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Snow Day

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Happy first snow in Manhattan! I’ve been saving this one for you!

Another area I have trailed off into a bit is photos of cats in snow. Those of us who have lived with cats in the suburbs or country know that they have mixed feelings about the stuff, at best. On one hand, they love to watch it fall! For apartment cats this is pretty much where it starts and ends – although I used to bring snowballs into the bathtub for my cat Otto who enjoyed them immensely. The world as a snow dome. Few things are funnier than watching a cat try to negotiate outside in the snow – especially deep snow. They can walk on it for a second before breaking through – which eventually leads to hopping until they get to a secure dry spot. It is worth noting that none of the cats pictured are actually touching any of that cold wet stuff.

The cyanotype is the photo I have owned the longest and, I assume, the oldest of the bunch. Like many other things I have shared, it lives in my office where I see it everyday. It is backed on a bit of cardboard so I am unsure if it has anything on the back. I believe it came via Canada. It takes a moment and then you realize that it is a photograph of a good size cat clinging onto the front of a very large man. Ouch! Good thing he has layers on. Probably turn-of-the-century, but the farm probably already looked that way for fifty years – and perhaps did for fifty more.

The featured photo is marked December ’49 and I love this kid with his double-fisted cat hold. He too is dressed for the snow around him (snow shovel seems to be right behind him) and a good looking barn behind him. Boy, do they have some snow! Look how high it is on the ladder in the back. He’s got two nice looking cats and they look pretty pleased with their perch on his lap. He’s a pretty old guy today – wonder how this photo got away from him.

Lastly we have my most recent snow cat purchase. It is marked on the back 1942 John Duke & Honey.  Cannot say if Duke is the cat (my vote) and Honey the dog or the other way around. These folks had some serious snow drifts as well, up to the second floor of the house. This kid has his arms around a contented, fat tabby – the dog (dogs really like snow) is guarding them in that proud way dogs do.

I don’t know why, but these photos remind me of my own childhood – which had what probably amounts to an average amount of snow.  Still, no one can resist the thrill of a snow day.

Girl and Her Cat

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I realize that there should probably be a whole category on this blog of photos only I could love. This one would go in I suspect, but maybe you will love it too. This is a small snap shot from Great Britain of a girl with a sizable, fluffy kitty in her arms. This cat reminds me of a wonderful Tuxedo who our cat Cookie is unofficially named for – a huge, wonderfully good natured boy cat who belonged to my friend Bridget, who lives in Massachusetts. That Cookie met an untimely end, they think due to a fox or something along those lines. I was heartbroken when I heard and thought of the name when we got the kits. (Our Cookie doesn’t take after him at all however, tuxedo or not – her skin seems to crawl when you pet her, assuming she lets you, and she has a horror of being picked up.)

I guess it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that my happiest hours as a small child were spent with the family cats. I too would carry them everywhere. We had a lovely white cat with black cow spots whose name was Snoopy. He let me carry him around and dress him up and all sorts of things. I would tell him everything and I prized his attention, especially when he would decide to sleep on my bed. He was a dignified cat of some girth. He would walk in that slow deliberate way cats have sometimes. (See my post Passin’ Through.) He was very tidy and kept himself very nice, whites very white. When we adopted a young kitten who didn’t seem to understand that he was meant to clean himself, we placed him in a bathroom with Snoopy overnight and he had him ship shape by morning – and more or less comprehending the self-cleaning nature of cats.

Snoopy also met an unfortunate end – killed by a dog. If Kim was here he’d say cat life is cheap and sadly he’s right – especially for the outdoor guys. Still, no one understands you or loves you like your cat and when you are a kid your pets can be a whole universe.

