Pam’s Pictorama Post: I have an unusual nugget of animation history today. It came to my attention on a search for Aesop’s Fable dolls which I have put out in the world. I asked for more photos because only a few pages of the inside were shown and I was afraid it was just the covers and a couple of pages. The seller quickly replied. In the end I offered a bit less than he was asking and he agreed. It was still a bit dear but something about it appealed and I went the extra mile to purchase it.
The instructions.
Try flipping the page by hitting the arrow!
In reality the book is more interesting even than it appeared at first. Every illustration has a second illustration under it and you are instructed to (gently, especially now) flip to the second page and you see “movement” between the two. It is rather ingenious and simple – a different type of flip book. (Flip the Pages…the Pictures Live.) The book is super worn and shows evidence of much use, flipping the pages. Every other page is several more short tales which are illustrated but do not flip.
It was published by Harcourt, Brace and Company of New York and we can see it was Book 2. A search on the internet shows that Book 1 was dedicated to Mother Goose which looks at least equally interesting. In the back we see that there was a Book 3 (which I now really want!) about the circus which seems to feature a very Koko the Clown looking character! Book 4 was called Once Upon a Time. These volumes are somewhat rarified and I can only find evidence of this one and Book 1 having been recently available for sale. There are eight pages in its entirety, counting the fold-out double pages as one.
One of my attempts to show you how flipping the page looks.
The artist/s do not appear to get credit for these so I am assuming that Charley Bowers is the artist and perhaps the writer as there are no other credits for the book. On the inside cover there is a 1923 copyright and W.F. Powers Co. On the cover we see that there is a Pat. Applied For.
Charles (Charley) Bowers started his animation career working on the silent Mutt and Jeff cartoons. By the early twenties he moved to Educational Films where he made slapstick comedies, some shorts featuring Rube Goldberg creations and a mix of animation, stop motion and live action short subjects. He is prodigious in his output through the twenties and does a stint with Walter Lanz in the thirties. At the end of his career he moves to Wayne, New Jersey and drew cartoons for the Jersey Journal. Sadly at the end of his life arthritis cripples him and he instructs his wife to execute drawing the cartoons under his instruction.
It is also noted in his bio that he was known for illustrating children’s books although the Wikipedia article mentions this for his post-film career and these were clearly made in the thick of it. He was largely forgotten until a Lobster Film dvd came out in 2004 and revived interest in him. It is still available however you will pay up. (It can be found on Amazon here or Flick Alley here. I would poke around eBay for a slightly better price.) As a result, not many videos are posted online, but one I offer is available here.
Not in the Pictorama collection.
Clearly a bit of a mechanical genius this is a tiny salute to Charles Bowers of early animation fame. This book is a remaining concrete tribute to his ingenuity.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: While New Jersey is also technically home, our many more months a year are spent in our tiny Manhattan apartment. Despite thinking, every time, that we are bringing less back than we brought there, we will spend today rather literally stuffing ourselves back into this space and place. Among other things (think books) we arrive laden with corn, tomatoes and herbs from the Garden State – the latter two from our garden.
Kim’s pile of pages, still covered in plastic against the possibility of ceiling leaks.
As far as I can tell, everyone who visits us here finds our ability to live in this one room (which I continue to stuff things into and Kim contributes artistic additions to daily, not to mention his book habit and mine) rather stunning. Mostly when you are doing it you forget about it. Having been away for five weeks I myself am marveling at how I produce meals in our miniscule kitchen – with cats and Kim in there with me! (We remodeled that kitchen back in the fall of ’19, just months before the pandemic. Find that post here.) Um, how have I prepared meals here?
Our kitchen post renovation – believe me, there’s lots more in it right now!
Kim is back at his beloved New York work table which is more generously proportioned than his one in NJ and has all his stuff – his full pile of lay outs and an always slowly growing pile of finished pages. Only a working kit of stuff goes to NJ in a box each time. Having said that I think he will miss the lovely open window he worked by. I have worked at that desk and on a good day you can see hummingbirds in the Rose of Sharon tree which they seem to adore.
