This year The White House has 26 Christmas trees. One of them is made of cardboard. Not just any cardboard, but recycled cardboard made into a Wish Tree. Who made this cardboard wish tree? My friends at Cardboardesign in New York City.
Cardboard Wish Tree at The White House by Cardboardesign mfg. & design
I spoke with David Rosenzweig, sales and marketing director at Cardboardesign to get the skinny on the tree. So how did it come about? Something like this: The White House (pardon the metonymy) decided to do a Green Christmas. White house social secretary Desiree Rogers knows design superstar Simon Doonan (be still my heart - Doonan is one of my heroes.) Doonan was hired to oversee the Christmas decor and design at the White House. Doonan knows David Rosenzweig, marketing director of Cardboardesign. Et Voila. Doonan asked Cardboardesign to make a special order Christmas wish tree. A picture of the tree in use will follow, as soon as I get one.
Last Tuesday Mrs. Obama and Sasha and Malia did a presentation at
The Children's National Medical Center, and when someone asked about
the trees at the White House, here's what they said:
SASHA: What about the wishing tree?
MRS. OBAMA: Well, there's one -- you want to talk about the wishing tree, one of the trees?
SASHA: One of the trees is called the wishing tree, and it is made
out of cardboard. And so you can write down a wish and you roll it up
and then you can put it one of the holes and it might come true.
MRS. OBAMA: So that's a new tradition at the White House. So what
we want you all to do next year is to come to the White House, because
you can see all of them. It's open to anybody who wants to come. (Bo
barks.) You, too. (Laughter.)
All right, you promise me that next year you'll come by the White House and see for yourself? Okay.
The tree and the rest of the White House Christmas decor will be on HGTV on Christmas Eve, or you could probably find it at the HGTV website after the broadcast. Some of the crew from Cardboardesign will be in the film, so be sure to check it out.
When Oprah Winfrey interviewed President and Michelle Obama on December 13, she asked the First Lady what had been her favorite Christmas gift as a child. Mrs. Obama said it was a tin dollhouse with plastic furniture.
Hello! I have four of them in the store, and several times each day customers tell me what fond memories they have of their childhood tin houses.
Pressed Tin Dollhouse by Marx Toys. Circa 1950's. PSAW collections.
Not all pressed tin dollhouses were made by Marx Toys but many were. Mine were. Louis Marx was a hugely successful toy manufacturer, who started his company in 1919. A German Jewish New Yorker, he went into business with his brother David with the company slogan "Give the customer more toy for less money."
The dollhouses weren't the major part of the Marx inventory, but for many women of a certain age, and no doubt some men as well, they are the products we remember best.
Metal Dollhouse Box, "completely furnished with unbreakable plastic furniture"
These houses are now highly collectible. When I started my collection I could pick them up at yard sales for a few dollars. Now they sell on eBay and Ruby Lane from about $75 to $300, depending on their condition, scarcity, and how much of the plastic furniture is left.
Modern Colonial Metal Doll House by Louis Marx & Co.
I know of several photographers who use the dollhouses as backdrops for rather bizarre doll antics. I don't have access to those pictures at the moment, but I might at some point. Meanwhile, here are some relatively non bizarre interior photos.
Marx tin dollhouse , furnished bedroom. Photo courtesy Michael and Sharon of www.yearsafter.com (a Ruby Lane shop) This house is sold.
Same dollhouse, this one is mine. Check out the logs in the fireplace.
Marx tin dollhouse Living Room with furniture. Photo courtesy of Sharon and Michael from www.yearsafter.com
Marx tin dollhouse, living room with white statue. Photo and statue by Liza Cowan.
Marx tin dollhouse. Micky Mouse kid's room. The Micky Mouse makes this one of the rarer and more expensive of the Marx series. PSAW collections.
So, if you are at a yard sale and see one of these houses for a reasonable amount of money, and if you can afford it, and if you love it, buy it. These things are not going to go down in value and they are great to have around.
Paint By Number, the craze of the 1950's, swept the nation in the era of Eisenhower, Levittown, post war prosperity and a post war concept of leisure time.
Paint By Number, Paris In The Rain
Most of the Paint By Number sets of the fifties and early sixties depicted nostalgic scenes, historic and pastoral landscapes, adorable or noble animals, sentimental glimpses of "exotic" cultures as well as copies from the canon of romanticized European figurative art. Critics at the time were disgusted with the mechanized mass produced nostalgia.
Paint By Number, Mona Lisa
But now, with our vantage point from the 21st Century, these vernacular, anonymous painting have acquired the patina of age and distance. Have they have acquired the aura that Walter Benjamin wrote about in his famous 1935 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Or are we just nostalgic for the more innocent nostalgia of the 50's. Are we caught up in second or third order nostalgia. Probably both.
