The masks you were looking at were created in 1938 for the Chicago world‘s fair by great uncle Sal they never made it that’s another whole story the two masks behind Sal and my great and my great aunt Palma are actually in one of our mask rooms and our dining room they were made with special ingredients Haitian voodoo dust pyramid scrapings from Egypt Cambodian opium and secret potions from around the world not to mention one of great uncle Sal’s other secret potions all these masks assistant Sal in his mind reading acts and hypnotizing people in night clubs all over the country If you go to the category on the site called Sals masks you will see over 100 different ones used in all his studios and mine

In the mid-60s through the late 70s great uncle Sal had this incredible mask photography studio above his brothers bar in Key West Captain Tony’s Saloon He would end up doing hundreds of portraits of all the characters in Key West and trust me that place was packed with characters people like Tennessee Williams Shel Silverstein Paul Lynn Truman Capote I even had my portraits done there in 1976 I have hundreds of large format negatives in glass slides of all the people hung out at that bar 50 years ago I’ll be posting them on this site

This is not a political statement it’s my partner Scott in New York City when we had portraits of New York Scott would get us into all the big parties and events in the city this was seven years ago at the grand Marquis at the Marriott Scott actually knew him some type of skin care product Scott was involved with, after I took this photo I got to meet him and shake his hand he kind of reminded me of my grandfather Captain Tony that might not be a good thing ha ha

I took this photo on Columbus Day in Elizabeth New Jersey in 1990 at a time my grandfather was mayor of Key West the city of Elizabeth where he was born and raised flew him up from Key West to be the grand marshal of the famous Columbus Day Parade 43 years before this photo was taken my grandfather was one of those Italian mob guys from New Jersey he fucked up real bad and fled to Key West to hide out 1947, there was a contract out on him The guy right next to him Aldo Landino was one of the guys holding the contract whenever my grandfather came back to New Jersey for a wedding or some high-stake card game he would have a bodyguard or two even though the contract was faded away when these two guys seen each other they gave each other a hug Me and my two buddies were relieved we were the new half ass bodyguards

The Coral Lounge early 50s

In 1995 my great uncle Sal passed away with an incredible estate of thousands of large format negatives hundreds of published photos there was also his art collection and over 100 of these giant papier-mâché mask that he made as far back as the mid 30s you can go to the section on this website that says Sals masks anyway I have over 12,000 random negatives that have never been printed up since the 40s and 50s this is one random negative don’t know where or when but I like it

My great uncle Sal did thousands of portfolios in New York City A lot of famous people this one here is Gene Hackman when he first arrived in New York City Sal did his first professional portfolio I’m not quite sure of the year but after looking at the original negatives I’m guessing early 50s

Miss Lisa Burke 1981 my first professional portfolio we lived together On that Crazy Island Key West lasted two years we didn’t see each other for 37 years met on Facebook we have been married now for four years.