would prefer to lose the yoke of tiny sword and hat and romp freely for a bit.

Just Like Us!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is further evidence of last week’s bounty – still just the tip of the iceberg as well. I just showed Kim this card again and his reaction was, I almost like it. Ha! Well, I can see it might not be for everyone, but I do like this one and it makes me laugh.

The art is attributable to postcard artist and contemporary of Wain, Maurice Boulanger. Unlike Wain, Boulanger has not left many auto bio tracks and my nosy friend AI on the Google search doesn’t have much to say, nor has Wikipedia lent a helpful hand. He was very prolific at the dawn of the 20th century and is mostly identified with his often (but not always – he had a sappier more bucolic side) sharply satiric cat postcard images.

Someone has noted Boulanger on the back of this card in pencil; it is otherwise not identified on the card and unlike Wain he did not much seem to sign his work. Perhaps he just did not enjoy that privilege. I gather he did some rather pointed politically satiric cards involving animals as well but is less well known for those.

Boulanger, as evidenced by this card, is a bit less charmingly whacky, boffo and nuanced than Wain; he’s a bit of a one note wonder. His cat wears a nifty straw boater but he has a single thought and it is to pop that ducky into his smiling toothy maw. The duck, not surprisingly absent of humanoid characteristics is played as straight man soon to be snack.

Boulanger has made this cat arm a bit extra long and the hat is also a bit big to account, I guess, for ear coverage on one side. (The hat appears behind the visible ear in a way which I guess has a certain logic.) This leering fellow only has ducky murder and mayhem as a tasty toothsome morsel on his feline brain though and his open-wide cat grin does not convince the viewer otherwise.

Back view of this card.

This is a card which for me benefits from the sender’s addition, Just like us! followed by a slightly illegible signature, Dina or Diana and a surname I cannot read. Just like us! I do wonder what that means – I am not sure I would like to be identified with either of the players in this drama. Gosh – I say what does that mean?

It was sent to Jane Highgate Westerton Villa Shattleston – Glasgow Schottland. There is another word, in German I believe, up at the top I cannot read or translate. I show the back below for any German readers who can help. It was sent on 8.12.04 911 N which to my way of thinking was December of 1911 but maybe someone else can figure that better and let us know. It appears to have been sent from Zehlendorf (outside Berlin) and also it says Wainseebahn.

There is at least one more Boulanger card in this pile, one that runs more to the saccharine than this one. Aside from a New Year’s card which I used to hail the impending arrival of 2020, I think these are the first to join the Pictorama archive. (That New Year’s post can be found here.) More to come on him and his cats it seems – not at all surprising that you’ll find him turning up here at Pictorama.

Postcards – Behold the Beginning of the Stash

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Readers from last week know that Kim and I went to a postcard show, held in the West Village, where I purchased my way through a whole lotta postcards. I came away with holdings that I will be working my way through for the foreseeable future. I am hoping you enjoy the launch of what I can promise will be a varied trip.

I am kicking off this visual feast with one of my favorites from the pile. Although there is a nominal kitten here, it is the attitude of this beautiful young woman I love. It is a suggestive card but her energy and winning charm are amazing. Our woman is looking right at us and pointing at You out there. Her be-flowered hat is placed properly on her head and she sports a pretty necklace if you look carefully, a tiny opal or pearl at its center. (I will vote for opal as we know I am partial to them.)

I own a few other somewhat salacious cat cards, the French produced a line of them around this time. One of those prior posts, photo below, can be found here.

French card. Pams-Pictorama.com collection. Another unhappy camera ready kitty!

She is wearing what I guess would have been called a petticoat although that is a bit generic and people who know about these things would probably know a more precise way to describe this chemise. Although it looks like tights she wears I assume that these were sort of the regulation stockings of the day, although with her little low boot shoes.

She supports the kitten with the other hand, his hold on the back of the chair is otherwise tenuous. It is a tiny tabby kitten – and actually close study shows he has no grip on the chair back at all – and that he is not especially pleased with his part in this proceeding. Kitten career as prop. I believe about his world at the time that he could have done worse than working for his living in front of the camera. Maybe he grew up to have a sideline in mousing at the studio. (Blackie is on my lap and I just inquired about whether he’d be up to a mouse if presented with one. He seems on the fence.)

This card was never sent, like so many of these postcards. There is an odd torn edge along the left side. Somehow it feels like it was torn way back in the day at the point of origin, or near to it. It was evidently once sold for 87 cents – I paid a lot more than that I assure you. Someone has also written 1900 but that might just be their guess too.

I can’t actually say I am partial to those cards that were never used although less beat up. The tiny missives on the back (sometimes a bit of cheeky text added to the front) of those that were sent always thrill me. They are windows into a brief moment in a life and I sort of treasure that.