Paint By Number, original box, Craftint color set. Photo Liza Cowan
In August 2007, Pine Street Art Works held an exhibition of over 100 Paint By Number paintings. It took months to acquire them, mostly on eBay. In addition to enjoying the paintings, I was fascinated by the subversive allure - the tension created between the pleasure of viewing the work, and the original and ongoing horrified responses by the gatekeepers of High Culture.
Paint By Number, Exhibition at Pine Street Art Works. Postcard design Liza Cowan. Paint by Number set based on a painting by Norman Rockwell.
Although Paint By Number has been the subject of a show at the Smithsonian (as well as here at PSAW) and show up regularly in design magazines and blogs, there is still the vacillating response: are we allowed the pleasure we get from looking at, or making, these paintings?
Mad Magazine, September 1958, spoofed the craze with a PBN of Alfred E. Newman. PSAW ephemera collections.
Paint By Number, Farm By The River.
Paint By Number, Bullfighter
Paint By Number exhibition at Pine Street Art Works. August 2007
All the paintings in this post were in the 2007 exhibit. All are sold.
Do you love PBN? Leave a comment and tell me about it.
Walter Foster ran his How To Draw empire from his home in California in the 1950's. I came across a stash of his older books at a yard sale several years ago and was impressed not only by the clarity of the instructions but also by the beauty of the illustrations. This book is Figures From Life, with art by Robert Duflos.
Figures From Life, Robert Duflos and Walter Foster
Duflos was an early to mid 20th Century French decorative painter, whose pastel nudes command modest prices at auction these days. He is probably most famous for his work with the Walter Foster Series.
It's not high art, but that's what always intrigues me - work that straddles the barriers of high and low. As always, it's the distance of time that allows us to view things that were once quotidian, low art, populist art, in a new light. That's why I -and I'm not alone - have been obsessed with Paint By Number paintings.
Figures From Life, p.4 Walter Foster, Robert Denos
I mean, Foster just breaks it down for you. Draw this kind of line, use this kind of brush. The thing is, the illustrations with the instructions are far more interesting and, to me, visually pleasing, than the plain originals.
Figures From Life, Walter Foster, Robert Denos p. 6
Text on this page: "The more you know about drawing the easier these step sketches will be for ou, as well as the finished picture. You can do it in Oils, Water Colors or Pastels, whichever you have on hand or just sketch in with pencil for practice. The side view like this is good to start on. You can make the figure more slender or lengthen the legs if you want. The original to most of Mr. Duflos' paintings which are in Oils are twice the size you see them here. Study carefully and take your time."
With four illustrations breaking it down for you, this page has visual punch.
Robert Denos painting from Figures From Life. Page 7
Whereas this painting is a bit, well, dull. I mean, this guy was living in France at the same time as Picasso and Matisse. There's nothing at all exciting about the color, the composition, the point of view. This was not a problem at all for publisher Walter Foster, in fact it probably helped. How you gonna break down a Matisse? I've tried and it's a lot harder that it looks. That's what's so wonderful about Matisse. Looks simple but the experience, vision and practice that went into that beautiful line is something hard to do. Here's what Foster said in his introduction:
"No one starts out in art much ahead of the next fellow and you will get ahead much faster if you do not try to rest on the fact that your folks thing you are a Michelangelo of the 20th Century. Just be yourself and get pleasure out of your drawing and painting. Join an art class, evening or day, or start one. The meeting of kindred souls is very good, yes, a wonderful tonic"
I love that. A tonic. Indeed.
"As you can see by by Robert Duflos' painting, not all Frenchmen in Paris have gone so-called Modern. I wanted Robert to do this entire book and to have the directions in French and English, but the language barrier seemed to have stopped that idea, even between the two of us, so another beautiful dream became a cropper so you will find many of my drawings also in this book."
Figures From Life, Robert Duflos and Walter Foster p.26
This is my favorite picture in the book. It's so unclear if the brushes are part of the picture: is an invisible hand painting the actual model, since they are represented in the same medium...or are we supposed to pull ourselves out of that imaginary plane and recognize that we, the viewer or student, is the one holding the brush against a drawing of the model. It's a drawing of a drawing with drawings of the studio equipment drawn onto it. Divine.
You can find vintage Walter Foster books on eBay or Ruby Lane at reasonable prices. Or, if you are lucky, you might run across some at a yard sale.
I recently came into a rather large stash of Photoplay Magazines from the 1950's. I have them for sale at PSAW for five bucks apiece but since most of my readers don't live nearby, here's some eye candy for you.
Doris Day, Photoplay Magazine Oct. 1955
Jane Powell, April 1952, Photoplay Magazine
Ann Blyth, January 1956, Photoplay Magazine
Esther Williams, August 1952 Photoplay Magazine
Jane Powell, July 1955, Photoplay Magazine
Betty Grable, July 1952, Photoplay Magazine.
Grace Kelly, April 1956, Photoplay Magazine
Grace Kelly, A Prince Catches A Star, Photoplay Magazine 1956
As we spend Thanksgiving Day, each according to their custom or ability, let us remember that the whole Thanksgiving story is a big lie.
I fully intend to enjoy a day of good food and good company, but I do believe Thanksgiving is like Seder in mirror image. Instead of celebrating and retelling the story of escape and freedom, Thanksgiving is a celebration of the lies that covers up the brutal power struggle between Native Americans and European Puritan Christian Fundamentalists.
You probably already knew that Thanksgiving is a politically motivated myth, but if you want to read more, here is a good essay:
Time to set the table. Holiday festivities are coming up, and then there's just plain every day gorgeousness. Check out what we've got for your table.
Here's what's on the table: Jello Placemats, made by Flashbags for Pine Street Art Works. Goblets by AO! Glass. Vase by AO! Glass. Mid century condiment bowls. Boxed sets of stationery as guest gift.
In the background: Ginny Joyner food illustration prints, mid century botanical school charts.
Also available for you table: Shinzi Katoh tea pots, Liquid Cardboard tabletop sculpture, more mid century vases and dishes, pottery from Paige Russell.
I was looking through some of my old magazines the other day and came across two items on really big photographs. The first comes from Collier's, January 9th, 1904. That was the year the Russo-Japanese war began, foretold by the cover Collier's headline, "The Russo-Japanese Crisis". It was the year The United States gained control of the Panama Canal. That year British troops invaded Tibet and Longacre Square in New York City was renamed Times Square. It was the year of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair (Meet Me In St. Louis) and it was the year the first subway opened in New York City. Cary Grant was born that year. And it was a BIG year for photography, if size matters.
Text: "A photograph 40 feet long and nearly 5 feet high, which has just been completed in Italy, will be exhibited at St. Louis this summer. It is a picture of the Gulf of Naples, and the negatives were taken from the highest point available near that city, on the Castle San Marino, showing a view of Vesuvius and the sea. Each separate negative of the many which go to make up the entire picture, measures 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches. They all fit end to end, thus showing a continuous panorama."
Sliding the photograph into the toning and fixing bath.
"From these negatives enlargements were made 6 feet long and 5 feet high. the joining of the several parts, although very difficult, has been most cleverly done, so that the junctures are hardly discernible, even to experts. To develop the negatives a wheel was constructed some 12 feet in diameter and 6 feet wide, with a circumference of about 40 feet."
Washing off the fixing solution.
"Three separate tanks were used fo holding the developing fluid. the tank for fixing was 45 feet long by 7 feet wide and tree feet deep. The entire operation of developing was carried on in the open air during a dark night. In order to restrain local development liquid was poured upon certain portions of the negatives from a hose, while other parts which required forcing were treated with a sponge filled with developer. Eight hours were required for washing the photographs in running water and ten hours for drying. Little retouching was necessary."
Adding the finishing touches to the completed print.
In a moment of random coincidence, the next magazine I picked up, Calling All Girls, from June 1944, contained this ad:
Calling All Girls, June 1944. Ad for Bell Telephone System
"Imagine a camera so big the photographer must work inside, using a loudspeaker telephone to give directions to his assistants outside. Largest of its kind in the United States, this camera can turn out negatives six feet long and tree and a half feet wide - as many as 800 a day. It copies valuable tracings of research drawings by telephone scientists. Another example of one of the many ways the Bell Telephone Laboratories is helping to speed new developments in the dependable communications equipment for our armed forces."
I wonder what they were really used for. If anyone knows, please leave a note.
So the 1904 photograph was really the world's largest print, but not the world's largest negative. Made, one supposes, for entertainment but not for war, it didn't really matter that it was so time consuming and difficult. All part of the thrill.
It turns out that the world's largest photograph to date was made in 2007 Irvine California by The Legacy Project using a variation of a pinhole camera obscura. Check out the Legacy Project website. It's fascinating.
Camera Obscura and pinhole cameras have been used since antiquity, although the early versions did not fix the image on a surface. In the 2007 photograph was taken in converted airplane hangar, turned into a camera obscura, by opening a gumball sized hole in the wall.
The Legacy Project photograph.
The image from the hole projected onto a light sensitive fabric the length of one third of a football field and three stories tall. 60 volunteers developed the image by moving the fabric into an enormous 1 foot deep tray.
Well, it sounds a bit like the 1904 operation after all.
William Steig, author, cartoonist, illustrator, famous for Shrek, Dr. DeSoto, Sylvester and The Magic Pebble, zillions of New Yorker Covers, and a reluctant advertising illustrator, was also the creator of my favorite doll: Poor Pitiful Pearl. Pearl was my first and my only true doll love. She was made in 1958, and stayed in production in various incarnations throughout the sixties. A couple of years ago I was putting together an exhibit of 20th Century Posters and Works on Paper, and had just purchased this poster:
Wm Steig, We Clean 'Em. Shell Oil, 1944. Collection of Pine Street Art Works.
This gorgeous, huge lithograph was made for Shell Oil in 1944. As I was researching the poster and Steig I came across the fact that Poor Pitiful Pearl was a Steig creation. Of course! But I hadn't realized it as a kid, even though our family subscription to The New Yorker was a favorite of mine, and I poured through it weekly looking at the cartoons.
William Steig, The New Yorker, 1935. Pine Street Art Works ephemera collections,
We had enough New Yorker magazines and New Yorker cartoon collections around the house that I could have been, should have been was familiar enough with the Steig canon to have been able recognize his style on my darling doll. But I didn't. The New Yorker...dolls? Nuh uh.
Poor Pitiful Pearl and We Clean 'Em. Not to scale. I made this collage in Photoshop. Pearl is much smaller than the man in the poster.
But check this out. How much more alike could they be? Even the clothing matches.
Pearl even came with her own little Steig book:
Click the smaller images and they will pop up.
Poor Pitiful Pearl booklet by William Steig. PSAW ephemera collections.
The We Clean 'Em poster is for sale through Pine Street Art Works. It is linen backed and in perfect condition.
My Pearl is not for sale, no matter how many ladies of a certain age come in and beg for her.
Do you love Pearl or Wm. Steig? I welcome all your comments. I answer 'em too.
Writing letters to people I admired became a kind of habit for me in my young, pre computer, pre-internet years. While I sometimes wrote to elected officials about pressing issues, mostly I was consumed with pop culture and the fuzzy boundaries of pop culture and fine art. Hmmm...guess I haven't changed much.
The great thing about writing letters to people, unlike sending emails, is that sometimes they write back. And you have a genuine piece of history in your hands. There's just nothing that exciting about saving a print out of an email, but a letter on someone's stationery: a thrill and an artifact.
In this example, I didn't actually write to Lily Tomlin - she wrote me me in a response to a review I review I wrote in the New York City newspaper, The Village Voice.
Lily had been on the TV Show Laugh In since 1969. I was a big fan of Lily and Laugh In. In 1973 I was writing occasional free lance reviews for The Village Voice, and seized the opportunity to see her one woman show in NY at The Bitter End. I was smitten.
Review of Lily Tomlin at The Bitter End, February 1, 1973
"Last night I saw Lily Tomlin at The Bitter End. She was so wonderful that I haven't stopped thinking about her. Every so often she stands back, looks calmly at the audience, then move on. She's in perfect control. At one point she fell down on the floor and lay there for a few minutes saying nothing, just looking at us, then said, "I see you're all still in your seats.""Part of her beauty is that she's not afraid to make herself look ugly, to identify herself with the most grotesque characters: she's an an aging beauty expert, mouth falling down into her chin, who reveals her secret beauty regime; she's Ernestine, the pushy switchboard operator from Ma Bell who contorts her face and body...She's a a gum snapping 1950's teenager at a dance talking to her girlfriend waiting to ba asked to dance; she's an alcoholic ex-rubber addict whose habit grew from pencil erasers to doorstops and rubber mats; she's a woman waiting on line at a redemption center watching another woman try to return a used cookie jar. Her characters remind me of diane Arbus Photographs."
Lily Tomlin. The publicity picture she gave me at the show. "Nobody likes a pushy woman. Keep pushing! To Liza and Alix. Love from Lily." Alix is the singer Alix Dobkin, my partner at the time. Alix has recently published her memoir My Red Blood, which includes fascinating stories about singing in the folk clubs, including The Bitter End, in Greenwich Village in the sixties.
Seeing Lily in person, in the intimate club atmosphere of The Bitter Endwas exciting enough. The fact that she took the time to write to me was even better. And look how the piece of mail had to travel to find me:
click on a smaller image and it will enlarge
"Dear Liza, did I ever write and tell you how amazed I was that you would mention Diane Arbus and me in the same paragraph? It was a comparison I was very happy about. And flattered. And I had been telling someone just that night before your piece came out how I felt I was doing something similar in my approach to whatever it was I was doing. And since you were the first and only person besides me to make that observation and I think is is a good and interesting one, I want to mention the use of it in a piece done on me in "The New York Times" and tell you that we are on a couple of the same wave lengths. Love, Lily"
So my advice is not that you should write reviews, although you might, but to take the time to write a real letter, on real paper to the people you admire. One, they will appreciate it. Two, you never know what you will get back.
Next time I will show you letters I got back from Bea Arthur and from Lorenzo Music from the show, Rhoda, after I wrote to them. And you know I'm kicking myself for never writing to Soupy Sales.
Remember back in the day before the internet, before personal computers? Today we click a link and we've sent a letter to our congresspeople, signed a petition, joined a fan club. But then we wrote letters. At least, I did.
I used to write to my Senators about matters of policy. But mostly I wrote to my favorite authors, entertainers and TV shows. I also used to make phone calls before people worried about stalkers. That's how I got to be friends with Andy Warhol when I was in 11th grade, in 1966. But that's another story.
