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 ‘Last of Mohicans’ Sculpture Found; Book Explores Clark Brothers’ MuseAuthor’s Research SurprisesBy JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN Grand art patrons like Robert Sterling Clark have always intrigued Nicholas Fox Weber, who is executive director of the Albers Foundation, itself an arts phil-anthropy. His first book, “Patron Saints,” was reviewed as an “exhilarating avant-garde entertainment” about the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art and its championing of Buckminster Fuller, Calder, Brancusi and the Bauhaus School. “They weren’t just rich people who bought art to hang over the mantlepiece,” Weber said in a telephone interview from his apartment on Paris’ Left Bank. “They were compelled to buy art,” motivated by “ a deep love of great painting.” There was also a vicarious thrill in writing about such collectors. “What would we be like,” he would ask himself, “if we had $50 million to spend and we could quit our day jobs?” In the case of Sterling Clark, the vicarious thrill was more than he’d anticipated. To his surprise, Weber discovered Clark had been involved in the early 1930s with people affiliated with the Duponts, Morgans and others – Republicans and Democrats – in a purported plot to raise a private army, overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and establish a fascist government in Washington, D.C. This little-known episode of American history has been labelled “The White House Putsch.” “It was a revelation to me,” Weber said. That revelation, and others of a more personal nature, will be contained in “The Clarks of Cooperstown,” Weber’s ninth book, which will be published Wednesday, May 7, by Alfred A. Knopf, now a division of Random House. Only the galleys are available now, but copies of the book can be ordered via the Internet. The episode is not undocumented. The House of Representatives’ McCormack-Dickstein Committee held hearings into the matter. The New York Times reported extensively on the hearing, and a transcript is available, Weber said. It is expanded upon in a chapter in “Wall Street & FDR,” part of a trilogy by the late Antony C. Sutton, then a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institute. Nonetheless, it is largely forgotten. Even Village Historian Hugh MacDougall, Harvard graduate and retired diplomat who has immersed himself in local history, was surprised to hear about it. “It’s news to me,” he said. “I’m dubious about it.” Delving into the question, MacDougall dredged up a paragraph from “The Clark Brothers Collect,” the sizeable scholarly catalogue from last year’s exhibit at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., “The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings.” The catalogue characterized the whole matter as simply a misunderstanding. The Clark Institute exhibit reopens May 22 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and Knopf commissioned Weber to write the new book in anticipation. A painting in the Clark exhibit, Bonnard’s “Breakfast Room,” was one of the author’s long-time favorites – he wrote a 25-page paper on it while an undergrad at Columbia – so that further piqued an already natural interest. So far, the pre-publication reviews have been good, with Publisher’s Weekly saying “Weber’s delightfully written study includes much insightful psychological speculation about these larger-than-life men.” Weber said he didn’t visit Cooperstown in the course of his research, but did spend a great deal of time in Williamstown, both at the art institute and in related archives. The new book begins with the founding father, Edward Clark, Isaac Singer’s partner in the sewing machine company, who married a local woman, Caroline Ambrose, and introduced the family to Cooperstown, and his son Alfred Corning Clark. The feud between Sterling and his also-art-collecting brother, Stephen C. – two of four of Alfred’s sons – will be the centerpiece in the book, growing out of Sterling’s marriage to Francine and the resulting rift. Francine was a Polish-born French actress, a single mother and Catholic. “There wasn’t much the family approved of there,” Weber said. Where Sterling was more flamboyant and “loved anything French” – Renoir in particular – Stephen “tended toward more thoughtful and taxing art” – he was an early advocate of Edward Hopper. Stephen was also a founding trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, and was the force behind the eventual firing of Alfred Barr, the museum’s first director. In the course of his research, Weber came across the transcript of hearings convened by the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which was investigating Nazi and Communist activity in the U.S. The transcripts detailed an alleged plot, following FDR’s election in 1932, to transform the American Legion, founded after World War I, into a 500,000-man army and overthrow the government. The group had approached Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, retired Marine Corps commandant (nicknamed “The Fighting Quaker”), to lead the military end, and he blew the whistle. Sterling Clark was implicated, Webersaid, but waited out the hearings in Paris. The committee released a heavily edited report, and the matter fizzled. Today, that generation of Clarks is better remembered for its positive contributions. While Sterling was largely absent from the Cooperstown scene after the late 1920s, Stephen and his brother, Edward Severin Clark, founded what today is Bassett Healthcare, the Cooperstown Country Club and Leatherstocking Golf Course. Edward Severin died in the early 1930s, and Stephen C. went on to found the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum. Now that he’s aware of the Clarks, Weber said, he sees the influences everywhere. In late March, for instance, the writer was upcountry in Senegal visiting a Muslim school. There in the corner was a Singer Sewing Machine. Fictional Trio Out Of Cellar The Freeman’s Journal Village Historian Hugh MacDougall feels like he’s been reunited with an old friend. Novelist Inspired Post Office PlaqueBy JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN An old friend came out of the basement at the Cooperstown post office the other day. It was “The Last of the Mohicans,” a bronze medallion, by forgotten sculptor Bela Janowski, that was consigned to the depths in 1991 after the ceiling was lowered and there was no longer room for it above the door. There is it, above the stamp machine to the right as you come in the front door. Under the cast image of James Fenimore Cooper in the center of the frieze is: “America’s Great Romancer,” and underneath it: “First Naval Historian.” Below to the left is Natty Bumppo; to the right, Chingcachgook; in between, a canoe. Village Historian Hugh MacDougall, who is also founder of the James Fenimore Cooper Society, remembered the medallion, which is approximately 4x5 feet, from when he first retired to Cooperstown in 1986. As Hugh was standing in the post office lobby the other afternoon, in walked Roger Smith of Spurbeck’s Grocery, who spent 32 years with the U.S. Postal Service, retiring in 1991 after 10 years as Cooperstown postmaster. The medallion had hung in the lobby throughout his postal career, he remarked. OK, so we Googled Bela Janowski. There are a couple of references, one to a plaster model of a bust auctioned for $50 in Thomaston, Maine, in 2003. The other to the George Glazer Gallery on East 72nd Street, where the owner said he bought the plaster cast for “The Last of the Mohicans” about 10 years ago from a “picker” who had a stall in the weekly antiques flea market at Sixth Avenue and 26th. (A picker is someone “who buys stuff and flips it.”) “It’s either a white elephant or the coolest thing,” said Glazer, who for the past several years has kept it in his apartment, “sitting on the floor.” Thinking back – it has been a decade or more – he remembered the picker bought quite a few plaster models, mostly busts, from the sculptor’s estate. Bela’s wife may have been a watercolorist, George thinks. He found a reference to Janowski in one encyclopedia of American sculptors, and learned he immigrated from Eastern Europe early in the 20th century, and also that he did public commissions, including one in the the Brooklyn Navy Yards. At the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, historian Nancy Pope said “The Last of the Mohicans” dates from the period of “The Starved Architecture Movement” – after the huge, baroque post offices at the turn of the 20th century, the post office began scaling back, simplifying and codifying its buildings. Typically at that time, postal officials would build a cookie-cutter building on a site like Cooperstown’s. Its design was aimed, not to glorify its mission – “Neither sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night ...” – but based simply “on mail volume and receipts.” As the post office building was rising, the Treasury Department’s Fine Arts Division – Nancy didn’t know why the Treasury Department handled this aspect, but it did – would seek proposals. Janowski, no doubt, won one of these commissions, she said. While people think that public art in post offices dates to FDR’s Works Progress Administration, it actually continued beyond the WPA years. As part of their proposals, artists were asked to develop a local theme to the degree they could, and that occasionally became controversial: In one “dry” town in Texas, the muralist depicted a jug of whiskey in the corner; after a public outcry, the jug was painted out. In any event, “The Last of the Mohicans” theme would fit in with this approach. George Glazer’s Web site has a photo of Janowski finishing up the plaster cast. (Glazer said he has the original photos and some letters and other records that relate to his plaster cast, but they weren’t immediately at hand.) “The Last of the Mohicans” could have remained in the cellar indefinitely, but MacDougall learned a niece of Janowski’s stopped by the Cooperstown site a couple of months ago, asked about it, and it was unearthed and brought back into the daylight. For the village historian, there’s some satisfaction in that. Dissidents Force Extension Meeting208-Signature Petition Requires April 17 Session To Hear ComplaintsCOOPERSTOWN A 208-signature petition has compelled the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Otsego County board of directors to convene a meeting to address an ongoing furor that grew out of the firings of two longtime extension agents in January, and so it has. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, in the Wellness Conference Room at Fox Care Center, Oneonta, east on Route 7 from Fox Hospital. According to executive director Richard “Dinnie” Sloman, “The purpose of the meeting is for the board to respond, in detail, to each of the accountability questions and each of the other questions” that Phyllis Orlowski of Cooperstown and Gwen Downey of Middlefield, who have been in a point position among the opposition, presented to the directors at a March 15 board meeting in Cooperstown. It was unclear, however, how much the directors intend to change direction, and how much they were calling the meeting simply because the bylaws require it every time a petition of 25 members of the Cooperative Extension community – volunteers, farmers who use its services, or even anyone who has ever attended a workshop – request it. “The board of directors has adopted a plan based on very solid business reasons,” said George Preston, who represents the Ithaca-based Cornell Cooperative Extension on the Otsego County board. “What they’re going for is a good thing.” Recently, Cooperative Extension began advertising to fill two positions, a community educator for youth development outreach and another for fruits and vegetables outreach, which appeared to echo, at a lower grade, the extension agent positions held by the two veterans staffers, Rich McCaffery, 4H agent for 33 years, and David Cox, horticultural agent for six years, who were abruptly let go Friday, Jan. 19, after the directors approved a five-year strategic plan the night before. Since, most of the directors have said they were unaware approving the plan would trigger the firings. The two extension agents immediately applied for the reduced positions, as Cooperative Extension human resources policy allows them to do, but McCaffery said it now appears clear they weren’t going to be considered for those jobs either. Glenn Appleby, the deputy executive Cooperative Extension director in Ithaca, said he was aware of the turmoil that has been ongoing for more than three months now in the Otsego County organization, but was surprised to learn about the 208-signature petition. He said he had seen resignation letters from three members of the Otsego County board protesting the firings, but said he was unaware of additional letters Orlowski and Downey said have been sent to the local board. Appleby said headquarters advises county organizations, particularly in matters of personnel and issues that might generate legal problems, and occasionally will step in and remove executive directors or take other actions it deems necessary. Bicentennial First-Day Covers Sell Briskly First Day Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal Otsego Lake photographer Richard Duncan buys a first-day cover marking the Village of Cooperstown’s founding on Tuesday, April 3, the 200th anniversary to the day. Handling the sales is Elizabeth Dunbar, left, while Bicentennial committee chair Grace Kull looks on. $2,056 Raised in No Time To Fund September ParadeCOOPERSTOWN There was a queue at the post office the other day, but it wasn’t visitors to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on spring break looking to send letters home from the fabled 13326 zip code. It was the 200th anniversary, to the day, of the Village of Cooperstown’s founding on April 3, 1808, and the queue was stamp enthusiasts – or simply souvenir seekers – looking to buy one of village Bicentennial Committee’s first-day covers from Elizabeth Dunbar, who was manning the table. “I was astonished,” Mrs. Dunbar said at mid-morning. “I really was prepared to just sit here.” By the next day, $2,056 had been generated, which will be used to help fund the week-long 200th birthday celebration on Sept. 8-15, kicked off with a Bicentennial parade that first Saturday. The first-day cover – also called a cachet – bears a 19th century lithograph of Otsego Lake; 200 were printed in full color and are selling for $25 apiece, another 200 in black-and-white, and theyr’e selling for $20 each. They are numbered collector’s items. Each cover contains four stamps – a 1939 centennial of baseball, a 2-cent James Fenimore Cooper commemorative from 1940, New York’s state bird (eastern bluebird) and flower (wild rose) from 1988, and New York’s entry in the “Ratification of the Constitution Bicentennial” series from 1988 – and a special U.S. Postal Service cancellation mark bearing the image of Natty Bumppo, The Leatherstocking himself. On the back is a gold seal. As Mrs. Dunbar was shaking her head in wonder, Diane Bobnick bought three covers, number 66 for son Michael, born in 1966; number 69 for son D.J. (Dan), born in 1969, and number 70 for John, her youngest. “They were born here in Cooperstown,” said Diane, explaining why she thought the covers would be a nice memento. When her boys were actually boys, she used to buy them commemorative covers during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. The Bicentennial committee had the table set up for just that one day, but the covers are for sale at Augur’s, Ellsworth & Sill and The Freeman’s Journal, until all are gone. Committee chairman Grace Kull stood by observing, but didn’t participate in the selling, since Village Administrator Teri Barown had learned from the New York Conference of Mayors and Municipalities (NYCOMM) that elected officials aren’t supposed to be involved in any sort of fundraiser. “The focus of the committee has changed to a fundraising committee,” said Mayor Carol B. Waller. “From what Teri tells me, she (Grace) can remain as honorary chair.” As honorary chair, she can continue to preside at meetings, but neither she nor Village Trustee Milo V. Stewart Jr., another active committee member, will be able to actually vote. Grace Kull raises her eyebrows a bit as she explains this, but she plans to continue to preside, even without specific voting powers. The committee is not a fundraising one, she said. Fundraising is simply a side activities to raise the needed funds to put on the celebration; the village has allocated $5,000 for the whole year. | Jan. 04, 2008 | Local Honor Roll | Pages From The Paper | july 6th 2007 | Hall of Fame Friday | Hall of Fame Saturday | Hall of Fame Sunday | Hall of Fame Monday | July282006 Archive | Aug042006 Archive | Aug112006 Archive | Aug182006 Archive | Sept012006 Archive | Sept082006 Archive | Sept152006 Archive | Sept222006 Archive | Sept292006 Archive | Oct062006 Archive | Oct132006 Archive | Oct202006 Archive | Oct272006 Archive | Nov032006 Archive | Nov172006 Archive | Nov242006 Archive | Dec012006 Archive | Dec082006 Archive | Dec152006 Archive | Dec222006 Archive | Dec292006 Archive | Jan052007 Archive | Jan192007 Archive | Jan262007 Archive | February092007 Archive | February162007 Archive | February232007 Archive | March162007 Archive | March232007 Archive | March302007 Archive | March302007 Archive | April132007 News Archive | Chris Gentile | Obituary | April272007 Archive | May112007 Archive | May112007 Archive | May252007 Archive | June 22, 2007 | July 13 2007 | Sept05 2007 | Sept 7th 2007 | Aug 31st 2007 | Local Law Parking | October 26, 2007 | Nov. 2 2007 | Nov. 16, 2007 | Glimmerglass Oct 5,2007 | Nov 16., 2007 | November 30 2007 | Nov. 30, 2007 | Dec. 07, 2007 | Dec. 14, 2007 | Dec. 21, 2007 | Dec. 28, 2007 | Jan. 11, 2008 | Jan. 18, 2008 | Jan. 25, 2008 | Feb 1, 2008 | Feb. 8, 2008 | Feb. 22, 2008 | GlimmerGlass Feb. 15, 2008 | Sports Feb. 15, 2008 | Feb.28, 2008 | March 7, 2008 | March 14, 2008 | GlimmerGlass March 14, 2008 | March 21, 2008 | March 28, 2008 | April 4, 2008 | April 11, 2008 | April 18, 2008 | April 25, 2008 | May 9, 2008 | May 2, 2008 | May 23, 2008 | | Our Services | Contact Us | Great Links | Return Home | Classified Ads | News Archive | Cooperstown Homes | Calendar -Best Bets | Letters to the Editor | |
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