Philosophy
Lester Glassner
February 23rd, 1939 to August 9th, 2009
In early April of this year I posted a poll on "collecting". The result was 50/50. In The Los Angeles Times this morning was an obituary for Lester Glassner a collector's collector of pop culture. This is an extreme case of collecting and blows my comment about the dispersal of a collection when one gets older. Glassner was 70.
When Lester Glassner died of pancreatic cancer Aug. 9 in hospice care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City at age 70, he left behind a major part of his life that he had spent nearly 50 years accumulating.
The one-time picture editor, designer and art librarian for CBS Records had a massive collection of vintage movie memorabilia, dime-store merchandise and other pop-culture artifacts numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
For more than three decades, Glassner's large and diverse collection filled his four-story 19th century brownstone home on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
It began with a Mickey Mouse lamp that he bought for a couple of dollars at a junk shop in Buffalo, N.Y., in the early 1960s.
"He just started building collections of all sorts from his 20s forward, and he never stopped," said his sister, Freda Honig.
Glassner's longtime obsession led to his collaborating with photographer Brownie Harris on "Dime-Store Days," an illustrated book published by Viking Press in 1981 and featuring prime samples from his various collections.
The book included a foreword by a friend of Glassner's, British writer and gay icon Quentin Crisp. The introduction was written by another friend: Anita Loos, author of the 1925 comic novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
In her introduction, Loos wrote of a young Glassner finding escape during World War II by wandering the aisles of five-and-dime stores that were laden with "treasures so colorful that they turned his whole drab life into a world of fantasy."
Glassner's highly personal book spurred cover stories on him in antique and collectible magazines, as well as a visit to his East Village home by the "Today" show.
So impressively enormous was Glassner's overall collection that a visitor once declared it to be "impossible to imagine beforehand or exaggerate after seeing."
"It was on every floor, and he had showcases everywhere," Honig said. "There are so many collections within collections."
"There are hats. When Anita Loos passed away, she left him her hat collection. There are mechanical toys. There are World War II propaganda posters. There are antique Seven Dwarfs of various types. . . . Oh, and he had a huge collection of antique postcards of all types. And autographed photos of famous people."
That's not to mention chalk, ceramic and porcelain figurines, rare celluloid toys, Halloween masks, clothes, antique sleighs, dolls, 78-revolutions-per-minute records, art glass, movie posters, movie stills, lobby cards and a host of other items.
Glassner's collection of movie stills alone numbers more than 250,000 photos, many of them rare.
"He also had an antique jewelry collection," Honig said. "I don't know how I couldn't start by telling you about that. It is absolutely massive. But he's left that collection to me, which was very sweet of him to do."
Honig said the front room of her brother's home on East 7th Street "was kept darkened when it wasn't being shown to protect it from the elements. And the air conditioning was kept on, so it was climate-controlled the best he could in a house of that age to keep things in pristine condition."
Louis Pappas, a friend and fellow collector who first met Glassner in the 1960s and described him as a "very genteel, very cerebral person," said first-time visitors to Glassner's home were no less than stupefied by what they saw.
"The collection was that enormous," said Pappas, a former East Village resident now living in Brooklyn. "It was almost like a museum, really, the whole place. I'd say it was one of the major collections in the world."
"I cleaned his collection at one time -- the toys -- piece by piece. It took me months."
Honig said she never questioned her brother's longtime obsession with collecting.
"It was just part of Lester," she said. "It was who he was."
Born Feb. 23, 1939, in Buffalo, Glassner grew up in a number of upstate New York cities, such as Auburn and Syracuse.
A 1961 graduate of Pratt Institute in New York City, he designed more than 50 books during his career, most of them movie-related. He was involved in a new design for the American Heritage Dictionary.
An exhibition of selected pieces from Glassner's "Dime-Store Days" collection was presented in Tokyo in 1987. In 2005, Glassner's World War II American Propaganda collection was exhibited in Japan alongside examples of Japanese propaganda posters.
In 2001, he donated nearly 500 movie posters to the Library of Congress.
Seeking a quieter area to live in, Glassner decided to pack up and move from the East Village to a refurbished five-story home in Harlem last year.
"It was," Honig acknowledged with a laugh, "no easy feat."
She said, however, that her brother had a couple of medical problems before he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and never had the time to unpack his collection.
An assistant who had worked with her brother for years has been at the home in Harlem unpacking and organizing things since July, Honig said.
Before he died, Glassner made plans to donate more than 2,500 books to the library at Buffalo State College.
