In 1970 Doubleday's Science Fiction Book Club embarked on an aggressive program of reprinting Edgar Rice Burroughs' interplanetary adventures. Naturally, Frazetta's phenomenally popular covers for Ace and Lancer made him the only logical choice to illustrate the series. His paintings for A Princess of Mars, the first in the series, was so perfectly "Frazetta".
Although Frank and Ellie were quite comfortable in their long Island home and were keeping busy raising their four children, they moved back to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn to be closer to family. While there, Ellie had saved some money and taken a gamble by starting a small business called Frazetta Prints. It consisted of just 5 posters of some of Franks early work. She worked diligently with a few distributors to get Franks artwork into the public eye. Now some 28 years later it has blossomed into an empire of over 150 different prints, books, lithographs and literally anything that pertains to Frank's art. While living in Sheepshead Bay for only 1 1/2 years, Frank stilled longed for open space and privacy. With his son starting high school and the school violence getting out of control, Frank decided to set out and fulfill his longtime dream. They started out in search for that old farm house and lots of land. I recall driving with my Dad for days in western NJ and PA for his dream place - to no avail. The prices had sky rocketed in the past 10 years and anything my Dad liked was already well out of his price range. All the quaint old farms and parcels of land had been bought up and developed upon. Dad turned to me and said, " I can't believe I waited to long, there is nothing left. We drove hundreds of miles with not even one prospect. Then, low and behold a Realtor in Stroudsburg, PA said. You know, there is this old place just out of town that has 67 acres and a pond. But the house is extremely run down and practically worthless. My Dad said lets take a look. My Father always told me, you can always fix or replace a home, but there is no substitution for land and privacy. Dad always had great foresight, especially when he first laid his eyes on the house. He imediately fell in love with it. Sure, the house was run down, the rolling fields were over grown with brush and trees, the entire place was seemingly never maintained. Maybe even since the turn of the century! The asking price was one which Dad could afford, the only thing holding my Father back from closing was that someone had already put in a bid! Just $500 less than the asking price. The offer was refused and to my Dad's disbelief the potential buyer had walked away from the deal! Before you could put a period on the end of the previous sentence, my Father said "I'll take it." Oh Boy! All I could think of was how much my Mom loved my Dad, to move into this place. There was a lot of work to be done in order to turn this run down house into a home. Mom and Dad were determined to make this place home for their 4 children, and with the aid of a mop, Kubota tractor and lots of hard work this old house had transformed into the now beautiful estate where 3 of the 4 children, and 9 grandchildren reside. In just 6 months the place was beautiful, the fields were cut, the house was painted, the children were hitting golf balls, fishing and playing hide & seek on the property. That very same year a developer had offered my Dad 4 times more then the purchased price. With no disrespect to the gentleman my Father said polietely, " no thank you, this is our home now. " Some 29 years later the now beautiful estate will welcome the addition of the new Frazetta Art Museum. |
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