Who’s a Scaredy Cat?

Pam’s Pictorama Post: While my timing may miss the mark for Halloween this year, the subject matter in a sense is pure Pictorama. The cat in question showed up from an auction house on Halloween night, having been purchased at an online auction a few months ago. While most auction houses I have encountered actually get items to me very quickly (one called Everything but the House sends out their packages with startling efficiency seeming to arrive within days) clearly some are more pokey. I purchased two things recently, at different auctions, and they have slowly meandered in a few months later. They are both welcome additions and today we start with this kitty – the other is a rather great future post.

*Pams-Pictorama.com* *collection – the office annex. There’s something about his only having three feet on the ground which entertains me.*

This fellow appealed to my black cat Halloween loving sensibility for obvious reasons, although I very rarely purchase contemporary items. I am occasionally persuaded and this cat entertained me. I will say, I won it at auction for next to nothing but they really socked me on postage. I actually rejected what they said the postage was going to be at first and figured if I lost the cat and the few dollars over it so be it. Oddly they came back with something more reasonable and here he is.

It is my intention to have him join another Halloween cat which has graced my office for many decades. I was working at the Met and I don’t remember how this couple knew that I collected black cat items, but they made a gift of it to me one day. Seems their son was a buyer working for Martha Stewart and was responsible for sourcing decorative items for the various holidays which would then be shown in the magazine and probably also sold under her brand. This cat had been a sample among the items he proposed and it was rejected. Somehow his parents saw it and grabbed it up for me.

*More jagged teeth and yellow eyes; he’s missing a bit of paint on his nose sadly.*

It has always been my office black cat if you will. (For many years I also kept the Happy Life wind-up toy, below, in my office because it has a calming and cheering effect on me. I was known to wind it up for staffers under distress, especially while at the Museum. I wrote a post about this soothing toy here and you can see it’s a clip of it wound up as well.) There has been occasional conversation about the scary black cat when he was introduced at various offices and why I have him and I usually just tell the story of his acquisition. However, over time for those staffers who have seen me on zoom from home they have been treated to a small view into the mighty black cat collection and it makes more sense. No one at the animal hospital has asked and I assume that has something to do with being an animal hospital? Or are they just not surprised to find me guarded by a scary black cat.

*New kitty on Kim’s desk. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

Both of these cats are made with a plastic arched cat body which is covered in black “fur”. The smaller older one (or one from my office, who knows the age of the additional one) has more wiry legs and you can almost pose him but I have never pushed it. Overall, this new fellow bigger and sturdier. Part of me wonders if he had shown up rather than the other if he would have made the grade with Martha. He is better made, although clearly from the same sort of origin.

The new cat is more substantial in every way. Both have glass eyes and whiskers although both stand out a bit more on the new cat. The office cat has those sort of spindly claw paw toes which are arguably a bit more intimidating than the fluffy feet on the other and his tail is on a jauntier angle. However his red nose is a bit comical and makes him friendlier than the shiny black one on this cat. His ribbon has always struck me as at odds with his overall appearance and if the new guy sported one it is long gone.

Both have been endowed with differently ferociously toothy mouths. The smaller cat has more teeth and the new one has fewer but they really look like they mean business. The many hard whiskers stand up on either side of the gaping mouth complete with a bright red tongue.

This fellow is going to make his way to the office this week now that he has had his baptism by Pictorama post. Unlike my prior offices, I have somehow fallen short of actually decorating this one in a meaningful way. (A post about the black cat sheet music that decorated my office at Jazz can be found here.) My first office for the animal hospital had a terrible leak (think water pouring into pots on the desk and floor) and I refrained from subjecting any of my framed sheet music to it. We moved offices last January and the new office does seem pretty water proof yet somehow I have yet to attempt to brand it much as my own. Perhaps I should be more concerned with the image he projects to staff, yet to know me is to know my love of all black cats – just ask Blackie and Beau!

