ephemera assemblyman: Advisements.

Showing posts with label Advisements.. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Lumpenball Flyers by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert

'Lumpenball' is a popular(?) type of ball in Germany where guests come dressed in ragged and tattered clothes.

2. Lumpenball am Fastnachtssonntag im Industriehof (Second Ragged Clothes Ball on Carnival Sunday at the Industriehof), c. 1925

An die Freunde des Lumpenballs!! Das Sommerfest der progressiven Künstler ist am Samstag den 14. Juli (To the Friends of the Ragged Clothes Ball!! The Progressive Artists Summer Party Is on Saturday, July 14), 1928

Da ist er wieder Hurra der Lumpenball No 1 im Dekke Tommes am Samstag, den 19. Januar (There It Is Again The Ragged Clothes Ball No. 1 at the Dekke Tommes on Saturday, January 19), 1929

Wo verbringen Sie die kurzen Tage? Der Lumpenball ist Fastnachtssamstag Fastnachtsmontag Fastnachtsdienstag am Dekke Tommes (Where Do You Spend the Short Days? The Ragged Clothes Ball is on Carnival Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at the Dekke Tommes), 1930

Der erste Lumpenball ist am Samstag den 17. Januar (The First Ragged Clothes Ball Is on Saturday January 17), 1931

Der 2te Lumpenball ist am Samstag den 31. Januar (The Second Ragged Clothes Ball Is on Saturday, January 31), 1931

3x Lumpenball (Three Times Ragged Clothes Ball), 1931

Der Lumpenball das Fest der progressiven Künstler ist am Samstag den 16. Januar, No 20 (The Ragged Clothes Ball, Party of the Progressive Artists, is on Saturday, January 16, No. 20), 1932

Lumpenball No 22, 23, 24- Die Fester der Progressiven Künstler (Ragged Clothes Ball Nos. 22, 23, 24- A Party for Progressive Artists), c. 1932

Der Lumpenball in Silber, der 25. Lumpenball am 28. Januar (The Ragged Clothes Ball in Silver, The Twenty-fifth Ball on January 28), 1933

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More of Franz Wilhelm Seiwert's works at the MOMA's website [link]

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Relating to Quacks, Quackery and Nostrums, Part 1

"Quack is a pejorative term, disparagingly, albeit sometimes defensively, applied by a member of the establishment, the orthodox, regular, professional, credentialed and accepted class to describe the unorthodox, unlicensed, disapproved member of a fringe or irregular group. It is a term of condemnation employed when one wants to belittle another. Above all, the term has become associated with the sellers of medicines and the marketers of medical systems, those with the "true" method of curing specific ills or, in an earlier day, all the ills of mankind.

While the origins of the term are obscure, the term "quack" probably came from the Dutch Quacksalber, a charlatan, mountebank, empiric or itinerant seller of medicine. It may also have been derived from the sounds made by a duck, the term applied to the hawker of nostrums whose excessive zeal in describing the merits of his or her cure may well have sounds similar to the squawking of a duck. The chatter of the quack, in most cases more like torrent s of words, would have been familiar to both town and rural populations even in the ancient periods, for quacks have long been well known in every society. Over the past four hundred years they have been representative figures in folktales, stories and especially in prints, drawings and political caricatures..." –William H. Helfand, from Quack Quack Quack

Detail from "Quid hic nobis lumine satium", c. 1670, Anonymous

Detail from advertisement for Dr. Rock's Tincture, 1738, Anonymous

"The Dance of Death: the Undertaker and the Quack." 1816, by Thomas Rowlandson (from Wellcome Library)

"Nancy Linton: A faithful representation of her actual appearance & condition after having been cured by the use of Swann's Panacea", c. 1833, by C Hullmandel (from a drawing by WH Kearney)

"Singular Effects of the Universal Vegetable Pills on a Green Crocer! A Fact!", 1841, by Charles Jameson Grant

Detail from "The Great Lozenge Maker", 1858, by John Leech - from Punch

"Dr S.B. Collins' Painless Opium Antidote" Advertisement, 1874

"Quackery - Medical Minstrel Performing for the Benefit of Their Former Patients - No other Dead-heads Admitted", 1879, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

"Death's-Head Doctors - Many Paths to the Grave", 1881, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

Detail of "Death's-Head Doctors - Many Paths to the Grave", 1881, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

"Death in the Pestle", c. 1885, by Henry Nappenbach - from The Wasp

Detail of "Death in the Pestle", c. 1885, by Henry Nappenbach - from The Wasp

"The Travelling Quack", 1889, by Tom Merry

An itinerant medicine vendor known as Medicine Jack carrying his wares in a knapsack on his back. (from Wellcome Library)

"William Radam, Microbes and the Microbe Killer", 1890

"The Great American Fraud, an investigative article by Samuel Hopkins Adams", 1907

Quack advertisement for the cure of cancer, 1912 (from Wellcome Library)

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Unless noted all of these come from Quack, Quack, Quack: The Sellers of Nostrums in Prints, Posters, Ephemera, & Books by William Helfand - @ Open Library [link]
Wellcome Library has a good collection of quackery related images [link]
The excellent blog The Quack Doctor [link]
The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices [link]
see the blog Quack Cogitations [link]
Quack cartoons at cartoonstock [link]
BBC slideshow: Quacks and Cures [link]

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

George Cooke Caricatures

George Cooke was a caricatures artist who drew Edwardian music hall performers for the Grand Theatre of Varieties, in Hanley Worcestershire. He compiled them in a series of albums.

