#gruenfair

Oscar “Buttons” Robinson, Birmingham, England, 1927

When Oscar Robinson got his coat back from the Chinese cleaners he found it had several extra buttons sewn on in unconvincing ways.  As it was a cold and damp afternoon, he decided to wear it anyway, and get the extra buttons removed by his club’s tailor on the weekend.

Long story short, all the favorable attention given to his unusual sartorial mischance caused young Oscar to rethink his entire wardrobe’s button number and placement, and, over time, earned him the nickname “Buttons.”

Later in life, upon the medical removal of both his eyes, his nickname was revised to Oscar “No Eyes” Robinson.

Vintage postcard of longtime Hollywood resident Claude Gaynor.

Though Claude Gaynor was neither a mystical swami nor an astronaut from the future, he liked to dress as both. At the same time if possible.

He could often be seen early on a Saturday morning frequenting garage sales in the neighborhood, but rarely buying anything.

One time he asked a woman to hold a “Jesus Hates It When You Smoke” ashtray for him, telling her that he'd be right back with the money. But it was two whole hours before he came back. She still had the ashtray, but had thought about selling it to a persistent neighbor and didn’t like being put in a spot like that.

Evocative paperback cover for ‘Escape From Gruenfair’ by Baby Gruenwald, a nurse romance/ecological thriller published in 1947 by Dell Books, the story set at the iconic Gruenfair (the Gruenwald mansion) in Culver Hills, Los Angeles.

Postcard from the 1930s of Morgan Rafael DeYoung and his lushly wooded Culver Hills estate.

The wild-eyed industialist never ventured inside the showplace (just down the hill from the Gruenwald mansion), preferring to live within the clockwork mechanism of the large rococo-style fountain behind the secluded property.

When asked why he didn’t live inside his gorgeous home, DeYoung would always mumble something about “termites,” and wander off to fish for steelhead in his man-made lake or hunt for meerkats in his man-made zoo.

After investigation by social workers, it appears DeYoung hadn’t meant “termites” at all, but “wolves,” a pack of which had taken up residence in the south wing’s china pantry.

Vintage old-timey postcard of Gruenfair del Mar featuring numerous rusty stains of an unknown ilk, which can be significantly reduced through the use of Photoshop or another image retouching program.

We here at the photo desk of the Baby Gruenwald: Forever is a Long Time blog don’t believe in “fixing” things that don’t need to be fixed, and find the light freckling a beautiful enhancement to the original look of the card.

A THOUGHT: