photo postcard

Old Tommy

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  Meet Tommy, sitting by a fishbowl on a window sill, pretty as a picture. The back of this card has the following written on it, Dear Lina, here is a picture of old Tommy he is a live [sic] and well. Gay said he did not think he could get away tomorrow. Give our love to Mrs. Brady and sister. It is addressed to Mrs. Pauline Bauldwin, New Milford, PA Route no.1 Dated October (illegible date) 2 PM 1908. It is written in pencil, except the address which is in pen – it is a neat script. Unsigned – I guess Lina knew who was writing.

The photographer had an excellent eye and this is a great photo. Most notably the wonderful reflection in the fish bowl – a little universe unto itself showing a trim yard and house in tiny replica. I can’t actually see a fish, but there is a large and interesting shell evident in the fish bowl and I wonder what book it is sitting atop of, but nothing on the spine.

Old Tommy is a hefty fellow. He is dignified and not even giving that fish bowl a sideways look – at least not while the camera is on him. Another of my cat stories from my youth is about a tabby stray named Zipper. My mother rescued him as a tiny, malnourished kitten being abused by boys outside a laundry mat. Anyway, Zips was a hunter and feral fellow and, additionally, a great admirer of the large tropical fish tank we kept. Zipper liked to sit next to it, eyes shining with interest, and he would gently pat it intently, while looking at us innocently. To my knowledge no fish fell prey to Zipper (we did have a top on tank although it had an opening), but it was a large tank and who’s to say really if he had the occasional fish nip or not?

Felix and Betty Boop Affair

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This photo found its way to us via Tom Conroy – a friend of Kim’s who has generously sent us many wonderful photos from his collection. Thank you Tom!

Many variations of this photo session abound on eBay and can be found on the internet. Interestingly, this exact image does not appear on the Google photo file. (Although I guess it will now.)  The actress is generally identified as Helen Kane, but Kim was thinking May Questel which lead to an active Google search and discussion in bed with the iPad the other night. Kim leans seriously toward May Questel. I include period photos of May and Helen and I would say it is a tough call indeed!

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The question of why Betty Boop is posing with Felix is another one. Clearly there was Betty/Felix empathy – as shown in my post, The Strangeness of French Betty and Felix. Speculation is that at some point the properties were owned by the same company and this low level promotion occurred. Still, as you know, it has long been my philosophy that Felix improves anyone’s status – and we know that Betty had a long-standing affection for dogs, so why not a clever cat?

As a point of strange symmetry (and because you can never have too much Felix) I offer this early photo postcard of a man posing with a Felix cut-out. This has a place of honor with my collection of photos of people posing with large stuffed Felix dolls. I have always guessed that this photographer could not afford a proper stuffed Felix to pose with and did his best.

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Kim’s Favorite Photo

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Hoo-ha! When I first spotted this photo on eBay and showed it to Kim, he said, “That’s my kind of cat photo!” Despite his enthusiasm, I purchased it anyway. It is a pretty great card.

It is sort of hard to say anything about this photo that isn’t fairly self-evident – but really, what a kick in the head! How crazy – posing that (very nice) black cat toy and a mouse on this French babe while she reads a book on a stand! (What could she be reading?) I have a mental image of the photographer and the model, doing these postcards day after day and trying to come up with something – anything! – new, until one day it came down to the cat and mouse. This comes from a long tradition of so-called risqué postcards produced by the French – there are dozens of cards on eBay right now of partially or fully unclothed women holding cats so this is a bit of a play on that as well I think. And of course, presumably some, um, cat puns.

I believe the cat is a popular Steiff model that came in a myriad of sizes. I don’t actually own one of them – unlike their teddy bears their cats do not have an especially expressive face. They feel cookie cutter to me. The mouse was probably the hard part – he or she has a nicely distinct mouse shape. Our apartment houses a large number of life-like mice – Cookie in particular can play with them for hours. Right now we have some in lurid colors – she is especially fond of a bright red one. But life-like though they are – this one has an especially mouse-y form.

Okay, I know I am probably the only one out here analyzing the toys. But remember boys, toys are catnip to me like this image was meant to be for you!

Ahoy! Cats at Sea

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This card is kind of messy, even in the printing process – the scribbles and whatnot making it even more tatty over time. (Did someone nibble on the edges of the neg before printing?) However, there’s something appealing about these two boat kitties, their images printed together. Homemade looking, but loved enough to have been stored away somewhere all these years. The one on the left looks like quite the man around town and the one on the right very dignified and in charge.

As you may know, I have expressed my ambivalence about cats at sea (it never seems to end well for them), but let’s face it, even on this blog, it is a sort of a genre. (See also, Kitty Rescue at Sea, Tom the Fire Boat Cat and Sporty among others!) While I may express some unease about cats on boats, they seem to frequent them and even enjoy them. When you consider how little cats like water this seems like an odd choice. Perhaps it is the potential for the consumption of fish?

Growing up on the waterfront in New Jersey, I had a huge fat orange tabby named Pumpkin. Pumpkin was the size of a small dog, adored me and had a bad tendency to bite most other people – usually after inviting them to rub his fluffy striped tummy. We would warn people, but they often didn’t believe us or move away fast enough. More to the point, over time Pumpkin had figured out that at certain times of the day he could jump from our floating dock to the sailboat we kept moored there. Evidently he discovered that tiny fish could be found on the deck which he would happily consume. He would then have to wait for the tide to swing the boat back to the dock so he could get off.  (I am unclear if these fish landed on the deck jumping from the water, or if the seagulls, which routinely dropped their oyster shells on the deck and dock to break them, were also responsible for the fishy build up.) While not seafaring, Pumpkin was, in his own way, one in a long line of maritime kitties.

Alfred Latell

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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.

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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!

Comfort in Our Shoes

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This one has been nagging at me for quite a while. I saw it immediately after it went up for sale on eBay, but it was just too expensive. I made an offer – it was refused. I sulked and waited. Luckily my brother in-law, Seth Deitch, saved me by sending me an eBay gift certificate for Christmas and I decided I would apply it to the card which was available and I still had a yen for. Yay! Thank you Seth!

This fellow who manages to hang onto his cat dignity while tucked in this comfy shoe just delights me. My goodness, he’s a real little fussbudget, yes? He would give Cookie a run for her money, I think. He looks so very comfortable and at home in that shoe – I like to believe he really liked sleeping there and they captured him doing it. As cat owners know, for some kitties there is simply nothing like a smelly old shoe.  Mine are still kittenish enough to go for the laces first and foremost – you can barely tie a shoe in this house without tussling, mostly with Blackie.

This card was never used and I was unable to trace the photographer, Mr. or Ms. Porter. No date to be found and we do wish the photographer had managed a slightly higher contrast in either the taking or the printing. I was able to find evidence of the Boston Shoe Store in Maine from the 1910’s.  In a 1913 issue of the Boot and Shoe Recorder (yep, an early shoe store trade mag now digitized online) there is reference to it in Calais, Maine. At the time it was under the proprietorship of N. A. Olsen and was noted to be a good up to date shoe store with a modern front. It continues, Lewis, the shoe man, is a great believer in advertising. He uses a number of novel methods of advertising successfully.

Since this card is undated it is a bit hard to put the picture together, but on the same page you can read about our friend, A. T. Smith, when this photo was taken and he had just returned from a trip to California according to the shoe pub. He is mentioned under a section devoted to the shoe business in Houlton, Maine. Seems he was the then shoe man for something called McGary’s Co. the only significant competitor to a larger farmer owned corporation (and department store) called The Grange – and they seemed to have most of the local shoe business sewn up. After noting that only high shoes, in tan and black, sold well in Houlton (I take this to mean high on the leg, not high-heeled) the author goes on to say about the other local shoe stores, All they need is a little time, and they will be satisfied to quit the shoe game. 

Assuming our card is post 1913, his prediction was wrong and A. T. Smith was ultimately the proprietor of Boston Shoes in Houlton. (I will spare you the details but there is further evidence that Mr. Smith and his wife were prominent citizens in Houlton, ME and were active in city policy, etc.) Or this is earlier and the Boston Shoe Store did indeed migrate to Calais. Either way, I wonder if this great card is the work of the snappy advertising guy Lewis!

Houlton, Maine, a farm community, was noted to have a population of 5,845 in 1913 and said to be located in the potato belt. It has grown modestly in all these years and only boasted a population of 6,123 in the 2010 census. A map shows it sticking way out on the furthermost edge of the state, surrounded by water. I include an early postcard of the business district pulled from the town’s online historical site. Sadly, no other cat images were to be found in association with the town or the shoe stores – I believe that is a dog in the photo below.

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The Cat Card Comes Back

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This is a story of one that got away, but came back and gave me another shot. I loved this card, but lost it to an insanely high bid on eBay several months ago. I was very unhappy about it – it combines my favorite elements of early photography and, of course, a great, dignified cat who seems to know something about posing for the camera. Last week what I assume is another copy showed up on eBay and I bid as high as I could – and won it! It is wonderful – a crystal clear photo. I took a loop to it in order to check out the strange doll in the carriage – yes, it appears to have a monkey head. I guess that got the kiddies going with a smile if Mr. Cat could not. The tag line reads COME ALONG WITH US.

