A "Do Over"
My friend Bob Conrad commented yesterday that the link to the Art Sieving article was a dud. Chalk it up to operator error on the part of your humble blogger. Sorry for the wild goose chase and thank you Bob for taking the time to let me know. I appreciate all your comments and feed back. And while I am on that subject, I appreciate everyone who reads this blog. I am not sure why I write it. Perhaps as Edward Albee said once, "I write to know what I am talking about."
Below is a reprint of the article in its entirety. Art Sieving was an inspiration to me and although it has been 34 years since I was able to communicate with him physically, I feel his presence as often as yesterday. This is a very nice tribute to a very talented man. He may not have been a national celebrity, but he is a national treasure. He is one of the unsung artists who lives a life of art for the sake of doing it, and not so much for the glory. For the sake of humanity's soul I hope there are those of his ilk who still walk the earth.
One comment on the article below. For the life of me I cannot remember who Roger Maxwell is, but I am sure he was one of the 100's of reporters I talked too when we were promoting my show Off Broadway in 2004.
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER by Dave Bakke
It is reprinted from THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER by Dave Bakke, SJ-R.com columnist, Posted Dec 13, 2008 @ 11:40 PM, without permission, but I hope they will consider it a form of a low tech link.
As you were,
Jay
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER by Dave Bakke
It has been 34 years since Art Sieving died, and the memory of his accomplishments in Springfield has dimmed. But an e-mail from a Washington, D.C., art dealer has changed that, at least temporarily.
Art was a sculptor, painter, photographer, wood carver and ventriloquist. He died Feb. 9, 1974. I had never heard of him. But his work lives on. One of his oil paintings was just sold on the East Coast. The art dealer, Sean Welch, contacted the newspaper.
“The buyer wants to know when Mr. Sieving was born and died,” Welch wrote. “I can’t find it anywhere. Would you consider passing this on to someone who could research it for me? He was a fairly important guy in your state, so it may not be hard for your staff to find out.”
The more I found out about Art, the more I wondered what happened to his work — including the 25 or 26 wooden Lincoln dioramas depicting scenes from Abe’s life or the 25-foot concrete statue of Lincoln — said to be the largest one in existence at the time.
Some of the dioramas are stored, but not displayed, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library here in Springfield. More are at the Long Nine Museum in Athens. The statue’s fate is unknown.
Art was born in Manito. In Springfield, he worked for the state, a camera shop and a local real estate company. He never went to art school, just took a correspondence course when he was in his 20s. He and his wife, Blanche, are not believed to have had children. Art’s great nephew, Vic, lives in Jacksonville.
“We’d go to Springfield and see him,” Vic recalls. “I think it was him that got me on ‘The Howdy Doody Show’ and on ‘Cactus Jim’ (a Quincy TV kids’ show). Then I grew up, my grandfather died when I was in the service, and, you know, you lose contact with older relatives.”
In 1963, Art was working at The Camera Shop in downtown Springfield, but he quit to create Lincoln dioramas for Prairie Run, which was located between Springfield and New Salem. Prairie Run’s owner, Walt Loud, commissioned the work, and Art said at the time he “wouldn’t trade places with the governor.”
In those days, Springfield had yet to realize the full potential of its ties to Lincoln. Art was told there was no place in Springfield that would display his dioramas. There just wasn’t enough interest.
In 1971, Art created more dioramas — this time depicting the life of Tom Sawyer. Those were displayed at a museum in Hannibal, Mo.
The legacy from Art’s life that echoes loudest today comes from his ventriloquism. He carved his own ventriloquist’s dolls, the best-known being a buck-toothed character named Harry O’Shea. Art and Harry regularly performed around Springfield on TV shows and for Gov. William Stratton’s children’s Christmas party, held in the 1950s at the Illinois State Armory.
When Art was in his 70s, he received a letter from an aspiring ventriloquist. Jay Johnson was just a teenager at the time. He had come across Art’s name in a magazine and written to him. Art responded, and the two struck up a friendship.
Johnson became one of the most famous ventriloquists in the country. He and his wiseacre dummy, Bob, were regulars with Billy Crystal and Katherine Helmond on the TV show “Soap.”
In 2004, Johnson told the story to Playbill’s Roger Maxwell.
“I called (Art Sieving) on the phone,” Johnson said. “We talked for an hour. I was 17, he was 71.
