Collecting Civil War autographs: An interview with Brian Green

What we nowadays most often call the American Civil War went by other names 150 years ago, depending on who you were and where you were from: In the North it was called the War of the Rebellion or the War for the Union; in the South, it was the War of the Rebellion, the War of Secession or the War of Northern Aggression, and the War Between the States after the fighting ended; among Southern slaves, it was the Freedom War.

These names reflect different perspectives on the causes of the war: the clash over slavery – complete abolition, restriction to the Southern states or expansion in the West; the right of states to secede from the Union; the economic domination of the agrarian South by the industrialized North … What’s not in dispute is that the Civil War was America’s costliest military conflict in terms of human devastation – some 620,000 soldiers killed, many more wounded or maimed, and God knows how many civilian deaths from combat, disease and starvation. The echoes of that bitter struggle, though a century and a half in the past, still resound in our national psyche and continue to affect us in ways large and small. Without doubt, it always will.

Small wonder, then, that many, many people are deeply interested in the Civil War. If you are from the South, where most of the fighting took place and historical monuments are everywhere – or if you have an ancestor who fought – then discussion of the war was probably a part of your upbringing. Civil War battlefields are visited by millions each year, and dedicated reenactors not only portray military events for crowds of spectators but try to duplicate the physical realities of the era in minute detail – for example, by wearing only authentic period clothing and accoutrements.

Then, of course, there are the collectors: of weapons and uniforms; flags, medals, musical instruments and equipment; coins, stamps, bonds and currency; newspapers, maps and letters; diaries and documents; photographs and autographs … Whatever physical artifact of the Civil War you can think of, someone collects it – passionately.

Brian & Maria Green, Inc., of Kernersville, N.C., is a premier dealer in Civil War autographs and paper memorabilia; I’m a customer of theirs myself, so I can heartily recommend them. Brian’s breadth of knowledge of the war never fails to impress me; what’s more, he’s highly regarded in his field, knows a lot of people and attends a lot of shows, so if he doesn’t have what you’re looking for now, he’s bound to find it sooner or later. (My advice: Send him your want list.)

I asked Brian about collecting Civil War autographs and other material. Here’s what he told me …

AmeriCollector: How many Civil War–related autographs do you have in stock? Do you include antebellum and Reconstruction autographs in this category?

Brian Green: Over 1,000, including both prewar (antebellum) and postwar (Reconstruction) personages, North and South, who were in the war. We also include the Indian Wars era, as many Civil War personages were participants.

AC: Do many collectors specialize in the Civil War?

Brian: It is the most collectible era in the United States, especially as it is now the 150th anniversary of the war and there will be five years of events. We have quite a few customer, with a large catalog following – we do four a year – plus many collectors who attend the various Civil War shows around the U.S.; most are east of the Mississippi (we exhibit at eight to ten a year). Our catalogs have our show schedules in them.

AC: What subjects do your customers collect (e.g., specific signers; material related to specific units, battles, military campaigns, states; etc.)?

Brian: They collect many ways, such as generals, government and civilian officials (from the president on down), states, specific units (including ones ancestors served in), battles, military campaigns, etc., in letter, cover (envelope) and document form. They also collect Confederate States of America (CSA) and U.S.A. currency, bonds and stamps, including postally used (on and off a cover). We have a mail exhibit featuring famous CSA generals that has been on display at philatelic shows throughout the U.S. and won many awards, including gold medals and one “champion of the most popular exhibits” competition in 2011.

AC: What are the rarer autographs that you have now and have handled in the past? Do you work with institutions as well?

Brian: We have had most of the rare autographs of the KIA (killed in action), MWIA (mortally wounded in action) and DOD (died of disease) generals of both sides; a signed President Lincoln document suspending the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland, which was General Winfield Scott’s personal copy; the terms of a POW exchange in Missouri between General Sterling Price (CSA) and General John C. Frémont (U.S.A.); CSA general Jubal Early’s written proclamation read on the steps of the courthouse of York, Penn., to its citizens as to why the Confederates were in Pennsylvania and that they would not harm the citizens, unlike the treatment of Confederate citizens by the Yankees; “Stonewall” Jackson’s battle report for Second Manassas (August 1862); etc.

We do work with institutions and have a number of them as clients.

AC: What makes an autograph important?

Brian: Such things as who the personage was, what he or she did and where (e.g., major battles), whether KIA, MWIA, POW, etc. Also, how many are known to exist, especially when there are less than 10 recorded.

AC: Are ordinary soldiers’ letters much collected? What kind of content do collectors of these letters look for? What is the price range?

Brian: Yes, there are many people interested in soldiers’ letters, and many are affordable and within reach of the vast majority of collectors. Many sell for under $100. Content, especially battle descriptions, dictate the price, as well as whether a letter is from a famous unit, such as the Iron Brigade of Michigan and Wisconsin, the 69th New York, the Stonewall Brigade of Virginia and the 26th North Carolina. Collectors look for descriptions of locations, camp life, campaigns, battle action, etc. These letters can range from under $50 to thousands, depending on whether they contain accounts of major battles like Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Franklin, etc.

AC: I have seen a lot of illustrated covers (Civil War–era envelopes) on eBay. Are they much collected?

Brian: Illustrated or patriotic covers are very much collected. They depict leaders, flags, portraits (generals and civilians), slogans, cartoons, battle scenes, ships, etc., as well as expressions of patriotism, scorn, hatred, etc. Southern (CSA) covers are much scarcer due to the lack of manufacturing processes, paper, inks, climate, the ravages of war as well as insects and rodents.

Probably more than 100 Union patriotic (covers) exist for each CSA cover, and the ratio could well be higher. For many of the CSA patriotic, only one or two are known or recorded. There are two major catalogs devoted to these patriotics: for CSA covers, “The New Dietz Confederate States Catalog and Handbook” by Hubert C. Skinner, Erin R. Gunter and Warren H. Sanders; and for USA (Union) covers, “The George Walcott Collection of Used Civil War Covers” by Robert Laurence.

AC: What other kinds of Civil War material do you sell?

Brian: We also sell CSA currency, both government and state. The states issued currency, as there was not enough government money to supply the demand, plus transportation problems as the Federals occupied Confederate territory.

In addition, we sell CSA stamps and postal history (stamps on postally used covers and envelopes). Covers include civilian, military and government. They are collected by type of stamp (14 major government issues, not including the temporary postmasters’ provisionals until the government stamps appeared in 1861), cities, states, military, homemade (including those made from wallpaper), etc. We also carry photographs (cartes de visite, or CDVs) and engravings of some of the war personages. They are often used by collectors for framing with autographs.

We also have “first day of issue” covers (first day covers, or FDCs) for stamps issued by the U.S. government pertaining to the war, beginning in 1937 (such as the Army-Navy series and the final reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic, or GAR) and continuing through 1951 (the United Confederate Veterans final reunion) and later. They usually range between $3.50 and $10.

We can be contacted by mail, phone and online (though our Web site). We advertise in all the Civil War magazines and papers. We offer an authentication service for our material as well as client material (there is a fee for this). Many dealers and auction houses use this service.

An autograph or other item from the Civil War era makes a great gift for a collector and can inspire a young person to learn more about American history.

Visit Brian & Maria Green at www.bmgcivilwar.com.

[Show as slideshow]

All images courtesy of Brian & Maria Green. All of the items pictured are available for sale at this writing.

Fair disclosure: Brian & Maria Green is an advertiser on AmeriCollector.com.

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

Collector spotlight: Robert L. Shapiro

~ An AmeriCollector.com Exclusive ~

.

Robert L. Shapiro

In a recent post (“The real deal: AmeriCollector is trademarked,” Aug. 19) I joked about getting our trademark with the help of “our high-profile L.A. attorney, Robert L. LegalZoom” – LegalZoom having been co-founded by Robert L. Shapiro, best known to Americans as a member of O.J. Simpson’s defense team as well as for his appearances on LegalZoom commercials.

The fact is, LegalZoom was fast and easy to use, it was very economical and the people who reviewed our trademark application were great: prompt, friendly and eager to help. (The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by contrast, moved slower than some high-latitude glaciers, but that wasn’t LegalZoom’s fault.) Collectors will certainly want to consider using LegalZoom when making out their wills, in order to ensure that their collections are properly divvied up or otherwise handled.

A litigation partner and head of the White Collar Criminal Defense Group of the law firm of Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, Avchen & Shapiro, Robert Shapiro graduated UCLA and Loyola Law School. He has represented a host of celebrity clients (Johnny Carson, Christian Brando and Darryl Strawberry, to drop the names of a few) and is one of the nation’s most recognized attorneys. He is also a founder and chairman of the board of the nonprofit Brent Shapiro Foundation for Alcohol and Drug Awareness, in honor of his late son, and the founder of Pickford Lofts, a structured, court-approved transitional living facility in Los Angeles for people in recovery. Mr. Shapiro is the author (with Larkin Warren) of the New York Times best seller “The Search for Justice: A Defense Attorney’s Brief on the O.J. Simpson Case” and co-wrote (with Walt Becker) the legal thriller “Misconception.”

