Losing the job at C.I.C. was no big deal. l just shifted the time l'd been spending there to Home Optical. As a near full-time job it more than made up for the loss of the income at C.l.C. and l much preferred the actual work at Home Optical.
For the next month or so, l was able to buy materials for paintings. At that time
l was thinking about putting small ads in Car magazines like Motor Trend, Car &
Driver and others, offering to do original oil paintings of customer's cars as seen
in the photo that the customer supplies. So l did three paintings of my favorite
Hudson on three canvases of differing dimensions. The car a different color in
each painting. None black, as the actual Hudson was. Once finished l hanged the three in the basement, near each-other on the wall facing the basement entrance. By the time all that was in place, l had realized that a considerable amount of money was going to be needed just to purchase the ads, and that
would only be the beginning.The idea is moved to the back burner.
Just when l had begun to think that Home Optical (H.O.) might make me a wealthy man, my supervisor there,(the guy that had first made me aware of the
company and whose name now escapes me) informed me that H.O. had been
purchased by a large optometry and optical practitioner who would employ a
gang of phone-solicitors. (l was invited to apply, but when l did, about a week later, l was told it had been decided to postpone, indefinitely, the re-opening).
My friend Ron still had re-po work for me ( actually the source of my most steady employment in this period). But it wasn't enough by itself, so l wound
up trying a plurality of positions. One of the early ones was driving a Hires Root Beer delivery truck, which lasted about two weeks. For about a month l worked as a waiter for a Hot Shop chain restaurant in northwest D.C. Later, l hooked up with Capitol Periodicals, where l used what Ben and Ted had taught me about
cold-call magazine subscription sales. lt felt good to be doing work that
constantly reminded me of times spent with my two great friends and mentors,
and while l think l did everything the way l was taught, my results fell a little
short of my results in Reno. A lot short, actually. Enough that, in less than two
weeks, l gave up on it.
The batch of paintings finished just before l began the three paintings of the Hudson (there were four or five of them) were still on the walls at Otto's, a
cocktail lounge/caberet in D.C.s "Germantown". Dan Filbert was the proprietor
of Otto's and he suggested that it might help to move some (or all!) of the batch
if l spent more time shmoozing patrons in person. Something l had done with some regularity since first starting to display my paintings in partnership with
proprietors of eating and drinking establishments, but while l enjoy being around people and am comfortable selling them stuff,when it comes to works
that l have personally produced, l would prefer that some other competent
salesman take the honors (and the 30% commission).l said as much to Dan.
He pointed out that his 30% was for the use of the wall space. l had what must have been a great rejoinder for him, since he then cancelled our deal. Could he
do that, l wondered? Next thing l knew, customers were helping to load paintings into the Hudson.
Money got tight. l bounced a check for about $150. l asked the person that had it, to re-deposit it. When it bounced the second time, the law in Maryland
considered it a felony. A warrant was issued for my arrest, which was executed
at about two A.M. on Friday, Aug. 15,1959.
The jailer at Prince George's County jail, 0ne Edward Knolles was called Mama
by his charges and he really was like a mother hen to us.This was my first time in jail and l was surprised that someone in charge of prisoners accused of serious crimes would treat them so well. That didn't do much for the anger l felt
for being locked up over a single bounced check for $150. l had no idea how bad it could get, though. l was held a week before l went to court. On the way to the courtroom, l saw a man in a suit that l thought might be a lawyer. l stopped him
and introduced myself as one who needed legal representation. He was a lawyer
and when he learned it was my first arrest, and that the charge against me was a single bounced check, he said that he could probably get me probation with no
jail time. After hearing the details of my crime, the judge found me guilty of two
non-sufficient check charges (the same check, bouncing twice),sentenced me to
eighteen months in the Maryland House of Corrections for each charge. He
suspended that sentence and required me to serve one year on active probation. Having completed that, the three year suspended sentence would
be recinded.
Well, that was a lot better than what might have happened without the lawyer's
help. How l would pay the lawyer was yet to be known. lt wouldn't be a big deal,
though; He only charged me $100. When l started thinking about money, l had
an idea: What if l put an ad in, say the Washington Post, inviting investors to put money in my idea to sell car-buffs oil paintings of their favorite car(s). That
seemed the best way to approach this particular idea.
Within a couple of days after my week in jail, l placed the following ad in The
Washington Post: INVEST ONE-THOUSAND DOLLARS TODAY, ENJOY A RETURN
OF FROM TWO THOUSAND TO FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN LESS THAN A YEAR
CALL DAVID AT XXX XXXX. The phone started ringing well before breakfast on
the day the ad appeared. By noon, l had been visited at home in Riverdale by
seven or eight prospects, all very interested in getting a piece of my deal. l had
arranged the sun room in such a way as to display much,if not all, of my oil painting tools so that l appeared ready and able to produce a gang of painted
automotive pulcritude. l provided my prospects with the details of how my
discovery, to hasten the drying of paintings, allowing us to produce four to five
times the paintings as would be normal, withot ill effect to the painting. The ad
was to have run for a week, but l cancelled it after the second day. That was
the day l met Art Warren.
lnitially, l thought l would need about twelve to fourteen thousand thousand
dollars to set up and operate the car portrait idea. My ad mentioned $1,000.
l figured l'd sell shares at $1.000. each. Some prospects might just buy one share, while others may want several. Somewhere north of a dozen
prospects l talked to in the first two days were comfortable with one share;
a hand full felt that 2 to 4 shares might fit them. But Art Warren wanted
ten shares and he wanted to be the only investor. l said l needed $14k for it
to work. He said he had plenty of net worth, thanks to a son-in-law (his only
daughters husband) who was a securities trader who had steered him into
some real winners over the years. And Art didn't want to lose any of his winnings made possible by his son-in-law. Of course, his son-in-law had re-
commended against my car art deal. At that point,l was almost to the point of
doing the project for real. But while in jail that week, l told myself that if the court didn't just let me go, upon my making the check good, l would run the
oil-painting cars deal as a con game, rather than a legitimate business partnership, and take as much of the un-suspecting citizen's money as l could get away with. Art was an old guy,probably as old as l am now, but he had all his faculties and seemed quite healthy and spry. The money l would take from him would not leave him short. l could be wrong about that, but the information
l had on him, came from him, so l tended to trust it. And yes, hd trusted me.
No comments:
Post a Comment