dogs

Paul Pilz

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am taking a break from holiday influenced item posts (but evidently still devoted to dogs), to bring you an item I purchased at an odd venue last weekend. An ad on Instagram for an Oddities Flea Market (@odditiesfleamarket) caught my eye and on a whim I paid for tickets for Kim and I to go. I knew most of it would not be of interest to me, but I figured that maybe 25-30% of the vendors might be interesting. The line to enter (even with tickets) went down West 18th Street at the Metropolitan Pavilion and evidently it is an annual affair with a devoted following I have just never heard of previously.

The percentage of Pam’s Pictorama type vendors was perhaps a tad lower than 25%, but black cat items sort of did have a big moment there and I ended up making a not insignificant number of purchases in the end – and could easily have spent even more. One thing that got away at this table was an old orange ceramic cat that lit up. It had already been broken and repaired and I would say the ability to get it to light up seemed dubious, but in the end it just seemed too fragile to come live here at Deitch Studio. Still, I imagine that it must have a great orange glow if you could get it working. Anyway, you will be the beneficiaries of those interesting tidbits I did buy in coming weeks and this is the first of them I am sharing.

This photo postcard came from a vendor who had a nice little cache of black cat and other interesting items. After shelling out for some bigger items I pawed through some excellent (and reasonably priced) boxes of photo postcards. I plucked out two, and Kim one, and today I share the first of them now.

A quick search of Paul Pilz turns up a fairly thorough blog post on him which can be found here. I have nicked this other photo of Pilz from that site. It is a larger shot of him but very similar.

Alternate version of the same publicity photo, seems like this one was used pre-War however – not in Pictorama.com collection.

I won’t endeavor to repeat what that post has to say, but between that site and AI I learned that Pilz was evidently part of a traveling troupe on what is described as very small stages with a dog act, accompanied by him on the trumpet and doing comedy. This popular act ultimately morphed into one where he was a featured performer entertaining the German troops during WWI. (Wanderfheafer Armee Abf. A. on this card – they were already an army headliner. I shudder in horror some indeed at the idea of what traveling with a troop of dogs entertaining troops during WWI might have been like although for the dogs it might have been the best of gigs and options.)

Although I generally collect images of animal imitators (some posts on those can be found here and here for starters) I do have a sub-genre of photos that feature acts (here is one of several) and these seem to belong here too.

There was a recent article in the New York Times about a dog act at the Big Apple Circus (at this time it can be found here, entitled The Show Stealing Dogs of the Big Apple Circus) and so I had a moment recently to contemplate the treat filled world of dog tricks. I like the part where the trainer says if they mess up (balk at jumping through a hoop for example) he just makes it part of the act.

From the NYT article, performing pups.

Years ago Kim took me to a cat circus (Russian) performing downtown here in New York. I even had my photo taken with the ringmaster – for a price of course. I loved it! The photo hangs on an overflowing corkboard near our computer where a drawing of Kim (by Dave Collier’s son who visited about a year ago), something about Carter De Haven and an long ago article on a nascent Ugly Betty cover it. I wanted to pet the kitties which was, understandably, not encouraged. From the perspective of having seen that, I will say, cats or dogs, performing is a treat filled activity and I can only assume it is the rigorous work outs that keep the animals trim.

Under his name it says, roughly translated, with self-written repertoire – I guess a way of saying original gags? It declares Humor at the top, in case the photo didn’t alert you. The sort of masked characters on either side of that are a bit terrifying. Urns of flowers are on either side and a decorative bow tied image of him make up this card.

In the photo he presents a comical character with his trumpet, and his dog in his arms held like a baby. He looks at the dog and the pup looks out at the camera. I’m not sure but this photo may have been artificially put together from two – it doesn’t quite fit as a real image. I’m not sure I can entirely follow the concept of a dog act driven by trumpet playing. It sounds – loud!

This card is a bit tatty but was never mailed, no writing on the back and therefore no date certain, except that it clearly was during the war. I wonder if these were given out to troops when they were performing – and how strange that if so it has survived all these years just to land here in December of New York City of 2025 and find its way to the Pictorama library.

Dog Show

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s card showed up while I was looking for holiday gifts for a few staffers – it was a gift fail so to speak. I never would have found it however, if I had not been searching around in dog photos on eBay, where I generally do not belong.