Corfu, NY, October 7, 1911, 6 PM

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Pam Photo Post: This photo postcard has the penny stamp on it, time stamped for an age when there was more than one delivery a day perhaps, and the back (which is water stained and difficult to read, although in a fairly clear, female hand): Dear old Chum – Well how are you? Did you think that I would never answer your card? Well you know how good I am at writing. I was in Rochester when your card came and didn’t know until I got home that you had gone back. Well what do you think of this for a comic postcard? Ans. (?) There is also something thoroughly blotted out.  It was addressed to Miss Katherine Keleher, Woodville, NY. Not surprisingly, both Corfu and Woodville, NY seem to be way upstate, near Rochester. Corfu evidently named for the island in Greece (thinking of the winters there I can’t imagine why) and had a population of a little of 700 people in the most recent census. Woodville seems to have remained equally small.

Looking closely I think it might be a family of girls and their mother – there is a general resemblance between them. Of course, I love the fact that the family cat got into the action and posed so smartly as well. He’s quite a card, that stripe-y fellow – a perfect foil to the women lined up, each with their hair up, most with a similar bow, every one of them staring off in a different way, thinking their own thoughts. Cat too, as he seems to be studying the hand of the woman on the end. We assume he was off and running a bare few minutes later.

Going to the Dogs – Bonzo

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Pam’s Pictorama Dog Post: Like mice, I guess if you collect cats, some dogs slip into the collection over time. While this is far from all my dogs (future dog posts to follow – particularly Pluto who I have a soft spot for) it is a little enclave of Bonzo and related pieces.

The Bonzo with the fly on his tummy (my favorite) was purchased at an absolutely delightful toy fair that is held in Atlantic City a few times a year. I have been lucky enough to persuade my long-suffering husband to attend with me several times (roundtrip in a single day on the gambling bus – um, interesting) and this was found there.  I couldn’t remember if the bulldog with the fly on his nose was purchased with Bonzo, but Kim reminded me this morning that he was not. He may have been an eBay purchase, but he has a price mark on his bottom which makes me think I found him elsewhere. Bonzo has a mark I cannot read, but it appears European and the other dog is unmarked. Both insects are metal and attached with little wires through a hole for that purpose. Wonderful because it allows them to tremor a bit and the texture difference creates a strange sense of reality.

The other two dog pieces were bought at a flea market (I think with a Donald Duck which I can’t find…) and they are marked from Japan. Not my usual taste but they seemed to need a home with a shelf where they would be appreciated.

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The Valentine is a canny reprint with a copyright of 2000. There’s a tab on his head and his eyes go cock-eyed. I found it somewhere and gave it to Kim one year. (Frankly, I had forgotten the origin, but is inscribed on the back.) Having spent years looking for great stuffed cats, I can tell you, there are a lot of great dog toys out there. So far I have resisted them for the most part, but there’s something about Bonzo and his compatriot look-alikes that I will stretch a point for. And Norakuro too, of course – but he looks like a wonderful fat cat.

As a bonus, here is a link to a Bonzo cartoon – duped to the point of almost invisible, but it does give you a sense of his spirit!

Happy Halloween, 1917

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Pam’ Pictorama Photo Post: I have opined on the loss of a pleasure that is largely specific to flea markets – that is the happy surprise; finding the thing you never knew existed. Never knew you needed. It is possible, to some degree, to imitate this experience on eBay and one way I do that is to just leaf through the listings for various old photographs. It isn’t quite the same as sifting through a box of old photos, but sometimes it does yield the extraordinary, as it did in this case. The photos above were from an album and although they are not marked as such I do remember that it was indicated that they were from Brooklyn.  They were sold separately over a period of time and so getting all three was a bit painstaking, but worthwhile I think.

The one marked Chemistry Squad 1917 is postcard size, but is a regular photo printed on photo paper, not heavier stock. The baby buggy has a sign that reads, He won’t be happy till he gets it. (I pause for a moment to consider that baby strollers, the baby carriage or buggy of today, couldn’t possibly hold a costumed adult posing as a baby – how times change!) The other two photos are smaller and I have framed them together. Robinson-Vernet is smaller, only about 2 3/4″ x 3.5″ and the unmarked one larger at 2 3/4″ x 4″. This one, when blown up large, reveals bits of floats and banners in the background (Machine Construction and the beginning of a date on the banner) so we will assume it is a parade.

