photo postcard

We Love Our Cat Photos

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  I’ve acquired these photos over the past few months and in my mind they somehow are all of a kind.  The top two photos (which are postcards) are from the United States, the smaller one on the bottom is a small photo and although I purchased it from someone in the US it has im Garten (in garden?) written on the back.  So I guess this could be from Germany.

I love to look at photos of people with their cats in the newspaper or magazines – Sunday morning, reading the Times, me showing Kim a photo in the Real Estate section of a family, “Hey, nice looking cat, huh? Calico.”  Kim, “Uh huh.” (He nicely puts up with me.) Clearly, one immediate response to someone taking your photo is to pick up the family cat or dog. (I know I do.) These photos are nice examples of that. Hard for me to say when I think these are from, but I am leaning toward the teens and twenties. Of course the whole point is that we’ve always loved to photograph our beloved cats and to be photographed with them, and to photograph them as part of our family.  From blurry tintypes to the several hundred photos I have on my iPhone of Cookie and Blackie today, we love ’em – they are our family and we have always liked to take their picture.

For more early cat photo, you might want to check out my Happy Hooligan post. Enjoy!

Cats on Parade

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: While clearly not Felix these cats are pretty spectacular in their own right – not to mention the little Shriner-esque fellow driving. This float was honoring the 70th Anniversary, Swiss Settlers Swiss Colony, August 16, 1885-1915, New Glarus, Wis. (I have taken the liberty of checking up on New Glarus  and, sure enough, it is still known as America’s Little Switerzland today.) The stand-out supporters of this float appear to have been Hole-Proof Hosiery and Masurys Paints.  Sadly the other banners do not appear to be legible, even when I blow this up. The support of these fine businesses now lost to the sands of time.

Before taking note of the year, I thought this card was from a somewhat later period, but date notwithstanding, on closer inspection the car is a very early one and the storefront and house in the background are early too.  Seems very much Main Street, USA, circa 1915 except that the cats look like they could be from decades later – with a somewhat alien quality. No joking around on this float – all business I think, driver very serious. And why black cats? I guess we’ll never know.  Still, I send a tip of the hat to Glarus – I do mean to stop by if I’m ever in the neighborhood.

Peeved Puss Postcard

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  I purchased this photo postcard in Seattle, where I remember feeling like I paid too much for it – although frankly I have no idea what that was now.  It has held a place of pride in my office for the many years since, and now I’m quite sure that it is worth whatever it was that I paid.

Clearly this trained kitty is none too thrilled performing for the camera, the big bow seems especially annoying to him or her. I love the presence of the photographer here – makes the photo.  I was just outbid on a somewhat similar one, French (this one from US) on eBay – that cat was sitting up for a cat treat though, and seemed happier about it for obvious reasons. It prompted me to share this one of a cat who is also working hard.  Hope you enjoy it!

Mickey and Felix Costumes, Part 1

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Mysterious applications of Mickey and Felix as costumes really could be their own category! Starting with this is a tiny photo which really defies easy explanation – someone dressed as a long-nosed, slightly off-model (paunchy) Mickey on skies or snow shoes.  Hard to imagine what was going on here, or that he remained standing long.

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Back of card reads (complete with lack of punctuation):

Mrs. W Stoodley
Folly Farms
Lovewkerne (?) Som

mother
am glad it is much cooler now but our place is cooler inside than out.  The children had their carnival yesterday but this is the one.  Will

This Felix costume is much jollier and a lot more sensible – as such.  I’m sure he raised a lot of money for them. In fact, so much, that they did it more than once!

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This card features stuffed Felix dolls for the action – mine of this type is posted too so you can get a better look – irresistible to put these together – another example of rather brilliant photo collage work.  Nothing on the back of this card so we don’t know which came first.  They were purchased separately over the course of several years and the seller of this card said he had never seen anything like it.  I sent him a scan of the other – both of these came from British sellers.  I say Hooray for Felix!

Moon Photo

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  Allie, This is you and Lonnie, isn’t it?  I love photos of people posing on the moon! While this is a pro card (special for Valentine’s Day evidently) I have a few choice examples I will follow-up with some of the photo studio ones – I have one in my office I am especially pleased with.  I continue to search for an opportunity to have my photo taken on one. I love just sorting through them on eBay and looking at all the different ones.  They could be their own book.

The French took the moon postcard into a whole different realm – naked women, even cats – all sorts of variations. I am less fond of these, preferring the unexpected and unique ones taken at fairs and seaside resorts, but some are quite wonderful. I look forward to organizing these into their own section and sharing more of them.

The Giant Cat Chair

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post – Having had a quick look at the Felix-y postcards yesterday and continuing on something of a summer holiday theme, I offer an equally (if more scarce) alternative – the giant cat chair.  I only learned of the existence of these a couple of years ago and it was thanks to a FB post of a google image.  As chance would have it, I did a search on ebay shortly after and turned up this fellow! As far as I can tell, these only existed in England – although frankly I could be wrong as I have only seen about four or five – I own three of them – the most recently acquired I used to kick off this blog.  (In my mind I have this really great image of Great Britain in the ’20’s and ’30’s as this very jolly place where folks were having their photos taking with giant cat dolls every day of the week – what was wrong with the US?)  These were some lucky children!

If you are feeling overwhelmed with posts to this new blog – I am on vacation and enjoying the opportunity to get things rolling, as well as finding my way technically.  Once I am back at work I am sure things will slow considerably.

Let the Cats Begin!

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Pam photo postcard blog post.  So today I start at square one for me and a pleasant August beach-y theme to suit our vacation mode; folks posing with Felix.  The first one I ever saw was in a wonderful book on the history of Felix that Kim gave me when we first got together.  There is this single amazing image from a museum in Australia, I think (Australia, New Zealand and the UK is where they all seem to originate from – which begs the question – why the heck weren’t they being made here?  Coney Island?  I’ve never seen one taken in the US – anyone?) and man, if you had told me in those pre-eBay days that I would own 40 or so of these I would have figured I had died and gone to heaven!  To even see one in person seemed unlikely – I didn’t even know that they were running around in the world, although I should have suspected.  As you can see from the one in the bottom, this also embraces the too cheap to purchase a real stuffed Felix photo – these are fun too.  People also liked to pose with their own Felix – the same as they liked to pose with their own cats.

Obviously this is a theme I will be returning to – I intend to get the whole collection up over time! There are lots of stories to tell and we’ll get to them all eventually!