Schimdt’s White and Gold Band

Pam’s Pictorama Post: With Memorial Day behind us, and despite the fall-like weather this Saturday as I write, I thought I would pull out this postcard purchase. It both celebrates the summer season ahead and the town where my mother grew up, Long Branch, New Jersey. I snatched it up at a sale recently and will take it to the house in New Jersey where, among the images of cats, are a number of early local Jersey shore photos and postcards, an homage to my family’s history in the area and my own.

I find that Max Schmidt (1850-1951) was a violinist who immigrated to the United States in 1886 from Germany. He lived and worked primarily in New York City, even reportedly with the Met Opera at times, so this summer gig for his 24-piece orchestra was a short hop away and his orchestra enjoying some limited fame of the time.

Here is the Band White and Gold in all their 1909 glory on today’s card. Although it is somewhat standard of all the musicians with their instruments in hand, there are a few interesting elements. I like that the trumpets all have flags (pennants?) advertising the band hanging from them – three tubas, two more tuba-like things and so many drums! Behind the musicians is a sign that says Band White and Gold and a sort of gong hanging below it. At the bottom (a bit hard to read) it declares, Max Schmidt Celebrated Band White & Gold Ocean Park, Long Branch, NJ.

They appear here to be on a stage set of some kind and a careful look to the back reveals a painted column and some foliage. As best I can tell the area around them on the outside of the stage looks like a cave entrance. Most intriguing however are the three men, just behind the fellow I assume is Max himself (small child seated on the floor next to him), and they appear to stand behind wood stumps with anvils, hammers in their hands. I assume this is part of the opera music they were known to play. Tucked away, all the way on the left side and hard to see, is a harp.

This card was mailed on August 23, 1909 from Long Branch. It only says, Love from, Minnie. It was mailed to, Miss Amelia Freuzel, Sayreville, N.J. The card, produce by The Rotograph Co. NY, City was printed in Germany.

Meanwhile, this was the heyday of the band concert and his sported striking white and gold uniforms. They were hired in the summer of 1909 to play outdoor concerts in Ocean Park. (If I understand it, Ocean Park was subsumed by what is now known as Seven President’s Park – if wrong Jersey folks let me know.) Their repertoire would have been popular band music, evidently combined with excerpts from operas. At the time Long Branch was the summer haven for the very wealthy and even Presidents. (The most outstanding remaining example is Wilson’s summer home which now forms the core of what became Monmouth University’s campus. I understand that there is a building which will house Bruce Springsteen’s papers quite nearby.)

The fortunes of the town, like many, have waxed and waned over the decades. Despite my grandmother living in a residential area on the outskirts in the house my mom grew up in (I wrote about that house in a previous post here), the downtown area and even the waterfront was largely down at the heels during my childhood. The shopping district was usurped by an enormous mall (which in turn was ultimately killed by online shopping and an outdoor shopping center) and only a few essential stores hung on. There was a Foodtown supermarket by the train station (which I shopped in a few times when my sister was in the hospital across the street), a paint store called Siperstein’s, which mom frequented. (A quick look online and it appears to still be there, selling wallpaper and blinds now as well. It may be a chain.)

*Another from the internet not in my collection.*

There was also a library which for some reason I found more interesting than both the tiny one in Rumson (the Oceanic Library – I must write about it one day), and the much larger and more modern one known as the Monmouth County Library. (It is out by Trader Joe’s so I have seen it and it has been expanded further since my childhood.) We didn’t go to the library in Long Branch often as it was a bit more out of the way, but we’d stop in occasionally and there was just something especially warm and inviting about the children’s section. I wish I could remember what books I found there, I was already reading chapter books, but it would likely be a false memory. I want to say the later Alcott children’s books like Jo’s Boys. Below is what the library would have looked like in my childhood (albeit more beat up) although it is a much more contemporary and entirely different building today.

*Undated photo of the Long Branch public library via the internet.*

In addition, there was another smaller commercial area closer to my grandmother, where my great-grandparents once had their bar and restaurant. (I wrote about the blue willow ware plates – the blue plate special plates – which I inherited and use. The post is here.) My vivid memories of that area from childhood were a Dunkin’ Donuts we frequented and the rarified early McDonalds. My parent’s accountant was also there – may still be for all I know but I doubt it. (Sadly, later in life, it is also where the funeral home the family used is and that is what I associate with it now.) There was a laundromat (strange word now that I look at it) nearby we sometimes used in the years before getting a washing machine although there was one closer to home, in Sea Bright, that I remember best. Mom may have been doing laundry for my grandmother.