Cookie (shown above) and Blackie are thrown back together and I report that they are finding the one room small as well. Blackie, on the defensive the whole time he’s in New Jersey, gets unfortunately aggressive with Cookie once we are back. The fighting has commenced and there is much hissing. Kim is mostly doing the mediating. Cookie has resumed a perch atop of the couch and, although Blackie slept on the bed, he is currently sleeping off the whole experience under it. (Do they think they have awoken from a long dream when they find themselves back here? Or have they assimilated that they now occasionally travel back and forth? I suspect they’d have a lot to say given the opportunity. Perhaps we are just as glad they cannot talk!)
Kim getting his NY desk set back up.
Several of the Rosa Mulholland books were left in Jersey after Kim read them, however two more arrived here in the meantime. (For my Rosa Mulholland posts and more about what I am reading you can go here and here.) Much of my reading is electronic these days but she has been hard to find and I keep purchasing the pretty volumes when I can. In addition, a few other volumes crept in via the antiques annex in Red Bank. (As for the comic book store I believe a couple of those volumes Kim purchased made it to New York as he had not read them yet.)
We are currently about half unpacked and I have a pile of clothes that need to either be cleaned or hung up. I wish I could move these summer dresses to our storage locker but the weather has turned hot again and I will regret it if I do I am afraid.
I only see one cat but our bivouacprocess in August.
For all of those things I do have my 25 minute walk to and from work coming up this week, rather than my long train ride from NJ. (Kim is going to try to do some of these mornings with me to keep up our walking together habit acquired on vacation. We’ll see if I can keep him away from his drawing table for a bit each morning for that.) The calendar is filling up with fall dates and New York is already in full fall swing, waiting for us to hop into the fray.
Pups from a prior Paws & Pints.
I have been back at the office since last week and again and again colleagues say that it is like a switch has been flipped and we are off to the races. We have a Paws & Pints gathering of owners and dogs this Wednesday at a dog friendly bar near home. It is followed by a new event for young supporters called Woof & Wine at the end of the month – that to support our fund which cares for seeing eye dogs for free. A supply of dogs and puppies from a seeing eye foundation will be the highlight, along with cocktails, food and a silent auction. And that is just September!
We are having one of our first truly rainy days in weeks so I have no excuse but to face the music and get the apartment in some sort of shape. Wish me luck and hopefully onto further acquisitions next week.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: These are not only the dog days of summer but International Dog Day as I sit down to start this. No dogs here in the House of Seven Cats and I think the Jersey Five find the addition of the two New Yorkers two too many more let alone pups.
Blackie has wiled most of his days away in our bedroom when not hunting up Cookie (who resides in Kim’s studio upstairs) and eating her food. He’s also gotten into numerous tussles with Beau, the head of cats here and fluffed himself up into a righteously puffy Halloween-esque fellow. I am trying to resolve the problem with an extra can of food in the late afternoon. It might be working.
The view from the back deck one glorious afternoon.
I am on the back deck as I write, where I have spent many happy hours this vacation. Stormy, the gray tabby who seems to be perpetually surprised and terrified by the world, is at the back door looking out – hoping against hope that a fat fly will land on the screen door for her to chase.
A batch of popovers made by a friend.
Labor Day comes early this year but having said that the light in the afternoon already has a fall look and I have seen large v’s of birds starting to make their trek south. The evenings are chilly enough to warrant a jacket and I am starting to eye the little used fire pit. However, the earlier part of the day in full sun can be roiling hot so we are not there yet.
With heavy spring rain and subsequent dry spells the dahlias are slow to bloom this year but their show now that it has started is worthy. A few new entries are small in bloom stature but bursting with bright colors, red and white and an orange red and yellow. My beloved hummingbirds come to feast on them and they go from one to another and back to a favorite – like a bird buffet. ( Does anyone know what I mean when I say hummingbirds, hanging in the air, look like they are somehow stopping time?)