Having mentioned LegalZoom earlier, it occurred to me to ask Mr. Shapiro, who is originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, if he collected anything – I suspected possibly baseball memorabilia – and I was grateful and elated to receive his reply, especially because I’m a fellow boxing collector! Here are his replies to my questions …

AmeriCollector: What do you collect?

Robert Shapiro: I collect signed boxing gloves.

AC: How did you get interested in collecting gloves?

RS: I’ve always been a big fight fan and love the sport. So collecting autographed boxing gloves came naturally.

AC: What do you enjoy about collecting them?

RS: The history, the memorable fights that are represented by the gloves.

AC: How do you build your collection?

RS: I’m lucky in that I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of boxing’s greatest icons over the past years. So when I do meet them, I ask if they would sign a pair of boxing gloves for me.

AC: How do you go about selecting or acquiring new additions to your collection?

RS: I’m looking not just for established legends but also new up-and-comers.

AC: Are there any “holy grails” that you’re trying to find?

RS: I love to find gloves with history. Like the ones Muhammad Ali wore when he beat George Foreman during the “Rumble in the Jungle.”

AC: What would you say is the highlight of your collection?

RS: I have gloves signed by Muhammad Ali (but not the ones used in the Foreman fight). Ali’s the greatest of all time.

AC: Can you offer any advice to fellow collectors?

RS: Even though they are fierce in the ring, boxers are typically good-natured. So don’t be afraid to approach them for a signature.

LINKS

LegalZoom: www.LegalZoom.com
Brent Shapiro Foundation for Alcohol and Drug Awareness: www.BrentShapiro.org
Pickford Lofts: www.PickfordLofts.com

Robert L. Shapiro photo courtesy of Robert Shapiro and used with permission. Thanks to Brian Liu for his assistance.

.

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

King of pawn: Rick Harrison of ‘Pawn Stars’ talks about the shop and collecting

~ An AmeriCollector.com Exclusive ~

.

Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of “Pawn Stars” on the History Channel (or HISTORY, as they prefer to be called). It should surprise no regular visitor to this site, then, that I’ve been trying for many moons to get Rick Harrison, lead luminary in the “Pawn Stars” firmament and owner of Las Vegas’ Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (www.gspawn.com), to tell us about starting out in the pawn biz and what he himself collects.

Rick’s a real busy guy, especially now that the shop is expanding (I hear it’s a regular stop on the Sin City tourist itinerary now); nevertheless, he was gracious enough to reply to a few of our questions. Thanks, Rick!

AmeriCollector: How and when did you get the business started?

Rick Harrison: I’ve been working in the business for close to 30 years. But the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop was not exactly an overnight success. I sought out a pawn license for most of the 1980s, but there was a long-established ordinance that no pawn license would be issued in the city of Vegas until its population exceeded 250,000. The good ol’ boys, back in the ’50s, figured we’ve got our pawnshops, we don’t want any competition, so they passed a law saying that they would issue one more pawn license when there’s 250,000 people in Vegas. This was when there was only 20,000 people in Vegas and nobody ever thought it would get to 250,000. But lo and behold, in 1988, I was the first to get a license.

AC: You’ve said several times on “Pawn Stars” that you might keep for yourself something you bought on those episodes of the show. We know you are excited by unique historic items (like shipwreck salvage), rock and roll (especially The Who) and fast cars. What do you consider your serious collecting areas?

Rick: Rare/historic books, old cars, fine art, military items … really, anything unique and unusual intrigues me.

AC: How do you build your collection? (e.g., through auctions, by visiting shops/dealers – or strictly from people who come into your shop?

Rick: Customers coming into the shop to sell items … or pawn them.

AC: What do you look for when choosing a new addition to your collection?

Rick: Is it rare? Will it make me a profit when I sell it?

Image courtesy of History Channel Press.

See new episodes of “Pawn Stars” Mondays at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST on the History Channel.

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

‘Greetings from AmeriCollector’:
The art of linen postcards

I just went to eBay’s “Collectibles” category and clicked on “Postcards”: 1,788,849 results were noted, in categories ranging from “Advertising” and “Amusement Parks” to “U.S. States, Cities & Towns” and “International Cities & Towns” (along with “Supplies & Reference” – i.e., postcard sleeves, album pages, etc., for collectors – and “Other,” some 100,000 miscellaneous cards).

That’s a lot of postcards! And yet, almost all of the categories concern the subject matter of the images on the cards; only one, “Real Photo,” relates to the artwork, the production process or the texture of the cards.

This is interesting, because postcards have changed a lot over the past 125 years or so that they have been in regular use – since before most people had telephones, and in some places the mail was delivered twice a day. Most very early postcards that I’ve seen were plain-Jane functional – basically, index cards with printed postage on them, a design that the U.S. Postal Service was still selling up until fairly recently, if they aren’t still. As lithographic processes advanced, postcards got more artistic and more colorful and were generally printed on better card stock to hold the ink.

In the early 1930s – when art deco style was the look – “linen” postcards (printed on paper card stock with a linen-like appearance) went into large-scale production. They are easily recognizable, the “Greetings from [fill in the place]” kind (known as large-letter cards, which were actually depicted on a series of U.S. postage stamps) being the most famous examples: printed in striking pastels, with a matte cross-hatched textured finish that, if you hold the cards up to the light, actually looks like a linen weave.

Rare, striking and unusual linen cards are highly sought after by collectors, not simply for their graphics but because they absolutely scream post-Depression, World War II and postwar America. There are 1939–40 New York World’s Fair cards, “Keep ’Em Flying” wartime cards, direct-mail product adverting cards, Route 66 cards and diner cards and a gazillion other roadside cards from the early baby boom, when many American households bought their cars and started to hit the road to see the country they had defended against fascism.

To me, an avid although sporadic collector of linen cards, these are windows to an era, a time when people actually WROTE messages to one another, stuck stamps on and popped them in a mailbox. Some linen cards are just so cool, they are models for advertising artists even today – and just light-years ahead of e-cards in terms of design sense. (Again, if art deco is your thing, then linen postcards may be just the collecting area for you: Check out the many Miami Beach hotel cards and the ones featuring streamline diners and locomotives and Greyhound bus stations.)

The guy who “wrote the book” (the first real book, as far as I’m concerned) on linen cards – as well as a price list for the clueless – is Mark Werther, a Pennsylvania architect and orchid grower who collects a lot of different things (porcelain, flamingos, Mexican sombreros) who not only hits all the postcard shows he can but has also written many articles for Barr’s Postcard News (www.BarrsPCN.com), the Time magazine of postcard collecting. Mark’s volume, co-authored with Lorenzo Mott, is titled “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream” (published in hardcover 2002 and available for $39.95 on Amazon.com) is both art book and reference work, as is his paperback “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream Price Guide 2004” ($11.95 on Amazon); in fact, considering that many sellers of postcards on eBay don’t really know a linen card when they see one (and beware the difference between “linen” and “linen era” cards: Read on …), I think these are a must. (Note: Mark is working on a new price guide, hopefully available this summer.)

I first read about Mark in 2002, when “Linen Postcards” was just published, in an article about linen cards written by Bart Ripp, one of the best writers the Tacoma News Tribune has had in recent years. (They got me hooked on linen cards – as if I needed another hobby.) I have asked Mark his advice many times over the years and am much impressed not only with his experience but his artistic sensibilities (again, he’s an architect): You may not be lucky enough to find a Rembrandt etching at your local Goodwill thrift shop, but Mark may help you spot a great and possibly valuable linen card among a box of postcards the next time you go to a garage sale or flea market.

Recently I asked Mark for some basic information on linen postcards:

AmeriCollector: When were linen postcards produced?

Mark Werther: There were forms of linens produced in the United States as early as 1906 or 1907. What is considered a classical linen postcard was first issued in 1931 by Curteich of Chicago. Linen cards were produced until about 1959.

AC: What’s the difference between a linen card and a “linen era” postcard? How can you identify a linen card?

Mark: A linen card has a raised pattern of fine lines usually perpendicular to each other, similar to linen fabric. All the linen cards required intensive rendering work from craftsman. The number of lines, depth and pattern vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. There were other cards produced during the 1931–59 linen era using matte paper with no raised line patterning. I believe that these matte cards are as valuable as the linens. Other types of cards, like chromes (shiny picture-type cards), also started during the linen era but are in totally different category

AC: Why did postcard makers stop making linens, and what were they replaced by?

Mark: Linens were produced for close to 30 years. That is a long run. When the chrome-type cards were perfected by the mid-1940s, they caught the interest of the public and were far less labor-intensive to produce than the linens, thus the start of the demise of linens. The popularity of the chromes, combined with the availability of inexpensive cameras in the mid-1950s, like Brownies and Anscomatics, allowed the masses to take their own color pictures of the sites, so the linens were less desirable.

