Source: Cards of Christmas Past
Kim Deitch
Dennison’s
Pam’s Pictorama Post: I guess given my predilection for black cats, it isn’t surprising that Halloween of days gone by greatly entertains me, and therefore so does dressing up, and for a time I was buying black cat novelty and Halloween books and items. In addition to this original one shown above, I purchased a number of lovely reproductions of the Dennison’s Bogie Books – color xerox copies of the catalogues Dennison’s holiday paper product company put out annually to encourage costume making and elaborate party decorations – made of their crepe paper, of course, and eventually morphing into wrapping paper and decorations.
Although they had booklets (and decorative paper) dedicated to various holidays, of course Halloween was the zenith of the dress up holidays. In addition to the decorations, they detail costumes that could be put together and even party games that could be played. It appears that they were the first on the market with holiday crepe paper – and certainly the first to have such comprehensive marketing.
Dennison’s was around for just over a century – 1897-1998 and was housed in Framingham, MA. They were a significant employer for the area and an important part of civic life there, right up until it was sold in the late 1990’s and moved to California. In addition to being a community leader, contributing to hospital drives and local causes, but also was known for not laying off any staff during the Depression. Some of this information, as well as information about how the Dennison’s archive was saved by a former employee, can be found here in Framingham Unearths Decades of Dennison Memories.
Below are some choice pages from my run of reproduction books, ’14-’17.
I want that Cat Hat! Which reminds me of a pretty great photo of Kim below:
Deitch Valentine Bonus Post
Pam’s Pictorama Valentine Post: Last Tuesday a neighbor accidentally flooded our apartment and despite Kim’s best efforts at mopping up, at 8:00 at night I found myself cross-legged on the floor in front of our linen closet throwing out sodden tax documents and, sadly, old snap shots and letters. However, among those things and utterly untouched was this Valentine Kim made me many years ago when we first got together. It is from a small box of chocolate which he covered with paper and drew on with colored pencil! Delightful!
Those of you who have followed on Facebook over the years know of our family tradition where Kim makes me a wonderful Valentine drawing every year. Since I started out as a big Kim Deitch fan before being a girlfriend or a wife these are really extra special for me. Over time they have become more elaborate and now they are almost mini-stories. Lucky girl – I get to star in my own Kim Deitch drawings! Yay Kim! I am the happiest fan ever – as well as the luckiest wife.
Below are some Valentines from recent past years. Enjoy!
Alfred Latell
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I had my eye on this postcard on eBay for a while – holiday purchases needed to all be complete before I could justify the splurge and buy it. I adore animal imitators from the turn-of-the-century – starting with the 1907 Dancing Pig from France (possibly the very best short film ever) to George Ali as Nana in the 1925 Peter Pan – and all those wonderful early Wizard of Oz films. I love them all! Kim knows my passion for them and this is one of the first drawings he ever gave me – Animal Impersonators – a play on the idea.
This postcard was used. Addressed on the back to The two Brothers “Mathuss” Cassimo si Paris Theater, Burner Pesth, Hungary. The postmark is illegible but the message reads, in English, Dear Boys, good wishes to you. great success. My sincere good thoughts. Your father. The photo studio is Atelier & Bromsilber which seems to have been a well-known studio.
This photo is my introduction to Alfred Latell whose career evidently started in 1902 and lasted into the 1940’s. Online I found a 1936 ad for a show with Alfred Latell as, yep you guessed it, Bonzo Dog – which is how this card was also advertised. An online Encyclopedia of Vaudeville calls Latell one of the most curious acts in vaudeville. It says, He specialized in the impersonation of animals, not only dressing in various guises but also providing the appropriate noises. He began his career in 1902 and by 1909 had gained considerable notoriety for his imitations of monkeys, billy goats, bears, and dogs. It was the last animal that Latell found the most difficult to imitate, for as he explained in an article in The New York Dramatic Mirror, ‘To play the part of a dog and not to buffoon him, one is obliged to make a close study of his every action. The dog is so close to mankind that he is know more intimately than any other of the domestic beasts, with the exception possibly of the horse…The cat is a difficult animal to impersonate, though not so much as the dog, because of the fact of its slower movements. I have gone out at night with my cat suit on and have sat for hours watching the smaller back yard cats as they stalked along the fence or sat watching the moon rise o’er some neighboring buildings.’
