About Me

BIO ??

Interests:
Art, Architecture, Candy, Cats, Crooning, Design, Dust, Ephemera, Felines, Film, Literature, Old Music, Old Toys, Ovaltine, Politics, Poetry, Rags, and Rusty Things ....

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The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of World War I and the start of with the Roaring Twenties; ending with the rise of the Great Depression, the traditional values of this age saw great decline while the Americ...

Little Joe

Birth name: Joseph Angelo (Joe) D'allesandro Born: December 31, 1948, Pensacola, Florida Joseph Angelo D'allesandro III Joe Dallesandro is an American actor. Although he never became a mainstream star, Dallesandro is generally considered to be the m...

Cigarette Cards

Cigarette cards are trade cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands. History Beginning in 1875, cards depicting actresses, baseball players, Indian chiefs, and boxers were issued by the Al...

SURREALISM

WHAT *IS* SURREALISM? sur·re·al·ism [suh-ree-uh-liz-uhm]–noun (sometimes initial capital letter) 1927, from Fr. surréalisme (from sur- "beyond" réalisme "realism"), coined c.1917 by Gu...

Al Bowlly

Albert Allick'Al'Bowlly (January 7, 1897/1899(?)–April 17, 1941) was a popular singer in the United Kingdom during the 1930s, making more than 1,000 recordings between 1927 and 1941. Bowlly was born in Mozambique to Greek and Lebanese parents...

Andrea "Whips" Feldman

Andrea "Whips" Feldman was a regular in the backroom of Max's Kansas City where she was noted for her exhibitionist nature, pioneering a performance she called "Showtime". In August 1972, Feldman summoned several ex-boyfriends, including poet Jim...

Countess di Castiglione

Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglione (1837-1899), better known as La Castiglione, was an Italian courtesan who achieved notoriety as a mistress of Emperor Napoleon III of France. She was also a significant figure in the early history of photogra...

Viva

Viva Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann on August 23, 1938 in Syracuse, New York is an actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar. Biography She was born into a liberal democratic chaotic Catholic family in Syracuse, New York. She was given the name Viva...

andy warhol

  Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 - February 22, 1987), better known as Andy Warhol, was an artist who became a central figure in the movement known as Pop art.   Andy Warhol and fellow pop artist Billy Apple show their "products" durin...

Crooners and Songbirds

The Jazz Age! Tin Pan Alley!! The Great White Way!!   croon    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (krn) v. crooned, croon·ing, croons v. intr. 1.    To hum or sing softly. 2.    To sing popula...

Jackie Curtis

John Holder Jr. (February 19, 1947 - May 15, 1985), better known as Jackie Curtis, was a famous transgendered film star, poet and playwright. Life Curtis was born in New York City to John Holder, Sr. and Italian-American Jenevive Uglialoro, and la...

Ruth Etting

                  Ruth Etting on the cover of Radio Mirror magazine, June 1932.   Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singing star of the 1930s, who had over sixty hit recor...

Nancy Cunard

Nancy Clare Cunard (March 10, 1896 - March 17, 1965) was an English writer, editor and publisher, political activist, anarchist and poet. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life t...

Robert Desnos

          Robert Desnos was a French poet who joined André Breton in the early Surrealist movement, soon becoming one of its most valuable members because of his ability to fall into a hypnotic trance, under which he could...

Marchesa Casati

Luisa Casati Stampa di Soncino, Marchesa di Roma (Milan, 23 January 1881 - London, 1 June 1957) was an eccentric Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th century Europe. Early life The younger daughter of a wealthy cotton m...

Vintage Sheet Music

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SHEET MUSIC People have always loved music. It is said that almost anywhere one goes in the world, there will be somebody playing some kind of rhythm and tune, even if it is just hitting two sticks together! In the early 1900s, pia...

The Boswell Sisters

The Boswell Sisters were a close harmony singing group that attained national prominence in the USA in the 1930s. Sisters Martha Boswell (June 9, 1905 - July 2, 1958), Connee Boswell (December 3, 1907 - October 11, 1976), and Helvetia "Vet" Bos...

Annette Hanshaw

Birth name Annette Hanshaw Born October 18, 1901 Origin USA Died March 13, 1985 Genre(s)Jazz Occupation(s) Singer Instrument(s) Vocals Annette Hanshaw (October 18, 1901 - March 13, 1985) was one of the first great female jazz singers. In the la...

Whispering Jack Smith

Jack Smith (31 May 1898 in New York City - 13 May 1950 in New York City) was known as "Whispering" Jack Smith and was a popular baritone singer in the 1920s and 1930s who made a brief come-back in the late 1940s. He was a popular radio and...

