full version - Buck`s of Woodside

Buck’s Collection
Jim Lyons
Author
Jamis MacNiven
Collector, Artist, Story Teller
Jeff Thomas
Photographer and InDesign Consultant
Tom DiGrazia
Mobile Application Developer
Buck’s Collection
Copyright © 2010 by Jim Lyons
For information contact:
Jim Lyons
[email protected]
Edited by Jamis MacNiven
Photos by Jeff Thomas
Mobile application developed by Tom DiGrazia
(http://www.mekonut.com)
Cover and interior design by Jim Lyons
using Adobe CS4 Photoshop®, Illustrator®, and InDesign®
First printing November 2010
ISBN-978-0-9742783-1-5
Printed in U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Introduction1
Front Room
5
Back Room
29
West Room
43
Bar
49
Hallway
61
Other Stuff
79
Index
83
Introduction
If you are reading this, the chances are you have already visited Buck’s. For those of you who have no
idea what or where Buck’s is, it is a very nice restaurant in the town of Woodside, California. Besides
being a good place to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it has a very friendly staff and an eclectic environment. The Buck’s Collection refers to all of the “stuff” you see around you, including the walls, the
ceiling, the floor, and anywhere else available to stash this amazing collection of odds and ends. Some
things are of real value - historic or monetary, many have a great story behind them, and others I’m not
sure really deserve the space they take - but that’s a matter of opinion. Many are personal items of Jamis
MacNiven, who with his wife, Margaret, owns Buck’s. Many other things come from auctions, Jamis’
travels, or as gifts from friends and strangers.
I personally became interested in the Buck’s collection a number of years ago. I asked Jamis about the
collection and whether anyone had ever written anything about it. He said no and he wasn’t interested
in writing about it himself. After a number of attempts and some time later, I convinced him that it was
an interesting project and I would like to write about it. Ever since then you might have observed me
hanging around Buck’s either taking photos, interviewing Jamis about various items of the collection, or,
of course, eating one of the many great choices on the menu.
Jeff Thomas is the photographer who took the pictures of all the items in the collection. It turned out
to be way more work than he ever imagined. You may have seen the two of us around the restaurant at
night taking the pictures you see here. In addition he offered a huge amount of help with the InDesign
program I used to write the book.
Tom DiGrazia created the Buck’s mobile application that goes along with this book. If you haven’t
downloaded the app you should. It brings an interactive experience to all the wonderful items and really
makes it fun to read about them while enjoying your meal. You can get it at the ITunes Store just like
any other IPhone application. Search for the word Bucks and look for Woody the salmon. It’s free.
Jamis, of course, is the collector, artist, and general manager of this whole
collection. He selected all the items on
display, built many of them and also
did the framing and installations. He
is the only one who can explain where
they came from, what they mean, and
anything else you might care to know
about them.
One issue came up early: are all of
these items the genuine article? I think
the answer is no. However, before you
get the wrong idea, let me assure you
that many of these things are really
Jeff Thomas, Jim Lyons, Jamis MacNiven, and Tom DiGrazia valuable and quite genuine. Some of
them are obviously fake but I will not
usually tell you that. You will have to decide yourself. For example the Sailgator in the main room is a
fake. There I’ve said it! However I’ve written Jamis’ explanation of this item and it sounds really good.
1
In addition to the items in the collection, there are a number of things to see in Buck’s which
deserve at least a comment. In the back room the chandeliers are really quite nice. Jamis just considers
these part of the restaurant, I almost think of them as additional items. The carpet is also interesting:
most people don’t even notice that it is a great continuation of the crocodile theme, in fact crocodiles
with red eyes. It was woven in Georgia to Jamis’ design. The lights in the front room are cowboy hats.
There are cowboy boots all over the place. In fact Buck’s is basically a western-themed restaurant.
However there are a number of other themes which stand out when you read this book. Jamis has included lots of items in the collection about the residents of Woodside. Many people will see something
here to remind them of their friends.
One thing which Jamis wanted to have visible at Buck’s is Trigger, Roy Rogers’ famous horse. Unfortunately Trigger is too large to be included, and furthermore, Trigger was sold at auction for about
a quarter of a million dollars in 2010. However, Trigger does have a prominent position in a Weston
Rose painting. When asked what his favorite item is Jamis says without hesitation that it is the cash
register.
One thing we didn’t include is the 110 foot long
mural round the ceiling area of the main room.
There is so much going on in the sky that it is not
possible to photograph it well. Some things you just
have to see for yourself. The murals were painted by
Jamis and Weston Rose.
I would like to add my thanks to the two Margarets (my wife and Jamis’ wife), Jeff, George, and
whoever else helped us with the editing of all the
text. Many thanks also to the staff of Buck’s who
were always ready to accommodate our late-night
photographic sessions.
As someone who was always curious about what
surrounded me at the restaurant, writing this book
gave me much satisfaction. I hope you will have as
much fun looking around you and reading about
these items as I did in compiling this book. Jamis
Tom DiGrazia, Jamis MacNiven, Jeff Thomas, and Jim Lyons
is always adding and changing the exhibits. There is
no way this book can ever be complete.
Jim Lyons
from my office in my home
Redwood City, CA
2010
2
Rebuttal
I just read Jim’s introduction where he expresses some skepticism over the veracity of my claims
about this or that. The man is a perspicacious engineer and trained to look to the literal. Poor fellow. It
was just this sort of scrutiny that nearly canceled Christopher Columbus’ adventure when he went off
looking for India. Imagine if he had ended up further north, say in Virginia. He might have thought
he was in China and would have called the locals there Chinese. Or what if Bugsy Segal hadn’t had
the imagination to make a wide spot in the road home to hookers, gamblers and villains of all sorts by
dreaming up Las Vegas?
Am I saying that Buck’s is Las Vegas or that I am Chris Columbus? Well, yes, I am saying that. Like
those fine men, I took what didn’t exist and brought it forth. If a little bit of literal truth gets mangled
along the way well that’s just tough.
But a word to the skeptic: about ten years ago a fellow called me and asked me if he could bring the
Declaration of Independence here for display to promote its sale. No, not the original hand-written one
on display in D.C., but one of the 15 or so surviving copies printed by Ben Franklin on July 4th, 1776.
So in comes the director of Sotheby’s with three armed guards and this valuable piece of Americana.
They set it up in back for a few hours. When I asked folks in the front of the restaurant if they wanted
to see the Declaration of Independence most thought I was kidding until they saw the guards and TV
cameras. It was on the news that night and because of its exposure here sold for eight million.
The Sotheby folks gave me a handsome souvenir copy and I put it in the display case up front for a
few weeks and, due to the press hoopla, folks came in to admire it. So was the Declaration here? Yes.
Was the one in the case real? Almost. Does Tom Cruise live in Woodside? Maybe.
Jim says flat out that some of the items on display here aren’t real, like the Sailgator. Now I could have
pointed out that his belief is simply wrong, but it is much more fun to leave his words but print them
in smallish font so when he is forced to eat them he doesn’t choke. Others have doubted that things like
the chads and ballot from the Dade County presidential election (causing us to end up with 8, count
‘em eight years of George Bush) are authentic, but I can assure you they are. Or I would assure you if
you believing me was important to me. It isn’t. What is important is that everyone gets a laugh and has
a good time here at Buck’s. I will give my good friend Jim this. If there is one story that is a fabrication I
don’t think he will ever know which one it is.
When Jim says that nothing has been written about the stuff here he actually means that no book has
been written until his. In fact there has been a good bit of comment over time, my favorite being from
a Japanese website from the mid 90’s. It seems that the Japanese was translated by a machine which
even today can give the language a flavorful twist but this time they got it right. It read, “The interior of
Buck’s is a toy box entirely.”
It is a toy box, my toy box, in my play room with you - my friends.
So thanks Jim for all your hard work putting this book between the covers. I doubted you, but now I
see you were right. I am indeed a genius.
Jamis MacNiven
from the bug filled veranda of my summer home
Port Moresby, Paupua New Guinea
2010
3
4
Front Room
The front room is where you enter the restaurant. Don’t forget the ceiling: there are lots of interesting
things up there. This room has several pieces about the Sand Hill Challenge and many other weird and
wonderful items from the Buck’s Collection.
South Wall
TV Marks
Musical Instruments
This is a photo of the musical instruments
which are played to celebrate birthdays.
These marks represent the number of television crews that have been here since the mid90’s. There are about 200 of them.
Jamis said, “Every time a TV crew comes in,
an authentic crew, we mark them down. I don’t
know how many but we have had 1000’s of
journalists here; often several a day.”
It says on the wall, ‘Number of times my dog
actually ate my homework.’
5
Steer Skull
Sandhill Challenge
This is a miniature cattle skull, 4 inches across.
Funny Face
This is a photo showing the first and second
place finishers of the 2000 Sand Hill Challenge.
Comdisco Ventures was first and Asyst Technology
was second. Asyst Technology is the builder of the
car overhead.
Flexy Flyer
An old bottle opener which you use by putting
the bottle in its mouth and pulling up.
Phone Booth
This is a miniature
version of the Bell coin
operated telephone. It is
good to have one somewhere because soon there
won’t be one anywhere
to be seen. The amazing
thing is that this thing
actually worked. But the
coins were very small
and it was really hard
to use.
Jamis looked for one of these for a long time.
Finally a friend brought him one. He still comes
in to admire it.
The attached plaque says: ‘The Flexy-Flyer was
a must for the well-equipped boy of the ‘50’s. With
ineffective brakes, below the sight-line of cars, and
wickedly fast; the Flexy is unbelievably rare today
as most were rounded up and burned by MAFF
(Mothers Against Flexy-Flyers) as so many boys
were hurled into traffic on their faces. On loan
from the collection of Peter Johnson, co-inventer of
the duodenum.’
Vegetables
A couple of
small carrot sculptures
6
Slide Rule
This is a model of a Keuffel and Esser slide
rule. It is quite accurate and will do real calculations. As Jamis says, it is fun to watch today’s
teenagers with this; they have no idea what it is.
Just a few decades ago they would have used one
in school. The small image of a slide rule below
the big one is actually the size sold.
Jamis said: “This is how we got to the moon.
Back then all calculations were done on slide
rules. I remember when Keuffel and Esser went
out of business. They were doing fine and then
all of a sudden in one year, because they had no
diversification, they were done. ”
K&E shut down their slide rule business in
1975. To read more about them, check out the
web site: wikipedia.org/wiki/Keuffel_and_Esser.
Weston Rose Painting
This is another great Weston Rose painting.
This one is Monument Valley in Arizona.
Trophy of Toast
Lenin Statue
This is a statue of Lenin. The interesting
thing about this is that many people are quite
upset about this being here as they think that
Lenin was involved in all the horrible things
we think of from Stalin’s period of power. In
fact that isn’t true at all: Lenin was no Stalin
(or Hitler).
This is the Coveted Perpetual Trophy of Toast,
the prize given at the Sandhill Challenge, an annual soap-box derby race organized by Jamis and
explained in his book, Breakfast at Buck’s: Tales
from the Pancake Guy.
Basically it was a race of gravity powered
vehicles. It was held on Sand Hill Road for five
years and was a major contest between the powers of Silicon Valley. You can see two of the race
cars here, one on the wall and the other on the
ceiling.
7
West Wall
Sand Hill Racer
.Jamis said, “This orange car is pivotal. This
racer was built by the people who designed the
Palm Pilot. In fact, the woman who piloted
the racer was a part of the Palm team. It was
financed by Mohr Davidow, venture capitalists,
and they really wanted to win which they did
in the first and second years of the race. There
were two categories: whimsy and speed. This
car was a speed car. It looks very much like the
cars designed at Carnegie Melon. It turned out
that David Kelly, the head of IDEO, went to
Carnegie Melon and knew about a long running
buggy race they had there. People have been
killed in that race. Well, in the fourth year of the
Sand Hill Challenge, Carnegie Melon sent out
two teams. They didn’t even place in the top ten
and they had almost a hundred years of experience. We beat the pants off them.
“My son Tyler took second place in the high
school division with a sheet of plywood and four
bicycle wheels, beating a car that was built by
Lockheed with the assistance of kids. So sometimes you just have to go bare bones to win.
There’s a tremendous amount of technology in
these cars.”
8
Sand Hill Plaque
This plaque explains the orange car above it,
the Mohr, Davidow Ventures and IDEO car.
It says: ‘Nobel Prize Laureate and Grand
Marshall, Dr. Burton Richter, presents the Coveted
Perpetual Trophy of Toast to the winners. On
September 20, 1997 this car set the record as the
fastest gravity powered car in the world at the
inaugural Sand Hill Challenge. Teams consisted of
two pushers and a driver. After pushing the cars for
40 feet they were released for the 0.4 mile run. The
team built the car, tested, redesigned, practiced,
modified and continued to refine the vehicle right
up to the day of the race. Over 1,500 volunteer
hours were spent on the effort.’
Black Card Players
Belt Buckles
These are some
great belt buckles
from Frank Moses,
a fellow who comes
in all the time.
They cover many
of the years during
which he was a
rodeo champion.
Jamis said, “This is a photograph of unknown
vintage. I had a black man come in who really
objected to this, he said it was prejudicial, so I
took it down for a while. But I put it back up
because I thought, No, it is just funny. We’re an
equal opportunity offender.”
Raychem Ray Gun
Jamis said, “This is a
Raychem heat shrink
gun. Raychem makes
all sorts of goo and
tubing and stuff and
these guns were the
means of shrinking
these various devices:
sort of a hair dryer
effect.”
McEnroe Tennis Racquet
Jamis said, “This is a tennis
racquet retrieved court side and
given to me by the Woodside
Tennis Shop. John McEnroe
was in a snit and smashed it
after losing to Jimmy Connors.
Years later, after this had
been up for a long time,
McEnroe comes in (he was
at Stanford playing in some
seniors thing) and he sees this,
reads the plaque and said, ‘You
know, that is a woman’s racquet’.
And I said what were you
doing playing with a woman’s
racquet and he just snarled and
walked away.
Of course he wasn’t using a
wooden racquet and we just
made that up because it was
funny. At least he was here to
defend himself.”
Planet Hollywood Stock
This is a Planet Hollywood
stock certificate
which Jamis
thought was
funny because
it was issued
two days before
they declared
bankruptcy
Jamis said,
“They were still
selling stock, even though they were headed for
the crapper.”
This certificate was signed by Demi Moore,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and
Bruce Willis.
Vargas Print
Jamis has
had complaints about
this over the
years that
it objectifies women.
Jamis said
“Yeah,so?”
This is a
Vargas pinup
girl, beautifully framed.
He remembers suffering
when he paid
about $300
for it. Now
the frame alone would cost far more than that.
It’s probably just from the magazine, but it’s a
nice presentation display.
The text on the painting says: ‘Pistol Packin’
Mama and includes a poem. Painting by Vargas,
Verse by Phil Stack.’
9
Cracker Jack Prizes
According to Jamis, “This is a set of Cracker
Jack prizes from 1902 to 1932. These go back
to the very beginning of Cracker Jack when the
popcorn wasn’t packaged, but scooped out of a
barrel. They would scoop it out, put it in a bag
and toss the prize in.
“The prizes were wings, fans, hatchets, and
so forth. Some of these are valued at hundreds
of dollars because of their rarity. Most are made
of lead. Imagine putting a lead toy in with kids
food. ‘Hey, kid don’t forget your piece of lead.’
They were lead for many years, all through the
thirties and then they converted to tin plate and
paper.
“There was a famous case where a kid choked
and died which finished the practice of putting
the good prizes in. They went to little paper
trivialities.
“I bought this as an entire collection which I
sorted out and installed by year in the 18 foot
long case. ”
It’s interesting to look closely at these metal
prizes. They are copies of lots of normal things
like guns, shovels, hatchets, trowels, locks, and
so forth.
Shaquille O’Neal Shoe
Jamis said, “A friend
of mine and I were at
a charity auction at
some big fancy party
in Atherton back in
the heyday before the
internet stock market
collapse in 2000 when
he bid $10,000 for the
bag without knowing
what was in it. Then he
bid $15,000. When he
bid $20,000, I stopped
him because he was
the only bidder at that
point and had been
from $10,000. He was
bidding against himself.
When he opened the
bag he found it was one
of Shaquille O’Neal’s
shoes and he gave it to
me. So it’s a $20,000
shoe.”
10
Harmonicas
Jamis bought this collection and framed it.
There is a sign which reads: ‘The harmonica, also
known as the mouth organ, took it’s name from the
glass harmonica which was invented by Benjamin
Franklin. The glass harmonica consists of a number
of graduated water filled glasses that are rubbed
along the top of the rim with a damp finger to
produce 1950’s space monster music which was
Ben’s intention all along. Benjamin Franklin was
a real oddball even by today’s standards. He was
a big advocate of nude housework and it was not
until Jerry Lewis came along that the French found
anyone quite so fascinating as ‘De crazie Beenee”
What has this got to do with the mouth organ?
Nothing really.’
There is also a little sign which says ‘Property
of Howard Scripts: Nobody can play this harmonica, including Benny. Howard can play, not Benny.’
Jamis said, “So obviously, Benny wasn’t allowed to play that one. Harmonicas were a big
deal when we were kids. We all had harmonicas.” The collection includes all of the boxes
that go with the harmonicas. Most of them are
made by Hohner, a German company.
Shopping List
Jamis said, “This
little device is a shopping list. Hard to see,
difficult to photograph
and useless. Bread,
butter, cake, you are
supposed to pick these
things by moving the
lever. This was when
we were experimenting
with different technologies. Not really
a computer, but it’s a
memory device and I
have a whole bunch
of different ones, like
weather predictors I
have yet to mount”
Weston Rose Roy Rogers Painting
Jamis said, “This is Roy Rogers. It is the first
painting we had done for the restaurant. This is
how I met Weston Rose, the painter.
