THE PLAYBOY CLUB
Being the local photographer for the Playboy Club in St. Petersburg Florida had it's benefits. I got a chance to meet and work with David Chan who was their Art Director and Head Photographer that year. Mr. Hefner was selling franchises at that time and who would ever believe the Playboy Organization would ever franchise a club in St. Petersburg. It's remotely part of the Bible Belt though closest to the Bible Socks would be a better description.

While the club was open, life was good. Good food, good entertainment. And almost every night someone of significance popped in. Many great nightclub acts, and the music of the seventies. The Corporate Playboy crew, and an endless supply of Bunnies. My job, catch what I could while being as far in the background as possible. Also to cull pictures of certain folks who were never there.

That's because the place was never exactly blessed by the local clergy and thus the politicos that hung out there didn't want the clergy to know where they were sinning. (Ha, what a joke, Lucifer wasn't an only child) If they only knew several of the brothers of the cloth had their own nights there, all hell would of broken loose.

Remember in those days the uniforms were scandalous. Compared to today, they were overdressed. There's more exposure in our Hooters and Wing joints here today. When they had their open Bunny Call to hire, it was standing room only for hours. I got to know most of the girls who worked there and the gals were great, both in personality and it was a very uplifting experience for me. Pure wire torqued to extremes. The girls told me they were not that comfortable to wear, very stiff and that originated the "Bunny Dip" to serve drinks. You couldn't bend in it.

They were closely watched, almost like a national treasure, limited access to the Bunny dressing rooms and a Bunny Mother was always there. I could float where I wanted but stayed clear of the back end. Problematic girls were quickly dispatched as was their policy. No hanky, no panky, and no problems...

All of the clubs are closed today to my knowledge, except whatever Mr. Hefner's company holdings are. The franchises died off. I don't know about the one in England. The one in St. Petersburg went belly up and closed. I managed to salvage my last paycheck by running a big, big, tab at the restaurant and bar with dinners for friends and scooted. That was the end. They closed up. Bankrupt. I had a 2300 dollar farewell party.

Note: I have two pictures left from that entire time. Every other negative and photo got stuffed in a garbage can and burnt. X-Wives will do that to you. In the wedding section, I mention that again. Twenty or so years work and pictures went in seconds. I divorced her just as quick.

N5707U

Airplanes have always been a passion with me. When I won the award for "Truant of the Year" in Brooklyn one of my favorite hangouts was the Naval air station at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn N.Y. I could spend hours watching the Corsairs and the Catalina's taking off and landing. I was there with sketch pad and pencil. I earned a reputation for being a very talented artistic truant. My work was always held in high esteem by Nathan Rochlin, Dean of Boys, he knew me well.

Well the NAVY was very hospitable to me, my friend Ron Benas's dad had a concession there, and that summer I got a job at the base serving Cokes and hot dogs at the refreshment stand. Wow 75 cents an hour. After begging, pleading, and generally staying out of trouble for almost two weeks I finally got a ride. I was hooked. Granted a DC-3 wasn't state of the art but it did fly.

So after two years of school, I decided being so young, the rest of college could wait and I would enlist in the NAVY and learn to fly. Well, the recruiter at the airbase pulled no punches and told me a college degree was now required. I was less than halfway there, far less and bored.

So I did the next best thing, I went down to Whitehall street in NY and spoke to an Air Force Recruiter. He told me anything I wanted to hear. Sound familiar. I was Air Force and packed on a DC-3 for Lackland AFB Texas. Three days of storms, engine failure, hop-skipping to Texas and nothing but candy bars and soda. Me and fifteen other guys barfed from NJ to Texas. And my second great experience in a DC-3.

It's all history after that. They never did teach me to fly. I did get a few hours in a 65 hp. Piper Cub at Loring AFB, Maine. I went for my private Pilots License. It was owned by my unit commander who also flew the really big stuff. What a great guy. He was from Brooklyn. It was slightly less exciting flying the Cub than the B52's and KC135's I rode on. But I was upfront in the Cub.

He got me my first twin time. Fifteen minutes in a Provider C-123 with the two extra J-Pack engines. The 123 had two engines, recips, and enough oil on the tarmac to make a DC-3 envious. It was the predecessor to the Herky Bird.

Loring is now closed, now the Deer and the Caribou can play. The Moose was another story. One made it to the flight line. The most actively guarded cold war base with 10 foot fences, tiers of barbed wire and machine guns, listening devices, security guards on patrol in Jeeps couldn't stop a Moose from making it to the runway. No one ever figured that one out. My report triggered a Moose-Snowplow confrontation with the words over the Command post teleprompter, (like an etch-a-sketch device) "MOOSE LOOSE ON RUNWAY".

Thirty years later, I bought my first airplane the Piper Cherokee 150 with the Hershey Bar Wings, you see above. Five airplanes later and a few ratings, I still look at the sky and dream about those Corsairs. Recently bumming the air shows, I got a glimpse of one of the Corsairs that had been performing that day. I went over to it, and photo magic.. I just sat there looking at it thinking had I gone on to becoming a great brain surgeon instead of playing hooky, I could be the owner of that plane right now.

Then the little woman of my life, tapped me on the shoulder and said; Listen it's getting late, lets head to the parking and get in Little Bird and fly home before the rest of the folks at the show get backed up like the previous year. I came back to reality. We all have dreams, I realized I had accomplished something and had made my dream come true, I was very lucky. I may not of flown a Corsair but managed to tickle a few clouds for 3000 hours....

DO YOU PHOTOGRAPH CHILDREN ?

So the nice lady on the phone asks if I photograph women and children, at the time I was doing some work for the Playboy Club. I replied "Women yes, children not really".

She replies: "Well you were referred to us by so-and-so". Since so-and-so was a good client of mine, in that case, I said "Drop by the studio and I'll see what you have in mind and perhaps we'll put something together".

At that time shots of women bare backed with children in their arms, sometime called the "Madonna Shot" was getting popular and OK maybe I had to throw one up on the wall.

Now I always had a way with women, the wrong way. But this was love at first sight. It was her eyes that caught me off guard.

This kid had more brass and confidence than any kid I ever met. Her name was Shana. I shot for two hours and learned Shana's story.
Shana told it to me.

She was diagnosed with MD I believe, and goes to school main stream under a program they were trying at that time. This was a radical idea in those days.

If you look carefully at the bottom picture Shana was to graduate to braces and crutches with a little more work and get out of the chair.

Well, Oh, the pictures? They were for the AD Campaign called "Care, then share" for the United Way of Florida in Pinellas County and became part of the billboards and media blitz that went statewide..

Later on, I was to find out that Shana did not have what the Doctors had diagnosed and instead had a treatable condition. I learned She did very well in school and then I lost track of her.

I know she has a wonderful life. It couldn't turn out any other way...

Gen. Henry H. Shelton (USA Ret.) CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS

The Statue:
General Shelton Is one of those special people you cross paths with in life that makes an impression. Called a Soldier's Soldier by his troops, I never met a Commander in any level of the military whose staff spoke so warmly and felt truly privileged to work with. They liked him and he was their leader.

While on vacation in Colorado I heard of his appointment as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs by then President Bill Clinton.

Normally the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs serves on the Joint Chiefs and the Deputy becomes Chairman. In this case it was a direct appointment by President Clinton. It was felt at that time during the beginnings of the "War on Terrorism", a change in our thinking might be needed.

Certainly September 11, 2001 proved that. General Shelton, a snake-eater or "Special Ops" type expert was the first to assume the position of Chairman with that kind of specialized training and experience. Good choice.

While watching the announcement of his appointment on a TV in a store in Colorado Springs known for artwork, I noticed a piece by artist Scott Stearman. It said everything it had to say about the sense of honor and duty he has shown for his country and his men. We commissioned the artist for the statue. I had the pleasure of being one of the presenters of this artwork to General Shelton in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Leandri, a true friend of the the Military and especially the men and women of the "Quiet Professionals", our Special Forces.

I requested that it be displayed in the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and any politician who would send our men into harm's way would see it... who would know that before September 11th, 2001?

The Office Party:
Upon his appointment to the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I once again had the opportunity to go see General Shelton with many of the other members of our organization and with "25 Pizzas in hand". Our aim was to both feed the staff, an impromptu office farewell party, and wish him God's speed on his journey to Washington. The ceremonial inscribed butt pack shown below was filled with survival gear for Washington, namely earplugs, aspirins, and a roll of camouflaged G.I. Tissue to help through those trying Washington sessions with some of the members of Congress.

Being the true gentleman he is he took all the ribbing in stride and we all had a great time at the surprise luncheon. How did we know he preferred Papa Johns Pizza? Oh, a little underhanded spying on our behalf and canvassing every pizza joint within five miles of MacDill AFB. got us that info. Once an operator, always an operator.

History Repeats Itself:
In 2004, our organization who is building the CENTCOM Memorial at MacDill commissioned the same Scott Stearman, to sculpt the life size statues for the United States Central Command Memorial.

I am a Board Member of the Foundation and the coincidence or divine guidance has placed that piece of artwork twice in my life. This time I had to have one for my home as a reminder. If you wish to learn more about the Memorial Foundation, the actual monument to be built at MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida, please feel free to contact me through my email. The link to the site is as follows: www.centcommemorial.org I am also the webmeister and photographer for the organization. We are a registered 501C non-profit organization.

Eddie Adams...1933-2004

The final shot: NEW YORK - September 19,2004 --

Eddie Adams, a photojournalist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer is best remembered by a photo of a communist guerrilla being executed in a Saigon street during the Vietnam War. He died Sunday, the 19th of September. He was 71. Mr. Adams died at his Manhattan home from complications due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Back to 2001: So you sit next to this guy at a Nikon Bash in Vegas and your wife says "who is that gentleman you are talking to". "Oh, he's probably one of the most honored photographers of our time. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his work. He's well known in journalism, corporate, editorial, fashion, entertainment and advertising". He's been featured in Time, Newsweek, Life, Paris Match, Parade, Penthouse, Vogue, The London Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, Stern and Vanity Fair, in addition to his photographs of 13 wars. Then she says "Does he always wear a hat indoors". I said "he can wear a hat anywhere".

He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his startling photograph of the execution of a Viet Cong from a single photo taken Feb. 1, 1968, the second day of the communists' Tet Offensive, in the embattled streets of Cholon, Saigon's Chinese quarter.

I found this tidbit on PNN's page. and I quote, "Eddie Adams is a man to whom Clint Eastwood said, "Good shot", Fidel Castro said, "Let's go duck hunting", The Pope said, "You've got three minutes". His portraits of presidents ranged from Richard Nixon to President Bush, and those of world figures included Deng Xiao Ping, Anwar Sadat, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr. Adams won a 1969 Pulitzer Prize for the Saigon execution picture, among the more than 500 honors he received in his career, including a 1978 Robert Capa Award and three George Polk Memorial Awards for war coverage.

The picture I took of him is him. We were at the Harley Davidson Club in Las Vegas. He was resplendent in black, with the fedora always worn squared to the head. I sat next to him at a many of the Nikon bashes and had the chance to chat with him. He was not as short with people as many have said, he was just great at what he did and when working very focused. The 2005 Nikon Calendar has many of Eddies imagery magic.

Marty Forscher

The Dean Emeritus of the Camera Repair and Innovation business is Marty Forscher. No doubt about that. His contributions to the industry are too much to mention in this humble venue. I met him many decades ago in NY and usually see him once a year at the PMA.

Watching him work was a distinct honor and maybe with the addition of some input from my uncle caused me to become interested in taking things apart. The difference is he can put them back together. Hopefully in my next life I will tackle that.

Many fine Pentax and Minolta lenses work on Nikons now. Albeit things were possible in the old days and he was the master. With today's propriety built in, nothing fits nothing!

The Polaroid's he adapted for 35mm and medium format opened the eyes and the doors for professional photographers. It's rumored some still shoot with their eyes closed. Look at their work!

Just making it work with the NPC line of backs is more than you might think. It took fiber optics when few even knew what they were. In this copy cat world, his approaches and ideas were out of the box and they worked.

The shape of a 35mm SLRS film track and viewfinder eyepiece mean that the focal plane for Polaroid material lies at least 12mm behind the focal plane for conventional film. With the emulsion lying so far away you can never achieve proper focus. Various solutions were attempted. Few worked. In the early '80s, Marty Forscher had the brilliantly simple idea of bridging the gap with a spring-mounted block of fused fiber optic bundles.

I just received this email from one of the gang back in the old days....

Hi:
Thank you for remembering Professional camera and Marty Forscher on your web site. I was one of their mechanics in 1977. Professional Camera occupies a special place in my heart and my mind. Another former employee Noah Schwartz and I have created a web site devoted especially to Pro Camera. It is an on line virtual tour of the shop and the employees who worked there. I am trying to preserve the memory of what that place was at one time. Here is the URL.

http://www.theworldofcomputron.com/Work_Hist_Pg_008.htm