Clowning Around

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I purchased these photos on Instagram quite a long time ago. One night after dinner they showed up by a seller I follow but rarely buy from – a guy who had a store here in Manhattan on the Lower Eastside and then packed up and relocated, I think, to Florida. (A couple of posts of the joys of his store can be found here and here.)

These sat unopened for a long time and then they went to New Jersey. I photographed them for this purpose while I was there. They are not yet hanging and I am not sure of a spot for them, clearly the need to remain together.

I was shocked to discover that the frames are plastic and incredibly light. I had assumed they were painted wood, all the better for hanging but potentially a bit fragile.

*I peg this one for the older kid. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

Sometimes I wonder how or why a particular photo makes it through time and being sold while others clearly whittle away. It is easy to see why these hung together somewhere and the appeal of these kids and these clown costumes is self-evident.

These were either commercially purchased costumes or made by a fine seamstress. The one with the stars is showier and catches your eye better, but really they are equal in their greatness. The hats are especially nice and seem to be made as part of the costume, the tie on ruffs around the neck. The button closures seem to be some sort of passementerie or Soutache. The sleeves on the one hang a bit long.

*Giving you a better look at this one too – Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

Each photo is taken in the same spot in front of this older garden apartment which could have been anywhere – I haven’t a clue where these came from originally. The walkway does a nice job of zipping up the composition and taking our eye right to the back. Each figure is placed visually between the lanterns at the front entrance.

I have gone back and forth on this, but my current thinking is that both are girls. The one in the star decorated costume definitely is, and I would say she is the younger. She is sort of bubbling over with enthusiasm. The other is a bit more studied, arms folded, but a big grin nonetheless. Both are very charming.

While I assume these are for Halloween, but it could have been another costume or fancy dress opportunity. Lucky kids – if the costumes were any indication a good time was had by all!

Small Stuff

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: A bit frazzled from a long and crazy week at work I sit down to chat with you today, still in a bit of disarray, with only some disparate bits to share. My new job wraps up its fiscal year along with the calendar year (a merging of very busy times for a fundraiser and a timing first for me) and in addition, we have a gala in early December. Somehow we threw in an annual dinner for members to be held on Monday into the mix and suddenly our tiny office is positively swamped.

In acknowledgment of the season, I have hung a few black cat streamers over my desk. I’m sorry not to have a shot of mine, but here they are for sale. I bought them at Big Lots in New Jersey for just a few dollars on markdown. They may find a permanent place here at Deitch Studio later. (I also purchased candy corn lights but sadly haven’t found a spot near an outlet for them.)

*Soft, stuffed black cat garland – came with another garland of pom poms.*

However, Kim and I took yesterday off and spent part of the day at the Metropolitan Museum, my old stomping ground. I wanted to catch the exhibit on Siena (Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350) before the holiday crowds (and growing tsunami of work) scared me off. (Kim is hard at work having essentially finished a book and due to a rethinking of that lengthy appendix has found himself already deep in another book. We expect the finished book out in the second quarter of next year or so.)

Before heading into the museum we made a quick stop at E.A.T. (a pretty if over-priced emporium) on Madison. They often stock up for Halloween and, although I might have purchased more (there was a great black cat woven basket for your treat holding), I contained myself. I only purchased a new pair of cat ears on a headband and a nice little wooden black (tuxedo-ish) cat which moves when you press the bottom. I have had a series of these since childhood and used to play with them by the hour. (I also own a rather nice Felix one which predates my adult Felix buying mania.)

*Lost the little tips of his ears at some point.*

I understand that our animal hospital embraces Halloween fondly and there is a contest for costumes among the medical services. (I gather clients dress up as well and I am already becoming familiar with canines in costumes and clothes in other festive settings.) I have a date to take our new videographers through the hospital on Halloween so my new cat ears on a headband are my feline Cat Mom of many nod to the day.

*Cover of the 1989 exhibition catalogue.*

I was introduced to the paintings of Siena when I first started working at the Met. It was back in 1989 that they held the great exhibition, Painting in Renaissance Siena: 1420-1500. It’s hard to compare after all these years and knowing that the earlier one had such an impact on me. I own a very beat up copy of the catalogue (I probably bought it at a damage sale to begin with because that’s how I got most of my art books then) and I might prefer the slightly later period presented in that exhibit but this one is glorious too.

