Vintage 1980s snapshots of the seedy and sensational lost 42nd Street!

Way back in the late 80s,
right before 42nd Street was sweep clean
and purified with Disney goodness, you could still enjoy the
historic New York location in all it's noisy,
colorful, rude and vivid glory.

As an aspiring artist, starting at 17ish, I would travel to NY every once in awhile to show my illustrations. This was before websites, emails and electricity, so you had to get your work seen the old fashioned way, pestering. I'd crash at friends/relatives apartments and spend the day cold calling and pleading. If I was lucky I'd get an actual face to face with an art director at a magazine or comic publisher, but more often than not I'd have to do the portfolio drop off where I'd get it there by 10am and pick it up after lunch. I only had the one (didn't think to have multiples) so that left me plenty of free time to stroll the city, and what was more eye catching than 42nd Street? I wish I had taken 1000 more photos (and gone back at night) of the amazing buildings and people that could only be found there, but at least I got a handful of snapshots of the long gone cool decaying seediness of that bustling stretch of real estate!

Brought to you by the MUST HAVE book of 2014!
http://www.amazon.com/Mitch-OConnell-Worlds-Best-Artist/dp/0867197730

Hello? Is this Mitch?

I just got a phone call from a Mr. John Romita Sr.
Jus Sayin'!
I had mailed off a copy of my book to the actual
World's Best Artist (and a HUGE inspiration)
and he was kind enough to give me a ring to say thanks!
So if you wonder why I have an extra spring in my step,
well now you know the answer!


fyi- an example of me doing my best to emulate
Mr. Romita, and an excerpt from my book...

A tribute from "The World's Best Artist"…
I
"I have a folder labeled "Perfect Comic Art". Filed inside are hundreds of pages cut out of early 1960's DC Comic's romance books. What makes them perfect? They're all drawn by John Romita. John (you may call him Mr. Romita) has accomplished the most concise, clear and clean problem solving, figuring out how to abstract real life into a minimal series of brush strokes. 
Most artists have high and low patches, but somehow The Johnster's (you may call him Mr. Romita) work is always, well ...perfect! Every image in every panel is graceful and never stiff, dynamic and never dull, soft where need be and sharp when called for. Do you want to illustrate a man's eyebrow? It's 3 bold swoops, short one down, big stoke up and arch down again to a point toward the ear. How do you convey the shine on wavy black hair? No problem! Page #3 of "Invitation to Heartbreak". The folds on a blazer with just the right amount of lines? Page #7 of "One Love Too Many!". How to pay your bills on an artists income? Page... OK! He can't solve all your problems! 
Johnnyboy (you may call him Mr. Romita. BTW, me letting go of a joke has as much chance as happening as an alligator letting go of your arm) famously went on to bring life to all the Marvel universe, but the noncostumed stories have been the ones I've gleamed the most from (by "gleam", myself and Roy Lichtenstein mean "trace")."

Chicago 1963, Everyone Loves A Parade!

Even Slappy the Clown can't keep

that frown for long when he's

in the middle of so much fun!

I found a flea market stack of mesmerizing colorful

50 year old Chicago parade photos from 1963.

I love the flowered floats and the

peeks behind them of Chicago in the 60s.

Highlights?

The Uptown Chamber of Commerce slogan of

"We Vacuum Our Streets (I'm often in Uptown, and I'm pretty

sure that service ended years ago),"

Mike McCarthy Lincoln/Mercury has a jet in a bottle

and the mouth watering liquor store's

8 foot high beer and tequila bottle display.

Entertainment abounds in the background

according to the movie theatre marquees.

Hitchcock's "The Birds" is playing at the

State and Lake, Sam Fuller's "Naked Kiss

 is at The Woods(?) and The Loop has

"A Merry Adult Romp 'Male Companion'

He Never Got Any Sleep"!

The Best Shoes EVER (that never were)!

The fine folks at T.U.K. Shoes sent me a batch of
"Salesman Samples" of M.O'C shoes that
never made it into production.
The world weeps.
But cheer up!
There are plenty of designs that DID get made…http://www.tukshoes.com/store/signatureseries/artist/Jer

Time to break out the winter clothes!