"It is one of the largest donations we've ever received for special collections, because many of the books were 18th and 19th century children's books and books that dealt exclusively with the African American experience in the United States," said Maryruth Glogowski, associate vice president for library and instructional technology at Buffalo State College.
"He also has a large collection of art, photography, architecture, fashion, painting and sculpture books, and those will go into the general collection," she said.
The donation of books will be known as the Lester Glass- ner Collection.
"That," his sister said, "is his legacy."
In addition to Honig, Glassner is survived by his brother, William.
"Collecting things" poll
- Deceased--john Mcwhinnie
John McWhinnieJanuary 29th, 1968 to January 6th, 2012"John McWhinnie, an Expert in Rare Books, Dies at 43"byMargalit FoxJanuary 11th, 2012The New York TimesJohn McWhinnie, a rare-book dealer and gallerist known as a champion of words and images on paper...
- Books...stacked
I stumble over them more than I do the cat. "Help for the (Casual) Book Hoarder" by Elissa Lerner March 25th, 2011 The New Yorker Are you a book hoarder? Mark Medley of the National Post is one, and he wants fellow hoarders to share their stories....
- Thomas B. Greenslade Jr. And Scientific Instruments
I wonder if Thomas B. Greenslade Jr. knows Richard Zitto...a fellow science instrument collector. When I was working in radio, the station needed to replace the transmitter's broadcasting vacuum tube. Egads, $20,000. Wish I had it and my whole vacuum...
- Scientific Instruments--richard Zitto's Collection
Richard Zitto is seen holding a rare two-cylinder vacuum pump from the 1850s, made by the Benjamin Pike Company, which produced physics apparatus in New York City. Zitto is in talks with the Smithsonian Institution to possibly put the antique vacuum pump...
- Albert Einstein And Yivo
"I want to express to the Institute my recognition for its work in the service to the education and research of Jewish nation. I see the search for education as the principle goal of Jews and Institute's work, especially during these times of persecutions,...
Philosophy
Collector's collector--Lester Glassner
Lester GlassnerFebruary 23rd, 1939 to August 9th, 2009
In early April of this year I posted a poll on "collecting". The result was 50/50. In The Los Angeles Times this morning was an obituary for Lester Glassner a collector's collector of pop culture. This is an extreme case of collecting and blows my comment about the dispersal of a collection when one gets older. Glassner was 70.
"Lester Glassner dies at 70; Collector of pop-culture and dime-store merchandise"
His collecting began with a Mickey Mouse lamp he bought in the early 1960s, and grew to a massive assortment of vintage movie memorabilia, dime-store merchandise and other pop-culture artifacts.
by
Dennis McLellan
August 30th, 2009
The Los Angeles Times
His collecting began with a Mickey Mouse lamp he bought in the early 1960s, and grew to a massive assortment of vintage movie memorabilia, dime-store merchandise and other pop-culture artifacts.
by
Dennis McLellan
August 30th, 2009
The Los Angeles Times
When Lester Glassner died of pancreatic cancer Aug. 9 in hospice care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City at age 70, he left behind a major part of his life that he had spent nearly 50 years accumulating.
The one-time picture editor, designer and art librarian for CBS Records had a massive collection of vintage movie memorabilia, dime-store merchandise and other pop-culture artifacts numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
For more than three decades, Glassner's large and diverse collection filled his four-story 19th century brownstone home on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
It began with a Mickey Mouse lamp that he bought for a couple of dollars at a junk shop in Buffalo, N.Y., in the early 1960s.
"He just started building collections of all sorts from his 20s forward, and he never stopped," said his sister, Freda Honig.
Glassner's longtime obsession led to his collaborating with photographer Brownie Harris on "Dime-Store Days," an illustrated book published by Viking Press in 1981 and featuring prime samples from his various collections.
The book included a foreword by a friend of Glassner's, British writer and gay icon Quentin Crisp. The introduction was written by another friend: Anita Loos, author of the 1925 comic novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
In her introduction, Loos wrote of a young Glassner finding escape during World War II by wandering the aisles of five-and-dime stores that were laden with "treasures so colorful that they turned his whole drab life into a world of fantasy."
Glassner's highly personal book spurred cover stories on him in antique and collectible magazines, as well as a visit to his East Village home by the "Today" show.
So impressively enormous was Glassner's overall collection that a visitor once declared it to be "impossible to imagine beforehand or exaggerate after seeing."
"It was on every floor, and he had showcases everywhere," Honig said. "There are so many collections within collections."
