From The Vault Of Art Shay: Life Goes On

By Art Shay in News on Sep 26, 2012 7:00PM

You\'ll be delighted to know that young India Murphy brought along by Josh and Signe Murphy\'s to take me to lunch at Boston Blackie\'s- went through your closets like a happy hurricane and emerged with both arms full and tears in her eyes. She and her sister June (now at Tulane) loved you, as you know, and all the Murphys are convinced that your Spirit is rattling around in your wardrobe and is alive and well. Accordingly, India and family went to the Botanical Gardens—which we all love and often visited with the Murphys—and gave a favorite skirt and sweater of yours a spirited workout on the rocks!

Rick Kogan used what could only be called \"The legend of Florence Shay\" and her bookshop Titles, Inc. to kick off the Highland Park Library\'s initial program of readings from favorite authors. Your name and announcement of your passing drew a strong reaction from the wall to wall crowd.

In local news, our dear neighbor two houses to the right, Jennifer Parker,\r\nand her son Dylan, take his last bike ride with training wheel support. And one of the sympathetic neighbor cooks who have been plying me with meals and food packages, Mara Velkme and her daugher-assistant cook Emma, are shown before we consumed the tasty turkey burgers they had made for our supper.

At Billy Corgan\'s opening of his new tea house, Madame Zu Zu\'s in Highland Park, Ill., Billy regales the crowd singing a duet with an old pal.

An overflow all-day long crowd, with network cameras taking up most of the space, forced Billy outside to greet his fans.

From left: Billy Corgan, Donna La Pietra, Bill Kurtis, Rick Kogan and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering.

At another meal you missed, with Mike Nussbaum on North Halsted Street. A place for some reason called \"The Nookie Tree.\" (Good food anyway.)\r\nMike is my favorite actor-director (he directed my 2004 play \<em\>Where Have You Gone,Jimmy Stewart?\<\/em\>). He is also a David Mamet favorite and played a key part in \<em\>House of Games\<\/em\>. He is famous for playing the pawn shop owner from another planet in \<em\>Men in Black\<\/em\>. He says his grandkids love the part where he\'s on the operating table, they open his head and reveal a tiny sick extraterrestrial who wants to go home.

(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. This week, we find Art in good spirits and moving on.)

Dearest Florence:

Well, you’ve been gone a month and, as the French moviemakers had it my life continues.

I dutifully lit the candle in the yahrzeit. You would have loved to mock this pleasantly commercial aspect of your passing. Many friends have given to charities in your name. Lots of celebrities—your friend and client David Mamet sympathizes with my "great loss" and will come to the opening of my show in LA if he can make it. Ditto for Billy Corgan, who opened his Madame Zu Zu’s Tea House: he cherishes your encouragement Your posthumous plans for Titles, Inc. continue.

The opening was wall to wall and Billy hired (son) Dick and Jami to do the pictures. I had lunch with Mike Nussbaum the other day. He's appearing in a six-month run of Freud’s Last Session. You'll be happy to know Julie is still thriving at his 89-year-old side. We talked about his direction of my Where Have You Gone Jimmy Stewart? and how he loved to see us holding hands in the front row.

So many trees have been planted in Israel in your name! These will make up for the tree somebody once uprooted in my name when I was near death. My cousin Eleanor Rosen made a donation in your name to the Long Island League to Abolish Cancer. Chicago Tribune writer Don Liebesohn recalls meeting you and realizing no story he did on either of us would be complete without the other. He writes he'd never leave Titles without a "new-old book and handfuls of Hershey’s Kisses and M&Ms” on your front table near the exit door. He regrets his "limited time " in your company. Like all of us.

Christie Hefner and Bud Kalish and a dozen others note the pleasant memories I've had culled from our 68-year-marriage. Two Margies who loved you checked in. "She was a beautiful lady," said one. The other Margie recalls "loving you from the moment she met you." Your Chase Bank man, was impressed with your "enthusiasm and energy level" He was saddened by Rick Kogan's Tribune obituaries, the second in Printer's Row with Dick's fine portrait of you that you commissioned three or four months ago when you were "looking good in my new blonde hairdo".

Gallery owners Tom and Ag Masters remind me that "Death is the ultimate promotion, the final ritual elevation to a higher form of life, to the enjoyment if eternity in some form. "

So I'll keep looking for your first blog from wherever you are—as will your 30,000 devoted readers and innumerable friends.

Meanwhile I'm slowly tackling the foreboding job of giving away your clothes.

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.