I have managed to hang on to several of the responses I got to my letters. Back in those pre internet days, it was rare to have copy machine so we relied on carbon paper. If I made carbons of the letters I don't have them.
Like many people of my generation, I was opposed to the War in Vietnam. I was, and am, opposed to war in general, but that was the conflict of the era and I wanted some answers. I was three weeks shy of sixteen years old and nearing the end of tenth grade when I wrote a letter to my Senator, Robert F. Kennedy. Here is his hand typed and, I believe, hand signed reply:
Letter from Robert F. Kennedy to Liza Cowan May 6th 1965.
Dear Miss Cowan,
Thank you for letting me know your views on Vietnam. I share your deep concern about our involvement there, and I have enclosed a statement which summarizes my views about it.
The situation becomes more serious with each passing day, and I can assure you that I have been in close and constant contact with other Senators and with members of the Executive Branch regarding an effort to develop a strategy for peace in that troubled part of the word -- how we can end the fighting as soon as possible in a way which brings world stability and a lasting and honorable peace. This is a delicate and difficult task.
I hope I have not delayed unduly in replying to your thoughtful views. I valued having them and I hpe to hear from you again as the months pass.sincerely
Robert F. Kennedy
Kennedy died in March 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
Here are some random shots of new and old things we have at PSAW today:
Just in from TMNK, Art Is My Weapon T-Shirts in a variety of sizes.
Very cool and fun French Script clipboards from Timeworks, Inc. Clock Company. I also carry the American Baseball one. @ $12.75 this will be a great holiday present.
Always popular, The Magnet Frame from Canetti. 5x7, these pure acrylic frames open and close like a dream, held by tiny powerful magnets. @ $28. Photos in the frames are by me, Liza Cowan, except the one of two old fashioned girls who are my grandmother Lena Straus Spiegel and her sister Hettie.
Random button and beads. The Lampwork beads are by Madelyn Erb, Mad Glass Beads.
Monopoly pieces.
The cozy new electric fireplace. On top: Tea cup print by Ginny Joyner, real teacup and teapot by Shinzi Katoh, fine art laminated mid 20th Century ads.
These illustrations from the Borden Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk Recipe book, New Magic In The Kitchen, are too...sweet...to ignore.
The Borden Company, Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk. Gail Bordon patented his invention for making condensed milk in 1856 and his company was first manufacturer of condensed milk.
The illustrations for the recipe booklet are by Merritt Cutler. Published probably in the 1930's before 1938 when Elsie the Cow became the spokesbovine for the Borden Company.
Here's what a 1960 ad for Strathmore Paper had to say about Merritt
"Merritt Cutler graduated from Pratt Institute into a noteworthy career as art director in leading advertising agencies. In 1942 he enlisted as a Captain in the Army Engineers Corps. He formed and directed the department at Ft. Belvoir which turned out the Camouflage Training Aids and Manuals."
I sure would love to see those!
"The
free-lancing which Mr. Cutler has been doing since, includes two text
books on scratch board techniques, book illustrations, advertisement and
package design.
Ad for Strathmore Artist Paper, American Artist , April 1960
Rice Pudding, Merritt Cutler, p. 45 New Magic In The Kitchen
Lemon Pie, Merritt Cutler, p. 41, New Magic In The Kitchen
Hot Chocolate, Merrit Cutler, p. 28, New Magic In The Kitchen
Orange-Lemon Frosting. Merritt Cutler, p. 29 New Kitchen Magic
Cornmeal Muffins, Merritt Cutler, p. 12, New Magic In the Kitchen
All these images are in the Pine Street Art Works Ephemera Collections and are available at Pine Street Art Works as limited edition place mats by Flashbags.
I almost never reprint posts from other websites but this one was too cool not to. And isn't it Harry Potter-esque the way the pictures move here in a sea of text?
This concoction is from a very cool website on vernacular photography: SQUARE AMERICA Do hop over and check it out.
You know we have a huge passion for photobooth pictures here. A couple of years ago we had American Photobooth, a show by Näkki Goranin. Näkki's book sets the standard for the history of Photobooths, with hundreds of fascinating images and thoroughly researched text. So check that out too.
When I was in high school in the 1960's I'd rush home every day to watch Soupy Sales on TV. Although it was supposed to be a kid's show, he never failed to crack me up. This was a show that was oustide the box, or maybe completely inside the box, since Soupy and crew keep the viewer fully aware of all the shennanigans that were happening off camera in the studio.
Not since Kukla Fran and Ollie had any kids show been so dopey and so sophisticated at the same time. Too young to get these references? Think of Pee Wee Herman, live, in black and white, in a barely equipped studio, some rikkity hand made props and a camera operator and a couple of co workers audibly egging him on. Then watch out for the pie in the face.
