Who Cares For An Auto
Following his 1915 series "Scene on the
Road," which involved horse-drawn and motorized conveyances crashing
on the roads, Johnson designed a series of eight non-standard transportation methods
using neither. Some of the cards are overprinted with a "Scene on
the Road" title or with a "Who Cares For An Auto" or sometimes both.
None of them have a title, but they are designated with letters A
through H to differentiate them. All show people riding a variety of
farm animals that are not usually ridden. We can guess that the
inspiration was his 1908 Homecoming card, "Any
Old Way" in which a boy rides a pig to get to
homecoming. They are certainly among Johnson's most hilarious
designs, one more extreme than another.
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The A card of the Who Cares Series
includes three women riding a bull. They are very prim and
proper with their handbags and hats while encouraging the
bull onward with an umbrella. Johnson has neglected to add
in the other foot of the two women riding astride.
The models in this series are posed astride some other item
than the animal, probably a plank of some kind. The
background would be the original photo with both the people
and the animal pasted on the surface. Note that the A card
and the F card are arranged on the same background picture.
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In this B card the
man is posed on a goat with a cigarette dangling from his
mouth. Johnson has made sure that we see the other foot
beneath the goat on the other side. The two little dogs,
particularly the one in front of the goat, look a little out
of place, not really blended to perfection.
The B card is arranged on the same background photo as the D
card. |
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C |
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| C |
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| Note that the image of the pig is
the same as in the C card. Johnson used many of his images
repeatedly. This is the same background as used in the B
card. |
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| E - The men of the E card are off
for a day of fun on their unlikely cow transportation. They
have a camera, golf clubs and a tennis racquet |
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| See Variant in that chapter. This
is the same background as in the A card. |
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| G |
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