coca cola

The last day my father and I hung out we drove all around the West Adams area. I went to Nursery School at Miss Manual's Nursery School on Arlington Ave. My father drove all around. We stopped by to see the old Rochester mansion. Rochester was Jack Benny's butler, of "Hello,Boss" fame. We drove by Dorothy Dandridge's old house. As my mother was in show business my parents knew all of the entertainers. They hung out together. My mother was great friends of Rachel Robinson, the wife of Jackie Robinson. My mother has a coat hanging in her closet that was purchased by the Heavy Weight Champion Joe Louis. You see, it was a small click. There were not that many black in Los Angeles anyway.

My father and I drove to the Coca-cola bottling plant and the Black Fireman's Museum. He manipulated his self made camera for one hour to get the right shot.
My father was a perfectionist. He wanted a picture of this building. That is the Coca-cola building. It was designed as a battleship. He stood there and taught me more of photography. Actually, he followed me into it. I started at Penn, my senior year. I received my first camera on Christmas, 1975. CanonFTB.

The person who inspired me to take learn photography was a student at Harvard School. His family owned the house that the Graduate was filmed in. You remember that movie with dustin hoffman and Ann Bancroft. It was filmed at that house and at the houses of many of my friends. The names of the characters were the real names of people who were connected with the school. For Instance, Mr. McCleery, who was the landlord in Berkeley, in the movie, was the Latin Teacher at Harvard School and before that he was the TRack Coach at USC. I will go into details later about that movie and its significance to me.

Anyway the battleship was the last picture my father took, I think. His camera was one of those that you had to put the hood over your head and put in these large plates. He made it. he learned how to do it himself. He made wireless radios before that.