I can almost always find bees tucked in the centers of the dahlias, drowsily, drunkenly and dizzily covered in pollen. The strawberry plants are also enjoyed by the hummingbirds and are overflowing with flowers right now. I think I’ve mentioned before that they oddly produce only the tiniest, almost doll sized fruit – delicious but bizarrely small.
Kim working at his temporary desk.
The tomato plants promise produce, hanging green on the vine but ripening SO slowly. Another producing tiny tasty yellow cherry tomatoes is doing a great business – unusually small but tasty bits being the order of the day here I guess. We pop small handfuls in our mouth, still warm from the sun. The jalapeno peppers are bountiful (and perversely huge) and of course are the hardest to use up quickly without killing my diners with devilishly spicy treats.
Kim’s set up for work here.
This year has felt like a real vacation. Kim and I have taken long daily walks to the neighboring towns, shopped in the antique stores and scored some items. We brought piles of books from New York (and admittedly added to them) and we have worked our way through almost all of them. Kim has been catching up on some of my Rosa Mulholland recommendations including one I brought with me that arrived shortly before our departure. In addition he has made occasional trips to the comic book store in Red Bank (Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash of Kevin Smith fame) where he has amassed books reproducing the Superman saga.
From my favorite perch at the comic book store, reading work email while Kim looks.
Kim and I both worked for the first two weeks here after arriving in early August and we’ll put in a few days from here after Labor Day. Last week I wrote about our pending visit with Bill which kicked off our vacation and below are some photos memorializing his visit. (Bill, if you’re reading this, we found both the Reed Crandall book AND the Pinocchio book after you left! They were on an overlooked shelf together.)
Ferris wheel view at fair.
Tonight is our first visit this year to the local Fireman’s Fair. (I wrote about it last summer in a post here.) Although I have reserved the right to go again when another friend visits from Manhattan this weekend.
I recently told Kim if he wants to sound like a native New Jersey-er he weigh in on the state of the summer’s corn and tomatoes – peaches for the bonus round. We take these things very seriously and the quality of Garden State produce is of great local importance. This year corn is small but good corn can be found with some work – it is perhaps just late as it has improved as the month has gone on. The tomatoes are somewhat underwhelming unless you hit one of the El Dorados of good ones (or can convince the ones on your deck to ripen) and eat them quickly before they go from ripe to bad. All but one purchase of peaches failed the test – however last night had some that had been purchased at the peach of ripeness before going bad, ate them with ice cream and felt like we really hit it at last.
Before andafter!
In this spirit I began to make tomato pie. After looking at numerous recipes I settled on a simple one which I share below. The tomatoes need to be bled of water briefly before starting and I used a pre-made crust. (For all my apparent cooking talents there’s something about pie crust which I have never gotten into the rhythm of properly.)
Fifteen minutes to throw together and this is in the oven cooking away for 45 minutes or more and it is without question best if consumed immediately – it is inferior when reheated. My only other word of advice is that you should pack it as full of tomato layers as possible because they shrink in the cooking and my first effort looked a bit woebegone as a result. Dan and Cathy Theodore were the first to try my pie and liked it enough to ask for the recipe, but more about their visit and the gift they brought in another post.
Recipe:
1 pie crust
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly into rounds
1/4 cup mayonnaise
6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
3-4 ripe tomatoes, sliced about 1/4-1/2 inch thin
4 tablespoons fresh basil, sliced into ribbons (chiffonade)
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400F.
Line a 9″ tart pan with prepared pie dough. Poke a few holes in the dough with a fork, then cover with parchment paper and pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes, until crust is starting to turn golden.
While the crust bakes, slice the tomatoes on several sheets of paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Flip and salt the other side as well. Let the tomatoes sit for 10 minutes, then blot off moisture with dry towels.
