Vintage News Articles & Finds

[billycw]

The older I get the more brilliant this becomes

The gardener’s patent locomotive seat ... E. Whittlesey. Patentee and manufacturer ... Philadelphia Quinn, Pr. 3d & Market St. 1863

 

[billycw]

"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."

- Thomas Hobbes

Lewis Sayre and his suspension device for the treatment of scoliosis. c.1877

 

[billycw]

Woman Smoking a Water Pipe, Damghan, Iran, 1932, from “Exploring Iran: The Photography of Erich F. Schmidt.”

 

[billycw]

"At one time, I had it notarised that I was from another planet. By a lawyer."

- Roky Erickson

You're Gonna Miss Me

Lead singer Roky Erickson in 1968, while performing at HemisFair, started speaking gibberish.

He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and forced to a Houston psychiatric hospital, where he involuntarily received electroconvulsive therapy.

When he got out, in 1969, he was arrested in Austin, Texas with a single joint. Facing 10 years, he plead insanity and was held in hospitals receiving more forced electroconvulsive therapy & Thorazine treatments until 1972...

the 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHK9vj0VE7w
[YOUTUBEIF]gHK9vj0VE7w[/YOUTUBEIF]

13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me - TV show 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfcHgk10rbg
[YOUTUBEIF]hfcHgk10rbg[/YOUTUBEIF]

 

[billycw]

Grooving through the week...

 

[billycw]

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

-Dr Seuss

Theodor Geisel aka Dr Seuss, 1925 at Dartmouth College


"A tree falls the way it leans"

During prohibition the young Theodor Seuss Geisel was going to college attending Dartmouth. He enjoyed writing for the college paper, The Jack-O-Lantern...

Being a college male, partying was on the mind. Smack in the middle of prohibition the entirety of his college career could complicate this mission, which it did in 1925...

Incidental Music for a New Year's Eve Party - Dr Seuss

“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.”

- Dr Seuss


Throwing what was considered a speakeasy party, he would charge at the door able to fund the next party. Senior year, 1925, he was caught by security...

Dartmouth allowed him to stay in collage but took all his extra-curricular activities away, including writing in the college paper... This didn't sit well with the aspiring writer, so the Pirate Seuss was born...

First "Seuss" illustration (1925) in Dartmouth's The Jack-O-Lantern paper by Theodor Geisel


“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

- Dr Seuss


Not willing to give up his passion, Geisel continued to write and draw illustrations under his new assumed pirate name "Seuss", his actual middle name...

He continued writing for the paper under the nose of the college until he graduated the same year. After college liking the new pen name, he continued using it adding the Dr for flare value.


"Be careful which way you lean"

Indistinct Cat with Cigar - Dr Seuss

 

[billycw]

New York tribune,
April 11, 1909
Article: Goats that feed on "Dope"


The men who stare at goats

The Mexican Herald is responsible for so much early misinformation in the quest of Mexico to criminalize cannabis. Spewing crazy tales and spreading untruths on both sides of the border, these articles usually printed, reprinted, then reprinted in multiple early newspapers until the source was muddy at best. This one even giving credit to El Paso Morning Times...



New York tribune, April 11, 1909

 

[billycw]

“God it’s hot. What did you get for this?"

Mary says, “I get a good lunch.”

Harry says, “I got 20 bucks.”

Mary says, “So what are you bitching about? You get 20 bucks and I’m down here with bugs.”

Conversation between Mary Greyeyes & Harry Bull upon meeting in a field for a Canadian military propaganda photo shoot

Mary Greyeyes & Harry Bull posing for picture 1942


The Canadian military was a hard place for natives. Gaining entry with a test above offered education for natives at the time (natives only were offered up to grade 8), was only the first step.

Mary Greyeyes having passed her test was not allowed with the rest of the girls... The whites didn't want her in the same barracks as them so she was forced into second hand accommodations and supplied with second hand uniforms...

Her Sergeant and two Mounties came to her segregated bunk and offered her a new uniform and a really good lunch if she would pose for some pictures. Needing both Mary accepted...

They took her to a field in the Piapot Reserve, where Harry Bull was waiting. Harry, not even a chief at the time, was lured to the photo shoot in the same way. The photo was shot leaving history to catch up...

Mary (Greyeyes) Reid and David Steele Greyeyes in the Canadian Army 1945


A little after her discharge in 1946, Mary's old sergeant and a couple of Mounties showed up at her door...

A new order had been passed allowing native's who had served in the Canadian military, the right to vote...

Wanting a propaganda photo they said, “Mary, you’ve got to come and vote.”

Mary replied “Can my mom vote?”

they said, “No, she didn’t fight in the war.”

She said, “Well, what about my cousins over there, can they vote?”

And they said "No". Wanting the photo they continued, “C’mon Mary, you gotta come, we’ve got the photographer.”

Mary simply replies, “All those years, I said nothing. Now I’m saying no.”

 

[billycw]

“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”

― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Victorian swagger, late 19th century

 

[billycw]

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Earthling - Christer Karlstad 2012

 

[billycw]

"I just wanted to be free I didn´t want to be a rebel I just wanted to be free And do things I wanted to do Without anyone hindering me I wanted to live the experiences in my own skin. It wasn´t enough for me to be told what it was, I had to experience it down to my own bones, to make a judgment for what I liked and didn´t like"

– Uschi Obermaier

Uschi German activist, 1969

Uschi smoking cannabis for photo shoot 1969


"Mick taught me my first dirty words in English: 'Suck my Cock'."

- Uschi Obermaier in her biography "High Times"

Uschi Obermaier at Kommune 1 with Rainer Langhans

Friends of the Roadhouse: Elton John, Pink fairies... 1970 concert poster

 

[billycw]

Love this painting, undated and unknown artist but thought to be 20th century, Qajar, Iran. Held in a private Harvard collection.

