As the story comes to an end, I wanted to share a few last links and pictures.
This first link is to an oral history interview with Jozef and Teresa Bakos. One of the most interesting comments (and I only found this after I had the story pretty much written) was Bakos’s comment that Willard Nash had some rich man as a sponsor!
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/inter ... akos-12456
The custom of burning the giant Zozobra effigy is well documented, and it was begun by Will Shuster, back in the 20s. I just moved it up a little, which seems like a reasonable start for it as a private celebration.
Here’s the official history page:
http://www.zozobra.com/history.html
And Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zozobra
A vid of the Zozobra burning in 2007. I would strongly advise against reading the ignorant and ridiculous comments. Oy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cePr4txJBw
And lastly, I had an amazing run with this story of finding paintings that fell in with what I needed for the plot! Here are the last two…Nash’s final painting of Reza
And, Nash’s painting of the Three Graces. Yes, this one really did hang for years in the Los Angeles County Art Museum (for all I know, it may still be there, but it’s not included on their website).