Mix together the mayonnaise and the shredded cheese, and spread the mixture in the parbaked pie crust. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of the basil on top.
Top with one layer of the sliced tomatoes, the onions, followed by a second layer of tomatoes. Add a third layer if space permits. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. (If like me you are worried that the tomatoes are salty from the bleeding the wiping them down wipes off most of the salt.)
Bake for 30 minutes, until crust is golden and some juices along the edge of the pie crust are bubbling. Remove from the oven and set aside for 20 minutes to cool before slicing. Tip with the remaining basil and serve warm or room temperature.
Note: Tomato pie is best served on the day it is made, but leftovers can be store in the refrigerator and reheated in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-20 minutes.
PS – At top, Beauregard, top cat of the Jersey Five, in a pout before we left today!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: This card, not surprisingly, hails from Great Britain. It was mailed on December15, 1923. It was mailed from Saffron, Walden at 9:30 AM to Miss Lucy Piggot, St. Wilfords, Mill Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk. I picked it up on eBay and had it sent to the house here in NJ.
It is a hand drawn and inked card and is a good Felix likeness for that early 20’s period – square and blocky. His pose is an X and one could even see a swastika in it although I don’t think that’s the case. Mystically it says, I’m Felix, Mascot to the “Sudbury Happy-go-Lucky’s” and the signature, I assume of the artist, R Good in a design. (For another Felix fake try another post from my collection here.)
Felix has a big bloop of a nose and a couple of fangy teeth. Kim thinks he is giving us the finger which is undeniably a reasonable assumption. I thin it is more likely an insipid sword. The other hand is a bit odd too and the least Felix element. He has a rounder tummy than I associate with Felix and perhaps a less perky tail – still something about him captures what I think was the Felix mood of the day. The Happy-go-Lucky’s must have been quite a group.
Back of card.
The message on the back does not enlighten us much. It says (to the best of my ability to transcribe): c/o Mr. Penning, 28 Church Street, Saffron, Walden SX. Dear Lucy, Many thanks for Ple. (?) I am glad I’m not there to “sit down”. have got that other song its not bad. I thought I saw someone at the window Monday. I was in the carriage with the bright lights. What do you think of my mascot not bad eh? Will you take care of him until I returnthen I will disclose to you y plan now I will disclose to you my plan now I must close. I hoping your cold is better. Well best of luck and love to all. Jack (I have mostly added some punctuation which Jack seemed to feel unnecessary.)
So more than a hundred years later this message is a bit cryptic if intriguing. Something to ponder on a sunny Sunday here in New Jersey.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sometimes here at Pams’s Pictorama it’s just a Felix acquisition day and today is that day. The other day combing through listings I came across a duo of Felix in Australia. The condition was sort of medium and the price right and the next thing I knew this fellow was on his way to me.
I have a few other examples of this Felix and this fellow in particular may next find his way to New Jersey where there is a shortage of Felix-es at my house. (Although there is an abundance of kitties who have a lot of unsupervised hours so I am mindful of that as well. The younger inhabitants there like some high jumping too and I have an Oswald Rabbit I worry for occasionally. A post about him can be found here.)
Years ago I was at a huge vintage toy show in Atlantic City where a dealer had a whole basket of these (such bounty!) and he said that they were used as carnival prizes in England. They must have been very popular because many exist today but somehow they seem a bit too well made, and therefore expensive, for that. Still, it makes my brain whirl a little to think of being able to bring home such a toy from a fair – perhaps after having had my photo taken with Felix elsewhere earlier in the day. (Throwing in a photo below from my collection of folks posing with Felix for anyone who is a new comer here!)
Pam’s Pictorama.com collection.
Also a long time ago I took one of these for repairs at a toy hospital that used to exist on Lexington Avenue near Bloomingdales. I wrote about it here. It turned out to be very expensive but, at least for me, worth the brief entrée to that somewhat ancient and particular place before it quietly disappeared a few years later.