Like so many of my best photo postcards, this one hails from Portland, Oregon, the origin of great, early photo postcards. The copyright is 1910, also inscribed on the front and it was taken by D.A. Ovens. It is unused and otherwise undated. I did not have brilliant results in finding out about our photographer, Mr. Ovens.  I found some copyrights on his photos with no images and this one image below off a Oregon library history site:

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Assuming he had a photo studio in Portland I am unable to uncover any information about it.

For myself, I fantasize that Mr. Ovens traveled around pushing this baby carriage with doll, cat and camera and stopping to take your photo. How splendid that would have been to encounter on a downtown street in Portland, Oregon in 1910 and pose to have our photo taken with the kitty!

 

Tricks

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Sometimes when I look at photos like this I wonder if someone is merely recording an event (Sam does this with the cat and the dog everyday at four and I think I’ll take a photo…) or if it is specifically set-up with the photo in mind. Considering how hard it is to catch your pets doing amusing things, even with a handy iPhone camera that can be grabbed quickly, more went into getting a photo like this than we might remember today. (I know. I have been trying to record Cookie giving Kim a ‘high five’ for weeks now – she likes to do this starfish paw in the air when she is over-stimulated and wants something. Kim say Blackie will have to learn the brother handshake to keep up.)

The dog and cat seem to be looking at something – it amuses me up that they are really the same size. If anything, it seems the man’s hand is the indication for the pets to get on their hind legs, but what are they looking at in unison? (As an aside, Cookie and Blackie are the most standing on their hind leg cats I have ever had – I wonder if this is an evolutionary trait in kitties? They like tummy rubbing too.) It is a well-composed shot and I like the late in the day winter sun here with the long shadows cast of the three of them.

The card is unused and undated, although all indications of early 20th Century. Easy to see why it survived – too bad all the names and the places are lost to us. It doubles my resolve to get that photo of Cookie however.

Flying Dutch Kitties

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: There are endless examples of early images of kittens dressed up and doing cute human-type things. However, I have never purchased one until this one hit my radar recently. It just cracks me up! As you can see by the writing, it is Dutch. A very rough translation gratis Google tells me that this is a bit of advertising and the back informs the recipient (this one not used) that the vendors hope to see them this week and that they offer high value for their orders – whatever those might be. The front makes reference to “our kitties which will soon be in the air!” (Any readers who speak Dutch please reply below!) What were these kitties selling? I’m buying!

I am always threatening to dress the cats up and take their photo – Kim begs me not to injure their dignity that way and I am brought to my senses. This image strikes me as a perfect marriage of low tech and professional – like those glorious ‘homemade’ cars and machines the Little Rascals used to have. I especially love the balloon!

I gather the key mover behind the cats-dressed-as-people movement was Harry Whittier Frees (1879-1953) – sort of a Louis Wain of early photography. I snatched the quote below from Wikipedia and it come from his own book, Animal Land on the Air, discussing the superiority of kittens as models,

Rabbits are the easiest to photograph in costume, but incapable of taking many ‘human’ parts. Puppies are tractable when rightly understood, but the kitten is the most versatile animal actor, and possesses the greatest variety of appeal. Yay kittens!

The practice spread widely beyond Whittier Frees – as we can assume this card was made by someone else. For a healthy serving of these I suggest this site on littlethings.com. I have stolen a single image from it, shown below by an unidentified photographer.

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A Girl and Her Toys

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Another fine example of an item where Kim and I disagree! He’s never been fond of this triptych of toy photos, but I have always liked it since buying it many years ago on eBay. In recent years I have allowed it to be replaced on the wall by some images that we are more mutually fond of, but I stubbornly continue to champion it. My guess is that the small cat toy – barely visible here and in the lower right corner, is how it came to my attention. It really is all about this enormous, lovely teddy bear however. What a lucky little girl!

The background shifts a bit with each subsequent shot until we end up with that interesting bit of advertising featured behind her in the third shot. I will admit that these are somewhat inept from a technical point of view, going from slightly over exposed to too dark in the third shot. I am in love with the idea of a series like this though.

As the child of a man with a masters in film and a news cameraman (his entire career spanning more than thirty years spent at ABC News) you would think I would have been subjected to projects such as this. He did labor over his photos and I have memories of what seemed like endless adjustments of the light meter at a variety of family landmark moments while we stood impatiently. However, such a formal approach never appealed to him. I offer a Christmas snapshot of me as a tiny sprout with my favorite dog toy, dubbed Squeaky, one Christmas morning, who incidentally I still own. I think we can see early signs of a nascent toy collector in this one!

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