A Scrapbook With a Focus

GAL, GAMS, AND GARTERS is a large scrapbook patched together by an anonymous aficionado of the ankle, thigh and leg, an enormous scrapbook found in a dumpster by a Virginia student in the late 1960’s. Now owned by my friend Jim Linderman, this scrapbook is also the subject of a new blog by the same name. Most of the work inside was done in the late 1950s. Like most scrapbooks from the period, this one can be looked at as more than the contents of it’s pages but as a total object d’art in itself. The pieced together sections, the yellowing of the tape, the placements—all create new visual imagery to be recontextualized today. I find the haphazardly pasted images—crudely taped and cut—to be a fun exploration into a personal, highly focused (albeit naive) design project. For my taste, I like the full pages better than the individual images. There, we can see the personal choices the original owner made as he went about his fetish-like project—as in images 2 and 3 from the top.

All of these vintage, mildly erotic images will eventually be available online in this new blog by Linderman, who says: “our anonymous artist was a serious aficionado of the leg, ankle and above, but there is no nudity, no sex and nary a nipple. However, the man with the scissors and tape, like the magazine editors who provided him with product, managed to skirt good taste with plenty of inspired photos. His motivation? Who knows? For that matter, who is to judge? I intend to scan through the pages once a week or so.”

Jim says his new blog, GALS GAMS GARTERS is for those interested in “vintage erotica, fashion, vintage clothing and retro culture.” I say it’s also for designers, who may find a certain playfulness, fresh and direct-response style at work here.

If you would like to learn more about period American scrapbooks of various and mixed subject matter, check out Jessica Helfand’s new book, Scrapbooks: An American History, now available on Amazon. There is a short video about scrapbooks as personal narrative by Jessica at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mCM6ZVEA0LGE1

© Gals, Gams and Garters collection of Jim Linderman

An AM repost from 2/17/09

Vote for Some Great Books!

MY GOOD FRIEND JIM LINDERMAN creates unusual, uncommon and authentic Art and Photography Books. I have bought several and they are rare and wonderful additions to my library.

Jim Linderman’s first book “Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950” was published by Dust-to-Digital and nominated for a Grammy in the Best Historical Release category. It is available from the publisher or Amazon.

Jim is up for an award through Blurb Books and I’d be right happy and darned proud if all you Accidental Mysteries readers would click on each one of his book images below, check ’em out and VOTE in the spot where it says “vote.” And while you’re at it, if you see a book you like, you can order your own copy.

As always, if any reader finds the images of 1950’s nude camera girls like the immortal Bettie Page offensive in any way, please just move forward and vote for the next book!

By the way, for this limited time (and during the voting process) you can look at every page of the entire book for free by clicking “preview” at Blurb, then “full screen” and use their page turning software to read and check out the books.

Camera Club Girls

Bettie Page and her...

By Jim Linderman

Book Preview

(ABOVE; Camera Club Girls, Click on book above and VOTE inside)

For over 50 years, the extraordinary Hand-Painted Original Photographs of Bettie Page and nude models of the 1950s taken by Rudolph Rossi lay hidden. Now, for the first time, over 100 have been published in Camera Club Girls by Jim Linderman. 114 pages, 35 pages of text and 180 pictures, the book tells the story of the informal groups of early camera enthusiasts in New York City who paid ten dollars each to photograph naked women, including Bettie Page, in dingy studios and outdoor excursions. As much the history of early erotic photography and Times Square smut as it is the story of the exceptional personal vision of an artist, master photographer and painter which has not been told until now. The photographic find of the decade, and an amazing story which combines passion, painting, photography and early porno in a tale never told.

187 Photographs, 114 Pages Hardcover or Softcover.
By Jim Linderman and Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

The Painted Ba...

Behind the Sitter i...

By Jim Linderman DUL...