This fashion of Felix has mobile arms and legs. (Legs had come off on the one that had to be repaired. I do not recommend moving them much – I learned from the broken one that there is just a rusty metal rod holding him together.) This fellow has a good look until you realize that oddly almost all of his mohair has worn away. His tummy in particular is quite bare as is the spot under his snout. He has such wideset eyes – they always contribute to a goofy look. His tail, as is often a design feature, sets him up like a tripod for steady standing.
While his felt ears are intact, Felix has a few places where his fur is completely worn through, revealing small spots of the straw stuffing underneath. It is my understanding that these were assembled by hand in England in small factories. (Read a very interesting and popular post about this here. Such a factory was set up on the East End of London to employ indigent women.) All this to say that these end up have a very individual character and look to each one.
Tummy is oddly barren. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
I did express some concern about Felix making such a long journey from Australia to New York City with the small holes and stuffing in particular leaking through. I am afraid I offended the poor seller when I asked – it wasn’t meant to be a reflection on her packing ability – more just the reality of a certain amount of jostling he was bound to undergo. However, she pledged extra good packing and she came through so there was barely a smidge of stuffing loss in transit.
We will pack him carefully again as part of our exodus to New Jersey in a few weeks. Until then he is hanging out with his Felix brethren here in Deitch Studio.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s treat is a clear example of the curios you will come across if you consistently spend time down a given rabbit hole of collecting as I tend to. Definitely in the more interesting than good, this old press photo caught my eye recently and was on its way to me lickety split. It had found its way from the East coast to Los Angeles, but it is back home in the tri-state area again.
Its eBay listing,1936 Disney Mickey Mouse Costume Atlantic City Steel Pier Midgets Felix the Cat, was designed to catch my attention a few different ways. And really, put that way, who could resist it?
Deconstructing that amazing sentence a bit – Felix? Um, I hate to be a critic but I think they were very safe from copyright infringement on that one. It is somewhat more illuminated by the press information stored on the back. Glued to the back, in a very old fashioned type, is the following breaking news:
Back of the photo.
YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT CAT – That is about what Mickey Mouse was telling pretty Miss Betty Van Auken, New York visitor sunbathing on the Atlantic City Steel Pier. And Mickey’s girl friend Minnie Mouse listened, a little careful of Mickey around such beauty. Mickey and Minnie are members of the Steel Pier midget colony that helps to entertain guests on the ocean amusement structure. It has an index number, A16353 and it says, Ref. Dept. 7-28-36 N.E.A.
The Steel Pier seems to be the major amusement pier in Atlantic City and we will assume it has been ever thus. And while it seems sensible that this figure with Mickey was never meant to be Felix, it’s decidedly un-Minnie like as well, both mask and outfit. (And that suit looks hot for a July in Atlantic City too – she’d have been much happier in Minnie’s usual brief attire!) Mickey still looks a bit overdressed for July, but is in more traditional Mickey garb.
Comic book publication of Stuff of Dreams, #3, cover image.
It took a few times before the midget colony part sunk into my consciousness. Fascinating on its own, it also reminded me immediately of a story Kim did years ago, No Midgets in Midgetville which had roots in an actual town in northern NJ which is said to have originally been the winter home of a group of traveling circus midgets. (That story was published in his book, Alias the Cat which can be purchased on Amazon here or search eBay. Or you can find it in single comics under the name, Stuff of Dreams #3.)
Back cover of Stuff of Dreams #3.
We went and looked at the remains of the enclave of small (and occasionally tiny) houses as research for the story, an interesting morning jaunt with my ever patient father. In these days of tiny homes it is a bit hard to say how much truth was in the story, although some house did seem quite small. (The original story about it being Midgetville originated in the New York Times back in 2002 and can be found here although there are other references to the town online.) Regardless, the idea that circus performers (perhaps of all sizes) wintered there perhaps makes sense and it makes additional sense that perhaps some of those performers went no further than Atlantic City seaside for a summer gig.