“I always thought I wanted to have a Roy
Rogers motif. In fact, I thought of calling the
place Triggers. I thought it would be decent if
I asked Roy Rogers if it would be all right. So
I went to his museum in Apple Valley. I went
there with one of my kids and we asked Roy if
he would mind if I called the restaurant Triggers. I told him that my opening day plan was
to have a whole bunch of kids and palominos
for a Trigger lookalike contest. I told him it
would be great fun. After hesitating for a moment he said that he would be very honored if
I would call the place Triggers. Trigger was the
smartest and the best horse he had ever had, but
as far as getting a passel of kids (he said passel)
and a whole bunch of field weary palominos
in a parking lot and having a really good time:
I don’t think that would work out too well for
you. Suddenly I could see the headline: Eight
Kids Trampled by Palominos at Trigger’s. So
we didn’t do that and we ended up calling it
Buck’s.
“I designed the painting with Weston. I had
him add some of Roy’s sidekicks, such as Gabby
Hayes by the camera. There is Pat Brady way
back in the jeep. My oldest son is up front with
the camera crew. He always wanted to be in the
movies. (He said, “no I want to really be in the
real movies. I said, “this is the best I can do”.)
“The guy in front is Sergey Eisenstein. We
had an old black and white picture of Eisenstein
(which people think is Gorbachev) sitting by a
camera. And that’s Dale Evans way in the back.
And the dog, Bullet, and Trigger of course.
Someone asked: “where are the reins on that
horse”? He doesn’t need reins: it’s Roy Rogers
for gosh sake. There are also bugs, a mouse and
a lizard.”
Plastic Eyeballs
Jamis says,
“These glass
eyes are actually plastic. The
plastic eye was
invented by Kurt
Goldstrom who
is about 97 now.
He gave me some
of his eyes. So the
eyes have it. Kurt
is the guy who
would replace
deflated eyes with
these. He said of
the glass ones that
when people go
up in airplanes they can explode because they
are not actually flat but they have a cavity of air
inside so they have a certain thickness of air that
would expand and shatter and although you
won’t actually lose an eye (you already have) it is
unpleasant.”
The card says: “For many years Kurt Goldstrom
has been an anaplastologist and more specifically an ocular anaplastologist. By meticulously
matching a missing eye to the remaining one he has
returned thousands of people to society.”
If you look closely at these eyes you can see
how individual they look: different colors, different sizes of irises, and so forth.
Painted Cows
Jamis said: “This collection of cows was
part of the effort by cities to adopt a symbol
as a theme, such as a cow, horse, sharks, or a
human heart. But it was the cows in Hamburg
originally. Then they morphed to Montevideo,
Uruguay and other cities before burning out
and being replaced by other animals.
“These are models of some of the famous
painted cows. These models were made in
China or somewhere like that and were
distributed by a woman here. I just bought a
critical mass of them because they are so lovely.
I wonder what animal or body part they would
pick for Las Vegas?”
11
Japanese Money
Jamis said, “This is fun. These are Japanese pesos, not widely used today, I guess. It looks like
American money, it’s printed in English, and it
says Japanese government, yet it’s pesos. How
can you explain that? This is not a fraud, it is
Japanese government money used for Philippine
occupation money because they used the peso as
well as the American dollar. When the Japanese
took over they wanted to issue something to
use commercially that was reminiscent of what
people were used to, so they combined the peso
and the American dollar when they invaded the
Philippines. They also printed Burmese occupation money too.”
Agnes Moorhead Purse
Jamis bought this
at an antique show
from the estate of
Agnes Moorhead.
The bag reads ‘I love
parties, vacations,
mink, diamonds,
and martinis.’ The
plaque reads: ‘Our
vote for inclusion in
the intergalactic time
capsule from Earth.
The accessorizing genius, the still deceased
Agnes Moorhead, is
reported to have had
the hat, shoes and dog,
which accompanied this little bit of style hysteria.
We are still looking for the shoes and hat. We have
the dog.’
Lift up the question mark and you can see the
word SEX.
Sailgator
Jamis says, “Here is a sailgator, very rare,
caught outside a nuclear power plant. Usually
they fall apart when the sunlight hits them but
this one is intact. It’s probably the only one
you’ll ever see”.
12
Warren Buffet’s Wallet
Jamis said,
“This photograph is of Warren Buffet giving
me his wallet.
Ron Conway
is also in the
picture.
“My philosophy has always
been, when you
meet the richest
guy in the world
just ask him
for his wallet
and maybe he’ll
give it to you.
About a year
later I got a letter
which I nearly
tossed because it looked like a form letter. But I
opened it and it was a letter from Warren Buffet
saying, ‘I remember us having our picture taken
but if somebody gave you a wallet purporting it
to be mine, they were very much in error. I have
had two wallets in my pocket in twenty years and
still have one. The other one I sold at auction for
$300,000 to John Robinson.’’ So I sent a letter to
him saying, ‘you got me.’
“His was such a nice letter, neither accusatory nor demanding and I told him I would
change the sign to read this is not Warren’s wallet.
Of course no one believes it isn’t his wallet: the
photograph is what people see.
“About five years after I put this up John
Robinson came in with the wallet. I have a
photograph of him standing with the real wallet
and the phony wallet. Funny world.”
Frank Moses Hat
The card says:
‘Frank Moses
bought this hat
from Olsen Nolte
in 1950 when it
was still in San
Francisco. The
pins are from trail
rides he went on
over the years.’
According
to Jamis, Frank
still comes in to
Buck’s. The pins
commemorate
the different
years of the
Woodside trail
rides.
Matthews Sculpture
Jamis said, “This
is by an artist
named Arthur F.
Mathews from the
1920’s. He was a
California artist of
great renown and
with his wife helped
found the Arts
and Crafts movement. I don’t know
if it is an edition
or a one-off, but I
do know that it’s
remarkable, yet no
one ever comments
on this piece. If you
look at it closely,
it’s a jungle scene of
octopus trees, there’s
a native with a spear, flowers both tiny and huge
and apes hanging from the trees. It’s a whimsical
tour de force of five different metals. I thought
at first it looked like cheap Filipino tourist art
but when I got into it I realized that is an amazing piece of craftsmanship. I bought it in 1994
for $400. I thought that was a lot of money but
I would now pay a lot more than that because I
love that piece. It’s interesting that it provokes
no comment at all.”
Throne Third House
Taxi to La Honda
This is the Woodside stage running in the
1910’s. It took people back and forth between
Woodside and La Honda.
Inside are two brothers on either side of a
third passenger. Jamis has actually met the
brothers’ descendents. The passengers are all
dressed up for a day in the country with their
elaborate hats and ties. What is alarming is that
the driver would take all of those people in this
vehicle up very steep hills with those little tiny
drum brakes. I think that if it didn’t stop you
were expected to leap or die.
They were probably going over to the coast to
vacation in San Gregorio or Pescadero. It would
have taken a long time, but shorter than a stage
coach ride I guess. It was a bone jarring ride but
it’s what folks were used to.
The amazing thing is that the negative had
a rip in it and they printed it anyway with the
tear. You can see the rip in the print. Jamis
installed it and then subsequently a crack in the
wall appeared above it.
Medicinal Liquor
This a photo of the elaborate sculptures of a
janitor who for many years made these homages
to an unknown god in secrecy at night. There
are thrones twelve feet tall and elaborate altars.
When he died they found all of his work in
his garage. There was no written information
but he sure heard some sort of music from
above. It is now owned by the Smithsonian Art
Museum.
The information on the picture is: ‘The Throne
of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millenium
General Assembly, ca 1950-64, gold and silver aluminum foil, colored kraft paper, and plastic sheets
over wood furniture, paperboard, and glass; 180
pieces overall.’
A prescription for medicinal liquor during
prohibition. The note says, ‘This is a prescription
for Medicinal Liquor issued during prohibition,
1933. Hey doc, make that with two olives.’
License Plate: Hawaii
This is a 1976
license plate from the
Aloha State.
13
North Wall
Snakeskin
Lord Whiting
This is one of Jamis’ favorite pieces. It is an
anaconda skin from the Lord Reginald Smythboat-Whiting expedition.
The caption says: ‘Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) from the Lord Reginald Smythboat Whiting
expedition to the Upper Amazon in 1904-5. This
serpent was killed while attempting to crush and
consume young Timothy Smythboat Whiting aged
7.’
Learn more from http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Anaconda.
This is young Timothy as an old man in
1966. Lord Timothy
Smythboat-Whiting
was the boy being
eaten by the anaconda
to the left.
Jamis said about
this, “I think the kid
probably poked the
snake with a sharp
stick or something. I
can see young master
Tim as a churlish
rogue in knee socks
stabbing the brush and making a nuisance of
himself. I saw him once in his dotage, and his
metal teeth gave me as much of a fright as he
must have given the snake.”
Anaconda Movie
This is an
anaconda head
from the movie
of the same
name. It was
given to Jamis
by the guy
who created
this and other
animatronic
creatures. The
same guy built
the orange
car across the
room.
Scottsdale Train
This is a small example from a large train set.
Jamis has a friend who, along with his wife,
owns a huge collection of these trains. They have
an acre and a half in Scottsdale where the trains
are running around outdoors.
14
Big Fish Lure
Ray Gun
This is a giant fishing lure. Jamis said, “It is
contemporary. The hooks hang down to snag
very tall people and we don’t expect a tip when
they get caught.”
Narwhal Tusk
Jamis says, “Oh, this is another one of my
prized possessions. It is a narwhal tusk. We met
the President of Iceland and after we chummed
around for a couple of days, he offered me this.
It is illegal to import marine mammal parts, so
this is a loan from the people of Iceland. (It has
been here for about twelve years.)
“The tusk is the modified evolved eye tooth
of a whale that has grown out through its head,
and it is used for combat. It’s basically a unicorn’s horn on a whale.”
The plaque shows a picture of some narwhals
and says: “Narwhal Tusk (Monodon monoceros)
This whale grows to 20 feet plus its tusk. The tusk
is a modified tooth like that of a walrus or an
elephant tusk. Brought south to Medieval Europe
by Vikings, the tusks were attributed to Unicorns.
It was said to have magical powers to detect poisons
in food and as an aphrodisiac. It is highly illegal
to import tusks today, but the president of Iceland
wanted us to have one so we are just borrowing it.”
More information is available at http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal
Candle Holder
Jamis said, “This
is a candle holder.
It’s a waitress. I’ve
threatened to replace my help with
these on occasion.”
This is a ray gun, made by a New Zealand
movie prop shop where they made things for the
Lord of the Rings
Jamis said, “It’s a ray gun that will be discovered at some point in the future having been lost
in the future’s past, hence the rust.”
Submarine: Das Boot
This submarine is the model from the movie
Das Boot. It belongs to Foster Goldstrom whose
father made the plastic eyeballs seen elsewhere.
He is a friend of Jamis who felt it belonged here.
It’s actually a working model. It has a little
float device so you can find it when you are out
in the water cruising around: just a ping pong
ball on a string.
Amazingly enough there was a customer in
Buck’s once who said he was a movie producer
and Jamis said, “Oh, this is from a movie, Das
Boot.”
He said, “I recognize the model, I produced
that movie.”
Iran Iron
This is an iron.
Somebody brought
it from Iran (in
his suitcase on an
airplane) and Jamis
thought that he
had to have it. You
put coals in it and
iron clothes.
15
Musical Instruments
These are the musical instruments which
are played for birthday
celebrations at Buck’s. If
you haven’t heard them,
you probably haven’t been
here enough.
They include a trombone, an alto horn, a
baritone horn, and two
tubas. None of them is in
very good condition (as
you will have heard if you
have a birthday at Buck’s).
They have a guy who
comes in and works on
them now and then, but
the Buck’s crew does most
of the maintenance as
evidenced by the tape.
Roller Skates
These are roller
skates. That might not
mean anything to anyone younger than about
fifty but they were quite
common. Young people
today have probably no
idea what these are. You
needed to wear hard
soled shoes and that is
probably not an option
today. With hard soled
shoes you tightened the
skates onto the soles
using the skate key.
According to Jamis,
“The skate key was also used to give to a girl for
going steady. If you were a Catholic you just
used your Saint Christopher medal. Both skate
keys and St. Christopher have lost their luster.”
Aboriginal Art
Eden Rock
This is a photo of Eden Rock Hotel where
Jamis once vacationed. It is near Cannes on the
French Riviera. It was a wonderful place, but its
real claim to fame is that Jamis ran into Gregory
Peck here.
A piece of aboriginal tourist art which Jamis
brought back from Australia.
Jamis’ Aunt Faye
Teeth
This is a collection of rubber
teeth which Jamis
had around.
Jamis says,
“This is probably
our most popular
item. Damn,
I wish I hadn’t
spent all that
money on the
Fabergé egg”.
16
A photograph of Jamis’ great great Aunt Faye
taken in 1923.
Olsen Fish Powder
Speer Bullets
A sign for the Olsen Fish Powder company. It
is of unknown origin but it is quite a nice sign.
Al Gore Pass
A collection of bullets that appear to be made
by one manufacturer, and which includes lots
of different sizes and types of rifle ammunition.
It comes from the Speer Sporting Equipment
Division of Omark Industries. The caliber, the
diameter and the weight of each bullet is shown.
The background includes a dismembered
Rocky Mountain sheep head, a rifle, and a boat.
Ronald Searle Print
Al Gore’s pass from the TED (Technology,
Entertainment, Design) conference in 2008.
Jamis goes to this conference every year and
when he asked Al Gore for his badge, I guess Al
just decided to give it to him.
Obama Newspaper
A Ronald William Fordham Searle print
satirizing the fox hunt crowd. The Stirrup Cup
(8/99)
Searle was an English newspaper cartoonist in
the 1920s, famous for the Belles of St Trinians
series.
The picture showa a bunch of men on a
hunt with their dogs and the fox having drinks
outside an inn with a couple of bawdy women
upstairs.
The Washington Post from Wednesday, 5 November 2008 with the headline ‘Obama Makes
History.’ It says it is from Les Dewitt.
As Jamis said, “That is certainly true and we
will see the impact of that headline as time goes
on.”
17
East Wall
Cowboy Boots
Local Theatre Group
These are a few more of the Buck’s collection
of cowboy boots.
Rocket Shoes
This is a picture of some local thespians all
dolled up for one of the local theatrical events.
Customer Photograph
Jamis said, “These are rocket shoes. Every kid
has to have these. They look pretty dangerous
actually. If you were light enough to bounce
on them, you were light enough to flip over on
your head. No one has tried it here. I never even
saw them as a kid, but I just love the idea.”
18
Some customers gave Jamis
that picture of
themselves all
dressed up. The
woman on the
left was Miss
England in 1940.
Butterfly
Hearst Lion
Jamis said,
“A toy lion
was owned by
William Randolph Hearst
in 1870. I
just bought it
for the sign.
I don’t know
if he owned
it or not, but
somebody
did.”
A butterfly. They are sold by a company called
“Them”.
Leaf Insect
This is a leaf insect also from “Them.”
Wacky Homes
Phelps on Corn Flakes Box
Someone gave
Jamis this box of
corn flakes with
Michael Phelps
before Kellogg’s
dropped him
for smoking
marijuana. (It
would be neat to
see if it was really Kellogg’s who
dropped him.)
It says on the
box: ‘Michael
Phelps, winner of
8 gold medals at
the 2008 Olympic
Games.’
Pachinko Machine
Jamis said, “This is
a pachinko machine;
really common in
Japan. They have a
very formal society but get their
ya-ya’s out by going
to these gambling
parlors and pretending to run wild.
Dennis Spanek gave
me this.”
The long essay is wonderful. It’s by Peter
Martin. Here are photos of impossible homes in
various states of distress or dismemberment.
It says on the first panel: ‘The Wacky Homes
Collection Peter Martin. This series is part of a
collection to be published soon as a coffee-table
book entitled ‘Real Estate Bargains’. Each building
is real. No image was computer-generated. Martin
amassed these photographs over 14 years.’
19
Prime Minister of Singapore
Girl with Feathers
Jamis
said, “Just
some
clever girl
in an outfit posing
with her
feathers.
I don’t
actually
know her
but I’d
like to..”
Bush & Putin
The Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
posed with the fish out front. It says under
the photo: ‘The honorable Tony Tan, Deputy
Prime Minister of Singapore (left of the woman
in yellow) after having completed the purchase of
‘Woody’ the town mascot. Later the State Department nixed the sale.’ (I suspect the blue trim
around the photo was added by a child admirer
later on.)
Jamis’ Uncle Karl
That’s Jamis’ great
uncle Karl as a young
man in 1929. A real
swashbuckler.
Jamis
said, “This
is a photograph I took
in the German airport
of Putin and
Bush. I’m
imagining
Bush to say
‘My father
was the 41st
president of
the United
States’ and ‘Putin replying ‘well my father was
Joseph Stalin’s barber.’
“I determined later that he wasn’t really Joseph Stalin’s barber, he was Joseph Stalin’s cook.
Still pretty good.”
Weston Rose Painting
Jamis’ Uncle Karl
Jamis’ great uncle
Karl here as an old man
in 1975.
Another Weston Rose, a great little painting
of a vineyard in Napa.
20
Morrell Airship
Stick Insect
A walking stick
insect. Another
from “Them” like
the butterfly and
the leaf insect.
Employee Sculpture
Jamis said, “This is something I got recently.
It is a beautifully framed disaster photo of a
lighter-than-air aircraft in 1908. It flew from
Berkeley and there were people onboard. If you
get very close you can see this long sausage thing
flying people; then crashing here in the parking
lot. I was told from the guy who sold it to me
that the people survived because it came down
kind of slowly.”
It says on the picture: ‘Morrell’s Airship. The
450 ft ‘Ariel’ just before it took off from the Berkeley High School grounds in 1908. The ‘Ariel’ was
in the air on its way to San Francisco just before it
began its nose-dive. This remarkable picture shows
the airship with its nose touching the ground and
the rest of the balloon falling rapidly.’
A woman who
used to work here
left this sculpture
of herself. The
sculpture did
have a right foot
but now it’s gone
to foot sculpture
heaven.
Rocky Cheeter
This little
sculpture was
made by one
of Jamis’ sons,
Rowan, when he
was about four.
He called it
Rocky Cheeter.
