{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/ns0ks6kv6n/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Tom Sewell, 4/27/2022"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Tom Sewell is an artist and collector of Venice history. He is a co-author of \"Fantasy by the Sea: A visual history of the American Venice.\""]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["4/27/22 at 12:00 PM"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["Name of interviewee, date; The Venice Heritage Museum Oral Histories Project; Venice Heritage Museum, Los Angeles, CA."]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["OH_054"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Beach"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_public"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Tom Sewell is an artist and collector of Venice history. He is a co-author of \"Fantasy by the Sea: A visual history of the American Venice.\""]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/226/605/small/Tom_Sewell.jpg?1713989867","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Tom__Sewell_.mp4"]},"duration":1153.51467,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/226/605/small/Tom_Sewell.jpg?1713989867","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-veniceheritagemuseum.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/226/605/original/Tom__Sewell_.mp4?1713561651","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1153.51467,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605/transcript/67702","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Tom Sewell Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605/transcript/67702/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"00:00:05:05 - 00:00:06:07\n\rI'm Tom Sewell.\n\n00:00:06:07 - 00:00:10:03\nI was born December 14th, 1939.\n\n00:00:10:03 - 00:00:15:02\nWell, I had an art gallery in Minneapolis\rwhen I was 23.\n\n00:00:15:02 - 00:00:18:22\nAnd I lost my lease, and I met a girl\rwho I had gone to high school with,\n\n00:00:18:22 - 00:00:22:10\nand we decided\rto drive to California together.\n\n00:00:22:10 - 00:00:25:23\nSo I had an old VW pickup\n\n00:00:25:23 - 00:00:30:08\nand we drove across the country\rfrom Minneapolis to California to visit\n\n00:00:30:08 - 00:00:34:15\nmy best friend from high school, named\rMichael Blodgett, who lived in Hollywood.\n\n00:00:34:15 - 00:00:37:14\nAnd we visited him for a few days.\n\n00:00:37:14 - 00:00:41:18\nAnd then he, someone \rby the name of Jack Tabor told us\n\n00:00:41:18 - 00:00:46:09\nthat there were lots of places\rfor artists to rent in Venice.\n\n00:00:46:09 - 00:00:52:06\nSo we drove down\rVenice Boulevard from Hollywood and\n\n00:00:52:07 - 00:00:53:09\nhit Pacific,\n\n00:00:53:09 - 00:00:56:17\ntook a left,\rwent to the end of the Marina Peninsula\n\n00:00:56:17 - 00:01:00:18\nand turned right and came up Speedway.\n\n00:01:00:18 - 00:01:04:11\nAnd there was a house\rfor rent on Ironsides.\n\n00:01:04:11 - 00:01:06:06\nSo we rented the house.\n\n00:01:06:06 - 00:01:08:05\nIt seemed like a lot of money at the time.\n\n00:01:08:05 - 00:01:10:23\nIt's probably about 65 bucks a month.