It's Only A Paper Moon

What is a paper moon?

The idea of a paper moon sounds quite romantic, but what on earth is a paper moon?  I've been listening to songs about paper moons lately - songs downloaded years ago that are just now making their way into rotation on my iPod.

Paper Moon by Whiskeytown (Ryan Adams band) is so lovely and intriguing.  I think they're playing a ukelele and it makes me want to walk along a moon lit beach with my honey.  It also apparently makes me want to talk all old timey.

It's Only A Paper Moon by Nat "King" Cole (originally Ella Fitzgerald) is also old timey and fantastic.

So of course, this get's me curious as to what a paper moon is? We've got our blue moons and our full moons but what are our paper moons, besides songs and literally moons made out of paper? I searched and Wikipedia, my go to source for pretty much EVERYTHING is no help at all.

Paper Moons mostly occur in songs and old timey people took pictures sitting on the.  This is something I desperately want to do now so if anyone knows where I can find a giant moon (preferably with a smiley face) to sit on and have my picture taken, please let me know.  I'm imagining an amusement park might have this?  Or a mall?

Here are some things that a paper moon is:

A restaurant in Georgetown



An awesome spherical paper lantern



A 1973 film staring those crazy O'Neal's; Tatum and Ryan.  Tatum won the Oscar for this movie and Ryan, well, Ryan did not.  This must be why he's still such an ass.  



Songs: Lots and lots of songs. Including the two I'm currently listening to.  I could make a playlist just with Paper Moon songs.




And that's pretty much it!  There's some more assorted media, books and television shows but nothing about an actual paper moon.  There is a Paper Moon Bakery in Chicago (yum) and? And that's really it.

But back to these crazy pictures that I'm even more obsessed with when the moon has a crazy face.  Like this guy on the right here.  What was the deal with these pictures? 

Thank the good man in the moon that some crazy (in a good way) photo aficianados over at Flickr are just as intrigued about this as I am! 

Leave it to us crazy turn of the century American's to turn sitting on a paper moon into a photo craze.  From Polaroids to Instagram's - we've always liked our photo fads.  The "Man in the Moon" craze was booming during the early 1900's but according to the Flickr group, there are tintypes as far back as the 1860's. 

You can click on over to the Flickr page for more details and some theory's on these but they became popular in Canada and the Philippines but never really became a huge trend anywhere else.  These booths were found outside formal portrait studios, like at arcades, carnivals and fairs which probably explains why everyone looks like they're having fun!

Unfortunately, this amazing trend started to fade out. They started to wane in the 1940's and all but disappeared in the 1950's.

Hopefully, some enterprising young hipster will see this post and set about starting a "photo truck" or something where we can all pose and get our pictures taken all old timey on the moon.  If they were smart, they would ask me to make them a paper moon playlist. I would say yes, for a free portrait.

What do you think?  Did you ever wonder about a paper moon?  Would you like to see a hipster photo truck?  Are YOU that hipster destined to start this?  It's only a paper moon!