Barker Brothers – the Long Shot

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is another installment of my nascent collection of yard long photos. These came to me via @reds_antiques on Instagram. He is a splendid west coast dealer and somehow I have managed to purchase a number of lamps and photographs from him. I suspect if I lived closer I would also be purchasing furniture from him but I have contained myself thus far. (Full images below – click on them to enlarge.)

These photos caught my eye one evening while scrolling through my feed, and after corresponding decided to purchase the lot of them so that they would stay together, although I knew it was my intention to only frame the two very large ones. (A video look at each below too.) There are a clutch of far less interesting group shots taken in a studio.

Barker Brothers Annual Picnic, 1919. Pams-Pictorama.com

As always, I know these are hard to fully appreciate in this presentation although I have tried valiantly. These are a full 48 inches long. Unlike my earlier purchases these were not framed so I took them to a local New Jersey framer my mom used to use. They were speedy and did a nice job. After some discussion we landed on gray mats although I had thought to do them without and needed to be talked into the necessity. They are already so large, I didn’t want to make them a bit larger, but I like the way they look now in the end.

Barker’s Brother Picnic, yard long photo. Pams-Pictorama.com

Although my original thought had been only New Jersey themed photos in this house, I decided I could extend myself to beach and pier scenes when I saw these! Nothing like a good old amusement pier. (Not sure I have every recounted my days visiting the remaining scrap of amusement pier in Long Branch, New Jersey as a kid and then teenager. Among other things friends worked at the Haunted House and outdid themselves to scare us if we came through!)

Below are a few details of each.

The thing I like most about these photos are the amusement rides behind the people – oh that roller coaster (Blue Stream) and that interesting castle, wonder what that was. This is the Santa Monica Pleasure Pier in case you cannot catch the name which is on both.

If you are trying to figure it out, these are not the same year. The smaller of the two, the one with a white border, is dated August 23, 1919. The other one does not appear to have a date – there are some numbers near the studio . Clearly though, both represent the Barker Brother’s Annual Picnic which was clearly quite the affair. The larger of the two (as noted) does not have a border and is printed oddly and it looks cut off, especially on the bottom.

For the record, Barker Brother’s Furniture Company of Los Angeles was founded in 1890 and was in existence for about100 years, folding in 1992 after a bankruptcy filing a few years before. The building, once fairly remarkable, is still extant (renovated in 2020) in a somewhat reduced appearance.

Lastly, these were both taken by M.F. Weaver Photography at 1196 West 38 Street, Los Angeles. Miles Weaver (1879-1932) started his career as a prospector. His photographic career, which began in 1910, came about with the death of his father in-law and moved to Los Angeles (from Santa Maria) in 1916. The studio became one of the largest of this genre of photos – taking pictures of banquets, army troops, religious revivals, beauty pageants, movie stills and even the early Academy Awards. After Miles’s death in 1932 the studio was run by his wife and sons until the 1960’s when it dissolved.

My quest continues! I am especially interested in acquiring some landscape ones up next, but we’ll see what comes my way.

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!

Christmas is Coming Cat Card

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s is an odd photo postcard I picked up recently. In 1902 Kodak introduced photo postcard packages were able to print their negatives right on them and I imagine that this card, sent in 1905 seems to be of this genre.

As I envision the making and using of these cards (something I actually have spent some time pondering) I wonder if they made a little pile of them at a time or only printed the one off. Will I someday be searching through eBay or a pile of photos and find the exact card but with a different message? (Imagine my surprise!) It seems like it could happen, but it never has to date.

This card, as is declared decoratively at the top, was sent on December 21st, 1905 from Berlin, New York. After some serious study, it appears to have been sent to Mr. J. E. Whiteker in Barnstead, New Hampshire. (There’s one word I can’t quite figure out – center? outer? Barnstead.) There is also a notation in pencil in the upper right corner, 7/27/75 15￠.

Shown as a plump puss with a fairly satisfied look on his face which belies the message to some degree. He is perched on some sort of print fabric and behind him there is a check tablecloth piled high with books.

The message on the card appears to read as follows, Dear Brother (?) This is the cat that didn’t kill the rat – we didn’t get a good picture. (Serve?) him a good Xmas dinner and make him grovel for it. “A personal Christmas to you from us. Herbert. Clearly a message of great holiday cheer.

Inability to execute a rodent notwithstanding, kitty looks pretty well fed and happy. A smile lurks in his genial expression. At a glance, he doesn’t really have the promising appearance of a rat killer, although with cats looks can deceive I suppose.

This sort of stripe-y tom is reminiscent of several of the New Jersey crew I inherited. Milty, a stray from Newark and Peaches, rescued from a basement in Long Branch, both fall into this distinctly indistinct category of cat. Most notably, our outdoor man, christened Hobo by me a few years back, fits this bill as well. (Peaches hates Hobo and looks the most like him!) The ongoing Hobo story is known to Pictorama habitués, but his tale is below.