And so the march to summer at the shore begins again today, even if I am drinking hot coffee and eyeing a sweater for my trip downtown in a bit. However, I’m sure there will be more shore and vacation posts coming soon.

Crying Kits

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I have cat tales. Cats are of course the foundational interest of Pam’s Pictorama although we do stray – Kim’s comics, the occasional dog. We are All Pam, all the Time, but albeit not quite cats all the time but much of the time.

Today’s card came as a purchase from the most recent incarnation of the postcard show and we have the Boulanger card with crying kitties to consider. I’m not exactly sure what in particular Maurice was thinking about. We have a dark gray and white matched pair of kittens who are looking at each other with tears running down their faces. The white one is a bit pudgier and a smidge bigger than the gray one, one with yellow eyes and the other a very light green.

In my opinion Boulanger (b. 1910, d.o.d. unknown) was something of a pretending to the Louis Wain (b. 1860, d.o.d. 1939) throne so to speak, as there are a few decades of overlap between them. I reckon there was more than enough demand for the images produced by two cat artists. (Some prior posts for Boulanger can be found here and here. Louis Wain Pictorama posts abound but a few are here and here.)

This image is evidently called, Tendrement (Tenderly) and on some versions evidently in German it is also written, Apfelblüte. Daut un daut lüschen Hoffen – Apple Blossom. That sweet, soft glimmer of hope. I did wonder about the image of weeping pusses. It does raise the issue of who you might have sent this card to and what their reaction might have been. Mine was not sent and does not have any useful information on the back.

Yesterday was a major cat event here as Blackie has been doing sort of poorly with a lack of appetite. Ahead of the holiday weekend I managed to get him into his local vet in the late afternoon. Have I ever mentioned that Blackie seems to have an uncanny need to go to the ER on a holiday weekend or otherwise inconvenient (reads as more expensive too) times? He does. Long story short, no sooner had we gotten home than the vet called to tell me that after looking at his tests (a small amount of ketones in his urine) he needed to go to the ER.

*The little man, feeling more himself, today.*

Of course, these days the kitty emergency room is at the hospital where I work. So yes, on what should have been an afternoon off I was hopping in a cab and rushing Blackie down there. (Kim, still recovering from back surgery did the first vet trip but we decided he should stay home for the second.)

I took him fully expecting that he would need to stay overnight. A young resident saw him and ran some more tests. Blackie hates going to my place of employment, but this time I had reason to bless working there. He enjoys a low-key celebrity status as an employee kitty (people came and visited with us and even with him in the back, reporting out to me) and despite it being the Friday night before the long weekend, one of the senior docs who has seen him before came by to have a look at him.

She mentioned as had the other two vets, that he had a lot of bowel not moving in his intestines – kitty constipation. The difference was she gave me instructions for giving him a tiny kitty dose of Miralax. Since eating and resolving constipation were the main issues we decided I would bring him home – he has an appetite enhancer and an anti-nausea drug. Even when we came home last night, he was ready to eat! That combined with the Miralax appears to have set him absolutely right today. I woke to a hungry boy cat and a rather impressively full litterbox. Yesterday reminded me of why I love the hospital where I work. Yay for Blackie!

Noted

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It is threatening to be a hot summer’s day in May today – we are having now you see it, now you don’t warm weather here in Manhattan this spring. We whiplash between our light down filled jackets and sleeveless dresses, and I gather today will be the latter. I am heading to New Jersey to get the dahlias in for the year. They sit out the winter in the garage, tucked in paper bags, but for all the fickleness of the weather I think we are past frost here and I want them to have maximum time to bloom.

After yesterday’s excitement of reviewing Kim’s new book, I am afraid I have created a hard act to follow. I hope this Wain card from the recent postcard show does the trick – a palate cleanser of cat images to get back to the general business of Pictorama.

