I have read several articles this morning that suggest David Lynch had to relocate due to the Los Angeles Fire. The full truth is yet to emerge! But, I can’t wait. I am the Surrealist owner of a Surrealist newspaper and blog, Royal Rosamond Press.
I went to the University of Oregon twenty years ago and saw David speak. I just looked for the video I made, and my post on this Genius. I hope I did not lose these things when my last blog crashed.
David began his talk by discribing the ride from the Eugene Airport on Highway 99.
“This is my kind of town. We went past the old saw shop and Dairy Queen!”
David has inspired a movie…..La sale Hollywood douzaine!
Las Sale Hollywood Douzaine
by
John Ptesco
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Dirty Hollywood Dozen is about twelve aging Hollywood Folks who are burned out of their homes and end up in a funky motel – they thought was in Santa Monica. But, as the fire advanced, they went though a portal of some kind and ended up at the Oaks Motel. Meeting in the lobby, they discuss the idea that Roman Polanski is being brought there. He’s coming out of hiding. Alas they are forced to face the truth they believe Roman is the greatest movie maker that ever lived, and would have gone on to make movies beyond compare, if it were not for Charlie Manson, and that Lolita Roman drugged and seduced. It is rumored Roman put many right-wing Republicans in office.
As the hours went by, David asks
“How many or you contributed to Charlies Manson’s music career.?”
Slowly, everyone raised their hand.
“We’re fucked! Our careers – are shot all to hell!”
When I was fourteen I carreid around ‘Don Juan In Hell’. My friend’s father own four 78s of Geroge Bernard Shaw reading ‘Man and Superman’.
David spoke about his Transcendtal Meditation, but, regrets he did not take the last step into the light like I did, when I became a seeker of Weird Lamps in Goodwill and Saint Vincent De Paul stores. I drove down 99 in my quest in my 1972 Ford pickup.. Alas I found, not one – but two Grails. You can see in this video….I am a happy man!
To be Continued
EXTRA! In looking for the Rose song David mentioned, I came upon his song in this video. I see David found his…..grail, his lamp. I suspected we had found the same Escape Hatch, long ago. David appears to have had a vision of how he was going to die. Here is my first choice for the title of my movie…
La dernière panique…….The Last Panic
He saw that the sky was noticeably darker than usual
And he saw a huge, red-orange glow moving on the horizon
Just then, a man appeared running frantically in the street
The man yelling, “Fire is coming! Fire is coming!
Fire is coming! Fire is coming!
Fire is coming! Fire is coming!”
Song by Flying Lotus
The yellow phone on the wall started ringing
Tommy jumped
Then ran across the kitchen and picked up the receiver
“Hello?” he said, a little out of breath
Tommy’s father was downstairs in the basement wood shop
Cutting a piece of clear pine on the table saw
The sound of the saw was screechingly loud
And a big bloom of agitated sawdust was forming in the air
Tommy’s mother was outside on the front lawn
Tending to a small flower garden
She was visibly upset about her flowers’ condition
She was observing a black film on the stems and leaves
Then trying to wipe this black substance away
While running hose water on it
But it was too greasy, and the water wasn’t washing it away
The front door opened and Tommy appeared behind his mother
“Mom, there’s a phone call for you”
Tommy’s mom stood up and turned
The garden hose in her right hand shooting water
“Who is it?” she asked
“I don’t know. It’s a man. He said you would know what it’s about”
Tommy’s mom stood frozen for a moment
And Tommy saw lines of worry racing across her face
Something else scrambled into Tommy’s awareness
He saw that the sky was noticeably darker than usual
And he saw a huge, red-orange glow moving on the horizon
Just then, a man appeared running frantically in the street
The man yelling, “Fire is coming! Fire is coming!
Fire is coming! Fire is coming!
Fire is coming! Fire is coming!”
EXTRA! I found a video that was made sixteen years ago. There was so much light! In his song David is facing his fear of dying from emphysema. The sawdust in the air. The film on the plants. There was much smoke in the air, Did he run out of oxygen? Did David find peace in pure coccineous?
La dernière panique
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me in 2017, which also featured four more songs written by Lynch
A collection of collaborative albums from Lynch crossed Lux Vivens with Jocelyn Montgomery in 1998, The Air Is on Fire with producer and composer Dean Hurley, who also worked on Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017, and another with Polish composer Marek Zebrowski. Predominantly writing songs for vocalists, Lynch’s voice can be heard on DJ Flying Lotus’ palpitating “Fire Is Coming” in 2019.
David Lynch reportedly died after being “forced to relocate from his house” due to LA wildfires
The director revealed his emphysema diagnosis last year and in November said he needed supplemental oxygen to walk
17th January 2025
David Lynch‘s death came after he was “forced to relocate from his house” due to the Los Angeles wildfires, it has been reported.
Yesterday (January 16), Lynch’s death was announced by his family on social media. His family did not share a date of his death. He was aged 78.
WATCH
Milly Alcock and Emily Carey on the “web of lies” in ‘House Of The Dragon’
0 seconds of 7 minutes, 38 secondsVolume 0%
Now, in a statement to Deadline, anonymous sources have revealed that his health took a turn for the worse after he was forced to evacuate from his home along Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. As of the time of writing, the details of his evacuation have remained private.
The wildfires would have drastically affected Lynch’s health, as the director revealed his emphysema diagnosis last year, which was caused by smoking for most of his life. Emphysema, also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is where damage to the air sacs occurs as a result of smoking, pollution or workplace irritants (as per NHS). The disease causes breathing problems, coughing and those suffering from it can experience frequent chest infections and wheezing.
To add on, Lynch confirmed in November that he needed supplemental oxygen for strenuous activities, which he classified as “walking across a room” and more. He also added that due to fears of COVID-19 further affecting his condition, he would no longer be directing films on set or leaving his home for projects, instead opting to direct remotely.
Blame It On The Eight Ball
Posted on January 10, 2025 by Royal Rosamond Press
I do believe I AM LAWSUIT FREE due to my late niece, Drew Taylor Rosamond Benton, getting to me Merlin’s Crystal Ball – somehow!
Below is my cartoon book ‘My Christ Complex’ that was inspired by an interview of Trump I saw in 1986 – that just came true – almost! Messiah Donald is found guilty of fraud, and sent to the Fed Lock-up. How many Christian Leaders predicted Trump would not spend one minute in jail?
From now on I will title myself ‘The Keeper of Merlin’s Eightball!’ because I have gotten in deep trouble for claiming I am a prophet – even John the Baptist. Folks wonder if I am the next Serial Killer on the horizon. Am I? Let’s consult Merlin’s Eightall!
John The Keeper of The Ball
‘Apocalyptic’: ghastly remains of Malibu come into focus
David Lynch, 1946 – 2025 The late filmmaker posted a message to Putin the day after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began
12:44 pm, January 16, 2025
Source: Meduza
On February 25, 2022, the day after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, filmmaker David Lynch spoke about the events on his Weather Report, a YouTube series where he posted informal discussions of the weather in Southern California and musings on current events.
David Lynch’s Weather Report 2/25/22
DAVID LYNCH THEATER
“Today, I was thinking about the Ukrainians,” Lynch said. After a long pause, he addressed Vladimir Putin directly: “Right now, Mr. Putin, you are sowing death and destruction. […] There’s plenty of time — life after life after life — for you to reap what you are sowing. My advice to you is to save yourself, save the Ukrainians, save this world. Start getting along with your neighbors, start building friendships. We are a world family. There’s no room for this kind of absurdity anymore.”
David Lynch passed away on January 16, 2025, according to his family.
At Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Lynch did not excel academically, having little interest in schoolwork, but he was popular with other students, and after leaving he decided that he wanted to study painting at college. He began his studies at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1964 to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with roommate musician Peter Wolf.[16][17] He left after only a year, saying, “I was not inspired AT ALL in that place.” He instead decided that he wanted to travel around Europe for three years with his friend Jack Fisk, who was similarly unhappy with his studies at Cooper Union. They had some hopes that they could train in Europe with Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka at his school. Upon reaching Salzburg, however, they found that Kokoschka was not available. Disillusioned, they returned to the United States after spending only two weeks in Europe.[12]: 31–34
But his favourite revenge movie is rooted in real life. While Lynch has previously discussed how the location of Los Angeles inspired Mulholland Drive, he didn’t realise for a long time that the film could be about a particular place. “I didn’t even know it was a Hollywood movie! I understood it afterwards,” he told Cahiers du Cinema. However, he maintains that the movie is “not a commentary on Hollywood per se. It is a story that is located there”.
But this prompts him to bring up Quentin Tarantino. Referencing Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the film is not just set in Hollywood but is totally about it. In fact, LA feels like a character in Tarantino’s latest feature as he dives into the 1960s and the era when Sharon Tate reigned queen, and Charles Manson lurked in the shadows like a curse.
His integration of real life and fiction appears to fascinate Lynch, telling the magazine, “Tarantino’s film shows that things could have turned out differently”.
Re-writing the end of the Manson Family story, Tarantino leads the audience down a historical path that makes them feel like they know what will happen and then totally flips the switch. Anyone who has seen the film will know that the finale is a shock as viewer expectations go out of the window.
It’s this factor that Lynch loves, praising Tarantino’s bravery in taking history and totally messing with it. “It’s a hell of a good revenge film,” he says, adding, “In a feel-good way”.
Here is my theory, (which is mine, ahh-hmm).
David Lynch is really Thomas Pynchon. They both have been
linked to the Pacific Northwest (Seattle) and seem to have the same
interests in conspiracies and popular culture. My theory is that
Pynchon got tired of doing purely literary work and wanted to do
something visual. Now since film-making is a collaborative art and
he wanted to keep his Pynchon anonymity, he just developed the
Lynch character (who would fit nicely in a Pynchon novel). Maybe
this is all performance art. Now I’m sure someone can prove me
wrong in a zillion ways, but just think about it …
Polanski has said that his absence on the night of the murders is the greatest regret of his life.[152] He wrote in his autobiography: “Sharon’s death is the only watershed in my life that really matters”, and commented that her murder changed his personality from a “boundless, untroubled sea of expectations and optimism” to one of “ingrained pessimism… eternal dissatisfaction with life”.[153] Polanski was left with a negative impression of the press, which he felt was interested in sensationalizing the lives of the victims, and indirectly himself, to attract readers. He was shocked by the lack of sympathy expressed in various news stories:
I had long known that it was impossible for a journalist to convey 100 percent of the truth, but I didn’t realize to what extent the truth is distorted, both by the intentions of the journalist and by neglect. I don’t mean just the interpretations of what happened; I also mean the facts. The reporting about Sharon and the murders was virtually criminal. Reading the papers, I could not believe my eyes. I could not believe my eyes! They blamed the victims for their own murders. I really despise the press. I didn’t always. The press made me despise it.[29]
La sale douzaine
I had just been visiting my grandmother … when I received a foretaste of things to come. At first, I didn’t know what was happening. I simply saw people scattering in all directions. Then I realized why the street had emptied so quickly. Some women were being herded along it by German soldiers. Instead of running away like the rest, I felt compelled to watch. One older woman at the rear of the column couldn’t keep up. A German officer kept prodding her back into line, but she fell down on all fours … Suddenly a pistol appeared in the officer’s hand. There was a loud bang, and blood came welling out of her back. I ran straight into the nearest building, squeezed into a smelly recess beneath some wooden stairs, and didn’t come out for hours. I developed a strange habit: clenching my fists so hard that my palms became permanently calloused. I also woke up one morning to find that I had wet my bed.[20]
Polanski returned to Hollywood in 1973 to direct Chinatown (1974) for Paramount Pictures. The film is widely considered to be one of the finest American mystery crime movies, inspired by the real-life California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century.[53]
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) Paramount studio head Robert Evans brought Polanski to America ostensibly to direct the film Downhill Racer, but told Polanski that he really wanted him to read the horror novel Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin[41] to see if a film could be made out of it.[42] Polanski read it non-stop through the night and the following morning decided he wanted to write as well as direct it. He wrote the 272-page screenplay in just over three weeks.[43] The film, Rosemary’s Baby (1968), was a box-office success and became his first Hollywood production, thereby establishing his reputation as a major commercial filmmaker. The film, a horror-thriller set in trendy Manhattan, is about Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow),[44] a young housewife who is impregnated by the devil. Polanski’s screenplay adaptation earned him a second Academy Award nomination.
In May 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stated that the board “has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership in accordance with the organisation’s Standards of Conduct.” Polanski is one of only four members to have been expelled from the Academy. Following its expulsion of Harvey Weinstein,[104] the Academy’s Standards of Conduct had recently been revised as a result of impacts of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements on the film industry.[105] The same year, his wife Emmanuelle Seigner rejected the invitation to join the Academy, denouncing the “hypocrisy” of a group that expelled Polanski.[106]
Man and Superman is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903, in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme.[1] Man and Superman opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 21 May 1905 as a four-act play produced by the Stage Society, and then by John Eugene Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker on 23 May, without Act III (“Don Juan in Hell”).[2] A part of the third act, Don Juan in Hell (Act 3, Scene 2), was performed when the drama was staged on 4 June 1907 at the Royal Court. The play was not performed in its entirety until 1915, when the Travelling Repertory Company played it at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.
Dylan At The Oaks Motel College Of Crummy Art
Posted on December 4, 2021 by Royal Rosamond Press
I want to found a college for Road and Ashcan Art. The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, is closing. Many famous folks claim they got a degree from the College of Hard Knocks. The Artist, Bob Dylan, might want to frame a diploma that testifies to this.
My sister was a famous artist that lived next door to Bob Dylan in Woodland Hills. They babysat each other’s kid. Jiryrl Zorthian was a friend of Dylan, and may have inspired him.