There is just something about the space and sensibility of these paintings that simply rewires my brain. If I was a cartoonist they would make me rethink panels and pages and space entirely. When I saw the first exhibition I was still drawing and painting and they did heavily influence my thinking. I find even without that scratching at my brain I will be thinking about them for a long time. (I have not purchased the catalogue but most likely will. It’s been years since I have added an art catalogue to this crowded library of ours!)

I don’t want to bore you with all my thoughts about it except to say that the sense of space and architecture is fascinating and a great reminder that people were designing things in all sorts of creative and wild ways at that time. What they didn’t know they just made work with a convincing conviction – cut away the side of a mountain, show what’s underground, put a tiny city over here. Amazing. There is also something about the colors and they tend to almost glow. The exhibit plays this and the vast amount of gold up by hitting them with light in an otherwise dark setting. They are little gems.

We wandered through the European Paintings galleries to find a few Bosch paintings I wanted to share with Kim. (He just read Guy Caldwell’s book, Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch, which Guy was kind enough to send. Recently published by Fantagraphics it can be purchased here.) While we did find one or two, the more inspiring painting was van Eyck’s Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych. (The amazing Google image that you can drill down into can be found here)

Not too much else to report from our visit except that we could have voted early, but were too tired to get in the long line. (The Met is our early voting location.) We ate in the public cafeteria – sandwiches and, in a rather parsimonious way, each saved half for today’s lunch. (I have gone from being a rather voracious eater to having shrunk my appetites during a long period of dieting. There was a time when leaving half a sandwich would never have happened.)

Apologies for this being long and rambling. Wish me luck with my cat ears this week. Blackie looked confused and rather baleful when I tried them on yesterday. And a happy Halloween to all!

Pillow Puss

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s is a rare contemporary cat purchase, one which may be familiar to some because it came from Target. It is a limited edition Halloween item by the interior designer John Derian. As it happens I had recently read an article on Derian’s house in Provincetown. (A friend sent it to me and this may or may not be the precise one here.) Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have known who he is and passed it by.

This article produced some house envy (I wonder if that is the point of the article in a sense), but more importantly made me want to visit the small shop on his property where he seems to sell the overflow from his own antiques collecting in addition to his own line. Oh to be able to paw through that on a regular basis! Alas, I haven’t been to Provincetown in many years so it is unlikely. He has a shop in the West Village but that one seems more dedicated to his life of housewares, rather than those bits that help inspire them.

*John Derian store next to his house in Provincetown. Lovely looking bits.*

So I went down the rabbit hole of the email Target promo for his collection, figuring that anyone who had cool stuff couldn’t be all bad and might make some Halloween items I should see. And he did. Given a lot of space and a surfeit of spending money I might have purchased more, but I was restrained and only came away with this reproduction of an antique cat, made into a sizeable cushiony pillow.

The cat, which as I write is still available on the Target site (although also already at an approximately 100% mark-up on eBay, let the buyer beware!), with the following description:

…This novelty pillow features artwork by decoupage artist John Derian that showcases a black cat wearing a red bow collar with a jingle bell and yellow eyes. Made of 100% cotton fabric with polyester filling, this black plush pillow offers soft comfort, and the sewn-seam closure provides a neat-finished look.

John Derian is an American decoupage artist and designer living in New York City whose aesthetic encapsulates a curious mix of natural oddities, antiques and eccentricities.

It is a tad confusing – did he make a decoupage cat and then they reproduced it? I assume that’s what they mean, although there is no real indication of the decoupage and of course I’d be curious to see the original if there is one. Still, the man has a good eye.

The shape is similar to a popular design of a flat stuffed cat one frequently sees. One in the category is for sale on eBay now, some are older than others.

*Cat pillow. Not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

Kitty is about 16″ high and the bell hung on his nice bow rings. He is pleasantly pillow cushy. He is, of course, black with a jolly red face and fur indicated. His big yellow eyes stare and he has a toothy (but not all the way to cartoony, nor scary) grin. He is charmingly goofy.