AC: What is the price range for linens? Are they going up in price? What are the rarest cards?

Mark: Linens have steadily risen in price, but they can still be found in 25-cent boxes. Usually, individual linens are in the $2 to $6 range. As the artistic quality, scarcity, and interest in the subject increases, so do the prices of the cards. Better-quality cards in categories like diners, drive-ins, great restaurants and advertising are commonly priced from $10 to $75. Great advertising cards that are scarce can command prices up to hundreds of dollars.

AC: What are the hallmarks of a great linen card? What are the most popular categories?

Mark: Lorenzo Mott, my friend and co-author of the “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream,” used the term “stunner.” A great linen card usually falls under the “stunner” category and is a card that is superior based on better graphics, color, contrast, sharpness, composition and display of subject. These cards stand out from the average cards. Luckily, the “stunners” can often be lesser-priced cards. The popularity of linens is in the eye of the beholder/collector.

AC: How important is condition in general? What condition issues make a card unacceptable for a collector?

Mark: I have always believed that unused, near mint to mint linens are the most valuable cards. (Note: “Mint” means no rounded corners, edge wear, creases, stray marks, stains or fading. – DC)

AC: How important is condition if a card is really rare?

Mark: I rarely purchase a less-than-near-perfect card, even if very rare. If it is extremely rare, I might make an exception, but not often.

AC: Should collectors avoid postally used cards?

Mark: There are collectors who like cancels and messages. It is a matter of setting one’s own standard. I have avoided the used cards, as they most often do not meet my requirement of near mint to mint condition. I do make an exception with those with special advertising, salutations and commemorative cancels and with important addresses and messages on the backs.

AC: What advice would you give a new collector? Where are the best places for collectors to find great cards?

Mark: I avoided postcards for nearly 30 years of collecting. There needs to be a catalyst that lights the collecting fire: a special subject, color, a time period, historical references. When I started, I relied on postcard dealers at paper and postcard shows. Unfortunately, they were not providing all of the answers. There was no one book on linens that covered the subject. My friend Lorenzo and I then decided, since we were doing the extra research, we might as well condense it into a book and published “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream” in 2001. This was followed by the price guide in 2004. So this sounds like a self-advertisement, but the book is still the only all-encompassing reference guide. It is a short course in one location and gives the new collector a great advantage in appreciation and identification of linens. For further information, there are individual references to diners, “large letters” and hotels, and specialty books on cartoons and some locations.

AC: When will your new price guide due to be published? How many price entries and photos will be in the book?

Mark: I plan on about 40 pages with updates on prices on the 500 images in the book: 100 images in the 2004 price guide plus another 200 images and prices. Hopefully it will be out by mid-2011.

AC: Are you discovering anything new about linen cards?

Mark: I am discovering new linens all the time and am amazed at the wealth of historic information contained in the images and descriptions. Especially rewarding is to find “stunners” that represent the best of the linens.

[Show as slideshow]

All images courtesy Mark Werther

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

Chicago and beyond: Art Shay photo exhibition features 60 years of unforgettable moments

~ An AmeriCollector.com Exclusive ~

.

A buff and smiling yet self-conscious-looking Marlon Brando, age 26, relaxes on his Libertyville, Ill., farm in the company of his spaniel, that steadiest of companions, sporting its own canine grin … A sea of mourners courses through the streets of Memphis to see off the plane carrying Martin Luther King Jr.’s body to Atlanta; the parallel to Moses dying en route to the Promised Land – King’s own prescient analogy – is striking … A welding crew on a GATX railcar assembly line, blowtorches alight, works as feverishly as a cavern full of dwarfish metalsmiths in a Tolkien fantasy … Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan holds a tambourine halo-like above his shaved head as girlfriend and fellow musician Jessica Origliasso smiles up at him beatifically like a Giotto Apostle.

There’s nothing bland, trite or contrived about the photography of Art Shay, who we had the pleasure of profiling on AmeriCollector last summer (“Focus on Art Shay,” Aug. 24, 2010): If you want fluff, check out the dog and cat calendars at your local Barnes & Noble. Art Shay is all about the real, the unprepped and the unexpected: the crazy angle, the partially obscured figure, the dropped pretense, the suddenly revealed view so ironic as to be, pardon the cliché, iconic.

Thirty-two of Art’s images, both black-and-white and color, are currently on display in an exhibit titled “That Was Then” at Chicago’s Thomas Masters Gallery through Thurs., Dec. 23.

John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, Nelson Algren and Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, Hugh Hefner and Oprah Winfrey are among the show’s subjects.

“In my opinion, Art is a genius artist,” his archivist, Erica DeGlopper, told me. “His power to observe and brilliantly communicate makes him a master storyteller. He is brave, hilarious, serious and direct in his approach …

“He doesn’t come with an approach to find a prefigured story: He finds the story,” Erica added.

Art has taken thousands of photos on assignment for Life, Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and other publications. His work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and many other institutions, public and private. He’s also the author of more than 50 books, many for children.

The Thomas Masters Gallery is located at 245 W. North Ave., Chicago; for more information, visit www.thomasmastersgallery.com or call (312) 440-2322.

Signed copies of Shay’s most recent books (“Album for an Age,” “Couples,” “Animals,” “Art Shay: Chicago Accent” and “Chicago’s Nelson Algren”) are available from Titles, Inc., in Highland Park, Ill.; call (847) 432-3690.

I asked Art some questions about photography and, as always, got a kick out of his replies:

AmeriCollector: Which of your photos are your favorites?

Art: I have several favorites. One is of an Ashland Ave. (Chicago) all-night beauty salon in a low-rent area. Looking through the window, you see a forest of bubble- headed mannequins. Just beyond them, under one of those old spaceship-helmet-type hair dryers, sits a 65-year-old lady. To me, the bubble-headed mannequins are what we want to look like; the aging lady is what we really look like.

In another, we’re looking at a window in which two bridal dummies are modeling their gowns. Passing them is a pregnant Hispanic woman about four or five months pregnant. While I was shooting this in kind of an alley, some glaziers set down a big glass window behind me. Reflected in the glass is an old lady – a crone, really – enjoying the sunshine. My title is “The Three, Possibly Four Ages of Woman.” Marcel Marceau had a copy of it in his Paris home. He said it reminded him of his tableaux, called “Youth, Maturity and Old Age.”

I especially like it because one of the world’s great collectors, Henry Rasmussen (then the editor-publisher of the prestigious Black and White Magazine, or B&W) bought it from me! (He gave me more pages – 14 – than any photographer had received in B&W until that time, about four years ago.)

A picture I made of Hugh Hefner sitting at his bedroom desk, surrounded by five languorously sprawling Bunnies – is one of my favorites. It is also one of the favorites of the National Portrait Gallery, which bought it to hang in Washington. My daughter Jane, on a speaker’s visit to DC, stumbled on the picture with some of her colleagues and was able to boast, “One of my dad’s …” She now has her own copy in her collection of my works hanging in her palatial LA home.

AC: Who was your most enjoyable subject?

Art: Liz Taylor was great: cooperative and into the event I was covering for Life – Smell-O-Vision, promulgated by her late husband (film producer Mike Todd). Life didn’t use the story, holding its nose despite Liz’s beauty and cooperation.

AC: Do you usually use one camera or more than one? Do you still use a Leica?

Art: I still have my Leicas and a little-known improvement on the Leica – a Konica Hexar that uses Leica lenses but also shoots four frames a second and is fairly silent. Incidentally, a rep of the Leica company has offered to lend me the $8,000 new Leica M9 to use on a project I’m doing with rocker Billy Corgan. I’ve been using high-end small digitals now including a Canon G11 and the newer Samsung EX1, which has a fast F1.8 lens. I also use a Nikon F90.

AC: Who are your own favorite photographers and why?

Art: I like the work of Cartier-Bresson for its eclectic view of the world, albeit without the great humor I find in wandering. I loved my old friend Alfred Eisenstaedt’s work – and he loved mine … He knew I had done more than 50 hidden-camera crime and Mafia stories for Time, Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, and said, “I can’t imagine going out to shoot a portrait without an appointment … and the camera under your jacket.”

I also liked the imaginative work of Life’s Philippe Halsman, with whom I worked on a book for Ford in 1953. Halsman, former Life editor Joe Thorndike and I were having Chinese one day in Dearborn, Mich. The subject of how Life would cover the Second Coming came up. (I was 30 at the time, Philippe in his 50s.) Joe said shrewdly, “Who would you send, Philippe?” Unhesitating, Halsman said, “Why, me, of course. I would get a portrait of Jesus that would last for the ages.” Joe shook his head. “I’d send young Art,” he said. “While you were setting up your tripod, Shay would get 36 pictures and a release.”

AC: What are your favorite photos by other photographers?

Art: I like Halsman’s picture of Dalí with cats flying through the air. I like Leonard McCombe’s Life shot for his cowboy essay: desolate prairie, only shade coming from a telephone pole, and a slim cowboy using this shade to get out of sun …

My photographer-writer son made a fantastic picture of an old lady sitting at a house sale, trying to sell an old blue phonograph. Her face and dress set off the instrument perfectly.

AC: What do you think of the manipulation of colors, shadows, for example, using Photoshop – that some photographers seem to do routinely AFTER they take a photo?

Art: Photoshop is great as a retouching tool. It has yet to prove itself as an artistic medium. I think it will …

AC: Do you prefer your own and others’ black-and-white work?

Art: Most of my collectors don’t realize I’ve shot almost as much color as black-and-white. My primary gallery thinks I’m so well-known as a black-and-white photographer, hanging color would confuse buyers. As it happens, earlier this year I had a successful color exhibition – my first at the Thomas Masters Gallery in Chicago. The first three pictures sold were to my black-and-white collectors!

I’ll also weigh in on the photo-paper-versus-digital-paper controversy: Some digital prints do more justice to black-and-white or color negatives than traditional wet printing. Digital printing keeps the price down, and digitals last 200 years.

AC: If someone wanted to collect photographic prints, what advice would you give?

Art: My advice to collectors: Buy the prints that you enjoy looking at more than cursorily on a quick round of a gallery. I love one collector who blames me for sending her back four times to see what I had in mind in a single picture …

To me the picture’s the thing. I feel new collectors should just buy pictures they like.

.

[Show as slideshow]

Photos copyright Art Shay. Used with the photographer’s permission.

• Focus on Art Shay,” Aug. 24, 2010

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

Ben Isitt: The evil genius behind the scenes at the Black Lake Haunted Asylum

“Those lab specimens … those body parts … Are they REAL?”

You may well be asking yourself that if you work up the courage to show up during “visiting hours” at the Black Lake Haunted Asylum at Freighthouse Square on one of its last four evenings this year: Thurs., Fri., Sat. and Sun., Oct. 28 through 31, from 6 to 10 p.m.

The creepy props and nightmarish scenery comes from the prolific imagination of designer/fabricator Ben Isitt (www.BensArtWorks.com), whose work experience runs the gamut from Hollywood movie sets to amusement park atmospherics, from commercial décor to parade floats, from fountains and other topiary sculpture to home entertainment spaces and – dare I say it? – kids’ rooms!

Not that this should surprise anyone: The versatile Mr. Isitt, age 43, originally from San Pedro, Calif., and now of Puyallup, is a professional artist and hardly deranged – although you might suspect otherwise on seeing him throwing off all “restraints,” so to speak, at the Haunted Asylum. But even there, in the dark basement corridors of Freighthouse Square, Ben surgically attaches humor to horror, schlock to shock, creating a tour experience that’s part Hieronymus Bosch and part P. T. Barnum … or maybe Ed Wood and Ed Gein?

You decide … Meanwhile, I asked Ben about his work: His answers reveal some of the influences behind his inventiveness …

AmeriCollector: Have you always been a full-time artist, or did you do something else for a living before that?

Ben: I’ve always been a full time artist.

AC: Did you study art formally in school, or are you self-taught?

Ben: I studied art from an early age and eventually attended Phoenix Institute of Technology in California, for commercial art and pursued prop fabrication through apprenticeship and through hands-on work.

AC: Where is your studio located?

Ben: I have a shop on my property at my home in Puyallup as well as a work studio in the basement of the Freighthouse Square.

AC: Do you have any hobbies not strictly related to your artwork?

Ben: Yes, I enjoy building unique flying model aircraft from time to time.

AC: You specialize in sculpture and 3-D props, which is a lot different from working on a flat surface. What materials do you prefer to work in, and in what size: life-size or larger-than-life?

Ben: I enjoy the difference in scales differently. I don’t really have a preference in size, but I enjoy working with six-pound urethane foam versus other products that are commonly used in prop fabrication.

AC: You do a range of work, from signage to statuary to parade floats – even costumes. Are there particular objects you especially enjoy creating, or themes that you like to work in?

Ben: I like the imagination and variety of working within the horror genre most because of the limitless ways to express one’s imagination. And I use the “Haunt” (Black Lake Haunted Asylum) as a practical application for showcasing creations and frightening people at the same time.

AC: The Black Lake Haunted Asylum follows a classic carnival tradition, but it goes far beyond the usual cheap funhouse effects. How did you get involved in this annual event?

Ben: Having worked for Six Flags for 10 years and building props and creations for their Fright Fest influenced me to pursue these endeavors for myself and also appease the need to be creative in something that was relative to sculpture and prop fabrication.

AC: How much new stuff do you create each year, and where do you get your ideas? Do you decide what to create by committee, or do you have free license to do what you want?

Ben: It’s hard to describe where these ideas come from. Each year, I try to incorporate something new and exciting but most of all unique. Often in haunts you see the same ideas happening in the same ways, with little difference, but I try to create things that no one has ever seen before.

I do have free license to create props for the haunt depending on the annual budget. Some years are better than others. This year, we added an organ-grinder/Gatling gun, complete with rabid zombie monkey perched on top. This takes a clichéd machine-gun effect and gives it an interesting new twist.

AC: The Haunted Asylum appeals to many people’s desire, going back to childhood, to be frightened within a safe context, such as seeing a horror movie. Were haunted houses, horror films, Halloween and other scary but fun experiences a formative influence for you?

Ben: Absolutely. Whether it’s old film or new, I always enjoy special effects no matter what capacity they are used and appreciate the ideas and the imagination behind them.

AC: What ARE your favorite horror films, anyway?

Ben: “The Thing,” all of the “Alien” movies … I enjoyed “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” and “Time Bandits.”

AC: The mental asylum concept seems to generate an especially strong response in people. How do you explain it?

Ben: I think because most human beings fear the loss of their own mind, the power of thought or control, people are uncomfortable with the theme; however, we’re not looking to promote the negative aspects of mental illness in itself, but rather point it in a direction of a fictional character, Dr. West, who through medical experiments creates his own monsters much like Frankenstein. This allows people to experience being afraid or uncomfortable in a safe environment. This is a haunt, after all: It’s all theatrics and not intended to offend but rather entertain based on a time period when such places existed but also add a terrifying twist to the theme.

AC: Who are your artistic influences?

Ben: My artistic influences vary, but if I were to name a favorite it would be artist Judson Huss and designer of the Aliens from the “Alien” film series, H. R. Giger.

AC: What is your “dream” project?

Ben: I would enjoy working on a large intricate sculpted relief or frieze of a dramatic scene like something from Dante’s “Inferno” or even “Alice in Wonderland,” but perhaps combined with a contemporary setting.

The Black Lake Haunted Asylum tour is conducted in groups of four to six guests, lasts 15 to 20 minutes and is not recommended for children under 13. Admission is $13 but tickets are limited: Get them online at  www.hauntedhousetacoma.com. Freighthouse Square is located at 2501 East “D” St., Tacoma. For directions, visit  www.freighthousesquare.com.

[Show as slideshow]

Images courtesy of Ben Isitt, Ben’s Artworks, www.bensartworks.com

Read comments > 4 Comments

Painting the wide open spaces

Fred Oldfield Center hosts 21st Annual Celebration of Western & Wildlife Art Show & Auction, Oct. 8 to 10; meet guest of honor Michael McGrady, actor and painter!

“Icon” … It’s a word that has lost much of its impact through overuse by our glib media.

I don’t mean “icon” in the sense of a religious image or, similarly, a command symbol on a computer monitor (everyone’s personal shrine in the Internet Age, with direct access to the gods and demons of cyberspace: no clergy necessary). I mean it as an embodiment of a spirit and an era, a place and a time and an approach to life.

Ask Americans and observers of America what they see as this nation’s most iconic figure – the embodiment of the American spirit – and I’ll wager my milk money they’ll say the cowboy.

To those of us who generally get no closer to a horse than watching a Clint Eastwood movie, “cowboy” in the classic sense is a broad term that includes different people who lived in the Old West of lore and legend, that rugged, untamed land west of the Mississippi from the mid-19th century to the early years of the 20th. We may use the “cowboy” loosely to mean a frontiersman, applying it to not just to ranchers and cattlemen but homesteaders and sheepherders, trappers and traders, prospectors and mountain men. All the same, it’s that courage and independence amid solitude and long vistas that we revere – that unself-conscious individualism and rawhide-tough acceptance of danger and deprivation – that even nowadays inspires little kids, wearing cardboard Stetsons and plastic six-shooters from Wal-Mart, to walk with a swagger and imagine themselves riding the range.

The Old West – that’s to say, the historical West of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour, John Wayne and John Ford – supposedly ended with World War I, a cataclysm that marked the ends of eras in many other places as well. But the American West as a physical place (a very broad and topographically varied one) and the cowboy as an archetype live on, although the modern world tries to encroach a little more each day. Usually it succeeds, but not always …

That’s because there is flesh-and-blood proof that the cowboy of yesteryear still walks with us: He’s Fred Oldfield, onetime placer miner, ex-prizefighter, Army veteran, longtime cattle driver, renowned painter with an extensive and devoted following.