21
Squirrel Bike
Homer Simpson
One of Jamis’ friends,
Homer Simpson. As usual he
is eating donuts and cake.
Jamis said, “My son Tyler gave me this for my
sixtieth birthday: this wonderful squirrel driving
a motorcycle. Everyone needs one of these.”
People Painting
Anseth Millington, Joan Stiff, and
Dolores Degnan.
Dolores is the last
of the Mohicans:
the other two have
left us for greener
climates.
Somebody actually made this up
to look like them,
although Jamis
remembers they
were a little larger
than this. They
were the Church
ladies.
Leather Buffalo
Pee-wee Herman
Another one of
Jamis’ great idols. This
one is Pee-wee Herman
in a chair. The chair is
named Chairie.
Mini Me
Yet another character
Jamis looks up to. This
one is Mini Me, played
by Verne Troyer in the
movies, riding on a saddle
purse.
Gary Coleman
No story, just a leather buffalo. Of course all
buffaloes are actually made of leather.
22
Another of Jamis’
great heros. This
one is Gary Coleman (the guy from
Different Strokes) on
a lunch box. Jamis
was in a movie with
him. It skipped past
the theaters, and also
right past DVDs into
oblivion.
Jamis, Shimon Peres and Tim Koogle
Copper Coin
Jamis said, “That is a picture of me with Shimon Peres and Tim Koogle, the CEO of Yahoo
at the time.”
It says on the photo: ‘Jamis explains to Shimon
Peres (past president of Israel and Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate in 1997) how to run the 8 string
marionette.’
A four dollar coin from Sweden. The plaque
reads: ‘A 4 Daler coin from Sweden. Minted
in 1756 (date in the upper left). At 5.6 lbs this
copper coin is an example of the largest coins ever
minted. In time most of these were melted for their
copper value but this one was discovered in the
wreck of the ship Nicobar off the Cape of Good
Hope, South Africa in 1987. Our term dollar
comes from the Low German Daler.’
Jamis said, “They stamped the four corners
and it’s a given weight. Sweden was the biggest
producer of copper 300 years ago so they made
this money which (if the price of copper fell
below the denomination price) could then be
sold as metal.”
Jamis’ Relative
Jamis’ Relative
One of Jamis’ great grandparents, Francis, in
1879.
Baby and Shoes
One of Jamis’ great grandparents: William in
1879.
License: CA
This is a photo of a baby with some of the
bronzed shoes which Jamis has been collecting
like crazy.
This license plate says YNOTY2K. What’s it
mean? Could it be: “Why not the millennium
year?”
23
Ceiling
Peggie Sue
According to Jamis, “This flying horse is made
out of fiber glass, with wings made out of sheet
metal. We call it Peggy Sue (for Pegasus), an
homage to a long forgotten girlfriend.
“When I was making this in my shed, a large
goose got up and stretched its wings out in front
of me dramatically so I could study the three
layers of feathers. So those are relatively accurate. I had a real working model.”
24
Ape in Space
Jamis
said of this.
“Here is
the monkey
pod. This
is the real
chair used
to train
Ham the
chimpanzee
to go into
outer space.
It is part
of a larger
assembly
made by the Air Force to fit into a space capsule.
It’s still got the Air Force stickers from before
the agency became NASA. “We did retrieve
Ham, you’ll see pictures of him online. And
those little levers were labeled with classical esp
symbols (Zener symbols) to try to train them
to retrieve food pellets to measure their mental
acuity in space. We had no idea if their eyeballs would pop out or whether they would go
insane.
“Remember when we were kids there were all
sorts of questions about how people would do in
space. We discovered it’s pretty hard on the body
but your eyes don’t actually explode. In fact if
you are exposed to the lack of atmospheric pressure in space you don’t die instantly, you would
have a few seconds before your blood boils.”
Macon Dirigible
Jamis said, “The Macon: I’ve always been a
big fan of lighter-than-air craft. The Macon was
a 900 foot airship. It is one of the reasons Silicon Valley is here: the people of Sunnyvale gave
the land around Moffett Field to the Federal
Government for $1 in 1927 with the proviso
that they would bring the airship industry here.
It happened.
“They brought the Macon which was built in
Ohio along with the sister ship the Akron. The
Macon only lasted eighteen months and went
down off Big Sur. A dirigible was the only type
of aircraft which could go long distances at the
time. Back in the 20’s and early 30’s the Graf
Zeppelin went all the way around the world; no
airplane could do that. And they had a regular Rio-Berlin run. The Graf was seen in San
Francisco and so was the Macon. Anyone who
was around here then remembers seeing them
because they were a very BIG deal.
“We’ve got a much smaller 250 foot Zeppelin
around the Bay Area now. Imagine more than
three times longer than that.
“The Macon was an aircraft carrier and it was
run by the Navy. In Germany and England they
considered them air force vessels so they didn’t
have ocean life saving equipment. When they
went down in the water everyone drowned. The
Macon being a Navy vessel did have life vests.
When the Macon hit a downdraft it bounced
off the ocean and bounced up to about 4,000
feet. They lost part of the tail and they knew
they were going down. It came down slowly and
cracked its back in the Pacific off Point Sur. All
but two people out of 78 were saved. Its sister
ship didn’t do so well: only two people survived.
“Dirigibles could go up to about 14,000 feet
and led to a lot of innovations in fixed wing
aircraft because the fighters couldn’t go that
high. So then they built bigger dirigibles that
went higher and then the fixed wing aircraft
got better. Pretty soon the fighter aircraft could
go higher than the these dirigibles and that
killed the industry even though these big birds
were reliable (to a point) and they could go the
distance.
“Once the Macon went out to reconnoiter
over the Pacific. Franklin Roosevelt was going
to Hawaii on a battle ship. The Macon flew over
and dropped him some newspapers and this
really revitalized the stagnant lighter-than- air
industry. We only had four ships total and three
of them crashed and the other one was mothballed. Once the Hindenburg went down it was
all over. Zeppelin never went out of business.
The white one we see over the bay is made by
Zeppelin and it is semirigid. Semirigid means
that it has a metal skeleton inside.”
Jais built this model over a six month period
with cardboard bulkheads, balsa wood ribs and
fabric.
Biplane
Jamis said, “This airplane is a 1/3 scale Pitts
which was a stunt plane. It was built by a fellow
who discovered it was too heavy to fly so he
gave it to me and I painted it. The real one is
only three times bigger: an 18 foot wingspan
compared to this one which is 6 feet.
“On board there’s a tiger flying it and a guy
in back who’s Cosmo. There is actually a little
vignette there: it’s Cosmo’s flying circus: he’s the
impresario. You see he’s got the impresario mein
to him and there’s that tiger flying (and that
tiger appears in other places in Buck’s besides).”
25
Tiger Shark
Jamis said, “I commissioned this eight foot model from two artists, a sculptor and a painter. I had
the notion that I wanted part tiger shark, part aircraft, part lion. So I’ve got an F14 merging into a
Bengal tiger. The teeth and the tongue are from the taxidermy industry as are the blue human eyes. In
fact it’s got my eyes. The shark is a hammerhead.
Albert the Alligator
Jamis said, “Here we have Albert the Alligator who is actually a lot longer than he looks, over six
feet. He was a table lamp; everybody had an alligator table lamp 70-80 years ago. I’m sure your parents
did, I know mine did (of course mine had a lot of weird stuff). The surf board is made out of copper
sheet metal: quite heavy and impossible to use for surfing.”
Blimp
Helicopter
Jamis said, “Here we’ve got a little blimp
with a bunch of characters floating around here
advertising baking soda”.
Jamis said, “This helicopter was dropped off
one day in my office. I don’t know who gave it
to me, someone thought I should have it. So I
naturally attached a WAC to it. That’s a woman,
Woman’s Air Corps, a WAC from World War
II. And she’s fallen out and she doesn’t look like
she’s going to be having much fun now.”
26
Space Man
Jamis said, “Years ago I had some dealings
with NASA, I had a good friend down there,
and I asked him if I could get a spacesuit. He
said he would look into it and he called back
and told me they could loan me one. This was
a huge deal because these were all slated for the
Smithsonian. In fact replicas of them cost about
$10,000. There were three companies making
replicas and they had a backlog. So he said the
best he could do is loan me one for a month
Loan, shmoan, I’m going to go to Russia, they’ll
give me one. So I went to Russia and there’s the
suit. They made me sign an agreement stating
that I would not use this in outer space. Considering that cosmonaut was about five feet tall I
had no trouble signing.”
“In Russia I found where the suits were made
and my little band and I went there in the
middle of winter with an interpreter and banged
on the door. A little metal slide opened and a
guard stuck his head out and asked in Russian,
‘what do you want’. I said we want to buy a
spacesuit. And he looked at us strangely and he
said hold on and then he slammed the door and
disappeared. He reappeared and said to come
back tomorrow. I thought to myself, I’ve seen
this movie. We came back the next day and
made the deal. It’s a beautiful piece of work. I
paid $12,000 for it. I have seen them for 40 or
50 grand since then. I imagine they are cheaper
now with the recession.
“The Sokol suit is the most common spacesuit
and is still the standard spacesuit used by the
Russians. It’s very tough to get into. You’ve have
to undo the zippers and unroll this bladder and
step into it. I wouldn’t want to be there long.
It’s a cabin suit used if they lose pressure in the
space capsule and wouldn’t be much good for
a space walk.. They offered to sell me a Soyuz
capsule for $1 million. I didn’t have a million or
I might have taken them up on it.”
Girl with Snake
Jamis said, “So here we have a tragic misapplication of art. This is a human in a shell, reminiscent of Venus and Botticelli. She’s wrapped in
a python. The python’s got jewelry on. The girl’s
wearing ruby slippers and a sequined skullcap
and looks like a Vegas dance girl. I used to have
a light down low shining on her but when lit
that way she looks like an angry transvestite.
So I turned that off. Scared the children. I also
added the fish jumping out of the shell. It’s been
there for fifteen years but I don’t think anybody
ever said, hey look at that. I don’t understand
that, it’s awfully big.”
Flying House
Jamis said, “This house is a builder’s model.
It’s neither an architects model nor is it a doll
house because it’s got these studs showing
inside. This is from a builder in 1900 or so demonstrating what your bungalow would look like.
It was collecting dust on a porch in Pasadena
and I bought it at a yard sale. Stuck to the bottom you can see a tiny crushed witch because a
little boy asked me where the witch was. I said
there is no witch, and he said there always has to
be a witch. I went home that night and made a
witch. You know, a flying house with no witch
underneath . . .wrong.”
27
Red Bug
MD 11
Jamis said, “This car, the Red Bug, was manufactured by A. O. Smith. The motor on the
back is an attached piece, a fifth wheel motor
that drives the unit. This is an unremarkable car
except for two things. It was made for children,
and it cost $200 back in the nineteen-teens. A
model T cost $300 so this car didn’t sell very
well. I have a picture of Douglas Fairbanks
sitting in this car with Charlie Chaplin. I don’t
think the car could have gone very far because
you can see a wheel like that pressing on the
pavement is really not very powerful.
“The single cylinder engine designed by A.
O. Smith ended up being bought by Briggs and
Stratton and became, and still is, the ubiquitous
single cylinder farm engine used throughout the
world today. It emerged from this engine design.
Quite an important piece of technology really.”
Jamis said, “This is an MD 11 which my
friend Jacques Littlefield gave me from his collection. Until he died he had the world’s largest
collection of army tanks in private hands, just
here in Portola Valley.
“One day a guy came in here, an older fellow
with his daughter, and he said you know I designed that airplane. I said yeah, you and 4000
others. And his daughter said yeah it was him
in charge of the 4000 designers at McDonnell
Douglas. He was the head of design. So we got
him up on a ladder and he signed the airplane.
“Jacques Littlefield died of cancer in 2009.
His tank collection is still there. 85 tanks,
working tanks, and about 220 major pieces of
military equipment.”
Asyst Sand Hill Racer
Jamis said, “This yellow car, the Asyst Sand
Hill car, was the second fastest gravity-powered
car in the world and it was on its way to becoming the fastest when raced in the last year of
the Sand Hill Challenge. The white car, from
Comdisco Ventures, won. (The vigorously fought
battle is chronicled in my book, Breakfast at Buck’s:
Tales from the Pancake Guy.)
“The Sand Hill Challenge started in 1995
and ran until 2000. This car was built by these
28
people at Asyst Technologies, who were very
serious about winning. They didn’t. This car
would cost $100,000 if you had to buy it. It’s
all quite custom. But the labor and parts were
all donated. The body was fabricated with a
wonderful system which involved taking a giant piece of foam, wrapping it in carbon fiber
and liquefying the foam using acetone; all very
complicated.”
Back Room
The back room is the one with all the chandeliers. Jamis said they were all stolen from the dining
rooms of homes whose owners had gone to Las Vegas for the weekend. There are quite a few interesting
things here: some historical, some scientific, some artistic, and some just plain weird. Stroll around and
check them out and if you see something on another patron’s plate that looks good, Jamis says help
yourself.
West Wall
Whole Shebang
The Whole Shebang is the first integrated
circuit used in a consumer item. It was a trade
display. A big deal at the time but soon the
circuits all went micro. This is from the guts
of a television set and it was made by Fairchild
Semiconductor.
Kosher Wine
There seems to be a lot of sacramental wine
drinking going on. People must have become
very religious during Prohibition. Drink up me
hardies.
29
Sisty over Cord
This
is Alice
Sisty
doing a
Roman
Jump
over a
Cord motor car.
(What,
Roman’s
had
Cords?)
Jamis said, “Alice is jumping with a pair of
horses over a Cord. I saw this photograph at
the Bozeman Airport and just had to have it so
I got a copy. What an incredible stunt. It’s hard
to jump a single horse that high, but how about
two, and bareback. ”
If you want a copy get hold of the Bozeman
Historical Society and they will make you one.
Swords
Jamis
said,
“These
are Confederate
and
Union
swords.
They are
reproductions
from
India. A
woman
came in
one day who said she was from Sotheby’s. She
said the Confederate swords were of little value
but one of the Union ones was worth $10,000.
I read later that she was convicted of art fraud
and sent to the big house.”
Fiji Mask
This mask is an example of Fijian
village carving. On close inspection
you will find turtles, lizards, snakes,
and fish.
Jamis says, “Fiji had a reputation
of being the place where they ate
shipwrecked sailors for lunch. It
was true then but now they just sit
around drinking kava and thinking
themselves wild for doing so. I’ve
had kava and it has a similar effect
to weak coffee mixed with lite beer.
It tastes like delta mud.”
30
World’s Largest Swiss Army Knife
Jamis said, “I saw this Swiss Army Knife in
Fortune Magazine. It’s the largest knife actually
made by the Swiss Army Knife company, worth
$1200. When I bought it there were only two
of them in the U.S. I was thinking of buying
both of them, but...
There is a flashlight, laser and all sorts of wonderful things. I shined the laser in my eye and I
don’t think I’ve been right since. I’m an idiot.”
Coins
Jamis said, “Of all my
rare books, I am particularly enamored of these
pages from Ancient Coins
and Metals by Henry
Noel Humphreys 1851
(editions 1, 2 and 3),
which contain replicas of
ancient coins throughout
the ages from the very
beginning of coinage to
more contemporary times.
They are composed of foil
on plaster and would have
been assembled by little
hands in Dickens England
in the 1850’s.
“The book is a brilliant
treatise on the history
of coins. Coins go back
to 1000 BC and will
probably be eliminated
entirely in the next twenty
or thirty years - the end of
an era (sigh).
“I have several copies of
these books. Finding them
takes time and perseverance. It’s like ice fishing you sit and wait and try not to fall in. Hmm, it
isn’t anything like ice fishing is it? I collect them
because they are odd and wonderful.”
The two frames include six sets of coins and
the descriptions of each of them.
Linus Pauling Equipment
Jamis said, “I never put a label on this. Linus Pauling’s widow was a customer here. She gave me
a collection of hydrometers and thermometers from his laboratory. He is one of the few people who
have won two Nobel Prizes, one for Chemistry, the other for Peace. In his dotage Pauling proselytized
the extreme health benefits of eating massive doses of vitamin C with the zeal of a country preacher. It
turned out that it was not true.”
It was really difficult to photograph this frame as the back of the case is a mirror.
Fallout Shelter Sign
License Plate: Not Cool
Jamis said, “I used to have this on my Lincoln Towncar. I gave the car to my son Dylan
and he refused to drive it with this license plate.
J. Edgar Hoover
Jamis said about this, “The fallout shelter sign
is just an incidental, but years ago sitting at this
table in the center of the room (this table is very
important) was the head of the Russian army,
General Ivashov.
“He came in with William Perry, the Secretary
of Defense. He was sitting right where you and I
are now. I asked him what the head of the Russian Army does on a day to day basis. He said
‘I’m the one who puts the pins in the map’ while
he was sticking me in the chest with his finger.
And here’s me looking at this civil defense sign
above him.
“Later he and his mob sneaked out back for a
smoke with our dishwasher. To think we used to
hide from guys like him.”
Cow’s Foot Bottle
Jamis said, “This is a cow’s foot
drinking bottle with a screw top. It is
not only ugly but the water tastes of
well, cow foot. It’s a combination of
several bad things. It’s unpleasant and it
didn’t sell well.”
Jamis said, “This is President Hoover with his
evil twin J. Edgar Hoover who was undoubtedly
wearing women’s underwear in this photo. That
is something that he usually did. I have no problem with the head of the FBI wearing something
comfy but did he have to criticize others for
doing so?
“I would be interested in hearing who the
other people in the picture are.”
31
Jack London Sawfish Shark
This sawfish shark snout was collected by Jack
London in 1909 in the Solomon Islands. The
pictographs tell the story of a trading voyage in
about 1860 from Guadalcanal to New Guinea, a
trip of perhaps 350 miles.