At school dances my bohemian friends and I would do Soupy's dance, The Mouse. In the hallway between classes we'd do endless imitations of Soupy's mostly unseen puppet friends, White Fang and Black Tooth, who had to have been, Rut Roh, the grandparents of Scooby Doo. I clipped articles on Soupy and put them in my journals, which were otherwise filled with fragments of poetry from Ferlinghetti or Ginsberg, or pictures of John Lennon.
Here it is, still taped into my journal from 1965. Love In The Afternoon by David Newman and Robert Benton. New York Herald Tribune, January 24, 1965. Two years later Benton and Newman became famous for writing the screenplay for Bonnie & Clyde, followed by What's Up Doc? Benton wroteKramer vs. Kramer, Places In The Heart and many other iconic American films.
"He has a camera and a floor crew that laughs and hoo-haws loudly on the set. He makes cracks at them, trades reactions and jokes with them and lets the audience in on their existence to the point where their names (Frank, the sound man; Eli, the prop man ; Bob, the producer; Lennie, the floor manager) are as familiar as...well, as familiar as Pookie, White Fang and Black Tooth."
"The personal appearances have their varying rewards, too. People tend to hurl pies at Soupy when they see him, and a kid in Los Angeles once made the mistake of heaving a frozen pie before it defrosted. 'It caught me in the neck,' the victim recalls, 'and I dropped like a pile of bricks...One little kid ran up to me and said, 'Hey! How'd you get off the TV?' "
"...Frank Nastasi, the voice and soul of White Fang and the others, arrives at the office. Nastasi, a small, sturdy man with iron gray hair, ordinarily earns his living on the stage, having appeared on Broadway in Lorenzo, off Broadway in Cindy and in a number of Phoenix Theater productions. He now finds himself working puppets, waving a paw and delivering long speeches that go like this:" "Guggehh, bluahhh, luhhh-uhggghh, beahhhh!"
" 'You come in with Pookie and say you're gonna do Italian magic. Then you wave your and and say, 'Gina Lollabrigida! Gina Lollabrigida!' and I say, 'That's magic?' and you say, 'Have you ever seen Gina?.' Nastasi laughs so hard he almost cracks his head against the corner of the desk. The question of whether a five year old child will appreciate the reference to the voluptuous Italian movie star is never considered: Soupy knows that he has the child laughing at Pookie's funny magic get-up, and the gag is for Mommy's benefit."
I lost the last page. But hey, I hung onto the rest of it for 45 years.
Soupy Sales and his lion puppet Pookie.
Watch this all the way through.
Every second is gold. Pookie bops his head along with Clark Terry playing Mumbles. He sneezes.
Soupy smooches Pookie on the nose. Pookie: "There's a draft
in here, Bubbie...and I hope they don't get me."
Later, Soupy bops along with the Isley Brothers. Just his punim on camera, enjoying the music, for over two minutes. How brilliantly simple is that? I don't even know why I find it so hilariously funny, but I do. Jazz, politics, blues, pratfalls, breaking the fourth wall, all with a Jewish flavor packaged for kids. Wow.
The Archie gang even got to hang out with Soupy:
Billy Ingram and Kevin Butler wrote a great piece on Soupy at TV Party dot com, so you might as well hop on over and read it.
And check this out: Blogger Don Brockway of Isn't Life Terrible took a bunch of pictures when he visited the Soupy set in 1965. He writes a great blog, too.
Soupy in the studio with Eli and Pooky. 1965. Photo by Don Brockway. Used by permission. (i.e. ask Brockway before you reuse this)
Soupy on the air. Frank Nastasi on the left. 1965. Photo Don Brockway, used by permission.
Do you love Soupy? Tell me about it. Leave a comment.
Tempus Fugit, pop out clock by Timeworks, Inc. Available at PSAWfor $17.75
As I posted on my sandwich board today, "Tick tock, time to think about holiday shopping" Actually, as a retailer, I've been thinking about holiday shopping since mid summer. Truth be told, as a consumer I enjoy buying presents for my loved ones, but it's even more fun selling fabulous things to my customers. In this economy we're all being careful of what we spend, so I've worked at getting great stuff at reasonable prices. By reasonable, I try to mean under $50. Often under $25.
Pop Out Clocks from Timeworks, Inc. Seven different clocks available here.
These clocks are super cute and a brand new product from the Timeworks, Inc. Clock Company from Berkeley, CA. They come in a reusable box and assemble in a jiffy, really. I think they are made of melamine. The clock runs on a battery. Great little gift for under $20, easy to send, too.
Check out the clock faces. Click the small image and it will pop up!
notecards, portfolios, labels, sticky notes etc. at PSAW
I've been a stationery lover my whole life. Mostly I've collected postcards and notecards, but anything with pretty images and shapes will catch my eye. Now that our local paperie, Scribbles, has closed (alas) I'm trying to fill the void a tiny bit. Above are some sets with images by Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol, Geninne D. Zlatkis. I also have Lotte Jansdotter and Paul Frank as well as assorted classic botanical images.