Raised on the Yakima Reservation, Fred, now 92, is a Washington cultural institution, a beloved mentor to the young artists (most on scholarships) who study with him at the nonprofit Fred Oldfield Western Heritage & Art Center (www.FredOldfieldCenter.org), located at the Puyallup Fairgrounds (home to another Washington cultural institution, during which Fred enthusiastically pitches in every spring and fall). Honored in 2003 and 2008 by the Washington State Senate and Governors Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire, respectively – they declared his 85th and 90th birthdays “Fred Oldfield Day” – Fred is a rare individual who has done much in his 92 years and still bubbles over with creative energy. While working in Alaska in his late teens, he started painting Western scenes on bunkhouse walls and linoleum tiles; over the years he would paint whole murals depicting historic events and sweeping landscapes for businesses like the Horseshoe Café in Bellingham and the Copper Creek Inn at Mt. Rainier; and he continues to fill canvases with stirring images of the cowboy life he lived and the vast and starkly beautiful terrain in which he lived it.

Actually, “authentic” is a good adjective to describe Fred Oldfield – for his achievements, certainly, but also for the person he is. For Fred is emblematic of a time and a place and a value system that seems endangered in this 21st century, threatened by the apathy, selfishness, sloth, moral laxity and general dumbing down of our society. He brings to us a heritage of barn raisings and caring neighbors happy to lend a hand; a strong work ethic and a sense of personal integrity in which one’s word is a matter of honor, an agreement sealed with a handshake a solemn promise; and a sense of duty to one’s community, especially the young and disadvantaged.

This is Fred Oldfield’s West, and it’s one commemorated during the Celebration of Western & Wildlife Art Show & Auction that The Fred Oldfield Center hosts each year – in fact this week, from Fri. to Sun., Oct. 8 to 10, in the Expo Hall (Gold Gate) at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. Show hours are Fri., 3 to 10 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sun., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call (253) 445-9175 for more information.

You’ll be stirred by the flair and vision with which Western themes are embraced by more than 100 extremely talented artists – painters, illustrators, sculptors, carvers, weavers, photographers and jewelers – and you’ll enjoy great country music by top-flight performers. There will also be live and silent auctions, art demonstrations, one-hour “quick-draw” challenges and meet-and-greets. Admission and parking are FREE, and proceeds from the show will benefit the Experience Art Program at The Fred Oldfield Center. It’s an event the whole family will love!

But that’s not all: This year’s guest of honor is Federal Way native Michael McGrady, a masterful professional landscape painter (view his work at www.McGradyFineArt.com), an intrepid hang glider and an accomplished martial artist (he’s the holder of two black belts) who also happens to be a highly successful TV and film actor. (Michael stars as Detective Daniel “Sal” Salinger on the TNT police drama “Southland,” played Buchalter in the action-thriller series “Day Break” and has been in a slew of other shows, from “Grey’s Anatomy” and “ER” to “The Mentalist,” “Bones” and “Cold Case,” with repeat appearances in “CSI: Miami,” “Las Vegas,” “24” and “Murder, She Wrote.” His extensive filmography includes roles in “Evolution,” “The Thin Red Line,” “The Deep End of the Ocean,” “Wyatt Earp” and “The Babe,” in which he played Lou Gehrig opposite John Goodman as Babe Ruth).

Michael is passionate about art and especially painting, and I had a lot of questions about this important part of his life – and Fred Oldfield’s place in it. He obliged by answering them with great eloquence and wit …

AmeriCollector: How long have you been an artist?

Michael: I have been an artist ever since I can remember. I started out hiding under my sheets at night with a flashlight and pencil and paper drawing dinosaurs and race cars. I was supposed to be sleeping (LOL). I have always been a doodler and often sketch on napkins, bit of paper, whatever is handy at the moment.

I have been painting for a little over 20 years, although I have been either drawing or sculpting for much longer. I started out sculpting soapstone in my late teens and Carrara marble not too many years after.

I never dreamed that one day I would be a selling professional artist. I recently had a solo show at one of the galleries that represent my work and sold eight painting within the first two weeks.

AC: What do you most enjoy about painting?

Michael: What I enjoy most is the solitude and the freedom to get lost in thought … lost in the world of the subject. The dance between right-brain and left-brain activity is like massaging the brain. When I paint, I often listen to different types of music from classical to Led Zeppelin to help transport me emotionally into the painting I happen to be working on. I’ve been accused of being a romantic and I suppose I am guilty of that: Give me my paints, a blank canvas, a glass of good wine and I am in heaven. Riding my Harley with my wife on the back does the same thing (LOL).

AC: Many actors, including the late Tony Curtis (who passed away last week), have derived great satisfaction through painting. Is there a connection between performing and painting?

Michael: Tony Curtis, Tony Bennett and Gene Hackman are all great artists. There are several actors that paint. All of the arts are interchangeable as far as I experience them. I write, I play guitar and sing, sculpt and even dance Salsa with my wife, and the language is all the same: movement, line, composition, positive space, negative space, rests, melody, shape, etc. Primarily it all comes from the ability to let go and think less with the mind and feel more with the heart. It sounds corny but it’s the truth.

I have yet to meet an artist that bored me. Most are widely and deeply read and have a real appetite for new experiences. And all have a passion for life. I love to spend hours talking with other artists. I have a friend, Tim Willocks, who lives in the countryside of Ireland. He is an amazing novelist. He was a psychiatrist specializing in addiction and suicide. He practiced and studied at Oxford. He has written some incredible novels, his latest “The Religion.” He and I can get together with a bottle of good whiskey and talk for hours about everything under the sun, and yet, when I walk away, I am invigorated, rested and inspired. Small talk drains all of my energy and always leaves me wanting.

AC: Your landscapes are fantastic: beautifully executed and full of real atmosphere. Do you paint from life or imagination – or both?

Michael: I paint from both life and imagination. Usually I use what is in front of me as a reference point – a launch pad, if you will. Once I can grasp the “thing” that caught my attention in the first place, I then go about getting it down as quickly as possible in terms of color, form, edges, etc. Then I embellish as my instincts direct me.

AC: Do you have any favorite subject matter? Do you think growing up in the Northwest has had an influence on you?

Michael: Growing up in the Pacific Northwest has certainly influenced me. I gravitate toward landscapes because, let’s face it, nowhere on earth is there such diverse beauty than the Pacific Northwest. I tend toward autumn colors. Autumn is my favorite time of year: the umbers, rusts, ochers, browns, yellows and reds against bold blue greens, yellow greens and deep blues … I also like the feel of autumn: the cool crisp air, the sweet smell of maple leaves crushed beneath my feet and the smell of pine. That mix of fragrances has always been able to enchant me.

AC: What painters do you admire?

Michael: I admire the works of Joaquín Sarolla, Richard Schmid, John Singer Sergeant, Anders Zorn, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jeremy Lipking, G. Harvey and my friend and recent mentor, Fred Oldfield.

AC: How long have you known of Fred Oldfield and his work? Has he had an influence on you?

Michael: I saw that ol’ rattlesnake Fred Oldfield on television a couple of years ago while recuperating from the flu. I was lying on the couch and he came on our local PBS station. I was amazed and shocked at what could be done with a knife. I recorded the episode and as soon as I got better I turned Fred back on and painted along with him. I was so satisfied by the experience and the results that I have been painting with knives ever since. I owe Mr. Oldfield a serious debt of gratitude: He opened up a world of art that I did not know existed. I now modify my own knives by shaping them and filing them to suit me.

To be invited to this event as the guest artist is more than just an honor: It is a humbling experience and one that will go down in my mind as a milestone. Fred’s daughter Joella has been a refreshing and welcome influence in our lives. Her loving, sweet and genuine nature has inspired both my wife and me to seek out more friends like her.

I am eager to get up there this week and meet Fred. I have talked with him on the phone and it was like I was talking to the grandfather I never had. We immediately hit it off and began talking about art and the Pacific Northwest. We have stayed in touch ever since.

[Show as slideshow]

Images of Michael McGrady’s paintings copyright © McGradyFineArt. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Michael McGrady’s website

Michael McGrady’s facebook

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

Focus on Art Shay

~ An AmeriCollector.com Exclusive ~

 The famous Chicago-based photographer, at a spry 88, collects his thoughts on collecting, collectors and how his world-class collection came to be collected

Introduction by David Chesanow

A few months ago I was purchasing a couple of books via long-distance phone call from a very nice lady named Florence who owns a bookshop in Highland Park, Ill., called Titles, Inc., which sells rare books. Never having been to the Prairie State and unfamiliar with its geography, I assume every city in Illinois is near Chicago, so I asked Florence if she had anything by one of my favorite writers, Nelson Algren, author of “A Walk on the Wild Side” (published in 1956 and set in New Orleans, but many of Algren’s stories – like “The Man with the Golden Arm” and my favorite, “Never Come Morning” – take place in the Windy City.)