Jamis said, “This Sophie shark’s snout was
passed down from my grandfather to my
mother and then to me. It is from Jack London’s
collection his wife Charmian maintained in Sonoma until her death. My grandfather got it in
the ‘40’s or ‘50’s, along with a great many other
items from the South Seas. It was purchased
by London when he made his ill-fated voyage
across the Pacific in his 45’ Snark which was
built to London’s design. The boat was ill-contructed and cost three times more than it should
have. It was built of inferior materials and was
leaking badly as it left San Francisco. It featured
an engine and head (toilet) which never worked.
The navigator had no concept of navigation, the
cook had never cooked and Jack couldn’t take
the relentless sun. The valiant band struggled on
but the boat ended up being sold for firewood
when it reached Australia a couple of years later.
Jack had originally planned to sail all the way
around the world. Though the trip was considered a failure by many, he did get three books
and a great many short stories out of it.”
“Jack London is notable because of his
hardscrabble upbringing. He packed pickles as
a kid then became an oyster pirate sailing up
and down San Francisco Bay in a little sloop
stealing oysters. When he got caught he turned
coat and became an oyster policeman. Then he
got shipped out on a fur sealer to the Aleutians.
When he returned in 1890, he joined a ragtag
socialist army of unemployed men riding the
rails to Washington protesting the dismal job
market. When he came back to California he
started high school but after a year moved to
U.C. Berkeley. Neither schools could hold him
and he soon became the greatest American
writer of his age. At the age of 40 he died probably of despair.
“I call him a diamond stickpin communist
because he loved the high life with the rich and
famous but claimed to be a socialist at the same
time.”
32
It says along the sawfish snout,“Solomon
Islands acquired 1909, c1860. Four canoes set
out at sunrise with a steersman and 22 paddlers.
The red line is the leader. A storm of four days
duration sinks a canoe and nine men are lost. The
travelers encounter two ships and commence trade.
After about one month the travelers reached New
Guinea. The travelers stay eight days and trade
with the New Guineans. Note: shark snout shown.
The travelers depart New Guinea. The travelers
return to Guadalcanal. The leader, a nobleman,
had one hut and one wife. Wealth brought four
wives and four huts.’
Sig Heller’s Appliques
This is Sig Heller’s Sample Book from New
York City in 1920’s. The remarkable collection
of 1084 samples were used as appliqués on furniture, drapery and clothing. They were manufactured in the garment district of Manhattan by
the Jewish immigrants, many of whom would
have come through Ellis Island. These appliqués
are used to decorate curtains and lamp shades
and such things, a totally forgotten art.
Jamis said, “A guy came in here a few years
ago and he looked and looked at this, and he
was absolutely astounded. He said ‘I remember
this man. He was very old when I knew him. I
went to school with his grandson on Long Island.’
The fellow knew the whole Sig Heller family. It
was so wonderful to get that connection.”
The book is one of a kind and is part of Jamis’
collection of “books with things in them.”
South African Ballot
A 1994 election ballot from South Africa.
Nelson Mandela, unnamed on the ballot
as he was simply listed
by party affiliation and
photo, won the election
and ended up turning
the course of history in
South Africa. He was
elected after spending
27 years of his life in
prison.
Gore/Chads
These are chads
and a ballot from
the 2000 ballot
fiasco in Dade
County, Florida
that lost the election for Gore.
They were given
to Jamis by Jude
Barry, a person
who was involved
in the election
down there. Look
carefully and
you can see some
dimpled chads.
Red Herring
Neuman Bro’s General Merchandise
This is a picture of the old store across the
street from Buck’s in about 1900. It was called
his was Neuman Brothers General Merchandise.
After Neumans, this was the site of Caldwell’s
Store, and this is where Robert’s Market is
today.
Porta Pooch
Jamis said, “This is a copy of the first Red
Herring magazine, prominent here from 1993
to about 2002. It had a great run. The Dow
listed in this copy was 3400. They were talking
about the next great thing: virtual reality. This
guy is still a customer of ours: Jaron Lanier. The
Red Herring was the magazine which really set
the pace for the internet stock market bubble.
Ultimately we saw the whole affair collapse.”
Harmonica
Jamis said, “Here we have a Porta Pooch. It
allows you to carry your pooch onto an airplane
as carry-on luggage. (We also had one here
for girlfriends but we decided not to put it on
display.)
People have objected to this over the years. It
used to be on our kids’ treasure hunt. They said
‘you can’t show that.’ I said why not. They said
‘it’s gross and disgusting.’”
Used as a large display model for music stores.
It was very common when Jamis was growing
up. It says on it: Marine Band by M. Hohner.
33
Mole/Woodrow Wilson
Jamis says,
“This is one of
a series of photos by two guys
named Mole
and Thomas.
I saw them in
Smithsonian
Magazine. I
sent for a series
of prints for
$20 each. This
one is a human
pointillistic
composition of
Woodrow Wilson. It is made
up of 21,000
soldiers who
were mustered at Camp Sherman in Ohio. They
were all set to be sent off to World War I which
then ended abruptly. Using an artificially forced
perspective from a tower with a few soldiers in the
front and hundreds in the back the photographers
got the shot.
“If you look closely with a magnifying glass you
can see soldiers goofing around all over.”
It reads on the picture: ‘This picture was made in
1918 by Mole and Thomas. It is of Woodrow Wilson
by 21,000 officers and men at Camp Sherman,
Chillicothe, Ohio, Brigadier General Matthew C.
Smith, Commander.’
(There are three other Mole and Thomas pictures, one in the hallway and two in the bar.)
Woman Picture
This is my great aunt
Helena. In her case it
was pronounced Awnt
Hee-lena. When I was
a kid I remember her
as having a dead dog
wrapped around her
neck when she visited.
I thought it strange and
rather wonderful.”
Mike Tyson
Jamis said, “This is a
picture of Mike Tyson
in his underwear
wrestling a white tiger.
I just cut it out of a
magazine. The picture
shows that Tyson has
a tattoo of Chairman
Mao on one shoulder
and one of Fidel Castro on his chest. I guess
that makes sense.”
Tammy Faye Bakker
Jamis said, “This
is fun. I sent Tammy
Faye and Jim Bakker
a fan letter and they
sent me an autographed picture of
them and their cat.
It reads ‘Best wishes
as you walk with the
Lord. ’ Signed by
them and Puddles
the cat. This is back
in the time when
they were all over
TV, saving souls and
criss-crossing God’s green earth in their private
jet. Jim was caught with a hooker in a motel and
Tammy just cried her cotton pickin’ eyes out. I
mean literally, her eyes just fell right out onto
the gravel driveway and the cat ate ‘em. I’m not
lying”.
Lost Time Accident
Jamis said, “Right,
but that was where a
bridge collapsed and
three people were
killed. Or maybe one
cut finger. I really
dont know, but a 12
lb. bronze plaque?”
General Pickins
Jamis said, “I found
this photo when rummaging through the
house of our recently
dead-as-a-door-nail next
door neighbor in Bangor
in about 1958. We called
him the general and he
never corrected us. I
think he went to hell for
this impersonation.”
34
Green Lizard
Jamis said, “I got this in Costa Rica fro the
artist who carved it. There are only about three
artists in that country which has no artistic sentiment to speak of. Oooh, un-pc. But it’s true.”
North Wall
Black Cowboy
St Petersburg, Russia
This is a great photograph of a black cowboy
on his horse. The cowboy was Bill Pickett who
was quite famous in the 1920’s. He was on a
postage stamp in 1999, but they had to pull the
stamp quickly because the government found
out that they had made a mistake and their
picture was of his brother.
Jamis said, “This was taken on a trip when I
was to have tea with Catherine the Great. She
was, unfortunately, still dead when I got there.
I did have tea though. The is the winter palace
and I was there when the temperature was 31
degrees below zero. It was cold even for Russians.”
I asked him about the three photos arranged
as they are here. He said: “I took it as three separate photos. And the mat is quite nice. It kind
of worked out fun though. These days people
will correct them to make them look alike but I
prefer them as they are.”
Mexican Truck
This is a
frolicsome
little truck
Jamis got
on a trip
to Mexico
before
Mexico got
all shooty
and stabby.
35
Boats
Flea Circus
The following is a summary of what is written
on the plaques next to the boats: check it out for
the full story.
Ferrari Hydroplane. This boat smashed the
speed record by going 150 mph in 1953.
Chris Craft Triple Cockpit 1938. The legend
of Chris-Craft began in 1884 when Christopher
Columbus Smith started the Smith Boat House.
Chris-Craft was the largest producer of mahogany boats in the country. During this time the
“Barrel-Back” style was introduced.
Chris-Craft Cobra. This fun little speedster
is from the era of big fins and wings. The sporty
Cobra model is an all-wood kit featuring a
double planked birch plywood and mahogany
veneer hull.
Typhoon 1929. The pedigree of the Typhoon
dates back to the days of the Gold Cup Races.
The original Typhoon was designed back in
1929 by George Crouch. The Typhoon origin
began with Edsel Ford. Edsel Ford was an avid
race boat enthusiast. Knowing the background
and seeing the famous Teaser in action, Edsel
Ford wanted a new fast boat just like it for his
own personal use.
36
Jamis said, “Flea circuses really did exist. This
is a hand-painted poster from the flea theatre
that my great uncle ran. My great uncle and his
sister, my grandmother, were in the carnival and
circus world. My great uncle ran this flea circus
up and down the West Coast in the mid-teens
in California. He had a girlfriend back in St.
Louis and they wrote letters back and forth for
about a year while he was on the road, and while
they were trying to save for a house. The letters
are poignant because he then got drafted and a
few weeks later died in Flanders in WWI.
“I have all the implements from the flea
circus: I have this little school, and this bicycle,
and all this on display over in the bar. I was left
the posters, the tickets, the little vehicles, the
tiny dresses made of paper and the little metal
printing press which was used to print tickets
and flyers that go with the Frick Flea Circus.
“Patrons gathered around a small table top
and the fleas were harnessed to the coaches and
made to run for their lives. Or they were glued
to a cone of paper and as they whirled around
a tiny dance floor you were asked to imagine a
grand ball with women in hoop skirts As the
impresario would ‘spit the talk’ he would give a
kid a magnifying glass and convince the kid that
this one is Napoleon and that one is Einstein
which helped persuade the sceptics.”
Hand-Tinted Photograph
Hippo Head
This is a half
sized hippo head
model which looks
quite happy. (That’s
rather ironic as
hippos are actually
quite the reverse.)
But his nice, shiny
glass eyes make
him look friendly.
License Plate: PA
Jamis said, “This is a hand-tinted photograph
which makes this couple look really spooky.
Hand-tinted photographs were quite common
until color photography came in.
“The woman in this picture was named Clara
Sauer, and she looks it. Whenever I see these
old photos with the long gone staring at me I
wonder if they can see me back. I mean who’s to
say, right?
“One day I will take this picture out of the
frame and see if I can see the backs of these
people. It’s this sort of thing that makes it hard
for me to watch TV. I am constantly wondering
how they get all those little people inside the
set.”
Pens
This is a collection of pens from
when fountain pens and early ballpoint pens were popular, bought
and framed by Jamis.
Jamis said, “A friend of mine, the CEO of
Cadence Semiconductor, came in with Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania. He presented
a CADENCE license plate to the CEO and on
my website I subsequently accused the governor
of selling stolen license plates in California.
Ridge tried to buy my silence so he had this one
made and sent to me. It must be a lot of fun to
have whole buildings full of cons to do stuff for
you.”
Ben Franklin Press
The laws of
the province of
Pennsylvania
printed in 1742
in the print
shop of Benjamin Franklin.
Judging by the
era, he may well
have touched
these with his
own hands
because they
were printed
one at a time on
his giant offset
press.
It says: “A
Collection of all the Laws of the Province of
Pennsylvania: Now in Force. Published by Order
of Assembly. Philadelphia. Printed and sold by B.
Franklin, 1742.”
37
East Wall
Fly Life
The ad information says:
‘Bill’s Next Really Good Idea.
The Fly Life, The Catch and
Release Fly Swatter. For the
Sensitive, Compassionate,
Holistic, Caring Person of the
90’s. The FlyLife has the following advantages over regular
fly swatters: American Made,
Attractive, Kind, Noiseless, Big
Hearted, Metallic, Probably
Durable, Non Violent. Politically Expedient. A great stocking stuffer (empty of course).
Now available - as seen on TV.
$29.95’
Jamis’ take, “This is a fun
piece, a fake Fly Life, but
with the advertising that
goes with the real one. This
is politically correct: You can
catch and release flies. For
the gentle soul. Back when I
put that in it was considered
funny. Now a lot of people
take it seriously ‘I want to
get one of those, I don’t want
to hurt the flies.’
“Obama was on TV: he
had killed a fly and PETA
came out in favor of the fly.
They said everything has a
right to live.”
In case it isn’t obvious, you
pull the long string to open
the trap, and when you catch
a fly in the trap you let go of
the string.
38
Mirror
A woman who was
going into a rest home
gave Jamis this mirror. It was in her living
room and she wanted
him to have it so he put
it up. Jamis says he is
offered far more than he
has room for.
Richard Nixon Fired
Jamis said, “This is a
poster of Richard Nixon,
who was at a political
rally in Santa Clara with
Governor Reagan. I was
at that rally and then
later I had Nixon fired.”
Cigarette Cards
Jamis said, “These are cigarette cards that
were hand-tinted, and provided in cigarette
packets. The ones showing are the most demure
but there are some pretty naked women frolicking in these pages. These are some saucy French
cigarette cards. So you had your cigarettes and
your picture too.”
It says “Cigarettes Melia, Maryland superieur”
and “Cigares Londres Melia”.
The sign says: “These are hand-tinted photographs painted in Algeria in 1915. They were
included with a package of Melia cigarettes. The
models were French prostitutes and most of the
pictures in this collection are pretty racy.”
Camera Lucida
This is a camera lucida: a medieval design. Believe it or not, they had cameras lucidae back in
the Renaissance and they were used for transferring drawings onto the large walls and ceilings.
A lot of prominent artists used them, but they
fell out of use with the modern projector. A lot
of Flemish painters used the instrument to make
a perfect painting with a simple projection. This
is a modern one actually. Jamis just bought it
at an antique show. They were used by Thomas
Moran and Bierstadt and other realists in the
19th Century.
Famous Bugle
Jamis said, “This is
a bugle that a fellow
who was cleaning out
the attic gave me. He
claims that this bugle
was largely responsible for the expansion
of the West. I think
he had grandiose notions about the value
of his bugle.”
The sign says: “The
Kastle Bugle. Used at
Fort Crook, Omaha,
Nebraska, before the
place became S. A.
C. headquarters. This
bugle was largely
responsible for the
nation’s expansion westward. Used to blow reveille,
retreat, and such. First Lieutenant Thomas J.
Kastle proudly carried this instrument as he moved
west with the U.S. Corps of Engineers and other
folks. The family hopes that this bugle will enhance
the collection of loud instruments at the Jamis
MacNiven home in Buck’s Woodside. November
24, 2001. By Kastle Nephew, Jim Milliken. If he
says it, I believe it.”
Chinese Spacecraft
This is a piece of a solar panel from a satellite
which exploded on a Chinese launch pad upon
launch. The Chinese didn’t do so well at launching our satellite
The sign says, “File this under: What the heck
were they (we) thinking? In 1996 we hired the
Chinese government to launch a Loral communications satellite of ours (us being the USA). It took
off sideways, flew 3 miles, and leveled a village.
This solar panel was purloined (repatriated?) from
the quarantined crash site. A gift of Kim Rubin.”
Kim Rubin worked for NASA.
39
Bed Bug Killer
This is a can
of bed bug killer.
Yikes. Whatever is in there is
frightening. Jamis
pretended to have
it leaking down
the side. They give
you $1000 if your
bugs are still there.
It reads under the
can: ‘Rich Binen
gave us this most
excellent artifact
from 1938. Note
that it has 100%
active ingredients, probably DDT. Spray a quart
on your bed and see those critters take a hike. I just
hope it doesn’t leak.’
Roz Savage Rowing Seat
This is a rowing seat from Roz Savage’s Beast,
her open rowing boat, which she used on her
first voyage across the Atlantic. She has rowed
across more open ocean than any other woman
in history and by 2010 had rowed from Europe
to Australia. It has taken her 5 years in different
legs to make the journey.
It says on the photo: ‘The legendary open ocean
rower, Roz Savage, rowed from Europe to the New
World and then from San Francisco to Hawaii (the
first woman to do so). She gave us her rowing seat.’
Her website is rozsavage.com.
Butterflies
These are farm raised butterflies mounted by a
local fellow. Put the two collections side-by-side
and they form a heart shape.
Jamis says, “Butterfly wings will never fade.
They won’t because they are made of crystal
structures called gyroids. They have no pigment
in their wings. Instead they have little diffraction gratings, like a set of microscopic mirrors.
This is why a butterfly is just as vibrant from
an Egyptian tomb as it is on the wing. All the
photographs here, such as the cowgirls up above,
will fade away, so if you want a real blue like this
just use butterflies.”
It says on the text nearby: “Real Exotic Butterflies. The average lifespan of these exotic butterflies
is 30 days. These butterflies are bred on plantations
all over the world. We purchase them from these
plantations after they have died naturally. Steven
Albaranes/Butterfly Creations”
Cowgirls
Ten Cent Bill
This is an American ten cent bill from 1850.
It includes a picture of William Meredith, Secretary of the Treasury. This was the hourly wage
back then.
40
Jamis said, “This is a frame of cowgirls. The
pictures are really worn with time. Cowgirls
were a big thing in the 20’s and 30’s. Annie
Oakley was a real looker, five feet tall and very
pretty and very capable. She could really shoot
behind her. Gail Davis, who died recently,
played Annie Oakley on television.”
Knife & Hat
Jamis said, “This is a
German cleaver made
by the Dick Knife
Company. Somebody
said that it might fall on
someone’s head so I put
in this hard hat below
it. It is used for cleaving
joints in twain.”
Freedonian Guard’s Uniform
Jamis said,
“Freedonia is
where Marx
did such
important
work. People
inspect it
and say: ‘Oh
yeah, I know
where that is.
They imagine
I’m talking
about Karl
Marx, but, of
course, I’m
talking about
Groucho
Marx.
Freedonia
was in the
movie, Duck
Soup.
