Here's a photo of my dad, the artist, Tony, on the left in the photo. {He's the one with the mustache} The guy on the right was someone that he had hired to help him to re-finish Mr. Dan Blocker's {"Hoss" from the TV show Bonanza} kitchen cabinets in a near forgotten technique known as cobalting. My father was the painting foreman for the Beverly Hills Hotel for many years and also the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for many years as the owner, Hernando Courtright, sold the one and bought the other and took my father and a few others along with him. Pop had quite the reputation and would often get 'side work' in and around Beverly Hills in some of the finest homes in the Los Angeles area. I did a painting apprenticeship working at the Bev. Wilshire Hotel for a few years and got in on a few of those side jobs. Pop and Mr. Blocker hit it off pretty well, so much so that my dad painted a portrait of Dan Blocker and made it look like an Old West "'Wanted' poster". Mr. Blocker was very generous in paying my father for the work as dad was the only person in L.A. that had an idea how cobalting was done. Mr. Blocker had seen cabinets done with the technique while in Europe and wanted that for his own home. He searched and asked all over Southern Calif. for someone that knew how to do it. No one did but more than one reply was , "No I don't but talk to Tony, if he doesn't know how, I'll bet he can figure it out." ...and pop figured it out. So, He gave the portrait to Mr. Blocker as a 'thank you' gift for His generosity, kindness and mostly just because "Hoss" was one heck of a nice guy
Dan Blocker was a real "Class Act" on the screen and in real life.
This photo was taken in either 1967 or 1968, I can't recall exactly. My dad was either 47 or 48 years old at the time. He lived to be just a day and half shy of his 77th birthday and died exactly at high noon on the Summer Solstice in 1997. Dan Blocker died in 1972, he was only 43 years old at the time.
May they all rest in peace.