Florence paused, then said, “Are you asking about Algren because my husband and I were friends of his?”

“I had no idea,” I replied, completely taken by surprise. “I don’t even know your last name.”

“It’s Shay,” Florence said. “My husband is the photographer Art Shay.”

Those who believe in coincidence – and even those who don’t, and who are sure that all good things happen for a reason because cosmic forces are at work – can imagine my rare moment of speechlessness and delight!

That’s because Art Shay – one of whose photos is on the dust jacket of the first edition of “A Walk on the Wild Side” – is one of the greatest photographers of the last century and this one as well. Even if you don’t know Art by name, you probably know photos he has taken: Jim Brosnan’s mitted hand extending from a vine-covered wall at Wrigley Field (like the Arthurian arm in the lake holding Excalibur) to make a catch; Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa blustering from a podium with his own giant image as the backdrop à la “Citizen Kane”; National Guardsmen poised in front of Chicago’s Conrad Hilton Hotel (cheerfully emblazoned with “Welcome Democrats”) before confronting angry protestors at the 1968 Democratic Convention (originally taken for Time magazine, but Art says they didn’t use it, opting instead to use a shot of a tank and soldiers in a haze of teargas as half the story’s lead page, and one of youths swarming a statue in Grant Park as the full-page closer); and any number of others. Art has captured amazing images of some of the most celebrated Americans of our era – from John F. Kennedy, a young Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner to Marlon Brando and Muhammad Ali – as well as taken many wonderful photos of Nelson Algren, the people of Chicago and thousands of other subjects.

Now 88, Art is originally from the Bronx and served as lead navigator aboard a B-24 Liberator flying missions over Europe in World War II (and twice helped lead the entire Eighth Army Air Force – 1,200 planes – to Berlin a week after D-Day); he also navigated the first non-combat flight from Guam to Tokyo following the Japanese surrender, bringing Gen. Douglas McArthur’s advance staff to Tokyo to organize GHQ and the occupation.

Art’s photographs – both black-and-white and color – have appeared in and/or on the covers of the America’s most popular magazines over the past six decades: from Life to Look to Esquire, from Sports Illustrated to the Saturday Evening Post, from Playboy to Boy’s Life. I absolutely love them, and I invite you to check them out at as well as see some of Art’s images at the Museum of Contemporary Photography Web site (collections.mocp.org) and to read his illustrated essay “The Democratic Convention – Chicago 1968” at www.swans.com.

Art is hugely admired by photographers, collectors and a legion of fans who just love a damn great photo. Nor is he one to sit on his laurels and play golf all day: He continues to make pure art with his camera.

For example, rock musician Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) recently hired Art to shoot a three-year project involving Corgan’s creation of 41 new songs for some possible new albums he plans to market himself. Art explained that Corgan, “an astute businessman as well as artist who can’t believe the flurry of interest the tabloids have in his romantic life with celebrated and beautiful young performers,” got the idea of documenting the evolution of the albums after reading Art’s book “Chicago’s Nelson Algren” in one sitting. Corgan’s studio is only three miles from the Shay house in Deerfield, so Art just drops in at daylong rehearsals with digital Nikons, Canons and his trusty film Leicas whenever it’s convenient for both artists. (In fact, Leica Camera Inc. has just offered Art the use of their new M9 digital camera for the rest of the project. Art also proudly remembers being the first professional photographer to try the Canon 7 with its humongous .095 lens. He has the uncanny ability to recall each camera, lens and exposure used on most of his pictures: “I did my portrait of Liz Taylor by candlelight at the Ambassador East with that fantastic .095 lens: 1/30th of a second at .095. What a lens! What a woman!”)

Art is also a great and prolific writer – the author of dozens of books on a variety of subjects, all featuring his photography: “Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures from the Twentieth Century,” “Art Shay: Chicago Accent,” “Chicago’s Nelson Algren,” “Couples,” “Animals”; children’s books (“What Happens at the Circus,” “What Happens When You Turn on the Gas,” “What It’s Like to Be a Fireman” and many more); and sports (“40 Common Errors in Tennis and How to Correct Them” and similar titles for golf and racquetball). Some of the older books are bylined “Arthur Shay,” if you want to search for them online.

Having had the great honor and pleasure of corresponding with Art, I can attest to the fact that he is as “real,” down-to-earth and captivating as the pictures he takes. I’m also OVERJOYED to say that he has graciously written a warm, often funny and very moving story for AmeriCollector.com, which appears below …

Finally, if you want to give yourself or the photography lover in your life a real gift, Florence Shay (who writes a fantastic blog that any bibliophile will enjoy: It’s at http://tr.im/florence) has copies of Art’s most recent books, “Album for an Age,” “Couples,” “Animals,” “Art Shay: Chicago Accent” and “Chicago’s Nelson Algren,” which you can purchase signed by Art. (“Couples” and “Animals” are especially popular sellers.) Contact Florence through her blog or by calling Titles, Inc., at (847) 432-3690.

And if you want to purchase prints of Art’s photos, contact Paul Berlanga at Chicago’s Stephen Daiter Gallery (www.stephendaitergallery.com, where you can see excellent examples of Art’s work): Call (312) 787-3350.

A photographer looks at his work – and his collectors

By Art Shay

My favorite practitioner of graphic satire before I entered the lists is, of all people, Honoré Daumier, who wandered the streets and courthouses of Paris 150 years ago as I did in Chicago in the more recent fifties and sixties: Daumier with his caricaturizing pencil, I with my caricaturizing camera – wicked instruments both. Henry James, again of all people, attributed the swelling of journalism by Daumier and George Cruikshank to the rise of pictorial satire.

“The stream of time is in this case mainly the stream of journalism …” James wrote presciently in an 1893 essay on Daumier.

My entire oeuvre rests on another James observation in the same essay: “A society has to be old before it becomes critical, and it has to become critical before it can take pleasure in the reproduction of its incongruities by an instrument as impertinent as the indefatigable crayon” – or, in my case, mutatis mutandis: my Leica.

I just got off the phone with the great Paul Berlanga, chief of staff at the Stephen Daiter Gallery (Chicago’s best) and my friend of the past 30 years. Paul has almost single-handedly guided my pictures up the money slope from the $350 I was glad to command for the vintage prints I had made for myself after shooting a story, say, for Life magazine to a median of around $1,500 for 11 x 14s. When I showed some 80 prints at the Galerie Albert Loeb (www.galerieloeb.com) in Paris in 2008, it was Paul who helped convince Albert Loeb (who came from a family of Picasso and Matisse sellers) that he should charge 1,725 euros (about $2,200 per today’s exchange rate) for my Chicago pictures.

“Shall I send some of my aerial combat pictures made over Paris in World War II?” I asked. “And some lovely candids of a beautiful American girl alone with the ‘Mona Lisa’?”

“No, my dear friend,” Albert said unhesitantly. “Our Paris collectors are more interested in your views of Cheecago, not Paris. They know Paris and wonder about Cheecago.”

We sold around half of the photos, and the orders are still trickling in – especially for my famous dorsal nude candid of Simone de Beauvoir, who was my friend Nelson Algren’s Cheecago girlfriend. The French press (in the form of a cover of Le Nouvel Observateur) and a New Yorker article about the picture helped sales to no end, so to speak.

(Ironically, my wonderful archivist Erica DeGlopper recently found several frontal nude bathroom pictures I had done of Simone but planned not to release until my death. Erica and my collection were honored by the Society of American Archivists in the May/June issue of Archival Outlook.)

As it happens, the redoubtable publisher Eric Vieljeux of 13^e Note Éditions (13th Note Editions) and I have a handshake deal for a small French book next year, telling the story behind my nude picture of the great philosopher and, according to Algren, lousy novelist. He reviewed her book “The Mandarins” (purportedly telling of their great Chicago love affair) in Harper’s and noted that the lady had invaded her own privacy.

“I’ve been in whorehouses all over the world, and even in the Far East they have the decency to pull down the blinds,” Algren observed.

(When Simone phoned Algren from France to berate him for his negative review, asking him if he hadn’t enjoyed their lovemaking as much as she, he replied, “Yes, but I wasn’t reviewing the fucking, I was reviewing the fucking book.”)

One of the rarer dishes on my table at the moment is a plan by Johnny Depp to film the Algren–de Beauvoir Chicago love story. Depp is considering casting his beautiful French wife, Vanessa Paradis, as Simone, and has hired the Swede Lasse Hallström as director. This is for 2011, with the film apparently to be shot in Chicago after Depp finishes yet another pirate movie. His agent avers that “Johnny will be in touch with you.”

(Hollywood has its own clock and calendar. In this connection my wife gave me Joseph Heller’s sadly humorous book on his adventures with the mañana-mouthed movie people who kept him on a 15-month series of tenterhooks even after he got his money.)