I can’t remember precisely when Hobo showed up except that I believe it was after mom adopted Stormy, a gray and white kitten who was also being fed at the backdoor. Like my mom’s other rescues, she showed up persistently and was looking increasingly poorly when mom trapped her with the intention of spaying and releasing her. She turned out to be a very shy, but good natured kitty and she never returned to the outdoors. (She still chases her tail, like our Cookie!) Therefore, Hobo probably came into the fold around April of ’22.

Hobo, a bit of a reprobate, has resisted trapping. He’s a wily fellow who, when he is around, will ask for meals several times a day, leading me to think he has worms and wondering if I might slip something for them into his food. Last year this time mom was fairly focused on trying to get him trapped and in before the winter, but try as Winsome and I might we could not entice him in, making me wonder if he had been trapped in a cage before.

*Peaches and Hobo. Next to Peaches is a favorite toy rat which is often a gift on my bed when I am there.*

Unlike the others mom eventually trapped and adopted (I inherited five cats, plus Hobo from her when she died in April – yes, plus two here in NY), Hobo has the real earmarks of a life lived outside. I’m sure he looks older than his years and of course living the outdoor life, while sort of swinging and intriguing, is likely to drastically reduce his life span. (A Peaches to Hobo comparison below!)

Over the summer I had a video texted to me by a horrified Winsome who came across Hobo feasting on a rat! Evidently he had also brought her a dead mouse – gracious acknowledgment of the many meals she has given him. Clearly however he was supplementing his protein with a bit of a la carte dining. I had the opposite reaction and said he deserved a promotion and give that cat some treats! (We are not far from the water and we are always somewhat in danger of being overrun by rats.)

Sadly, Hobo seems to be on the lamb these days and hasn’t shown up in more than a week. Winsome reports daily and has tried leaving food out for him in case he is visiting at odd hours. It isn’t the longest he’s been gone and I believe (hope) there are other folks in the neighborhood who feed and look out for him. (We’ve seen him picking his way, very dignified, through other yards and down local streets.) We are decamping for several weeks in New Jersey and I am hoping he reappears then if not before.

Edit: I received an update tonight that Hobo showed for a late dinner! We’re very glad he is back in the fold.

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.

Getting to the Root of Burdock Blood Bitters

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: These cat related bits wandered in together from Miss Molly (@missmollystlantiques) who said her mom found them. They are similar to a post I did a few months back with an interesting cat piece that Miss Molly sold me, but evidently not from the same point of origin. (That post, The Fish Eater can be found here.) My guess is that these did not relate to each other earlier in life either and the Burdock Blood Bitters and the cat head show evidence of having been hand trimmed. All show signs of having been pasted down so they came out of an album.

The Burdock piece was a trade card for a patent medicine. It still has some information about the product on the back, including that it hailed from the Foster, Milburn & Co., Buffalo, N.Y. Kittens seem like a benign if misleading representation of this particular stomach cure. These kittens also seem oddly placed in this basket – not really sitting on anything, floating. This piece is the heaviest, made of card stock. In a sort of sleepy state this morning (concert last night for work) I started down the rabbit hole of Burdock root and Burdock Blood Bitters online this morning.

One entry tells me that an 1918 bottle of bitters that was tested contained zero burdock and excessive amounts of alcohol and lead. Although it was ostensibly most frequently used to settle stomach and digestive ailments (think constipation and liver and kidney problems), the company also claimed that it would work to purify your blood (whatever that means) and cure nervousness. The internet seems to be willing to grant that Burdock root is high in fiber and especially high antioxidant and something called pre-biotic qualities. Herbal remedies with it abound on the internet today.

The seated kitty is holding a rat under one paw and whatever his origin, he is on very light paper, slightly embossed. You probably can’t see it, but he has a couple of fangy teeth bared. It presumably hails from some sort of rodent killing product ad. Although is bow is untied he looks otherwise unruffled, almost surprised that he is holding that ratty fellow.

For the Hobo fans, I will pause and tell a recent tale. (For those who are just entering the story, Hobo is the tough old male stray who visits our backyard in New Jersey. I fed him and even tried to trap him at my mother’s behest, but he is wily and although he enjoys his handouts he will never get that close.)

*A recent through the screen door pic of Hobo. King of outdoor cats.*

Anyway, after mom died we continue to feed him and the other day the caretaker of cats and house, Winsome, because to her horror she stumbled across Hobo behind the bushes in the front yard munching (and crunching – she sent a video) on a rat. (Evidently he had left a mouse for her earlier in the day so she shouldn’t have felt so bad!) I told her he deserved a promotion.

Lastly there is a cat head, slightly embossed, which appears to be the only one that was constructed for pasting down. Hard to see but even the whiskers and the hairs are defined and it is professionally finished although it seems to fit all of a piece with these two more recycled bits.