“I discovered that this
uniform has
an interesting
history. It is
an Odd Fellows uniform from the nineteenth
century. It was made for Schuyler Cox when he
became very active in the order after he was Vice
President of the United States just after the Civil
War. I added the Spanish military epaulets and
the dagger because somehow it really needed
more.
“The Odd Fellows are a fraternal order which
sprung from the practice in England of gathering together tradesmen who didn’t have a guild
into a collection of otherwise unaffiliated members into a group of well, odd fellows. Today
these clubs seem to be mostly about drinking
and complaining about the wives.”
Donna Huggins & Jewels
Jamis said,
“This is a friend
of mine, Donna
Huggins, who
went to the
opening of the
San Francisco
Ballet with a
chandelier jewel
from the chandelier in this room.
She upstaged all
the women in
their Harry Winston diamonds
which was kind
of fun.”
The article
says: “Donna
Ewald Huggins
dressed for the occasion in a silver
beaded Badgley
Mischka gown, a vintage faux fur hat, and a
necklace she made from a chandelier.”
Map of Freedonia
This map and story goes with the Freedonia
Guard’s Uniform, see Freedonia is right next to
Grand Fenwicky. It explains the uniform and
describes the little Republic of Freedonia.
It says, “Palace Guard’s Uniform, Republic of
Freedonia, c.1895. This exceedingly rare uniform would have been worn by a palace guard
in the Republic of Freedonia. Note the distinctive
epaulets and the dagger. Just 42 square kilometers,
Freedonia was larger than a duchy but smaller
than a principality. Freedonia was a short-lived
republic and was gone by World War II. Freedonia
is most noted for the work that Marx did there in
the 1930’s.”
41
John Cleese & MacNivens
This is a photo of Jamis, his son, Tyler, and
John Cleese.
Jamis said, “On screen John plays a troubled
soul with a list of complaints as long as the
succession to the Crown. In real life he has a far
longer list. Take it from first hand experience, it
is no act.”
Fan Letter
This little letter is fan mail to Mary Pickford
during the First World War with two one cent
stamps. The date is 11 August 1919.
Boots
This is one of the many pairs of cowboy boots
all over the restaurant. This pair is screwed to
the ceiling
42
West Room
This is a less-cluttered room, but it has some real treasures, such as a bronze baby shoe collection.
There is also another nice Weston Rose painting featuring many local people in it and a lot of history.
South Wall
Wolf Man
Remington Cowboy
This wolfman is typical of many one finds
for sale all over the Southwest. He’s one of the
mini personalities throughout the place. There is
another version of this character in the bar.
This is a Frederick Remington bronze sculpture which is now in the public domain. You
could actually buy these at CostCo for a while.
Some guy came in to Buck’s once and tried to
sell Jamis one made out of solid silver. Jamis figured it would be cheaper just to paint his silver
if he ever felt the need for a shinier copy.
43
Huge Dog Chew
Little Fishes
This is the world’s largest dog chew at 5 feet.
Jamis had it at home for a while and his dog
started to chew on it. She was a Great Dane
named Lucy and she could have eaten the whole
thing (the damage visible was done in only a
few minutes). She did look pretty funny carrying that thing around.
These fishing lures
were the first things
Jamis ever installed
here. He just thought
he’d start hanging
some art while the
place was still under
construction and it
was just bare white
walls. He built the
frame when he was
a kid so the lures are
over fifty years old.
He says he’s not a very
effective fisherman but
he is rather good at mounting fishing lures.
Jamis’ Aunt Dorothy
License Plate: Asia
This is a photo of Aunt Dorothy taken in
1918.
Jamis thinks this is a Japanese car license. It
actually looks pretty big for a Japanese car. At
about 18” by 5” it’s even big for an American
car.
West Wall
44
100 Bronze Baby Shoes
Frog Band
Every restaurant
needs a toad playing the piano. It’s
even better if you
get a toad playing
soccer while singing.
Desiccated frogs
and toads are sold
all over the South
doing things with
one another much more vivid and far less acceptable than this.
Aztec Boy
Either a priceless preColumbian art treasure
or cheap tourist art. You
decide.
Tug Boat
Jamis says, “From about 1900 to the 1960s
it was popular to have your kid’s shoes bronze
plated and mounted with desk accessories from
picture frames and book ends to pen stands
and ash trays. Nothing like a little kid’s shoes
surrounded by cigar ash. The shoes were worn
and worn out by the several kids in the family as
they were handed down until the last kid finally
got a nice soft shoe.
“I thought about going into the bronzing
business but it involves a great deal of toxicity
and expensive technology so I’ll pass. If you look
online you will find several companies that will
still bronze shoes. This business is just rotten so
they now bronze just about anything so if you
want to do your cat make sure to tape its eyes
shut.”
(The Mona Lisa painting has been moved to the
bar so the Louvre gendarmes can’t find it.)
Bronze Horse
One day a rather
shabby fellow came
in and ordered an
enormous breakfast.
It turns out he had no
money so Jamis asked,
“Well what have you
got?” He paid with
this.
A neighbor gave Jamis this ship in 2009. It is
a model of the Seguin, the real ship still resides
at a maritime museum in New England. This
model is the more difficult to build, bare wood
style rather than the more forgiving painted
sort.
Giant Painted Boot
Jamis painted this giant boot.
It is ceramic and had to be lashed
to the wall after little Timmy was
... oh, God no. . . . Poor Timmy.
This incident has prompted
Jamis to require handcuffs on all
children when they come in.
45
North Wall
Railroad Lamp
Like many pieces this was a gift from longtime patrons who think they own the joint.
Jamis says that in a very real way, they do.
Two Giant Lenses
Jamis bought these giant lenses at an antique
fair in the mid-90’s. It is a pair of matched
lenses that weigh about 30 pounds each. He is
pretty sure that they are used for mass extinctions of sidewalk ants by really well armed small
boys but maybe they are for something else.
Anyone know?
46
Geocache
Bucks is an authentic geocache location: geocachers come here all the time looking for it. If
you have no experience with geocaches, there is
a web site which tells all about them and lists all
geocaches in the world. (www.geocaching.com)
This geocache is actually an ammunition box
(from World War II) which is a typical geocache
storage box. On the geocache you will find the
exact coordinates of the location in degrees
north latitude and west longitude. When Jamis
looked inside, he found several log books which
take up more space than the cache toys.
Jamis says, “Yeah, we’ve had people come in
here and brag that they are number nine in the
world. I’m thinking, come back when you are
number one. ”
Feel free to look inside. However, it isn’t considered appropriate to take something without
leaving something of equal or greater value.
Jamis isn’t a geocacher so if you want to take
something and leave buttkis he says, “Go crazy”.
Horse Puppet
This is a little
marionette given to
Jamis by a woman
who took great
umbrage at the fact
that he had a of the
Virgin of Guadalupe sculpture that
he found in Tijuana. The sculpture
was made of plastic
all in beautiful colors shooting plastic
flames all around.
This woman was
going all Medieval
on Jamis about how
this was terrible and
sacrilegious.
Jamis preferred not to upset her so he gave
it to her. Turned out that she ran a home for
unwed mothers and this is their patron saint.
It cost about $9.00 in Mexico but it was a
beautiful piece of art. So she brought him this
in exchange. Jamis thought that was nice of her,
though he still pines for his lost Virgin.
Hudson Hornet
This is a Hudson Hornet, a beautiful piece of
sculpture, from the late 1930’s. Jamis laments
that they just don’t make them like this anymore. You know: gas hogging, unreliable, uncomfortable, and unsafe. Ah, the good old days.
Alligator Purse
Chewing Tobacco
This is a collection of nineteenth century
chewing tobacco slip ties given to Jamis by
Susan, one of his very first customers. Her father
had collected them. I don’t know what “slip”
means.
There are three of them which say “Navy”
- American Navy, Old Congress Navy and Martin’s Navy. There is also Parrot Talks for Itself,
Red Lion, Peachey Plug, Old Corker, Town
Talk, Grapevine Twist, Granger Twist, Nobby,
and Jolly Tar. There are many more names. Look
for them.
Jamis bought this at an antique show. It is a
little alligator on an alligator purse. One day, a
fellow came in and he swore it was his mother’s
and someone stole it.
Jamis said, “Well, you know, this is a pretty
common item in antique shows, I’ve seen hundreds of them.”
“Oh no, that one is hers. I am absolutely positive it is hers.” the guy said.
So Jamis said, “OK, possibly it is, it’s got to
have been somebody’s. Why don’t you bring me
something in exchange and we’ll put it in the
frame and I’ll give the purse to you.
He proposed a couple of not very interesting
things and Jamis forgot all about it.
“And you know, if he thinks it’s his mother’s,
I am inclined to give it to him if it makes him
feel good because his mother had excellent taste.
Hey guy, come and get it.”
47
Wreck at Pigeon Point
This is a painting of the “Wreck of the Margaret Ann at Pigeon Point” in 1871 by Weston
Rose. Margaret Ann is Jamis’ wife. Weston
painted the murals throughout the restaurant as
well as most of the other large paintings. He was
a great friend of Jamis’. Here he is seen painting in the painting along with various friends
of Jamis and his dog, the Great Dane (who is
the one who chewed on the Dog Chew on the
opposite wall).
The painting depicts a scene which was
described in an old newspaper article. A ship
ran aground on the rocks in a storm and this
would be the next day. There was a cargo of
horses onboard and these can be seen jumping
overboard and swimming to the shore where
they are being rounded up. Pigeon Point was the
site of many shipwrecks until the lighthouse was
built in 1871. This is a foreshortened view of
the bay between Ano Nuevo and Pigeon Point.
It’s actually about a mile and a half, so Jamis and
Weston shrunk it down for editorial purposes.
Seen on the left is a shore whaling village.
Whalers would use longboats to capture humpback whales two or three miles out, drag them
back to shore where they would process them.
No mothership was required. The lighthouse
is still there: it’s a youth hostel now. Jamis and
Weston designed the painting over a two month
period, with Jamis stopping by Weston’s studio
every couple of days and waving his arms about
to make his contributions. Note the sea gulls
checking out a bowl of fruit near the people on
the cliff top. Jamis calls gulls aerial rats.
Caldwell’s Store
This Christmas promotional gift was
given out by
the Caldwell
store years ago.
Originally the
store was Neuman’s, then
Caldwell’s, and
now Robert’s.
It includes a
metal edge
protector which was used to keep the customer’s
telephone book looking neat. There is also a recipe for Bourbon Balls, a favorite of the customers
of that time. There is an apology for suspending
publication of their commercial newsletter, The
Crossroads Enterprise, assuring customers that
they were not dropped intentionally.
Jamis says, “It harkens back to a day when
Woodside was a simple farming community before it filled up with movie stars and billionaires.
Ahh . . . the new days.”
World War II Poster
This poster, from
the Department of
Defense Transportation, depicts working folks during the
40s. It really takes
you back. ‘Is your
trip necessary? Needless travel interferes
with the war effort’
It was a tough time
then.
If you look closely
at the picture; the
only people smiling
are the soldiers, in
fact they are laughing. Everybody else
is frowning.
Running Group
This running
group comes in
every Wednesday
and has since the
mid-nineties.
Not only still
running but half
the people are
still coming in so
it’s Buck’s most
durable running
group. They are
all outfitted in Bucks shorts and they run all
over the world. From the picture, I would say
there are fourteen of them in the group.
48
Bar
The bar is bursting with interesting items. There is a large painting of Elvis on
velvet by Weston Rose. Here one finds Willy the Lion’s hip bones, an ancient bear
trap, a copy of the original version of Microsoft Windows, a large collection of airplane
models, and license plates from all fifty states. Looking around you’ll find some big
surprises and tiny visual jokes.
West Wall
Bucks Oats
Swan Feeder
It says on the plaque, ‘When a captive swan dies,
its mate often stops eating and can die as well. This
device is used to force feed them until they get over it.
Try it on your kids if they won’t eat.’
Jamis says, “It could also be for looking into the
vagina of a cow. I like the other story better.”
This was a gift to Jamis from his wife Margaret.
It reads, ‘Sowing wild oats is our business.’ It’s a
nice quilted display.
49
Early Chips
These are some packages from Advanced
Micro Devices. There
are 17 different forms
all labeled, diagrammed,
and shown intact. It
says, “from Steve Zelencik, THANKS FOR THE
MEMORIES”
Early Chips
It says here, ‘CYPRESS
4-MEGABIT STATIC
RANDOM ACCESS
MEMORY (1998)’ . The
rest of the text describes it
in detail.
The plaque is signed by
T. J. Rodgers who is CEO
of Cypress Semiconductor.
Cereal
Jamis
said, “This
is the first
thing we
ever got.
These are
cereals. We
got them
from the
kitchen of
the cereal killer.”
Under each
little piece
of cereal is its name, the company that makes it,
and the year it was invented.
I think Jamis is pulling our leg and making
it look like it was made by a computer chip
manufacturer.
Jamis, Marilyn, Elvis
Jamis said, “This
photograph is just
me imitating myself
along with Elvis and
Marilyn, so I guess I
am my own impersonator.”
50
Early Chips
This is from
Advanced Micro Devices. It
consists of samples
of 2 and 3 inch
silicon wafers.
It says under
the first, “2 inch
wafer, actual size,
containing 340
AM 9316 Four Bit
Binary Counters.”
Under the other
it says, “3 inch
wafer, actual size,
containing 780
AM 9316 Four Bit Binary Counters.”
The other text describes AMD’s entire product line and talks about their commitment to
excellence.
On the bottom it says, “From Steve Zelencik,
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES”
Horn Trophy
This trophy was given to
Jamis at the Sand Hill Challenge for being the person
who was the ‘most loud
blower of own horn.’
Egyptian
Jamis said,
“This Egyptian
hat sits atop a
flattened relief
reminiscent of
the funeral art
seen in Catholic cemeteries.
There is often a
photograph of
the departed on
the headstone.
This picture is
of Rudolph Valentino in Blood
and Sand when
he was playing
a matador.
“I saw this
at an antique show for about $1,200. Way too
much. About a year later I saw it again and
it was $800. Six months down the line it was
$500. I paid $350. I sure enjoyed that hunt.”
Bird Boot
German Ships
This is a cowboy
boot as a bird
house. Jamis says
it is very hard to
clean.
Medicinal Opium
It reads on the front, ‘This is a prescription for
Medicinal Opium which, until William Burroughs
and his friends abused it, was common until the
1950’s when the junkies, for good or bad, were
driven to the streets for a fix.’
It reads at the top, ‘UNITED STATES
INTERNAL REVENUE ORDER FORM FOR
OPIUM OR COCA LEAVES, OR COMPOUNDS, MANUFACTURES, SALTS, DERIVATIVES, OR PREPARATIONS THEREOF
UNDER SECTION 2 OF THE ACT OF CONGRESS, APPROVED DECEMBER 17, 1914.’
Jamis said, “These are German cigarette cards
from the 1930’s. You could collect them and
you would put them in a book. It was something to do until the internet showed up. The
aim was to paint as small as possible without
going insane. Oh, wait they did go insane. They
should have painted bigger. Looking at the fine
detailing, you will see the strokes of a single hair
brush. Each one, a tiny masterwork.
“I bought this at a book show and had it
framed. Unremarkable in itself but I also have
all of the the original tempera paintings produced for the publication. I have two complete
books and the paintings.”
It reads on the card, ‘This is a complete collection of Saba cigarette cards, Second Folio. Many
different themes were depicted, this one being 248
great ships from 1890 to 1930. Through a strange
turn of events, I have the original watercolor
paintings. Look at the shrouds and portholes as
well as the sublime attention to the sea and sky.’
Beer Bottle Lure
Alligator of Heineken Caps
This is an alligator made out of flattened
Heineken beer bottle caps.
A fishing lure in the shape of a beer bottle.
This was obviously a joke item. However there
was some question about it, so they wrote “Do
not put in mouth” on the fishing lure. Jamis just
loves the warning.
51
Mona Lisa
Jamis said, “Here is the real Mona Lisa,
the one in the Louvre is a forgery. It’s true, I
wouldn’t lie to you.”
I asked him who made the real one. He said,
“Oh, this is the Da Vinci. Some paint by numbers guy did the one in the Louvre.”
I asked about the hat. His answer, “Oh, Da
Vinci painted it out in the copy because he
figured it wouldn’t sell. Da Vinci was going to
paint the Golden Gate Bridge as in this original,
but his wife was yelling at him to come to dinner so he never finished it. I’m not making this
up, it’s true.”
Prisoners
Jamis said, “Here are a couple of pages from
Folsom State Prison wardens’ intake book. And
these guys were all wearing hats. It is entirely
gringos too. They were fresh from court so they
would have been looking their best with the
ties and the hats.” If you read the information,
these guys committed some serious crimes.
52
World War II
According to Jamis, “I’ve seen this published
in a couple of places but I’ve never read much
about this photo. It was taken by a Japanese
fighter pilot just minutes after the first pass over
Pearl Harbor. You can see the Japanese Zero
and the bombs going off. There are a couple of
the ships beginning to steam off the docks. It
was within two or three minutes of the first
attack.”
The information on the picture says, “Pearl
Harbor, December 7, 1942. 0600 hours. Picture
taken by the Japanese Squadron Leader of the
First Wave to Attack the Ships present. Property
of Bill Stutz, U.S.S. Blue, Pearl Harbor Survivor.
Original picture found 8 November 1945 at the
Yokasuka Naval Facility south of Tokyo, Japan.”
Lenticular Print
Jamis said, “This is a piece of forgotten technology. These are lenticular pictures of Mickey
Mantle’s 500th home run. There are fourteen
photos laid at slightly different angles so if you
move your head up and down you can see him
hit the ball and knock it into the stands. This
technology just never took off. Basically this
is a still-motion picture. They manufactured
them in Palo Alto but they failed to develop the
market for these baseball cards.”
Ronnie Lott
Two-Dollar Bills
A page of uncut two-dollar bills. Somebody has
taped three bills backward on the surface. Jamis
claims that you can actually buy these today from
the United States mint: uncut two-dollar bills for
the face price: $2 each.