Depp’s agent has sent him my two books on Algren and has so far bought two of my Algren–de Beauvoir pictures, framed them, and given them to Depp for his birthday, reporting that the actor likes them.

So now, among my showbiz collectors, I can add Depp to rocker Billy Corgan; actors Jennifer Aniston, John Cusack and William Petersen; and my old friend, the late Marcel Marceau. Oh – and one of my favorite collectors and the writer of the forewords for two of my books: David Mamet. David says he’s cheered up when he comes down to his desk to work in the morning “and I see your picture of Maxwell Street at dawn hanging over my desk. I used to live there.” Recently David asked me for permission to use the same picture on the cover of his upcoming autobiography. He’s likened my pictures to the bums who used to tug at his sleeve.

I perhaps made a mistake joking with master jokester Mamet. I had helped him “collect” a World War II–era Kodak Retina III, the kind of camera Mamet owned and lost long ago. Periodically he’s sent me a snap or two to critique. Of one pretty good self-portrait of David in a mirror, I wrote back: “It’s fine, but don’t give up your day job.” No riposte came back, so I guess I’ll stick to photo criticism and lay off the humor.

Another of my favorite collectors – who collects bird pictures as well as my grungy Chicago views, and whose nickname is Birdman – took me to the recent Chicago Art Institute exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson. I thought it a great 500-picture display, but only a very few pictures filled me with a sense of joy. (In this area I much like the picture of two human strollers compositionally repeating the two statues on the background structure.) Albert Loeb, on his recent visit from Paris, told me, “I knew Bresson and I know you. He is such a cold man. Your pictures are much warmer and have great sympathy in them.”

Of course, Loeb himself is a gracious man of the arts and a friend. He attributes the warmth in my work to my being Jewish. Perhaps. I also attribute it to my visceral love of life and my understanding of death’s insistence. I learned that from flying 52 combat missions in my B-24, Sweet Sue, in World War II. And with the heartbreak that comes with having my oldest son, Harmon Shay, murdered at 21. And not even having his body returned from the Florida swamps, where he presumably perished in 1972. Florence and I have four spirited children: Richard Shay, Steve Shay and Lauren Shay Lavin are much-published photo-journalists; and our-daughter-the-lawyer, Jane Shay Wald, an intellectual-property attorney, was recently named by Super Lawyers magazine to their 2010 “Top 100 Lawyers” list for Southern California.

My wife, Florence, knows collecting better than I: She’s the proprietor of the world-renowned antiquarian bookstore Titles, Inc., in Highland Park, Ill. Florence’s collector-clients have included a Chicago Bear, a Chicago Bull, Billy Corgan, David Mamet, 11-time champion professional wrestler Bret the Hitman Hart, two unjailed Illinois governors and many others. She carried on (if that’s the phrase) a correspondence with Joseph Heller – one of her favorite authors – and so has an extensive collection of signed first editions of “Catch-22.”

One of the glories of selling to collectors is usually not having much of a clue to their likes … This week I’m pulling up some prints of Life magazine photos of society ladies Hula Hooping on Michigan Avenue in the sixties, as well as some prints for a prominent legal firm in Chicago collecting Chicagoana. They like my picture of the first Mayor Richard Daley exultant on a grandstand in front of City Hall, celebrating the 1957 Chicago White Sox pennant with his young son, now mayor of Chicago himself. My old friend and subject, Bill Veeck, owner of the Sox, is up there with the Daleys. It was Veeck who set off baseball’s first home-run fireworks. This helped light the night sky for my first Sports Illustrated cover, on July 4, 1960. (Attention baseball collectors: Someplace in Veeck’s estate my print must still exist – autographed by Minnie Miñoso, who hit the homer that precipitated the fireworks. But not, alas, by me.)

I didn’t become aware that people were collecting my photos until years later when one of my first collectors, a Chicago restaurateur, bought my picture of Muhammad Ali (still Cassius Clay at that time) knocking out Alex Miteff in Louisville in 1961. The restaurateur gave it to his then-partner, Michael Jordan, for the “Celebrities Room” at their ill-fated LaSalle Street restaurant. I heard Jordan praise my picture on his wall on opening night. Michael had gotten Ali to autograph the print next to my proud signature. I’m sure it’ll turn up in some collection one far-off day – possibly in the house of one of Jordan’s handsome, smart, sports-savvy children.

My royalty check from – bless ’em – Time Inc. this month includes payment for my famous picture of Ray Kroc in the sixties, eating a hamburger in front of his first McDonald’s, in Des Plaines, Ill. (My gallery has a one-off 4 x 5-foot framed copy of the Kroc photo that cost me $900 to frame. My gallery man, Paul, aims to approach McDonald’s about buying the print: better on their wall than on mine.) The same check covers photos of Arnold Palmer winning the 1960 Masters, some Teamsters picketers, the 108-year-old last survivor of the Civil War (from the Union side) and Dolly Parton.

Time Inc.’s picture choices have always been enigmatic. Now these secondary-use sales are further funneled through Getty Images. Last year a friend of mine at the photo agency Polaris Images discovered that a New York hotel chain was using my dorsal nude of Simone to illustrate their dinner menu. The chain came up with a considerable sum for an out-of-court settlement. The hotel admen apparently thought I wouldn’t care or was dead.

Hell, I’m only 88!

Incidentally, I’ve had photos on more than 1,000 covers of all kinds, from Ford Motor Company and 3M annual reports to magazines like Time, Life, Fortune, the Sunday New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated to all the covers on the 50+ books I’ve published. (Heck, it wasn’t a cover, but four years ago the New York Times Magazine ran six of the pictures I did of my own heart surgery- shot before I went “under” – as their back-page “Lives” feature. They even used a picture of Florence.)

Two of my plays have been produced professionally: “A Clock for Nikita” in 1963 and “Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Stewart?” four years ago. (Stewart was my Air Force squadron commander, though I didn’t fly with him. “Nikita” was about a creative Russian who designed an alarm clock that played Tchaikovsky and woke the workers up happy … and what happens to a free spirit in a closed society …)

I can’t decide whether to send Johnny Depp’s agent, the ebullient Tracey Jacobs, two of my unproduced attempts at a play about the great Nelson-Simone love affair. She might advise me not to give up my day job.

[Show as slideshow]

All Art Shay photographs copyright (c) Art Shay and used with the kind permission of the photographer

.

• Chicago and beyond: Art Shay photo exhibition features 60 years of unforgettable moments | December 17, 2010

Read comments > 4 Comments

Collector spotlight: Marc Blau

Massachusetts congressman Thomas “Tip” O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local,” to which I’d add: “The same goes for history.”

Of course, the writers of school textbooks tend to take a “macro” view of history, concentrating on wars and revolutions, sweeping social movements and worldwide economic changes, rather than how average people live their lives. That’s to be expected, given curriculum requirements and limited class time. And while it’s understandable that many collectors also focus on famous people and the events and trends they’re associated with, I think it’s good to remember that history’s “movers and shakers,” just like the rest of us, all come from someplace small – a neighborhood, a town, a city, a district – where regular folks work and play, go to school and go off to war, raise food and raise families … That’s all part of history too.

For this reason, I think “local” and “regional” collectors, like local and regional museums, perform a really important service: Because of their focus, their “micro” approach to collecting, they preserve artifacts of their areas’ heritage that might otherwise be lost. Call them grassroots chroniclers or hometown Homers, to me it’s the local librarians, researchers, archivists, museum curators and, yes, collectors who do some of the most vital work in saving our history.

One such person is Marc Blau. Born and raised in Tacoma’s North End, Marc is a graduate of Stadium High School and the University of Washington (where he earned a B.A. in recreational planning and administration) who worked for Pierce County Parks & Recreation for 31 years (retiring in 2004), managed Sprinker Recreation Center and the Lakewood Community Center and is now a sales associate for Winning Seasons, a screen print and embroidery business in Lakewood.

But that’s not all: A sports enthusiast par excellence (French for “big-time”), Marc has long served on the Tacoma Athletic Commission (www.TacomaAthletic.com), which includes chairing the Tacoma–Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame; he’s co-founder and president of the Shanaman Sports Museum of Tacoma–Pierce County (www.TacomaSportsMuseum.com), located inside Tacoma Dome; he’s MC and co-chair of the Tacoma–Pierce County Baseball-Softball Oldtimers Association (www.OldtimerBaseball.com); and he’s assistant executive director of the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame (www.WashingtonSportsHOF.com).

But wait: There’s more! Marc also co-authored (with Caroline Gallacci and Doug McArthur) a FANTASTIC 512-page hardcover book, “Playground to the Pros: An Illustrated History of Sports in Tacoma–Pierce County” (University of Washington Press, 2005), an unforgettable look at some 40 different sports played in the county: football, baseball, basketball and hockey, to be sure, but also boxing, bowling and golf, auto racing, boat racing, horse racing – even horseshoes and soapbox derbies. It’s jam-packed with great photos, and I guarantee that if you leave it in place sight when your friends are around, they are going to be all over it.

