Touching the Boss

Edwardian postcards can be very odd sometimes. I'll gloss over what our modern minds may make of this one. (I'm sure you don't need my help.) 'Touching' here means to touch for money, or ask to borrow. The man is meant to be dead drunk, (despite looking actually dead), and the woman pinching money from his pocket is... who? His wife, in her nightie? His maid? Not sure if 'boss' is ironic or literal.

Sorry for the heavy-handed explanation, but the thing is that we so often perceive our ancestors to be repressed, uptight and sentimental, and quite often the truth is anything but. This is down-to-earth, cynical humour, and it seems extraordinary now, to think of all the photography studios thinking up these comic ideas, staging them and putting them on postcards. The turnaround on these things was quite quick too, so it's not too fanciful to compare it to the likes of YouTube today. And like YouTube, the results were very mixed!

Missing Link

This weird doll appears to be the missing link between those little troll dolls and Ken Dodd. By a strange coincidence, I found two of these dolls within the space of a few weeks last year. (How? Why??)

I gave the first one away and then sold the second one on Etsy. These photos are of the second one, and because I was selling him, I didn't want to damage his costume. Otherwise, I might have pulled his fur loincloth aside to show you that this doll is anatomically correct! Yes, this little fella is even stranger than you thought! Fortunately, the recipient of  doll number one did publish a photo of him in all his glory. (Warning - this link contains doll nudity and adult themes.)

Elvis de los Muertos

Mexican Day of the Dead Elvis figure.

Find out more about Day of the Dead here.

I Married a Secondhand Wolfman

(Apologies for poor quality phone photo.)

Saw this display in a local charity shop last week. The Wolfman has a kind of Dr Who vibe going on, I think. And yes, they're next to a double bed.
Happy Halloween!

Arcade Magazine 1970

Every time I see this magazine, I can hear a deep, butch voice saying "Arcade... For Men!"  The Sexy Lady in the Towelling Hotpants just makes it look that way, doesn't she? But look at the features - doesn't that say 'Thora Hird'??

I found this odd little magazine in a pile of vintage knitting magazines I bought recently. It seemed a bit out of place, until I discovered it was published to promote the Provident (the financial services company still going today). It can't seem to decide whether to appeal to sexist men or housewifely women. So there's Thora Hird...

A beachwear feature that gives you a look at 'the styles - and girls'.

A man and a woman moaning about each other's driving...

A chance to look at all the stuff you could buy with a Provident loan.

And how to traumatise the pre-teens with eye-watering outfits. (And I don't just mean the psychedelic fabric - look at that poor lad's short shorts!)

As well as the split personality, the magazine is very thin, and I can't believe they had the cheek to charge a shilling for it. You could have got a copy of 'Woman's Weekly' for that.  But you wouldn't have got the sexy cover, misleading though that is. All in all, it's a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Cocky the Cockatoo

Sometimes I lose sight of my collection of kitsch and curious things. I get so used to having things around the house, I forget that they're really a bit odd. For example, I forget that not everyone has a light-up cockatoo in the living room. But we do, and he's affectionately known as Cocky.

Prized Possessions

The scene is a fairground in 1958.

"Oo-er, George, you are clever, shooting all those ducks down! Have you won the cut-glass vase, do you think?"

"Well, let's see, Doris."

"Well done, sir! You've won a prize! The vase? Oh no, I've got something better than that. Here you are sir, a lucky pup for a lucky pup, eh sir?"

"Here you are, Doris!"

"Oh, George. I'll treasure it always."

You see, the thing about these especially shoddy plaster animals is not just that they are badly made, but that anyone kept them for so long. I got these just a couple of years ago at a car boot sale. Even if the owner got them as late as the 1980s (because some of those fairground prizes hung about for decades), that would still mean someone gave them house room for 20 years. Perhaps those wonky eyes and malformed features brought back happy memories of a day at the funfair?