Above is a photo of me standing in front of my studio-gallery on Blair and Fourth in the Whitaker. It’s 1987. I just graduated from Serennity Lane. This is a tough neighborhood with tough folk walking by all the time. They put a Cop Station across the street, to save gas. This is Crime Central. Junkies checked me out to see if I was worth robbing. The Mother Kali Book Store was here for awhile. When it moved, a woman used this space to give away free clothes to the poor and homeless. There was a bathroom out back in a alley I wish I had painted, or, taken a pic of. It was the quincuncial On The Road Toilet that I will replicate at my college. If there is more than one, I will hold a decorating contest.
I am open to David Lynch lunching a crummy film school at the OMCCA
John Presco
President: Oaks Motel College Of Crummy Art
crummy;
dirty, unpleasant, or of poor quality. “a crummy little room”
About Bob Dylan | Castle Fine Art
Storycatchers: Remembering Mother Kali’s Bookstore (klcc.org)
Bail Out Of Downtown – NOW!
Posted on January 30, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
I am convinced the homeless folks in Downtown Eugene – are there to stay! Let them have it…..Mr. and Ms. Bohemian Innovator, and make Highway 99 the New Bohemian Hot Spot, not just of Lane County – but the world!
Above is the chain shop David Lynch mentioned. Below that, is Baluchi’s car from Animal. Put that car in front of the saw shop – and you got a Tourist Destination par excel ante’! People will fly in from all over the world to see the hit attraction of Oregon’s Cannery Row! We can have a Bohemian Bus Shuttle from the airport, and some Bum Buses coming from downtown. Here is the preserving of Americana – The Edge of Town On The Old Highway! Lynch also mentioned the DQ.
I want the City to buy The Value Inn Motel. I want the City of Eugene to hire writers to help me turn much of my newspaper, Royal Rosamond Press, into………’The Bohemian Tour And Last Chance Freak Show!’ I would like to found the Lynch Art School, with David’s blessing.
It’s all good! Just let it be! I just realized my Mobile Conversation Pits jive with the Animal House floats. We can hold a Artist’s Death Float Parade Contest. Traffic can be diverted. Build it, and the Tourists will come! Lynch can be the Grand Parade Marshall.
I presented the Harry Lane Peace Center before the Springfield City Council – with name change! 99 can become Harry Lane.
John Presco
Copyright 2020
Here’s our theme song…..’Get Me On Highway Ninety-Nine’
Predicting The Oakland Fire
Posted on December 25, 2015 by Royal Rosamond Press
Consider this my
Lane County is considering a potential site on Highway 99 for a public homeless shelter in Eugene. It would be the first one in the city.
The county is looking at 1.5 acres of land and two existing buildings on Highway 99 , north of Roosevelt for a permanent homeless shelter. Right now, there’s a camp for homeless people, Camp 99, on the property.
Credit Tiffany Eckert
The site is now home to a camp for homeless people—Camp 99. Devon Ashbridge with Lane County says the permanent shelter would be low-barrier, so that people who are using drugs or alcohol would still be allowed to stay there. She says the shelter is in addition to a permanent housing project that’s also in the works. “The need for a public shelter and some additional resources for emergency strategies is really huge in our community.” Ashbridge says, “So, it’s exciting that we’re working with a number of different partners to try to address different stages of homelessness. From emergency, to preventative, to ongoing permanent housing.”Ashbridge says Lane County has been working with the City of Eugene on the public shelter proposal. A joint meeting will be held January 22nd to discuss the final report on the project.
David Lynch on Louis CK and Roman Polanski: ‘This Subject Is Tricky Business’
“Things get a little out of hand. You feel terrible for anyone who’s been a victim,” “Twin Peaks” creator says
June 25, 2018 @ 9:38 AM
Share on Social Media
Filmmaker David Lynch has thoughts on the “tricky business” of sexual misconduct accusations, specifically the ones posed against fellow Hollywood heavyweights, Louis C.K. and Roman Polanski, and how “what we know about about an artist’s life affect our attitudes about the artist’s work.”
“I would hope it doesn’t,” the “Twin Peaks” creator told Vulture in an interview publish Monday when asked that very question. “Louis C.K.’s done a lot of really funny stuff. It would be a shame for people not to experience those things anymore. There are probably thousands and thousands of examples of people who had screwed-up lives and didn’t do the best things but did great work. And Roman Polanski: People were writing things about him when he went to Switzerland and got arrested — things like he should be hung. Things get a little out of hand. You feel terrible for anyone who’s been a victim. This subject is tricky business.”
Lynch had a recurring role on the third season of the comedian’s Comedy Central series, “Louie,” in which he played Jack Dall, a TV production master who was brought in to help C.K.’s character land an appearance on the “Late Show.”
“And political correctness came in,” Lynch continued. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing. You can’t make laws to change people. Transcendental Meditation is the only thing I know of that over time would change people for the good on the deepest level.”
Lynch has been a Transcendental Meditation practitioner since the 1970s, and founded the David Lynch Foundation in 2005 to promote the technique, which consists of silently focusing on a one- or two-syllable mantra for a set period of time.
“Transcendental Meditation is the only thing I know of that over time would change people for the good on the deepest level,” Lynch said. “But when you have it where being politically correct means you can’t say certain things anymore but people still think them — like, there’s still plenty of racism, and I don’t know if it’d be good to have racist jokes that get things out in the open so we can deal with it. I don’t know if that might be better. But now everything is closed in, and people still have strange desires that are not fitting in with today’s life. I feel so bad for those people. It’s “there but for the grace of God go I.” Or pedophiles: They’re born and they’ve got this sickness that they don’t know how to deal with. Instead of repressing it we need to get people help so no one gets hurt.”
Report From The Pierrot Incest Clinic
Posted on February 24, 2024 by Royal Rosamond Press
“The family began to drift as well, though in separate directions. A vile darkness was falling on the Prescos, much of it still unmentioned today. Yet nothing seemed to be able to halt it’s course, except perhaps the resilience of the children themselves.”
Tom Snyder
Longevity & Zardoz vs. Healthcare Affordability
Posted on July 14, 2017 by Royal Rosamond Press
I found God today. He’s the guy who could not get a date in High School – or College!
Report From The Pierrot Incest Clinic
by
John Presco
Copyright 2024
IDEA for a cable series about a Nationwide Incest Clinic that is turning away millions, after the MAGA cult – CRASHED! Tens of thousands of women, who have employed every tool invented by man, to elude the truth they were victims of incest, are flocking to the clinic located in the woods of Marin.
