Lynn Cook made her triumphant Del Mar return in November after a hip operation kept her in and out of the hospital since the last show in April.She prefers selling her Indian jewelry, pottery and Lladro at antique shows, over suffering through the paint of touch and go hip replacement. She used to have a shop in Oceanside with Amy Wampler-Kuhl. They still team up and conduct pottery appraisals and sell at shows. At her first show back, she offered a matching Nevada turquoise and sterling silver squash blossom necklace, cuff bracelet and matching ring for $1,695. The 1970s set is signed “Joseph P.” but Cook was unable to find any information on the artist. For more information, Cook can be contacted at (760) 525-9922.
Category Archives: Health
Cruise Ship Comedian in hospital for 15 days
After doing some leg work, Long Beach Vets dealer Gloria Crane discovered that fellow dealer Frank Berry had been missing from the show because he has been in the hospital clinging to life.He usually has his high end tin toys, cast iron banks and black memorabilia set up across the aisle from Crane, also known as the blonde Cher. She put the Collector Network to good use when she found out from a fellow workout buddy at 24 House Fitness that Berry had been in the hospital for 15 days fighting for his life. He had suffered from a blockage. ”He is very well liked and respected as a prominent dealer and friend,” said Crane. We wish him a speedy recovery and really hope he will return to work with us as he is truly missed by everyone.” When not selling at the major Southern California swap meets and outdoor shows, Berry’s main gig was as a cruise ship comedian. He loved traveling all over the world and found opportunities to buy antiques wherever he landed, which explains some of his high end items. Aside from being a great dealer and always knowing the details behind the items he sells, Berry is compassionate. His empathy became clear when he wrote a note of condolence and remembrance after discovering that 63-year-old Danton Burroughs, grandson of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, had died last year. Although his health is still questionable, Berry, unlike many dealers, may be able to return to the show circuit. He does not have to transport large pieces of furniture. He deals in high quality, expensive smalls so he could scale back and still do well at the shows. There has been a Frank Berry sighting by Gloria Crane at the Long Beach Antique Market in November. Although he was a using a cane,he seemed to be agile and in good spirits.
Chapman Antique Mall co-owner on road to full recovery
Chapman Antique Mall co-owner Dennis Caldwell has been battling walking pneumonia but he is on the way to making a full recovery. He should be in excellent shape in time for the mall’s new promotion, “Holiday Shopping Under the Stars.”They will be open on four Friday evenings until 8:00 p.m. starting November 27th, including December 4th, 11th and 18th. Walking pneumonia is a relatively minor lung infection that is caused by the Mycoplasma pneumoniae organism. Although it is possible that the body can fight the infection without treatment or hospitalization, it often escalates and can turn lethal. According to Cathie, Dennis’ wife, more than six million people die each year from walking pneumonia. This puts AIDS in perspective. Only 15,244 people die in the U.S. each year from HIV/AIDS according to WrongDiagnosis.com. More than double die every year from the flu virus.
What will it take to keep Shauna Novotny down?
Shauna Novotny is back to work, but beat up to say the least. She is still recovering from a major car accident that happened the same weekend as the Pasadena Bustamante Show. It was May 28th and Novotny was traveling eastbound on the 210 freeway at 11:30 p.m. in her 2000 red Eddie Bauer special edition Expedition SUV when a small economy car attempted to cut her off in a very bold and dangerous manner. ”I think they were trying to get me to hit them,” said Novotny, who suspects it was someone trying to commit insurance fraud. In order to avoid the car, she spun around and hit the center guard rail head on. For those few moments, everything was a blur. ”I thought I was okay,” she said. Her knee hurt, but she thought it was just dislocated from the impact. She realized her mint condition SUV, full of antiques, was mangled, but she thought she was nothing more than bruised. She called her right-hand man and friend Alex who promptly came down with his Audi to unload the merchandise from her SUV and to load up Novotny and take her to the hospital. Luckily, she was still capable of thinking clearly because it costs a minimum of $850 to have an ambulance transport one to the hospital. When they arrived at Huntington Memorial Hospital, the staff immediately admitted her to the Trauma Unit where she sat for five hours in extreme pain. She was informed at 5:00 a.m. the following morning that she had a broken knee and that all the ribs on her right side were cracked. She spent a week in the critical car unit, but kept her mall open for business the whole time. Alex and Shauna’s ex-husband, Bill, alternated running the mall. Despite being in pain so great that heavy duty meds aren’t even doing the job, Novotny is still making the rounds with the aid of a walker and a wheelchair. She will be using both of them for three months, and Alex is giving her rides to a from work. Even if she didn’t have a broken knee, she doesn’t have a car. She is working with the insurance company to get a check to put toward a new car, but it is taking a while. She expects to get around $9,000 for the SUV she bought for $40,000 in 2000. She feels she should get around $13,000 for it since it was in excellent condition, but this is pretty hard thing to prove since its been smashed to smithereens. She is considering getting a small economy car instead of an SUV this time around. Although the car accident has been a “mind altering” ordeal, she has been dealt bigger blows. In 2002, she fought breast cancer and won thanks to radiation treatments and chemotherapy. She also survived a divorce from her husband of 20 years, Bill Novotny, Southern California’s leading appraiser. They are on good terms, as evidenced by him coming to her aid during the week immediately following her car accident. Novotny was born in Lubbock, Texas, the birthplace of singer Buddy Holly. Her family moved to Southern California when she was still a baby. She graduated from Alhambra High School. She lived in Hawaii for 12 years and then moved back to Southern California. She opened her first antique store on Brand Avenue in Glendale about 25 years ago. She then moved her business to Orange and then settled in Pasadena. She moved from Lake to East Colorado a year ago. She is back to running her mall and still manages to hobble around to at least one auction or estate sale a week. One has to wonder, what would it take to keep Shauna Novotny down?
Broken ankle doesn't stop Diane's move into Antique Mall of Treasures
Despite the impediment of a broken ankle, Diane Place is still maintaining her spectacular booth at Antique Mall of Treasures in Orange. The longtime dealer has several showcases stocked with merchandise as well as shelves crammed with goodies. Her offerings include vintage bird cages, Victorian silhouettes, china, glass, and vintage clothing. Antique Mall of Treasures is located at 109 S. Glassell Street in Orange. Call (714) 997-4320 for more information.
cicely's goldfinger update
The Farah Fawcett of Vintage Fashion, Cicely Ann Hansen, is now opting for accupuncture since physical therapy has been disappointing. ”I’m only able to bend my finger 10 percent more since starting physical therapy,” she explained at the last Santa Monica Vintage Fashion Expo. When she began the process, they warned her that she may never be able to fully bend her injured finger. Several months ago, before the big Queen Mary Art Deco Festival, Hansen suffered from an absess on her finger that remained untreated due to what she feels was medical neglect. The tragic result was half of her middle finger being amputated. ”If it wasn’t in the middle of my hand it wouldn’t be in the way,” she said, adding that she wears a pressure bandage on her finger and keeps it elevated at night. She has stopped all the medication, except for the occasional sleeping pill, in preparation for her next course of action
Digital Devastation
