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.
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.
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”
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).
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!
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.
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.
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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