This series about incest is told by me, and alleged victim of incest according to Tom Snyder, who is not a family member, never knew us, or met the famous artist Rosamond. Christine Crawford, Carrie Fisher, and Harry and Meghan published tell-all bios – ABOUT THEIR FAMILY – and were highly criticized. Their families were thrown into chaos. Why then do outsiders get to do evil to the alleged victims of incest – purely FOR MONEY? Christine Crawford was accused of exploiting her famous mother – FOR MOMEY! Executor, Sydney Morris sold our family legacy to an outsider who paid off the creditors, including Larry Chazen, a top Getty advisor. Morris said he OKed the book and movie to regenerate interest in Rosamond’s art – for the sake of the heirs and creditors. I claim I am doing the same. And, its O.K. MY FAMILY – SUFFERED! Getting money – TOO – wont’ hurt! I can handle the criticism, along with the idea incest victims go on to be predictors. How about you? Watch my show!
BUY A ROSAMOND
I may come out with a line of ROSY SNEAKERS to pay for my legal fees.
This series is inspired by the visitors I had in my home two days ago. They are a (nameless) married couple who live across the street. They were admiring my paintings. Two of them are unfinished. The wife is an aspiring artist, and gave me some good feedback. I gave her Rosamond’s bio to read, written by a hired ghost writer – who never met Christine Rosamond or her family. Beatrice ( fictitious name) read pages from Snyder’s Book of Roguish Lies, and soon came to….The Incest Section
“Precisely how much incest was visited upon the children (and grandchildren) by Vic and Rosemary Presco is not known, and need not be repeated here. What is clear, though, is that the affects echoes through generations of the family.”
To read this was bad enough. To hear it being read by a neighbor – was horrific! My friend wanted to know how Tom knew so much. Tom is saying – HE HAS MORE DARK SECRETS! Was he priming the reader for a sequel, or, the Rosamond Movie they hired another ghost writer to write a screenplay.
Her name is Stacey Pierrot whose father owns a huge Nip and Tuck hospital. For years I wondered if he leant his daughter money to buy the Rosamond Estate that was insolvent.
STOP! I just googled the origins of Q-Anon, after realizing this post, and my idea, resemble Q-Anon, whose followers were found guilty of Insurrection. I ran for Governor as a Republican. I loathe Trump and his gangs. The exploitation of children by hired ghost writers – is evil!. Snyder’s book came out in when Drew Benton was a minor. She and her friends in high school read this – evil. Vic did not molest a teenage girl. She was in her twenties and worked for him in his home. Christine believed she was murdered. When I was in therapy I showed my therapist the photography of Christine and Rosemary and Micky Rooney’s first home where Rosamond got married to the actor, Rick Partlow. My therapist said…..”Your mother’s evil!” Tom Snyder – proves it – FOR MONEY!
“Within months, Vic molested a teenage girl. The moment that Christine heard of the attack, she knew that this was not the first time Vic had transgressed. Childhood memories of being violated came flooding back to her.This epiphany was too much for Christine. Aware that she had a problem with alcohol, she’d been abstaining throughout her marriage to Garth. But now, she needed an anesthetic and started drinking with a vengeance. She also decided that all men were capable of abusing their daughters and, fearing that Garth might hurt their seven-year-old daughter, Drew, she asked him for a divorce”.
When I talked with Snyder he came off as steeped in psychological matters. He insister I sign a NDA, ad threatened me with attorneys. He is ot damaged by INCEST in his own family, or, was he a PRESCO FAMILY VICTIM. He knew I was authoring a self-help book, and stole the story of the space mice. I am suffering from critical physical ailments that are tied to my mental wellbeing. Pierrot and Snyder are unfeeling narcissists who have stolen the identity of Christine and John Presco – TO MAKE MONEY!
“Elizabeth’s problems in 1960 were basically the same as they were in 1990,” said her husband, Eddie Fisher. “She had become addicted to every pill on the market – pills to help her sleep, pills to keep her awake, pills to dull her pain, pills and more pills.”
Fisher had troubles of his own. According to actress Shelley Winters, who stayed at the Dorchester during her appearance in the London production of Lolita, Eddie spent hours drinking heavily at the hotel bar. “He was in a very depressed and despairing mood,” she wrote. “He looked as if he was evaluating what he had done to his career and his life by divorcing … Debbie Reynolds.”
In March 1960 the Fishers returned to the West Coast, taking up residence at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In her descriptive history of the hotel, The Pink Palace, author Sandra Lee Stuart recounts how each day the hotel maids in charge of the Fisher-Taylor bungalow found “a trail of clothes .. starting at the front door, going through the living room and into the bedroom.”
The bathroom contained “all of Taylor’s numerous makeup bottles, wands and brushes” scattered about “as if a cyclone had hit a Bloomingdale’s cosmetics counter.”Sometimes there would be smudges of lipstick on the ceiling, although nobody could figure out how they got there. The dining-room table was covered with dozens of “half-empty bottles of liquor, jars of vitamin pills, and diamond bracelets, earrings and rings, all of which Liz had flung higgledy-piggledy.”
Lawsuit Against Buck, Chazen, Pierrot, and Comstock
Posted on June 21, 2019 by Royal Rosamond Press
I am asking my daughter, Heather Hanson, to join me in a lawsuit against those who attacked our Miracle, and all but destroyed us.
Heather Hanson never met my world famous sister, Christine Rosamond Benton, who drowned on her first sober birthday. After her funeral, three women from Christine’s AA group approached me and informed me “Today is her sober birthday”. They invited me to her home group. They wanted me to speak. There was no Recovery message. Instead, Stacey Pierrot approached my mother and I, got down on one knee, took Rosemary’s hand, and said;
“Don’t let the dream die!”
Pierrot came up to me with a jar of Christine’s brushes.
“Take one!” she offered.
Down in the basement of the Rosamond gallery, I saw Pierrot hand my uncle Dick two prints. He rolled them up and carried them to his car. The gallery and Christine’s house would have been sealed by the executor, Vicki Presco. Tom Snyder said members of my family looted my sister’s home after the funeral. This liar asked about my 16 year old minor child whose full attention should have been on establishing a relationship with her fathter for the first time. I told Heather and her mother I began a recovery book in 1992 after being in therapy, looking for a way to repair the rent in our bond after a night of using in Christine’s home.
Bonds With Angels begins with my sisters and the ol crone up the street seeing an angel bathed in a bright blue light. I associated her with the painting of the angel I saw on McClure’s Beach. She come out of the sea carrying The World that she offers back to me. I had a death experience. I associate this angel with Gabriel, who appeared to John’s father, and Mary the mother of Jesus. I also identify Gabriel as the unnamed angel in the birth of Sampson the Nazarite.
I declared myself a Nazarite in 1989. I associate Heather coming into my life with the three women who took the oath of the Nazarite because “God had closed their womb”. What does this mean? It means sexual intercourse took place, but, the holy agreement was not fulfilled. God had rendered these women His Virgins. They had children while old in years. I was fifty-five years of age when I became a father.
I know Patrice Hanson is repulsed by Christianity, she in the vanguard of the Wiccan Women Movement. I saw a video of fourteen years old Heather being initiated into a women’s group – with sweat lodge! The first day I spent with Heather began with an even at the Scientology Mission in Santa Rosa. My sixteen year old showed me her Auditing Book she took from a shelf. Millions of women believe Christianity is The Enemy. Aunt Linda Comstock hates Christianity and Alcoholics Anonymous. She is a raging alcoholic who did not give birth to a child. She considers Heather – her child! So does her alcoholic brother – who was also threatened by my Sobriety.