\n\n00:01:10:23 - 00:01:13:08\nAnd, um, it was right on the beach.\n\n00:01:13:08 - 00:01:16:15\nAnd we set up shop and and that's\n\n00:01:16:15 - 00:01:19:17\nwhen the whole Venice\rexperience kicked in for me.\n\n00:01:19:17 - 00:01:23:22\nSo we'd go out for breakfast\rat the Driftwood Cafe\n\n00:01:23:22 - 00:01:26:06\non the boardwalk.\n\n00:01:26:06 - 00:01:31:04\nA guy named Jorgen and his sister Crystal\rhad this restaurant,\n\n00:01:31:04 - 00:01:32:17\nthe Driftwood.\n\n00:01:32:17 - 00:01:34:22\n And we'd go there\revery morning for breakfast.\n\n00:01:34:22 - 00:01:39:15\nAnd a place was crawling with artists and\rlifeguards and really interesting people.\n\n00:01:39:15 - 00:01:41:06\nYou’d see Billy Al Bengston,\n\n00:01:41:06 - 00:01:46:01\n  You'd see\rEd Moses, Sam Francis. you'd see\n\n00:01:46:01 - 00:01:49:05\nTunberg, you'd see um...\n\n00:01:49:05 - 00:01:51:19\nGod it...\n\n00:01:51:19 - 00:01:53:21\nall the different artists would go there.\n\n00:01:53:21 - 00:01:58:00\nthen I also started photographing\rall the different people,\n\n00:01:58:00 - 00:02:01:10\nall the different buildings...\n\n00:02:01:10 - 00:02:04:09\nComing from Minneapolis\rto see Los Angeles at that\n\n00:02:04:09 - 00:02:07:08\ntime was pretty thrilling for me.\n\n00:02:07:08 - 00:02:11:15\nThe neon in the city,\rthe pop architecture,\n\n00:02:11:15 - 00:02:16:20\nthe buildings shaped like hot dogs\rand donuts and shoes.\n\n00:02:16:20 - 00:02:18:09\nThe freeways.\n\n00:02:18:09 - 00:02:22:10\nI just started photographing\reverything ‘cause I was\n\n00:02:22:10 - 00:02:24:11\njust amazed at what I was looking at.\n\n00:02:24:11 - 00:02:28:07\nI liked the whole idea\rof this city by the sea.\n\n00:02:28:07 - 00:02:30:07\nAnd it was kind of goofy in a way.\n\n00:02:30:07 - 00:02:33:15\nAnd it had some Italian roots.\n\n00:02:33:15 - 00:02:39:02\nThe colonnades, the architecture\ron Windward and so forth really fascinated me.\n\n00:02:39:02 - 00:02:42:09\nWe were started to do art\rhappenings on the beach.\n\n00:02:42:09 - 00:02:47:06\nAnd the people from the Eames office,\rCharles Eames office, would come down.\n\n00:02:47:06 - 00:02:49:14\nPaolo Soleri\n\n00:02:49:14 - 00:02:51:18\nwould come with his group of people,\n\n00:02:51:18 - 00:02:55:01\npeople from England, Archigram.\n\n00:02:55:01 - 00:02:59:12\nWarren Chalk, a lot of interesting\rpeople came to visit us.\n\n00:02:59:12 - 00:03:02:11\nSo it was a very lively situation.\n\n00:03:02:11 - 00:03:07:21\nShortly after that, I got a job as\ran art director for a television show.\n\n00:03:07:21 - 00:03:10:20\nMy friend Michael Blodgett\rhad a show called\n\n00:03:10:20 - 00:03:14:06\nThe Michael Blodgett Show,\rand they hired me as the art director.\n\n00:03:14:06 - 00:03:17:01\nSo I'd come down to Market Street\n\n00:03:17:01 - 00:03:20:18\nto De Wain Valentine Studio\rand I'd rent a truck\n\n00:03:20:18 - 00:03:24:08\nI'd bring his sculptures\rup to Hollywood and use them\n\n00:03:24:08 - 00:03:27:10\nas the sets in this TV show.\n\n00:03:27:15 - 00:03:31:15\nToday, the same sculptures are in\rthe Museum of Modern Art in New York.\n\n00:03:31:15 - 00:03:34:06\nSo it was really an interesting time.\n\n00:03:34:06 - 00:03:40:19\nYou had Valentine,\ryou had Larry Bell, you had\n\n00:03:40:19 - 00:03:41:09\nIrwin.