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January
2003 |
See Past News
Hello friends;
Welcome back, and thank you for visiting the official Frazetta web site.
For any first time visitors we offer the most current information directly from the Frazetta estate while keeping you informed with news pertaining to Frank Frazettas health, recent events and new products available before anyone else. We have a full line of Frazetta memorabilia in the gallery store and will answer most questions via-email as we receive them. The newest collectable available is the Ghoul Queen statue. Anyone interested may visit the gallery store for more information. Shortly thereafter, the highly anticipated biography dvd should be released.
We have just licensed the Death Dealer x-box/play station video game which is being produced by Acclaim Entertainment. It should become available by 2005. A new 2004 Frazetta calendar will be offered on our site sometime in July. This is something fans have been requesting for years and because of your numerous emails it has materialized.
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Franks health has been stable, but he does have a touch of cabin fever this winter. So he keeps occupied watching television and fiddling with his new digital cameras. I just bought him an assortment of Laurel and Hardy tapes to keep him busy until the weather breaks. I visit with my father a few times a week in his studio and we talk about cameras and we enjoy watching a few movies together if we are not interrupted. This has always been his favorite comedy team. Dad and I were quite taken back by the extensive variety of films they made together including the silent error of the 1920's. With spring just around the corner we anxiously await the new baseball season. Dad is a big Mets fan, but after last years disappointing performance, it was very easy to root for the Yankees or Phillies. Hopefully with the new manager they will turn things around for the better. He also enjoys watching the Yankees because they are on television every day in our area. They are a wonderful group of ball players to watch. Back in 1950, Frank was offered a contract from the New York Giants organization, but with the small salaries and Franks art career on the upswing he really did not want to do all the traveling and leave his home town of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He had the potential of being a great ball player, with a rifle for an arm, speed and also batted .457 in the sand lot league. Even with the scouts anticipating a short stay in the minor league and the majors just a year away, he was making over $250 a week as an artist and starting pay in the majors was a mere $2,500 a year. Frank enjoyed his leisure time more than anything and art gave him the freedom he always wanted, so traveling by bus from one city to the other and departing from his family would have been just to draining for his liking. Besides, he worked just a day and a half a week on the Sunday pages then took the rest of the week off to play ball at the school yard with his close friends Nick and Angelo. He was the first player in the school yard every morning and the last to leave. My mom always said, "If he wasn't at his mothers eating with his friends or riding on the Cyclone in Coney Island you were sure to find him playing ball on Coney Island Avenue." Every few years we go back to visit the old school yard and he’d point out where he hit homeruns over the fence. Across the street was a candy store that Frank routinely hit homeruns off the side of the brick building and every so often put one through the back window. Things have changed since then, it is now a pharmacy and I'm sure there would be many restrictions and law suits hitting balls into oncoming traffic. Anyway, it does bring back fond memories while reminiscing of his past. He is truly a great guy and one you learn to love, whether it is for his art or most importantly his love for life and his family. As I stated over the past few years, till this day, money is of little importance to him; just as long as there is food on the table and some spending money for a new or used camera he is content. The business end of his career has always been run by his wife Ellie and now his son Frank does the web site every month, that’s me!
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Over the past few months there is nothing Frank enjoys more than an unexpected visit from the grandchildren. This is what keeps his spirits high and physically motivated to get through every day. Seeing the kids run over to him with open arms yelling out grandpa makes him put all his adversities aside. He has battled thyroid disease and numerous strokes since 1985. His powerful mind proves how you can beat just about anything if you have the will to do so. It is difficult for me to see what he goes through everyday with his health issues but he thrives for life and his love for his family always prevails. He misses playing golf with me as much as I do with him. Every spring we talk about getting out and hitting some balls but seldom does it materialize. He did not take up golf until his early 40’s, but boy he sure could pound the golf ball! He routinely crushed balls well over 300 yards with an old persimmon club head. Even though he did not have an ideal golf swing, more of a slash the ball over third base kind of swing, the very first year he played golf, dad had a hole-in-one. Hitting the long ball is why he played the game. Putting and chipping were boring for him, just take me to the next tee box and let me swing away. I always thought if he stayed healthy into his 90’s, it would have been amusing to watch him swing out of his shoes to compete with the younger players, but having him around till then will be just fine.
The museum is currently closed for the winter and should be reopening in April. It was constructed in the year 2000 and consists of 2,500 sq ft of viewing space with most of Frank’s famous oils hanging on the outside walls. There are 3 inner walls comprised of Franks pencil drawings, watercolors and pen and inks. It also offers a room to purchase books, posters and the Masters Collection framed pictures. Anyone with any special requests for visiting with groups or institutions may call us or write at any time to make arrangements.
570-424-5833 or golf2000@ptd.net
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You can visit the museum section on the site for more information, directions and some interesting reading. Mrs. Frazetta was contemplating whether to change the museum hours from just Saturdays from 11-4pm to possibly Sunday instead. If anyone would like to give some thoughts on this idea please feel free to email us. We are always open for your suggestions.
Once again, we thank you for visiting with us and hope to see you this season at the museum.
Sincerely, Frank Frazetta Jr
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