I am done watching Breaking Bad after he allowed the beautiful daughter of that poor sober father, who went back to drinking, to die, because she was A THREAT to Walt and his clean and protected family. His wife born a child late in her life. I have to consider whether the write of this show has read my blog that is my desperate cry for help, and my place of Sharing my sobriety and all the attacks upon my Sobriety. This includes my neighbors who invoke the name of Belle Burch and Alley Valkyrie who threatened me.
Executor Sydney Morris sold My Family Recovery to an outsider who I met for the first time at Christine’s funeral. Morris blessed Pierrot’s book and movie in hope it would renew interest in Rosamond’s visual art. Snyder USED the recovery program millions of my Brother and Sisters in AA need – TO STAY ALIVE! Everyone in Heather’s family should have read this book that describes my sister’s abuse of alcohol that all but destroyed her. There was connection to me and my claim I made to Morris, that all the interests of the Rosamond Estate would honor my Living Sobriety. I wrote;
“In AA were do not honor dead drunks, but those drunks who are born again in sobriety!”
Never was this message made clearer then the appearance of Heather in my life. Everyone should have gotten behind US. My daughter was going to my Sober Muse. She would inspire me that much more, and, be proof, that sobriety works. She could have been a healer and life-safer to many young people who are on the brink of misusing alcohol. I should have bee funded. I should have gotten my Recovery Book out in 2001. It could have been written – overnight! It had written itself! Then, Heather was disappeared from my life. I believe this was done to thwart my book, that I will now publish Part One of in two weeks, or less.
The last time I had a conversation with my daughter was over the giant pee stain in the back seat of the car my sister Vicki rented for us at the family reunion. My grandson said this on our drive to the airport;
“Linda peed her pants and made a funny joke!”
Bill Cornwell said this to me on the phone;
“Maybe you pissed in that seat and are too mentally ill to recall!”
My grandson will be my first witness. Then, Cornwell with take the stand. To accuse Heather’s father, and Tyler’s grandfather, of emptying his bladder of the pitchers of beer he drank, is an utter disgrace that I should never have been exposed to. Sydney Morris allowed Stacey Pierrot to title her self “Caretaker” of our families Creative Legacy.
Take not of the big picture of beer in the photo below, and, who hovers over it. That is Linda Comstock posing with Tyler Hunt. Heather posted this on her facebook knowing I look at it. That is Linda’s lover, Flip, who dies of acute alcoholism after toasting my grandson with a mug of been in a bar. This is the beer that was ejected from a drunken pig, and then she sat in her own urine for the two hour drive home. I don’t think a writer for a bad-ass series could have come up with this. It is over the top! It was aimed at destroying my sobriety. I want to hear the funny punchline that Tyler hears – in court!
Heather is rising to the top of the Women’s Healing movement. She claims she had turned her life around. Prove it, by giving me a call and giving me a heartfelt apology! Look at the top photo. I see Tyler holding a beer while sitting on the lap of a drunken monster. Bill was born on my father’s birthday. Heather was born on my mother’s birthday. Both of my parents were extremely abusive alcoholics. It is in Tyler’s DNA to become alcoholic.
When I went to my family reunion at Vicki’s home, aunt Linda lived nearby. I wanted to meet Ms. Comstock. I didn’t know she had launched a pro-alcohol campaign, and wanted me a my sister to invest in a Bar&Grill. Flip and Linda were telling Heather her life would have been next to perfect if I was a ‘Party Daddy’ who drank with her, and had fun with that Fun Couple, who wanted to set up a bar in Vicki’s house to show-off Flip’s professional bartender skills. He was also going to cook. He was the role model Linda wanted for her niece, who titles her aunt a Gold-digger for marry a rich attorney for his money. I hold these drunks responsible for my falling out with Vicki again – and the terrible condition she is in! I am glad Flip – died! I want to sue Linda to the curb where she will die in the gutter, choking on her own vomit! I stopped watching Breaking Bad because it is not real. It is fiction!
As an adult, Heather chose to believe that I was a religious prig who got off telling her how to live her life. In my book I will discuss the Essenes who were into healing balms and angels. I suspect Jewish Women support the Essene Community that John the Baptist was a member of. My book will liberate women from the evangelical prigs who force women to undergo improper healing procedures because they are shame-based. My lawsuit is aimed at publishing and promoting my books, that I believe will heal many people. It is my desire to bring a lawsuit against evangelical lawmakers.
I believe the Buck Institute goes against the wishes of Beryl Buck who left her fortune to help the poor of Marine. We need studies on how poverty and alcoholism is inherited in our DNA. We need a sane, and a moral understanding what a true legacy is, verses trying to eliminate aging. We are regenerated via our children and grandchildren who should be taught in school what a genealogy is, what a Will is, and, what our parents and grandparents expect. The young are taught that our elders want blind obedience and respect, and thus it is their duty to rebel and be totally selfish. Thanks to Buck Money our offspring will be able to spit and laugh in our faces, now that they do not age – as fast! Look at this witchy freak. What’s wrong with her eyes? She’s right out of Disney!
“Come her my little my pretty. Come close so I can grab your dog by its neck! It has fleas, who suck the longevity out of me! My blood is too precious to waste on fleas!”
When my sister in AA heard I was going to see my daughter and her newborn child, then go see the lost family tomb, she gave me an AA Angel Coin that I slipped into a crack caused by the last big earthquake. We had lunch in the graveyard. I did not know the Stuttmeisters were Odd Fellows, who were evicted from their graves, and move here.
Don’t let our family dream – die!
Am I my daughter’s Guardian Angel? I did die………….and come back.
John Presco
The Marin Community Foundation oversees the Buck Trust’s $923 million in assets, which began with the estate of Marin resident Beryl Buck.
My Malibu Masterpiece
Posted on January 11, 2025 by Royal Rosamond Press
Capturing Beauty
My Malibu MasterpiEce: An Art Piece
by
John Presco
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
My childhood friend, Nancy Hamren Van Brasch took me to meet Jeryl Zorthian at his ranch in Altadena – that is still burning.He was working on a painting, and we had a brief conversation. We would live with his two daughter in a cimmune in San Francsisco called ‘The Idle Hands;.
It is 2:53 A.M. January 11, 2025. I awoke early with the notion the Zorthian family would like me to do a Fire Painting-Sculpture at the ranch. Below is a painting I did when I was sixteen, and a new arrival to LA. I understood I was living in a desert, and rendered our apartment building on Midvale – melting! The other buildings look like they have been destroyed by fire. A year later I drive up the coast past Malibu in a rain storm, park my car, and carry a canvas easel, and colors out to a grassy hill overlooking the sea, and do a painting in the rain that went with me when I hitchhiked to New York.