Upon reflection I realize I was slow to cede to Wain adoration – I resisted for quite a long time (overpriced postcards I remember thinking), but when I fell, I fell hard. I am a Wain addict. Few things dependably make me chuckle than a Wain image even if I have seen them many times before. A few of my past tributes can be found here and here but there are many!

His cat postcard parade is an almost endless variation playing on human foibles and attitudes – sardonic, malevolent, self-satisfied, mystified, distracted for starters. There are types too, fat, thin, businessman, solid citizen, and of course troublemakers galore. For types he is partial to tabbies – those nice decorative stripes I suppose. They can be a variety of shades. Today we have a gray tuxie which seems a bit exotic for him.

Today we have a Raphael Tuck & Sons card with four choral kitties – a cat quartet. Each holds a score which is inscribed, Nothing New Latest New Songs. Starting on the end with our pudgy, contented (self-satisfied?) fellow, gripping his book with both paws. He’s a fat cat in the best sense. (Somehow, we know these are all boy cats, yes?) Next to him is a small and skinny gray tuxedo, sporting a red bow looking a tad waifish, paw on tummy to help him emote. The two on the end are sort of a matched set of two colors of tabby, one has a blue bow for good measure and the music books they hold are a variety of green, red and blue. Each has a singing pose all his own showing his enthusiasm for his chorale endeavors.

When we look closely there is eye color variation and I assume Wain figured he could goose that a bit without anyone noticing – these cats have eyes of yellow, green and blue! They all are looking in different directions too which packs a smidge of action into this small image – and each singing with a different level of enthusiasm. Tails are curled in a variety of ways and directions, whiskers as well as eyebrows help complete the expressions. All these details are what Wain swaps out within his mental inventory of images he uses again and again. Finally, he supplies a sketched in shadow on the ground and nothing else aside from his signature which is sort of a visual element anchoring that side of the card, fat cat tail on the opposite side.

The title below is, The note duly reached in what I assume is Wain’s hand. Below that, in remarkably similar but lighter script someone has written, Hope I shall see you Thursday, Grannie. It was addressed to, Master C. T. Travers, Woolfanger, Warlingham, Surrey. The cancellation year is hard to read but appears to be August 13, 1905. Can I just say, how much fun must it have been to get a postcard like this when you were a kid? Yay for Grannie! Clearly enough that this card has survived more than 120 years.

So I leave you to revel in this smidge of Wain while I pack up my gardening togs and head out shortly. Look for some New Jersey pics on Instagram later.

Scratch That

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: At the heart of my collecting are odd bit postcards and photos that just appeal to me and today it is one. It has been a little while since I have featured a real one-of-a-kind photo postcard that was made of someone’s pet – my indulgences at the postcard show have turned up more illustrated cards and professional photo postcards. However, in some ways these one-offs epitomize something about why I collect cat photos.

Photos are usually tributes to the puss in question, many mice caught, had kittens and the like, today’s is a different sort of good kitty notice. It took me a bit to realize that this missive declares that this Miss Cat (I believe kitty to be a girl), sweet little thing we see in the sun here, has not scratched our sender.

*Beauregard is a very thoughtful cat and was always extra careful around mom.*

Now, I am the first to say when you live with a kitten, you generally walking around like the bleeding wounded on some horror film set, arms and hands particularly mangled, until you convince them that there are things for scratching (and biting for that matter) and slowly it ceases.

It must be said that an odd flaw in my beloved Blackie is he never learned to use a scratching post or box. His sister Cookie is happy to tear furiously into one, as are the Jersey Five. I have set scratching boxes up in strategic places and they are used not only for scratching but Peaches in particular likes to sleep on them, as if on a little cardboard throne, as well as tear them to bits.

*Mr. Blackie without a care in the world, showing his tummy recently.*

As a result, we occasionally get a negligent scratch from Blackie’s nails, although he hasn’t actively scratched either of us since kittenhood. I used to worry about those kinds of unconscious scratches with my mom and her cats. At the end of her life her skin was very thin and as a diabetic, scratches could be a problem. However, her cat favorite lap cat Beau always seemed to be extra careful and we rarely if ever had a problem. In an adult cat clearly scratching is a clearly a sign of unhappiness – Back off buddy! You’ve crossed a line.

