June 20, 2008
“Playtime”
Harry W. Frees. Circa 1914. From a collection of prints featuring “humorous scenes of puppies and kittens dressed as humans and posed in human domestic situations”. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.
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24 Responses to ““Playtime””
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That is great. Thank you, Sheila!
You’re welcome, Amy. I have an unwholesome fascination with this little niche of popular genre photography. Especially for images that put me in mind of a Brothers Quay film.
The Brothers Quay, indeed.
I’ve turned a permanent corner, I’m afraid, because I’d like this much better if the kitties and little girl were taxidermied.
I get kind of a funny feeling abut those kittens.
Like maybe they’re dead? Nah. I’m pretty sure the doll’s dead, though. I mean, look at her eyes.
I’m thinking about commissioning a kitten work from Tia. Thinking really hard.
The kittens’ eyes, on the other hand, suggest they have seen things no kitten should be compelled to see. Sadder but wiser kittens, in other words.
Exactly. But not beyond the pale.
Never beyond the pale. (Nor within the canon.)
Oh sure, they’re cute. But can they play poker?
No. They leave poker to the puppies.
That does it. I’m getting me some dead kitty art.
If you are the sort of person who goes in for this sort of thing, you will find more of this sort of thing here.
MGS bought a first edition “Toodles and her Friends” by Harry Whittier Frees at an antiques sale that we stumbled upon one afternoon while cruising the “T”. The inside cover is inscribed in giant scrawling script “Ronald Perkins, 2214 S. Main St.”
I wish I could scan it for y’all, but I can’t. My guess is that Ronal Perkins was in 1st grade or so when he laid claim to this book with his pencil, These images are too much.
Oh, Kathy, that’s great! I wish I still had my copy of a later book in the same vein, one of the Golden Books, titled “Three Little Puppies”. If nothing else, I’d scan and post a copy of the image of the Photographer Dog.
(Do you and MGS own any of the books in this genre featuring monkeys? I like monkeys. They make me laugh.)
Cindy i confess i’m somewhat fascinated with your fascination for taxidermy and the lengths it will go to
they definately play black jack and roolet [sic] what with the 9 chances they have a piece, i’ve seen their names on the banned lists, the doll’s a decoy
Next time I’m in Las Vegas (or better yet, Monte Carlo) I will remember to distract the pit bosses with a Belle Epoque mannequin whilst I count cards at the blackjack table.
Yes, Alek, my interest in taxidermy (especially, taxidermy art) is very strange–especially considering that I will not kill any living thing, even cockroaches, and have been a vegetarian for over 20 years. Go figure.
sheila i played one of those once for someone trying to get back in with a disguise and a decoy so when you decide to….
Alek, I assume you were successful. This has potential. Problem is, I need to hone my own technique. The one and only time I counted cards was before I understood anything about it. I am a wretched games-player and will slink out of the room to avoid a game, any game, but one evening after dinner with friends and friends of friends, I was trapped into playing some card game or other (something even the children could play, after a fashion). I began to edge ahead steadily, when someone noted, “You can’t be very drunk. I think you must be counting cards.” At the time I wasn’t quite sure what was meant, but yes, that is what I was doing, and I triumphed over a table of drunk and distracted adults and their confident but confused children. I entertain grave doubts whether I could outwit the house, be it in Monte Carlo or Vegas, despite your doubtless considerable diversionary talents.
Still, it could be a great deal of fun.
I’d suggest playing the tables dressed as a kitten! Everyone loves kittens….you’re bound to win…as a distraction tactic alone it is a winner. I tried it once at a local fun fair…the trouble is a kitten with an air rifle shooting clay ducks from a rotating display is bound to attract attention!
I think kitten suits have a future for sure!
Kitten with an air rifle, indeed. Mr Kitten!
sheila, then we’ll play chance off against distraction, its bound to even the odds in a convergence
The secret of convergence, revealed at last! A mathematically precise balance between chance and distraction.
Mum’s the word.
all mums words and egg sucking grandmothers too