Days after Drew Taylor Rosamond Benton, died, I began a search for Rosemary’s jewelry box. I asked Damien Bosley if he had it. I was going to put Drew’s cremated remains in it. I want that box. I asked Shamus Dundon for it. He said my nieces were fighting over it. I believe he lied – as usual! He hid from the Bullhead Police.
Our childhood friend, describes my paintings as being “dark” in Rosamond’s bad biography. Today the lives of ten thousand people have all but been destroyed. Their grief is unfathomable. The image of the bleak lifeguard reminds me of the painting I did in the bachyard of Glendon of the duck hunting shack near the Bay Bridge in Oakland. Vic’s wife is standing on a barren hill – screaming at each other. Is that smoke coming their way. Dee-Dee chased my father around the house, and shot him in the back.
TO BE CONTINUED
WARNING! 4:34 AM…UCLA students have just been put on possible evacuation. No one is helping me. Casey Farrell is a parasite and cut off from me and all that is mine. He is trying to loot my family legacy. My aunt and uncle Rise went to UCLA. Vincent was my art patron.
Drew Benton Was On “Kill List”
Posted on September 26, 2024 by Royal Rosamond Press
Yesterday I communicated with someone who loved my niece. He was very respectful of my feelings – and privacy, Like me, he did not think much of Damien Bosley whose primary concern is for me to get authorization for him to come to the mortuary in person – and get Drew Benton’s death certificate! No matter what I said, he comes back to that DC. I just reread his text – before I had a sip of coffee. He says he’ll mail me anything I want. So far, he hasn’t mailed me a thing I asked for. When his brother called and told me Damien was clearing out my niece’s apartment, my mother’s jewelry box popped in my mind – like a vision! I had asked Drew’s cousin Shamus Dundon for the box when he asked if there was anything I wanted from his mother’s estate.
“Screw the jewelry box! Tell us about the “KILL LIST!“
Cameron Bosley told me Drew was……”hearing voices!” Daimen never mentioned the….”voices”.
“Shut up already about the voices. Are you going to tell us about the damn “KILL LIST”
Today is my late mother’s birthday. Rosemary Rita Rosamond, was the third girl born to Royal and Mary Magdalene Rosamond. When someone dies in your family all members of the immediate family come to mind. Damien and Cameron could care less. Drew co-signed a financial agreement, and Damien needs proof of death to get out of the contract. He’s promising me a lot. He even went down to the Morturary – and pounded on the door! He promises to spread Drew’s ashes at the place – she wanted them spread….IF I get him that DEATH CIRTIFICATE! Did Drew see the end of her life – was near?
What his kind, caring, and respectful friend of Drew told me, was that my niece went on leave from her job at Walmart, because she feared for her life. Two years earlier a fellow employee went to prison for making a “KILL LIST” and Drew’s name was – AT THE TOP! After getting out of prison, he stops by the store. A member of my family was utterly terrified something bad was going to happen – just before some truly awful happened to her! Why didn’t the Bosley Brothers tell me about Drew’s……
STALKER?
Why didn’t officer Holstrom mention DREW’S STALKER? Maybe Drew told me about the ex-convict? Maybe I knew the asshole? Perhaps he wanted something from Drew, and all she had to do was
COMPLY!
Here are The Family Names on Drew’s Death Certificate.
Drew Tylor Benton
Garth Benton
Christine Benton
John Presco
Drew saw Rosemary’s Jewelry box every time she came in the front door. Drew and Vicki Presco were roommates for several years. That’s a [photograph of Vicki and Drew peering over the top of the painting I did when I was sixteen. Drew’s cousin promised he would mail it to me – five years ago? I am still waiting for the mailman. And I’m still waiting for the police report from the Bullhead City Police Department, so I can read it, and KNOW who I should be WATCHING OUT FOR!
I did not ask for the name of Drew’s Stalker. Does he check in on her Facebook? Has he
CHECKED ME OUT? DOES HE KNOW WHERE I LIVE?
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
EXTRA! I can’t help but wonder aloud. THE KILL LIST consisted of employees of Walmart. Does Damien work at Walmart? Maybe THE STALKER wants proof Drew is dead, and is not faking it? Was there a story about Drew’s alleged suicide in the newspaper? How about in T.V.? Maybe Walmart has a motive for shutting down all dark rumors about………THE KILL LIST?
Are you hearing voices……..too?
EXTRA! EXTRA! Make THE VOICES….stop! Perhaps none of Drew’s relatives responded my niece’s death, because they knew all about THE KILL LIST.…And THE TRIAL! And, THE CONVICTION. And the threats to…..ALL MEMBERS OF DREW’S FAMILY?
Just thinking aloud!
Rosemary’s Jewelry Box
Posted on September 5, 2019 by Royal Rosamond Press
Here is my dead mother’s jewelry box that Shamus Dundon said Drew Benton and Shannon Rosamond are fighting over. Rosemary kept mementos from her four Children in it. There is nothing about her grandchildren.
Shamus did not call me and tell me my mother was dying. He was punishing me for asking questions about chasing lizards – when he said he had a headache! He ended up with Rosemary’s treasured Mustang. I didn’t get anything. Robby called and asked me if I wanted my painting. I had him send it to Vicki when I attempted to go foreward for the sake of my daughter and grandson. Heather was my Trustee. She and her lover called me a parasite because I get food stamps and SSI for my PTSD, and my Childhood Head Butting?
I asked Shamus for the Stuttmeister marriage certificate.
For a quarter of a century I have struggle in confusion to understand why my family does not know what a Artistic Legacy is. They see no value in my post on Joaquin Miller and Emma Hill that enhances Rosamond’s creative legacy – and my own! I told my Doctor I think my family is jealous of the two Creative siblings in their midst. Now I conclude they are greedy ingrates, savages, who need to claim all the shiny things they see, and eliminate The Shiny Ones. For sure, these are The Enemies of Art and Literature, and thus they have value. They are………The Perfect Examples!
John Presco
Copyright 2019
Family Treasures
Posted on April 21, 2016by Royal Rosamond Press
Here are some family treasures Vicki Presco owns. Included is the marriage certificate of Rudolph Stuttmeister. Instead of scanning it and making it available to the rest of the family, Vicki hoards it. She helped create our late sister’s imposter and art forger, and allows Stacey Pierrot to title herself ‘Caretaker’ which is like a ‘Curator’. Vicki showed me Christine’s autobiography that was kept from the public.
Rosemary kept her children’s achievements in her jewelry box. I did a painting of Midvale Avenue in Westwood when I was fifteen.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2016
The Getty Villa survived LA’s firestorms while the area around it burned, revealing a key lesson for homeowners
Jessica Orwig and Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Jan 9, 2025, 9:25 AM PSTShareSave
- The Palisades fire has burned thousands of acres in Los Angeles.
- Buildings in the area that have survived include the Getty Villa art museum in Pacific Palisades.
- The villa isn’t your average home, but homeowners can learn from the Getty staff’s fire prep.
