Normanology, Part Two

Part Two

Norman's aesthetics were refined, he was quite the connoisseur in fact, in many fields. His collections were vast, if not varied, but there were themes. He collected:

Records: if it was all punked up, it was in there. Rough, fast and rude, loud, offensive. Not just the usual suspects like the Velvet Underground, the Dolls, the Stooges, the Sonics, or Link Wray, but little surprises like Davie Allan and the Arrows, and early Bob Seegar (era of “Ramblin’, Gamblin’ Man”), and also lots of big surprises, bands none of us had ever heard of. He liked Fifties lounge music, the kind with Hawaiian guitars and Hula dancers at sunset on the cover. He also had a gentle side. He was an expert in German Trance music, American amateur electronica, and movie soundtracks. He loved especially Henry Mancini and Enio Moriconne.

Film Posters: specifically, Science Fiction film posters from the 1950’s. He had almost everything, his want list was down to some real obscurities and better examples of things he already owned. He had a rotating display of these at his residence. He would only put up something that he had a complete set of, poster (large), one-sheets (small posters, two) and lobby-cards (all eight); often he had some of the European posters as well. Could be, “This Island Earth,” or even “Forbidden Planet.” The stuff was still cheap then.

Pornography: mostly concerning fat girls, very, very fat girls. Norman was a “Chubby Chaser” (sometimes derogatorily referred to as a “Fold Fucker”). At the time of his death, he was living with his girlfriend of some years, a sweet woman who weighed more than 500 pounds. They made quite a couple. He was also fond of the raw but now strangely innocent stuff from the Fifties, pin-ups like Bettie Page, eight and sixteen millimeter movies. For pin-ups, he preferred women who were heavily made up and seemingly unattainable.

He brought the entire treasure trove with him to California.