Some of you more longstanding readers might remember its sister card shown below which I wrote about all the way back in 2016. At the time it was a hotly contested card which I had lost and subsequently won as outlined in that post which you can read here. Obviously that one turned up in my feed because of the cat reference.

Pam’s Pictorama.com Collection. From a previous post.

While these two cards are definitely of a piece, the Dog Show sign is definitely the same, there are some differences. While I am fairly certain this is the same woman and dog (same Dog Show sign) she is wearing a different outfit in each. The Cat Show Next card is entitled Beastly Affairs.

However, most notably the Cat Show Next card has a different, patterned floor, the other one is a plain wood. A very careful look (lower right corner) shows that the copyright for these two cards is a year apart with the cat version being earlier by a year, 1907 although my copy of that card was mailed in 1909. So did it prove so popular they brought out this variation the next year? I wonder if there are more.

Today’s card is called Going to the Dogs. Unlike the earlier card, this one has writing on the back although no stamp or evidence of mailing so I don’t know when the writing, in pencil, was added. To the best of my ability to read it, it says, Bascom this is Ednice Jain. Look good & she has gone to the Dogs good – Ha Ha Ha. She is a Dog catcher & not 1/2 as good as one. An odd note, no name signing it.

I prefer the earlier card somewhat and it is more than the cat show reference. The composition with the additional sign is a bit better and somehow holding the dog, and even the patterned floor, make it more dynamic. She has a bit of a smile in the first shot and a hat full of flowers – the hat in today’s card notably appears to have a whole bird on it. She wears a different fur trimmed jacket in both.

Unidentified card online with a Pitbull and similar woman but not the same series.

The card was made here in New York City by the Rotograph Company but printed in England, oddly enough. A quick search online does not turn up more cards in the series, but neither does it tie these two cards out to each other. I don’t even find more copies of either of them online, however above I have shared one that turns up that could almost be in the series.

My colleague will now get a card from 1908 with a big footed puppy, vaguely reminiscent of his own recently acquired little fellow. I will dig out my copy of the other card and a find a place to install them side by side, either here or in New Jersey. They make too a good story together to break apart.

What’s Up

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: A flurry of purchases for holiday gifts is commencing and, although there may be one or two readers from the animal hospital who check in over here, I’m pretty sure I am safe posting this particular one in advance of giving it. My work gifts are largely of the canine kind – I must admit that my office is far heavier in pup than kit and therefore dogs are having their day once again here at Pictorama.

Those who have followed me in the years since I left Jazz for the animal hospital know that, especially for a devoted cat person, I now spend a lot of time with dogs. (In fact our annual Top Dog Gala where we celebrate a dog, class of dogs and/or supporter of the hospital’s non-profit mission, is Tuesday. A post about my first Top Dog can be found here. As these events go, dogs do make it a lot more fun!)

An early fall update was doggie indeed and I shared photos of our Paws & Pints event and perhaps our canine concert. (That can be found here.) Puppies and working Guide Dogs populated a Woof & Wine for the younger set interested in our work. So this cat woman is doing a lot of belly rubs and good boys with a whole new crowd. Seven cats means it is unlikely that there is a dog in our immediate future at Deitch Studio, but then again, you never know.

My first Top Dog back in December of ’23.

Meanwhile, as the holidays approach I have applied my same searching rules and know how to finding something to fit and personal to each of those recipients. (Last year I luckily stumbled on a number of small vintage prints of various kinds which made up about half the group.) In my shopping and searching I set a fairly low ceiling on the cost so it took a while for price and aesthetics to come together.

Really, I got lucky pretty fast and this card, mailed back in March of 1908, was one I could just purchase. (Another is on its way to me for a colleague who just got a puppy – his first pet in a number of years. He is a musician and almost got early canine related sheet music but the card I found for him looks like an early 20th century version of his pup!)

In this process I should admit that one photo has come to stay (an occupational hazard – more on that one in a future post) and I thought this one rated the Pictorama treatment. In this card a big footed fellow appears here in straw boater and spiffy collar better suited for a summer outing for the 4th of July than Christmas. A quick search tells me that this image was first distributed in 1906. The ultimate recipient of this card has smaller dogs but I think will like this early guy’s style.

Although it is postmarked March 5, 1906 I cannot read the location of the cancellation. It was sent to Miss Marion Deverance in Durant Okla Box 598 without a message; I guess they felt the card spoke for itself? It’s a simple image in black and white, really just depending on the props for the pup and also the sweet and somewhat urgent look in his eyes. This little fellow wants to please the person behind the camera – perhaps one holding a treat?

I amaze a bit at the difference between dogs and cats as I spend time with them these days. It’s pretty universal that cats hate going to the vet and the best you can hope for is one that doesn’t howl, or in the extreme, bite. Dogs are a mixed bag. Some seem (not all to be sure) to honestly be happy to enter our doors and see their doctor friends. Others are at least resigned as long as they are with mom or dad. There are some who, like the felines, just aren’t having it.

In general though, dogs are so much more social and enjoy participation in the world with their people in a way cats just cannot. I have had some success planning dog friendly events over these past two years. Finding establishments that can and will welcome dogs has been one of the interesting challenges. Our annual Living Legends luncheon typically honors a dog, cat and exotic animal setting the bar for that location even higher. (Bearded dragon welcome?) Meanwhile, we have a parrot joining its mom at our Gala next week, a moveable perch needed to be found for it so that it could join in some photo sessions. Again, this is a very different job! (For your information and in case you need one, Amazon had the perch.)

There are a smattering of dog friendly bars and restaurants uptown near me. Interesting to note that NYC parks are not especially friendly to dog gatherings, although the individual conservancies are willing the Parks Department gives us a thumbs down. I worked for Central Park for several years and am well aware of their leash laws but these have not been requests to have dogs off leash, just gatherings where people could bring them.

My hardbound copy of this book. I bought a bunch of paperbacks to give as thank you gifts this year at work.

Obviously fund raising for an animal hospital raises specific and different challenges from my years at Jazz and before that decades at the Metropolitan Museum. In some ways I am uniquely prepared with my deeply devoted pet past and present. And it’s not all about dogs – donors to a new cat fund for needed emergency surgeries has received May Sarton’s book, The Fur Person which I wrote about in a post that can be found here.

I hope my colleagues will like their canine cards and other holiday treats and that next year, my third, further indicates that I am getting the hang of this fundraising for animals thing right.

A Variety Performance

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: As some readers know, last week was a satisfying visit to the Metropolitan Postcard Club show where I loaded up on a wide variety of postcards which I plan to revel in for a long time to come. However, having said that, the show seemed to be notably low on photo postcards in the categories I perused. Today’s card however was one of those photo postcards I did purchase. (And you can see I eventually wander into silent film territory today!)

This card makes me laugh. It is hard to imagine what on earth a performance of these two, given the visible implements, might have put together – clearly you had to be there. Meanwhile, I had a moment of thinking that the bubble pipe had been applied after the fact but a close look under magnification shows that she was indeed holding it in her teeth. It is my assumption however that the bubble itself was a bit of photo magic, a bit too perfect and visible.

This little girl is well appointed in her dress, with her hair curled nicely and she holds what appears to me to be a handkerchief in her hand. (Her other hand, unseen, is probably resting on the dog.) It requires some imagination to envision any configuration of an act. There is, additionally, a box on the ground near her where there is also an additional pipe like the one in her mouth. Huh.

Kim especially recommends this Louis Feuillade film outside of Judex.

The much gussied up poodle holds a basket and it is my guess she knows a few tricks too. While I am not entirely a fan of the extreme, if classic, haircut she sports it fits the circus dog implications. They are both seated on some sort of print tile floor and best I can tell the dark background was smudged in manually in the making of the image. In the upper right corner in small type it says, A Variety Performance.

This card was never used or mailed and the only information on the back is for the company which appears to be called Aristophot Co. London. This company seems to have been active in the very early years of the 20th century, was sold and appears to have ceased to exist by 1909. However, it left many and a wide variety of postcards in its wake.

All 12 chapters and a prologue are available here at the the time of publication.

This card especially appealed to me this morning because last night I was catching up to where Kim is in a serial called Judex from 1916. A beautifully restored version done in 2020 is available on Youtube. Kim was turned onto it last week while we were watching the Pordenone silent film festival and in particular a series of shorts by Louis Feuillade which made Kim have a look around and another look at the director.