Canetti Museum magnet frames and PSAW mini prints
Not new to PSAW but one of my favorites, the Canetti Museum Magnet Frame. At $28 these are a sensation and very popular with my customers. Made of pure acrylic and tiny magnets by a small company in New York, (although manufactured in Thailand) these are the original Magnet Frame. They inspired me to offer PSAW mini prints by PSAW artists, made to fit the frames. At $20 a pop, these are also a fun and charming gift.
glass pendant by Marc Kornbluh at PSAW. Aprox 2" diameter. $45
No two of these pendants by Marc Kornbluh are alike. Marc used to live in Burlington and his glass studio was one of my favorite places. Now he lives. in Nebraska, but I'm lucky enough to be able to sell his lamp-work jewelry. At $45, this is a gift that will be loved for generations.
Vintage cigarette tin. $16.
I've been collecting typewriter tins and cigarette tins, lovely for both their shapes and graphics. No two alike, only while stock lasts since buying them is a random operation. But I've got a bunch here now.
Sno Folk by AO! Glass
AO! Glass, whose retail shop is right here at PSAW (separate store - common roof) are in high production for their very popular little Sno Folk. Great, perfect holiday gifts, they can be a tabletop decoration, or hang from a tree or mantle. www.aoglass.com. Tove Ohlander also will custom etch the bowls and other pieces that she and her partner Rich Ahrentzen make.
There's more, but I'll leave that for another post. Just come on buy and check us out. Tick Tock.
Liquid Cardboard by Cardboardesign at Pine Street Art Works.
I can't remember how I first heard about the NYC company Cardboardesign. Maybe it was on one of the home design blogs I frequent. I do know that when I placed my first order a few years ago I was one of the first, if not the first wholesale customer they had. Hooboy, not anymore.
Cardboardesign products were featured at the Guggenheim Gala honoring Frank Gehry, at the American Museum of Natural History Climate Change Launch. They were featured on Big Ideas For A Small Planet on The Sundance Channel and on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Look for Cardboardesign products at some of the tonier retail venues around the country, including, of course, Pine Street Art Works.
Liquid Cardboard #8. Liza Cowan photo.
The various products made by Cardboardesign - furniture, toys, tableware - are all made of recycled and recyclable materials. Even the glue they use is eco friendly. Equally important, they are all design forward, sophisticated and fun. I'm featuring the Liquid Cardboard line, pieces that can be used to hold flowers, candy, candles, or just sit on the table to amuse your guests. They morph into all kinds of shapes and are endlessly fun to manipulate. I've even had a customer buy one to use as a bracelet.
If you live near Burlington or are planning a visit, come on by and check out the coolest line of table top sculpture you'll see this season. If not, you can buy online direct from Cardboardesign
Driving home from Montreal yesterday afternoon just after a rain. The clouds were so pretty, the cornfields so autumnal, and the light so perfect, I had to stop and snap a few pics. South of Montreal, north of Vermont, on Rt.133.
We write our sign daily. Then the rain washes it away. True ephemera.
It's been a slow week. I'm busy stocking up for the holidays, but meanwhile...ain't nobody shopping much. Rainy day, listening to Rufus Wainwright and the soundtrack of Wicked. Here are some random shots from the day.
Pendants by Marc Kornbluh. TMNK paintings in the background.
Moleskine journals. Nakki Goranin's American Photobooth. Liza Leger painting.
Card wall. Cards by me, from my ephemera collections. Ever changing.
Vintage typewriter ribbon tins.
Shinzi Katoh in foreground. Then Flashbags, then cards. TMNK paintings on the wall.
LiZakka. That's me (Liza + Zakka) and my fascination with Zakka: from the Japanese 'zak-ka' 雑貨 or "many things." Zakka is a fashion and design phenomenon that has spread from Japan throughout Asia.
The term refers to everything and anything that improves your home,
life and outlook. Generally Zakka is cute, even kitch, with style references to Scandinavian and French design.
Some day I will show you my Hello Kitty collection from the eighties, but now let's look at Shinzi Katoh, the newest product line at Pine Street Art Works.
Shinzi Katoh is a Japanese Zakka artist of worldwide acclaim. He is
based in Aichi in the central region of Japan where he has his own
gallery, shop and museum. Pine Street Art Works is now selling his products. Yay.
Can you just see these in your home? So come on by and check them out.
Not many stores in the US carry Shinzi Katoh. I had to order them from Japan, which involved a lot of translating from Yen to dollars and complicated transactions re shipping. Luckily for me, the folks at Shinzi Katoh in Japan were able to negotiate in English. So, we'll see how my Vermont customers like them. If they are a hit, they will be a staple here.
TMNK-The Me Nobody Knows, hanging his show at PSAW, Sept. 11, 2009
Art Hop came and went. About 2 million 1,000 people passed through these doors on Friday and Saturday. We had a blast and everyone adored the work of NYC artist TMNK, The Me Nobody Knows. He blew them away. As predicted.