This is a hologram of Ronnie Lott. Ronnie
still holds NFL records and is a friend of Jamis’
as well as a frequent customer at Buck’s. This
picture really creeps him out.
North Wall
Pancho Villa Shotgun
Jamis said, “This is Pancho Villa’s shotgun. I bought it from this little museum in Mexico that was
shutting down. It was a bear to import it.
The plaque reads in Spanish, ‘This 12 gauge shotgun was the property of Pancho Villa, the hero of the
north, and was taken from him when he was captured and held temporarily by the Federales in 1922.’
53
Japanese Alice in Wonderland
Jamis said, “This is a photograph I took of Alice in Wonderland in Japan. It’s a full-size model
of the posse looking as scary as can be. It’s in
Tokyo Tower, the tallest building in Tokyo.”
They are wax figures of the rabbit, the Mad Hatter, Alice and her dog.
Lion Bones
Mexican Hero, Zapata
This is an homage to Emiliano Zapata, the
photo, the frame, the candles. However in the
scene it includes something about Tyler MacNiven and the sophomore class presidency of
Woodside High School.
Elvis on Velvet
Jamis said, “These hip bones from a lion were
given to me by Mike Markkula, who lives down
the street. Markkula is the guy who put up the
money for Apple Computer, an early Apple
investor.
Willy was a very famous lion. He was given
to George Whittell by Frank Buck, the great
animal trainer. Frank Buck still holds the world
record for having the greatest number of lions
and tigers in one cage with one man at one
time, 29 or 39, some insanely huge number,
way more than I’ve done. When Mike was
building his house on the old Whittell property
the excavator said he found giraffe bones on
the site and wanted to bring them to me but
when the time came they couldn’t findit, so I
got Willy the Lion’s hip bones instead. Willy
used to show up across the street at Newman’s
Store in the backseat of a Dusenberg. There
are pictures of Willy sitting in the car with his
mane and gleaming teeth looking around from
the back seat of the convertible with a big kidmunching smile.”
Bear Trap
Jamis said, “This is
an early nineteenth
century bear trap from
Nova Scotia. Close inspection shows it was
hot cut with a chisel
at a forge. It was made by a blacksmith. Hard
work to make and no fun to use I imagine.”
54
Jamis said, “This is Elvis on Velvet. The
painter Weston Rose, who did all the murals
here, had real trouble with this because, with
painting on velvet, you just have to let yourself
go and use a palette knife to slather the paint
on. I had to have it because I was in my Elvis
phase. It endears me to the Harley momma
crowd. Yikes!”
East Wall
Touching Wires
Buffalo Head
This sign was
liberated by Jamis
from a tram in
Newcastle in Australia. It is from the
Newcastle Tramway
Authority. I would
have thought that
it would be obvious that touching
electric wires isn’t wise. And yes, it can cause
instant death. However it does seem to be going somewhat over the edge to then add a $200
fine! This threat of both death and a fine made
this irresistible.
Cowboy Boots
Jamis said, “Boots over the bar as lights. It’s
so cliche, one sees this everywhere.”
Jamis said, “This is the buffalo that we named
after the restaurant. This is Buck. He used to
talk and he used to talk a lot -- to the children
and anybody else. He’d move his mouth, he’d
look at you, and he’d blink his eyes. But I got
tired of talking to two-year olds from the remote
microphone. Buck kept breaking down, and
finally I gave up the routine. It was ten years
before people stopped asking if I could talk
through the buffalo.”
55
License Plates
Mole/USA
These are automobile license plates from all
the states. Every state may be depicted here.
Since there are about 75 plates in all, that is
entirely possible, however I didn’t actually look
for every one!
Electric Cars
This is another Mole and Thomas photograph.
It says on the picture, “The Human U.S.
Shield. 30,000 officers and men at Camp Custer,
Battle Creek, Michigan. General M. Lauback
Commanding. Copyright 1918, Mole and
Thomas, Chicago, Ilinois.”
Windows 1.0
Jamis took this picture of three electric cars,
the Tesla, the Wrightspeed, and the Tango. The
Tesla was founded here. Ian Wright lives in
town. All of these are blisteringly fast and represent technology for the new era.
Cool Man
Jamis said, “This is simply a
cool man. Or is it a cool dog?
Perhaps it’s man as dog.”
Here’s a copy of Microsoft Windows. This is
Windows unnumbered, it was just Windows.
There’s a letter next to it from 1985 where Steve
Ballmer says they will be releasing it in two
weeks as it’s completely bug free and ready to
ship.
The card below the picture says, “This is an
unopened copy from 1985 of the thingy that made
Bill Gates the richest man in human history. From
the junk drawer of Raymond Drewry who worked
on it from 1983 to 1985.”
56
Calippers from Cal Ipper
Ron and Nancy
Jamis said, “These
calipers were a gift
from Cal Ipper. I
think it’s funny, but
maybe that’s just me.”
Cub Scout
Jamis said, “Here are my Ron and Nancy
bedroom slippers. Occasionally people cover
them with a menu because they find them either
awful or sacrilegious or maybe it just makes
them sleepy.”
Sand Hill Road
Jamis said, “This is 1939 Cub Scout memorabilia from a customer and friend, Steve Zelencik.”
Steve was in Den 1 of Cub Pack 39 from
Highland, Indiana. Steve also contributed the
historical computer displays on the opposite
wall.
License Plate, CA
This is just a California license plate. It says
on it, From Brant Brereton. XEBITDA means
‘Times Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Assets.’ Why it says that I have no idea
but business types know!
This is a picture of Hwy 280 in 1934 and
again in 2000.
The caption reads, ‘This is looking south just
below Woodside Road at 280 toward Sand Hill
Road. George L. Waters shot this black and white
photo on April 14, 1934 and the color picture
was taken 66 years later. George , who went to
Stanford and was in the same class as Bill Hewlett,
took thousands of photos of the Peninsula and San
Francisco. His son, Tim Waters, is assembling
them into a book. Hurry up Tim so we can carry
the book here at Bucks.’
57
San Francisco
Jamis said, “This is by the great Jell-O artist, Liz Hickok. San Francisco depicted in Jell-O. It’s
probably about 50% bigger than the actual sculpture so it is larger than life but smaller than the actual
city. It only lasted about a week but we are left with this fantastic photo. Liz lit the sculpture from
below and then I lit it from behind. So it’s double lit.”
Most of the tall buildings are leaning over. You should be able to recognize the Transamerica building.
Windows Letter
This is Steve
Ballmer’s letter explaining that the Windows
version next to it is
now bug free. Isn’t it
amazing that in 1985
Steve Ballmer could
send a LETTER to his
beta testers and nobody
thought that weird?
iTulip
Here we’ve got an
iTulip stock certificate from a mock
site back during the
dot-com era reminiscent of the run up
and collapse. It says
that Jamis MacNiven
bought zero shares of
iTulip stock.
Fijian War Club
Huge Knife
Jamis said, “Here’s
a giant knife given to
me by Jan and Peter. I
think it might be for
cutting ice or a really
big wedding cake. Who
can say?”
58
Jamis said, “There’s the Fijian
war club I got in Fiji which was
sold as a tourist item. The Fijians think it’s hilarious that they
used to be cannibals and delight
in selling these clubs whose sole
purpose was to clobber people
prior to putting them in the
pot.”
Mole/Liberty Bell
Flea Circus
It says here, “The Human Liberty Bell. 25,000
officers and men at Camp Dix, New Jersey,
General Rock L. Scott, Commanding. Copyright
Mole and Thomas, Madison Boulevard, Chicago,
Illinois.”
Jamis said, “Inside the box is the actual Frick
Flea Circus. These are the original vehicles,
pulled by fleas. This circus was run by my great
uncle, Wilhelm Frick, back in the nineteenteens. He traveled California and parts of the
Midwest. I’ve got a little guy running a tight
rope across the circus. It’s all described in my
book Breakfast at Buck’s, Tales from the Pancake
Guy.”
License Plate, Google
Mike Myers
Jamis said, “One day Sergey Brin, one of the
founders of Google, came in and he asked me
if the license plate was real. Well, no, it’s not
really. I thought I would fool with him, but I
gave in and told him that I had it made in my
licence plate factory to look indistinguishable
from the real thing. Or did I?”
This is a sculpture built by Jamis of Mike
Myers playing Austin Powers, a foppish Englishman.
Jamis’ Model Car
Black Man Haiti
Jamis picked this up in Haiti. There
isn’t much to buy there but what is
available is quite primitive and heartfelt. (This little guycan now be found in
the west room.)
Jamis said, “This is a sculpture that I made
back in my sculpting days in NYC where I had
the opportunity to examine a good many cockroaches. The tiger you see driving is the same as
the one you see depicted in other works.”
59
South Wall
Model Airplanes
Jamis said, “These models are terrific. I bought these as a set. They were all still unassembled in
their boxes. They date from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. The Ranco model is of the Hiller Copter by the
boy genius Stanley Hiller.
“One night this fellow comes in and he’s looking at the Ranco and asks, ‘How did you attach those.’ I
said, ‘I started to pin them down but it took too long so I just glued them all together.’ ‘Oh man.’ he
said with a sigh. ‘Even I don’t have one of those.’ I asked him if he wanted to buy a Ranco model. He
said, ‘I would if I could get one, I’m Stanley Hiller.’
Hiller has a museum in San Carlos but he didn’t have a copy of that one thing that had eluded him,
and which I had glued down in a hunk. Back in the day they expected a kid to do a lot of work. I
was of the plastic model era. I didn’t ever build it out of just plain wood. That would be considered
child abuse.”
Old Couple
This is just a
sculpture of an
old couple spooning on an old
porch rocker.
60
Old Couple
More old folks.
I asked Jamis what
was unique about them
and he said, “They are
communists from the
thirties, friends of Noel
Coward and John Reed.
I wouldn’t make this up.”
Hallway
There are a number of Jamis’ artistic efforts here. Also several famous people, a great example of
Whaler’s Art, and a number of historic and scientific items of interest. Check it out and you will find
lots of things you didn’t expect.
North Wall
Zimbabwe Currency
This is a Zimbabwe five billion dollar note.
When it was printed in 2008 it would buy an
egg. It used to be Germany and Argentina that
had the rampant inflation, but the government
of Zimbabwe can run circles around them and
by the time you run one circle the currency will
buy half an egg.
Forgotten Saints of the West
Jamis said,
“This is a
little collection
I made of The
Forgotten Saints
of the Old West.
Saint Hollis,
Patron Saint
of Chew; Saint
Gabby, Patron
Saint of Sidekicks; Saint Billy,
Patron Saint of
Gunfighters;
Saint Tex, Patron
Saint of BBQ;
Saint Festus,
Patron Saint of
Lovable Drunks; Saint Smiley, Patron Saint of
Saying ‘Well, God Dern.’
“People stand outside of my office and say I
don’t remember any of these saints.”
61
Jamis Painting
Jamis said,
“This is a painting that I did
when I was
about 20 years
old. That’s me
with a beard. It’s
a picture of a
volcano, generating trees floating by clouds
populating the
forest. A bit of
stuff from my
surreal period. There is also a sun populating the
earth with cows, ground hogs, fish, and birds. I
have bequeathed this to my son Rowan.”
AWFIS
The office name is AWFIS. This is an IQ test.
Smart people just don’t get it at all. The others
figure it out immediately.
Hint: It isn’t an acronym, it’s a homophone.
Or is it a homonymy?
On Air sign
Airliner
Jamis said, “That’s just the standard sign you see
for people who are on radio or television indicating they are on air. This is always on, so I am
always on the air.”
Office Door
This is a model of a customer’s private jet.
Joe DiMaggio with Fish
Jamis said,
“This is a picture
of Joe DiMaggio
with a friend of
mine standing in
front of the fish
outside Buck’s. He
came in one afternoon in 1998”
Jamis’ Aunt Ginny
Jamis said,
“This is an aunt
of mine, Ginny.
She was known as
the pretty one in
1947.”
62
The stuff on the door is just a mixture of funny stuff. It includes four more photos of the big
fish outside Buck’s, another Asian license plate,
Kim Novak impersonating Groucho Marx, a big
guy with a sledge hammer about to break a huge
slab laying on another big guy, a ticket to the
1999 Burning Man, and lots of other stuff.
Jamis said, “The door is largely populated by
friends and customers with Buck’s paraphernalia.”
Group of Photos
Whalers Art
Jamis said, “This is a
collection of photos of
people long gone. I love
these old pictures, they
are so heavily posed.
One girl is badly crosseyed back in a time
when there was no fix
for this.”
Monterey Races
Jamis
said, “A
friend of
mine, David Willis,
who was
a Bugatti
racer gave
me this
picture.”
Jamis said,
“This is whaler’s
art, 19th century scrimshaw.
It includes a
pair of very rare
matching walrus
tusks and a sperm
whale tooth. The
art on the tooth
is a Confederate
motif. On the
tusks the American whaler Regulus is pictured. I
bought this stuff
at an auction,
American scrimshaw of the finest
quality.”
Shaquille O’Neals hands
Kids
love theses
Shaquille
O’Neal
handprints.
This is
mounted
low in the
hall so the
kids can
try their
hands in
it.
Buck’s Teams
Jamis said,
“These are the
teams we support.
We’ve got tee-ball,
soccer, and all sorts
of little league
teams. These are all
our Buck’s or Alpine teams. We always have a couple
of teams rolling in.
After about twenty
years these plaques
really pile up.”
Buck’s Teams
Alligator
I still have room for about 40 more teams.
Jamis said, “That is not a stuffed alligator, it is
a replica of an alligator made of leather.”
63
West Wall
Military Map
This map,
printed on silk,
was provided to
military servicemen
in World War II on
duty in the South
Pacific. If you were
unfortunate enough
to find yourself
in a life raft, this
map would show
you the prevailing
winds and currents
in this hottest battle
zone in the Pacific.
The battle of Leyte
Gulf was the largest
engagement in the
war with Japan.
Omar Sharif Costume Design
This is a costume
design for one of Omar
Sharif ’s outfits for the
film Dr. Zhivago, a
piece of movie memorabilia.
64
Rudolph Valentino Soap
It says, “This carving, dated 1926, of
Rudolph Valentino on
a bar of Rinso soap
was found under the
bunk of Eileen Block
at Indiana Federal
Prison at Terre Haute.
Eileen was serving a life
sentence for killing her
fifth husband. She was
there from 1924 until
her death in 1975, 51
years.
Presidential Limousine
A model of
the presidential limousine
used in Dallas.
It depicts the
moment before President
Kennedy was
shot. John F.
Kennedy and
his wife, Jacqueline, with
her little pink pillbox hat and Texas Governor
John Connally and his wife. The limo is a 1961
Lincoln Continental, the Presidential Parade
Vehicle. Who would make a model of this?
Dream Car
Medical Instruments
Photos of a
number of dream
cars taken in
the 1950’s and
1960’s. These
were one of a
kind prototypes
and are on
display in Dearborn, MI at the
Ford Museum.
These are quack medical
devices. This one creates
ozone and gives off a smell
and a dramatic sizzling
purple light. Although
impressive, Jamis doesn’t
think it cures cancer as
claimed.
Dream Car
You can see
some of the
‘57 Cadillac in
this prototype
Dream Car
Yikes.
Children’s Photos
This is a collection of children’s
photos. Some of
the boys and girls
in these photos
had their heads
shaved, common
with an infestation of head lice.
Often the babies
are blurry because
they move so
much during the
one long exposure
photograph take.
Gold Hill Map
Dream Car
“Shazzam.”
Map of the
Gold Hill
Front Lodes
on the Comstock Range.
Surveyed July
1864. By N.
Wescoatt, C.
E. Located Sep
and Oct 1859.
Made to accompany report of Dr. J. A. Veatch.
There is a lot of information here about the
locations of various gold mines in the area.
Dream Car
Dream Car
This is
Jamis’ favorite
and he says
it is the one
car he would
really feel
normal in if
only he could
find it.
The one
on the bottom right
is actually a
painting.
65
It’s a Tough Business
Business signs that
speak for themselves.
The weirdest is the
combo restaurant/taxidermy business.
Hair Sculpture
Jamis said,
“Hair sculptures
were popular in
the nineteenth
century; often
commemorating
dead children.
They would make
them into all
kinds of elaborate
displays. Included
is a picture of
women with ultra
long hair. I have
a theory that the
longer a woman’s hair gets, the less attractive
she becomes and I think this picture proves my
theory. Anyway they’d turn hair into wreaths
and all sorts of different things. Weird and very,
very time consuming to do these things.”
Jamis/Heidi Fleiss
I guess the photo of Jamis
with Heidi Fleiss just says it
all. Note the needle marks on
the poor girl’s arm.
Red Dragon
This is a prop from the film Rush Hour
2 budgeted at $85,000. It came in around
$145,000. This is from Linda Griffis.
66
Russian General Leonid Ivashov
The
sign
under the
photo
says, ‘The
man in
the middle
is the
long-time
head of
the Russian Army,
Leonid
Ivashov.’
Jamis asked the general what his primary job
was and he said he was the one ‘that puts the
pins in the map.’ Cool. And now they’re having breakfast at Buck’s.
Lenin’s Body
These
two letters concern the
idea of
acquiring
Lenin’s
body for
display
here.
The first
is from
Jamis
asking if
the body of Lenin is for sale. The answer is that
they say they are not interested but still want to
know what is meant by the amount of money
involved.
Fish Lures
A set of three small fish
lures.
Buck’s Teams
Teams, again.
East Wall
The Back Door
Nike Prototype
Jamis wanted
to make a piece of
stained glass for
the back door but
couldn’t think of
a suitable theme.
His wife said,
“It’s just the back
door” Riiiiight.
This is a Nike prototype from around 1980
stolen from Nike by a friend.
Robert Trent Jones
Jamis said, “The artist, Robert Trent Jones, Jr.,
the famous designer of golf courses is also a cartoonist, a poet, and an everyman. He is a local
who lives down the street. He gave it to me; it is
just an original drawing. I have no idea what it
signifies. It’s the governor, eating a fish.”