*Pams-Pictorama.com collection, still available at Target.com*

I admit to having been tempted by Derian’s platters with skeletons dancing on them – if we spent more time in Jersey they might be put to use there – and from his Thanksgiving line, the asparagus candles entertain me and the turkey would also make a fun centerpiece. As my Thanksgiving needs appear to be modest at best (and in the house with five cats – lit candles don’t have a chance there!) I am unlikely prey for these holiday temptations, at least this year. His own line of upscale dishes, with beautiful images from nature, are a bit rich for my blood – especially as I seem to be hard on plates and cups.

However, this kitty will join a large black cat head pillow in New Jersey – future post! For a nice cuddle on our bed or a day bed in the space where Kim works upstairs, he will be perfect. Meanwhile, that house is slowly transforming into a cat refuge of an antique sort as well. We’ll see what the Jersey five think of him come Thanksgiving!

Hello Dearie

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I am running late today for this post, my second from New Jersey this summer. The neglected garden needed my attention while it was still cool enough to work out here. It was a small start, but I am also tired from my first week as a commuter and getting over a bad head cold last weekend. However, it should also be noted that today is the first day of six since we got here where it has not been a torrential downpour either. Let the garden enjoyment (and work) begin!

Nevertheless, I have this little treasure which arrived at Deitch Studio shortly before our departure last weekend. While the aged quality of this photo makes it less than perfect, it was an irresistible image to add to the Pictorama collection.

The concept of the perfect Felix costume has long stoked my imagination and I believe informed Kim’s Alias the Cat. (That book – one of the best ever! – for purchase can be found here.) While I search to acquire the perfect mask photos of Felix costumes can also satisfy. I just posted about another and it is unusual because I don’t really have that many in my collection. (A post about that recent acquisition, shown above, can be found here.)

Early in my collecting I found an interesting clutch of early photos of folks donning Felix costumes. Tiny snapshots of people in masks or full costume. Oddly, I didn’t acquire them together either which is sort of fascinating. That post from the early days of Pictorama can be found here.

Today’s photo is a tintype and as to be expected that means the writing on Felix’s chest is reversed. Hard to know if Felix was an adult with these two small bunny attired kids. More likely an older child. While it is definitely an off-model mask it was commercially made, as were the bunny outfits the other children sport.

*One from a series of photos from the post mentioned above.*

I have no explanation for the staff or cane held, but the older of the two rabbit kids. If I had to guess (and it would be a guess) I would say the older of those two is a girl. I have no idea at all about the younger. They are outside and a careful look shows a woman behind them and some buildings, or more likely pictures of buildings, behind her. There are other indistinct people and things, however the picture grows wavy there and they are unreadable.

I was surprised to be reminded that this photo actually came from Louisiana, not Great Britain. The holder strikes me as oh so British and of course it’s most recent home before mine was not necessarily its place of origin. I believe that virtually all of the Felix tintypes I have of this sort have come from either England or Australia. Having said that, most of them are people posing with large Felix dolls and this is just kids in costume.

I have yet to decide how the Pictorma library will stretch in the Jersey digs and have yet to start to hang things, although some of the yard long photos are on display. I mostly leave the items here that have ended up here, but I hope for the leisure to make some determinations about decoration. More to come when I figure that out. For now it has gotten too hot for the garden and there are numerous cats requesting pets.

A Happy Halloween

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Halloween is on the horizon and I have been saving this scary pumpkin creature guy for quite awhile – so long in fact that I don’t actually remember when or from who I acquired it. Pumpkin people do frighten me a bit and this fellow no exception.

Oddly, he seems to sport a small Santa hat atop his head. I guess once you hit Halloween, Christmas isn’t far off? The sparkles make him a bit more cheerful and I very much like the black cat head above the Happy Halloween. His sideways glance does not contribute to a friendly look. Can’t exactly figure out why he’s on a tree swing. A owl perches in the tree and a bat flies among a scattering of gold stars. A black cat peers around a tree.

*Bonus New Jersey Halloween decoration photo tour* *from my run today, as promised yesterday.*

This card was used although there is no postage on the back so maybe it was popped into an envelope. It is addressed to Miss Lillian Garrett, Bedford Sty, Trimbule, CO Route 2 however so it is odd that it has an address but no stamp. Also, reading the message is entirely beyond me. I usually have trouble but unlock it after a few tries, however this one continues to frustrate me. I have photographed it and perhaps a reader can make it past the first sentence.

The card is undated and at first I thought there was no reference to Halloween, however I managed to decode part of the message where she says, am…downtown and just got these cards to your you all. Want to get…a false face to wear to the party. Write soon. Can’t read the signature either!

Although I will be back in the city on Tuesday, I will leave treats for the kids here in New Jersey to be appropriately distributed. I have a pair of cat ears to sport however and will give at least a passing nod to the day in New York this week as well.

Halloween Approaching

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Boo! October has zipped right on by us this year here at Pictorama and before I know it I find Halloween is upon us. I am heading down to NJ this morning as the cat caretaker has a brief trip out of town and I will play cat mom to those kitties this weekend.

I haven’t had much chance to enjoy October in Jersey (I did post about one weekend out there recently and that can be found here), but I will soak up the last of it over the next few days. I especially look forward to a run where I can tour the Halloween decorations, soon to morph into Thanksgiving. These are the very best months out there, before the cold makes it less hospitable.

You might think I would go in heavily for my own Halloween decorations for the house, but no. My nascent collection of decorations run to the delicate and vintage, like this one above. I really shouldn’t purchase such fragile things as Deitch Studio can be a rough and tumble place sometimes. Both of today’s items were found on Instagram and were deals I decided I couldn’t ignore.

*From a 2015 post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

The paper globe (held by a helpful Kim above) has wonderful black cats on both sides and I imagine parties where a dozen of these hung somewhere, or perhaps were gracing a table laden with Halloween treats and fare – to be enjoyed between rounds of bobbing for apples? I have devoted a few posts to collected Halloween Dennison paper decoration books – how-to manuals of parties from the teens in a different era of DIY. (One of those posts can be found here.) I lack the not inconsiderable skill for the elaborate costumes and decorations of those days although I would say the bar was pretty high.

Although I don’t purchase cardboard Halloween decorations deeply (having said that another recent purchase post can be found here), I can’t resist a well designed kitty and this one was offered to me a few months ago. Only about 10 inches high he isn’t large and if I was inclined he would indeed make a tasteful apartment door decoration.

I like all his pointiness! He is a cat poised for action and maybe a bit of trouble, as much trick as treat. Claw paws and a mischievous grin. The back of this cardboard figure shows that it was much taped up over time, but otherwise he survives in very good shape. Other than a bit of a folding on the ears, he is in amazingly pristine condition.

I pledge another Halloween treat for tomorrow so stay tuned!

Halloween in June – a Find!

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Among the casualties of recent months, while I was spending more time in New Jersey with my mom, has been neglecting my collecting passion. While I did continue to buy this and that (mostly on the occasional scroll through my IG feed), the items then often wandered into Deitch Studio only to be unpacked and put away with less than the usual consideration.

Therefore, these days now one occasionally rises to the surface, like this noisemaker, with no real memory of where it hails from. I believe it was a part of a small group buy of Halloween items or one I just added onto a buy. I am very entertained by it, but doesn’t seem like an item I would have bought on its own. Nonetheless, I am pleased to find it this morning, tucked on a shelf, patiently waiting its turn to bask in the light of a Pictorama post.

Turn up the sound for Kim playing

The sound of this noisemaker made both of the cats here a bit crazy this morning when I gave it a spin. Kim and I were discussing how, regardless of its actual age, the design seems like it could go back to 1900 or earlier. However, I found a website (Lisa Morton) however which says that although noise makers of this type, called rachet style noisemakers, were found in Germany earlier they became popular in this country in the 1920’s. She says wood ones like this were produced until the 1950’s when they shifted to tin. (To this day one can find a tin and plastic variation sold on the street for New Year’s Eve here in Manhattan, along with old fashion tin horns!)