\n\n00:03:41:09 - 00:03:45:09\nYou had a lot of different people\ron Market Street, and that was fun.\n\n00:03:45:09 - 00:03:46:08\nArchitects also.\n\n00:03:46:08 - 00:03:51:12\nStephen Ehrlich had an office there. Uh, Bob\rGraham eventually had an office there.\n\n00:03:51:12 - 00:03:56:01\nSo I made use out of \ra lot of artists, studio space\n\n00:03:56:01 - 00:03:58:22\nand art to bring up to Hollywood\n\n00:03:58:22 - 00:04:01:06\nto use in my TV show.\n\n00:04:01:06 - 00:04:06:04\nMy friend Michael Hernandez comes to me\rand says, Tom, there's a building for sale\n\n00:04:06:04 - 00:04:09:15\non West Washington Boulevard.\n\n00:04:09:15 - 00:04:12:13\nThat's what's now Abbot Kinney.\n\n00:04:12:13 - 00:04:13:19\nSo I went over and I looked at it.\n\n00:04:13:19 - 00:04:17:04\nIt was a two story old\n\n00:04:17:04 - 00:04:18:19\ngrocery store.\n\n00:04:18:19 - 00:04:22:09\nQuite large, sitting on the corner of Andalusia\n\n00:04:22:09 - 00:04:26:16\nand West Washington,\racross from Intelligentsia now. \n\n00:04:27:02 - 00:04:29:07\nMy friend, uh, Roger Webster\n\n00:04:29:07 - 00:04:32:01\nhad seen what I had done\rwith my warehouses\n\n00:04:32:01 - 00:04:35:07\nwhere I was cutting them\rup and leasing them to people\n\n00:04:35:07 - 00:04:39:03\nand he saw some of the photos I was doing.\n\n00:04:39:03 - 00:04:42:16\nHe says, “You know, if you ever want to go\rin business, you want to be, have  a partner\n\n00:04:42:16 - 00:04:44:20\nI'd be happy to partner with you.”\n\n00:04:44:20 - 00:04:46:04\nSo I called him and we went over\n\n00:04:46:04 - 00:04:47:16\nand we looked at this building\n\n00:04:47:16 - 00:04:50:01\n\rit was a magnificent brick building.\n\n00:04:50:01 - 00:04:53:07\nAnd we were able to buy this building\n\n00:04:53:07 - 00:04:53:23\n\rAnd at that time\n\n00:04:53:23 - 00:04:58:16\nthere was no retail business\ron, what's now Abbot Kinney.\n\n00:04:58:16 - 00:05:01:15\nIt was just this kind of an empty street.\n\n00:05:01:15 - 00:05:07:09\nJust boarded up buildings, and you know, houses.\rOne artist's studio way at the end.\n\n00:05:07:09 - 00:05:12:10\nFreddie Eversley was down there\rand there was a glass company.\n\n00:05:12:10 - 00:05:14:16\nBut no real retail.\n\n00:05:14:16 - 00:05:19:15\nAnd  we decided to do a\rwhat we called the supermarket.\n\n00:05:19:15 - 00:05:22:22\nI leased space to a lot of different local\n\n00:05:22:22 - 00:05:25:17\nvendors, people that were selling things.\n\n00:05:25:17 - 00:05:29:12\nWe had a woodworker,\rwe had a weaver, we had a painter,\n\n00:05:29:12 - 00:05:32:17\nwe had a guy who wanted to set up\ra little shop and encourage\n\n00:05:32:17 - 00:05:37:06\npeople to vote.\rAnd we created this kind of a scene\n\n00:05:37:06 - 00:05:40:17\non West Washington and eventually\n\n00:05:40:17 - 00:05:46:07\nwe got the name changed to,\rto Abbot Kinney because I had uh,\n\n00:05:46:07 - 00:05:50:20\nI went through a depression for a while\rwhen a girlfriend and I broke up. \n\n00:05:50:20 - 00:05:54:14\nAnd a fellow named Doug Trumbull,\rwho's a filmmaker, just died.\n\n00:05:54:14 - 00:05:55:20\nVery nice man.\n\n00:05:55:20 - 00:05:58:17\nLent me a camera, 16 millimeter camera.