A great shot of the pack of dogs from Judex.

You may ask still, why might this postcard remind me of that? Well, without giving any of the plot away (because if you have any interest you really should watch it) one of the aspects of the film is that the protagonist, the mysterious Judex, travels with an enormous pack of trained dogs! Many hounds, one huge black dog with long flowing hair, and a well trained poodle trimmed up just like this one. Great shots of them all flying around the countryside abound.

Among the wilder looking pack of dogs this very perfectly clipped poodle emerging as one of several performing pups really helps lift this early series up into our Best Of Serial category even though we are only on the fourth installment. More to come there!

Doggone, It’s Fall!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It is a couple of weeks that were here in Manhattan and for this animal hospital fundraiser September has been a captivatingly canine month already. As luck would have it, three out of my four dog events this month (the final one is on September 30 – our Woof &Wine for our young friends) were over the last ten days and as I looked at the photo feed on my phone it has been a bonanza of doggy days.

My less alliterative and punny colleagues groan a bit over my event monikers – Paws & Pints, Woof & Wine, Purrs & Pearls for starters. Pictorama readers know I cannot resist either in my scribbling and writing for work these days gives me ample opportunity to employ and explore both. (And more to come below!)

Paws & Pints participants above. Human and dog treats were supplied.

Fall days really are doggy here this year as I try to learn about fundraising for the animal hospital (um, quite different than jazz) and the community that supports it. I have realized that people (New Yorkers at least) really like to go to places with their dogs – to socialize with other dogs and their folks. As a committed cat companion of seven this has been a learning curve for me. After all, the cats make a strong statement of staying solely in their environment to the extent they can, don’t especially like other cats and, not all but most, show a decided preference for home and hearth. They are generally (at first at least) a bit leery even of house guests.

Not pups! Bow wow! They can’t wait to meet you, get their ears scratched and tummy rubbed, tails set a wagging. They greet each other, sometimes careful, other times enthused, and occasionally resulting in a stand off. I’m told I have been lucky and the worst we’ve had has been some barking – not sure we’ve even escalated to growling.

Last week we celebrated our second Paws & Pints event at a dog friendly establishment on the Upper Eastside, not far from Deitch Studio over here on 86th Street and Kim attended too. Happily crammed into a backyard here, we had about 30 guests and about 16 dog guests of every size and type. Beloved rescue mutts were cheek to jowl with bure bred pups. Nary a bark out of the group which has been commended by the establishment for its excellent behavior.

Somehow this image of a litho Kim did years ago always comes to mind when contemplating these events. This is called “Chaos at the Black and White Cat Show”.

I suspect I am tempting fate by writing this and that my day will come when we have all out chaos. Nonetheless, I press on and continue to experiment. I am not sure but I think that it is the preponderance of dogs, and a lot of dog specific treats, that calms the group. I suspect one or two dogs mixed with a lot of humans leads to more barking and seeking of attention.

This week saw two more events, a shopping evening at a store on 72nd Street and our second annual Canine Concert for dogs and their companions. Whatever I had imagined from the store event did not in the least prepare me for the overwhelming response from the local shopping community. I feel confident in stating that if you want to fill up your store, invite your folks to bring their dogs but watch out for the response.

Shopping event evening above which grew and grew!

I myself managed to shop. That said I am a very intrepid shopper and considering the store was doing this for the benefit of our hospital (10% of sales that evening supported our work). I thought it behooved me to pitch in and purchased a dress as a result. However, frankly with dogs of every size and type and people virtually falling out the door, I cannot say how much shopping did get done. Of course there were dog pup cup treats and even portraits being done at the back of the store. (A jeweler on Madison Avenue is having a holiday shopping evening for us in November which is where Purrs and Pearls will take place. I can only hope we have half as many people for that.)

Meanwhile, the canine concert (turn up sound for the snippet above) is not my brain child and is the thoughtful product of our education area and one of our board members. A string quartet from Julliard played off a puppy friendly playlist and a gorgeous September evening meant a meltingly beautiful occupation of a public square of canine and human camaraderie. The soothing repertoire was compiled by an auditory expert on the subject and certainly seemed to turn the trick on an exhausted Friday evening. One of my colleagues said that if you want your faith in humanity restored, man a table at a dog concert.

