Tag Archive | Memorabilia

Eye On Design: Nixon Disposable Paper Dress

Photo By Gail

In the mid-1960s, affordable, single-use paper clothing enjoyed a burst of widespread popularity when it was introduced to an American market eager for commodities. This Disposable Paper Dress was produced by the North Carolina factory of Mars of Asheville on the occasion of the 1968 presidential election. The surname of Richard Nixon is emblazoned across the garment in red uppercase letters along with alternating blue stars, transforming its wearer into a walking endorsement of the Republican candidate whose tenure as president would encompass the first man on the moon, the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam, and eventual impeachment and resignation.

Photographed in the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan.

Must See Art: Mark Mothersbaugh, Myopia at Grey Gallery

Jun29

All Photos By Gail

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Living in NYC Fucking Rocks! And if you’re looking for cool things to do in the City right now, why not let yourself experience the mind-blowing career retrospective of Mark Mothersbaugh: Lead singer of New Wave / Performance Art legends, DEVO, Composer, Artist and De-Evolutionary Genius. The exhibit is called Myopia, and you can see it at the Grey Gallery at NYU. Let’s a take look at all of the fun surprises that Myopia has in store for you!

Self Portrait with First Pair of Glasses (2015)

In case you were unable to deduce by the exhibit’s title, the art of Mypoia has its roots in Mothersbaugh’s severe visual disability that he has suffered with since birth. The artist’s personal statement greets each visitor at the front of the exhibit, as follows.

“I grew up in Akron, Ohio and I had severe myopia that went undiagnosed until the second grade. My teacher would say things to me like, “Read what is says on the board,” and I’d ask, “What’s a board?” or I’d make a joke because I couldn’t see anything. My teacher disciplined me almost every day.

When my sight issues were finally diagnosed, I was in the car with my dad coming back from getting my first pair of glasses. We came over a hill, and I saw smoke coming out of chimneys. I saw the tops of trees. Before then, I had only known the bottom part – the part that I ran into. I saw the sun for the first time and I just went, “Holy crap!”

I showed up at school with glasses, and I started drawing pictures. My teacher said, “Hey, you draw better than me.’ It was the first time a teacher hadn’t either spanked me or put me in a corner. I knew then that I wanted to be an artist.”

Quite simply, Myopia is all about the truly unique world vision of Mark Motherbaugh. As the song says, it’s a beautiful world.

Farewell Arches to Luxembourg City (2014)

Kicking off the exhibit is a room-size, whimsical installation called Farewell Arches to Luxembourg City, which is a series of large scale, double-rumped sculptures inspired by My Little Pony toy figurines. The sculptures are part of Mothersbaugh’s Beautiful Mutants series (more about this to come), in which he uses mirrored imagery to critique distinctions between order and mutation. Here, the animal forms’ unnatural symmetry and smooth surfaces reveal their synthetic nature, which is underscored by the artificial grass and bright yellow backdrop.

4 DEAD IN O-H-I-O, Stamped Ink with Hand Drawn Additions (1977)

The exhibit then continues on to explore Mark’s formative days as an art student at Kent State University in Ohio.

Vitrine Display of Mark Mothersbaugh’s College Art

One of Mothersbaugh’s Art Student Journals

One thing you will come to understand later in the exhibit is that Mothersbaugh loves to journal!

Art Pamphlet Which Inspired the Title of the Song “Jocko Homo”

Circuit Bent Calculator (2014)

Mothersbaugh often manipulated exiting instruments as well as creating devices to generate novel sounds. He used this Calculator / instrument in several live performances with DEVO. An amazing audio installation of his unique created sounds can be found in the Orchestrions Room, which further explores the composers relationship to technology.

