Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Ring Out the Old

For the past five or so years, art has meant Patrick Nagel posters for many of the under-30 persuasion, and R.C. Gorman and the Southwest school for those over.

The Nagel print proliferation was so widespread that people like Jeff Berg, 23, were selling them on street corners.

“The Nagel posters put me through college,” said Berg, who hawked Nagels for four years in various spots around the central San Fernando Valley, using his ’73 Chevy van as an office and showroom.

Well, that was yesterday. Things are changing, according to Barry Smith, director of the Tower Gallery in Sherman Oaks.

“The Nagel posters are selling very slowly these days,” Smith said. “And so is the Southwest stuff. I think that trend is just about over.”

What Tower is selling is Michael Parkes in limited edition stone lithographs, ranging in price from $980 to $2,000, and art posters that sell for $40. Parkes is a surrealist-symbolist-realist whose works are whimsical Art Deco. The 46-year-old artist was born in Missouri and lives and works in Europe.

The gallery’s collection also includes the work of a number of lesser-known local artists, including Valley resident S.C. October, who does large acrylic portraits of rock stars.

If you would like to have a huge black and white portrait of Rod Stewart or a massive Madonna staring down from your mantel, October knows your state of mind. According to gallery director Smith, plenty of people do like this sort of thing.

“The picture that October did of the Rolling Stones was sold in one day. Stevie Nicks is on layaway, and there has been a lot of interest in Rod Stewart.” The rock stars, which are about three feet high and vary in width, sell for $500 to $600.

The S.C. October style of painting might not “fit into my home decor, but it is popular. The pieces seem to strike a chord with people of a particular age group, who used to be flower children and now have disposable income,” Smith said.

Bring on the New

There was Rick Nelson, and the Cassidy brothers--David and Shaun. There were the Monkeys and Menudo. And now, heaven help us, there are the Nelson twins, Gunnar and Mathew.

Our own Valley boys have catapulted into teeny-bopper stardom.

Rick Nelson’s kids--sporting their signature 18-inch-long white locks--did a recent promotional at Sam Goody’s at the Sherman Oaks Galleria and the place was wall-to-wall with very young women.

The kind their dad used to attract in the ‘60s.

Deja vu.

According to store manager Brandon Abeln, “The twins were supposed to be in the store to sign autographs about 1 p.m., so I was sort of surprised when I came to work at 8:30 a.m. and there were already some kids waiting in the mall.”

By 10 a.m., when he rolled up the iron gate so people could enter the store, he said there were about 300 people milling around.

Maybe milling isn’t the right word.

“They were so eager to get into the store that when I started rolling up the gate, they were crawling under it on their stomachs. They couldn’t wait until it got all the way up,” Abeln said.

“And once they got in, they were standing on each other’s shoulders to tear down the promotional material with Gunnar and Mathew’s pictures on it. It was sort of like a Beatles movie,” he said.

According to Sgt. Patrick Shields of the Van Nuys Police Department, who was on crowd control that day, about 4,000 youngsters showed up for the promotion of the Nelsons’ first album, “After the Rain.”

Shields said he was impressed by the size of the crowd and the courtesy shown the fans by the two, 22-year-old singers. “They seem like real nice kids. They were very polite to the people who were trying to get their autographs, and they were very receptive to suggestions we made about crowd safety.”

Coral Stewart of Van Nuys, 11, who prefers to be called Corey, said that she and her mother waited 3 1/2 hours to get the twins’ autographs but people were so rude and pushy that she couldn’t even get near them.

Wayne Land

Listen up, pilgrims. The five-acre John Wayne estate in Encino is on the market.

It has a 9,500-square-foot main house, with a 43-foot paneled den, a 42-foot living room, a master suite with fireplace and his-and-her baths and dressing rooms, and a five-bedroom, five-bath children’s wing.

The grounds include about 30 300-year-old oak trees, a 50-foot pool and adjacent pool house, a championship lighted tennis court, a guest house, stables and paddock.

Just take your cashier’s check for $7 million over to Patty Threlkel at Fred Sands in Woodland Hills and the place is yours.

Threlkel is representing the Ken McGuire family, which owns the property after buying it for $3.6 million in 1987 from Ron and Diane Disney Miller (she is Walt’s daughter).

The Millers bought it from the Duke for an undisclosed amount in 1965.

Threlkel represented the McGuires when they purchased the home, and she’s at it again now that they are selling because of divorce. The only thing holding up the purchase is a purchaser, although there are several offers.

“The McGuires were offered $6.5 million for the property last year, but they turned it down,” Threlkel said.

In addition to more money, Threlkel says, everyone is hoping that the buyer will maintain the property and not tear down the structures and subdivide.

“The Wayne estate is a piece of San Fernando Valley history,” Threlkel said. “It would be a shame to see it torn down.”

Overheard

“Yeah, first it was my mother. Now my wife dresses me funny.”--Man wearing an eye-popping tie at a Chatsworth dinner party