(ABOVE; The Painted Backdrop, Click on book above and VOTE inside)

The previously untold story of 19th century painters and their influence on American photography during the tintype era. Never before examined in detail, the book contains over 75 rare, unpublished original tintype photographs from the Jim Linderman collection. A Grammy nominated writer and collector who has been called “the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic” this book is informed with Linderman’s wit and continues his examination of previously overlooked art and photography subjects. 80 Pages, 8’ x 10” with essays by Jim Linderman and Kate Bloomquist. Linderman’s most recent photography book was Camera Club Girls which tells the story of the amateur photographers who met to take nude photographs during the 1950s, discovered model Bettie Page, and started a revolution in erotic art...all through the work of one never before published artist.

By Jim Linderman and Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

The Jim Linderman hub site is Dull Tool Dim Bulb and his daily blog (one of many he maintains) is here.

Weekend Random Images

(Above) Anonymous snapshot, spotted on eBay. Click image for larger view.

Via here. Click image for larger view.

(Above) Curacao postage stamp, c. 1936, image via © Karen Horton here. Click image for larger view.

(Above) “G” by and © Olly Moss via here. Click image for larger view.


(Above) Roy Rogers and Dale Evans record by Golden Records, via Jim Linderman Collection, via here. Click image for larger view.


(Above) Roccoco Chair by Godspeed Furniture, via here. Click image for larger view.

(Above) Artwork by Paul Sietsema via here. Click image for larger view.


(Above) Ryan McElhinney via here. Click image for larger view.


HERE ARE YOUR COMMENT FREE WEEKEND IMAGES, a little something for almost anyone. Go forth and explore and I’ll see you peeps back here on Monday.

In Situ: American Folk Art in Place

Click on image for larger view.


Click on image for larger view.


A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE, HIMSELF A NOTED AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER, with over a dozen books and monographs to his name, his work held in the most famous museums in the world, told me just a short time ago: “I rarely collect actual images anymore by other photographers. I collect their books. Books are the new collectible.”

That statement took me by surprise. Not to say that actual images are not collectible—but a lot of what he said is true. Which is why you should run, not walk—to your computer and consider buying this book “In Situ: American Folk Art in Place.” It is written by noted folk art collector and scholar Jim Linderman and it will someday be considered a rare book.

This book shows Jim’s longtime private collection of the most unusual, curious and beautiful American folk art in location—as it was made long ago. Many pieces have long since vanished, in fact most were never meant to last but a short time. Sometimes the best in situ folk art environments were made spontaneously and with great inspiration. Others took years to make, the product of careful planning and hard work.

Jim is a Grammy-nominated artist and photos from his collection were used to produce the well-known Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 release. This is the third book of photographs in the Dull Tool Dim Bulb series.

More information on the author is available at his incredible Web site www.dulltooldimbulb.com and on his many other art, culture and photography sites. “In Situ: American Folk Art in Place” is a 112-page book available both in hardcover, with jacket, and softcover. In fact, by going to his site you can see the book and click on the image to buy it. Your book will be delivered in a couple of weeks if not sooner.

Many of the photographs are real photo postcards which are over 100 years old and have never been seen before. This is a major collection being shown and shared together for the first time.

A Warhol Missing Link?

DISCOVERIES IN THE ART WORLD COME ABOUT IN A MYRIAD OF WAYS. Sometimes new insight opens up after years and years of hard work and sometimes it comes about by new technology, like a scientific imaging device which may reveal an unknown new image underneath a long known painting.

And sometimes, it comes about on nothing more than a hunch. Yep, a hunch. And that’s why I want to tell you all a story. What I am about to tell you is interesting, to say the least. And potentially, a small piece of undiscovered art history.

About a month ago, recent Grammy nominee, longtime American folk art and popular culture expert Jim Linderman tossed out a nugget on his blog Dull Tool Dim Bulb which proposed an interesting theory: what IF Andy Warhol, one of the greatest, most original creative thinkers and artist’s of the 20th century, had actually been influenced very early in life by a simple children’s tracing book put out by the Heinz Company? His theory just may have provided an important piece of source material that any doctorate student would have given his eye tooth for as a departure point for his/her thesis.

It was just a “what if” theory proposed by Linderman, but this “what if” is starting to get some traction. Like an episode of CSI, here is how this discovery is playing out:

The Heinz Company, (makers of ketchup and other products) and headquartered in Pittsburg, PA, put out a children’s sales promotional booklet in 1927 complete with tracing paper, encouraging kids to actually trace Heinz products (see above). Linderman, who found an original book at an antique shop a few years ago, actually remembered that Andy Warhol was from Pittsburg. Hmm-m? Noting that the tracings (done by an anonymous child), were remarkable similar to Warhol soup cans of the early 1960s, Linderman double checked the year Warhol was born. Whoa!?? Warhol was born in Pittsburg in 1928, one year after the booklets came out. Could it be possible that young Andy, as a small child, actually used one of these booklets to trace Heinz canned products?

I quote Linderman here: “The images here come from the Heinz book number 6, so the series was well established and local Pittsburgh residents would have surely picked up the premium, which was free, for their children to play with. Although not as famous as his Campbell’s images, Warhol did produce art with the Heinz logo, just like the branding experts at H. J. Heinz apparently hoped he one day would! As the similarities are quite striking, and the location and dates too much of a coincidence to ignore, I believe Mr. Warhol may have played with books from the series and remembered it some 40 years later when he began using similar (in fact, nearly identical) images in his work. I am not speculating that Mr. Warhol traced this copy, as thousands of children would have had the book, but he clearly would have had access to another copy.”

Another blog picked up on this interesting “Warhol missing link” here.

Linderman shared with me an email he just received from Matt Wrbican, an archivist from the Andy Warhol Museum who wrote to Linderman this email— dated Jan 7, 2010:

“That’s an interesting theory. To my knowledge, neither of Warhol’s brothers has ever mentioned such a book being in the family’s possession. We’ve had them speak at the museum on many occasions over the past 15 years, and they have shared memories of Andy playing with newspaper comics (somehow projecting the image on a wall), entering a contest by carving a bar of Ivory soap into an elephant shape, winning a prize for the best flower garden in elementary school, getting a camera when he was about 8 years old (and converting a root cellar into his darkroom), breaking his leg, etc., etc, but not a Heinz coloring book. I’ve written to a Warhola family member to see if they have a recollection of this having been in the family’s possession, and will let you know if he has a positive response.”

If you are an art historian—what do you think? If you read this blog, what do you think? I think it is quite possible. But we may never know for sure—or will we?

Let’s hear your thoughts... and stay tuned.

Gals Gams Garters: The Book

Click on image for larger view.

Click on image for larger view.


(Above and below) Pages from the book Gals Gams Garters. Click on image for larger view.

(Above and below) Pages from the book Gals Gams Garters. Click on image for larger view.

IN THE LATE 1960s, A VIRGINIA COLLEGE STUDENT FOUND A SCRAPBOOK IN A DUMPSTER. Dumpster diving was nothing new, people have been digging through other people’s trash for centuries. What he found was no ordinary family scrapbook, but the personal collection of someone’s personal stash of scantily-clad women. Cut from vintage men’s magazines of the 1950s, the anonymous collector used scissors and tape to arrange his private soft porn collection taped to the pages of a commercially bought scrapbook. Perhaps the creator’s wife found them and tossed them out, perhaps he passed away or maybe he found Jesus. Whatever the reason, they ended up in that dumpster and today are the subject of a new book called Gals Gams Garters by Victor Minx. Victor Minx is the pseudonym of Jim Linderman, a longtime collector and blues music expert. Delve into the personal archive of an anonymous aficionado of legs and garters.

As a designer, these pages are beautiful, almost randomly arranged clippings, where the yellowed tape becomes an integral part of the composition. Random colors from the magazine and the spaces between the clippings work together to build a solid page—one man’s private fantasy made public.

Order your copy of Gals Gams Garters here.

And while you are at it, check out the other Jim Linderman blog — Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

Southern Evangelical Baptisms

Take Me to the Water from Dust-to-Digital on Vimeo.