I’m sorry the original page of this Victorian album arrangement no longer exists, but happy to welcome these small bits to the Pictorama collection.

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.

Strolling with Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It is another (dreadfully) rainy morning in a string of them this week here in New York, but I have just the thing to cheer us up or so I hope. This especially fun Felix card showed up here at Deitch Studio this week. I am always happiest when one of these turns up for acquisition into my burgeoning collection.

This time the photographer has cleverly set this large Felix up to pose for a stroll down the road with all comers and this tiny tot is just the right size for a companion, a full head shorter than this magnificent Felix. The kid has a nice hold on Felix’s crooked and proffered elbow and is attired in short pants, sun hat and beach shoes of the day.

I don’t recognize the location and don’t know what seaside town in Great Britain this was taken in, almost looks like more of a park. The scruffy vegetation and the stony wall do put me in mind of being near the ocean. However, the men walking behind Felix and child are in dark suits and hats – not exactly beach-y attire, perhaps an important gathering of corporate tycoons? A Davos of the day?

*A card added to the collection earlier this year, February post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Felix and the kid are looking right at the camera. Felix sports a wonderful flowing bow and somehow his cock-eyed legs create the allusion of movement; he’s marching down the path. They are right in the center of the picture which is a great composition.

This card was never sent and there are no notations on it for date or location. Part of me is curious to know if there is a whole series of pictures of people strolling down this path with Felix (wouldn’t it be fun if others turned up?) or if this was a single lucky shot. For now though I think there is a perfect horizontal empty spot, right under the calendar and across from where I am sitting, for it to join some other jaunty giant Felix souvenir cards.

Pillow Talk

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It’s a rainy sleepy morning here at Deitch Studio and I slept in a bit after a late night. However, as I sat down with my coffee and looked through the mail (the IRS sent something about my mom’s nascent estate – haven’t opened that yet) and found this gem which I forgot was on its way to me. An excellent way to start the day – IRS notwithstanding.

There is a somewhat manic quality to this photo, which Kim pointed out right away. The seller doesn’t seem to know anything about it and it was purchased from a US dealer. The card was never used and the woman, if she was notable, is unknown to me and us. Kim added that she doesn’t look like she was living right.

However, let’s focus on this really splendid black cat pillow she is displaying! Wouldn’t I love to have that on the couch here at Deitch Studio. (Incidentally I have a very nice black cat curled up on said couch right now – Blackie has rediscovered the couch post-NJ visit, after a long period of pouting in the closet. He and Cookie appear to have made up as well and they no longer hiss at each other in passing.) It strikes me as funny that she is displaying this pillow for us. I love it but it must have been a slow day at the photo studio for props and inspiration.

This card reminds me of a popular French card series in the early 20th century of nearly or entirely naked women posing with a small stuffed black cat. I have one (extremely popular I might add, the post is called Kim’s Favorite Photo) card in my collection. That post can be found here.

Small children and black cat toys featured on postcard are also popular, perhaps more easily understood. Also have to remember that the superstition about black cats is an American thing and the Brits even consider them good luck. (A post on the one above can be found here.) Of course black cat toy photos abound here at Pictorama!

Still, this can serve as my opening salvo for Halloween, the upcoming celebration of all things black cat.

Jersey Finds: Four Feet of Fun

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: For those of you keeping track, a few weeks ago I featured a panorama photo of a local high school on a class trip to Mount Vernon in 1931 and I promised a follow up. (That post can be found here.) Mere days after that purchase I can across the one I am featuring today and snatched it up as well. It too is a Jersey image – the First Annual Outing and Picnic of the F and M Foremen’s Club of Garfield. (Of course I have been left to ponder what a Foremen’s Club might be – a gathering of various foremen? From one place? Many?)

At 46 inches long (click on the photo and try to blow it up) the size of this photo is clearly one of its most outstanding features. Unlike the photo from Mount Vernon, this one is a parade of period picnic attire. While a few men hold out for jackets, others have ties even if no jacket, for the most part folks were letting their hair down in the literal sense here. There is no date and because of the nature of the clothing it is a tad difficult to date it. A few of the bathing suits (on both the men and women) convince me that this was probably the 1920’s. Most of the women are in variations of pretty cotton dresses which in terms of style could stretch over several decades.

IThe accordion player is a good addition. I like to think of him roaming around and playing in the late afternoon after the lunch hampers were largely repacked and everyone was sated and resting while considering another dip in the lake or perhaps a lazy trip in a boat. The kids in their various states of attire are great. Some kids are even wearing ties (hats) while others are stripped down for action.

Unlike the other photo this one has noticeable distortion with the people on the viewer’s far right significantly larger than those on the other side. The guy who is blurred is the distortion line, with it increasing from there going right.

Neither of these pics grace the walls yet, but I am enjoying living with them and getting to know them. More to come about further acquisitions of this kind – and other Jersey finds from this trip. However, as Kim recently said as he looked around the living room – it is starting to look like we live here.

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.