Centerfold of Midgetville, Kim Deitch, Stuff of Dreams.
As for Miss Betty Van Auken of New York – it is hard to believe that even a veteran New Yorker showed up in Atlantic in a bathing suit, mincing along in high heels and lipstick for a day at the beach. At first I didn’t even bother googling her but it turns out that 1936 was her year. She has a Broadway role (Dodsworth) and film credits from that year, The Garden of Allah, Oasis Girl (uncredited), and a small part as a manicurist in Big Brown Eyes. The trail grows cold after that.
The weirdness of this duo continues to nag at me though. How odd to be on the seaside pier in roasting July heat, eating your cotton candy and have these two come gamboling up around you. The Stuff of Dreams indeed!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: I’ve had this interesting advertising book in my possession for a number of weeks and am just getting around to sharing it with you all. Obviously I purchased it for the Felix page, but I do find the whole publication of interest.
For starters I am impressed with the idea that these were sent out en masse to theaters to encourage bookings. For all of it’s heft and embossed-ness it doesn’t go into any detail about the packages you would be ordering for your theater. These were all short subjects, like Felix, so each page highlights a topic.
Frontispiece and introduction.
The opening page, with a photo and a letter from E. W. Hammond. While I cannot seem to trace his title over at Educational Films, I have run across him advertising Felix films previously. The link to two rollicking pages advertising Felix cartoons can be found here. In his letter at the front of this volume he refers to the proven success of these shorts. He writes, It is a group of pictures without an element of a gamble – backed by seven years of specialized experience – a product of proven value.
I am giving you a slide show to page through the entire holding at the end of the post but want to highlight a few. I will start with Felix, although he is found toward the back of the volume. These years were Felix in his heyday and 26 new one-reel cartoons were in the offing. He strums his banjo and eyes the girl cat, Kitty, peering out around a building. There is a frowning faced moon on the other side. Felix is perched on a bit of fence but I like the way the buildings curve in around behind him like they want to break loose and frolic. It is a jolly nighttime scene with stars in the sky and all the buildings lit up – occupants no doubt listening to Felix’s serenade for better or worse. A careful look shows that his snout, as it were, is the same pink as the buildings. Someone named E. Ritt claims illustration credit and that is someone other than who has executed the other images. Such popularity means patronage and profit…
These are the ones I am curious about.
Beyond Felix there are a few other highlights for me. 12 One-Reel Curiosities The Movie Side-show catches my eye. This one is also signed by E. Ritt and here his imagination has been let loose a bit. We have a tree with eyes watching a witch stir a caldron producing smoke which reveals owl eyes, and a three-headed cat eyes us! A spicy dish concocted from many oddities gathered from all corners of the world, and served with a dash of wit and humor. Oh man, I wonder how they delivered on this?
Dorothy was already in her 20’s here.
I like the page of Dorothy Devore comedies – she’s shown with this nice teddy bear. The artist of the spread seems to be someone else and they are identified as E.R.H. It states, A girl comedy start — a real star — is a rare asset. Well, I like that! This was toward the end of Dorothy’s working life. Wikipedia says she stopped making films in 1930.
And who is the girl on the sax?
There is a sort of centerspread which has Cameo Comedies on one side and 12 One-Reel Lyman H. Howe’s Hodge-Podge, a medley of clever ideas offering more variety to the foot than any other sing reel on the market. Across these two pages we see everything from a girl with her sax to camels, African-type natives and a coolie to whales and the Sphinx. I assume these were largely cartoons – a fact also confirmed by Wikipedia.
A smattering of cartoon images.
So quite a year, ’27-’28. A fraction of these films may still exist – luckily with a good survival rate on Felix. I’ll likely never really get to judge the one-reel curiosities, although you never know what will turn up.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s Felilx loving post is an unseasonal Thanksgiving tribute, but I couldn’t possibly wait that long to share it.