*The cat in the photo reminds me of Peaches. She’s a terror and to my knowledge no one has actually ever touched her. She will get within two feet of me when I am putting out food and that’s it.*

Our kitty here has been captured in a benign mood, although something has caught her attention out the window. She appears to be white with some stripe-y patches on the bottom half of her and some of the same color up around her head and ears. She’s not a kitten but does appear to be a fairly young cat. We see just the tip of her curled tail, mirrored by her shadow on this small table – she is barely staying still enough for this photo to be taken. She’s a sprightly cute little thing – clearly a scratcher though!

There is a cannister, such as would hold something like flour, behind her. (Dollars to donuts that got knocked over eventually if this was her favorite viewing table.) Puss is a little sassy, you can tell that from this pic. All this is captured in this circle printed at the top of the card.

*Cookie likes to curl up under my desk. This was her during a zoom call last week.*

Under it, the fellow in question has written, “Hasn’t scratched yrs” Yours Samuel Jackson. It was mailed from Schenectady on June 11 at 11:30 (maybe 12:30, hard to see), 1906. It is addressed (to the best of my decoding ability) to Miss Emma Crisppen, Coxsackie, N.Y. It arrived in Coxsackie at 4:00 PM of the same day. A miracle by today’s standards we cannot imagine. (Not that they could imagine sending an email or this blog post in all fairness.)

So there we have it, our slice of time out of 1906, very close to exactly 120 years ago today.

Commuter Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: There are a few rather interesting things about today’s card – an image I have never seen before but cracked me up. It posits six cats in a flying machine that is both futuristic while still being of its early 20th century time – a nice commute indeed for these workaday kits, I must say. I want to say the flying machine is one part kite on the top and this wing advertises, Why trouble to drive? Aerobus Trips in the Sky. It has, oddly enough, skis as well as wheels. I assume that although no snow currently threatens the bucolic green town below, one has to be prepared for all eventualities and seasons. (Wain is a Pictorama favorite and if you are new to the fold you can find more past Wain posts here, here and here for starters.)

On the side of the aeobus there is a partially obscured inscription, Catlands Branch…and then what likely is Service. The plane appears to be made of something reminiscent of balsa wood, but we will hope for their sake that it is something a bit more substantial. A little put-put propeller seems to be the force behind flight, perhaps helped along with the kite-like design. Just behind the propeller and hard to read is the name of the vehicle, evidently christened Mouse No. 15.

It is a tabby filled load, heavy on the oranges (orange tabbies seem to be a favorite of Wain’s, perhaps their natural tendency toward trouble making), although there are a variety of shades within that, light and dark, and one black and whiter for good measure. A jolly fat fellow is steering, wheel and stick I notice. He sports a cap in case we doubt his official role. The other cats seem to be enjoying themselves, looking at the view. I’m surprised no one is reading the newspaper or coming home with bags and boxes from a shopping trip in town – it could use a middle-aged female cat.

The town below sports a church and a single, very large home, a bridge in the distance and tended fields awaiting crops. There seems to be a sea which drifts almost invisibly into the sky.

Notably, in case you did not know, this card is a contemporary reproduction which was advertised as such online. I was curious and not unsatisfied with the results. After all, the “real” postcards have wide variation from multiple printings as well and what is real when it comes to postcards. The image is sharp and not dupe-y which is what I was most curious and concerned about. There is a somewhat undefinable not oldness about it. There is no manufacturer’s info on the back. It would have originally likely been the product of Raphael Tuck and Sons Ltd.

I have been unable to find versions of the original card online which lead to an interesting thought – what if this isn’t really a Louis Wain but instead a very crafty modern mix up and reassembly of existing and new parts? I don’t really think this card is, but it begs the question about our new world in the not too distant future will be we be parsing real versus actual reinvention?

To me it is also interesting that it is my inclination that I would mail this postcard and I never mail my old ones – too expensive and too fragile. If I give one it is generally framed. At $5 this was about the price of an average greeting card these days, although maybe a bit more with postage. I guess we will just have to wait and see if “new” Louis Wain’s start to appear and then we can judge them on their own merits. However, modern reproduction does bring the possibility of bringing them back into play so to speak and using them again for their original intention. (Does anyone actually even know what a postcard costs to send in the US today?)

