M.I.U. Fan
Dude/Dudette
God's Lonely Man
Posts: 99
Likes: 184
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Post by M.I.U. Fan on Jun 1, 2022 12:08:42 GMT -5
It never ceases to amaze me that after all these years, and all these comments about the amazing sandbox erected in Brian's home, we still have not seen an actual honest to God photograph of the thing.
How can this be?!?!
Surely someone, somewhere has documented this unique piece of architecture.
What will it take to uncover a photo?
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Post by AGD on Jun 1, 2022 12:15:49 GMT -5
No names, no pack drill... but I was told for years that Marilyn had the only photos of it in her possession. However, I've very recently also been told that during the research for The Smile Sessions she was asked if she had any pics thereof, and said no. So, either they've been lost in the interim or no-one ever took any photos of it in the first place.
"What will it take to uncover a photo?"
Seemingly, a DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor.
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M.I.U. Fan
Dude/Dudette
God's Lonely Man
Posts: 99
Likes: 184
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Post by M.I.U. Fan on Jun 1, 2022 15:48:17 GMT -5
What if we establish a group of international researchers to scour the globe? Make a documentary film out of it. "In Search Of..."
All them hipsters dropping by the shelter and not one of them snapped a pic?
I'm not giving up hope. Somebody somewhere took a photo of the thing.
Surely Brian was asked for a photo when they were dressing sets in "Love and Mercy". So if he had one, it would have been produced already.
Therefore, I think we need to look outside of the inner circle.
Piano tuners. Interior decorators. David Crosby.
Somebody has it.
We're through the looking glass here, people.
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Post by Cam Mott on Jun 2, 2022 7:26:44 GMT -5
It is hard to imagine that someone didn't take a snap of the sandbox. On the other hand, it is easy to imagine that such a snap could be lost, or lost track of, over 50+ years. On the third hand, it is hard to imagine that CBS did not pan down or pull back to show the sandbox. On the fourth hand, many eye witnesses are still with us (for now). My fifth hand is holding my coffee.
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Post by Al S on Jun 2, 2022 8:19:28 GMT -5
No names, no pack drill... but I was told for years that Marilyn had the only photos of it in her possession. However, I've very recently also been told that during the research for The Smile Sessions she was asked if she had any pics thereof, and said no. So, either they've been lost in the interim or no-one ever took any photos of it in the first place. "What will it take to uncover a photo?" Seemingly, a DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor.Fuck that, you'd at least need a TT Type 40 Mark 3 TARDIS to get to the bottom of this conundrum!!!
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Post by Rick Bartlett on Jun 2, 2022 8:46:46 GMT -5
At this point, you just have to use a little 'Imagination'...
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M.I.U. Fan
Dude/Dudette
God's Lonely Man
Posts: 99
Likes: 184
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Post by M.I.U. Fan on Jun 2, 2022 8:59:23 GMT -5
Can we establish the exact period of time the sandbox existed? The specific months? Is this before or after the sandbox? Or is this the sandbox? Van Dyke says he was in the sandbox. So it would have been during their songwriting session period. So are we talking late summer '66? Marilyn spoke of a curtain that went around the sandbox, with happy kids playing at the beach or something (remind me where I read this quote). Here is a curtain that doesn't seem fit that description. Perhaps they changed it out when the sandbox came in. But there is a curtain.
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Post by AGD on Jun 2, 2022 10:36:26 GMT -5
That lower photo is just pre-Pet Sounds and therefore, I think, pre-sandbox.
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Post by drbeachboy (Dirk) on Jun 2, 2022 10:40:17 GMT -5
At this point, you just have to use a little 'Imagination'... Rick, the sandbox is missing the dog dookie.
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Post by Rick Bartlett on Jun 2, 2022 10:43:58 GMT -5
At this point, you just have to use a little 'Imagination'... Rick, the sandbox is missing the dog dookie. Hmmm ha! Like I said, use a little 'Imagination'. Someone should have really consulted Banana and Louie too at the time... As Van Dyke found out, there's nothing like discovering dog turds mysteriously buried in the sand.... As a kid growing up who had a sandpit and a dog, you don't know how gross that is!
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Post by Mopp on Jun 2, 2022 10:45:25 GMT -5
Marilyn spoke of a curtain that went around the sandbox, with happy kids playing at the beach or something (remind me where I read this quote). The Making Of Pet Sounds, 1997. Came with the 30th anniversary box set. The excerpt relating to this curtain: "He had a runner along the ceiling, like a curtain rod, and he wanted to close off the sandbox like a room. A lady from a yardage shop came to the house, and he picked out the material...the pattern he wanted was little children playing, so it would be like little babies playing in the sand. Toddlers sitting with their buckets. It was a drawing. The idea was that he would pull the curtains closed, and it would feel like you were at the beach."