"There are hats. When Anita Loos passed away, she left him her hat collection. There are mechanical toys. There are World War II propaganda posters. There are antique Seven Dwarfs of various types. . . . Oh, and he had a huge collection of antique postcards of all types. And autographed photos of famous people."
That's not to mention chalk, ceramic and porcelain figurines, rare celluloid toys, Halloween masks, clothes, antique sleighs, dolls, 78-revolutions-per-minute records, art glass, movie posters, movie stills, lobby cards and a host of other items.
Glassner's collection of movie stills alone numbers more than 250,000 photos, many of them rare.
"He also had an antique jewelry collection," Honig said. "I don't know how I couldn't start by telling you about that. It is absolutely massive. But he's left that collection to me, which was very sweet of him to do."
Honig said the front room of her brother's home on East 7th Street "was kept darkened when it wasn't being shown to protect it from the elements. And the air conditioning was kept on, so it was climate-controlled the best he could in a house of that age to keep things in pristine condition."
Louis Pappas, a friend and fellow collector who first met Glassner in the 1960s and described him as a "very genteel, very cerebral person," said first-time visitors to Glassner's home were no less than stupefied by what they saw.
"The collection was that enormous," said Pappas, a former East Village resident now living in Brooklyn. "It was almost like a museum, really, the whole place. I'd say it was one of the major collections in the world."
"I cleaned his collection at one time -- the toys -- piece by piece. It took me months."
Honig said she never questioned her brother's longtime obsession with collecting.
"It was just part of Lester," she said. "It was who he was."
Born Feb. 23, 1939, in Buffalo, Glassner grew up in a number of upstate New York cities, such as Auburn and Syracuse.
A 1961 graduate of Pratt Institute in New York City, he designed more than 50 books during his career, most of them movie-related. He was involved in a new design for the American Heritage Dictionary.
An exhibition of selected pieces from Glassner's "Dime-Store Days" collection was presented in Tokyo in 1987. In 2005, Glassner's World War II American Propaganda collection was exhibited in Japan alongside examples of Japanese propaganda posters.
In 2001, he donated nearly 500 movie posters to the Library of Congress.
Seeking a quieter area to live in, Glassner decided to pack up and move from the East Village to a refurbished five-story home in Harlem last year.
"It was," Honig acknowledged with a laugh, "no easy feat."
She said, however, that her brother had a couple of medical problems before he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and never had the time to unpack his collection.
An assistant who had worked with her brother for years has been at the home in Harlem unpacking and organizing things since July, Honig said.
Before he died, Glassner made plans to donate more than 2,500 books to the library at Buffalo State College.
"It is one of the largest donations we've ever received for special collections, because many of the books were 18th and 19th century children's books and books that dealt exclusively with the African American experience in the United States," said Maryruth Glogowski, associate vice president for library and instructional technology at Buffalo State College.
"He also has a large collection of art, photography, architecture, fashion, painting and sculpture books, and those will go into the general collection," she said.
The donation of books will be known as the Lester Glass- ner Collection.
"That," his sister said, "is his legacy."
In addition to Honig, Glassner is survived by his brother, William.
"Collecting things" poll
- Deceased--john Mcwhinnie
John McWhinnieJanuary 29th, 1968 to January 6th, 2012"John McWhinnie, an Expert in Rare Books, Dies at 43"byMargalit FoxJanuary 11th, 2012The New York TimesJohn McWhinnie, a rare-book dealer and gallerist known as a champion of words and images on paper...
- Books...stacked
I stumble over them more than I do the cat. "Help for the (Casual) Book Hoarder" by Elissa Lerner March 25th, 2011 The New Yorker Are you a book hoarder? Mark Medley of the National Post is one, and he wants fellow hoarders to share their stories....
- Thomas B. Greenslade Jr. And Scientific Instruments
I wonder if Thomas B. Greenslade Jr. knows Richard Zitto...a fellow science instrument collector. When I was working in radio, the station needed to replace the transmitter's broadcasting vacuum tube. Egads, $20,000. Wish I had it and my whole vacuum...
- Scientific Instruments--richard Zitto's Collection
Richard Zitto is seen holding a rare two-cylinder vacuum pump from the 1850s, made by the Benjamin Pike Company, which produced physics apparatus in New York City. Zitto is in talks with the Smithsonian Institution to possibly put the antique vacuum pump...
- Albert Einstein And Yivo
"I want to express to the Institute my recognition for its work in the service to the education and research of Jewish nation. I see the search for education as the principle goal of Jews and Institute's work, especially during these times of persecutions,...