*The black cat version – although this is a silent fellow. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection from a 2021 post.*

Noisemakers were designed to chase ghosts and the bogeyman away, an essential to staying safe on Halloween when you were a child. They were an inexpensive accessory addition to the Halloween celebration. I will say that my quiet loving parents never introduced me and my siblings to the simple pleasures of noisemakers. We can draw our own conclusions about that.

Mine here has an odd looking pumpkin head which seems to sport a sort of spotted mushroom cap. (Were he larger I think he’d be a bit frightening or at least creepy in his own right.) He still bears his crisp black paper ruff. The handle is worn very smooth from many years of hands handling.

*Pams-Pictorama.com Collection also from a 2021 post.*

My foray onto the web researching a bit about Halloween turned up this sort of fascinating reference for the origin of jack-o-lanterns (wowza!) came from as below:

The legend of the most familiar Hallowe’en symbol–a lighted pumpkin–comes from a tale of an old Irish miser named Jack. Jack made several pacts with the devil. He also tricked the devil. When he died, he could not get into Heaven for his sins and because he had tricked the devil, he could not get into Hell. The Devil gave him a coal and Jack placed it in a hollowed out turnip, which lit his way as he wandered the earth until Judgment Day.

(More from this vintage Halloween collecting site can be found here.)

Being a black cat collector I am very Halloween adjacent without really being a Halloween collector. (Some of my other Halloween posts can be found here, here and here.) Halloween collecting is glorious and in another life I would collect everything from the early costumes (still holding out for a great black cat or Felix costume however) to paper decorations. For now though, Pictorama will mostly stay in its black cat lane with only occasional forays into the broader world of Halloween treats and tricks.

Pull My Tail and Watch Me Jump!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: For someone who collects black cats a surprisingly small part of my collection is devoted to Halloween material, although certainly some has found its way in. (Former posts have shared Halloween items here, here and here for starters.)

I do love a good paper mache pumpkin or black cat lantern, and I can see a few more finding their way into the house. I remember the first time I saw the pumpkins was at a store in Cold Spring, New York and they had a load of them. The vintage decorations were amazing, but were way more than I could afford at the time and I was just agog. I don’t think I bought my first lantern until a few years ago, on Instagram, this nice cat one below.

I don’t even remember where I purchased this little guy I am sharing today who is one of the few persistent Halloween decorations up in the house. I don’t think it was eBay, although I could be wrong. I think he may have come into my possession before eBay and probably at a flea market.

His tail, now gone, seems to have been a victim of persistent pulling over the years, and his back is marked with the residue of scotch taping. He has a bit of ancient string on his head where he hung from. I think the very first year I moved into this apartment I may have put him on the door, but now he resides comfortably on a shelf, tucked near yesterday’s feature coincidentally, my Oswald Rabbit. There are a few others scattered around him, a good cardboard black cat head or two.

*A robustly decorated home near my Mom, taken on a recent run in NJ.*

Jumping Kitty is a typical thin cardboard and I would say he might date back to the ’40’s or 50’s, at least in terms of design which may have continued to be produced over time. I have always liked his toothy smile and the slightly evil twinkle in his eyes. He shows us his claw paws and there is even an indication of fluffy fur. There is no factory mark on him, but I would guess he is a domestic product. For me he has a look of just the right period for Halloween decorations.

My childhood ran mostly to a slapdash sort of holiday decorating. We might carve the occasional pumpkin, there was a Christmas tree (artificial – Mom was against the killing of live trees), and there might have been this or that handed down in the family that came out at the holidays, but really Mom had three kids and a husband who traveled constantly for work, and she wasn’t devoting a lot of time or energy to it. We routinely carved pumpkins, dyed Easter eggs and made gingerbread cookies, more as activities to occupy us than any actual interest in the holidays.

Play the short video clip for this enormous moving black cat a block away from Mom in NJ.