****

For those of you who are wondering, Paw Day was a huge success yesterday at the Second Avenue Street Fair here. While the block long Japanese food fiesta might have topped our block marginally, we were packed with interested parties and lots and lots of dogs (and a few adventurous cats) and curiosity. Many existing clients visited with us and our docs but also lots of people with puppies and new pets who were curious. It was fast paced and exhausting but great fun.

A brave cat visitor to our table yesterday and Blackie exacting a lap toll this morning (slowing me down some) for yesterday being mostly a day out of the apartment.

On the Fence

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I have seen this postcard before and I cannot say why but have never thought to purchased it until now. Suddenly it just struck me as good fun when I saw it the other day online, a perfect version of a sort of a card. Perhaps all my kitten photo posts lately had me in a different frame of mind and attuned me to seeing it better.

Meanwhile, it’s an overcast morning here in Manhattan and shortly after I finish this post I need to hurry down to 76th Street and Second Avenue for a street fair where the animal hospital I work for has taken a block for our annual Paw Day. I will layer up with branded t-shirt, sweatshirt, baseball cap and kerchief – we actually give those to dogs who visit but I like to wear one jauntily tied around my neck. I don’t know about sun, but I think maybe we can avoid rain.

Anyway, today’s card shows these two adolescent cats, just out of proper kittenhood in my opinion, sitting on a picket fence distracted perfectly in unison by something we cannot see. Their uniform, spotty fur makes me thing they might be littermates. Utterly illegible, in poorly planned white writing on the white fence it declares these two as, The Astronomers. These are stargazing felines it seems. The background is a solid black so if there are stars in theory, they reside out of view.

Perhaps ironically, or not, the copyright by Rotograph is a more visible white on black, under the leg of the left cat, right where his black tail is curled around his feet or her feet. The copyright is 1906 by the Rotograph Company of New York. (Almost exactly a year ago I did another post about a Rotograph card which can be found here. However, more about the Rotograph Company and Rags their cat, can be found in a post here. Oddly that one is from April of ’19. Spring is Rotograph time here at Pictorama!) It would appear to me, for the record, that the cat on the left is indeed Rags as he has a singular mark coming down from his right eye.)

This card was mailed in the year of its copyright, December 1, 1906. It was sent from and to Worcester, Massachusetts at 4:00 in the afternoon. It was mailed to, Master Topsy & Sweetheart Merrit, 6 High Street, Worcester, Mass. (Out of curiosity I checked and there is a split-level home of relatively recent vintage there now.) I’m sure it was great enjoyed by Topsy and Sweetheart and as a result has somehow lasted in splendid shape all these years.

I pledge for a longer post tomorrow when I am not under the gun to get to work. I will catch you all up on tales (and tails) from Paw Day perhaps.

Hanging the Moon

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: We are mooning around today here at Pictorama and of course Deitch Studio is a good place for it as no one does it better than Kim in my opinion. That old man on the moon – Kim makes him toothy and gives him carbuncles and craters for an extra moon-y surface to his bald head. There was a time when I might have said that the Man on the Moon best defined Kim’s work – along with the time clock with a face standing over him for starters. And I generally ask Kim for a moon face (and snow) in our holiday cards.

*A good ‘ole Kim Deitch moon in this eye popping pic of a cartoon mural!*

Postcards, photography, cartoons – all in love with the man on the moon and hanging with him. My collection has a few choice photo postcards of people sitting on the moon (I’d have more if they weren’t so expensive!) and of course even just a few posts back there were kittens in a balloon flying toward the moon. A few images from my collection are below. (The post about the photo of Kim and Simon shown below can be found here.)

(The card above was from a previous postcard sale and was in a January post which can be found here.)

As much as we crave sunlight there is something about being out under the rays of a bright full or roaring orange harvest moon that makes us kick up our heels in a totally different way – not to mention the romantic interludes it inspires. I remember reading a passage in a novel about roaming through backyards and streets in the suburbs late at night under a bright full moon. Having grown up in suburbia it brought such a specific image to my mind that stayed with me. And where I grew up it would have also been the moon on the water too, always reflected on the river in our backyard. Stephen Millhauser writes very compellingly about having a different life by night – I may be thinking of him. (His novella, Enchanted Night is a good place to start with his books.)

