Bass Reeves: US Marshall and the Lone Ranger?

February 21, 2019, 1 Comment

Bass Reeves was born into slavery in 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas. During the Civil War, he beat up his slave master to get out of slavery, and fled into Indian Territory. There he lived with the Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee Indians learning their languages, until he was freed by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.…

Bill Pickett: The Rodeo Innovator that History Forgot

February 15, 2019, 1 Comment

Bill Pickett was born the second of thirteen children on December 5th, 1870 in Williamson County, Texas. Pickett’s bloodline was of Cherokee and Black. In the 5th grade, he left school to be a ranch-hand, and he learned all there was to know about being a cowboy. He invented the technique known as Bulldogging, which…

Nat Love: The Real Life Deadwood Dick

February 7, 2019, 4 Comments

Nat (pronounced Nate) Love was born into slavery around 1854 in Tennessee. He learned to read and write with help from his father, despite the statutes which outlawed Black literacy. When slavery was overturned, his family stayed on the plantation as sharecroppers with 20 acres of land. After his father died, he took on another…

Mary Fields: The Forgotten Badass of the US Postal Service

February 1, 2019, 6 Comments

Hello all! I’m Carla, and I blog over at Tiny.Angry.Crafts. This month I will be showcasing a Black Person of the week from The Wild West. As a young child, I was very fortunate to have my grandmother teach me something new; her being a schoolteacher and all, she would give me a double dose…

Introducing Black Heroes of the Wild West Series

January 30, 2019, 3 Comments

February is Black History Month, and this year I decided to honor it with a unique collaboration with fellow blogger Carla of Tiny Angry Crafter to produce a series. While I love the mid-twentieth century, I also love the history of the American West, and Carla thought it would be a good idea to shine…

Cut out images of James Dean and Vampira set against a yellow and red background.

The Mysterious Horror Hostess that Reportedly Cursed James Dean

October 18, 2018, 5 Comments

The inside of a “dingy frame house” on Larrabee Street in West Hollywood looked more akin to a “witch-doctor’s shack in the wilds of Haiti.” Scattered were “objects of the kind associated with Black Magic” and stuck to the wall by a small golden dagger were cut-outs of James Dean’s eyes and ears. On the…

Old photograph of the exterior of The Pink Pussycat, painted pink and black, including a large mural of a cat rubbing against a fishnet covered leg.

The Pink Pussycat College of Strip Tease Where Yesteryear’s Strippers Learned Their Craft

July 11, 2018, 8 Comments

Imagine you are a woman living the high life in early 1960s Hollywood, you have a great husband, who after working hard as a door-to-door salesman, elevates himself to running a haberdashery in Beverly Hills and then enters the nightclub business. It’s a classy life. Then, one day, your loving husband comes home and tells…

El Mirador Hotel

March 11, 2018, Leave a Comment on El Mirador Hotel

While Palm Springs is extremely well known for its mid-century modern architecture, it should be just as well known for its stunning Spanish revival architecture. No where was this better executed than the spectacular El Mirador Hotel, which operated from 1928 to 1972. El Mirador is a perfect example of Palm Springs’ glorious Spanish styling…

History of Sambo’s Restaurant

February 26, 2018, 34 Comments

Sometimes I do crazy things. Like drive two hours to go to a restaurant. In Charles Phoenix’s book, Addicted to Americana, he talks about the chain of coffee shops known as Sambo’s. Now, Sambo’s wasn’t totally unknown to me prior to reading the book, as there was one in my home town of Eugene, but…

History of the Ouija Board

September 17, 2017, 12 Comments

Recently I was at an antique mall I spied a vintage Ouija board with the price tag of “FREE!” and I simply couldn’t pass up, despite owning multiple already. As I walked out with it, I heard one of the employees say “Don’t use it now!” Over the years I have heard and read a…

Atomic Redhead

history lesson

Bass Reeves: US Marshall and the Lone Ranger?

Bill Pickett: The Rodeo Innovator that History Forgot

Nat Love: The Real Life Deadwood Dick

Mary Fields: The Forgotten Badass of the US Postal Service

Introducing Black Heroes of the Wild West Series

The Mysterious Horror Hostess that Reportedly Cursed James Dean

The Pink Pussycat College of Strip Tease Where Yesteryear’s Strippers Learned Their Craft

El Mirador Hotel

History of Sambo’s Restaurant

History of the Ouija Board