\n\n00:05:58:17 - 00:06:02:04\nAnd I shot a documentary film\n\n00:06:02:04 - 00:06:04:00\non the history of Venice.\n\n00:06:04:00 - 00:06:06:00\nAnd I got to know about Abbot Kinney.\n\n00:06:06:00 - 00:06:09:22\nMy friend Tom Moran wrote the script\n\n00:06:09:22 - 00:06:13:09\nand we made this little\r16 millimeter film.\n\n00:06:13:09 - 00:06:15:06\nMy friend Brad K, who \n\n00:06:15:06 - 00:06:16:15\nstill lives in Venice\n\n00:06:16:15 - 00:06:19:14\non Superba is a genius with music.\n\n00:06:19:14 - 00:06:23:02\nHe's a specialist in twenties, \rthirties, forties music.\n\n00:06:23:02 - 00:06:26:17\nHe’s got thousands of LP’s of the 78’s.\n\n00:06:26:17 - 00:06:28:20\nHe did the music for it.\n\n00:06:28:20 - 00:06:31:18\nSo we made this little film\ron Venice, California.\n\n00:06:31:18 - 00:06:34:19\nI really kind of related to Abbot Kinney.\n\n00:06:34:19 - 00:06:39:10\nAnd I thought it was really a good idea\rto rename this street after him\n\n00:06:39:10 - 00:06:44:18\nbecause there was another Washington\rBoulevard, and it got kind of confusing.\n\n00:06:44:18 - 00:06:48:01\nSo we sort of started this whole scene\n\n00:06:48:01 - 00:06:52:06\non, on Abbot Kinney with this supermarket.\n\n00:06:52:06 - 00:06:55:07\nBut then...\n\n00:06:55:07 - 00:06:57:17\nOne day, it was a full moon\n\n00:06:57:17 - 00:07:02:03\nI'm walking on the beach,\rthree in the morning, I walk up to Windward\n\n00:07:02:03 - 00:07:04:14\nand I walk down Windward to Pacific\n\n00:07:04:14 - 00:07:08:14\nand there on the corner of Windward\rand Pacific is this arched buildings\n\n00:07:08:14 - 00:07:10:02\nwith the colonnades.\n\n00:07:10:02 - 00:07:13:09\nAnd there's a sign on the building\rit says For Sale.\n\n00:07:13:09 - 00:07:17:02\nAnd inside the building is a laundromat,\n\n00:07:17:02 - 00:07:19:09\n\r\rwashing machines and dryers and\n\n00:07:19:09 - 00:07:21:22\nSo I called the number on the sign.\n\n00:07:21:22 - 00:07:26:03\nThe guy named Lee Ford\rwas the broker selling it.\n\n00:07:26:03 - 00:07:28:20\nAnd he met me down at the building and\n\n00:07:28:20 - 00:07:31:10\nI said, what is the price on it?\n\n00:07:31:10 - 00:07:35:22\nHe told me, I forget what it was,\rover, over $100,000.\n\n00:07:35:22 - 00:07:40:03\nAnd I said, Lee,\rI'll give you $65,000 for the building.\n\n00:07:40:03 - 00:07:44:02\nI don't know where I was going to come up\rwith the money, but I just...dreaming.\n\n00:07:44:02 - 00:07:45:22\nAnd he said, he just laughed and said, No.\n\n00:07:45:22 - 00:07:47:15\nI said, keep my number.\n\n00:07:47:15 - 00:07:51:19\nWell, as luck would have it,\rtwo years later, he called me back.\n\n00:07:51:19 - 00:07:53:04\nHe says, you got it.\n\n00:07:53:04 - 00:07:54:12\nI called Roger.\n\n00:07:54:12 - 00:07:56:18\nI said, You want to go in on this?\n\n00:07:56:18 - 00:07:58:12\nHe didn't know for sure.\n\n00:07:58:12 - 00:08:00:14\n\rI said, oh I'm going to \rbuy it with or without you.\n\n00:08:00:14 - 00:08:02:19\nHe says, fine.\rHe said he’d go in on it with me.\n\n00:08:02:19 - 00:08:04:23\nSo we bought the building\n\n00:08:04:23 - 00:08:06:07\nand on weekend\n\n00:08:06:07 - 00:08:11:01\nwhen he was down in Mexico surfing,\rI decided to move the whole bunch\n\n00:08:11:01 - 00:08:16:16\nof my people that had rented space on West\rWashington Boulevard over to Windward.\n\n00:08:16:16 - 00:08:20:16\nAnd we set up what I call the \rthe Venice Flea market.\n\n00:08:20:16 - 00:08:24:21\nI painted a big graphic on the building,\rI put neon on the arches\n\n00:08:24:21 - 00:08:28:20\nand painted the building\rin fun colors, and it became\n\n00:08:28:20 - 00:08:33:04\nthe sort of the center of Venice,\rthe commercial center,\n\n00:08:33:04 - 00:08:37:04\nand the sort of the soul\rof Venice right on that corner.\n\n00:08:37:04 - 00:08:40:02\nIt was a very, very interesting time.\n\n00:08:40:02 - 00:08:44:00\nThe week before we opened\rI'd met a group called the Mystic Knights\n\n00:08:44:00 - 00:08:48:19\nof the Oingo Boingo\rand there were roller derby dikes.\n\n00:08:48:19 - 00:08:51:05\nThey're gorillas on skates.\n\n00:08:51:05 - 00:08:52:13\nThere were all these different people.\n\n00:08:52:13 - 00:08:56:02\nAnd the Oingo Boingo\rhad just come from France.\n\n00:08:56:02 - 00:08:58:22\nThey'd been performing\ron the streets of France.\n\n00:08:58:22 - 00:09:02:12\nAnd the main guy was Rick Elfman,\n\n00:09:02:12 - 00:09:06:21\nand this was before\rhis brother Danny joined him.\n\n00:09:06:21 - 00:09:10:05\nAnd all of a sudden\n\n00:09:10:05 - 00:09:11:23\nthis group started to play.\n\n00:09:11:23 - 00:09:16:00\nAnd I was amazed that funny\rlittle white tuxedos and\n\n00:09:16:00 - 00:09:18:10\nand fezzes and funny hats. \n\n00:09:18:10 - 00:09:21:11\nSo I got to know them.\rI invited them to come to Venice\n\n00:09:21:11 - 00:09:24:16\n\rto play at the opening of our flea market.\n\n00:09:24:16 - 00:09:28:00\nSo there they showed up\rand of course, there were also\n\n00:09:28:00 - 00:09:29:23\na lot of protesters.\n\n00:09:29:23 - 00:09:31:16\nProtesters came out en masse \n\n00:09:31:16 - 00:09:33:16\nwhen we opened the flea market.\n\n00:09:33:16 - 00:09:35:01\nShouting at us.\n\n00:09:35:01 - 00:09:38:08\nYou know,\rGentrifiers. Developers.\n\n00:09:38:08 - 00:09:39:08\nThey thought, you know\n\n00:09:39:08 - 00:09:41:08\n\rThere's people with balloons\n\n00:09:41:08 - 00:09:43:14\nprotesting in front, it says\n\n00:09:43:14 - 00:09:47:10\nSewell sucks and Webster, maybe.\n\n00:09:47:10 - 00:09:51:13\nI’m Tom Sewell and my partner was Roger Webster. \rSo we’re Sewell and Webster.\n\n00:09:51:13 - 00:09:55:01\nWe were having a ball at \rthe Venice Flea Market.\n\n00:09:55:01 - 00:09:57:01\nAnd then\n\n00:09:57:01 - 00:10:00:01\nmy girlfriend at the time,\rElizabeth Freeman,\n\n00:10:00:01 - 00:10:04:22\nI was back in Minneapolis\rvisiting my family.\n\n00:10:04:22 - 00:10:06:08\nElizabeth Freeman says, \n\n00:10:06:08 - 00:10:09:16\nTom, you've got to come back\rand buy the St. Charles Hotel.\n\n00:10:09:16 - 00:10:14:10\nAt that time it\rwas a really rundown, decrepit,\n\n00:10:14:10 - 00:10:16:10\nderelict hotel.\n\n00:10:16:10 - 00:10:19:05\nIt was for sale and\rhad been for sale for years.\n\n00:10:19:05 - 00:10:21:02\nNobody wanted it.\n\n00:10:21:02 - 00:10:24:03\nSo finally my girlfriend says,\ryou've got to come back and buy it.\n\n00:10:24:03 - 00:10:29:13\nSo I came back and somehow Roger\rand I were able to pony up the money.