*Available in paperback in a number of places online.*

I fell hard for this postcard immediately. I found it last weekend at the postcard show and the dealer told me it is a part of a series. Although I found another copy of this card in a collection online, I was unable to find others from a series. I will be keeping a sharp eye out however.

*An early Deitch Studio holiday card production with moon, stars instead of snow. I like those too.*

It would appear that these youngsters are constructing this natty moon fellow, placing his hat, glasses (those are a nice touch!), giving him a pipe, and one doing something with his mustache – applying it? There is a tiny paint can next to him. Obviously a ladder is necessary to do this work. The boys are all wearing overalls in different colors and reach sports red shoes.

The thing about this image is this amazing flying contraption the boys are in. When you look carefully it is a flying boat – something akin to a rowboat with wings, a kite-tail and strange wheels – for use on land? Another look and you realize that there is something coming off the flying machine to the back of the moon – it appears it is actually propping it up in the softly star studded sky. The painting boy, tucked in the seat of this machine, has a tiny ship’s wheel in front of him to steer. How all three would fit is also a further question for our imagination.

*Kim and Simon posing for a moon seat photo as tiny tots!*

Lastly this machine hangs over the endless sea – like it is taking place somewhere at the ends of the world, which is likely is. Waves appear to gently lap but of course space and scale are left entirely to our imagination. I must say the artist had a wonderful vision and got to run with it on this one.

This card was never mailed although the back has indications that it was pasted into something. The maker’s mark is postcard druik u. Verlag von B. Dondort, G m.b.H. Frankfurt a/m which doesn’t seem to lead to much of anything.

It is seldom that an image makes me as dreamy as this one does. It gives a new visual to the idea of thinking that your loved one has indeed hung the moon for you. A cheerful thought on a rainy Sunday here in New York City and at Deitch Studio.

Beauty

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yesterday’s postcard show did not disappoint, and Kim and I wiled away an hour or two perusing the wares. This is a single day show and therefore a bit smaller and folks say they don’t bring as much stock but we made out just fine. We will wait for Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6 for that. Meanwhile I present one of my purchases which caught my eye, however it is more fun now that I have transcribed the message on the back. The message is for a new kitty, named Beauty, that has clearly joined the family.

It would appear that these cats are ice skating – and this Mom (?) cat is putting a skate on the young cat (boy? it has a blue bow) although there is only one, which she has just placed on his foot. (Where is the other skate?) The chair is somewhat mysteriously placed out on the ice, another cat skating with what appears to be a cane in the background. In the foreground there is a black kitty, who looks like my Blackie with just some white on his neck, also standing with a cane. (Do cats need canes to stand like humans? Is this something we should know if we want them to become bipeds?)

Youngster looks like the one I am calling Mom and has a matching tabby stripe to his fur. The skater in the background also appears to have stripes but is at a distance and somewhat indistinct. The weird sea green ice (which makes them appear to be actually standing and seated on water) goes to an only slightly lighter background. Dad pokes out of the frame and Mom perches right on it.

*Back of card – very embossed indeed! Makes it a bit hard to read at first.*

This card is embossed, creating a very three-dimensional effect, and around the edge is some snow decoration, also embossed. The postcard was made in Germany, however no artist is identified with it. Youngster is eager to get skating I’d say.

*We stopped for lunch at a place called Bagel Pub.*

I didn’t understand the message at first as it took some decoding. Despite the neat script the back of the card is pitted with the embossing making it hard to read. Anyway, it reads as follows, October 2d 1910. Well, my one eared Beauty how are you? Snoozing in your mother’s big chair I presume. Be good to little Georgie and never scratch him. Hope you will live many years. Auntie B. It was mailed to, Beauty Dunham, 782 Commercial S, East Weymouth, Mass. and just in case below that, To Georgie Dunham. It’s nice that she dated it because the postmark does not show the year, although October 3 and 6 AM show, as does New Jersey, but only Brio…? shows on the postmark for location which I cannot figure out. And gosh, what happened to one of Beauty’s ears?

Spotted this interesting building – the old bit in front seems to have actual gas lamps. The ancient building on the other side is interesting too. This is 13th Street, I think between 7th and 6th, southside of the street.

