From The Vault Of Art Shay: I Love LA!
By Art Shay in News on Mar 6, 2013 7:00PM
Those early picture fans who managed to find 933 Chung King Rd. which is really an exotic alley devoted to galleries and mysterious Chinese establishments, were waiting for owners John Matkowsky and John Huckert to open the gates. \r\n
Angeleno spectators were well behaved compared to those at my Paris opening five years ago- no pickets against the Feminists who were objecting to my picture of Siomone de Beauvoir nude. And off duty police guards to protect a magazine editor- whom the Feminists suggested should run his own naked-ass picture on his cover.And , as is the Paris arts custom, two trumpeters set on loud!\r\n
DRKRM owners, John TheSilent, and Big John the Voluble, showed Erica the neat posters they disseminated for my show. About a hundred were sold, along with my books.\r\n
A beauteous magazine writer for LA Weekly, Jennifer Swann, pauses, center, as purchaser of nude Simone poster, on right, examines her acquisition.\r\n
A famous athlete and telecommunications company owner, Jerry Hillecher, showed up to show me my famous picture of him flying through the New York air 40 years ago and how his wife transferred it to his cell phone for Christmas, The picture is famous for showingracquetball master Hillecher making a fantastic kill shot against the great Bennie Kaltun. My picture was used as an add for the Seamco Sports company who called it the best racquetball picture ever made. It is a favorite amongst my collectors.\r\n
Julie Towner,a gallery associate, stands behind me as I autograph one of my Animals books for a fan. In the background an oenologist stands ready with some organic wine.\r\n
Josh Murphy and Geneveieve Antonow, stand prominently as observers as I sit and sign books.\r\n
An old Hollywood friend, movie writer Janice Tidwell, dropped in for a poster. She and her famed writer husband Clancy Sigal, a fan and a friend of Algren\'s, have one of my rare pictures of Nelson gambling hanging in their home. Janice bought it for Clancy for some long-ago birthday. The couple\'s most recent triumph was the s\cript \<em\>Frida\<\/em\>. I\'ve always felt strange echoes from this movie because Stalin sent a guy with a claw hammer to Mexico to kill his enemy, Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was my father\'s intellectual companion of his youth and my brother Barry unearthed a picture of the two of them as men of 26. So even if Frida couldn\'t possibly be my mother ... I wonder who would play my intellectual, political activist father in the sequel.)\r\n
One of the two gallery rooms.\r\n
Every Hollywood son of a bitch of a critic attended. \r\n
The poor pooch\'s view was restricted to the lower depths of my work but even so he woofed in a good review.\r\n
There were on hand employees of Disney and Warner Brothers, and many a photog, amateur and pro. Everyone liked my catchy captions.\r\n
I now see that all future shows should have the captions in more readable type.\r\n
Even my prominent LA lawyer daughter, Jane Shay Wald, showed up and was \"happy to see you in your element.\" She showed me her beautiful engagement ring given to her by Dr. Charles Kreuter, a forensic psychologist with Los Angeles County State\'s Attorney\'s Office. (Jane is Partner Emeritis with Irell & Manella LLP.)\r\n
(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. This week, Art recaps his recent visit to the City of Angels.)
California there I came! Right back where I had made a couple of starts at settling — first as a flyboy taking the wounded home from the Pacific, and then as a Life magazine bureau chief where I tangled with Earl Warren, who thought he was about to become the next vice president for someone who every one (with the exception of one tough guy named Harry Truman) thought was going to be the next President.
But this is now and Los Angeles' newest picture showplace, the DRKRM Gallery, had invited me and especially Erica DeGlopper, who does my print gathering, to open their new space with a retrospective. I had the pleasure of following the tough act of Ansel Adams in their last space. My exhibit — open for a month now — is at 933 Chung King Rd. in Chinatown.
About 700 attractive, sharp-eyed movie industry employees and other pros or amateurs in the picture business stormed our walls, and it was thrilling. A gorgeous NPR reporter and one from the prestigious LA Weekly did flattering stories. We had several mighty almosts. Hugh Hefner's daughter Christie said Hef was "under the weather" and couldn't come. David Mamet apologized for having to be in Washington, but would catch the show on his return. (David's one of my favorite collectors, as are several who came from Chicago to cheer me on like Josh Murphy and Genevieve Antonow). Also young David Good and my son Richard Shay with his 12-frame-a-second Nikon were there.
As we got off the plane, a CBS NY producer for Charlie Osgood's Sunday Morning show- called. Yes, we are agreeable to CBS doing a segment on me-just the way Erica has been pitching me for five years. (They read Chicagoist in NY and LA, apparently.)
If you can't wait until this time every Wednesday to get your Art Shay fix, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Chicago's Nelson Algren, is also available at Amazon.