Mound City Blue Blowers

The Mound City Blowers were an unlikely success. Originally comprised of Red McKenzie on comb and tissue paper (which sounded like a kazoo), Dick Slevin on an actual kazoo, and Jack Bland on banjo, the unique band's initial recording in 1924 ("Arkans...

Josephine Baker

Background information Birth name Freda Josephine Carson Born June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Missouri Died April 12, 1975, Paris, France Genre(s) Cabaret, Music Hall, French pop music Occupation(s) Singer, Dancer Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 - April 12...

SUPERBATONE RECORDS

SUPERBATONE CDs shine the coherent light on a wide variety of historic music and entertainment ranging in time from the very dawn of recording to the end of the 78 era (1888 - 1960). SUPERBATONE'S MISSION is to startle listeners with unknown, great m...

Lee Morse

"She was 5 feet tall. She was less than 100 lbs "soaking wet". She spent her childhood in Oregon and Idaho yet was proud of her family's Southern roots. She could hunt and fish and, if you deserved it, she could punch your lights out! She was Lee Mor...

Smith Ballew

One of the finest singers of the Crooner era, Smith Ballew was nicknamed the Texas Troubadour. Born in Palestine, Texas, Ballew made his way to New York City and worked with many of the great bandleaders and musicians of the time. His voice had a dis...

Andre Breton

Andre Breton (February 19, 1896 - September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as pu...

Fantomas

Fantomas  Fantomas is one of the most popular fictional arch-villains and master criminals in the history of French crime fiction. He is the creation of Marcel Allain (1885-1970) and Pierre Souvestre (1874-1914), a team of French writers. Fanto...

Jane Green

Jane Green (2 January 1897 - 28 August 1931) was a United States singer popular in the 1920s. Green was born in Kentucky as Martha Jane Greene. She appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies and recorded over 30 phonograph records, and appeared in some early s...

Sophie Tucker

  Birth name Sonia Kalish Born January 13, 1884 Origin Czarist Russia Died February 9, 1966 Genre(s) Jazz vaudeville Occupation(s) Singer Comedian Instrument(s) vocalist Sophie Tucker, 1917 Sophie Tucker (January 13, 1884–February 9, 1966)...

The Pansy Craze

The Pansy Craze was a period in the late 1920s and early 1930s in which gay clubs and performers (known as pansy performers) experienced a surge in underground popularity in the United States. In this period, there were drag performerssuch as Ray B...

Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun (25 October 1894 - 8 December 1954) was a French artist, photographer and writer. Her work was both political and personal, and often played with the concepts of gender and sexuality. Biography Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes, she was the...

Holly Woodlawn

Woodlawn (born Haroldo Santiago Franceschi Rodriguez Danhakl on October 26, 1946) is a transvestite and former Warhol superstar, who appeared in his movies Trash (1970) and Women in Revolt (1972). Her life was summarized by Lou Reed in his song Walk...

Cliff Edwards aka "Ukulele Ike"

Cliff Edwards Background information: Birth name Clifton A. Edwards Also known as "Ukelele Ike" Born 14 June 1895 Origin Hannibal, Missouri Died 17 July 1971 Genre(s) Jazz Vaudeville Occupation(s) Singer Instrument(s) Vocals Uk...

Musidora

Musidora (February 23, 1889 - December 11, 1957) was the professional stage-name of a popular French silent film actress of the early 20th century. She is most remembered for her vamp persona in the roles of Irma Vep and Diana Monti in the early moti...

The Jumping Flea

Ukulele   The ukulele (Hawaiian: ukulele, IPA pronunciation: ukulele; Anglicised pronunciation usually IPA: juk%u0259-le%u026Ali), sometimes spelled ukelele (particularly in the UK) or uke, is a chordophone classified as a plucked lute; it is a...

Bing Crosby

   The incomparable Bing Crosby had perhaps the most successful career of any artist in the twentieth century. As both singer and actor he entertained the public for more than forty years and spent much of that time on top of the charts, bo...

Al Bowlly

AL BOWLLY WAS THE GREATEST SINGER THAT EVER LIVED.

PETER PAUL JACQUES

Peter Jacques is an artist living in San Francisco, California. He loves beat-up old stuff and jazz music.

Ethel Waters

"Sweet Mama String Bean" Background information: Born October 31, 1896(1896-10-31) Chester, Pennsylvania, USA Died September 1, 1977 (aged 80) Chatsworth, California, USA Genre(s): Jazz Occupation(s): Actress, singer Instrument(s): Vocals Years active: 1925...

Tiny Tim

Birth Name: Herbert Butros Khaury Born: 12 April 1932, New York, NY Date of Death: 30 November 1996, Minneapolis, MN Herbert Khaury (April 12, 1932 - November 30, 1996), better known by the stage name Tiny Tim, was an American singer, ukulele play...

