Non-cat photo

Bear Back

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: First, thank you all for your lovely and thoughtful responses to yesterday’s post! Some came here, others via IG and some to me personally. It is a season for change for me and while hard I think it is a first step in forging the next great thing and will help build how Kim and I will be living in the coming years.

However, today is a real photo postcard that contains a toy and a cat – thereby combining several passions at one. It is a bit dark and I wonder if it has discolored and darkened with age.

It depicts a very good, fluffy kitty perched on the back of this very nice, most probably Steiff teddy bear. His tail seems to have been in motion behind him and is a bit of a blur, but otherwise kitty is is focused intently on something off camera.

Teddy is jointed and really was likely quite splendid if you could see him properly. I fancy I can actually see the Steiff tag hanging in the far ear. It is a dusty and ubiquitous looking flowered tablecloth that we can imagine doing much duty for the photographer.

On the back of the card it says, With fondest love & best wishes for a very happy New Year from Aunt Jessica. Love to Mother & Daddy. It was sent on December 31, 1910 from Liverpool. It is address to, Master W. Ledden, 24 [illegible) Street, London Road, Holyhead. On the half with the message there appears to be a further address which is pretty illegible too, 5-8 Clarence Grove, [Everlou?] The card has no maker’s mark or references.

Many of the postcards in the Pictorama collection are addressed to children and I always think of how much it must have pleased them to receive these cards in the mail, especially something a little jolly like this.

Perhaps my holiday vacation can be spent seeing which of the 7 indoor cats might become a photo model. (We are pretty sure we can just leave Hobo out of that experiment.) I think Beau and Blackie are the only real contenders – no one else seems to have the temperament in the least. Kim has always said he doesn’t think I should dress the cats up (yes, it has come up) so I don’t, but a future in posing with toys? I will let you all know if I have any success – but maybe I should stick to cookie baking!

Swimming

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This photo has been on my desk for a long time and it drifted to the top of the pile today. As I write on a chilly November morning, summer and swimming is already a distant memory while the long winter days of January, February and March lay, daunting, ahead. It reminds me that it has been many years since I have been swimming in the ocean, or even a smaller natural body of water.

I thought about taking up swimming during the pandemic. I think I would need a few lessons to get to the point where I am swimming laps successfully. I may still do it. Long term the low impact of swimming may make better peace with my arthritic body than the endless pounding of running.

This photograph has a remarkably dreamy quality. The way the definition of the water disappears, yet there are just a few people going way out to the horizon line. The four women are wearing old-fashioned bathing caps, but even the somewhat saggy bathing suits don’t mar the timeless quality of the image. We see their reflections, but not below the surface. It manages to reach across time which is what the best old photos do for me.

Years ago I wrote a post (found here) based on the quote, save something for the swim back, and that quote comes to my mind when I look at this photo. The post was about the struggle I was having in the fall of 2019 where I did feel I was drowning at times. Little did I know how much would change in the next six months when March of 2020 rolled around.

This image feels like the liminal space between things – those times where we are parked in one of the great waiting rooms of our lives. That’s not to say those periods are fallow. I wrote several times about the time I spent caring for my mom during her final illness. (One of those posts can be found here.) While it was a world away from everything else, it was a time I learned a lot. Time seems to slow and morph. It is a period that seems to be outside of the ongoing time-space continuum of my life otherwise.

I have been in a similar space again recently as I began to commit to leaving my current position at Jazz at Lincoln Center and moving to another, very different one. That weird period when you realize that you are probably leaving, but you haven’t committed yet and are not ready to tell anyone. You stop investing in the future of what you are doing beyond a point because you won’t be there to do it so you are mentally treading water. However, after six and a half years I gave notice right before the holiday and more about that adventure in coming weeks for readers who stick around.

Lastly, to note: this is a photo postcard, but it is mounted on another piece of cardstock. I did not purchase it so it has the rare distinction of not being of my choosing as is virtually everything posted about here. Pictorama is pretty much wholly curated by me. However, this card arrived in the mail last December and there is a note from the fellow cartoonist Robert Crumb to Kim on the back. And we decided however, that the photo merited its own place here in Pictorama.

And It’s Spark Plug

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Possibly one of the strangest sub-genres here at Pictorama are a clutch of photos of people posing on Spark Plug who in 1922 made his way into comics fame when he made his entrance into the Barney Google strip. The patched together equine captured the reader’s heart in that initial episode and he joined the ongoing cast of characters. His distinctive appearance made him a picture perfect photo foil and evidently photos posing with him proliferated in addition to sheet music, Halloween costumes, games, candy containers and toys ranging from wind-up’s to more cuddly soft versions.

Not in Pictorama Collection. This sheet music is widely available.

I stumbled on the first photo in a Hake’s catalogue years ago and bid on it. That photo went very high and much to my disappointment I didn’t acquire it. It stayed with me however as these things sometimes do and I started to look for them.

I manage to acquire my first one back in 2018 and it is similar to the one I lost at the Hake’s auction. (That post can be found here.) It is a pro photo, much along the same lines as the concept of people posing with Felix, although the Spark Plug photos are not postcards and are generally regular prints which are 5×7 or larger. If you read that post you will find an interesting exchange with the descendent of the fellow identified in the picture who found the post while doing genealogy research on his family.

Pricey Chien litho toy for sale at the time of writing.

The next photo didn’t show up until ’21 and it is a postcard where Spark Plug is an almost abstract design. Lodged as he was in the public consciousness however you merely had to make a nod to his appearance and label him and you were good to go. (That odd little gem can be found here.) This acquisition marks the third in the series.

Today’s entry into the archive is what appears to be a very competently homemade version of the pasted together pony. Junior, in comic splendor complete with glasses, nose and mustache all of a piece under his topper of a hat, must be concealing his legs under Spark Plug’s body and stubby faux limbs are astride the horse. Spark Plug’s identifying patch is evident on the side and, as is always helpful, he is clearly labeled on one side. His head, while a tad small for his body, is a credible reproduction.

Next to him is another kid, in blackface, with a faux banjo. Something about him reminds the viewer of the jockey statues that used to be in evidence as outdoor decor. Behind them are adults who do not appear to be in costume – the maid notwithstanding but after some consideration I have decided that she is just working in uniform, not in fancy dress. She is pushing a cart of something fluffy and like the other adults she is in somewhat soft focus. They form a distracting blur behind the costumed kids.

Another pricey item for sale as I write – interesting that a somewhat forgotten cartoon character still fetches thousands for toys today!

This photo is approximately 5×7 and printed on a super light paper which is curling with age. The back is entirely blank and there’s no evidence that it was in a photo album at any time, perhaps it was framed. While the pictorial quality is somewhat lacking this photo nevertheless is another interesting entry into the Pictorama archive.

Jersey Finds: Foot Long Photo Fun

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This the first of a wealth of posts with some nice New Jersey items purchased in the antique markets here. This photo was my first purchase – and one of the best! I have wanted the right panorama photo for a long time and have looked at and dismissed or lost out on many over the years. This one won with both a local New Jersey related subject and for being a great photo.

I have endeavored to photograph it in a variety of ways to give you the best view – my own panorama, a video and several still photos taken of the parts. If you made it to the end you see that this was the Middletown Township, Leonardo NJ trip to Mount Vernon on May 15, 1931.

A local friend who is also a professional photographer told me he thinks this one was made with a banquet still camera, which I believe means that it was a camera set to take this size photo with one still take, as opposed to the sort of camera that might move to get the full (and I guess larger) group in.

Larry also told me that he has one similar to it, taken of his dad at Mount Vernon at approximately the same time. (He’s promised to dig it up for comparison!) Another friend online (@marsh.and.meadow via IG) has clearly seen these Mount Vernon group photos before although Google images doesn’t turn them up as a genre. Larry thinks his has a different view of the buildings so presumably they didn’t just set it up in the same spot every day. He is going searching for it so we’ll see.

One of the things I love about this photo is how dressed up everyone is for their trip! We get some great eyeball kicks of clothes from the day and it gives a great sense of the time. Those were the days when girls put on their best fur trimmed coats and cloche hats for such a trip and boys wore suits or at least ties with their v-neck sweaters.

We get a nice view of the buildings behind them and other folks are milling around up there too. The fellow at the lower right sports a cane and a careful look shows us that he has a wooden leg. He looks utterly undaunted by this and is embedded in a likely crew of boys. The group is lightly integrated.

Middleton High school graduates about 350 students annually so class size has grown over time. It appears to have been a prosperous enclave at the time and remains so today.

For me this is a great inaugural piece for decorating our New Jersey home away from home. However, it was just the first in a buying fiesta here recently in Monmouth County so stay tuned.

Giddyup!

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I bought this photo during my work trip to Poughkeepsie recently. I had a couple of hours one morning and a colleague and I ran out to a few antique stores and over time Pictorama readers will be the beneficiary of several posts about those over time.

I snatched this one up in the first shop which was a real treat with shelves and walls laden with interesting bits. The photo caught my eye almost immediately. Such a happy little fellow!

At first glance I thought this photo was taken inside (something about the stairs and something that looks like a banister but I think is a fencepost) and that was a bit of a head scratcher. That made me wonder if the pony was real. At closer examination it was taken outside and of course it is a real pony – a bit blurry since he didn’t stay still.

Huge cowboy hat (a ten gallon hat on a five gallon size head?) atop his head, this young’un is decked out from head to toe with a kerchief and chaps, down to his tiny riding boots. On careful examination there are stirrups that hang down for decoration or use by a larger person and our pint-sized cowboy has his boots tucked into smaller, shorter ones.

Our pony is a natty little fellow too with his or her shiny bridle. There’s something about the precise focus of the little boy versus the slight blur of the pony’s head that creates a sense of movement and dimension. There is some sort of chemical mistake behind the horse, a dark blot drawing your eye back.

Set up as freestanding.

The cardboard self-frame is nice and cheery. There is a ribbon to tie it closed or it can stand on its own which is how it was when I first spied it.

On this trip I was with a new colleague who I was getting to know a bit better. As it happens he hails from Nova Scotia and revealed in conversation that his family had horses growing up and he actually had a pony. However, he also said that he was kicked more than once by said pony, as well as some of the other horses on occasion. He was not left with a lasting love of horses as a result. Food for thought but despite that story, I can’t help think that the boy in the photo was one lucky fellow.

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Blackie sitting with my computer and bag of vitamins and meds this AM.

Update on the NJ cat fiesta. Cookie remains under the blankets on the bed. She slept behind my knees last night. Blackie is starting to venture out a bit and came to me for some purrs and conversation. Beau (another all black cat who was rather amazed to find a doppleganger in the house) tried to make friends, but Blackie was not ready and sent out a series of quiet hisses. However, neither of them is willing to eat! I am stymied by their combined continued refusal and even offered tuna. Please send advice if any!

Peaches and Beau, largely undisturbed by the visiting felines in the bedroom.

Five Females

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Sometimes a photo just socks me right in the eye and I have to buy it. Admittedly this happens most often when the pictures have cats, but sometimes a non-cat photo hits me just as hard and this was one. It wandered into my Instagram feed where @baileighfaucz.h announced a sudden photo sale.

Baileigh has brought us some wonderful photo here on Pictorama before. (Some of those posts can be found here and here.) So I always settle in for a good peruse when I see a sale.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

A makeshift photo studio seems to have been set up and these ladies pose in front of a sheet. The fact that we see beyond the edge in the upper right actually improves the composition by drawing our eye up I think. The light coming from the left side creates a shadow on that side, almost like another person and depth under them. The light plays on the folds of the pressed cotton dresses they sport, as well as the folds on the sheet behind them.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I had a post back in March of 2021 which can be found here and featured a clutch of photos from the same period, taken outside and more casual – but all of women lined up. What was it about photos of the time and lining folks up?

At first glance I thought maybe the four women in white were in uniforms, but a careful look at the tops of their outfit show that each is noticeably different. The woman out in front, far left of the viewer, has a bib that made me think apron at first, but at a closer look is likely the fashion of her top. All the white skirts are very similar, but aside from the one bib, there are different collars (high neck with a pin; dark side bow and a mannish tie) which are all quite distinct.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Of course the woman in black (or very dark dress) stands out. At first I thought she was older than the rest, but closer examination reveals that she is not. Is it black and is she in mourning perhaps?

Despite the similarity created by their dresses and hair dressed in the style of the time, under greater scrutiny they do not look to be related. Black dress and the woman behind her have the most serious expressions, although only the woman in the middle attempts a true smile.

Our gal in front steals the show however – she was clearly born with an attitude the camera loves. Hands on hips, she sports a saucy look at us, all the way forward to this century. She doesn’t quite smile, but she is the one you come away remembering.

Barker School, 1928

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Pam’s Pictorama.com: even by my standards this is a pretty goofy photo. Extremely faded at the bottom left it says, Barker School and on the other side barely legible, May 31, 1928. Written on the back in pencil is Woodland, Maine and Halloween Costumes – which clearly they are not since we know it was taken in May.

Even in my wildest imagination I can’t figure out what kind of school play might have given birth to these costumes – from the strange dark masked characters which look like Zuni dancers, to the weird scarecrow type figure the jolly bunny and a sad little turtle boy thrown into the mix. A pretty dark fairy tale.

This card was never used and my sense is that the writing on the back is a later addition although in two different hands so maybe added at different times. It is a bit bleached out so I have increased the contrast a bit with some computer magic. Even with that it is hard to figure out what the heck is going on here.

There is a small figure in the middle with what appears to be a parasol, also dressed in black that looks a bit cat like. My feeling though is that it is some sort of spring planting festival with the scarecrow and bunny – somehow the figures in black are reminding me of corn? The figure in the lower left is a complete mystery – no idea what he or she is about although a happy looking character.

Below I share a more or less contemporaneous photo (via a photo postcard) of the Barker School. I cannot seem to confirm if it exists today or not. It may have been renamed.

Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I would have loved to have been in school plays like this and perhaps that is part of the appeal of such photos for me. I was always up for dressing up and putting on a show. Combined with this lovely day in Maine in May seems almost irresitable.

PS – I am feeling better today. Tummy winced at my morning coffee, but definitely better.

Cowgirl

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This great photo postcard appealed to the latent cowgirl in me. I know very little about these things so I don’t know if this nice fringed outfit is real or costume – even her nifty boots have fringe. She wears it with aplomb and a good bit of attitude, riding crop in hand. Undeniably she is an indoor cowgirl here on a living room carpet and in front of a curtained window. Her kerchief and hat are both at jaunty angles.

While I have never been on horseback (nor have I ever resided on a farm, let alone a ranch) I had an early enthusiasm for a fantasy version of them as evidenced by my being an early and avid adopter of the Jane West toys.

There was something endlessly satisfying about the sturdy plastic, jointed limbs. She had a cowgirl outfit molded to her body and heavy rubbery accessories. She was made to stand with some authority (unlike my beloved Barbies who of course had feet designed for perpetual, fashionable high heels) and somehow the fact that she was cast entirely in blue plastic did not detract from her appearance. Jane had a wonderful palomino horse which she could sit astride on.

Since I am not in NYC I cannot show my own example of Jane West, but instead this more complete one along with her horse!

In my otherwise Barbie-oriented childhood it is a bit hard in retrospect to know what the cowgirl thing was about. Unlike Barbie’s adventures (my Barbie was named for Jo in Little Women and she was a globe trotting journalist), I do not remember the play I dreamed up for her.

Notably Jane did not need a cowboy equivalent of Ken, at least mine did not. In my world she stood on her own and didn’t even deign to date GI Joe – my Barbie’s fallback companion. I believe she is a head taller than both.

My mother was horse-y as a young woman. I am not sure how she started riding, but I know that not coming from a wealthy family she worked mucking stalls along with her childhood friend Jackie so they were able to ride. I gather Mom was mad about horses until one day while they were riding her friend was badly thrown onto a fence. Luckily for her the fence was old and just gave under her otherwise he back would have been broken. It left mom skittish about riding and although my older sister had a few desultory riding lessons I never had the chance to even start.

As a teenager a good friend gave me an excellent vintage Annie Oakley jacket of the softest butterscotch colored suede which she found in her attic. As a very little girls she and her mom had had matching jackets! It was much beloved by me and I wore it until it literally fell to pieces. This was perhaps my best personal cowgirl moment. It was as close as I was to come. (During the pandemic I also read all of the volumes of the Ranch Girls series. A post that touches on them can be found here.)

I came across a Jane West doll several years ago and snatched her up for my toy collection. It felt good to have Jane in the house again and she lives on my shelf, ever ready for some cowgirl action.

D is for Deitch

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Back in February I posted about my recent birthday trip downtown which included a brief foray at the flea market on 26th Street. (That post can be found here.) While there, I quietly picked up this rather splendid postcard to give Kim three days later for Valentine’s Day. It has never been used and there was no writing on it. There is some solarization I cannot quite get rid of when I photograph it. Mostly it has a wonderful and whacky sensibility which I thought would appeal to Kim’s taste.

