For years I was under the impression that John Allen was a professional photographer. While there is no doubt about his skills as a photograher, things I have read recently indicate that he lived most of his adult life off an inheritance and never really supported himself as a commercial photographer. I know some of the manufacturers would occasionally employ him to photograph their equipment on his layout and I’m sure he was compensated for that, but did he ever actually support himself as a photograhper such as a studio photographer, company photographer, or freelancer?
Here’s some information. I think lesson to be learned is to invest wisely.
As I recall from the Westcott book referenced in the link above, John and his brother were raised by relatives after their parents died when they were young. They also were sent up here to Minnesota to attend Shattuck Military Academy, which is where John caught the Rheumatic fever which damaged his heart.
John did become a professional photographer, and as noted in the link made a good deal of money during the war, since his photography business got so much business from servicemen stationed in his area.
I think about the time the war ended, when John was in his twenties, he and his brother rec’d an inheritance (I don’t know the exact amount, but IIRC Westcott called it “a small inheritance”), money left from their parent’s estate. By that time John’s brother was I think a stockbroker or investment banker, and he invested John’s inheritance and savings very wisely so that by the early fifties John had enough money that he could just work free-lance when he wanted to, and could otherwise concentrate full time on modelling.
He wasn’t a millionaire or anything like that, and he lived in a nice but fairly modest suburban home, but he had enough money to work when he wanted to, and to travel to annual NMRA conventions and such.
Another thing that was brought out in the Wescott book is that John lived a very frugal lifestyle. He wasn’t married and didn’t go out and buy a new car every 3 or 4 years. Nearly all of his locomotives were kits (or kitbashed) which he built himself and it was only later, as he started publishing photos of his railroad and writing articles that he added a few brass engines to his roster.
-George
…and when brass locomotives first were being imported, they only cost around $25 or so. IIRC John’s standard answer when someone asked how much he had spent on the layout was that he figured it was about what he would have spent on cigarettes if were a smoker. [:)]
$25 was a lot of money in that time when many people raised families on $100 per week or less.
$25 than is like $500 now. Cars where $1,800, gas was 18 cents a gallon, houses cost $10,000.
Many modeling items where actually more expensive back then adjusted backwards for inflation.
But frugile living and wise investing has always been a good idea.
Sheldon
Evidently, according to maxman’s link, he did live the last years of his life on (invested) inheritence–I’m living my last years on my inheritence: I inherited my poverty from my parents!. His displayed photography in the hobby press indicates that his photography was very professional in its quality. The Gorre and Daphetid was eminently photogenic and John’s professionalism knew just how to transfer the dynamistic qualities of his modeling into print. He was an absolute master at composition.
We had a member in the club in Massachusetts who had had his portrait taken by John at Monterey late in World War Two.
I encountered John one time–we passed in a doorway at a now-defunct hobby shop at Santa Clara, California–it was either in 1968 or 1969. At that time I had not seen a photograph of John so I wouldn’t have known him from Adams-off-ox!. At the counter the owner ask if I knew who that gentleman was I had passed at the doorway? No, I didn’t recall ever having seen him before. “That,” I was informed, “is John Allen from the Gorre and Daphetid.” My one chance in life to shake hands with royalty and I muffed it!
What? You didn’t shed your self respect and run out to the parking lot shouting “John! John!”?
Mark
That’s all true, I was just referring to his not being like super wealthy inheritance brat buying $1500 brass locomotives every week. At that time if you had say $50,000 in savings or investments you could retire on the interest and/or dividends and live comfortably.