Orchestrions Room Installation View

Mothersbaugh has long been fascinated with machines, using them as a materiel to be manipulated in creating something new and personal. Working against technology’s tendency to generate predicable results, he alters mass-produced machines and assembles unexpected parts to form new, idiosyncratic hybrids. These unconventional, mutant machines embody his belief that originality arises from imperfection. As with his own myopia, he continually embraces flaws as a countermeasure to society’s tendency toward uniformity

Mothersbaugh’s music-making machines, or Orchestrions, feature discarded organ pipes and bird calls that he has been collecting for years. He first assembles the materials, the adapts his compositions to the quirks of the machine. The Orchestrions are a way to demonstrate his belief that flaws are the key to originality. According to the artist, “the limiting factor gives it something unique. It helps you to not fall into the cliche of twelve keys in a row. You’ve got five black ones and seven white ones that repeat all the way up the keyboard. But if you change something in that pattern, if you break one of those keys off the keyboard so that when you go for an F-sharp and it’s not there, it can force you to rethink how to say what you’re trying to say.”

The Orchestrions play a different composition, an example of which you can hear in the above video, every fifteen minutes or so. Very fun!

Rugs During Wartime and Peacetime (2004 – 2007)

On the walls of the Orchestrions room, you will see a series of floor rugs created by Motherbaugh beginning in 1994. The rug series started after the artist designed an entryway mat for his studio, based on one of his postcard-sized drawings. The versatility and functionality of his rugs demonstrates his interest in nontraditional art forms — especial those associated with consumer culture.

Always exploring new means of production, Motherbaugh has transferred his rug images into animations, which add elements of drama, spectacle and technology.

Gallery Installation View

If you are mostly interested in Mark’s work with DEVO, Myopia has no shortage of photos, videos, listening stations, props, ephemera and memorabilia on the band from its inception to present.

In its original configuration as a quintet, DEVO included two sets of brothers, Mark and his younger sibling Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald Casale and his younger brother Bob, who died in 2014, and Alan Myers, who passed away in 2013. RIP!

Collection of DEVO Press Photos

DEVO as The Beatles Press Photo

DEVO’s first home video release, The Truth About De-Evolution (1976) plays on an endless loop in the gallery. It includes the music videos for “Jocko Homo” and the band’s classic cover of “Secret Agent Man.”

Jock Homo B/W Mongoloid 45 Release Sleeve with Song Lyrics

Stage and Video Props Left to Right: Booji Boy Mask, New Traditionalists Hairpiece, Energy Dome

Still from DEVO Honda Commercial, 1982 – 84

Don’t forget to head downstairs to the basement where you will discover the wonder oftwo of Mothersbaugh’s fascinating series of visual artworks: Mirror Images and Beautiful Mutants!

Mirror Images

DEVO in front of a Hostess Truck

Mothersbaugh first began to use mirror images in his journals of the early 1970s, and he continues to use symmetrical forms in his most recent work.

In 1990, he began work on his most prominent mirror-image pieces, the Beautiful Mutants series of photographs, where he transformed historical and traditional figures into mutants. His interest in mirrors is concurrent with his longtime interest in eyes, which was triggered early on by his own severe myopia.

In a show that is so over-the-top mind blowing, the Beautiful Mutants gallery was my favorite part of the exhibit, and totally unexpected. Be sure to look for the hidden signage leading you downstairs, otherwise you will miss it, and that would be a huge bummer for you! Let’s check out more of these crazy creatures!

Last but not least, be sure to spend some time in the room which holds Mark’s collection of over 30,000 postcard-sized drawings from his visual diaries.

The artist draws on at least one postcard-sized piece of paper every day, a practice that he started decades ago, when DEVO was first out on tour in the 1970s. These small artworks inspire many of his larger projects across different media.

These post cards are all individually filed in protective plastic sheets inside binders for your perusal.These works have never been seen in an exhibition until now.

Mark Mothersbaugh Mypoia Will Be On Exhibit Through July 15, 2017, at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, Located at 100 Washington Square East, (between Waverly Place and Washington Place, Facing Washington Square Park) NYC 10003. Suggested Admission is $5.00. For Hours and Other Information Visit This Link!

Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk at the Queens Museum

Apr25

L to R: Dee Dee, Tommy, Joey, and Johnny. Portraits of the Original Ramones by Shepard Fairey (All Photos By Gail)

Hey, do you love The Ramones? I sure do; so much so, that I even made the trek, by subway train and foot, all the way out to Flushing Meadows, Corona Park (a long, long ass way) to visit the Queens Museum, where there is a newly-opened exhibit that is all about Forest Hills, Queens favorite sons, the legendary Ramones. Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk, as you can imagine by the title, is pretty sweet.

This is Just The Crowd Waiting to Get In to the Exhibit

On the exhibit’s opening day (April 10th) I journeyed out to Queens with an aggregate group of enthusiastic Ramones Fans, and when we arrived at the museum there was one line to buy tickets to get into the museum, and then another line just to get into the galleries that are showcasing the Ramones exhibit. Holy Mother of god, do I hate waiting on line(s). Fortunately, I know the right people, and one of those people is my friend Anne, who is good pals with Vera Ramone King (Dee Dee Ramone’s first wife, who is a lovely lady) and so we were able to get some Hot VIP Action and skip at least 90 minutes in “The Line Ride,” as I will call it. Mad props to Anne and Vera!

Here I am with Vera, and musician/songwriter Jana Peri!

Art By Yoshitomo Nara That was Commissioned For This Exhibit

In this expansive exhibit, the four original Ramones — Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee — are most widely represented, along with Tommy’s replacement, drummer Marky Ramone (who had the longest tenure with the band outside of the original four founders), and to a lesser extent members who came along later in the band’s career, CJ and Richie, who show up in a few places. Not unexpectedly, the exhibit’s opening day was a complete madhouse and total party scene. You will learn so much about The Ramones as a group, and about each of them as people, when you visit this exhibit, but I’m going to skip all of that, because I know that everyone really only wants to see the photos. Enjoy!

One of the first things you will see when you enter the first of four galleries is this fun, specially commissioned cartoon map by Punk Magazine co-founder John Holmstrom, tracing the band’s path from Forest Hills to the downtown nightclub CBGB.

Covers of All of the Ramones Albums

The first gallery is dedicated to the band’s songs and records, as well as memorabilia, swag, props, photos and magazines documenting the very first articles ever written on the band. The exhibit also celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the release of the first Ramones album!

Installation View of First Gallery

Johnny Ramone’s Red T Shirt from the Cover of End of the Century

Sire Records‘ promotional Ramones swag included T Shirts, actual size and miniature baseball bats, and a letter opener!

Ramones Leave Subway

There are so many fantastic black and white photos to wax nostalgic over: from way Back in The Day, when The Ramones were just starting out, playing at the late great CBGB, and influencing every punk band, including now-legends of the British First Wave! Even Joe Strummer (RIP) was not shy about admitting how much The Clash ripped off The Ramones unique sound, in case you cannot hear it for yourself.

The Ramones with Chrissie Hynde, and Rat Scabies and Brian James from The Damned

Johnny and Tommy

Joey Ramone Outside CBGB. David Johansen is on the Far Left. Danny Fields and Arturo Vega (Who Created The Ramones Famous Logo), are Also Pictured.

Marky with Actress PJ Soles, and Johnny and Dee Dee from the Set of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School

Rock ‘N’ Roll High School Movie Poster

How great is this movie? I saw it in the theater right here in NYC when it was fist released in 1979. Oldness!

World famous pop artist and our good friend, Mark Kostabi poses with his original artwork for the cover of the final Ramones album, Adios Amigos. Mark told me that while the band loved being depicted as Dinosaurs, they did not want them to be wearing Dunce Caps, so Sombreros were substituted in the final album cover, shown below. Trivia!

A Selection of Ramones’ Tour Posters from All Over the Globe

The second gallery is dedicated to The Ramones On Tour. Here you will find posters, laminates, instruments and stage gear, tour riders and other paraphernalia that goes along with being a hard-touring band, which The Ramones were!