Nobody's window. The mannequins are wearing his T Shirts and bandanas.
I always have four personae at these events: Sergei Diaghilev, the impressario; Dolley Madison, the hostess; Hazel, the maid; and Ron Gallella, the paparazzi. I'm good with the first three, horrible with the last. Hence, I have almost no photographic evidence that the event actually happened. You'll just have to take my word. Or send me your pictures.
Diane, the Rootstein mannequin, wearing Nobody's T Shirt. Photo Liza Cowan
Art Hop, Friday September 11th 5-10 in the evening and Saturday Sept 12, 10-5 daytime.
PSAW featured artist:TMNK-THE ME NOBODY KNOWS
TMNK Art Hop postcard. Art: TMNK, design Liza Cowan 2009
Art Hop is almost upon us. Art Hop is one of the biggest- possibly THE biggest - outdoor/indoor art fair in New England. We expect around 20,000 visitors one weekend every September in our otherwise modest little neighborhood in the South End of Burlington, Vermont. Hosted and produced annually by the South End Arts And Business Association (SEABA) Art Hop is well worth the trip. Lots of art, a fashion show, music, outdoor sculpture and demonstrations make it a family worthy destination.
TMNK-The Me Nobody Knows: My Boombox Plays The Sound Of Music. Sold. Used by permission of the artist.
This year the New York City artist TMNK- The Me Nobody Knows, will be the solo artist at Pine Street Art Works. I've written a lot about TMNK this past year, so I will refer you to previous posts for more information about him.
NOBODY will be here in person with his art on Friday and Saturday. If you live within driving distance, I urge you not to miss this rare Vermont opportunity to meet Nobody and see his work.
A tweet from the Monroe gallery in Santa Fe alerted me to the sad fact that Mary Morris Lawrence died earlier this month. Here's a link to a story in The San Fransisco Chronicle:
"In 1937 she became the first female photojournalist hired by New York's
Associated Press. She was photographer and Hollywood columnist for New
York's progressive tabloid PM, shot photo stories for Look Magazine,
and produced a variety of award-winning projects in a world-roving
career. "I was good in the newspaper business," she said, "because I
had this way of wanting to get the dope. I had an aggressive nature, a
creative spirit." Her trail-blazing career is chronicled in books and
periodicals, one describing "a 23-year-old wisp of a girl, with a thick
mass of tousled brown hair and dancing blue eyes, Miss Mary Louise
Morris ... daily faring forth with camera slung over her shoulder to
cover every variety of news and feature story." SF Chronicle, Aug 23, 2009
Morrie, as her friends knew her, was my mom's chum from college. They went to Sarah Lawrence where Mary, according to the article in the Chronicle "formed all my rebellious ideas." Morrie and Polly, my mom, remained good friends throughout the forties and fifties in New York city. Fans of this blog will remember that I've written about Morrie and mom before.
L to R: Max Lerner, Lou Cowan, Mary Morris Steiner, Polly Cowan, Ralph Steiner (biting my mom's shoulder,) photo set up by Mary or Ralph, shot by Edna Lerner.
The SF Chronicle article omits the fact that Mary was married to Ralph Steiner, iconic American photographer. Mary told me in a phone conversation last year that when she and Ralph were partners in their New York City photography studio, they split the shooting equally, but he got all the credit. They didn't really pay attention to who was shooting, who was setting up the shots, who was climbing the ladder. It was all in a day's work. She didn't care. The paycheck came in and that was pretty much what mattered at the time. I don't think either one of them realized at the time how famous he would become and how relatively, but not completely, obscure she would become. So those Ralph Steiner photographs that are now highly collectible, the ones done in the NY studio might be by Mary.
Photo by Mary Morris Steiner (Mary Morris Lawrence, for google's sake) Polly Cowan and baby Liza Cowan circa 1950
Another obit, somewhat more substantial, from The Oakland Tribune: "In his 1938 book, "Get That Picture!" cameraman
A.J. Ezickson described her as a hard worker and a cunning "scout,"
gaining access with her small RolleiFlex camera to scenes her less
enterprising colleagues (the same ones who made "sly jibes" about
Morris Lawrence) were barred from by using her wits but never "feminine
wiles."
Last year Mary and I discussed the possibility of her having a retrospective exhibit here at PSAW, but there were more technical difficulties than I could overcome from 3,000 miles away. The 95 year old Morrie lived in San Francisco and had only original prints of her work, which she did not want to ship to Vermont. I'd have been happy with scans but we never worked out the logistics of having them made and printed. Alas.
Morrie only published one book in her lifetime, Bringing Up Puppies, A Child's Book of Dog Breeding And Care, written by Jane Whitbread Levin (another Sarah Lawrence chum)
Bringing Up Puppies, by Jane Whitbread Levin and Mary Morris Steiner (Lawrence)
So here 's to you Morrie, talented, brave and wise. You will be missed.
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