The Palisades fire in California has burned through thousands of acres since breaking out Tuesday between Malibu and Santa Monica, but the iconic Getty Villa, which lay in its path, has remained standing with minor damage, even after homes and trees around it went up in flames.
AD
“We deeply appreciate the tireless work and dedication of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and other agencies,” the museum said in a statement Wednesday morning.
The Getty Villa is part of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which includes the largest endowment of any museum in the world, estimated at more than $8 billion in 2023. It houses the trust’s collection of Ancient Greek and Roman art.
AD
Fire departments used “state-of-the-art air handling systems” to help protect the building, Katherine E. Fleming, the president and CEO of the Getty Trust, told USA Today.
Moreover, builders designed the galleries with double-walled construction, which also helped protect the precious art inside.
But it wasn’t just expensive architecture and state-of-the-art firefighting that helped. Getty staff members have been consistently clearing brush from the surrounding area all year as part of its fire-mitigation efforts, the museum said.
Moral Rights Art Preservation Law
Posted on October 4, 2011 by Royal Rosamond Press
Without a doubt, the muralist, Carl Morris, was infkuenced by my kinfolk, Thomas Hart Benton, whose cousin sued his freinds, Ann and gordon getty for painting over a murral he did for them in their home. Garth Benton worked nine months on the murrals he did for the Getty Villa, with the help of my niece, Shannon Benton, the daughter of my late sister, the world famous artist, Christine Rosamond.
Yesterday I talked with my sister Victoria about our niece, Drew Benton. Her father suffered a stroke a week ago, and may not be able to render more of his famous murals. We wondered if Drew would pick up the gauntlet when alas Garth lays down his brush.
I am seeking a legal opinion on whether it is moral and legal for murals rendered for public consumption, can be sold into private hands, especailly when the monies paid to the artist for his, or her efforts, was paid for by a Federal Program with express purpose of being enjoyed by the public in a public place. Until a legal decision can be reached, and or, a Federral Law passed to protect the moral intergrity of the Artist, and said Government Program, I highly suggest this pending sale be postponed. Morris’s murals represent the real history of other family members, John Fremont ‘The Pather Finder’ and his wife, Jessie Benton-Fremont who helped author the first journals of the Willameet Valley.
Garth Benton is the cousin of Thomas Hart Benton who was Jackson Pollock’s mentor. Senator Thomas Hart Benton was the Administrator of the Oregon Territory and sent Fremont to secure Orego from the British who had desings on it.
I am going to found an originzation of people who will oversee and preserve public murals that are imprissoned in vacant buildings waiting to be sold to the highest bidder, like a slave.
Our Founding Father’s founded a nation of thirteen states, that were colonized and improved upon by British and Dutch sujects of a king. The other thirty seven states were founded by Pioneers like my kinfolk who built a thousand cities without the help of any king, and any of his subjects! Kings and millionaire bankers have come to own much the world’s art. The Tea Party Fakeriots want to give them billions so they own that much more!
Oh sure, they will let us come see their art, but only if we have hat in hand, and are bowing at the knees!
Jon Presco
California Art Preservation Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The California Art Preservation Act is a 1979 California lawthat provides legal protection for artists’ moral rights. The law is currently codified at California Civil Code§987. The law has since been amended in part. The California Art Preservation Act was the first major law to specifically address artists’ rights in the United States.
Portions of the law may overlap with the provisions of the Visual Artists Rights Act, in which case the California law is preempted.
Content
The Art Preservation Act provides for civil penalties and injunctive relief for the intentional or grossly negligentdestruction or mutilation of a work of fine art, defined in the statuteas any original painting, sculpture, or drawing that is of “of recognized quality.” Fine art, as used in the law, does not include works prepared for commercial use by the purchaser.
The Act also provides artists the right to claim authorship and disavow modifications to works of fine art.
The rightsgranted under the act subsist for the life of the author plus 50 years.
See also
Kent Twitchell won the largest settlement ever under Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and CAPA for $1.1 million dollars against the US Government and 12 other defendants. His mural of Ed Ruscha was painted over without his knowledge or consent.
Visual Artists Rights Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Resident Scholarship at The Villa
Posted on June 20, 2023 by Royal Rosamond Press
I am working on two letters to Governor Newsom. I will ask if he can get me a honorary residenet scholarship at the Villa, being I am a high school drop-out.
John
Dear Governor Newsom.
The Getty Scholars Program supports researchers in advancing knowledge of the arts and humanities and producing cutting-edge scholarship that contributes to the understanding and preservation of cultural heritage. While in residence, scholars have the opportunity to spend significant time at one of the world’s premier art history collections while contributing to an international community committed to intellectual exploration and exchange. Scholars may be in residence at the Getty Center or Getty Villa.
The Getty Scholars Program at the Villa supports researchers in advancing knowledge of ancient arts and cultures through cutting-edge scholarship that contributes to the understanding and preservation of cultural heritage. While in residence, scholars have the opportunity to spend significant time at one of the world’s leading art collections, where they join an international community of scholars, staff, and visitors committed to intellectual exploration and exchange. Villa Scholars are in residence at the Getty Villa near Malibu, the site of the Getty Museum’s collection of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art, antiquities conservation labs, and a research library dedicated to the ancient Mediterranean world.
Dear Governor Newsom. Today is June 19th. and I am inspired to make a proposal to you and the people of California, where I was born – during an amazing star-shower! Earlier today I made a proposal to Notre Dame de Namur asking for creative and just sanctuary, after learning more of my ancestors were dug up out their graves – and relocated. This has left me with deep and stressful feeling of impermanence that hurtles beyond the feelings of enlightenment I have enjoyed via literary meditation. I believe I own the largest blog in the world – that needs protection – too.
I am kin to John and Jesse Fremont who authored the first emancipation of slaves. John was the first candidate for the Republicans’ Abolitionist Party. I want to declare my candidacy for Republican President – but I don’t feel safe. I’m too poor to move. There is no room for bodyguards. This is why I’m asking for the immediate construction of a sound stone home like the one I found on the internet. The Fremonts had their Black Point home taken from them by the U.S. Military. There was a court case that compensated most of the offspring of homeowners, but the Fremont home was not one of them.
I would like to see a tower – with large clock – honoring the Forty-Eighters, and the German Turners who went South with the Union Army and helped defeat the Confederacy. I have uncovered some amazing history about the Getty family, that are my kin due to the marriage of Christopher Wilding to Aileen Getty I m kin to Ian Fleming. From this tower I will direct cyber warfare against Putin and his brain. Mark Twain was a frequent visitor to Black Point. Consider his story; A Connecticut Yankee at King Author’s Court. I will be the caretaker of the San Francisco Magic in the years I have left. This proposal will be a part of The Great Story.
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
Copyright 2023
The Villa J. Paul Getty Built but Never Saw
Ancient and modern history intertwine at the Getty Villa
KENNETH LAPATIN | APRIL 10, 2018 | 4 MIN READ
J. Paul Getty (at left) views a model of the Getty Villa at Sutton Place, his home in England, in 1971. The Getty Research Institute, Institutional Archives.
