Wyeth’s studio. Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. 2013. By Paul Goldfinger ©
Gross anatomy lab at The George Washington U. School of Medicine. Paul Goldfinger. Freshman year. The cigarette is a prop. © Her name was Ethel. You can tell by the pelvis.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger This post by popular request from the cast of True Blood.
Andrew Wyeth, famous painter, was a movie buff and he had souvenirs around his studio, given to him by some of his actor friends. There was a sword from the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The skeleton was real, but I don’t know if he had it there for fun or for body sketches.
We had a skeleton in the gross anatomy lab in medical school. I am wearing my smelly formaldehyde laden lab coat with my arm around Ethel. She was very thin.
My roommate Jim and I were given a bone box and a skull box to take home and study. One month later, we put a hat on the skull, lit it up, and put it in our ground floor window for Halloween on 16th Street in D.C.
Down the street, a few blocks away, was the White House where our neighbor JFK and his family lived.
We should have walked over to see if Marilyn was sneaking up the back steps.
Marilyn Monroe. She had more visits to the White House than Bobby Kennedy.
LOUIS PRIMA with a song for the skeleton “I Ain’t Got No Body.” And also “Just a Gigolo.” which is about my ambition after my bar mitzvah.
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
Our posts about Andrew Wyeth have been receiving hits often. This piece is from 2014, so we are reposting it in view of the ongoing attention from the public.—Paul
The skeleton was a gift from Andrews wife Betsy to him on his birthday- he complained that he was not pleased with the way he painted the human figure and thought he would improve if he had a skeleton to study. My father,was a physician in Lancaster where one of Wyeth’s models (a radiologic technicion) made the introductions.
That year Dad was thanked with a gift of a retouched painting, a signed Christina’s World book, and a signed book Betsy had written. How cool is that. My dad passed away many years ago, but things like this bring it on home;
Recenteredpieces: Love your name—-it has a ring, but I can’t figure out the meaning. I edited your second sentence for clarity; I hope we got it right.
Anyhow, we appreciate your comment. We enjoy getting messages from readers like you who add insights and information to our posts. Thank you. —Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger