Joe "40,000" Murphy

I first discovered the beautiful art of Joe "40,000" Murphy in one of my favorite books, Create And Be Recognized, Photography On The Edge, by John Turner and Deborah Klochko.
Joseph (Cerny) Murphy worked as an usher in Chicago for fifty years and had his photograph taken with just about every celebrity , athlete and politician . He altered the images with pen, gold star stickers and ephemera and displayed them in his Chicago garage.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Murphy got his nickname when he was asked to estimate the crowds "during Chicago's bleak baseball days of the 1920s, he would say there were 40,000 ...(pause)... empty seats."

For more information about Joe "40,000" Murphy (1897-1979), check out Interesting Ideas, it is chalk full of cool information about Joe and other outsider artists.