Godspeed, J.P. Patches

He's gone.

We Puget Sound Boomers who grew up watching live local TV in the late 1950s to 1960s came to love J.P. Patches. Contrary to legend, I do not believe Portlander Matt Groening based his Simpsons Krusty the Clown character on J.P., but rather on Portland's Rusty Nails, an Oregon J.P. counterpart.

J.P. was not really a clown, he was not really an adult, he was something else. Something special. An adult who understood us. He introduced us kids to Spike Jones music, improv theater, and anarchy. He certainly was a key figure in shaping the lives of local cartoonists and was a big influence on my own art.

I interviewed J.P. in person in 1975. I was impressed how he gave me, a nobody college student, his entire morning. Bob Newman, who played Gertrude, joined us as well. I had seen J.P. a couple times before, first at the opening of the big shopping center in west Olympia (now the home of Grocery Outlet) ca. 1960 and later I saw him at the Century 21 World's Fair in 1962 on a go-cart with Gertrude.

Goodbye J.P., we love you. And thanks for all the fun you gave to us Patches Pals.

Favorite Movie Quotes: Nixon

Nixon talks to a portrait of JFK: "When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are."

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 41]

And yes, I actually do have an autographed copy of Six Crises signed by Tricky Dick when he was running for Governor of California in 1962. He was apparently up here for the Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) around that time so maybe that's how a copy came to be found in a local used book store in the 1970s.

Much to my horror as an old 1972 McGovern volunteer, I discovered some years ago Nixon and I are probably distant cousins connected through the Trimmer family of New Jersey and then Ohio.

Morty Comix # 2317

Morty Comix # 2317 was left on the front door handles of a long vacant Hollywood Video as an offering to the nearly extinct VHS/DVD rental Gods. In fact, it was almost as if I was in ancient Olympia, Greece honoring some now forgotten deity instead of being on the westside of chronically overcast Olympia, Washington, leaving some cartoon art on a place that once housed a great collection of movies. I bought a few of their used vids when the store was alive and those movies show up in this blog.

It was very near this spot I first met J.P. Patches about 1960 when he came to open the new Peterson's Foodtown shopping area, now occupied by Grocery Outlet. I would later see him again at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 and, incredibly, got to interview him on the set in 1975. J.P. Patches is one of my personal heroes, so as you can see the very area where I deposited this residue of my cartoon hand is a special one with a lot of history.  

Notice the Bil Keane-like crucifix symbol posing as a telephone pole over the roofline, giving the image an almost tragically sacred tone. When Hollywood Video pulled out of this place overnight, apparently in some nasty dispute with the landlord according to word of mouth (for what that is worth), they created a literal black space for cinema enthusiasts in the area. And that was quite awhile ago. In fact, in Phone Photo 566 from last year, the place was already closed. I sure hope the workers there were not screwed over in the process.

If video killed the radio star, then Internet killed the video star.

So, Morty Comix # 2317 was offered in remembrance. It probably fell on the ground, got rained on, and is now pulp in the storm drains. A fitting fate in this land of constant rain and natural recycling.

Phone photo 1045

Seattle Center

Phone photo 1042

The Space Needle turns 50

Phone photo 861

On the left, my paternal grandparents born 1887 and 1890, portraits drawn into wood by Mary Ann Bigelow about 25 years ago. The ports were taken from a photo taken around 1906-1907. Londy and Calla were products of the border region of Kentucky/Virginia.

The chalk portrait is me at the Seattle World's Fair ca. 1962.

All three of us were destined to spend most of our lives in the 20th century (unless I live into my 90s). I only overlapped in time with my grandmother for a few years, but long enough for her to be branded into my memory.

Bezango: The World's Fair and the Gayway

Olympia Power & Light, March 23-April 5, 2011

J.P. Patches and Gertrude are still around, I'm happy to say. There is a mistaken belief that Matt Groening based Krusty the Clown on J.P., but down in Portland they had their own live kid show host, another clown named Rusty Nails. I used to watch Rusty when I visited my cousins in Vancouver, across the Columbia River.

Matt and Lynda Barry and I used to talk about J.P. and Rusty quite a bit. It was during the time we were together in college that I interviewed J.P. in person, and both of my fellow cartoonists were hungry for the details. Lynda also grew up as a Patches Pal.

I must say having seen both J.P. and Rusty, there was no comparison. J.P. had the magic, Rusty did not. I'm convinced Krusty is Rusty.