A fine art, film, history and literature site oriented to, but not exclusively for, the gay community. Please be aware that there is mature content on this blog. Information on images and links to sources will be provided if known. Enjoy your visit and please subscribe.
Keller the Magician Poster, “Levitation”, 1900-1909
Harry Kellar was an American magician, a predecessor of Harry Houdini and a successor of Robert Heller and Isaiah Hughes, under whom he apprenticed. Referred to as the “Dean of American Magicians”, he is shown here performing one his most memorable stage illusions, the “Levitation of Princess Karnac”.
The “Parisian”, 1888, Commercial Color Lithograph, Issued by Allen and Ginter Cigarettes, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This trade card was from the “World’s Smokers” series (N33) issued in 1888 in a set of fifty cards to promote the Allen and Ginter brand cigarettes; the company was located in Richmond, Virgian. Printer’s samples were included in the set, as well. The printer’s sample cards are on a thinner card stock without printed text.
Each card in the series measures 2.75 x 1.5 inches. One card was packed in each box of ten cigarettes.
Captain America and the Submariner
A Year: Day to Day Men: 9th of August
Sleep Position Number Eight
On August 9, 1930, Betty Boop makes her first appearance in film.
Betty Boop made her first appearance in the cartoon “Dizzy Dishes”, the seventh installment in producer Max Fleischer’s Talkartoon series. Although Clara Bow is often given as being the model for Boop, she actually began as a caricature of singer Helen Kane, who in turn gained fame by imitating the style of black singer Baby Esther Jones. Betty Boop appeared as a supporting character in ten cartoons as a flapper girl with more heart than brains. Betty Boop’s voice was first performed by Margie Hines; but the voice most known was done by Mae Questel who voiced Betty from 1931 until 1938.
Betty Boop is regarded as one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen; she is a symbol of the depression era, and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Jazz age flappers. Her popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences, and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements, particularly in the 1932 Talkartoon “Minnie the Moocher”, featuring Cab Calloway and his orchestra.
Betty Boop was unique among female cartoon characters because she represented a sexual woman. Many other female cartoons were merely clones of their male co-stars, with alterations in costume, the addition of eyelashes, and a female voice. Betty Boop wore short dresses, high heels, a garter, and her breasts were highlighted with a low, contoured bodice that showed cleavage.
Betty Boop’s best appearances are considered to be in her 1930 -1933 years due to her “Jazz Baby” character and innocent sexuality, which was aimed at adults. However, the content of her films was affected by the National Legion of Decency and the Production Code of 1934. This production code imposed guidelines on the Motion Picture Industry and placed specific restrictions on the content films could reference with sexual innuendos, thus greatly affecting the Betty Boop cartoons. Joseph Breen, the new head film censor, ordered the removal of the suggestive introduction which had started the cartoons because Betty Boop’s winks and shaking hips were deemed “suggestive of immorality”.
While these “restricted” cartoons were tame compared to Betty Boop’s earlier appearances, their self-conscious wholesomeness was aimed at a more juvenile audience, which contributed to the decline of the series. Much of the decline was due to the lessening of Betty’s role in favor of her less suggestive cartoon co-stars. The last Betty Boop cartoons were released in 1939, with Betty making a total of 110 cartoon appearances in her early career.
Vintage Smoking Male Mannequin Head with ‘Real’ Eyelashes, 1980s
Gif made from Eadweard Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion” Series, 1887, Plate 166
This series of still photographs was of a nude man jumping over a man’s back. The original vintage collotype measured 20 x 24 inches.
One of Muybridge’s main working methods was to rig a series of large cameras in a line to shoot images automatically as the subjects passed. Viewed in a Zoopraxiscope machine, his images laid the foundation for motion pictures and contemporary cinematography.
Gif Excerpts, “About Conception and Contraception” by the National Film Board of Canada, 1973
This film was an animation without narration. It dicussed the use, advantages, disadvantages, costs, and effectiveness of the condom as one of the included forms of contraception.
The Titans of Terror!
Segundo De Chomon, “La Grenouille (The Frog)”, 1908, Pathé Films
“La Grenouille” is a short early silent film that was released in France in 1908. It was created and directed by Segundo De Chomon. The story follows a magical frog and a young woman whom upon climbing unto a fountain rock initiates a series of spectacles. It was a rather unusual film for the era; it employed film illusion techniques used only by a few directors at that time of early filmmaking .
Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz was born on October,17 in 1871, He was a pioneering Spanish film director who produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frères. De Chamon has been compared to Georges Méliès, due to his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions.
The soundtrack is contemporary, not the original score.
The House of Mirrors, Date Unknown, Amusement Park Advertisement
The Fighter Harry Lewis, Collecting Card, Date Unknown
Photographer Unknown, Vintage Photo, (The Pugilist)
“There is a distinct art in boxing, because there is method, strategy, technique rules and all the bells and whistles that the general public knows. However, since the beginning of time mankind was destined to appreciate the art of combat; and that is the mortal sacrifice – you put yourself out there and display a virtual painting, an interactive canvas that portrays the nature of the human body and what it’s capable of, and as an outcome, the object of combat is not to sacrifice yourself to entertain spectators, no, but to make the other bastard sacrifice himself to entertain spectators – thus comes the art of honor. It’s not a thirst for blood, not at all – but an astonishment, an appreciation for the capabilities of a human that bares his soul naked for the art of combat using strictly his body.” – Ghaleya Aldhafiri
Artist and Bookbinder Unknown, Autograph Scrapbook Cover, 1884, Ostriches
Addison 2 “Waterfall” Catalin Art Deco Radio, 1940, Dark Green and Butterscotch
The Addison 2 was made circa 1940 by Addison Industries Limited in Canada. It had an Art Deco unique styling and bold use of color; in this model it featured a marbleized dark green-black case and butterscotch trim. This streamlined radio design featured the famous “waterfall” speaker grill trim and surround “bumpers” at the base with speed-lines. A fairly small radio for the period, it measures 10.25 inches x 6 inches high x 5 inches deep.
Fritz Lang’s “Siegfried”, First Film of the “Die Nibelungen” Series,1924