Nothing on the back of any, only the mark from where they were removed from an album.  Devil man, very debonaire, is the one that ties the three together photos together, appearing in each. His album we will assume? Although mysterious #7 man appears in the horizontal one (next to Devil man if you look carefully) as well as the one where they pose together by the fence.

These ribald fellows (yes, I think all fellows, despite the appearances in drag) certainly look like they knew how to kick up their heels! Halloween 1917, it was a hot day in the city that year.

Mine, all mine…at long last

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  Sometimes as a collector there is something that eludes you over a period of time. And sometimes as a spouse there is something from your partner’s former life that scratches at the back of your brain. This wonderful photograph managed to embody both for me. While I have used this photo in a previous blog post (Van Buerens Aesop Fables, the Toys) it was pulled off the internet, not my very own copy.  It is the only publicity photo of these fairly rarified toys that I am aware of. (As you may know, I do have that rather sharp photo of Jane Withers holding one.) This one, for the record, is ever so slightly cropped, the serial number gone, probably the most notable difference. One of the important features of this photo is that each toy wears their name on a tag around their neck so those names are not lost to the sands of time: Milton (mouse), Don (dog), Mike (monkey), Raffles (or is it Waffles?) and The Countess. All except the wolf toy.  What on earth could his name have been? I must research that.

Meanwhile, years ago, as the story goes Kim was visiting a film collector (along with Leonard Maltin no less – this was of course in the days when film collector meant piles of film cans for those of you born in the post-DVD, streaming online era) and the fellow gave each of them a copy of this photo! Amazing!  He evidently had a pile of them. So far so good, except my husband (who is a lovely and very unselfish fellow) gave it to his then girlfriend Sally. Now this was bound to stick in my craw both on the spouse side as well as irritate the heck out of me on the wife side even all these years later – it happened in 1980. Obviously I understand – I wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye for another fourteen years, and I was in fact, still quite underage and yet to embark on my years of toy collecting. Still, in my jealous wife and toy collectors brain this has remained a wrong that needed to be set right.

Enter eBay last week – on a day when I had decided I really needed to rein in spending and behave for a while, but was having a little look nonetheless. There it was, mis-listed under Mickey Mouse photos and set as a buy-it-now for $25. Just in time for our wedding anniversary and our 20 year anniversary of our very first date. Bam! Mine!  Oh bliss! The universe set right at long last.

Sporty

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sam 3 mts. old it says on the back. This cat is a hot number. This appears to be taken on the deck of a large ship. Sam is clearly a perky fellow, and he is mesmerized trying to catch that mouse toy. This is British, no date – a photo, not a postcard. I love the suited arm that is reaching into the photo. A man in a suit having his photo taken on board a ship, playing with Sam the cat!

Cats standing on their hind legs could be their own genre. This one below is a photo I have owned for quite a while – a cat preparing to stand for a cat treat. Not as young or as sporty as Sam – this fellow is a tad stout from those treats. This time a mysterious female arm. (The humans are always on the edges of these photos – an arm, a shadow.) Although this looks like a photo postcard and has those dimensions, it is a lighter paper. Nothing on the back. I do not remember where this came from, but I am fairly certain it is from the US. I bought it because at the time we had a beloved cat, Roscoe, who was a fiend for cat treats and would catch them in his mouth if pitched. It reminded me of him.

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This one below had its own post recently. (Peeved Puss Postcard, August 24, 2014.)

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We aren’t quite sure what they were doing to encourage him to stand up but clearly he isn’t happy about it.

Cookie and Blackie are the most standing up cats I have ever had. Kim and I have speculated that it is an evolutionary aspect of cats. I don’t believe I have captured this in a photo so I will have to work on that. Mouse toys at the ready!