The seller at the flea market had just a few random letters so I was fortunate to find a D among them, however it also turned out to be an especially good photo from this series. The lyrical looking woman holds apple (?) blossoms in front of this great scene of the two children (girls perhaps) having a photo shoot complete with box camera, tucked inside the letter if you will. We see nothing but the feet and back of one, and the other posing prettily, dressed up, primped, furbelowed and curled, with a flower in hand. A photo within a photo.

The D is painted, as is the scenery landscape beyond the children and somehow they have melded the photograph pieces together by a delicate operation of painted blooms and clouds. It is pretty seamless and I have a bit of a hard time deconstructing how this was put together. As one online source questioned – is it really a photo postcard? It is certainly a hybrid and the photo over painting and photo is delightfully many layered.

Letter P not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

I devoted part of the morning to looking for more of these and some information online. (A pleasant trip down a postcard rabbit hole I will say.)They were produced by the Rotograph Company and one source says this series is from 1914. The woman always poses, usually with a floral flourish, in front of the letter and the children appear in tableaus behind her, usually two but sometimes three as in the P I grabbed online below. I like the P, although not as much as the D. For me the two cheeky little girls, sort of up in the tree that makes the P really put it over.

The B isn’t in my collection either and I find it a tad disappointing.

In a continuing search for our initials, I found the B, but like it least of all. Despite the pup in front and a very sweet view of a home in the distance, I find the woman and children less interesting in this arrangement.

To my dismay and surprise, the K turns out to be a bit rarified and I was unable to find a photo of it to examine or snatch for my examination. Instead I offer you the letter E which I found a bit compelling along the way although it doesn’t do us much good. The woman is back in her floral mode and the two kids are hanging out in the middle of the E under an umbrella. I like the sort of marshy scene.

I just like the E, but also not in my collection. I’d grab it though.

There is a hand tinted version below, but I can’t say I think the tinting improves them really.

A hand colored version for comparison. Not in my collection.

Now the D is framed and has a place of pride on the wall, as you head into our kitchen – just across from a wall of Felix photos and under the Little Orphan Annie and Sandy wax cloth dolls.

Putting on a Show

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This card came to my attention because of the Felix-y costumed participant more or less in the center of the photo. I purchased it from an Ohio postcard dealer and have no reason to assume it isn’t from that region, but it is alas, without any further identification.

It is a photo postcard and there is evidence of it having been in a photo album, telltale black paper stuck to the back. It had never been mailed and is in fairly pristine condition for having been removed from an album page. The edges on either side are faded, but I think that is more of a chemical failure than one having to do with age or exposure.

Detail. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I have attempted to provide some detail so you can really see all of the costumes – or at least highlights of them as it is a large assembly. At first I thought this was a recording of a large costume party, but as I looked at it more I realized that there are several repeated costumes which implies more of a production to me now that I look carefully.

Detail. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

It’s a bit hard to imagine the storyline of such a production. I spot some folks in Arab headdresses, numerous clowns, at least one man sporting a powdered wig, one person in black face and of course Felix. It is hard to reverse engineer a possible plot around this. I am deeply jealous however of the kid who is sporting the black cat Felix-esque costume. Clearly I would love to own that little number.

Detail Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

There is a range of ages represented so this was perhaps a community production as, although most appear to be young adults, there are some older folks and some quite young. The hall they are in is fairly luxe by the standards of amateur productions and the enormous mirrors on either side of the stage reveal high ceilings and a sense of space beyond. (I have written about photos of other such productions in much less lavish halls and one of those can be found here.)

I worked on high school plays and have memories of a few at a neighborhood playhouse as well. A good friend was the lead in Dial M for Murder as I remember, the first time I was to see that show. The theater in question was called simply The Barn and it sat on a now prime piece of real estate in the town I grew up in, Rumson, NJ. (Down the street from the high school and across an intersection from a tiny and wonderful one-room local library which for some reason routinely inhabits my dream life as an adult.)

Undated photo (but as I remember it) and the only one I could find on the web of Lois McDonald’s Barn Theater in Rumson, NJ.

The Barn was, among other things, where I took ballet lessons for a period of time as a tot. I believe on alternate days gymnastics and ballroom dancing also were underway at a given time. It was owned and run by a woman named Lois McDonald and I only have a vague memory of this gravelly voiced elder statesmen owner of the establishment, but it nibbles at the edges of my mind. It was more humble one by far than this one appears to be and I am sorry to realize that it must have slipped out of existence without my ever realizing its demise.