In addition to the neatly typed ORANGE NJ on the front of the photo, handwritten on the back it reads A Rubber Felix Thanksgiving Day East Orange, NJ. It is also stamped with what appears to be…CMA L. Simpson…17 Pleasant Ave. Montclair, NJ. It was glued onto something black at one point much of which remains here, likely a photo album, and the full address is obscured.
Back of the photo.
This is an overexposed and not especially good print so this establishment must have just processed and printed pictures for people.
Still, it clearly has its charms and I am glad to take the trip back in time to see the scene. In addition to this large Felix balloon, what I like best is the Felix headed and clad retinue around him, like Felix-y mice around the big cat! We can see four, my guess is there was at least one more who is out of the shot.
I thought at first that this could be the same balloon butclose inspection says no. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
It is sadly undated but a very close look reveals that many of the women are wearing distinctive cloche hats. Those were popular from the early 20’s to the early 30’s. Randomly I would guess this is the mid-to-late 20’s given Felix’s rise to popularity and the rest of the clothing I can discern. Someone smarter about cars could probably tell more about the date from the one or two in this shot.
Thanksgiving is already a wintery scene here and people are bundled up to watch this parade. A close look reveals that the crowd extends up the stairs of this unidentified but official looking building. (If there are any Montclair historians or residents who can identify this building give a shout.) You can’t see it without magnification but in reality most of the people across the street seem to already be looking at and pointing to something coming up next.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I have written before about my love of Thanksgiving Day balloons in the parade and how I always wanted to go see them as a child. As a young adult here in New York City I would often go to see them blown up and strapped down the night before although I have never made it to the parade. My father had the freezing detail of filming it and the night before in his days as a junior cameraman for ABC News and there was no enticement I could find to get him to take me.
I love that New Jersey had their own rival, early Thanksgiving parades complete with balloons and I have shared a few parade pics here from my collection. Felix was popular coast to coast and one of these photos which lives by our front door in NYC is from Portland. The posts for those photos can be found here and here.
So while today would have been more appropriate to have an Easter parade this weekend, I conjure up another long past if somewhat unseasonable holiday for you today.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s post is a bit of Pictorama inside baseball as it were, with some coincidences which occurred nicely and a bit of a divergence down another tributary. If nothing else lots of eyeball kicks from my photo collection today.
Recently I jumped, as I do when I see them, to purchase this postcard of three children and Felix. It is a particularly nice one. Like virtually all of these souvenir postcards, this one was never mailed and on the back is only more contemporary writing noting, Felix the Cat.
When it arrived I realized that I already owned one from the same session or the very card. As it turns out, according to the number at the bottom it is a, more or less, identical image from the same negative. They are both originals and it is virtually the first time I have collected two contemporary copies of the same photo. Surprising to me on some level considering how many I purchase and how many people must have ordered more than one copy of a fun family photo. (The notable exceptions in my collection would be once or twice when I purchased a full lot of photos from one shoot – on two occasions I think once a batch of tintypes from Australia and a strange bunch of photos a a giant Felix at an intersection in Kuala Lumpur of all places – and ended up with a repeater in the group.)
The photos side-by-side. The one on the right is the earlier purchase and slightly better version. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Another interesting fact is that this one was purchased from a dealer in the UK as most are (some, tintype versions as far as I know, come from Australia), and the original one was that extremely rare occasion where it was purchased from a US dealer, whose card it happens I saved in the sleeve and just found. I have bought very few of these photos from US dealers, they generally don’t seem to travel far from their place of origin, at least until they travel to me. These do not ever appear to actually have been produced in the United States which always leaves me wondering what was wrong with the folks at Coney Island anyway? They missed a great opportunity.
So one wonders why one photo traveled far from its origin and mate. I guess a family member lived or moved abroad, or it was somehow separated and sold off to a dealer and found its way here. By way of comparison, it should be noted that today’s was developed poorly, a bit of overexposure – note that the wooden floor is bleached out as is the background a bit and the printing in general is lesser, chemicals a bit tired on that day perhaps. Although the one recently purchased is also a tiny bit larger meaning that there is a bit less information too. Pure speculation but my guess is that one of these was ordered subsequent to the first one when a copy was desired, perhaps to give away to a doting relative.