A Rare Little Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: By now you probably realize that I spend a lot of time looking at (and, yes, acquiring) Felix the Cat toys from the 20’s and 30’s.  The above Felix is one I purchase years ago on eBay, there was this one and an even smaller version for sale at the same time, and I have never seen the likes of them since. (I could only afford the one – they went high!) He’s about five inches, seated, but is fully jointed.

He has, as you can see, the Felix hunchback that the Brits almost always give their Felix toys. (This came from Felix in his leaning over walking and thinking position.) This Felix is fluffier than most, a real long-hair. I like the expression on his face – he’d wink if he could! He has all the charm of these off-model numbers I love yet is entirely different from my others. His joints are a bit loose and I try to keep him away from much activity, on the cat shelf at the foot of the bed, but low enough where I can admire him every single day.

 

Men in Hats with Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Hailing from McMinnville, Oregon, October 3, 1911!  Still yet another terrific turn-of-the-century postcard from the great Pacific northwest. Evidently McMinnville is in the heart of the wine country, between Portland and the coast – these fellows look as if they may have been imbibing a bit, or preparing to, but that is pure speculation on my part.

Here we are cats and all ha ha is inscribed on the back with the date and the location. It is a photo postcard and these gentlemen are all dressed up and raring to go I’d say. Of course I love the fact that they are holding these two tabby cats – wearing typical looks of cat concern. The cats are identical so I take them for siblings. The one on the right is clearly considering making a break for it, and the guy holding him seems well aware of the cat’s intention to become a projectile any moment. The other guy is holding the cat in what my family refers to as cat prison – the two-handed you ain’t goin’ nowhere hold. (My father gets credit for naming this cat hold.) As a result he is able to look squarely into the camera. (His suit is a bit ill-fitting; too big for him. Perhaps it was a loaner? Growing into it?)

The guy in the lower left looks like a bit of a bum for my money – not as natty as the others, pork pie hat shoved back on his head; couldn’t be bothered. No cat holding for him – he’s too cool. I love that these guys, all dressed up, bowler hats and all are posing with these two kitties. Tabby cats always strike me as especially scrappy, so they seem a good choice for these young gentlemen. Cool with cats, I’d say.

Snapshot of Dad

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Pam’s Pictorama (Family) Photo Post:  You would think that given my predilection for early photos that I would have tons of old family photos, but in reality I am not the keeper of many. I found this one of my father in an old desk years ago and framed it up so as to slow the disintegration.  I have always been fond of it – as I am of the small cache of photos that I do have around. I will probably get to sharing some others over time in different contexts. (A heads up that there’s a super one of my mom surrounded by toys one Christmas morning when she appears to be about seven. She doesn’t like it however, which is one of the reasons I have it – she didn’t want it.)

This one came to mind when I was working on my other motorcycle photo posts (The Mysteries of Felix and White Cat and the Art of Motorcycle Riding) and I got it off a top (cat protected) bookshelf and asked Kim to scan it for me.  It was taken on June 18, 1952 and someone (not my father) has scribbled “eeee gads!” on the back with the date. Dad is a handsome devil (still is!) and he’s got his best JD thing going on here. I assume it was taken in Washington Heights and that this was probably the motorcycle he subsequently rode across the country. The story goes that it made it out there, but then died on him and, broke, he had to hitchhike home.

I don’t know much about motorcycles, but I figure it is safe to assume that this one was old in 1952. Since this is 1952, I also assume it is after he returned from a stint in the army, in the Arctic, filming manuevers during the Korean war – which ultimately lead him to getting a masters in film at BU on the GI Bill, and his eventual career as a camera man for ABC news.  Much of that still ahead in this photo; it’ll be about eight years before he meets my mom as well, ten before my sister Loren is born, and twelve before I show up. (Almost 19 years before my brother Edward is on the scene – shout out to Ed!)  He’s not so good on dates these days (in fact, never his strong point) so I am doing some guess-timate work. Wonderful though, to have this photo and a record of my dad poised to set off on a great adventure.