Meanwhile, Kim had his maiden voyage on the subway, his first long trip out since surgery. I think a change of scenery swept away any cabin fever he had, although admittedly he has been deep into his work so I am not sure how much he was suffering from his time at home as a result. However, all is onward and upward here at Deitch Studio.

Way Up!

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today is Metropolitan Postcard Club Show Day! Yay for new postcards for Pictorama! We herald that event with a postcard from the last show, purchased for it’s kitten collage-ness.

Photos of kittens floating in balloons is a sort of sub-genre of early 20th century photography and this is a late example – almost a tribute to those. This card was mailed from Kingston, New York on July 27, 1944. (As an aside, I had cousins who lived near Kingston, New York and was probably visiting them thirty years later.) So it is later than most of my collection but is reminiscent of those earlier cards. (You can check out some of those posts here and here.)

In the Kills refers to the upstate area full of small water bodies (kille is Dutch for waterway) and those areas such as Fishkill, Peekskill and Catakill (the last being where those cousins resided) named thusly.

These cats are a further play on words with the broader Catskill area. The postcard play on words was popular and I have future posts devoted to more of these as of course cat cards are like nip to me. We have two fluffy kits in a basket with a “balloon” that looks like maybe it is a fishnet stocking or real fish netting around a ball, which is probably then held by a string of fishline we cannot see. An ever so slightly cross-eyed moon face looks on – the yellow is a nice contrast in this otherwise almost dark and stormy card. I gather these kits are making their journey at night.

*Pams-Pictorama.com collection – very similar!*

The back of this card is printed in an unusually legible hand. It says, Dear Very Dear Elinor Hello; Sweetness. How be you, and the partner – O.K. I hope – the same here – in this grand restful place – I am getting along famously – take a walk most every day – and am receiving excellent care – in the intervals – lots of love from your old man – brother. AL. It is addressed to, Mrs. R.H. Robinson, 155 Clymer Street, Brooklyn, 11, New York.

The ingenuity of cards like this interest me. I am always looking at them and thinking about which two of the seven I could convince to sit in a basket (none) and tie a little ball to it, etc. I am sure it was a day’s work that was harder than it may look. Meanwhile, this one has these collage elements of the moon and background layered in. It is though, remarkably similar to the earlier one I show here.

Meanwhile, Kim and I are off to the West Village soon to see what irresistible cat cards are in store for me today. Wish me happy collecting! It is bright and sunny here in New York and having a spring swing back toward warm today. Kim is braving downtown for the first time since his back surgery – getting a bit of cabin fever I think doing nothing these days really but working on hard his next book. We’ll get him some air and a change of scenery. More to come!

Family

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s is a recently acquired photo postcard – it showed up in the mail last night as a matter of fact. I bought it off eBay on a whim and am more charmed by it in person. This photo today would probably be photo shopped or fully AI generated which makes its skill – and its imperfect bits – that much more endearing.

Seven cats are lined up here – several are looking at a spot in front of them and we assume the person behind the camera has something to capture their gaze that way. Almost all of them are very fluffy indeed, and the dark haired one on the left could almost make another cat with that enormous tail. It says a family group and I wonder if it is mom and dad on either end and this variety of kits betweenn. There is one tabby, third from the right who doesn’t fit the family fur, short-haired or so it would appear.

If we assume that mom and dad are on either end, there is a dead ringer for each of them in the pile – the white kit all the way left and the one next to it. The others are a bit more of a wild mix and I really like the one who wouldn’t sit and has his or her back up a bit. Dad just has an insane amount of fluff and both are well brushed and maintained.

Everyone is seated on a garden bench with painted some sort of boxes acting as end tables. There is a nice cushion on the bench being enjoyed by the cats – no idea how they got the cats on the end to pose so perfectly. There are cushions on the ground in front of the bench, covered in a sort of oriental rug pattern. I wonder if those cushions are for the back of the bench but didn’t work for the photo. We can’t see much of a garden behind them, but we get glimpse of the flowering shrubs behind them.

This card is undated and was never sent. It appears to be American made but there is no maker credit on the back.

As the mom of seven cats myself (the Jersey Five and NY kitties) I have to admit that I do not have a single photo of all of them in one frame. I actually only seem to have four of the Jersey Five together, let alone along with Cookie and Blackie. So hats off to this ambitious photographer and cat parents somewhere and back in time.