\n\n00:10:29:13 - 00:10:33:08\nAnd I went in and from top to bottom\n\n00:10:33:08 - 00:10:38:01\ntook the building back to the basic\rbrick, put in, sanded the floors,\n\n00:10:38:01 - 00:10:41:11\nput in graphics and um, fixed up\n\n00:10:41:11 - 00:10:44:14\nthe barn, based on the main floor\n\n00:10:44:14 - 00:10:48:15\nand had this fabulous\rbuilding right on the ocean.\n\n00:10:48:15 - 00:10:53:09\nAnd I leased it to \rarchitects, designers, um, screenwriters.\n\n00:10:53:09 - 00:10:57:02\nActually the movie\rBlade Runner was written there.\n\n00:10:57:02 - 00:10:58:23\nSo we had the uh, the building\n\n00:10:58:23 - 00:11:00:15\nthe building on the beach\n\n00:11:00:15 - 00:11:04:03\nand I had an office there.\n\n00:11:04:03 - 00:11:05:05\nUnique McPeak\n\n00:11:05:05 - 00:11:10:19\nthe tightrope walker set up\ra tight line from our building\n\n00:11:10:19 - 00:11:14:16\nto Environmental Communications,\rwhich was at 62 Windward.\n\n00:11:14:16 - 00:11:17:11\nNow in EC, Environmental Communications\n\n00:11:17:11 - 00:11:20:06\nwas a really interesting group in Venice in the 70’s.\n\n00:11:20:06 - 00:11:24:00\nIt was a group of photographers, artists,\n\n00:11:24:00 - 00:11:29:21\nfilmmakers, and we all had a certain\rlove of the city, of the West Coast.\n\n00:11:29:21 - 00:11:34:12\nAnd were renting dirigibles\rand shooting the city from a dirigible.\n\n00:11:34:12 - 00:11:39:02\nWe're driving the freeways and filming\rthe freeways and I'm shooting the\n\n00:11:39:02 - 00:11:44:14\nthe neon signs and the pop architecture\rand, and the, the billboards.\n\n00:11:44:14 - 00:11:47:23\nIt was a very lively group.\n\n00:11:47:23 - 00:11:51:01\nSo we had the hotel on \rone side of the street\n\n00:11:51:01 - 00:11:56:00\nand Environmental Communications\ron the other side with Roger Webster,\n\n00:11:56:00 - 00:11:59:05\n\rTed Tanaka, Bernard Perloff,\n\n00:11:59:05 - 00:12:01:07\nGeorge Van Hoy,\n\n00:12:01:07 - 00:12:04:15\nGary Greenberg, \rDavid Greenberg, Major Player.\n\n00:12:04:15 - 00:12:09:02\nThen we got the Ant Farm people\rthat did Cadillac Ranch.\n\n00:12:09:02 - 00:12:13:00\nWe got all sorts of other groups involved.\n\n00:12:13:00 - 00:12:16:19\nSo the street became really fabulous.\n\n00:12:16:19 - 00:12:20:13\nBob Irwin was putting up scrims\n\n00:12:20:13 - 00:12:23:03\ndealing with light.\n\n00:12:23:03 - 00:12:25:17\nLarry Bell was...\n\n00:12:25:17 - 00:12:30:06\nLarry Bell hired a friend of mine,\rMike McCue\n\n00:12:30:06 - 00:12:33:17\nto help him create a huge machine\n\n00:12:33:17 - 00:12:37:07\nthe size of a big automobile\rwith a big door on it.\n\n00:12:37:07 - 00:12:41:21\nHe'd be able to put glass\rin there and vaporize\n\n00:12:41:21 - 00:12:44:06\nsomething and put on the glass.\n\n00:12:44:06 - 00:12:46:21\nSo there's Larry Bell \rover there on Market Street,\n\n00:12:46:21 - 00:12:52:13\nworking with his amazing machine,\rmaking these giant glass boxes and things.\n\n00:12:52:13 - 00:12:53:21\nPeople coming from all over.\n\n00:12:53:21 - 00:12:57:22\nEven Marcel Duchamp\rcame to visit Larry Bell at his studio.\n\n00:12:57:22 - 00:13:01:11\nOne of the things I liked best were the\n\n00:13:01:11 - 00:13:03:18\nmy involvement with the architects.