Woodside Store
This is in celebration of the Woodside Store’s
sesquicentennial in 2004. The Woodside Store
was built in 1854 by Mathias A. Parkhurst and
Dr.Robert O. Tripp to serve the loggers working in the redwoods. Until Dr. Tripp’s death in
1909, it operated as a country store, post office,
dental office, and community center.
67
Dream Car
Remote Control
Photos of
a number of
dream cars taken
in the 1950’s
and 1960’s. They
may be actual
photographs or
in some cases
artists renderings.
This is a typical universal remote control. It is a Kenwood RC-9010. It doesn’t
look easy to figure out how to use it.
Old Man
This is Potato Creek Johnny.
Dream Cars
More
Dream Cars.
License Plate, Men’s
This is a California plate to identify
the Men’s room.
Dream Cars
Still dreamin’
Little Man
A little man to identify
the Men’s room.
Begging Letter
If this woman is
as poor (or really
a woman at all) as
she says, then how
did she find Buck’s
Restaurant and
the people who
come here? This
is an example of a
begging letter; this
one telling a long
sob story and then
asking for $50,000
which she predicts
will fix her up for
life in Greece.
68
Mallet
This mallet was presented by Jeff Mallet to
keynote speaker, Jamis MacNiven, at the Yahoo
Executive Summit, Bernardus Lodge, Carmel
Valley, January 21, 2000.
Surreal Print
I have no
idea who did
this or what it
is supposed to
be. However
it is simply a
photograph of
a table with,
on top of it,
a photograph
of what looks
like some fingers with teeth around a table full
of food.
Pyramid/Jamis & Son
Jamis said,
“That is a
picture of my
number one
son, Dylan,
and me at
the top of the
Great Pyramid
in Giza near
Cairo. This was
taken in 1996
as we watched
the sun come
up. We had a guide who took us up to the top
of the pyramid (we bribed the guards). That
picture is what they do up there. Dylan’s finger
under the sun was no accident. The guide said
to do this.”
Big Al
This is Jamis’
Uncle Al with two
friends outside their
carnival van. He
was a carnie.
Tall Woman
This is a tall woman to help identify
the Women’s Room.
Buck’s Teams
Jamis said, “Teams, more
teams.”
Silicon Wafer
This is a
solid ingot of
pure silicon
for which
Silicon Valley
is named. It is
grown from a
small seed and
pulled out of
a molten mass
forming a single
crystal. Original
value about $10,000. It was like stealing a car
off an assembly line. As they were so valuable
there are very few left intact.
Tall Man
A tall man to identify the Men’s room.
Nose Art
This is some
nose art from a
B17, the Arizona
Wing of the Confederate Airforce.
The photo was
taken by Dr. Morton Grosser on 18
January 1998.
Burning Man 2007
Jamis said,
“That is a picture of Burning
Man in 2007. I
have frequently
been to Burning Man. That
picture sums
it up for me, a
carnival on the
Moon”
69
Girl Photo
This is one of a number of
publicity photos of forgotten
starlets in 1948. This one is
of Jean Carson.
Girl Photo
The Murtah Sisters, or a
three- headed woman.
Girl Photo
Alice Tyrrell.
Old Woman with Cigar
This is a good looking
woman to help people find
the Women’s room. Maybe
a forgotten starlet too.
Jamis Kissing Man
Jamis said,
“That is my friend,
Chuck Huggins,
longtime CEO of
See’s Candy. He
used to take us
on a tour of the
factory and give us
See’s Candy right
off the production
line. That was really fun.”
Greatest Father
Jamis said, “My son
Dylan gave me that.
1990, World’s Greatest
Father. What does he
know?”
Girl Photo (of man)
This is Jamis in his sultan
phase.
License Plate, Womens
This is a California
plate to identify the
Womens room.
Family Radiation Kit
Jamis said, “This is one
of the devices they sold in
the 1950’s and 60’s to fuel
the fear around nuclear
war. This is a Geiger
counter they sold people
as part of their equipment
in a fallout shelter.”
70
Woman with Chicken
I asked Jamis if
there was any point
to this picture. He
said, “No, sometimes a chicken is
just a chicken.”
Jamis’ Aunt Dorothy
Jamis/Lobsters
Jamis said, “That’s my Great
Aunt Dorothy as a child in
1901. Later she turned into
a mean old lady but she was
alright then.”
Jamis said,
“That was just
before I took
the lobsters to
Marine World.
. . I didn’t really
take them to
Marine World
but I was just
trying to give
them a good
last meal.”
Hand Embroidered Dress
Jamis said, “The lost art
of embroidering photographs; this was something to do while waiting
in federal prison for them
to heat up ol’ Sparkey.
The embroidery is actually done on the photograph. A strange corner of
the collecting world.”
Little Woman
Jamis/Kids
Jamis said,
“Those are
my nieces and
nephews.”
Skull
A tiny woman to identify
the Women’s room.
Jamis said,
“That’s a plastic
skull. The kids
loved to come
up and rip
its eyes out,
hence its eyes
are gone. They
don’t seem to
care; they just
love to come
up and give it a
poke.”
Beware Loose Clothing
The little information note
on this says, ‘Originally from a
Vermont ski resort and later in
Todd Benson’s Dartmouth frat
house and finally, here, where it
belongs.’
Hand Tinted Girl
That’s a hand-tinted photograph. Before color photography it was all about the hand
tint.
Notice
Jamis said,
“That’s one of
those old tourist things. Just
a wall filler. I
hate it. You can
have it if you
ask for it.”
71
South Wall
Joan Baez Record
Jamis said,
“Someone gave
me this record. It’s
a sound track of
Joan Baez singing
the title song from
Silent Running.
Joan does live here
in town and comes
in here from time
to time.”
Jamis Flag Sculpture
Jamis said,
“That is one
of the oldest
things I made
which dates
to 1965. It’s
the stars and
stripes. The
little band for
the stars and
fireworks for
the stripes.”
72
Lucy in 1981
Jamis’ dog
Lucy. This
photo was taken
in 1981.
Largest Fish
Jamis said, “This is a giant fish held by a
bunch of GI’s. This was a very popular photo
sold in Vietnam. It’s a Nagus.”
Mole/Statue of Liberty
A photograph by
Mole and
Thomas, The
Statue of Liberty composed
of 18,000
officers and
men at Camp
Dodge, Des
Moines, Iowa,
Col. William
Newman
Commanding, Col.
Rush S. Wells,
Directing.
Cuban Revolution
Jamis said, “This is a book of stamps that
kids would collect in Post Revolutionary Cuba
before Cuba had become seriously communist.
There was about a year when Cuba was trying to
actually be friends with the U.S., but we weren’t
having it. That’s when they solicited help from
the Russians.
“I bought this in Havana. It’s collectable cards
of all the heroes of the Revolution. One day a
Cuban exile was here looking at this and he said
‘I had one of these books as a kid and we were so
poor we couldn’t afford to put the stickers in it. So
it would be so great if you would loan it to me so I
could take photographs of it.’
“I took it all apart and he took the book and
photographed the pages. He brought it back
and as he was giving me the original, I said you
know what, just give me the photographs and
you should have the original because it doesn’t
mean anything to me. So these are the photographs. You can’t tell the difference. He kept the
originals. Later he took me to a Cuban restaurant and we had a big celebration with all his
friends.”
“The name of this Cuban is Matt Perez and
he has a web site where you can see all of these
pages: www.dropby.com
Geiger Counter
The little sign says, ‘This is a Geiger counter
from the 1950’s. It was used primarily to drive
plumber’s assistants and gas station attendants insane with uranium lust with the promise of untold
riches by finding uranium (always on someone else’s
land). Strike it rich and you could kiss your ratty
life sayonara. Just clear out the till and head west.
Yeah, baby’.
Jamis said, “The book tells you how to find
uranium with the Geiger counter. It was sitting
on my desk and one day I took it out to a table
and showed it to a friend of mine. This guy
started to choke and go white and so I was going to give him the Heimlich.
“He says, ‘No, no, I’m all right, but when I saw
that my blood stopped running.’ He continued,
‘When I was a kid, my father bought one of these
Geiger counters and we went to Arizona but he
never found any uranium. He had sold everything,
went broke and he ran off and we never saw him
again. It was that model of Geiger counter that
destroyed our family.’
“I went whoa and took it back in my office.
Intense.
“It sat there for a few months and one day
I was introduced to an engineer who seemed
to have an interest in mining so I brought out
the Geiger counter to show him. I said isn’t it
ridiculous we have these books telling folks how
to go out and find uranium by the side of the
road as if any plumbers helper could make a
fortune.
“He said ‘It could happen, my father was the
biggest uranium miner in the world, Ed Littlefield’.
“He owned Utah Mining which was then
bought by General Electric.”
73
San Quentin
Jamis said, “I have several of these warden’s
books. This is the intake information of people
going to San Quentin. San Quentin was also
a women’s prison at the time. I bought this at
auction from Sotheby’s. I had the frame made to
have that ‘I am in jail twang.’ ”
It reads on the top of each page, ‘Description
of Inmates Received at California State Prison at
San Quentin during August 1935.’
Buck’s Teams
Jamis said,
“These are
the teams
we support.
We’ve got
baseball,
soccer, and
all sorts of
little league
teams. These
are all our Buck’s or Alpine teams. We always
have a couple of teams rolling in. After about
twenty years these plaques all pile up.”
Buck’s Place
Jamis said, “Somebody
gave me this picture because that restaurant had
the same name.”
Insane Asylum
Pioneer 10
The sign on the bottom reads, “Thomas S.
Kirkbride, M. D., LLD. 1809-1882 ‘Every
individual who has a brain is liable to insanity
precisely as everyone who has lungs is liable to
pneumonia.’
The left most paper reads, ‘Philadelphia, 1880
To understand what would be the situation of a
people without hospitals for the insane, it is only
necessary to learn what their condition was when
there were none. Thomas S. Kirkbride’
The next one says, ‘Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride
Professor of the institutional care of the mentally ill
and one of the original founders of the American
Psychiatric Association.’
The third one reads, ‘Blueprint of the New
York Hospitals ‘Bloomingdale’ -- an excellent
example of the plan Dr. Kirkbride first outlined in
1854. All 30 states then in existence -- as well as
many European cities -- built mental institutions
on the ‘Kirkbride Plan’.’
The fourth one reads, ‘Portions of the original
edition of ‘Hospitals for the Insane’ -- including
Dr. Kirkbride’s inscription to the dedicated philanthropist and social reformer from Boston, Dorothea
Lynde Dix.’
Jamis said, “This is a commemorative little
bundle of joy from the first insane asylum in
America.”
74
Jamis said, “This is
from Larry Lasher with
the Pioneer mission. This
is a copy of the plaque
that Carl Sagan designed
to go on the Pioneer 10.
They took a lot of heat
for this and they were accused of sending pictures
of naked people and a
map of where to find us
in the solar system to
aliens. When they sent
the Pioneer 11 out, they had to take off the
naked parts of the naked people. Isn’t that tragic
that you can’t send naked people out in space.”
Painters, Poseurs
This is a husband
and wife team. The
husband is the tall
woman and the wife
is the short man.
They are posing
as Carmen and
the general, but in
reality, they are the
brilliant painters
who did all the faux
wall work here at
Buck’s.
Man in Ice
Jamis said,
“This is a
photograph
of a painting
of a photograph. This
painting is in
the Museum
of Modern
Art in New
York City,
part of their
collection.
Originally someone took a photograph of this
guy in the ice block and then someone else
painted the scene around him. So it’s a comic
painting but it’s taken very seriously as a work
of art.”
Evil Nellie
Jamis said, “This is another
example of the many photographs
of my ancestors. This is Evil Nellie,
taken in about 1890. I didn’t know
her personally but my mother said
she was a pretty terrible person. It
was my mother who wrote this on
the picture.”
Buck’s at Great Wall
Jamis said, “This is a friend of
mine in a Buck’s tee-shirt at the
Great Wall of China.”
Monkees Record
Jamis said, “The monkees
record and who doesn’t love
the Monkees? They were
famous for lip-synching their
songs. The guy in the middle
is Mickey Dolenz whose
mother was a secretary in
Monterey when she invented
white-out.”
German Computer Parts
This is an eight-inch German wafer.
Smoking Child
Jamis said, “This is a great
uncle of mine. He is long
since dead. It was very funny
back in the thirties and forties to pose photographs of
children with cigars. Still sort
of funny.”
Buck’s Limo
Jamis said,
“A woman
used to come
in here with
this stretch
Checker
limo. It
used to tool
around town
and it came
in here to
pick up kids
for parties, so we considered it our official limo.
We used it a few times. Pretty wonderful stuff.
She painted it with road marking paint every
few weeks because it would fade. I haven’t seen
it around in quite some time now.”
Cowboy Clock
Bucks started with a
Western motif. However
American whack turned
out to be more interesting
than western stuff.
Buck’s Runners with Dogs
A running team
that also
had golden
retrievers
as part
of their
group. The
girl in the
middle
doesn’t
seem to be
standing
on her feet.
75
Our Founder
Raising the Dickens
Jamis said, “That is a
very significant American collectible. It is in
the Indian Museum in
New York City. I saw it
there before they took it
off exhibit in the early
1970’s. It is a shrunken
man; shrunken by the
Jivaro Indians in South
American. He is only
about 22 inches tall.
It was a total delight
for millions of school
children for many, many decades. Unfortunately
no longer on display.”
Jamis said,
“This is an old
stained photo
of some fellows
who took obvious delight in
the killing of
a lot of prairie
fowl in 1929.”
It says on the
photo, ‘Gene, Pard, and Clevis raise the dickens
Aug 1929’
Aussie Kangaroo Pouch
Jamis said, “They loved selling this
in Australia. It is made from Kangaroo scrotum; genuine kangaroo
scrotum. Yep, by golly.”
License, Nova Scotia
A Nova Scotia
license plate.
It says ‘Registered
Weight 1500 lbs’.
Jamis doesn’t know
what that means. It
is from 1947.
Paralooning
The Wild Bunch
Jamis said, “This is a workout group I used
to be with back in the mid-90’s. Ronnie Lott,
the 49er football player and others. We were in
Montana.”
It says on the caption, ‘The Wild Bunch Take
Montana, 1994’
Bat Skeleton
This is a tiny little
bat skeleton.
76
Jamis said, “That’s a sport we invented called
Paralooning. My cousin figured we could go to
the desert with a big truckload of helium tanks
and a whole bunch of weather balloons, stick
em in a parachute, and float around. Well, when
we got there we found we had miscalculated and
discovered that we couldn’t fly anything more
than a six year old child. Fortunately we had a
six year old child. That’s my oldest son Dylan
flying above the desert in Death Valley.”
It says on the photo, ‘This is what you can do
with your kid if you don’t own a TV. Dylan ‘85’’
Daphne/Greensleeves
Another of
Jamis’ dogs.
This is Daphne
and as it says
on the photo,
‘Daphne on her
couch after playing Greensleaves
(sic) 37 times
in a row. May
27th, 1997’
Collection of Small Items
Jamis said, “This is
a frame full of artifacts
from my childhood.
These include, a ticket
from a Rolling Stones
concert (which wasn’t really from my childhood,
just younger times); the
Ivory Snow girl who
went on to be a great
star, Marilyn Chambers;
the McGovern pin, I
worked for McGovern.
There’s a postcard with a
phonograph recording on it, these were popular
back in the 70’s. (That’s from the Roy Rogers
Museum.) There is my grandfather’s campaign
medal from France in World War I. There’s a
traffic accident depicted on a rubber bracelet
with a dead guy and an ambulance coming.
There’s a geode. All sorts of incidental things.”
Che Guevara
Jamis said, “I got
this picture of Che
in Havana. Che is
still highly revered
in Havana. You’d
think it would have
been Fidel, but Fidel
never had that many
pictures of himself
around in Cuba. It
was always Che.”
Jamis’ Relative
This is Jamis’ sons’ (Dylan,
Tyler, and Rowan) greatgreat-grandmother. Her name
is Francis and she was born
in 1874.
Balloon Farm
Jamis said,
“This is from
the nineteenth
century when
ballooning was
really big. These
dirigibles would
have had steampowered engines
and hydrogen balloons. You can see that they are using hydrogen
because the balloons are spherical as opposed
to elongated. Ballooning was really big in the
eighties to nineties. This postcard is a handtinted photograph.” It says on the photo that it
is the Balloon Farm, Frankfort, New York.
I hate this job
Jamis said, “This is a couple
of pretty girls. I’m giving
them a hug. There’s a lot of
pressure on me. Mine is a
tough job.”
Jamis’ Mother
Jamis said,
“That is my
mother. It’s all
her fault. I collect hand-tinted
photos. This was
very popular
before color
photography got
popular. It was
carefully painted
in. She would
have been in her
late teens, so it
must have been
1940.”
Electric Necktie Iron
This Electric
Necktie Iron
(c 1930) is a
device for ironing your necktie
from the inside.
You slip it up
in the tie and
heat it up and it
straightens out.
77
San Francisco circa late 1849 and early 1850
The print on the left is from late 1849. It is a copper plate etching of the waterfront seen from Russian Hill looking toward Oakland. In a one year period at least 400 ships rotted at anchor and sank
as the crews jumped ship for gold country. It is a full sized print made in black ink then hand colored
by an artist who was either depressed or was just a bad painter. The artist who painted the 1850s print
was definitely more cheerful. Note the upbeat colors and the fine detail on the buildings and people.
Sea Shell Flowers
Buck’s Teams
This is a picture of flowers created out of sea
shells.
Jamis says, “This is a real piece of junk.”
Tuba Player
This is Jamis playing a
tuba.
78
Teams, teams and more teams. Go Teams.
Other Stuff
Don’t forget Woody the famous salmon, the mascot of Woodside, and the real Statue of Liberty.
There are also some often overlooked small items including the Russian ship, the special shoes, and the
restaurant’s Buddha.