As you have probably guessed, Marc is collector of Tacoma and Pierce County sports memorabilia in addition to being a bona fide historian – my favorite kind of collector. Here’s what he told me about his interests:

AmeriCollector: How did you get started?

Marc: I started collecting back in 1984 when I came across some of my Bank of Washington cards of the Tacoma Giants and thought it would be fun to track down some other items related to the Giants, such as a T-Giants bobbin’ head doll and some old programs. I started tracking down former players, batboys, announcers, front office staff and ushers and things just mushroomed. I decided to collect all Tacoma-related items from their Pacific Coast League days and then started going backwards and learning more about when the Tacoma Tigers played in the Western International League from 1937 to 1951. Pretty soon I was tracking down photos and other artifacts back to the late 1880s. And then I started progressing into just about any sport in Tacoma–Pierce County. That is what led to the Sports Museum, which is located at the Tacoma Dome. My collection includes uniforms, stadium seats, autographed baseballs, bats, caps, jackets, trophies, tickets, schedules and much more. I do enjoy occasional items related to the San Francisco Giants and Pacific Coast League teams prior to 1958.

AC: What do you enjoy about collecting Pierce County sports-related items? How do you build your collection?

Marc: I enjoy the stories behind the artifacts, so most of what I have has come from players or family members, and there is a story behind each item. I used to attend shows, but no longer, and I rarely visit shops. I do participate in auctions on an occasional basis, but most of what I find is through friends, networking relationships and dumb luck.

AC: Is there a “holy grail” that you’re trying to find?

Marc: That’s pretty easy: a 1960s grey flannel Tacoma Giants jersey with “Tacoma” emblazoned across the front.

AC: What would you say is the highlight of your collection?

Marc: When the Phoenix Giants moved to Tacoma in 1960 and the Tacoma Giants played from 1960 to 1965, I became a diehard Giants fan and Dusty Rhodes was my hero. He hit something like 26 home runs in 1961 when the Giants won the PCL pennant, and I thought Dusty was destined to make the jump the following season to the big leagues. Heck, how was I to know, as a 10-year-old, that he was on his way DOWN, not UP, and that he had already enjoyed his glory days in the major leagues and World Series?

When I starting collecting, I was bound and determined to meet Dusty and I was fortunate enough to track him down in Boca Raton, Fla. I wrote him a letter and one night at the dinner table I got a call and the guy on the other end said, with a southern drawl, “Hi, Marc, this is Dusty!” It took me a few seconds to figure out who in the heck Dusty was. We had a great conversation and continued to keep in touch.

When Dusty moved to Henderson, Nev., we made a point of going to Las Vegas so I called and asked him if we could meet up. He was more than gracious about doing so, and when he walked in the Mirage Hotel I recognized him immediately. We spent two hours talking (well, he talked and I listened), and he was a heck of a storyteller. I was in heaven and got him to sign a few things for me, and then I gave him some photos and programs to keep from when he played in Tacoma. And, of course, I had a photo taken. I have my Dusty Rhodes bat on my Polo Grounds seat with a New York Giants jersey draped over it – a reminder of his glory years with the Giants.

Not many people can say they actually got to meet their hero? I count myself as one of the lucky ones.

AC: Any advice for other collectors of sports memorabilia?

Marc: Have fun, don’t be obsessed and don’t collect for investment purposes. Not everyone will agree with that assessment, but that is my personal mantra.

[Show as slideshow]

Images courtesy of Marc Blau.

Still agonizing over what to get Dad for Father’s Day?“Playgrounds To The Pros: An Illustrated History Of Sports In Tacoma-Pierce County” makes a great gift! Order it from Amazon.com for $39.95 or from the Shanaman Sports Museum for $46, which includes shipping and helps support the museum – a great place to visit for sports buffs. To purchase, go to www.tacomasportsmuseum.com and click on “Playground to the Pros” at the top.

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.

Comic Evolution:
Art for the ages – ALL ages!

Chuck Messinger did something I really admire: He ditched a 15-year career in business manager to follow his heart, opening Comic Evolution in Puyallup in 2007. A comic book collector since 1983, Chuck stocks a plethora of new and vintage comic books, graphic novels, computer games, limited-edition and original artwork, books – even family-friendly board games, dolls, toys and lunchboxes. Comic Evolution was also one of the sponsors of and exhibitors at the Eighth Annual Emerald City ComiCon (www.emeraldcitycomicon.com), held last weekend at the Washington State Convention Center.

What’s more, Chuck and his associates have ventured into the wild world of publishing, having just announced the founding of Creator’s Edge Press, (www.creatorsedgepress.com) “a new venue for up-and-coming writers, artists and creative minds … with a singular vision: keeping independent comics independent.”

Chuck takes pains not only to offer varied, quality stock and to organize it effectively in the store but to have access to great material for both the novice and the advanced collector.

Having been a comic book enthusiast in my youth – I was particularly passionate of horror comics like “Creepy” and “Eerie,” some of which featured original cover art by the incomparable Frank Frazetta – I had lots of questions for Chuck, about Emerald City ComiCon (ECCC) and comic book collecting in general …

AmeriCollector: Comic Evolution sponsored or co-sponsored seven exhibiting artists/writers/creators at ECCC this year: Mike Norton, Tim Seeley, Nathan Fox, Khary Randolph, Chris Burnham, Jenny Frison and Scott Allie. Can you tell us a little about them?

Chuck: Thanks to my partner Paolo at Cadence Comic Art (www.cadencecomicart.com), we were blessed with a wide variety of artists representing multiple companies and styles. We had writers, interior artists, cartoon designers, game illustrators, cover artists, editors and publishers, all at our booth. I could get into their individual credentials but I think the above statement sums it up best. We truly had the best of the best at our booth this year.

AC: In 2007 you did what a lot of collectors fantasize about: made your passion into a business – and in Puyallup, no less. How did that come about?

Chuck: I was the unfortunate victim of corporate downsizing with my prior company. I had told my daughter in her youth that I would someday pay for her college with my comic collection. I don’t know that I ever saw myself as a retailer; I think my “packrat mentality” just made it really easy to open a store with what I had. Being close to home for a change was my driving motivation.

AC: What kind of material does Comic Evolution carry? Do you sell original art as well?

Chuck: We have the largest variety of affordable old comic books, graphic novels and new-release books in the area. We also pride ourselves on promotion of local and independent artists. We have more than 300 pieces of original art and lithographs on our walls – another thing that I think sets us apart from the rest.

AC: How did you get interested in comic books?

Chuck: My 14th birthday, my friend Jed exposed me to books with pictures. Up to that date I was quite the bibliophile, with an impressive book collection. Jed, you are responsible!

AC: How much have comic books changed over the years?

Chuck: The old standbys are really the same. The nice thing about the current market is there is plenty of room for independent innovative properties. The majority of the properties you see getting optioned for films and other mediums are original ideas from independent thinkers.

AC: What’s the difference between comic books and “graphic novels”?

Chuck: A comic book is essentially a “serialized” graphic novel. With few exceptions, graphic novels are typically reprints of individual books in a series. Some properties go straight to graphic novel if the story is best told in one reading.

AC: Are hard-copy comic books – like other printed media, such as books and newspapers – becoming obsolete?

Chuck: My business is still booming. I think with the digital age of comics it is just exposing new readers to the industry. You just can’t beat the smell of the paper.

AC: People talk about the “value” (i.e., the prices) of comic books as “investments” dropping in recent years. How would you advise a novice collector to get started? Do you encourage buying comic books as investments?

Chuck: You certainly can make good investments in comics, but your choices in new comics are few and far between. Most comics are printed in such a high print run that everyone has them. I recommend to those investing in comics either focus on highly collectible variant issues or stick with “Golden Age” (late 1930s to late 1940s) and “Silver Age” (mid-1950s to about 1970) books. Some independent labels will produce books in smaller print runs that can make them desirable as well.

AC: What are the popular collecting categories among your customers?

Chuck: I have focused my inventory mostly on affordable reader copies of the older books, meaning they may not be in perfect condition. With the economy where it is, people want to spend less for more. Selling someone their first “Fantastic Four #1” for an affordable rate is more satisfying for me as a retailer than to have a $5,000-plus book taking up space.

AC: Do you ever have industry guests at your shop for meet-and-greets and signings?

Chuck: The last two years we have had more artists and writers than I can count. We have been extremely supportive of all aspects of the industry. Moving forward we are focusing much of our attention in store on aspiring artists and writers through our Penman’s Guild group. We want to be responsible for the next generation of talent in the industry.

Images courtesy of Chuck Messinger.

[Show as slideshow]

Comic Evolution is located at 206 S. Meridian, Puyallup, WA 98371; reach them by phone at (253) 770-6464. www.comic-evolution.com

Read comments > Got chutzpah? Be the first.