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August 2024-Native Americans
Carnivale on the Green: A Railcar Based Traveling Carnival Railcar #
NATIVE AMERICANS AND THEIR CULTURE:
As portrayed by the entertainment industry and toy companies during the 1950's.
Referred to as a time of 'innocence', it was actually a time of ignorance. Western themed movies, TV shows and children's toys were all the rage. Stereotyping abounded: white hats-good cowboys, black hats-bad cowboys. But much worse was the depiction and stereotyping of Native Americans, the toy industry included. There was no intent by me to show any disrespect by using actual stereotyped vintage toys from the 50's along with 3D printed copies of others. And I used the term INDIAN, not the proper term NATIVE AMERICANS, only to keep the rail cars signage period correct.
There will be no ruse, no sham, no crazy dark humor backstory. This build is a perfect example of how or where I get my ideas and how they develop. The backstory will follow the rail car descriptions and photos.
CONSTRUCTION NOTES
The basic car remains the same as previous ones. MDF board with laser engraved bass wood decking make up the basic car with 3D printed undercarriage parts. The figures are a mix of actual vintage toys and 3D printed reproductions of others. The 1950's toys were made of inexpensive single-color celluloid, simple in detail, usually with minimal painted highlights. The smaller pieces were usually sold in themed sets while the larger pieces (like the two INDIAN CHIEF dolls) sold from 10 to 98 cents as packaged pegboard items and they also served as entry level carnival game prizes.
RAIL CARS # 60, 61, 62, 63 J. Powell's POW-WOW PROP CO.
The carnival world made good use of props to attract customers to their various attractions. And bigger was always better. The POW-WOW PROP CO. was there to fill the bill when INDIAN themed pieces were required. Using some actual vintage toys as the props seemed only logical. Because of using vintage pieces, the reproduction ones were finished similar to the real ones. I placed a worker figure on each car to show scale. The rail car carrying actual Native American miniature clay pots are from my wife Gail's collection brings the car count to four.
Railcar # 61
Railcar # 61
Railcar # 61
Railcar # 62
Railcar # 61
Railcar # 61
Railcar # 63
Railcar # 61
Railcar # 63
INDIAN VILLAGE SCENES
Railcar # 64
Railcar # 64
Railcar # 64
Railcar # 65
Railcar # 64
Railcar # 64
Railcar # 66
Railcar # 64
Railcar # 68 Friendly Indians
Railcar # 68 Friendly Indians
Railcar #69 Indian Warriors
Railcar # 68 Friendly Indians
Railcar #69 Indian Warriors
Railcar #69 Indian Warriors
Railcar #69 Indian Warriors
Railcar # 70 Sundance Ceremony
Railcar #69 Indian Warriors
Railcar #69 Indian Warriors
THE STORY
The idea for the build, not knowing at the time, began with a question posed at our June meeting by Judy Arrigotti. She asked where I get my ideas. After rambling through the answer, the meeting moved on. About a week later I got a box in the mail from Janene Powell containing two celluloid INDIAN figures along with a note. She was offering them to me in hopes that I might find a use for them. Her thoughtfulness gave me pause, then memories of these toys as prizes on the midway at the county fair and especially of my after-school stock boy job in a five & dime variety store ordering and stocking these toys. Then I pulled up the Club's roster to get Janene's email address to send a thank you........and there it was........the next idea. Her email address is JPOWELLPOWWOW13@GMAIL.COM......Go figure.
But it didn't end there. Brother Bill and I talk on the phone a couple times a week, usually sharing our article ideas. His response to my mentioning the POW-WOW idea was immediate. Digging into his extensive postcard collection (the source for his POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST articles) he pulled out three 1955 Disneyland cards of Native American scenes in Frontierland. One card showed an area that featured live Native Americans performing, the other two of staged scenes using animated figures. Walt Disney was a master of creating and using animatronic props throughout Disneyland......Now there would be five more rail cars. Be sure to check out Bill’s POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST article this month as it features these cards.
So going back to Judy's question......the question was also the answer. The idea for this build started with and came in the form of her question, then the 'butterfly effect' took it from there......Love those butterflies.
NOTE: The two vintage INDIAN toys are twins. That's Janene's doing, not mine, Miss Editor.