This is the frontispiece for the first of several albums of caricatures of music hall performers by George Cooke. The Dame figure in a roundel is probably a caricature of Cooke himself. The performers below represent the comedian Edwin Boyde, right, and the mimic Leo Tell, left. [link]

Carl Hertz, or Leib Morgenstern, when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 9 January 1905. He was billed as ‘The Famous Carl Hertz. In his gigantic show of Marvellous Illusions and Surprises. The most elaborate and sensational conjuring show ever presented. Assisted by Mlle. Dalton’. His acts at Hanley included making a birdcage and canary disappear and discovering the canary in the pocket of an audience member. He also performed there the ‘mystifying movements of a clock dial, which stops at any time spectators may desire, and records the numbers of a throw of a dice before the dice have actually been used’. [link]

Juno Salmo, ‘The Golden Mephisto’, when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley. This was either during the week of 2 January 1905 or 16 April 1906. The contortionist Juno Salmo was known as the homme grenouille or ‘frog-man’ when he performed in Paris with the Nouveau Cirque in a frog costume. He dislocated his shoulders, hopped around the aquatic part of the ring and did acrobatic contortions on a trapeze that appeared to be made of bamboo. He is seen here doing a similar act, but balancing on a pole dressed as a yellow devil. [link]

Comedian Edwin Boyde performing the sketch ‘Bread and Jam’ at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 12 December 1904. He was billed enthusiastically as ‘London’s Greatest Comedian’. From all the principal London music halls’. [link]

The Three Meers when they were performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 17 October 1904. They were billed as ‘An Eccentric Wire Act. Fifteen Minutes of Continuous Laughter’. [link]

Woody Kelly as a whiskered tramp character. He was performing at the Grand Theatre, Hanley, during the week of 10 June 1907. The act was billed as ‘Kelly and Gilette in the sketch “Fun in a Billiard Room”’. [link]

Dr Carl Hermann when he was topping the bill at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 26 February 1906. He was billed as ‘The Man who Tamed Electricity! The Human Resistance Coil! The Modern Miracle Worker! Hypnotist! Electrician! Scientist! Performs the Feat of Passing over 10,000 Volts of Electricity Through his Body! The Sensation of the Century! Doctor Amazed! Scientists Puzzled!’. [link]

Comedian Will Manning of Manning’s Entertainers. He was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 19 December 1904. The company had appeared there the previous March, and now they were billed as ‘The Welcome Return of Manning’s Entertainers in the Convulsing Carnival of Uproarious Mishaps’. [link]

Comedian George Gilbey when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 26 December 1904. He was billed as ‘Mr George Gilbey. From the Principal London Variety Theatres’. [link]

Caricature of the contortionist George Antill, who performed at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 15 August 1904. He was billed as ‘Comedian. The Evening Shadow’. [link]

Morris & Morris when they were performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 1 August 1904. They were billed as ‘a pair of real good comedians’. When they appeared previously at the Grand in September 1903, the review noted that, ‘Their fun in the trapeze is equal to anything that has been seen here’. [link]

Comic duo Burns & Evans performing spoof acrobatics at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 8 August 1904. They were billed as ‘American comedians, as Alfonso and Gasten in "Funnambulism" [link]

Caricature of the American performer Wieland when he was topping the bill at the Hippodrome, Stoke-on-Trent, during the week of 24 July 1905. He was billed as ‘The Great Wieland. America’s Foremost Comedy Juggler’. [link]

Sam Mayo, ‘The Immobile One’, when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 29 May 1905. He was billed as ‘the Original Immobile Comedian’. [link]
And here is a 1922 song that I very much enjoy by Sam Mayo, called Things Are Worse In Russia

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all of these come from the Victoria and Albert Museum [link]

Monday, August 17, 2009

Programs of Boar's Head Dramatic Society

"The Boar's Head Dramatic Society of Syracuse University was initiated by a small group of students in the spring of 1903. This group recognized the need for an on-campus organization that was solely committed to all aspects of dramatic production. Their plans did not get underway, however, until 1904 when -- still affiliated with the English Club -- they presented "King Lear" in Syracuse, Rochester and Auburn, under the direction of Professor Frederick D. Losey.

On February 9th, 1906, "Boar's Head" was adopted as the official name of the newly founded organization. This name was chosen in honor of the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap, London, 'favorite resort of Falstaff, Prince Hal and their companions' in Shakespeare's Henry IV.

Boar's Head eventually faded out in the late 1960's, but produced over 200 plays in its sixty year run. Dramatic activities continue at Syracuse University, but no longer under the auspices of Boar's Head." -Syracuse University archives