“He told me he was retired, didn’t know how I got his telephone number, but said he’d send me pictures of his work as a sculptor of ventriloquists’ dolls. I got the pictures, and it was indeed what I was waiting for. When I called back, he told me he had already started. Art Sieving. Just a sweet, sweet guy. He’s gone now. He used to say his act was very ‘de-sieving.’”
Sieving carved a puppet named Squeaky for Johnson. That was to be the puppet Johnson used on “Soap” until the executives on the show decided Squeaky was too nice. So Bob got the job and became famous instead of Art’s puppet.
Whenever Johnson performs his stage show “The Two and Only,” he still tells the story of how he was influenced by Springfield’s Art Sieving.
Dave Bakke can be contacted at 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com.
Art was a sculptor, painter, photographer, wood carver and ventriloquist. He died Feb. 9, 1974. I had never heard of him. But his work lives on. One of his oil paintings was just sold on the East Coast. The art dealer, Sean Welch, contacted the newspaper.
“The buyer wants to know when Mr. Sieving was born and died,” Welch wrote. “I can’t find it anywhere. Would you consider passing this on to someone who could research it for me? He was a fairly important guy in your state, so it may not be hard for your staff to find out.”
The more I found out about Art, the more I wondered what happened to his work — including the 25 or 26 wooden Lincoln dioramas depicting scenes from Abe’s life or the 25-foot concrete statue of Lincoln — said to be the largest one in existence at the time.
Some of the dioramas are stored, but not displayed, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library here in Springfield. More are at the Long Nine Museum in Athens. The statue’s fate is unknown.
Art was born in Manito. In Springfield, he worked for the state, a camera shop and a local real estate company. He never went to art school, just took a correspondence course when he was in his 20s. He and his wife, Blanche, are not believed to have had children. Art’s great nephew, Vic, lives in Jacksonville.
“We’d go to Springfield and see him,” Vic recalls. “I think it was him that got me on ‘The Howdy Doody Show’ and on ‘Cactus Jim’ (a Quincy TV kids’ show). Then I grew up, my grandfather died when I was in the service, and, you know, you lose contact with older relatives.”
In 1963, Art was working at The Camera Shop in downtown Springfield, but he quit to create Lincoln dioramas for Prairie Run, which was located between Springfield and New Salem. Prairie Run’s owner, Walt Loud, commissioned the work, and Art said at the time he “wouldn’t trade places with the governor.”
In those days, Springfield had yet to realize the full potential of its ties to Lincoln. Art was told there was no place in Springfield that would display his dioramas. There just wasn’t enough interest.
In 1971, Art created more dioramas — this time depicting the life of Tom Sawyer. Those were displayed at a museum in Hannibal, Mo.
The legacy from Art’s life that echoes loudest today comes from his ventriloquism. He carved his own ventriloquist’s dolls, the best-known being a buck-toothed character named Harry O’Shea. Art and Harry regularly performed around Springfield on TV shows and for Gov. William Stratton’s children’s Christmas party, held in the 1950s at the Illinois State Armory.
When Art was in his 70s, he received a letter from an aspiring ventriloquist. Jay Johnson was just a teenager at the time. He had come across Art’s name in a magazine and written to him. Art responded, and the two struck up a friendship.
Johnson became one of the most famous ventriloquists in the country. He and his wiseacre dummy, Bob, were regulars with Billy Crystal and Katherine Helmond on the TV show “Soap.”
In 2004, Johnson told the story to Playbill’s Roger Maxwell.
“I called (Art Sieving) on the phone,” Johnson said. “We talked for an hour. I was 17, he was 71.
“He told me he was retired, didn’t know how I got his telephone number, but said he’d send me pictures of his work as a sculptor of ventriloquists’ dolls. I got the pictures, and it was indeed what I was waiting for. When I called back, he told me he had already started. Art Sieving. Just a sweet, sweet guy. He’s gone now. He used to say his act was very ‘de-sieving.’”
Sieving carved a puppet named Squeaky for Johnson. That was to be the puppet Johnson used on “Soap” until the executives on the show decided Squeaky was too nice. So Bob got the job and became famous instead of Art’s puppet.
Whenever Johnson performs his stage show “The Two and Only,” he still tells the story of how he was influenced by Springfield’s Art Sieving.
Dave Bakke can be contacted at 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com.
Jay;
ReplyDeleteThanks for reprinting the article. After seeing your show on Broadway, I felt that I knew Art too. I loved Squeaky. I didn't know the part about Lincoln, but ironically I do a school assembly program ,"Abe Lincoln in Person"" in which I portray Lincoln.
Thanks again;
Bob Conrad