Amp, with Jeans, T-Shirts and Leather Jackets Worn by The Ramones, Plus Marky’s Autographed Snare Drum

Because of the size of the crowd, I had to beak up this one wall into three shots, left to right.

Sneakers, Microphones, Drum Sticks, Gloves, Glasses, Belt, etc.

Guitars and Tour Case

Poster from The Ramones, The Damned and Talking Heads Gig in Paris, April 29, 1977.

The Merch Table: Ramones Concert Ts

Ramones Badges

Ramones Tour Rider: Dressing Room Catering

Ramones Tour Laminates and Backstage Access Passes

Johnny’s Japanese Visa Application

Third Gallery Installation View with Video Kiosks

The third exhibit gallery pays homage to The Ramones as individuals, and includes video kiosks and a wonderful collection of fan art/memorabilia that you’ve surely not seen before and will not see anywhere else.

Dee Dee at the Chelsea Hotel, 1993

Dee Dee Ramone was a prolific artist and cartoonist whose work has been shown posthumously in galleries such as La Luz De Jesus in Los Angeles.

Cartoons by Dee Dee depicting Johnny and Joey as Rats.

I really enjoyed discovering some cool, Ramones-tribute artworks and cartoons that I had no idea existed.

Joey seemed to me to be the heart of The Ramones, and he is much-loved and revered, in NYC especially, to this day.

Don’t Worry About Me…

Likeness of Joey Created from a Collage of Magazine Photos

Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara is a huge Ramones fan. To anyone familiar with is work, his style is immediately recognizable.

Ramones at CBGB Diorama

Gabba Gabba Hey!

Ramones Collectible Plate

Ramones By Japanese Artist Naoshi

The Ramones as Animated for The Simpsons

The final gallery is a screening room where you can sit, take a load off, and watch videos of the band in concert. Very nice.

When you consider their staggering legacy of music and enduring contribution to pop culture, it is heartbreaking to know that none of the four original Ramones survived to old age. Mark Kostabi created the above drawing of the Ramones as Angels after Tommy’s death in 2014. RIP.

I know that there are tons of photos here, and it seems that I must have taken a photo everything (which, probably), but trust me that all of these pictured items just scratch the surface of all of the amazing Ramones stuff that curator Marc H. Miller managed to gather all in one place. It is unbelievably great. You really must see it for yourself, even if it means having to leave Manhattan.

Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk will be on Exhibit until July 31st, 2016, at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows, Corona Park. The Exhibit Moves to Los Angeles in September.

Darth Vader Doll

Oct2

Photo By Gail

This handsome likeness of Lord Darth Vader is proudly displayed alongside a Tie Fighter and the back end of a Tauntaun in this photo that I snapped at the Museum of the Moving Image on a recent visit. Note that Vader is not merely an action figure in this case, but an official doll, suitable for cavorting with Barbie should she grow bored with Ken and wish to make a move to the Dark Side.

Yes, it Exists: C-3PO Tape Dispenser

Sep10

Photo By Gail

This highly collectable C-3P0 Tape Dispenser (circa 1980) was released o coincide with promotions for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. He looks very relaxed, doesn’t he?

Photographed in the Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, NY.

A Fun Visit to the City Reliquary Museum!

Jul28

All Photos By Gail

Summer is in full swing and everybody is looking for stuff to do with their time off. Today, I want tell you about a place you can go where you will have so much fun your head will explode. If you get excited by learning about the history of New York City, and love to have fun adventures that don’t cost very much, the City Reliquary Museum is a place you simply must visit! Located just two stops off the L train, and a short walk, into Brooklyn from Manhattan (for easy reference, it’s located directly across the street from the Knitting Factory), a visit to this local gem of sweet nostalgia is one of the best bargains in existence. Naomi and I had the chance to visit last month on a day that was somewhat overcast and drizzly, and we had all kinds of crazy fun.

Best of all, admission is just Five Dollars! What a bargain! The City Reliquary Museum not only collects relics and ephemera from NYC life in the five boroughs, but they also feature special exhibits that put a keen focus on the minutia that makes New York one of the greatest places to visit, and live, on earth. Here are some of the things we saw and enjoyed during our visit!

