Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Boy With A Bumble Bee On A String---Young Art Collector Had a Bumblebee Tied On A String Attached To His Shirt


Have you ever seen a person with a bumblebee tied on a string attached to their shirt?  I did back in 1969. The young art collector mentioned in Paul Richard's Review in the Washington Post of the very first ever exhibit of underground original comic art in a major museum was the person with a bumblebee for a pet.
See my blog post below this one for information on that show and to read Paul Richard's two reviews of that show. The show of underground comic art was at The Washington Gallery of Modern Art in May of 1969.

I will not name the young collector since I want to protect his privacy.
   He bought some art by Gilbert Shelton. I know he bought the Billy Graham and the Dope Mystics(see it it in the post just below this one) because I saw it in his home. He showed it to me. Paul Richard writes that he bought a Wonder Wart Hog original by Gilbert Shelton also.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Wart-Hog
After the show this young man called me up and wanted to come into D.C. to see me.He lived nearby in Arlington, Va.  I remember he also invited me to his home and showed me slides of pictures he had taken in  Antarctica. He projected the images on a large movie type screen.
 They were professional quality photographs of ice he had taken on some assignment.

When he came into D.C. he had a bumblebee on a string attached to a button on his shirt. It flew around and around. He explained to me that he had taken the stinger out of his pet bumblebee.
I see by looking at Youtube there are several people who have put bumblebees on strings and filmed the bees flying around. They seem to think it is funny.

For lunch he told me he could only eat hamburgers from a place like Burger King where the meat was flame broiled.

Then we went to a small museum or gallery of African Art.  Standing in the front room of an old D.C. townhouse  we began to look at the art on the walls. He bent over to pick up something and a pistol fell out of his coat. I heard something hit the highly polished blond hardwood floor. I looked down to see a pistol spinning around and around.

   D.C. has some very strict gun laws. I think they were just as strict in 1969 as they are now. Guns are not allowed in D.C. Only criminals and the D.C. police can have them. Well, that is not exactly true anymore. Someone sued over this law recently and through a very complicated and difficult process people can obtain a license for a gun. But back then I don't think they could.
   I suggested we leave the gallery after he picked up his gun.