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Also Known As…

Posted on July 8, 2021July 9, 2021 By Hey You

I am not much of a joiner. I was a Girl Scout ​“Brownie” and then a Girl Scout. (Mostly because my mother was a troop leader.)
From Wikipedia: Orig­i­nally the girls were called Rose­buds, but were renamed by Lord Baden-Powell after the girls had complained that they didn’t like their name. Their name comes from the story ​“The Brownies” by Juliana Horatia Ewing, written in 1870.

Brownies
Brownies 
Brownie Uniform
Brownie Uniform 

Caption:
Five of us were waiting for our uniforms to arrive. There was a Brownie cap too.

Then, in high school there was a girls’ club, the Ra Ravas. At the time we were told the name meant ​“Rare Bird”. Today I found the trans­la­tion was from the Latin: Rera Avis.
As a member of that club, I sold programs at the high school foot­ball (home) games.
The proceeds were to help finance various needs for the school. I also was elected trea­surer so I knew the value of our club’s efforts.

That was the end of me being a club member until 1964 when I joined an adver­tising club, San Fran­cisco Art Direc­tors and Artists – – also known as the Art Direc­tors and Artists of San Francisco.

Metal of Advertising Arts
Metal of Adver­tising Arts 
ADASF Elcected
ADASF Elcected 

Caption:
This is the ADASF medal presented to the winners of one of the ADASF yearly exhi­bi­tions. (I did not win it; I inher­ited it from the club.)

I was elected secre­tary and then later trea­surer of the club. As the trea­surer, I knew how much was collected from the yearly auctions of our member’s artwork. There were the ​“Minia­ture” and the ​“Larger Than Minia­ture “ auctions. During some of the auctions, I carried each painting around the room so that bidders / buyers could see it, up close.
This was much like my previous treasurer’s job as a ​“Rare Bird”

1963 ADASF Auction
1963 ADASF Auction 
Auction Gold Street 1
Auction Gold Street 1 
Auction Gold Street 2
Auction Gold Street 2 
Auction Gold Street 3
Auction Gold Street 3 

Captions:
This list from 1963 is from before my time in the club. In 1963 I was a clerk in Wells Fargo Bank at Grant and Mont­gomery Streets. In 1964, I was hired by Butte, Herrero and Hyde.
These photos were taken at the Gold Street location.

Some of the loca­tions were at Gold Street, Gino’s, The Palace Hotel, the SF Press Club and the Academy of Art (the 740 Taylor Street location).
The proceeds from the sales were donated to the club. ADASF was always ​‘in the black’.
Other than art direc­tors and artists, there were many members who were photog­ra­phers, copy­writers and members from a lot of services that supplied the needs of our graphic commu­nity. I enjoyed the club and contributed paint­ings and also bought the art of our members. I didn’t take photos of the number of minia­tures that I donated, except for this one that sold at the LTM Auction (the house in the field).

Schoolgirls, L. Macoullard
School­girls, L. Macoullard 
Express, Annie Butte
Express, Annie Butte 
Earl Wood Photogrpher
Earl Wood Photogrpher 
Ray Ward
Ray Ward 
Xerox of Art
Xerox of Art 
My Painting
My Painting 

Here, also, are some that I bought. I xeroxed the minia­ture that shows Adele Smith (who was the hired club secre­tary) as the ​“ADASF Luv Mother”. It was created by Jane Kris­tiansen. I bought it and kept it for a long time and then gave it to Adele. The Ray Ward: ​“Broadway” was also one that I kept until giving it to Francie Marks Ward. I loved this photo by Earl Wood. I grew up visiting Play­land. The Fun House ​“Wheel” was my favorite.

I bought the painting: ​“Express” by Annie Butte, when I was working for Butte, Herrero and Hyde.
The Louis Machouil­l­lard: ​“School­girls” was a lucky timing purchase. The auction had started and many of the would-be-bidders were still drinking at the bar!

Louis Macouil­lard, Loca­tion, Location

The San Fran­cisco Bay Area, in the ​‘60s and ​‘70s, had many commer­cial art clubs: ADASF, San Fran­cisco Society of Illus­tra­tors (aka: SFSI). Profes­sional Photog­ra­phers of Northern Cali­fornia (aka: PPNC), The Western Art Direc­tors Club (aka: WDAC) San Fran­cisco Copy­writers Club (aka: SFCC), and the Greater San Fran­cisco Ad Club — existing since 1906 (aka: GSFAC).

There was talk of a change in 1970, when Ray Ward was the pres­i­dent of ADASF. The name was to change to the San Fran­cisco Society of Commu­ni­cating Arts. This would reflect the existing member­ship plus all who were contributing to the graphic and commu­ni­ca­tion industry in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area. There was a poster created by Mike Bull to bring in the new members. Here is shown various pages of the maga­zine, Commu­ni­ca­tion Digest.
I have only two of the yearly annuals. The one on top is the 1974 exhi­bi­tion annual. On the first page it is called ​“the Last Show”. On the next page it reads: This is the book of the Annual Show of the San Fran­cisco Society of Commu­ni­cating Arts. It was called ​“The Last show”. And it nearly was.

SFSCA Membership Poster
SFSCA Member­ship Poster 
SFSCA
SFSCA 
SFSCA 1975 Magazine
SFSCA 1975 Magazine 
SFSCA Magazine Contents
SFSCA Maga­zine Contents 
SFSCA Mag. pg 15
SFSCA Mag. pg 15 
Mike Dattel
Mike Dattel 
SFSCA Annuals
SFSCA Annuals 

The first pres­i­dent of this new club was Bob Buechert.
As a free­lancer, I had worked for Bob’s medical ad agen­cies since 1965. But as my work took more of my time, I became no longer involved with the bigger club. I wasn’t aware if they continued the art auctions. Bob was right there at the agency but I never asked him about the ​“new” club. My last copy of the SFSCA maga­zine was October 1976.

The ​‘70s and ​‘80s went by and it was 1993 when Bob Buechert suggested holding a reunion to be held at his prop­erty in Petaluma that our orig­inal part of the graphic commu­nity again came together.

1993 Invitation
1993 Invitation 
1993 Grey Geezers
1993 Grey Geezers 
1993 Petaluma
1993 Petaluma 

These two mailers were sent out and the turnout was great! Following that occa­sion, a smaller group who lived in that same area began to have a yearly lunch in Sonoma.
When we were included, I offered my list of the contacts from the ADASF club.
We outgrew the small private room at the Swiss Hotel and we began having our Get-togethers as a picnic at the park in Corte Madera, CA. All of these yearly gath­ering show in the photos listed on this site under YEARBOOKS,
In 2010, it was by chance that I reached all the way to NYC to find that Piet Halber­stadt was willing to put our Geezers on-line as Geezers’ Gallery. He has kept our Geezers connecting with each other from their homes. We are telling their stories as they send them to me and provide exam­ples of their graphic and commu­ni­ca­tion careers.

Dick Moore and I had to stop the picnic when the park had turned our picnic site over to their local young soccer teams. Also the picnics were limited to those who could easily attend. A new loca­tion, again, would be limited to those only near the new site. Although I must commend those who made big efforts, such as: Jack Allen who drove directly from Tigard, OR. —a mere 9 hours and 39 minutes — 665 miles! — just to be with us for a few hours in Corte Madera.
I sent this ​“665 miles” section for Jack’s approval, here is his reply:

This is great, thank you! Texas is wonderful and I am enjoying my trophy wall and remem­bering all the great people I was lucky to work with. We lost a lot of them but I keep them in my head to trea­sure. We changed the land­scape, didn’t we?
Lotsa love to you for keeping it in front of us.
Jack

Our 189 Geezer members (many from the orig­inal ADASF list) still commu­ni­cate through this blog and with email.

Ann Thompson
aka: Geezer Troop leader…
like my mom and uniforms are not required.

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