\n\n00:13:03:18 - 00:13:06:16\nYou've got a building \rlike this by David Hertz,\n\n00:13:06:16 - 00:13:09:02\nwho did amazing things in Venice.\n\n00:13:09:02 - 00:13:12:09\nI met him when he was just a young guy.\n\n00:13:12:09 - 00:13:16:12\nHe was designing concrete furniture \n\n00:13:16:12 - 00:13:21:00\nand he went on to design\runbelievable things.\n\n00:13:21:00 - 00:13:23:22\nFrank Gehry had his studio down here\n\n00:13:23:22 - 00:13:26:14\non the boardwalk.\n\n00:13:26:14 - 00:13:30:07\nAnd I'd stop in and I'd see Frank\rand I'd walk into his office\n\n00:13:30:07 - 00:13:35:00\nand there he is standing\rthere was this model of what\n\n00:13:35:00 - 00:13:38:15\nbecame the Chiat Day building with, uh...\n\n00:13:38:15 - 00:13:41:23\nfabulous building with \rbinoculars in front of it.\n\n00:13:41:23 - 00:13:45:14\nAnd what he had done\ris just taken some binoculars.\n\n00:13:45:14 - 00:13:47:21\nKlaus Oldenburg was with him,\rtakes the binoculars and sits\n\n00:13:47:21 - 00:13:49:19\nand sets them in front of the building.\n\n00:13:49:19 - 00:13:52:22\nAnd they designed that\rinto the into the structure.\n\n00:13:52:22 - 00:13:55:14\nI mean things like that were happening.\n\n00:13:55:14 - 00:13:58:12\nGehry, Hertz,\n\n00:13:58:12 - 00:14:02:09\nFred Fisher, building that pink house\n\n00:14:02:09 - 00:14:07:18\nfor, for LPC on Paul Kaplan\r on San Juan Avenue\n\n00:14:07:18 - 00:14:11:15\nextremely important event,\n\n00:14:11:15 - 00:14:13:01\narchitecturally.\n\n00:14:13:01 - 00:14:19:02\nRestaurants are another big part of Venice,\ryou know, really a big part.\n\n00:14:19:02 - 00:14:21:18\nWhere the Driftwood was\n\n00:14:21:18 - 00:14:27:05\nthat I liked so much back in the late\rsixties were the artists\n\n00:14:27:05 - 00:14:31:15\nand the lifeguards\rwould meet in the morning.\n\n00:14:31:15 - 00:14:35:21\nThat became Robert's restaurant.\n\n00:14:35:21 - 00:14:38:18\nTwo guys, Hal\n\n00:14:38:18 - 00:14:41:19\nand Robert opened this restaurant.\n\n00:14:41:19 - 00:14:45:09\nIt was the first 100%\rcotton napkins and tablecloths.\n\n00:14:45:09 - 00:14:48:23\nPink, great lighting,\n\n00:14:48:23 - 00:14:50:21\na jukebox playing\n\n00:14:50:21 - 00:14:53:21\nBillie Holiday and all these great tunes.\n\n00:14:53:21 - 00:14:56:02\nAnd it just became this\n\n00:14:56:02 - 00:14:59:02\nmagnet for interesting people.\n\n00:14:59:02 - 00:15:02:03\nSo there was Robert's,\n\n00:15:02:03 - 00:15:05:22\nlater Hal’s on West Washington,\n\n00:15:05:22 - 00:15:10:19\nof course 72 Market Street,\rTony Bill created 72 Market Street.\n\n00:15:10:19 - 00:15:13:08\nWas one of the big,\n\n00:15:13:08 - 00:15:15:21\none of the most magic\rthings that happened to Venice.\n\n00:15:15:21 - 00:15:20:05\nFirst of all the place IS\rbeautifully designed.  Robert Graham.\n\n00:15:20:05 - 00:15:21:15\nI think Thom Mayne\n\n00:15:21:15 - 00:15:24:01\nwas responsible\rfor most of the design.\n\n00:15:24:01 - 00:15:28:20\nThe building looked great.\rBig sliding door right on the sidewalk,\n\n00:15:28:20 - 00:15:30:14\nso you go and sit down and have lunch.\n\n00:15:30:14 - 00:15:33:05\nThe door is wide open,\ryou know, the whole wall was open.