Ian Shoales
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
I had always assumed that the guy who painted the "Dogs Playing Poker" was
an anonymous toiler, like a workman on the Sistine Chapel, or an
audioanatromicist putting movable joints on a pirate of the Caribbean. But
the New York Times informed me that Poker Playing Dogs was the work of one
man, Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, who died in 1934 at the age of 89.
From the article recounting the life of this remarkable man, I also learned that he'd written a comic opera about a New Jersey mosquito epidemic, and "designed comic cutouts-- 'Fat Man in Bathing Suit' for example-- for people to stand behind and smile for the camera."
My jaw dropped. Here are not one but TWO icons that this Renaissance man was responsible for. What else? What other artifacts did this man create or inspire? He wrote an opera, didn't he? Was he the first man to make a horn that plays "La Cucaracha" or "Ah Oo Gah?" The little flourish they play at sporting events: Da duh da duh da-duh!" I'll bet he wrote that.
I'll bet he invented Indian poker, air hockey, Bingo, and bowling, as we know it today, the bowling shirt at the very least, and the Hawaiian shirt as well.
Did he invent inflatable furniture, the Tiki torch, the lava lamp, chili lights, and the concept of the parrot jungle? Unless we find his notebooks we will never know.
But placing classic scenes from classic movies on dinner plate collectibles, well, that has Cassus Marcellus Coolidge written all over it. And the novelty key chain, the refrigerator magnet, the swizzle stick, the platform shoe, lifesized plaster dinosaurs, ice cube trays with unusual formations, the drinking bird that never ever stops, the magic eightball, wack-a-mole, and wind up robots?
What about the message tee-shirt, the bumper sticker, and the cap that's also a beverage holder? I can't prove he is responsible for all this, but a man capable of poker playing dogs is capable of anything.
I think he deserves a statue in a town square, a really big statue draped in black velvet that stands up and speaks, like the Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln exhibit at Disneyland. Phrases could include masterpieces of spoken Americana, like "You got it," "It all good," and "Don't go there."
Even better, for the lovers of the world, when you push a button, the statue would play "Lara's Theme," "Love theme from the Godfather," or the Whitney Houston evergreen, "I Will Always Love You."
Throw in a nearby corn dog vendor, a slushie maker, and a machine that lets
you try to grab little stuffed animals with a steel claw, and I believe we
would have a fitting tribute to the man who gave the world laconic
cigar-chomping mutts cheating at five card stud-- Cassius Marcellus
Coolidge, the man, the myth, the legend, the Michelangelo, the Da Vinci, the
Elvis of kitsch.
Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Ian Shoales is the author of, among others, Not Wet Yet: An Anthology of Commentary. Comment by clicking here.
07/09/02: Musicians' brains
07/01/02: Where's my cow?
06/24/02: Modern record stores can be a scary proposition
06/21/02: Life IS a movie?
06/19/02: Spreading fertilizer on a dictionary to try to raise a novel
06/17/02: Happy cows are really miserable?
06/12/02: Very similar to a rock
06/05/02: Of Humice and Men
05/30/02: Pooches in sharkskin suits and the end of dog tags
05/22/02: We baby boomers used to rule the roost
05/20/02: The Files now Ex
05/14/02: Entangled in Spider-Man's web!?
05/02/02: April Showers May Come Our Yadda Yadda
04/24/02: From child murderer to milk hawker
04/10/02: New realities
03/21/02: You did it your way? I have to kill you now!
03/14/02: IN THIS CORNER … SUSAN LUCCI AND STEPHANIE ZYMALIST!
03/12/02: Life in the warehouse
01/28/02: Shoes and food
01/24/02: Suspension of disbelief has nothing to do with whether we accept something as real or not
01/22/02: Save the Grand Ole Opry?
12/15/01: If you truly want to appeal to the lowest common denominator …
12/11/01: KNITTING!
12/07/01: Conspiracy by the 'fat suit' lobby?
12/04/01: The future of comic books
11/15/01: Literary tips in a jar
11/12/01: The ectoplasm of a ghost economy
11/05/01: Sumner Redstone's passions
10/31/01: My irony
10/29/01: Even in wartime, America can still bring it home
10/25/01: Ad memories
10/17/01: Pathetic me
10/08/01: War time lite
10/01/01: Confessions of a sarcastic scribe
09/11/01: The end of Mom
09/07/01: Boy Loses Girl, Boy Bites Girl, Boy Gets Girl
09/05/01: Virtual elegance?
08/31/01: I COPY, THEREFORE I AM
08/28/01: Buzz!
08/23/01: Radio workout
08/20/01: I robot, you Jane
08/15/01: A wild and crazy world!
08/10/01: When the future was "as real as a dime"
08/08/01: Garage Dearth!
08/06/01: That Big Clock
08/02/01: Stop the pop!
07/31/01: Catchphrase history of the world
07/26/01: The Bride of Science
07/23/01: That java jive
07/17/01: Homogenized hegemony
07/13/01: Applying Newton's First Law of Physics to textbooks
07/10/01: The dumb and the dead