Belated Birthday Fare

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: As those in the New York area know, it was a freakishly warm day here yesterday, topping out around 80 degrees. As a result the denizens of this metropolis poured onto the streets in wrinkled summer garb (or simply lack thereof) all white bellied and sleepy like a city of Rip Van Winkles. Kim and I entered the fray and spent the day hunting small Pam pleasures as is our program for my birthday.

A February birthday girl, this year I was bedeviled first by Kim’s Covid, followed by my own – and then a distressing string of funerals and memorials, plus one wedding! The MoCA comics festival thrown in too. All this to say, yesterday was our first day in a long time when we were left to our own devices.

Old Good Things is chock-a-block full of antique fixtures and a lot of brass. My dad was a utter sucker for brass fixtures and I can only imagine he would have come home with one of these. My father’s daughter, I too was tempted…

I started our itinerary with a stop at an antique and architectural salvage store, way over on the westside of midtown called Old Good Things which I have been curious about. (Their website can be found here.) I follow these folks on Instagram and while what they offer is generally just too large for my living situation but I have always wanted to visit the store. I do fantasize about replacing bathroom fixtures, maybe a fireplace mantel in NJ and light fixtures as well, and it sends me musing. There is much wonderful furniture, with an emphasis on wooden cabinets of drawers which is one of my own forms of kryptonite, hard to resist. Still, these are very large pieces for the most part and I live in small spaces.

Two intriguing standing lamps that had just come into stock. They are being rewired so I have a minute to think about investing in them.

Notably there were a few rather comfy and wonderful leather arm chairs but all I could see were happy cat claws so I moved along. These two standing lamps which just came into stock and had yet to be rewired were of interest – we could use a standing lamp here in the New York apartment and the weird sort of jadeite on one interests me. They were pricey but I will consider them. A good standing lamp is hard to find.

Then we headed downtown for what I considered the main event – the Metropolitan Postcard Club show and sale. I have not been to one since before Covid when they used to take place on 57th Street at a rundown Howard Johnson’s hotel near 8th Avenue. It was then a much larger affair, easily 3-4 times the size of the group yesterday. However, this just meant I burrowed a bit deeper and a very patient Kim joined me in sorting through boxes of cat postcards, with a few of New Jersey thrown in for good luck.

It was held at a pleasant, small and essentially non-descript church in the West Village called the Church of the Village. About a dozen dealers had a large circle of tables and it was quiet enough that you could sit and patiently go through the labeled boxes. I flashed a picture of yesterday’s Felix card on a few dealers to see if they had ever had any go through their hands. One looked quite stunned and said no, the other gave me a knowing look and said he might have one at home. I gave him my card.

I left the show lighter in dollars but happily heavy in cards and I will commence a liberal dissemination of them here in the coming weeks. It was well passed lunchtime and our tummies called so we wandered over to the Old Town Bar on 18th Street. I had a craving for an old establishment and this fit the bill perfectly. We’d eaten upstairs not that long ago but for lunch were seated at a table in the back.

My view of the main room at lunch yesterday. I would like to be there when it is quiet enough to go around the room and read what is on all the walls.

After lunch we made a quick trip to Blick so I could buy some watercolor brushes and paper. My friend Eileen (@EileenTravell) gave me a very lovely birthday gift of a nifty watercolor set for my birthday and I hope to commence playing with them soon.

Thank you again Eileen! I hope to make some use of these.

The next real stop of the day was The Strand bookstore. Our original thought was that we would just pop in to look in used fiction. (Kim looking for Dumas and I for someone named Carol Brink. We just saw a somewhat obscure Barbara Stanwyck 1953 film based on a Brink novel called Stopever. The films was renamed All I Desire, and directed by Douglas Sirk. It is masterful film making and visually stunning, like many of his films although this one in black and white and not the signature saturated color. A good TCM write up of the film, with spoilers, can be found here.) We came up empty handed on both scores but decided to head up to the Rare Book Room.

We’ll see if this acquisition is more than good looking on the outside.

Kim and I more or less nibble at the edges of the Rare Book Room. We aren’t interested in the signed first editions, but instead make our way to a few bookcases of more or less random old books. I have scored several items at this venue, including some that lead me further down the path of interesting authors or series. Despite the name, some of these volumes are very affordable.

Very competent illustrations by someone named G. Demain Hammond R.I.

However, I did pay up a bit for the book I bought yesterday. Shown here, it is a very pretty looking, illustrated volume which helps its cause. It actually may not need any help. I looked up the author, Rosa Mulholland, and she appears to be quite interesting. She was an Irish writer, very prolific and also wrote under the name of Rosa Gilbert, her married name – aka Lady Gilbert. Rosa appears to have worked the side of the street of fiction I like so maybe more about her to come over time as well.

A frequent stop either to or from The Strand.

We wrapped up with a quick look in Alabaster Bookshop around the corner from The Strand. Still checking for Dumas and coming up empty handed. I like Alabaster although they focus more on recent books and art volumes and I feel like I haven’t bought anything there in a while. I always check their kids and juvenile books, but it is a somewhat diminished section. I always remember that had a charmingly grumpy calico cat I saw grow from kittenhood on there. Her ghost still wafts through and I miss her.

That was it, a wrap on another birthday, perhaps all the better for the wait this year.

It’s a Felix-y Time

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: My fascination with these cards is at the root of starting this blog (as a summer project while recovering from foot surgery, confined to bed for weeks) as a way of organizing and recording my then nascent collection. It expanded to toys and eventually life, but the square one was folks with Felix in a parade of early 20th century photos.

If you consider reincarnation you might think that some time back, about 100 years ago, I decided to forego and opportunity to have my picture taken with Felix, or I was a small child and no one would listen to me, or it was taken and lost. I have found a tiny window onto my past passion and devote myself to the glorious fulfilling of it now.

Margate photo. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Romantic day dreams of Felix lost and found aside, I now own a pile of these photos – far more than I have room to display here in the apartment although I have started to think of what a series of them would look like in New Jersey and need to consider a spot without much sun which is more challenging there.

As postulated in my post last week about two somewhat different cards from the same negative, I now have a large enough collection to make some interesting (at least to me) connections between them. In that way I bring you today’s acquisition, a card recently purchased from England, the locus primary for these photos.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Today the breaking news is that this card, which was never sent, was taken in Margate, England, a summer resort town there. As you can see, it is the kissing cousin of another postcard in my collection, purchased back in 2022 and posted about at that time. That post can be read here. Ironically I evidently paid a lot for that card and this one was a bit of a steal. (It averages out I find and try to be philosophical about it.) Interesting to note that, like the one last week, the card above was unusual in that it came via a US dealer. It was identified with Margate on the back.

Magnificent Kim Deitch original valentine depicting Margate. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Margate! Where you could also have your photo taken on a giant black cat chair, was a swinging summer resort if having your photo taken on the beach was part of a good time. It lives in my imagination and Kim has brought it to life in these drawings he has done for me. Read about those here.

Kim Deitch original drawing, valentine from this year. Proudly in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

These two cards share the singular vision of this photographer who liked to blur his (or her) background, bringing just the Felix and child into focus. The children are also remarkably similar, but a careful look shows that it does not seem to be the same day and the negative numbers are far apart as well. Still, this cheerful little boy and the sad small girl could easily be related.

I have more, different Felix treats in store although Kim and I are heading out for a much belated birthday celebration for me which includes a postcard show I haven’t been to since before Covid so who knows what else might lurk there!

Bum, 25 lbs Cat, Jackman, Maine

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I felt a bit hoodwinked on this card as I suspect that it was slightly enhanced on the listing where I purchased it. I share it with you slightly enhanced here as well – it is a bleached out, over exposed image on the top half where the puss is featured. This was probably due to the travails of indoor photography and the challenges of photographing Bum.

Having said that Bum does not give the appearance of being difficult, wishing to move quickly, or for that matter needing to relocate any time soon. He looks perfectly comfortable on his perch atop the scale which (in theory because we cannot really read it) is advertising his advanced girth. A careful look reveals that he is parked on a Miller High Life tray for the purpose of the weigh-in.

They are staging the photo with the little fellow on a scale in what seems to be the luncheonette type restaurant attached to the hotel, formica topped table with a metal edge to service a faux leather booth. We can spy a heat register under the table. Close examination reveals that a large ashtray and an advertisement for something called Irish Cream share the table. (The Irish Cream is advertised by a woman in a long dress, decorated with clover leaves.)

Bum is a fine specimen of enormous tabby. While he is certainly hefty he appears to carry it well and in all reality is also a really big kitty. He has a nice bloopy nose which I always like on a cat. His tail is curled around him. He does manage to look right at the camera, somehow intuiting the import of the moment. 25 pounds seems to be the general upper end for cats and I’m not sure I have had any that approached it – although our enormous orange stripe Persian mix, Pumpkin, may have gotten up there. I don’t remember weighing him in his prime, but maybe pushing 20 lbs.

Feathers, 40 lbs of kitty! See post link below. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Fat cats and recording their enormity is a sub-genre of cat photos in its own right. I have two in my collection I have written about previously, A Cat Named Boy (with the post which can be read here) and Feathers about whom a 2016 post can be read here. Meanwhile, Feathers claimed to be world famous and weighed in at an amazing 40 lbs!