The Talking Machine

The Victor Talking Machine Company (1901–1929) was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. The company was founded by Eld...

Fats Waller

Thomas "Fats" Waller (1904-1943)  Fats Waller was the son of a preacher and learned to play the organ in church with his mother. In 1918 he won a talent contest playing James P. Johnson's Carolina Shout which he learned from watching a p...

The Frisky Frolics

              About The Frisky Frolics This wily, five-piece, ukulele-driven troupe specializes in long-forgotten musical gems of the 1920-30’s. Self-described Tin Pan Alley Troubadours, they have lovingly mined...

Everything Vintage!

vin·tage     n.    The yield of wine or grapes from a vineyard or district during one season.Wine, usually of high quality, identified as to year and vineyard or district of origin.The year or place in whic...

d.a. levy

d.a. levy (October 29, 1942 - November 24, 1968), born Darryl Allan Levy, was an American artist, poet and alternative publisher active during the 1960s, based in Cleveland, Ohio. levy described himself as the Lake Erie "toilet lama". Biography le...

Fatty Arbuckle

Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle Born: March 24, 1887-03-24 Smith Center, Kansas, U.S. Died: June 29, 1933 (age 46) New York, New York, U.S. Other name(s): Fatty Arbuckle Years active: 1909-1933 Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, also known as Fatty Arbuckle (M...

Nat Gonella

NAT GONELLA Born: March 7, 1908 in London, England Died: August 6, 1998 Genres: Hot Jazz, British Dance Band, Dixieland Instruments: Trumpeter, Bandleader, Singer, also played Mellophone Associated acts: Lew Stone, Roy Fox, Nat Gonella and His Georgi...

Louis Armstrong

  Birth Name  Louis Daniel Armstrong Also known as Satchmo, Pops Born August 4, 1901 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Died July 6, 1971 (aged 69) Corona, Queens, New York City, NY, USA Genre(s) Jazz Dixieland Swing music Traditional pop...

Brigid Berlin

Brigid Berlin (also known as Brigid Polk born September 6, 1939) is an artist and former Warhol superstar. Brigid was born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was...

Russ Columbo

Ruggero Eugenio di Rodolfo Colombo (January 14, 1908–September 2, 1934), better known by the name Russ Columbo, was an American singer, violinist and actor, most famous for his signature tune, "You Call It Madness, But I Call It Love,"...

babelogue

Patti Smith Visions of Patti Rolling Stone, 27 July 1978 cover photo by Annie Leibovitz Background information Birth name Patricia Lee Smith Born December 30, 1946 (1946-12-30) (age 61), Chicago, Illinois Origin New York City, New York, U.S. Genr...

Cabaret Voltaire

Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916 as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes. Otherfounding members were Marcel Janco, Richard...

DADA101

WHAT *IS* DaDa? da·da [dah-dah] –noun (sometimes initial capital letter) the style and techniques of a group of artists, writers, etc., of the early 20th century who exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work and who p...

Red Hot Jazz

RedHot Jazz The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What differentiated Jazz from these earlier styles was the widespread use of improvisation, often by more t...

Lew Stone

~Biography London native Lew Stone was an extremely popular bandleader, arranger, and pianist throughout the'30s. The self-taught musician also authored Harmony and Orchestration for the Modern Dance Band, a book that was the standard in its field...

Kent Taylor

Born November 8, 1940, New Castle, PA. Medical Research, Poet, Sprinter. Lives in San Francisco, CA.

Bix Beiderbecke

Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 - August 6, 1931 was a notable jazz cornet player, as well as a very talented classical and jazz pianist. Birth name: Leon Bismark Beiderbecke Born: March 10. 1903 Origin: Davenport, Iowa, U.S. Died: A...

Gene Austin

Gene Austin June 24, 1900-January 24, 1972 was an American singer and songwriter who is considered to have been the first "crooner". Background information Birth name: Gene Austin Born: June 24, 1900 Origin: Gainesville, Texas Died: January 24, 197...

Elsie Carlisle

Originally from Manchester, Elsie became extremely popular during the 1920s and 30s, recording with many of the big dance bands of the time, as well as solo. She recorded very little after the beginning of the Second World War, and retired from the e...

Seger Ellis

Seger Ellis Background information Born: c. 1940 Houston, Texas, United States Died: 1995, Houston, Texas Genre(s): Jazz Instrument(s): Voice, Piano Seger Ellis (b. 1904 in Houston, Texas - d. 1995 in Houston, Texas) was a jazz pianis...

Oscar Levant

OSCAR LEVANT (Dec. 27, 1906 - Aug. 14, 1972) American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television. Life Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into a musi...