Woman smoking a water pipe - Qajar, Iran

 

[billycw]

"I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me."

- Walt Whitman

Persian smoking a hookah on horseback, ca 1820. Private Collection. Artist : Orlowski (Orlovsky), Alexander Osipovich (1777-1832). Travel hookah in action...


Travel Bong

Every smoker has that one piece you snag for a camping trip, road trip or hell just out the door...

The Persian empire back in the day was no different...

This Persian travel hookah would have fit in front of the saddle, rolling into town puffing like royalty...

"This kind of water pipe was used on travels. It could fit in front of the saddle enabling the traveler to use it while riding." Persian - private collection

 

[billycw]

“Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.”

- Edith Piaf's actual last words...

Edith Piaf at French POW camp, January 1, 1943


"Without Love we are nothing at all"

Edith Piaf lived a fast life in dangerous times. Coming to age at the start of World War 2 in Paris, she was a performer.

Choosing to live over a popular Paris brothel/nightclub, at night she would sing at all the best brothels and nightclubs Paris had to offer...

These became very popular places at the start and all during the war for both sides, giving Piaf a free pass with the invading Germans...

Piaf with French Soldiers

She used this power with the Germans to be able to go to the French POW camps and sing for the troops. Sweet talking the German guards, they allowed her to take photographs with her and the troops.

When they got back, knowing of another visit to the camp to sing, the French Resistance made passports with the pictures. Upon returning to the camp weeks later for an encore performance, the passports were smuggled to the POW's...

After the war, facing a purge trial for collaborating with the Germans, members of the French Resistance had to come forward to tell the story...

Living a fast life in war torn times takes a toll... After a life filled with parties and the excesses that accompany them, followed by years of alcohol and prescription medication for pain and insomnia, Edith Piaf passed away at the young age of 48...


Edith Piaf La Goualante du Pauvre Jean (the sad song of poor John)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CZzlvvOIJk

Edith Piaf - Où sont ils mes copains?
(Where are my boyfriends)
1941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZejAOJDLhU

Where are my boyfriends?
by Edith Piaf
translated from french

Where are they, all my buddies
That left a morning
to make the war?
Where are they, all my P'tits guys
who sang: "We R will come,
Should not worry."
The drums and the bugles
accompanied their song
in the dawn clear.
Where are they, all my buddies
That left a morning
to Make the war?

I knew of p'tits guys of Saint-Cloud.
I knew a guy from la Villette.
I knew some guys from everywhere.
Not one of them did bad head.
Y' had Ménilmontant.
Y' were guys of twenty years.
All responded: "Présent!"
And gone singing...

I knew a p'tit guy of Saint-Cloud.
His laughing eyes had turned the head.
It was great and he liked me a lot.
When I have known, for me it was my birthday.
Comm' the guys of Ménilmontant.
He replied: "Present".
Also had twenty years,.
He left singing:

Where is my p'tit buddy
That left a morning
to make the war?
It was a nice p'tit guy
Who sang: "we r ' will come,"
Should not worry."
The drums and Bugles
Accompanied his song
In the clear dawn.
Where is my p'tit buddy,
That left a morning ?

I know that one day, the P'tits Guy de Saint-Cloud,
I know that one day, the guys of the Villette,
I know that one day, the guys a little everywhere,
will return: Then, this will be a feast day.
All the guys d'Ménilmontant
will bring their twenty years,
all ensembl' cry: "Present!"
and will return in singing:

Behold my p'tits buddies
That left a morning
to make the war.
Now all these p'tits guys
Who sang: "we r ' will come,"
Should not worry."
You will hear the boys
Sing beautiful songs.
Everything will be clear,
This is my boyfriend,
That left a morning.

Here it is! Here they are!

Simone Segouin part of the French Resistance pictured taking cover during the liberation of Paris in August 19, 1944. Simone holding a German MP 40 having killed 2 German Soldiers and helping capture 25 more 2 days prior...

 

[Betterhaff]

Woodstock Artist Pay Rates:

Jimi Hendrix – $30,000 for two sets plus $2,000 for expenses. Note- There was a cap of $15,000 per artist at Woodstock so a deal was made for Hendrix to play two sets, an acoustic set and a set with his band.
Blood, Sweat & Tears – $15,000
Joan Baez – $10,000
Creedence Clearwater Revival – $10,000
The Band – $7,500
Janis Joplin – $7,500
Jefferson Airplane – $7,500
Sly and the Family Stone – $7,000
Canned Heat – $6,500
The Who – $6,250 (also reported at $11,200 but Variety claimed that number was inaccurate)
Richie Havens – $6,000
Arlo Guthrie – $5,000
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – $5,000
Ravi Shankar – $4,500
Johnny Winter – $3,750
Ten Years After – $3,250
Country Joe and the Fish – $2,500
Grateful Dead – $2,500
The Incredible String Band – $2,250
Mountain – $2,000
Tim Hardin – $2,000
Joe Cocker – $1,375
Sweetwater – $1,250
John B. Sebastian – $1,000
Melanie – $750
Santana – $750
Sha Na Na – $700

 

[billycw]

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow'.”

― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

University of Idaho's first greenhouse, 1896

 

[billycw]

World War II Poster, "Call to Farms" the U.S. Crop Corps, circa 1943

World War II Poster, "Help Harvest" the U.S. Crop Corps, circa 1943

 

[billycw]

Wilfred Sätty:
Wild West Show
1969

San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, August 25, 1969

 

[billycw]

James Arthur, Woman with Hookah Pipe, 1900

 

[billycw]

Hippie couple Australia, 1967