This is from about 3 years back.
I found these funny sweat pants that had
plaid "Juicy" lettering crudely sewn on the rear at the thrift store.
I had no idea Juicy was a brandname until my much more
hip daughter informed me (I believe the word "duh!"
was used during the informing).
So the story in my head is, the granddaughter begged
and pleaded for Juicy pants.
Grandma saw they were $140, and decided
it would be just as good if she handmade a pair.
So, brown sweats + a cut up dish towel = Happy Birthday!
Granddaughter opens gift, has an earth-shattering meltdown,
and they're donated to the Salvation Army the next day.
And that afternoon, a young man (me) with
a vision for a funny photo op, purchases 'em!
Photographer Kieran wouldn't allow me to pose in front of the house
(especially after I thought cutting off the bottom of my t-shirt
would make it even more hilarious), so we had to move to the
more secluded back yard. She took 3 pics while nervously
darting her eyes back and forth then declared "That's it!"
Just another day at the O'Connell household.

Big Eyed Party Kids!

In 2008 I helped put on the greatest
gallery show that ever was or ever will be,
"Tura! Tura! Tura!" a lovefest for icon Tura Satana.
Among the superstar artists that participated
as everyone's favorite master of the hip, Shag.
I loved his Tura painting, and after much begging,
he offered to trade if I would do a painting
of some drunk kids in exchange.
It only took me 5 years!

Cleveland Rocks!–

Good Times!
Thanks to everyone who made it out for the fun (https://www.facebook.com/events/1421999384694502/permalink/1427038354190605/)!
Even if you missed that night ANYTIME is great
to visit the cluster of fine shopping that is RE/Dress,
A Separate Reality and Kollective Tattoo.
Andrea Thornton knocked out some
beautiful M.O'C designed tattoos
(I give her full credit for the "beautiful" part)
and speaking of beautiful (I'm smooth),
Ava Adore, Carmen M’Knoxide and Ginger Rockwood
flattered me to no end by presenting hot 'n heavy
burlesque routines inspired by
characters from my tattoos!
The jam packed appreciative audience needed at least
45 minutes to recover from all that sensuality!
AND- Amy Payne gave me a tour of
all of Cleveland's varied thrift,
oddball collectible and tacky treasure shops,
but I found nothing to to add to my
personal museum off the tacky.
That is, until we went back to her own store!
I filled up the car with the weirdest wonders
of knick-nacks EVER
all from the best store EVER, a Separate Reality
(and you should too)!
Thank you Ohio!

The stars of the evening (and me)!

Andrea brings joy to Tim Harnett with
a "Live Fast Die Young" tattoo!
Here's wishing Tim a much longer life! 

I'm only posting pics from the beginning
of each burlesque routine. Later (more "adult")
photos are $12.95 for 5 by 7"'s and $18.95 for 8 by 10''s.
Contact me for availability.

Ginger sends the crowd into outer space!

Don't be Hatin'!
There's only one Mitch O'Connell.
Deal with it.

Amy Payne was kind enough to let us stay at her
digs during our Cleveland stay.
This is the beautiful view in the guest room that lulled me off to sleep.
If that decorating is not to your liking,
just open the door and they're hidden from view!
fyi- Amy, concerning the art on the floor(!),
you can get 16 by 20" frames at
Michael's Craft for about $8 each.

If you're anywhere near Ohio,
do yourself a favor and stop at-https://www.facebook.com/PsychedelicSeparateReality

Shopping at A Separate Reality!

There's a horrible (aka great) painting that I left on the wall
(and will have to return for),
but here are a few things we took home
from the #1 tourist destination of Ohio!

Fun Facts!

2678 West 14th Stret
Tremont City, Ohio 44113
12:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Phone (216) 644-7934
Email vinagekity@yahoo.com

Record store, Vintage Oddities and collectables.
We buy your vinyl records, vintage clothing,
oddities, taxidermy and more!

A lovely example of the
horrors of Big-Eyed children.

This is the Alyson section of the shopping cart.
Obviously no where near tasteless enough for me.

The 36 other ceramic hung-over
dogs I have by the bar now have a new friend!

The crown jewel of the lot,
a 30lb stone life-size poodle on a pillow.
Why do I need this?
Do you realize how silly you sound
even asking that question?