He went to great lengths – rigged up a hind leg, improving his dog movement, and had a special tube made for his mouth which allowed him to appear like he was lapping up milk. With a string he could raise the fur on the back of the cat suit! He also impersonated birds, ‘The parrot was one of my first bird impersonations, and I found it one of the most difficult of all, because of its crouching posture and the consequent tendency to fall over while walking. There are nine strings which have to be operated in working the head, bill and wings, and the work is laborious in every sense of the word.” (The Art of Animal Acting, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 1, 1909.)
Evidently Latell had an act with one and then a subsequent wife – his characters did not speak and he had to perform with a partner who would introduce him and do the talking. The internet is spotted with a mention in Green Book here and an ad in a theatrical paper there. His career peters out with a random performance or two on Broadway in the 1940’s. I was not able to find any film clips of him to share. For another photo of him and a bit more information, I refer you to another WordPress blog post Stars of Vaudeville #561.As a salute to great anthropomorphic animal entertainment, a link to the wonderful French dancing pig below!
Ode to a Shrimp
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Our cats have been a well documented part of our family here in the Butler-Deitch household, but we have housed another pet for over 14 years – a shrimp. Kim bought this shrimp and snail ecosystem for me in 1998 after I expressed fascination with it. The glass sphere came in a huge box – carefully packed for obvious reasons. You’ve heard me express concern about kitties and breakables (Happy Life Toy and Fear of Celluloid) and this was a red alert concern. My then cat, Otto, was absolutely entranced by it and Kim would take it down from a high shelf to show her occasionally (yes, Otto was a girl; that’s another story) until he decided it was undue stress on the shrimp.
And I do mean single shrimp! Due to either our own ineptitude, poor design, or bad luck, most of our shrimp died pretty quickly. We were ultimately left with one (suspiciously large) shrimp. We put him on a darker shelf than what is recommended, so that the algae wouldn’t grow too quickly since there were no snails to help consume it. (Yep, they died too although it took a bit longer to figure that out as they are a bit inactive by nature.) So there he swam, year after year, living out his shrimp life. Kim was the best at tending him – taking him out and checking on him periodically. As the years grew longer our amazement deepened. He rapidly exceeded the expected lifespan and headed into uncharted longevity. A Methuselah of shellfish. Cats came and went and recently Cookie in particular was itching to get a little closer to this situation.
And then, the other day, Kim checked on him and alas, he had finally gone to the big shrimp round-up. As someone interested in Buddhism, I have to wonder if he (I always thought of the shrimp as a he) had some strange karma to work out. I know it is ridiculous to say, but I never really thought he was unhappy with his solitary existence. Perhaps even harder to believe, the house seems just a tad quieter and sad without his tiny shrimp presence.
A musical tribute below!
Or if you want to adopt some shrimp yourself you can buy one here.
Postscript: My mother was given one as a gift and is, frankly, sort of horrified by it. (She is such a fierce protector of animal welfare that she cannot stand the idea that the shrimps and snails are unhappy in their habitat. We differ in that I think it seems like a pretty good gig for a shrimp or a snail.) We will probably adopt hers if we can figure how to get it from NJ to NYC in one piece. Update to follow!
Anniversary Special
Pam’s Pictorama Anniversary Post: Happy Anniversary to us! Twenty years ago today Kim and I went on our first date. Important disclaimer – I’m very bad with dates, but it was Veteran’s Day so that helps. I had just ended a relationship and Kim and I knew each other slightly from openings and whatnot, mutual friends. When Kim found out that I was at loose ends, he got my number and called me up – yea Kim! I was a big fan of the work, and I had always thought he was a very handsome guy. Beyond the Pale was the first book of his I had read and I was crazy about it, just over the moon when I met him. I made sure I got all the Kim Deitch comics, books and silk screen print in the break up.
Kim and I went to a de Kooning exhibit at the Met; I was already working there. Funny because Kim more or less hates de Kooning. That is self-evident now, but I didn’t have a clue then. It didn’t seem to have a bad impact on the date however. Afterward we ate at a small Italian restaurant in my neighborhood where I was a regular at the time. The owner, a young man from Italy, took an interest in my love life and vetted the various men I brought in. Marino seemed a tad dubious about Kim at first, but grew to like him over time.
