I went to visit George Andrus the other day, he is the 96 year old brother of Jerry Andrus; a very famous magician that passed away in 2007. I spent an hour and a half with him just talking, and seeing some of this photography. I met George in about 2002 when I worked at the Albany Senior Center and he would come down once a week and play the piano in the lobby just for the fun of it. When I called him to see if he would like a visitor I mentioned how I knew him. He said, "Oh yes, that was back when I was still driving a car." (Back when he was 87...) The thought occurred to me to try and schedule a visit when one day I received an email about the upcoming Albany Christmas Parlor Tour of Historic homes downtown. George's brothers home (next door to him) is on the tour.
The first photo below is a photo he took of his brother Jerry climbing - probably in the 1950's. He couldn't remember where they were climbing at the time. He liked how the photo made his brother look like he was hanging out on a rock face. I'm guessing that they were hiking on some flat rocks and set up the photo... Check out those climbing boots!
The Willamette River runs through Albany and every Spring the Cottonwood trees that line the river, give off a ton of fluff. It fills the gutters of downtown, floats through the air and looks like snow. George said he collected it for a few years, cleaned it and had enough to make a pillow out of it. His brother printed him a clear label sticker to put on the bag of fluff.
This is a toy/game that George invented and hand built. Two people play it by choosing a color, then they rotate their corresponding yellow or red knob and that makes the round gear with the marbles on it move from side to side. The object is to get the most marbles to drop down the holes of your choice of color.
George showed me just a few large format photographs that he took and developed and mounted years ago. These photos are leaning against the walls in his house probably 10 deep and all no smaller than the one below. Some were at least 6' across, or 6' tall. I hope that when he passes away that all these go to our local museum for others to view.
This was a black and white photo that George hand colored. He couldn't remember where this one was taken. Beautiful shot though!
George and his brother Jerry lived next door to each other for many many years. After Jerry passed away in 2007, a couple bought his home and refurbished it and had it added to the National Registry of Historic Homes. My brother and I are going to go on the Annual Christmas Parlor Tour today. When I visited George he said that these new neighbors look after him now, by checking on him daily and taking him shopping and to appointments. What a great couple of people to take on the responsibility of watching over Jerry's brother after the two brothers had lived next door and took care of each other for so many years.
Here is a video link to cut and paste into your browser, of George when he was featured on OPB's Art Beat....
http://vimeo.com/669903
Thanks for reading!!
flojo
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