ASSISTING RICHARD AVEDON 1959 - 1962
Continuing the story from where it left off:
November 1959, Allentown, Pennsylvania. I'm fresh out of the army and once again enjoying my wonderful cabin in the woods. Also, I don't know what to do next. Prior to my military service, I had worked in New York City as a second assistant to the famous photographer Richard Avedon. Do I contact him and ask for my old job back?
Before I could decide, his studio manager, Frank Finocchio, called my mother to ask when I'd be free. Right now, she said. That settled it.
At this time Avedon was working with CBS on a TV extravaganza called the Fabulous Fifties to celebrate the past decade. I think this was the first time he had ever worked in TV, although he knew his way around movie sets. So he invited me to come over and watch the taping, after which we would discuss the job offer. I took a few snapshots of this, including the ones above. The two-hour show had an all-star cast, and was narrated by Henry Fonda. The three foreground figures in the photo above are Frank Finocchio, Suzy Parker, and Avedon.
I was hooked, and by December had moved back to Manhattan, to temporary digs just off Sutton Place. The studio had moved, also, to a new location at 110 East 58th Street, off Park Avenue.
The job went well, almost as if I had never left. There was a constant parade of celebs, plus lots of fashion and cosmetic ads to do. And I soon found a nice apartment in a brownstone townhouse on East 69th Street at Second Avenue, as I was now making enough to live comfortably.
Then, on March 31, 1961, came what I later realized was a test. I was selected as the only assistant to accompany him on a trip to NASA headquarters at Langley Field, Virginia, to photograph the three original astronauts. As an enticement to the three he brought along Suzy Parker, who by this time had starred in several Hollywood movies. We flew down to Norfolk, where I rented a car and drove us to the Air Force Base.
After lunch in the mess hall, we set up our equipment in a hanger, and in came the three: Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and Gus Grissom. Then nature turned on us. A big thunderstorm struck, and we had problems with the electricity until Shepard showed me how to tap into emergency circuits. After the shoot, I even got to squeeze into a practice Mercury capsule. That's my visitor badge on the left.
The storm grew worse, and all flights out of the area were cancelled. Avedon had appointments in New York the next day, so we decided to drive through the mess, by way of Washington as the Bay Bridge-Tunnel hadn't been built yet. Now, he was not a driver but Suzy was game to do it part of the way. All through the night we pushed through the elements and entered the Lincoln Tunnel around daybreak.
He must have been impressed, because not too long after that Frank was out and I was the new studio manager.
What about the drunk adventures with the Beatles? You need to talk about the run-ins with the rock stars...
Good blog.
Posted by: Jim | August 13, 2006 at 08:51 PM