MANY OF YOU WILL REMEMBER FROM AN EARLIER POST (April 27), the incredible immersion baptism photos shared by author/collector Jim Linderman in his book, Take Me To the Water. Well, now Jim and others at Dust-to-Digital have produced this video about the book and music CD. It’s really well done— and now you can preview some of the authentic and rare music that is available when you purchase the book. Of course, the bonus with this video are the vintage and rare historic river baptisms, just as it was filmed 50 to 75 years ago. It’s just rare and incredible footage.

You can buy the book/CD on Amazon just by clicking here. This is truly a collector’s edition. I have the book and accompanying CD— and I treasure it.

Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography

(Above) Cover of the book/CD: Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890 – 1950

(Above) River baptism, location unknown; c. 1920s.
Click for larger view.
(Above) Baptism in stream, location unknown; c. 1900s.
Click for larger view.
(Above) Baptism in pond, location unknown; c. 1920s.
Click for larger view.

FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things—unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues— Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain— his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten—the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn’t for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman— so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference.

TAKE ME TO THE WATER: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890 – 1950 is Linderman’s first book. The 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) has 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950 and is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78-RPM records (1924-1940). It features recordings of artists like Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and lesser known and rare groups like the Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers, a vocal quartet in 1939. Included as well are rare vocal recordings of sermons and preaching which highlight the fervor leading up to the moment of cleansing one’s soul in immersion baptism. Certainly, allowing oneself to lie backwards into deep river water for the washing away of sin would be a powerful moment in anyone’s life.

TAKE ME TO THE WATER is another gem in the renowned publishing record of Dust-to-Digital, the brainchild and passion of 2009 Grammy winner Lance Ledbetter, who is an expert in music of American vernacular musical field recordings, specifically bluegrass, gospel and Delta blues. Linderman’s collection of immersion baptism photographs is extensive and was recently gifted to the International Center of Photography in New York. The original 78-RPM records from which this CD was made came from the collections of Joe Bussard, Steven Lance Ledbetter, Frank Mare and Roger Misiewicz. As a bonus, the book is beautifully designed and art directed by John Hubbard and Rob Millis.

Writer Luc Sante wrote this in the introduction, which I think sums up my feelings quite well: “Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water ... You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled.”

I firmly believe that this will be one of those rare books that, in a few years, you end up saying to yourself: “I wish I had bought that.” If you are interested in vernacular photography, history, sociology, religion, great authentic gospel music or just great books, this book/CD compilation is a must for your collection. Buy it while you can.

Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday. Check it out! Take Me to the Water will be released May 26, 2009, and you can pre-order it now on Amazon. Just click above!

And, for you audiophiles, here are the track listings on the CD:

1. Baptize Me (Rev. J. M. Gates)

2. Denomination Blues part 1 (Washington Phillips)

3. John the Baptist (Rev. Moses Mason)

4. Bathe in That Beautiful Pool (Dock Walsh)

5. On My Way to Canaan’s Land (Carter Family)

6. Old Time Baptism part I (Rev. R. M. Massey)

7. Old Time Baptism part II (Rev. R. M. Massey)

8. Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream (Southern Wonders Quartet)

9. I’ll Be Washed (Carolina Tar Heels)

10. Wash You, Make You Clean (Elder J. E. Burch)

11. Baptist Shout (Frank Jenkins of Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters)

12. At The River (Tennessee Mountaineers)

13. Wade in de Water (Empire Jubilee Quartet)

14. Baptism at Burning Bush (Rev. Nathan Smith's Burning Bush Sunday School Pupils)

15. Sister Lucy Lee (Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers)

16. Wade in the Water and Be Baptized (Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers)

17. I’m Going Down to Jordan (Ernest Thompson)

18. Go Wash in Jordan Seven Times (Rev. J. C. Burnett)

19. Wade in the Water (Birmingham Jubilee Singers)

20. Goin’ Down to the River of Jordan (J. E. Mainer’s Mountaineers)

21. Baptism by Water, and Baptism by the Holy Ghost (Elder J. E. Burch)

22. Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream (Moses Mason)

23. Wade in the Water (Sunset Four Jubilee Singers)

24. Down To Jordan (Ernest Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers)

25. Take Me to the Water (Rev. E. D. Campbell)