.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px;
Today’s finds. Went back to the old flea market cause the new one’s gone too upscale. High eBay hopes for the Shirley Temple item.
View the photo on Flickr for my annotations.
And what do you know, it worked! I sold pieces of burlesque historical material to two fine performers who are upholding the tradition and keeping the tassles spinning.
…and they both have book-related acts!
First Ms. Ginny Fizz and her librarian tease to the tune of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation”
Next Scarlett Letter and her anything but puritanical bump ‘n grind fan dance.
Also see The Ministry of Burlesque Youtube page for a ton of burlesque performance and how-to videos.
Junk in My Trunk: October 6, 2008, originally uploaded by Hang Fire Books.
Here’s my loot from last weekend’s town-wide garage sale in Warrensburg, NY. View the image on Flicker for annotations and descriptions. I’ll talk about some of this stuff (and my wacky adventures acquiring it) once I dig myself out of the pile.
Found this set of showgirl publicity photos a few weeks ago at the BrooklynFlea. Not sure if they’re for a stage production or film. I need to do some research but I’m running out the door so I’ll just post and hope somebody recognizes a face. (click for larger versions)
Signature looks like “J. K. Milligan” and maybe “L.A.” or “U.A.”
Any Vaudeville/Broadway buffs have any clues?
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }
Stud Service (Bee-Line 445-D) 1970 AUTHOR: Peter Blue ARTIST: (unknown), originally uploaded by Hang Fire Books.
…and more new arrival vintage sleaze in the Pulp Fiction Cover Gallery.
Add me as a contact on Flickr or subscribe to my photostream and don’t miss a single cover.
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }
Junk in My Trunk: October 2, 2008, originally uploaded by Hang Fire Books.
Nice haul from a normally picked-over thrift store. View it on Flickr with amazing Thrift-o-Vision annotations.
I have way too many clashing vintage dishes now. Time to start thinning.
Still looking for members for my Twitter Thrift Scouting Corp, ThriftScoutNYC.
Sign up if you’re in/around NYC, or start your own local franchise.
A group of twelve heartstoppingly pert, supple, toothsome…prose stylists are putting together the New York City 2009 Sex Bloggers Calendar.
All profits from the sale of this calendar will go directly to Sex Work Awareness. The poses will be fun and flirty and burlesque themed, with no graphic nudity. Think costumes, corsets, pasties and g-strings.
$30.00 plus shipping gets you a calendar, plus the selection of one day (other sponsorship levels available) to carry your 80-character message to the sex positive, internet-savvy world.
I just bought a day. Get yours BEFORE MIDNIGHT OCTOBER 1st
No guilt, gratuitous nudity and a write-off in the charity column. What could be better?
I picked up a nice batch of c1900 advertising cards at the BrooklynFlea this weekend. Looks like they were removed from a scrapbook. Would have liked to see the whole book intact for context but it would have been out of my price range. Here’s what I got:
A patent medicine card with the text:
Shut the Door
Piso’s Cure for Consumption
Piso’s Cure for Catarrh
“Catarrh” sounds ominous but it’s just congested sinuses and the wave of mucus I’ve been surfing all week. From now on I have Catarrh.
Next this Cortecelli Knitting Silk card with sewing elves.
This woman below is currently using: Dr. Scott’s Electric Corset, Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair-Brush, Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair-Curler, and Dr. Scott’s Electric Tooth Brush.
She has that stalk in her mouth so she doesn’t bite off her tongue.
Lastly this McCormick card for “Right Hand Machines”:
The wisdom of using a severed hand to advertising harvesting equipment is a bit questionable but it’s a nice card anyway.
I have a hellacious pile of books to pack this morning so just a quick blog post. Here are two unique P. T. Barnum items that came into the shop recently.
First this Danish-language edition of a Barnum Bio Den store Barnum Reklamens Konge (1937) with a fantastic wraparound cartoon cover (click for larger version) picturing Tom Thumb, a Bearded Lady, the Fiji Mermaid, and more.
Also this Barnum & Bailey Songster (c 1900), a saddle-stitched chapbook featuring humorous and sentimental songs performed in the clown shows.
All right, off to pack.
Found a striking batch of bookplates while culling my inventory and raiding the Strand Annex. Here are some:
First this retro-future cityscape reminiscent of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. It belonged to an “Anna C. Ury” and was found (appropriately) in a Modern Library H.G. Wells from 1909
Next this decadent, allegorical (I’m guessing Wagnerian?) plate belonging to poet and labor historian “Elias Lieberman“. It’s in the Beardsley style (though more detailed). I like the repeated shape of the birds and the way the smoke is rolling off the ring. Looks like it’s signed “EB”.
Next this one belonging to “W. H. Kellogg Jr.” (possibly of the cereal family) found in Stewart’s Travels c 1840. The foliage has a great fairy tale feel to it.
Next this classic pissed-off Dumbledore plate by illustrator “Leon D’emo” belonging to W. A. Moran, found in Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Heroes 1872
And lastly this dog plate belonging to William Hale Harkness, found in Goodbye Mr Chips 1935. Harkness was the Standard Oil heir and husband to the famously batty Rebekah Harkness, a huge patron of dance whose
eccentricities were often reported in the New York tabloids in the ’60s and ’70s. She dyed a cat green and scrubbed her pool with Dom Perignon
More to come.
Hang Fire Books 