I have a bit of an itch to decorate, but NY studio apartment living doesn’t afford many opportunities. I have let go of even putting up a small Christmas tree (mostly for the cats who like to claim it in a variety of ways, sitting under or climbing, eating things off of it, etc.) years ago as just too hard to negotiate in our space. Like my mom I guess I too don’t really have the time or patience.

I thought I would be at my Mom’s house for Halloween this year and was looking forward to it until my schedule morphed. She lives in the sort of ideal suburban neighborhood, within walking distance of three schools, made up of medium-sized, well tended homes. A picture perfect for kids to trick or treat in. I would like to see what the costumes look like these days and would have enjoyed handing out treats.

*This house, also on her block, was just the perfectly decorated autumn cottage I thought.*

For those of you who follow my running journal on Instagram you know that it is full of cul de sacs and dead end streets where kids play unimpeded. The yards are a treat with seasonal decorations changing on cue. Those will morph briefly to Thanksgiving and of course large displays for Christmas. Maybe this will be the year to put up a tree again here in the apartment. I will let you Pictorama readers know.

Black Cat Fiesta

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: We’re speeding down October’s path on a less than 24 hour countdown to another Halloween. It is a truly dark and stormy morning as I write this and I do hope it clears sufficiently for the activities of tomorrow for the local little ones – the holiday seems challenged enough in its Covid incarnation this year. Here at Pictorama I am sharing a few additional howlin’ Halloween bits I collected over the last few months in my search for all things early 20th century black cat related. Today’s items are from my go-to girl for Halloween items (and some other interesting bits) who hails from the Midwest, @missmollystlantiques, aka Molly Simms.

I have written recently about how Miss Molly has helped me achieve some of my early Halloween collecting goals. (One of those posts can be found here.) These little items today are some icing on the collecting cake and a reminder that one of the nice things about holiday decorations is that they were used and often lovingly stored each year, making for a great survival rate.

*Dennison’s Bogie Book from the teens. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

I can only say I wish the Dennison’s Black Cat streamer was sufficiently sturdy to put up in the apartment. They are very jolly and I can imagine them decorating the space above our bookcases nicely. (Perhaps I could press them in plexi? I wonder if they would survive the light? It is so fragile!)

This black cat banner immediately stirs an image of a much earlier Halloween party, say 1916, dripping with such decorations – table groaning with paper mache jack-o-lanterns and nut cups. I was collecting the Dennison books years ago, as below (that early 2015 post can be found here). Some wonderful copies were being put out for awhile – for you fellow collectors who may have missed them, poke around. The image that they present of the well appointed Halloween party from the teens has stayed with me – one chock-a-block and dripping with crepe paper creations. Those folks at Dennison’s knew how to sell crepe paper! I cannot help but feel there is a better steward of this particular fragile paper bit of history. Nevertheless, I will do my best until the next person comes along.

Less fragile and easier to revel in, is this cardboard Halloween Quiz overseen by a grinning bow-tied black cat and this serious owl. There is a 1940 copyright to H. E. Luhrs and a quick internet search shows that the Luhrs name was a significant one in ’40’s and ’50’s Halloween decorations and die-cuts. They were the maker of what I think of as the classic skeleton decoration (the one I would want if I wanted a skeleton) and evidently the “spinning” (it doesn’t really spin and I somehow doubt it ever did) fortune teller which they employed with several designs. While I could not find a proper history of the company, at a glance I would say they were the poor man’s version of Beistle, a somewhat more substantial maker of Halloween ephemera.

Questions run down one side of my version of the Quiz with answers on the right. Two spins would give you both a question and an answer – the answer might require that you perform the required stunt to achieve it. Questions range from Am I studious? to Do I like old people? and answers are along the lines of If you can twirl a pencil like a baton without dropping it the answer is no.

I end with this small black cat jack-o-lantern style container which probably held treats on a very well appointed Halloween table. It survives in virtually pristine condition. No tricks, only treats here at Pictorama today. Have a Happy Black Cat Halloween!

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