A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from July 15, 2019
“I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men” (Beatrice Wood)

“I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men” is a saying that has been printed on many images. The saying is credited to American artist and studio potter Beatrice Wood (1893-1998), but she didn’t say it in exactly that form.
 
“When asked the secret of her longevity, Wood (then 96 years old—ed.) laughed gently and pointed to the sculpture beside her—‘Chocolate and Young Men’” was printed in the San Francisco (CA) Examiner on December 1, 1989. ” When the hospital asked what she’d like in her room at the Fairmont, she demonstrated that she has not slowed down. ‘Apple cider, chocolate and young men,’ she smiled, ‘and not necessarily in that order’” was printed in the San Francisco (CA) Chronicle on May 2, 1990. “‘I have two great joys in life, chocolate, and young men.’ Beatrice Wood, ceramicist/potter” was posted on the newsgroup bit.listserv.gaynet on December 5, 1993.
 
“Wood, who ‘lives primarily for her work,’ as (has?—ed.) a mantra of ‘art books, chocolate and young men’ to keep her going each day” was printed in the Hartford (CT) Courant on March 2, 1997. “Her most productive years were from age 80 to 105. ‘I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men’” was posted on Twitter by Carla Blazek on March 4, 2013.
   
   
Wikipedia: Beatrice Wood
Beatrice Wood (March 3, 1893 – March 12, 1998) was an American artist and studio potter involved in the Avant Garde movement in the United States; she founded and edited The Blind Man magazine in New York City with French artist Marcel Duchamp and writer Henri-Pierre Roché in 1917. She had earlier studied art and theater in Paris, and was working in New York as an actress. She later worked at sculpture and pottery. Wood was characterized as the “Mama of Dada.”
 
She partially inspired the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic after the director read Wood’s autobiography while developing the film. Beatrice Wood died nine days after her 105th birthday in Ojai, California.
       
1 December 1989, San Francisco (CA) Examiner, “The art of Beatrice Wood” by David Bonetti, pg. C-7, col. 2:
When asked the secret of her longevity, Wood laughed gently and pointed to the sculpture beside her—“Chocolate and Young Men.” The Amazon dressed in a flaming orange dress holds a chocolate bar, while cascades of tiny young men, all dressed in tight black suits, flow down her body, fulfilling the dream of the Weather Girls disco hit, “It’s Raining Men.”
(“Intimate Appeal: The Figurative Art of Beatrice Wood” at the Oakland Museum.—ed.)
 
2 May 1990, San Francisco (CA) Chronicle, Herb Caen column, pg. B1, col. 1:
WELCOME: The noted ceramics artist and native San Franciscan, 97-yr-old Beatrice Wood, who was artist Marcel Duchamp’s lover, will be here from her Ojai home May 11 for a luncheon in her honor at the de Young Museum, a fund-raiser for the Pacific Presbyterian Med Center’s family survival project. When the hospital asked what she’d like in her room at the Fairmont, she demonstrated that she has not slowed down. “Apple cider, chocolate and young men,” she smiled, “and not necessarily in that order.”
     
24 June 1990, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “At 97, Beatrice Woods Is Still ‘Laughing at the Human Race’” by Shauna Snow, Calendar sec., pg. 91, col. 1:
Wood, who smiled mischievously when referring to her interest in “young men” and sat nibbling on a box of chocolates during her opening (her 1988 piece “Chocolate and Young Men” is included in this show) still spends several hours a day on her art and keeps up with world events through her favorite television show—Ted Koppel’s Nightline.
 
Google Groups: bit.listserv.gaynet
“Salvation Army and Request”
Patrick Hiller
12/5/93
(...)
“I have two great joys in life, chocolate, and young men.”
Beatrice Wood, ceramicist/potter
     
2 March 1997, Hartford (CT) Courant, “Wood’s childlike works displayed at 2 New York galleries” by Jude Schwendenwein, pg. G5, col. 4:
Old age as a time of feebleness is dispelled by Wood’s exceptional life and career. Her dealer, Garth Clark, notes that Wood, who “lives primarily for her work,” as (has?—ed.) a mantra of “art books, chocolate and young men” to keep her going each day.
 
14 March 1998, New York (NY) Times, “Beatrice Wood, 105, Potter And Mama of Dada, Is Dead” by Roberta Smith, pg. 15:
Beatrice Wood, a ceramic artist known as much for her irreverent quips, beauty, bohemian life style and famous lovers as for her luminous luster-glaze chalices, and who inspired at least two movie characters, died on Thursday at her home in Ojai, Calif. She had celebrated her 105th birthday on March 3.
 
An independent woman inclined to say whatever was on her mind, Ms. Wood famously attributed her longevity to ‘‘chocolate and young men’’ and just as memorably titled her 1985 autobiography ‘‘I Shock Myself.’‘
 
Twitter
Evelyn Rodriguez
@eve11
dining on strawberries, chocolate, white tea: “My two great joys in life are chocolate and young men.” - Beatrice Wood (lived to 105)
5:42 PM - 3 Jul 2007
   
Twitter
Jeanne
@housebrook
Replying to @ElizabethTaylor
@DameElizabeth Beatrice Woods said the secert to long life is chocolate and young men. She lived to 105. u would have loved her. google her.
9:04 PM - 20 Jun 2009
   
Twitter
Anthony De La Rosa
@AnthDLR
Video: “art books, chocolate, young men” - Beatrice Wood, sculptor and seductress par excellence http://tmblr.co/ZrHVfvKhHBf3
1:33 PM - 1 May 2012
   
Twitter
Jim Adams
@nasajim
Replying to @datachick
@datachick at 105 Beatrice Wood attributed longevity to Art, Books, Chocolate, and Young men. http://www.beatricewood.com/biography.html  @craftlass @catherineq
2:23 AM - 8 Jul 2012
   
Twitter
Carla Blazek
@carlablazek
Her most productive years were from age 80 to 105.
“I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men.”
—... http://fb.me/1rxD1sYEr
5:43 PM - 4 Mar 2013
     
LA Weekly (Los Angeles, CA)
AN OUTDOOR BOOKSTORE, A DADAIST DARLING’S STUDIO AND MORE TO SEE ON A DAY TRIP TO OJAI
TONY MOSTROM FEBRUARY 3, 2017
(...)
To this day, Beatrice Wood’s best-known quote is “I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men.”
 
Google Books
Great Second Acts:
In Praise of Older Women

By Marlene Wagman-Geller
Coral Gables, FL: mango Publishing Group
2018
Pg. ?:
Wood did not allow her failing health to prevent her from ever being anything other than a gracious hostess. When asked the key to her longevity, she attributed it to “art books, chocolate and young men.’’ (Hence guests arrived with gifts of the former.)
   
Ventura Country (CA) Star
Open and shut: Beato Chocolates made, sold at Ojai art gallery
Lisa McKinnon, Ventura County Star Published 5:42 p.m. PT Nov. 16, 2018
As artist Beatrice Wood neared her 100th birthday in 1993, collectors, journalists and fellow artists made pilgrimages to her combination home and studio in the Upper Ojai to ask the same question: To what did she attribute her long life?
 
Her answer: Chocolate. And young men.
 
Two decades after Wood’s death at age 105, that oft-quoted response is one of the inspirations for Beato Chocolates, a line of fine chocolates produced in the licensed home kitchen at the back of The Porch Gallery.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityArt/Sculpture • Monday, July 15, 2019 • Permalink


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