One of the ones that may show the same windows and likely Felix. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
The post from March 2023 can be found here and investigates another coincidence which is that I have at least one other photo (possibly three now that I have a look around), taken at this very location and with this Felix. These were taken on the beach itself rather than near a studio so identifying the location is always a bit iffy. These distinctive windows are the key here.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. I think someone in Australia selling reproductions of this one.Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Meanwhile, while on the subject of seeing double, I occasionally find one of my photos reproduced for sale. At top above is one where I have assumed that the seller scanned the image (shown above) at the time of selling it to me and another is one I missed at auction and now reproductions are being sold – a bit different admittedly.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Reproduction prints of this one turned up recently.
However one (shown above) turned up after I had owned this photo for a period of time and I was curious. (Posts for these pics can be found here, here and here if you are curious.) I did wonder if somehow they had lifted them off of my post, but I doubt the fidelity would be good enough for an even halfway decent reproduction.
Of course the possibility that the seller owned another print of the same photo occurred to me as well. I reached out to them with a friendly and polite inquiry and their response surprised me. He had purchased a box of items and at the bottom was a disk and the image was on it so he was printing and selling them. Interesting!
While some less utterly compulsive folks might see duplicates as an opportunity to sell one off, at least in the short term I am just tickled to have these photos reunited once again.
Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: So today I finally get to my wonderful birthday gift reveal – ongoing readers know that this year’s birthday was pre-empted and much deferred due to Covid. I am better finally, as is Kim, but a day of wandering and celebration remains deferred. At this rate it may be April before that happens, but nevertheless, the birthday bounty of the Mickey Mouses continues today.
My birthday Mickey is, in my opinion, a rather remarkable find. I even sent so far as to let AI have a crack at it and their “opinion” is that it was sewn from a kit. He is so very off-model that I did have to consider that but truly as I spend time with it and examining the stitching I believe he was commercially made. (My ideas of how such factories worked were changed when I found out that Felix dolls were handmade in a production factory in the East End of London. It was designed to give jobs to indigent women. Among my personal favorite posts, read it here.)
Back of Mickey. Very careful examination shows some patching to the back of his head.
This amazing and charmingly buck toothed fellow hails from Belgium via a kind seller there who tracks my birthday with offerings when she has them. (Previous posts on Regine finds can be read here and here.)
Demonic Felix which is old number one purchase for me! A flea market in London. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
In a close study Mickey is made up of some familiar elements. The design of the feet is more Aesop’s fable doll than Dean’s Rag. The glass eyes can be found on many a Felix from a similar timeframe – which I am assuming is the 1930’s. He is somewhat reminiscent of the first Felix I ever purchased, shown below, and which may have been used as carnival prize give aways. Same black and white felt and stitched mouth. Kim has been known to say this Felix looks like a stuffed demon – Mickey has none of the same potential malevolence.
Felix and Mickey for a side-by-side examination.
Mickey’s hands are sewn down and his neckerchief remains tightly tied around his neck. The buttons on his trousers were glued however – or at least this incarnation of them was – they may have been replaced. There are a few black felt patches, on the back of his head near his ears and neck, so some work was done on him at some point, although also faded with age now so not recently.
A few errant bits of straw are peeking out from his legs, which incidentally look very professional machine stitched. He has his tail, but unlike our Dean’s friend from last week, it is just a bit of cloth. For the record it appears to be original. As mentioned, his ears have had a lot of reinforcement and a careful look makes me think one has been replaced. In line with the patches, this replacement seems fairly old.
For utter goofy charm however, this chap is hard to beat! I can’t help but feel that this off-license fellow looks like Mickey’s dufus country cousin, rather than a manifestation of the mouse himself.
Pam's Pictorama 