Ironically, J. Paul Getty never saw the Getty Villa. He died two years after his museum opened to the public in January 1974 in a new building modeled on an ancient Roman luxury home. It was not until after Getty’s death in June 1976 that he returned from his estate in England to his “ranch” on the Pacific Coast: he is buried there at the edge of the property on a private plot overlooking the ocean, alongside his eldest and youngest sons, George and Timothy, both of whom predeceased him.
Following a renovation and reinstallation of the galleries, the Getty Villa opens a new chapter in its history. Although Getty never set eyes on his creation, the story of how he built the Villa and assembled his collection pervades the galleries even today. A suite of revamped rooms—Galleries 105 to 108—share this history. Featuring ancient works of art Getty bought himself along with archival documents, the new displays place the objects in their cultural contexts and shed light on Getty’s personal relationship to his museum and final resting place.
From a Ranch House to an Ancient Villa
Getty bought the 64-acre ranch—once part of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, an early-nineteenth-century 6,656-acre Mexican land grant—just after the end of World War II, intending it as a weekend retreat where his fifth wife Theodora (“Teddy”) could ride horses and he could display his growing art collection.
The Ranch House prior to renovation, between 1920 and 1945. The Getty Research Institute, Institutional Archives
He knew the area well, for he already owned a small house on the beach in nearby Santa Monica, just steps from the sprawling complex his friend and rival collector William Randolph Hearst had built for the actress Marion Davies. (The Davies estate is now the Annenberg Community Beach House, while Getty’s beach house has been replaced by a large modern condo complex, 270 Palisades Beach Road.)
After buying the property, Getty remodeled the low-slung “Ranch House,” adding a second story and several Spanish-style features. Although Getty left the United States permanently in 1951, leaving Teddy and their son Timmy behind, he continued to fill the Ranch House with works of art, and in 1954 it opened it to the public as the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Large antiquities gallery in the Getty Ranch House between 1957 and 1974. At the far end of the gallery stands the Lansdowne Hercules. The Getty Research Institute, Institutional Archives
Over time he added to the building to accommodate his growing collection, and by the late 1960s it needed to expand further. Getty’s architects drew up several proposals in a variety of styles—Spanish, European, and modern—all of which he rejected. Ultimately, he decided to construct a replica of the ancient Villa dei Papiri at Herculaeneum, which was buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79.
Ancient and Modern History Meet
Several newly reinstalled galleries on the first floor of the Getty Villa feature objects that speak to both their ancient and modern histories. Gallery 105, known as the Hall of Colored Marbles, is dominated by a marble statue of Venus. Getty readily admitted that he “enjoyed the company of women,” and when the Villa first opened in 1974 an entire gallery was devoted to images of the goddess of love.
When planning the new display we therefore decided that the first of two built-in vitrines in this gallery would focus on representations of Venus in various media: terracotta, marble, and bronze. The smallest object in the case, a finely worked bronze head of the goddess, once attached to a larger figure, is remarkable for the preservation of a golden earring with a single pearl. Pearls were highly prized in antiquity, as they are today, and fetched vast prices.
The largest object in the case, a terracotta group of a Woman Reclining on a Couch with Cupids, is still more intriguing. It is the first “antiquity” that Getty purchased. In 1939, when he was in Rome courting Teddy, who was studying to be an opera singer, he placed a number of absentee bids on items being sold from an aristocratic collection in London. He was particularly interested in the tapestries, but on the same page of the auction catalogue as some of the objects he most desired was the listing for this terracotta. It was associated with similar ones found at the Greek site of Tanagra in the late nineteenth century. These artworks were popular among collectors for the vivacity of their compositions and the insights they seemed to provide into daily life in the ancient world.
Statuette of a Woman Reclining on a Couch with Cupids, 1875–90, probably made in Greece. Terracotta, pigment, and gold, 7 5/16 × 10 5/8 × 4 5/16 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 78.AK.38. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program
Detail of J. Paul Getty’s personal copy of the Sotheby’s auction catalogue of items from Cam House, London. The Getty Research Institute
As with all his purchases, Getty was canny, seeking to get the best possible price. But his annotated auction catalogue, rediscovered in the collections of the Getty Research Institute library by former Getty Museum curatorial assistant Laure Marest-Caffey (now the Cornelius and Emily Vermeule Curator of Greek and Roman Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) reveals that Getty himself had doubts about its authenticity. In the margin beneath the entry he wrote, “modern?” The terracotta belonged to a venerable English collection, so Getty was willing to take a chance. His low bid of £10 prevailed, but his first antiquity turned out not to be an antiquity at all.
History on Display
This story and others about J. Paul Getty and the growth of his collections are told in an innovative display in Gallery 107. Building on the ongoing installation J. Paul Getty: Life and Legacy at the Getty Center, this interactive program, installed alongside some of Getty’s favorite ancient sculptures, allows visitors to explore hundreds of archival photographs, maps, graphs, and other resources relating to Getty’s family, business, travels, development of his collections, decision to build the Villa, and lasting legacy.
The Lansdowne Hercules, about A.D. 125, Roman. Marble, 76 3/16 × 30 1/2 × 28 3/4 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 70.AA.109. Pictured in the Temple of Hercules (Gallery 108).
Gallery 108, known as the Temple of Hercules, meanwhile appears much as it did before the reinstallation, but it now features improved lighting and a smaller seismic isolator underneath the famous statue of the Lansdowne Hercules. This change enables more of the splendid polychrome marble floor to show; it’s a replica of one of the first finds by well-diggers who discovered the Villa dei Papiri in 1750. The ancient villa is itself the focus of a newly installed cubiculum just off the Atrium, Gallery 101C, and it will be the subject of an international loan exhibition in the summer of 2019.
While Getty never visited his Villa, his legacy continues to endure. From his architectural choices to the objects he collected, his twentieth-century history blends with that of ancient times, yielding stories that captivate us even today.
Gavin Newsom For The Arts
Posted on May 12, 2021 by Royal Rosamond Press
On cue, Governor Gavin Newsom held a press conference and announced massive aide for the Homeless and The Arts. I had just sent my business proposal to the City Government of Belmont, who have no Arts Program that I am aware of. I had talked with a friend about getting Grace Slick to do paintings in Charlatan Square as part of my Cultural Package for the Belmont that needs to get the Governor’s attention, being, I am kin to Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, as is Belmont Pioneer, Carl Janke. Michael Wilding married Aileen Getty, and thus Carl Janke is in the Getty Family Tree. This Getty Tree For The Arts adopted Gavin when he was a teenager. The J. Paul Getty father and son moved to England. Junior was Knighted by the Queen and was titled “Sir” after he became a British subject. Liz Taylor was Knighted by the Queen for her contribution to the Film Industry that made California great.
John Presco
President: Belmont Soda Works
Rosamond Press 
Leave a comment