Once you enter the Museum from the front room, which is home to an adorable little gift shop that you’re going to want to spend some time browsing before you head out, you’ll have two more rooms to explore that are just packed with cool stuff.

In the first room, you will be captivated by wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling collections, displays and exhibits of everything from tributes to New York City landmarks, two remembrances of famous businesses, NYC Baseball teams, and on to icons of the transit system and anything else you can imagine that it has something to do with life here in the City that Never Sleeps.

Locals will recognize the red and green globes above as markers found at the entrances to many subway stations. I love how they’ve incorporated them right into the design of the room.

Here is a adjoining-car door (and what looks like an ancient subway route map as well!) taken from a long-retired subway train.

You can still find bus stop route markers like this at stops around town. I love how it just seems to be discarded in a corner, like you’re stumbling upon some kind of archaeological dig.

Have you ever used one of these? It reminds me of a re-created historical relic that you might find at Disneyland in an exhibit about Americana Kitsch.

This collection of vintage postcards depicting the Statue of Liberty will give you an excellent idea of the attention to detail that’s paid to each separate display over every square inch of the museum. The rooms may be small, but you could spend several hours in here.

Maybe you were once a patron of Al Criscillo’s Barber Shop, which was located at Metropolitan Avenue & Humboldt Street in Brooklyn — not that far from where the museum now sits. If so, you can relive your happy memories of time spent in his chair when you take a peek inside this nostalgia-inducing diorama.

Photos of Al with some of his customers are preserved in album adjacent to the diorama. It is extremely sweet.

Learn about the History of Burlesque in NYC in this compact exhibit that ls about the size of a Phone Booth.

Stuffed Alligator on the ceiling enjoys a slice!

Even the Restroom is is like a tiny museum inside a museum.

Talk about economic use of available real estate!

The museum also hosts rotating Special Exhibits, and currently there are two different ones you can see. The first is called The Pizza Box Chronicles, which pays tribute to New York City’s Love Affair with Pizza!

There is a pretty impressive collection of pizza boxes, including New York–inspired pizza boxes from restaurants not even located in the state!

Get educated by reading all about the legend of Famous Original Ray’s Pizza!

You can also watch a loop of film clips from various movies where the characters talk about pizza, eat pizza or talk about eating pizza. Fun!

The second Special Exhibit which was featured when we visited is dedicated to a private collection of Joseph Kopitz, who collects Miniature Souvenir Buildings.

What a cool Collection! Apparently, Joe has been amassing a small empire of New Your City real estate for the past 30 years. His collection includes such well-known buildings as the Empire State building, the Chrysler building, the Woolworth building, the Pan Am building, Grande Central Terminal and many others. He is even added buildings from all over the world to his vast holdings of buildings that average only from 3 inches to 8 inches tall. It was very generous of him to share his collection with the museum, so that others can also enjoy it.

After you’ve browsed the museum’s two main rooms, be sure and head out to explore the backyard area, which is where they host community events from time to time, such as film screenings, as well as being a place to store artifacts that don’t quite fit into the museum.

Take a look at this cool bar.

Brooklyn Lager, Naturally

Look at this beautiful shrine made out of old bottles and cement, where the Statue of Liberty is ensconced in an old bathtub. Amazing.

There’s a nice collection of well-kept picnic tables back here, and maybe they would let you sit there and have a snack, but you would want to ask first.

We had the best adventure at the City Reliquary Museum, and I’m going to suggest you put it on your list of local sites not to be missed! if you have friends coming in from out of town be sure to bring them here also.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

The City Reliquary Museum is Located at 370 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211. Hours are Thurs – Sun: 12 Noon – 6:00 PM (Except Major Holidays). To get the most up to date information, please call (718)782-4842.

Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite Guitar Goes Up for Auction

Jan9

Pictured: Johnny Ramone’s Personally-Owned and Stage-Used 1965 Mosrite Ventures V1 Guitar

Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite Guitar will be featured at a live auction event by Boston, MA based RR Auction this month. The personally-owned and used red 1965 Mosrite Ventures V1 guitar is signed on the body in black felt tip, “Best always, Johnny Ramone, 5/22/90.”

The six-string guitar features several modifications Ramone made to make the guitar fit his sound and style, the most significant being the replacement of the tremolo system with a stop bar tailpiece and installation of a DiMarzio FS-1 bridge pickup, as well as a tortoiseshell pickguard. Included in the sale, is the original hardshell case.

This is a rare instrument in its own right, and the only red guitar or Ventures Model 1 that Ramone owned; it was in his possession for at least seven years, from circa 1982–83 until he sold it in 1990; the first photographic evidence of Ramone playing the guitar comes from a show at the Eagle’s Hippodrome in Seattle on May 5, 1983. Johnny most often used this guitar for TV appearances and it can be seen up-close during a 1988 performance on MTV.

In 1990, Ramone sold this guitar to friend and former Ramones band driver Gene Frawley, signing and dating it on the occasion. A subsequent owner later personally confirmed the ownership details with Ramone, who acknowledged that he owned and used the guitar throughout the 1980s before selling it to Frawley.

“This is one of just nine Mosrite guitars owned by Ramone known to exist — an exceedingly rare and historically important piece of music history,” says Bobby Livingston, Exec VP at RR Auction.

Johnny Ramone was a founding member of the seminal punk band that broke onto the New York music scene in 1974. Johnny was known for his fast, high-energy guitar playing. His style almost exclusively consisted of rapid down strokes and bar chord shapes. This unique playing style and buzz saw-like sound of Johnny’s guitar parts was highly influential on many early punk rock guitarists and keeps him listed on numerous top lists of the greatest guitar players. Johnny Ramone died in his Los Angeles home on September 15, 2004 at the age of 55 after a five-year battle with prostate cancer.

The Johnny Ramone guitar will be part of a special live auction event, featuring nearly 150 items, that will take place on January 22nd, 2015 at RR Auction’s Boston Gallery, but Online Bidding begins January 15th, More details can be found online at RR Auction Dot Com.

Unreleased Studio Mixes from Led Zeppelin & Bad Company up for Sale

Mar5

RR Auction, an Amherst, NH-based company is proud to present unreleased studio mixes of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album Physical Graffiti, from the Ron Nevison Collection, as part of its Marvels of Modern Music auction coming up on March 13th, 2014.

Click on Any Image to Enlarge for Detail

The vintage 10″ tape reel of rough studio mixes, recorded on Ampex 406 quarter-inch tape, is labeled and hand-notated with the track listing and recording data. The track listing includes:

Client: Led Zeppelin, Subject: Rough Mixes, Engineer: R. N., Date: 28-2-74, Location: Headley, Speed: 15, Reel: 2.

Song titles and times are listed as follows:

“Trampled Underfoot” — 5:40
“Driving to Kashmir” — 8:50
“Custard Pie” — 4:20
“In the Light (Everyone Makes It Then) ” — 7:18
“Swan Song—Part 1” —1:20 and “Swan Song — Part 2” —1:20

The recording sessions for Physical Graffiti initially took place in November 1973 at Headley Grange, using Ronnie Lane’s Mobile Studio. Out of fifteen songs, eight were recorded over an eight-month stretch. Led Zeppelin made the decision of adding previously unreleased songs instead of dropping some, eventually, making it a double album. However, these sessions came to a halt quickly and the studio time was turned over to the band Bad Company, who used it to record songs for their eponymous debut album.

A highlight of the lot is an early rough mix of one of Led Zeppelin’s most popular songs “Kashmir,“ named “Driving to Kashmir,” in this mix. Jimmy Page well known for his use of alternative guitar tunings along with John Bonham’s drums that featured a phasing effect courtesy of an Eventide Instant Phaser PS-101, supplied by engineer Ron Nevison for the track. The song would become a concert staple for the group – they would perform it at almost every concert after its release.