In honor of the occasion I offer some of Kim’s pencil sketches for our wedding invitation – I art directed Kim on this one, but he went to town on it. Noah’s Ark seemed perfect – and Kim did not disappoint. The original inked work is huge and glorious – and requires a drum scan so I can’t show it here. it was a long invitation that opened as a gate-fold and revealed me and Kim as kitties getting hitched inside. I especially like the inclusion of the sea monster among the animals!
Lastly I offer an undated photo strip of us smooching! We were at a party where there was a photo machine – you know I love those. Here’s to the next 20!
A Photo Only I Could Love?
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: More Pre-Halloween seasonal fun! I fell hard for this card, but it was one if those rare occasions when Kim just couldn’t see it. Don’t get me wrong – he would never actively discourage me from purchasing a photo I was crazy about, but sometimes when he seems truly mystified it does take the wind out of my sails. There’s nothing about marriage which makes me think you should like all the same stuff – more interesting if you don’t really and Kim readily agrees. And I know that the kindest thing he can say about some of the most ratty of my toy purchases is that this one or that one look like a stuffed demon, or worse yet, a roll of the eyes and a (sad) shake of the head – but somehow I expect our esthetic sensibility for images such as photos to be more aligned. But on the other hand, how can my husband fail to see the bizarre greatness of a card of someone in a homemade Felix costume, with a mask made out of a bag and an advertising sign that says, Felix left off walking when he bought a bike from Curry’s? Or am I really just crazy? I mean, it was The Prize Winner at Boston. Really Kim!
Another time this happened was an attempt to purchase these photos of co-eds donning Felix-y costumes. I was seriously jazzed when I saw them and Kim…wasn’t. I was so befuddled I put it out to Facebook for a vote. The buys had it (by a good margin, but not unanimous) but so shaken was my confidence that I underbid and ultimately lost it. (Below is the scan pulled off of Facebook from eBay.)
There are those occasions when Kim seems unimpressed until the photo enters the apartment. There are numerous examples of this, but the most recent is the photo featured in my post Cat Hat, sadly this was not one of those times.
For me, the costume, complete with broken cat tail and white socks for feet (those folks at Curry’s were nothing if not resourceful), posed on an early British version of Astroturf just tickles me silly. I hope it does as much for you, my reader.
Flip and Froggy
Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: The Frogs have it! Let me start with this – I don’t collect frogs. (Not that there’s anything wrong with collecting frogs.) However, as a toy collector these three have found their way into our home. Starting with Flip who I purchased on eBay. He is made by Dean’s Rag Company and I consider him an undervalued toy. Mine isn’t in pristine condition (he’s an old, old frog after all) but I bought him, unchallenged, for very little. No one needed Flip that day, but me I guess. I am a fan of the Flip the Frog cartoons, although it wasn’t until well into adulthood that I caught up with them. (Kim introduced me to them. He saw them on tv as a child – says it was big news in their house when they went on tv. I’ve already discussed how impoverished my childhood was compared to his.) I can’t resist including a specimen cartoon – I don’t remember seeing this one before. Flip really is one strange looking frog – even when he isn’t playing a dentist.
Next up is Froggy. This toy came to us as a wedding gift – thank you Monty! Smilin’ Ed and Andy’s Gang did not make it into the rerun tv packages of my childhood either, and I was introduced to Froggy and company while Kim was working on his book Smilin’ Ed. (Brief commercial for the family product: you can find Smilin’ Ed here.) Kim worked on the story through our early years together so Froggy has endeared himself to me, despite being absolutely evil in the book. Here is a clip of Froggy in action (Incidentally, I have always wondered why there don’t seem to be any Midnight the Cat toys, but they’d probably be sort of scary anyway.)
So you can imagine my great surprise when a few years ago I wandered into the mall at Columbus Circle just before Christmas and there in a pop-up shop I found the new Froggy shown here! That’s right, someone found one of the variations on the Froggy toy and recreated him….as a dog toy. I bought up the few they had in stock and later found the company online. Needless to say, several people received Froggy toys that year! Should you wish to order a rather expensive, lead-free dog toy for you or someone else who appreciates vintage tv you can do so at Roll Over Red Rover. Perhaps given his misdeeds it is Froggy’s karma to end up reincarnated as a dog toy.
Puss ‘n Boots – a tale of stuffed kitties
Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: I realized that I have somewhat neglected toy posts recently. While the blog really was conceived of as mostly for photographs, there seems to be interest in exploring my toy collection a bit and I … Continue reading
Pam's Pictorama 