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Post by Paul JB on Jun 2, 2022 21:03:54 GMT -5
How long was the sandbox actually in the room again? Months..? A year or more? If it wasn’t that long, it wouldn’t be too surprising for pictures to not exist. People did not normally pull a camera out every week around the living room in those days even if they were in show business.
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Post by AGD on Jun 3, 2022 0:25:54 GMT -5
From Goodbye Surfing, Hello God !:
"As the year drew deeper into winter, Brian’s rate of activity grew more and more frantic, but nothing seemed to be accomplished. He tore the house apart and half redecorated it. One section of the living room was filled with a full-size Arabian tent, and the dining room, where the grand piano stood, was filled with sand to a depth of a foot or so and draped with nursery curtains."
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Post by Rick Bartlett on Jun 3, 2022 1:25:32 GMT -5
Similarly, the 'tent' has been an interest to me, how little photographic details there are of it. Look at all of their faces, if only those walls could speak.
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Post by Al S on Jun 3, 2022 2:08:09 GMT -5
Similarly, the 'tent' has been an interest to me, how little photographic details there are of it. Look at all of their faces, if only those walls could speak.
My understanding is the tent came and went pretty quickly due to a design oversight re adequate ventolation, perhaps explaining scant photos. And I’m pretty sure for the participants in the photo, the walls were speaking! And also the clouds in the sky, the flowers the garden, the trout in the brook…anyone hungry?
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Post by Cam Mott on Jun 3, 2022 15:24:10 GMT -5
Many questions about the physics of it. It has been claimed it contained 8 tons of sand, at a foot deep the size of the box would be about 176 sq ft or 10x18, 13x14, 12x15, or 9x20 figuring one dimension as a standard length of dimensional timber. It was a big house, I'm sure could accommodate it.
The first problem that comes to mind is foot pedals 10" inches under sand.
Maybe the sand depth was only 6 inches and the box was 352 sq ft and was more like 18x20 and he just dug out the pedals with his foot as best he could as needed, if needed.
Maybe everything about it was awkward and it ended up barely used as apparently happened to the tent.
Maybe the description is wrong. Or my math. Maybe legs of the bench and piano were elevated within the sand? Maybe monkeys CAN fly. Maybe, maybe, maybe...
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Post by Emdeeh on Jun 3, 2022 18:38:27 GMT -5
If you can find a way to contact Ron Swallow, he can answer a lot of those questions, since he built the sandbox.
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M.I.U. Fan
Dude/Dudette
God's Lonely Man
Posts: 99
Likes: 184
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Post by M.I.U. Fan on Jun 3, 2022 19:30:43 GMT -5
If you can find a way to contact Ron Swallow, he can answer a lot of those questions, since he built the sandbox. How do we find him?
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bookofb
Grommet
Posts: 33
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Post by bookofb on Jun 3, 2022 21:25:02 GMT -5
For what it's worth, the writer/jazz critic Ted Gioia - who is from Hawthorne, CA - claims that his uncle, a Hawthorne based carpenter named Giacomo "Jack" Dragotto, built Brian's sandbox. Gioia has a twitter account and has tweeted about this (see attachment) Gioia's brother is Dana Gioia, who is a well-known poet (well-known, that is, by poet standards), and he has also made the claim about their uncle and the sandbox
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Post by AGD on Jun 3, 2022 23:37:53 GMT -5
That clearly says he did the woodwork for the house, not that he built the sandbox.
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Post by gerry on Jun 5, 2022 11:51:21 GMT -5
Similarly, the 'tent' has been an interest to me, how little photographic details there are of it. Look at all of their faces, if only those walls could speak.
My understanding is the tent came and went pretty quickly due to a design oversight re adequate ventolation, perhaps explaining scant photos. And I’m pretty sure for the participants in the photo, the walls were speaking! And also the clouds in the sky, the flowers the garden, the trout in the brook…anyone hungry?
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Post by gerry on Jun 5, 2022 11:55:17 GMT -5
you know I was looking at that tent fabric and I wonder if you could still find that in an LA fabric store? I wonder if it was Marilyn who purchased it. I know someone who is very into the 1966 Batman TV series they were able to track down the original fabric used for the Batman costume and purchased it.
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Post by AGD on Jun 8, 2022 2:18:13 GMT -5
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Post by Malc on Jun 8, 2022 2:38:00 GMT -5
and if it makes it easier to view... (albeit slightly photo-adjusted, hence the lower quality)
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Post by AGD on Jun 8, 2022 3:03:38 GMT -5
For me, this is the biggest WHOA !! moment since I first heard TWGMTR. It took nearly 56 years, but... hell, yes.
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