Elsewhere
Woody the Salmon
Jamis said, “The fish out in front is named Woody. Woody was carved by a Tlingit Indian, named
Enoch Kadashan, who was the first Studebaker dealer in California. Woody comes from the tradition
of carving big seagoing canoes and totem poles. The totem carving started over a three-year period
in the 1780s. When ships started trading with the Indians, they discarded their stone tools in favor of
metal ones allowing them to carve in far greater detail. So this was carved in 1900, a hundred and ten
years ago.
“I first saw the fish in a fellow’s yard here in town and one day I went in to meet him. I told him I
wanted to buy the fish. He looked at me levelly and said ‘This is my prize possession and I will never
part with this fish.’ I looked at him gravely thinking that he had no idea who he was dealing with.”
The sign reads, ‘I’m Woody. I was carved in the early 1900’s in Northern California from a single
redwood log by Enoch Kadashan. He drew from the Tlingit Indian woodcarving tradition of the great
seagoing canoes and totem poles. I am a silver salmon and my kind once spawned in the creek behind here
in uncountable numbers.’
79
Restaurant Buddha
Candelabra
This is a giant candelabra,
just as it appears.
Russian Ship
Jamis said, “This is Buddha; the patron saint
of restaurants. I mean where else but a Chinese
restaurant would you find a really fat, jolly guy
to be the patron saint? In most religions their
key figures are kind of thin, but by the time this
figure marched through Chinese culture he gets
really fat and jolly. It works for me.
“Someone just gave me Ho Chi Minh: he’s
in there with Buddha. This is our Asian section
(Vietnamese and Chinese). Ho Chi Minh is a
Vietnamese version of Buddha. The Chinese
Buddha is the fat one: the Indian version is
the thin one. I love a god that is celebrated in
restaurants as being this huge fat guy laughing.
That’s my kind of religion.”
Funny Shoes
Jamis
said: “This
little model
is a real
gem. This
is a Swissmade model
of a ship
called the
Novgorod.
It was actually built in
Russia in the
1870’s. It
was quite
large, almost
100 feet
across, had six engines and it was round. It
couldn’t be steered because it was almost impossible. If you shot the guns, it just started to
spin.
“The admiral who dreamed this up thought,
well OK, Archimedes doesn’t know what he’s
talking about so we’ll build a bigger one! All
that work for something that could never even
be steered because it had no keel. The admiral
probably ended up in Siberia or Fresno.”
Rockets
These
are miscellaneous,
modern Chinese-made
hand-painted rockets.
Jamis said: “There are a couple of pairs of
these boots that are both dangerous and ugly.
They really sum up the pain that women have
been put to. These were mint when I got them,
but they have been handled so much that they
have started to degrade. They actually haven’t
been worn, I bought them brand new. But
people really love these.”
80
Steel Highrise Construction
Statue of Liberty
Jamis said, “That’s a model of a steel high rise
construction system in which I am one of the
investors. Here at Buck’s a lot of people come
and pitch all sorts of ideas. This one was so good
that I ended up being one of the owners of the
company. It’s a way of building high rise structures very quickly with sliding dove tail joints
precisely manufactured in a factory environment. ConXtech is the name of the firm.”
Jamis said: “This Statue of Liberty is the
REAL Statue of Liberty. The one in New York
is a copy. And certainly the one in France on
the Seine is REALLY a copy. Everyone knew
that. But this is the original one given to me by
the people of France. And she’s green.
“Once these two women came in and one
of them said, ‘oh no, he’s painted it green’! Yeah,
it’s green, it’s always been green. But they have
those little tourist ones that are copper colored.
Really, ladies!”
81
Index
A
Aboriginal Art 16
A Candle Holder 15
Advanced Micro Devices 50
Agnes Moorhead Purse 12
Airliner 62
Albert the Alligator 26
Al Gore Pass 17
Alligator 63
Alligator of Heineken Caps 51
Alligator Purse 47
Anaconda Movie 14
Ancient Coins and Metals 30
Ape in Space 24
Apple Computer 54
Asyst Sand Hill Racer 28
Asyst Technology 6
Aunt Dorothy 44
Aussie Kangaroo Pouch 76
Austin Powers 59
AWFIS 62
Aztec Boy 45
B
Baby and Shoes 23
Baez, Joan 72
Bakker, Jim 34
Bakker, Tammy Faye 34
Balloon Farm 77
Balmer, Steve 56
Barry, Jude 33
Bat Skeleton 76
Bear Trap 54
Bed Bug Killer 40
Beer Bottle Lure 51
Begging Letter 68
Belt Buckles 9
Ben Franklin Press 37
Beware Loose Clothing 71
Big Al 69
Big Fish Lure 15
Binen, Rich 40
Biplane 25
Bird Boot 51
Black Card Players 9
Black Cowboy 35
Black Man Haiti. 59
Blimp 26
Block, Eileen 64
Boats 36
Boots 42
Brady, Pat 11
Breakfast at Buck’s: Tales from the Pancake
Guy 7, 28, 59
Briggs and Stratton 28
Brin, Sergey 59
Bronze Baby Shoes. See B
Bronze Horse 45
Buck, Frank 54
Buck’s at Great Wall 75
Buck’s Limo 75
Bucks Oats 49
Buck’s Place 74
Buck’s Runners with Dogs 75
Buck’s Teams 63, 66, 69, 74, 78
Buffalo Head 55
Buffet, Warren 12
Burning Man 2007 69
Burroughs, William 51
Bush, George 20
Bush & Putin 20
Butterflies 40
Butterfly 19
C
Caldwell’s Store 33, 48
Calippers from Cal Ipper 57
Camera Lucida 39
Camp Sherman 34
Candelabra 80
Carnegie Melon 8
Castro, Fidel 34
Catherine the Great 35
Cereal 50
Chairman Mao 34
Chambers, Marilyn 77
83
Chaplin, Charlie 28
Che Guevara 77
Chewing Tobacco 47
Children’s Photos 65
Chinese Spacecraft 39
Chris-Craft 36
Chris-Craft Cobra 36
Chris Craft Triple Cockpit 36
Cigarette Cards 39
Cleese, John 42
Coins 30
Collection of Small Items 77
Comdisco Ventures 6, 28
Connally, John 64
Connors, Jimmy 9
Conway, Ron 12
ConXtech 81
Cool Man 56
Copper Coin 23
Coveted Perpetual Trophy of Toast 7
Coward, Noel 60
Cowboy Boots 18, 42, 55
Cowboy Clock 75
Cowgirls 40
Cow’s Foot Bottle 31
Cox, Schuyler 41
Cracker Jack 10
Cracker Jack Prizes 10
Cuban Revolution 73
Cub Scout 57
Customer Photograph 18
Cypress Semiconductor 50
D
Daphne/Greensleeves 77
Das Boot 15
Da Vinci 52
Davis, Gail 40
Degnan, Dolores 22
Dick Knife Company 41
DiMaggio, Joe 62
Dix, Dorothea Lynde 74
Dolenz, Mickey 75
Donna Huggins & Jewels 41
Dream Car 65, 68
Drewry, Raymond 56
E
84
Early Chips 50
Eden Rock 16
Egyptian 50
Eisenstein, Sergey 11
Electric Cars 56
Electric Necktie Iron 77
Elvis on Velvet 54
Employee Sculpture 21
Evans, Dale 11
Evil Nellie 75
F
Fairbanks, Douglas 28
Fairchild Semiconductor 29
Fallout Shelter Sign 31
Family Radiation Kit 70
Famous Bugle 39
Fan Letter 42
Ferrari Hydroplane 36
Fijian War Club 58
Fiji Mask 30
Fish Lures 66
Flea Circus 36, 59
Fleiss, Heidi 66
Flexy Flyer 6
Flying House 27
Fly Life 38
Ford, Edsel 36
Forgotten Saints of the West 61
Franklin, Benjamin 10, 37
Frank Moses Hat 12
Freedonian Guard’s Uniform 41
Freedonia, Republic of 41
Frick Flea Circus 59
Frick, Wilhelm 59
Frog Band 45
Funny Face 6
Funny Shoes 80
G
Gary Coleman 22
Gates, Bill 56
Geiger Counter 73
Geocache 46
German Computer Parts 75
German Ships 51
Giant Painted Boot 45
Girl Photo 70
Girl with Feathers 20
Girl with Snake 27
Gold Hill Map 65
Goldstrom, Foster 15
Goldstrom, Kurt 11
Google 59
Gore, Al 17, 33
Gore/Chads 33
Governor Reagan 38
Greatest Father 70
Green Lizard 34
Gregory Peck 16
Grosser, Dr. Morton 69
Group of Photos 63
H
Hair Sculpture 66
Hand Embroidered Dress 71
Hand Tinted Girl 71
Hand-Tinted Photograph 37
Harmonica 33
Harmonicas 10
Hayes, Gabby 11
Hearst Lion 19
Hearst, William Randolph 19
Helicopter 26
Heller, Sig 32
Hewlett, Bill 57
Hickok, Liz 58
Hiller, Stanley 60
Hippo Head 37
Ho Chi Minh 80
Hohner 10, 33
Homer Simpson 22
Hoover, J. Edgar 31
Horn Trophy 50
Horse Puppet 47
Howard Scripts 10
Hudson Hornet 47
Huge Dog Chew 44
Huge Knife 58
Huggins, Chuck 70
Huggins, Donna 41
Humphreys, Henry Noel 30
I
Iceland 15
IDEO 8
I hate this job 77
Insane Asylum 74
Iran Iron 15
It’s a Tough Business 66
iTulip 58
Ivashov, Leonid 31, 66
J
Jack London Sawfish Shark 32
Jamis Flag Sculpture 72
Jamis/Heidi Fleiss 66
Jamis/Kids 71
Jamis Kissing Huggins 70
Jamis/Lobsters 71
Jamis, Marilyn, Elvis 50
Jamis Model Car 59
Jamis Painting 62
Jamis’s Aunt Dorothy 44, 71
Jamis’s Aunt Faye 16
Jamis’s Aunt Ginny 62
Jamis’s friends 22
Jamis’s Mother 77
Jamis’s Relative 23, 77
Jamis’s Uncle Karl 20
Jamis with Shimon Peres and Tim Koogle 23
Japanese Alice in Wonderland 54
Japanese Money 12
J. Edgar Hoover 31
Joan Baez Record 72
Joe DiMaggio with Fish 62
John Cleese & MacNivens 42
Johnson, Peter 6
Jones, Robert Trent Jr. 67
K
Kadashan, Enoch 79
Kastle, First Lieutenant Thomas J. 39
Kelly, David 8
Kennedy, Jacqueline 64
Kennedy, John F. 64
Keuffel and Esser 7
Kirkbride, Dr. Thomas S. 74
Knife & Hat 41
Koogle, Tim 23
Kosher Wine 29
L
Lanier, Jaron 33
85
Largest Fish 72
Lasher, Larry 74
Leaf Insect 19
Leather Buffalo 22
Lenin’s Body 66
Lenin Statue 7
Lenticular Print 52
Letter: Drewry 58
Lewis, Jerry 10
License Plate: Asia 44
License Plate: CA 23, 57
License Plate: Google 59
License Plate: Hawaii 13
License Plate: Men’s 68
License Plate: Not Cool 31
License Plate: Nova Scotia 76
License Plate: PA 37
License Plates 56
License Plate: Womens 70
Linus Pauling Equipment 31
Lion Bones 54
Littlefield, Ed 73
Littlefield, Jacques 28
Little Fishes 44
Little Man 68
Little Woman 71
Local Theatre Group 18
Lockheed 8
London, Jack 32
Lord of the Rings 15
Lord Reginald Smythboat-Whiting 14
Lord Timothy Smythboat-Whiting 14
Lost Time Accident 34
Lott, Ronnie 76
Lucy in 1981 72
M
MacNiven, Dylan 31, 69, 70, 76, 77
MacNiven, Rowan 21, 77
MacNiven, Tyler 8, 22, 42, 54, 77
Macon Dirigible 25
Mallet 68
Mallet, Jeff 68
Mandela, Nelson 33
Man in Ice 75
Mantle, Mickey 52
Map of Freedonia 41
Markkula, Mike 54
Martin, Peter 19
86
Marx, Groucho 41, 62
Marx, Karl 41
Mathews, Arthur, F. 13
Matthews Sculpture 13
McEnroe, John 9
McEnroe Tennis Racquet 9
MD 11 28
Medical Instruments 65
Medicinal Liquor 13
Medicinal Opium 51
Meredith, William 40
Mexican Hero: Zapata 54
Mexican Truck 35
Mike Myers 59
Mike Tyson 34
Military Map 64
Milliken, Jim 39
Millington, Anne Seth 22
Mini Me 22
Mirror 38
Model Airplanes 60
Mohr Davidow 8
Mole and Thomas 34, 56, 59, 73
Mole/Liberty Bell 59
Mole/Statue of Liberty 73
Mole/USA 56
Mole/Woodrow Wilson 34
Mona Lisa 52
Monkees Record 75
Monroe, Marilyn 50
Monterey Races 63
Monument Valley 7
Moore, Demi 9
Moorhead, Agnes 12
Morrell Airship 21
Moses, Frank 9
Musical Instruments 5, 16
Myers, Mike 59
N
Narwhal Tusk 15
Neuman Bro’s General Merchandise 33
Nike Prototype 67
Nixon, Richard 38
Nobel Prize 23, 31
Nolte, Olsen 12
Nose Art 69
Notice 71
Novak, Kim 62
Novgorod 80
O
Oakley, Annie 40
Obama Newspaper 17
Old Couple 60
Old Man 68
Old Woman with Cigar 70
Olsen Fish Powder 17
Omar Sharif Costume Design 64
On Air sign 62
O’Neal, Shaquille 63
Our Founder 76
P
Pachinko Machine 19
Painted Cows 11
Painters, Poseurs 74
Palm Pilot 8
Pancho Villa Shotgun 53
Parkhurst, Mathias A. 67
Pee Wee Herman 22
Pegasus 24
Peggie Sue 24
Pens 37
People Painting 22
Peres, Shimon 23
Perry, William 31
Phelps, Michael 19
Phelps on Corn Flakes Box 19
Phone Booth 6
Pickett, Bill 35
Pickford, Mary 42
Pioneer 10 74
Planet Hollywood Stock 9
Plastic Eyeballs 11
Porta Pooch 33
Potato Creek Johnny 68
President Hoover 31
Presidential Limousine 64
Presley, Elvis 50
Prime Minister of Singapore 20
Prisoners 52
Putin, Vladimir 20
Pyramid/Jamis & Son 69
R
Railroad Lamp 46
Raising the Dickens 76
Raychem Ray Gun 9
Ray Gun 15
Red Bug 28
Red Dragon 66
Red Herring 33
Reed, John 60
Remington Cowboy 43
Remington, Frederick 43
Remote Control 68
Restaurant Buddha 80
Richard Nixon Fired 38
Richter, Dr. Burton 8
Ridge, Tom 37
Robert’s 33, 48
Robert Trent Jones 67
Robinson, John 12
Rockets 80
Rocky Cheeter 21
Rodgers, T. J. 50
Rogers, Roy 11
Roller Skates 16
Ronald Searle Print 17
Ron and Nancy 57
Ronnie Lott 53
Roosevelt, Franklin 25
Rose, Weston 7, 11, 20, 48, 54
Roz Savage Rowing Seat 40
Rubin, Kim 39
Rudolph Valentino Soap 64
Running Group 48
Russian Ship 80
S
Sagan, Carl 74
Sailgator 12
Sand Hill Challenge 6, 8, 28
Sandhill Plaque 8
Sandhill Racer 8
Sand Hill Road 57
San Francisco 58
San Francisco Print. 78
San Quentin 74
Sauer, Clara 37
Savage, Roz 40
Scottsdale Train 14
Scrimshaw 63
Searle, Ronald William Fordham 17
Sea Shell Flowers 78
87
Seguin 45
Shaquille O’Neals hands 63
Shaquille O’Neal Shoe 10
Sharif, Omar 64
Shopping List 10
Shwarzenegger, Arnold 9
Sig Heller’s Appliques 32
Silicon Wafer 69
Sisty over Cord 30
Skull 71
Slide Rule 7
Smith, A. O. 28
Smithsonian Art Museum 13
Smoking Child 75
Smythboat-Whiting, Timothy 14
Snakeskin 14
Sotheby’s 30
South African Ballot 33
Space Man 27
Spanek, Dennis 19
Speer Bullets 17
Squirrel Bike 22
Stack, Phil 9
Stallone, Sylvester 9
Statue of Liberty 81
Steel Highrise Construction 81
Steer Skull 6
Stick Insect 21
Stiff, Joan 22
St Petersburg, Russia 35
Submarine: Das Boot 15
Surreal Print 69
Swan Feeder 49
Swords 30
T
Tall Man 69
Tall Woman 69
Tammy Faye Bakker 34
Tan, Tony 20
Taxi to La Honda 13
TED 17
Ten Cent Bill 40
The Back Door 67
Them 19, 21
The Wild Bunch 76
Throne Third House 13
Tiger Shark 26
Touching Wires 55
88
Trigger 11
Tripp, Dr.Robert O. 67
Trophy of Toast 7
Tuba Player 78
Tug Boat 45
TV Marks 5
Two-Dollar Bills 53
Two Giant Lenses 46
Typhoon 36
Tyson, Mike 34
V
Valentino, Rudolph 50, 64
Vargas Print 9
Vegetables 6
W
Wacky Homes 19
Warren Buffet’s Wallet 12
Waters, George L. 57
Weston Rose Painting 7, 20
Weston Rose Roy Rogers Painting 11
Whalers Art 63
Whittell, George 54
Whole Shebang 29
Willis, Bruce 9
Willis, David 63
Willy, the Lion 54
Wilson, Woodrow 34
Windows 1.0 56
Winston, Harry 41
Wolf Man 43
Woman Picture 34
Woman with Chicken 70
Woodside Store 67
Woody, the Salmon 79
World’s Largest Swiss Army Knife 30
World War II 52
World War II Poster 48
Wreck at Pigeon Point 48
Y
Yahoo 23
Z
Zapata, Emiliano 54
Zelencik, Steve 50, 57
Zimbabwe Currency 61