Canine Concert participants above.

I don’t think it is my imagination when I say people are generally in a better mood when they are with their dogs – arguably at their nicest. And being with the the dogs makes me and my staffers happy as well.

All this said I woke exhausted but satisfied this morning. Woof & Wine is still on the horizon where we will supply the puppies – dogs in training for the Guiding Eyes for the Blind foundation – rather than a bring your own. Purrs & Pearls is still a ways off and I am already planning for a Paws & Pints park edition for spring so stay tuned.

Putting the Dog Before the Cart

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s photo is not only suffering from age, but probably from being under exposed in the first place. In person it also has a bit of solarization that photos from this period often get, almost as if the silver is rising to the surface, making it even harder to see. I knew this when I bought it (to Miss Molly’s credit she does nothing to enhance the images of the photos she sells – that doesn’t happen often, although in my hobby I come across it occasionally), but I loved the image and I decided to take a chance. It is small, the image is only about 3″x4″. So, my apologies for its inherent short comings.

This photo appeals to me because I would have adored having such a set up as a child. I have written on several occasions about employing our long-suffering German Shepard, Duchess, and my cat Snoopy in a complex series of games and scenarios. The fact that, at least as a small child, I would not have had the appropriate real estate needed to really enjoy such a contraption, I will leave aside – you need some real acreage to really sport about it something like this, but wow – you’d really be doing something!

I have long contemplated that the connection with our domestic animal friends is different when you are a small child. Is it because you are, in reality, that much closer to their own intellectual bandwidth at that point? Or are you just communicating more freely? I have always wondered. I can remember long childish conversations with them both, prattling happily along, looking deep into their eyes as I spoke, absolutely certain they understood every word.

Perhaps because of the sheer amount of attention paid to them, they would allow me to undertake all sorts of indignities that I wouldn’t dream of inflicting on my pets as an adult – trying to ride the dog, dressing up the kitty, adventures with the doll carriage and the like. My parents would intervene occasionally if things got out of hand, but generally we were left to our own devices. I would have been on this dog cart thing in a minute given the opportunity. Duchess, somewhere in dog heaven, is perhaps grateful the opportunity did not arise.

My new always-at-home life has changed my relationship with Blackie and Cookie. It isn’t a coincidence that shelters have been emptied of dogs and cats during the pandemic. They are excellent company during these days that merge into one long working day.

The daily routine of Cookie and Blackie was forged early here at Deitch Studio, formed around Kim working at home and his day. Kim and the kitties start the workday (very) early, and he is in charge of their feeding, morning and evening. (Eating to cats is, without question, the most important part of the day – a brief but glorious interlude. We have strict feeding times in an, ever-failing, attempt to keep them from driving Kim nuts all day while he works.)

Until the middle of March I was on the outer edge of this cat constellation, home on weekends, but otherwise generally in the ongoing daily act of coming and going – packing a suitcase and leaving for days at a time on occasion, very undependable. They expected it and my departures and arrivals frankly rarely rated so much as a flatten ear or a greeting glance from either.

I noticed the other day when Kim went out for a walk that the cats sat by the front door the entire time, staring at it. Waiting and willing him to return. They clearly have very little faith in my ability to open a cat food can.

Yet, I think the cats have, over the course of more than four months, completely erased my daily departures from memory. I too am now a daily fixture – if a slightly less useful one. Blackie makes his appearance in Zoom calls and demands a 3:30 cuddle no matter what else I am doing – and Cookie helps me work out daily (she likes it when my trainer, Harris, appears on the iPad for a FaceTime workout where she flirts with him a bit), and both fight me for my work chair. Kim can vouch for the fact that I talk to them all the time – Cookie tends to actually answer. She’s the chatty kit of the two.

And of course I believe they understand me, or at least a certain percentage of what I tell them – mostly encouragement about being the best kitty in the whole world!  and the handsomest boy cat! and even the occasional please get off of the desk – thank you very much! – it isn’t philosophical discussion for the most part. I will have to be home many months longer before I can perhaps find my childhood knack and we can enter into long talks about the meaning of life together, Cookie, Blackie and I.