Usually the term Digital Devastation refers to a cell phone dead zone or a hard drive crash, but in the case of the Farah Fawcett of Vintage Fashion, Cicely Ann Hansen, it was a much more personal tragedy. We call ourselves the gimp twins,” said Hansen at the Queen Mary Show of her and her fellow fashionista with whom she shared a booth, Sheri “Springer” Sheridan. “We both decided to rent this booth when we were perfectly healthy.” Just a week before the Queen Mary Show, Sheridan had a pacemaker put in, and Hansen had one of her fingers amputated. The word digital comes from the same source of the word digit and digitus (the Latin word for finger,) as fingers are used for discrete counting. A month and a half before the show, an abscess formed on Hansen’s finger which was misdiagnosed by three doctors. By the time the malady was properly identifed, her finger was too far gone. According to Hansen, the biggest culprit was Santa Cruz Medical Center, which looked at her finger and claimed it would be remedied by taking two days of antibiotics. ”Two days later my finger was black and I went to the hospital and they said ‘amputate,’” said Hansen. Still concerned about the state of her finger, she went the very next day to the UCSF emergency room, since she had noticed the back side of her finger was starting to turn black. They drained the finger and sent her home semi-conscience. A plastic surgeon later informed her that had she been put on IVs when she went to the Santa Cruz Medical Center her finger could have been saved. The finger fiasco happened over the usually festive fourth of July holiday. She spent the nation’s holiday in a hospital room with 8 IVs in her arm. She only took painkillers for a week, because they make her both nauseaus and paranoid over becoming addicted. Her mother had an addiction to painkillers. ”I’ve had 9 1/2 pound babies, and this is 20 times worse,” she said. After the Queen Mary Show, she was going to go to a hand therapy specialist to see the likely extent of her recovery and how much time it iwill take. Currently the half of her finger that remains will not bend and if she accidentally bumps it, it sends an electric jolt through her body. As usual, Hansen is making the best of a bad situation. She is stocking up an vintage gloves and is even considering becoming the Bay Area’s Goldfinger by adopting a diamond encrusted solid gold prosthetic. Although the fate of her partial finger is uncertain, her fore into vintage fashion continues. In addition to Decades of Fashion in Haight Ashbury, she and Springer are opening a new store on Sacramento Street, entitled Decades S.F., which will be dedicated to high end furnishings. The store, which will be opening on October 7th, will be set up almost like an art exhibit with furnishings set up into vignettes. The furniture will be set up with embellished mannequins dressed in clothing of the era represented by the furniture. ”Everything in the installations will be for sale,” explained Springer. “People can buy just one piece or the whole setting.” We call ourselves the gimp twins,” said Hansen at the Queen Mary Show of her and her fellow fashionista with whom she shared a booth, Sheri “Springer” Sheridan. “We both decided to rent this booth when we were perfectly healthy.” Just a week before the Queen Mary Show, Sheridan had a pacemaker put in, and Hansen had one of her fingers amputated. The word digital comes from the same source of the word digit and digitus (the Latin word for finger,) as fingers are used for discrete counting. A month and a half before the show, an abscess formed on Hansen’s finger which was misdiagnosed by three doctors. By the time the malady was properly identifed, her finger was too far gone. According to Hansen, the biggest culprit was Santa Cruz Medical Center, which looked at her finger and claimed it would be remedied by taking two days of antibiotics. ”Two days later my finger was black and I went to the hospital and they said ‘amputate,’” said Hansen. Still concerned about the state of her finger, she went the very next day to the UCSF emergency room, since she had noticed the back side of her finger was starting to turn black. They drained the finger and sent her home semi-conscience. A plastic surgeon later informed her that had she been put on IVs when she went to the Santa Cruz Medical Center her finger could have been saved. The finger fiasco happened over the usually festive fourth of July holiday. She spent the nation’s holiday in a hospital room with 8 IVs in her arm. She only took painkillers for a week, because they make her both nauseaus and paranoid over becoming addicted. Her mother had an addiction to painkillers. ”I’ve had 9 1/2 pound babies, and this is 20 times worse,” she said. After the Queen Mary Show, she was going to go to a hand therapy specialist to see the likely extent of her recovery and how much time it iwill take. Currently the half of her finger that remains will not bend and if she accidentally bumps it, it sends an electric jolt through her body. As usual, Hansen is making the best of a bad situation. She is stocking up an vintage gloves and is even considering becoming the Bay Area’s Goldfinger by adopting a diamond encrusted solid gold prosthetic. Although the fate of her partial finger is uncertain, her fore into vintage fashion continues. In addition to Decades of Fashion in Haight Ashbury, she and Springer are opening a new store on Sacramento Street, entitled Decades S.F., which will be dedicated to high end furnishings. The store, which will be opening on October 7th, will be set up almost like an art exhibit with furnishings set up into vignettes. The furniture will be set up with embellished mannequins dressed in clothing of the era represented by the furniture. ”Everything in the installations will be for sale,” explained Springer. “People can buy just one piece or the whole setting.” The new store will be located at 3234 Sacramento Street. Call (415) 407-3576.
torn rotator cuff
All-American Show co-producer Tauni Brustin braved her show with a broken arm. She was still recovering from shoulder surgery she had seven weeks ago.After falling outside of her home, Brustin tore the tendon from the rotator cuff on her left shoulder. The surgery took an hour and a half at St. John’s Hospital. ”I am being brave and suffering,” said Brustin, who is no longer on any pain killers.