\n\n00:15:33:05 - 00:15:37:10\n You can see the surfers walking by\rand the people.  You’d see Valentine\n\n00:15:37:10 - 00:15:41:18\nacross the street and Bell\rand who whoever, Andy Summers\n\n00:15:41:18 - 00:15:44:18\nfrom The Police.\n\n00:15:44:18 - 00:15:46:07\n72 Market Street\n\n00:15:46:07 - 00:15:49:19\nsomehow...\n\n00:15:49:19 - 00:15:52:10\nit was like spark for a fire.\n\n00:15:52:10 - 00:15:55:00\nMagic happened in those days.\n\n00:15:55:00 - 00:15:57:16\nAnd then the dinners,\ryou'd walk in and there’s\n\n00:15:57:16 - 00:16:01:07\nat one table you've got\rFrank Gehry, another table you've got\n\n00:16:01:07 - 00:16:05:17\nyou know, some art collector\rand you've got Broad, \n\n00:16:05:17 - 00:16:08:06\nEli Broad over here and you got\n\n00:16:08:06 - 00:16:11:12\nValentine having lunch,\ryou've got Hopper over in the corner.\n\n00:16:11:12 - 00:16:14:07\nI mean, it’s like, you could\rdo a painting of it you know.\n\n00:16:14:07 - 00:16:16:16\nIt was magic.\n\n00:16:16:16 - 00:16:22:04\nSo restaurants became, you know,\r up and down the street, became a really\n\n00:16:22:04 - 00:16:27:04\nimportant draw and cultural,\rand cultural significance.\n\n00:16:27:04 - 00:16:29:06\nI wanted to preserve what we could.\n\n00:16:29:06 - 00:16:33:00\nThe buildings that we were buying\rwere historic buildings.\n\n00:16:33:00 - 00:16:34:14\nThey were very interesting buildings.\n\n00:16:34:14 - 00:16:35:21\nI wanted to save them.\n\n00:16:35:21 - 00:16:41:23\nA lot of them were getting torn down\rand I felt it was important to save them.\n\n00:16:41:23 - 00:16:47:04\nSo everything we bought\rhad some kind of historic value\n\n00:16:47:04 - 00:16:51:08\nand we turned it into something\n\n00:16:51:08 - 00:16:55:11\nthat was more valuable than what it was.\n\n00:16:55:11 - 00:17:00:00\nMost of them were derelict buildings.\rSo Roger and I ended up buying\n\n00:17:00:00 - 00:17:03:20\nquite a few buildings\rand restoring and fixing them up.\n\n00:17:03:20 - 00:17:07:04\nI love finding value\rwhere there is none.\n\n00:17:07:04 - 00:17:10:12\nI love creating beauty\rwhere there is none.\n\n00:17:10:12 - 00:17:13:20\nI mean when I saw \rwhat everyone was doing\n\n00:17:13:20 - 00:17:19:02\nand I saw people like,\ryou know, Doug Christmas, the dealer,\n\n00:17:19:02 - 00:17:22:08\nand I saw people like Thom Mayne\n\n00:17:22:08 - 00:17:27:12\nmaking art as well as architecture.\n\n00:17:27:12 - 00:17:30:18\nRon Cooper I saw.\n\n00:17:30:18 - 00:17:34:02\nBell, who's Larry Bell\rwho's still producing\n\n00:17:34:02 - 00:17:38:03\nfantastic art at age 82.\n\n00:17:38:03 - 00:17:39:11\nWhen I saw what they were doing\n\n00:17:39:11 - 00:17:46:15\nI mean, it rubs off on you, you know,\ryou can't help but feel inspired and\n\n00:17:46:15 - 00:17:48:08\nthe magazine people come down\n\n00:17:48:08 - 00:17:53:21\nand the book people come down\rand the performers and Philip Glass\n\n00:17:53:21 - 00:17:56:21\nand all the people \rthat pass through Venice\n\n00:17:56:21 - 00:17:58:09\nleave something.\n\n00:17:58:09 - 00:18:00:13\nThey leave something tangible,\n\n00:18:00:13 - 00:18:03:17\nmuch more so here than anyplace else.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119607/file/226605#t=0.0,1153.51467"}]}]}]}