While this is an unarguably lousy photo, oddly enough I found it in the collection of the Penobscot, Marine Museum online. Same bum burned out photo, at least as bad as mine, no further information. It is the only reference to Bum I could find, his fame faded. Meanwhile, the Jackman Hotel appears to be gone, unless it has become the Jackman Motel with shingled, cottage-style buildings. The argument against that might be that it also appears to be contemporaneous with the writing of this postcard.

Verso of the postcard.

This postcard was send on June 8, 1954 to Beverly and Barbara Meyers whose address was quite simply Delta, Pa. We know it arrived the morning of June 10 as far as Delta as it is stamped there as well. It says, Mon. June 7th, Hi, We are having a beautiful trip. We drove through the mts today. We will be in Quebec around noon Tuesday. Bum, the kitty is a beautiful sight, we petted him or I wouldn’t believe he is a real cat. Isabel and Ralph. I am glad they recorded having giving him a few pets! As hotel mascot, and in deference to his weight, we’ll assume he lived a pretty good life as the feline denizen of the hotel.

Despite the quality of the photo postcard we are nonetheless honored to have Bum, another lovely fat cat, join the Pictorama archive of cat record and fame.

Esoteric Felix Photo Find, Seeing Double

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s post is a bit of Pictorama inside baseball as it were, with some coincidences which occurred nicely and a bit of a divergence down another tributary. If nothing else lots of eyeball kicks from my photo collection today.

Recently I jumped, as I do when I see them, to purchase this postcard of three children and Felix. It is a particularly nice one. Like virtually all of these souvenir postcards, this one was never mailed and on the back is only more contemporary writing noting, Felix the Cat.

When it arrived I realized that I already owned one from the same session or the very card. As it turns out, according to the number at the bottom it is a, more or less, identical image from the same negative. They are both originals and it is virtually the first time I have collected two contemporary copies of the same photo. Surprising to me on some level considering how many I purchase and how many people must have ordered more than one copy of a fun family photo. (The notable exceptions in my collection would be once or twice when I purchased a full lot of photos from one shoot – on two occasions I think once a batch of tintypes from Australia and a strange bunch of photos a a giant Felix at an intersection in Kuala Lumpur of all places – and ended up with a repeater in the group.)

The photos side-by-side. The one on the right is the earlier purchase and slightly better version. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Another interesting fact is that this one was purchased from a dealer in the UK as most are (some, tintype versions as far as I know, come from Australia), and the original one was that extremely rare occasion where it was purchased from a US dealer, whose card it happens I saved in the sleeve and just found. I have bought very few of these photos from US dealers, they generally don’t seem to travel far from their place of origin, at least until they travel to me. These do not ever appear to actually have been produced in the United States which always leaves me wondering what was wrong with the folks at Coney Island anyway? They missed a great opportunity.

So one wonders why one photo traveled far from its origin and mate. I guess a family member lived or moved abroad, or it was somehow separated and sold off to a dealer and found its way here. By way of comparison, it should be noted that today’s was developed poorly, a bit of overexposure – note that the wooden floor is bleached out as is the background a bit and the printing in general is lesser, chemicals a bit tired on that day perhaps. Although the one recently purchased is also a tiny bit larger meaning that there is a bit less information too. Pure speculation but my guess is that one of these was ordered subsequent to the first one when a copy was desired, perhaps to give away to a doting relative.

One of the ones that may show the same windows and likely Felix. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

The post from March 2023 can be found here and investigates another coincidence which is that I have at least one other photo (possibly three now that I have a look around), taken at this very location and with this Felix. These were taken on the beach itself rather than near a studio so identifying the location is always a bit iffy. These distinctive windows are the key here.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. I think someone in Australia selling reproductions of this one.
Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Meanwhile, while on the subject of seeing double, I occasionally find one of my photos reproduced for sale. At top above is one where I have assumed that the seller scanned the image (shown above) at the time of selling it to me and another is one I missed at auction and now reproductions are being sold – a bit different admittedly.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Reproduction prints of this one turned up recently.

However one (shown above) turned up after I had owned this photo for a period of time and I was curious. (Posts for these pics can be found here, here and here if you are curious.) I did wonder if somehow they had lifted them off of my post, but I doubt the fidelity would be good enough for an even halfway decent reproduction.

Of course the possibility that the seller owned another print of the same photo occurred to me as well. I reached out to them with a friendly and polite inquiry and their response surprised me. He had purchased a box of items and at the bottom was a disk and the image was on it so he was printing and selling them. Interesting!

While some less utterly compulsive folks might see duplicates as an opportunity to sell one off, at least in the short term I am just tickled to have these photos reunited once again.