Also included in the Ron Nevison Collection:

Rough mixes from Bad Company’s debut album recorded in Ronnie Lane’s mobile studio at Headley Grange, including their first hit, “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love.”

Vintage “rough mix” 10″ tape reel of four songs from Clapton’s 1973 album, Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert, includes Mixes of ‘Layla’ and ‘Let It Rain.’

Other artists featured include: The Who, Flo and Eddie, Ozzy Osbourne and UFO.

The Marvels of Modern Music auction, from RR Auction will feature more than 800 items and is set to begin on Thursday, March 13th, ending on the evening of Thursday, March 20th, 2014. See the other museum quality pieces up for auction at This Link.

Pink Thing of The Day: Neal Smith Vintage Premier Drum Ad!

Dec7

Image Courtesy of Neal Smith

Currently Up for Auction on eBay: This vintage (circa 1973) Premier Drum Ad ran in all of the popular music magazines during the global Billion Dollar Babies tour featuring the original band called Alice Cooper. This Ad is signed personally by R&R Hall Of Fame inductee, drummer Neal Smith and is surely a very rare piece of Seventies Glam Rock History. The Auction runs through Monday December 9th, 2013. Bid Now at This Link!

Recommended Viewing: My Father and The Man in Black

Sep3

Saul Holiff with Johnny Cash and June Carter (All Images Courtesy of Johnny and Saul)

When Saul Holiff – Johnny Cash’s one-time manager – committed suicide in 2005, he did so without leaving a note for his family. For Holiff’s eldest son, Jonathan, that meant he’d never get the chance to resolve the enigma of the man who had been an aloof, antagonistic and emotionally distant authority figure his entire life. But Jonathan got a second chance to “know” his father when requests for memorabilia received from Johnny Cash fans lead to the discovery of a secret storage unit that he elder Holiff had kept for most of his life. What happened in the wake of that discovery provided a revelation on many levels.

Saul Holiff’s Storage Unit

Saul Holiff’s storage unit was preserved as a true time capsule of his life and career managing Johnny Cash – a position he held from 1960 to 1973 – as well as his close friendships with Johnny and his wife June Carter, and his strained family life with Jonathan and his younger brother Joshua. Packed wall-to-wall with filing boxes stuffed with meticulously-kept written documentation, personal letters, photographs, print articles, telegrams, memorabilia and – what surely must have been a mind-blowing discovery for his son – audio tapes that included both Saul’s recorded phone conversations with Cash and others, as well as Saul’s insightful, deeply personal audio diaries.

Realizing he has discovered not only his father’s hidden life story, but also a treasure of Behind the Music-style grit on Johnny Cash that wasn’t even addressed in the Oscar-winning Biopic, Walk The Line, Jonathan Holiff began painstakingly creating this fascinating documentary with a very unique insider’s viewpoint.

Jonathan as a Child with Johnny Cash

Although an ultimate goal of seeing this project through to completion was achieving closure for himself regarding his troubled relationship with his Dad, Holiff also succeeds in producing an fascinating and authentic snap shot of American life in the ‘60s and ‘70s (such a great time to be alive!), an insider’s look at the music business of those decades and a terrific “dark side” companion piece to any Johnny Cash Biography.

While it must have been excruciating for Jonathan Holiff to have to hear his (obviously emotionally stunted) father confess in one recorded entry that he was basically incapable of feeling any love for him or his brother, perhaps that also allowed him to achieve a sense of compassion that transcends mere forgiveness. At the end of the day, My Father and The Man in Black goes easy on the pathos to become simply great storytelling, adding an additional human-interest angle to an entertainment industry tale that any film or music fan can engage with. Highly recommended!

My Father and The Man in Black Opens in New York City and Los Angeles on Friday, September 6th, 2013.

The Worley Gig Gives My Father and The Man in Black 4 Out of 5 Stars!

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