Rediscovering the Wyses

I came across something remarkable today, when idly googling a few people I used to know. First, a bit of background information. My first job with any real responsibility was with a remainder book company in Berkeley, owned by Matt Wyse, who also owned two local bookstores, Pellucidar and Pendragon, and soon thereafter opened a third, Pegasus. Matt and his common-law wife Karen had been free spirits in the '60s who had taken to capitalism with great enthusiasm by the '70s. They, and many of their employees, were very colorful people.

Matt was (is) a gentlemanly fellow of some personal elegance, inspiring affection in his employees in part, I would have to say, because he always took the "good cop" role -- he took full credit for all of his "happy" decisions and hid behind his Board of Directors for the not-so-happy ones. He ate as many of his meals out as possible and had impeccable taste in restaurants. His favorite work responsibility was going to New York City to hobnob with the publishers and buy interesting lots of remaindered and "hurt" (distressed) books, which he would sell in his bookstores and also on those remainder tables that are ever present in drug stores, college bookstores, etc. His personal tastes tended towards the macabre and occult, but he had a good eye for what others would want to buy as well.

Karen was (is) a physically small woman but very intense and theatrical, with her presence dominating every room. She dressed in long, flowing robes, with scarves wrapped around her head and great bangles of jewelry. In her vintage clothing store, Bizarre Bazaar, it was rumored that the sales staff was not allowed to let anyone leave the store without making some purchase, however small. She was a close friend of Berkeley food guru Alice Waters, who is now internationally famous for her restaurant philosophy (she owns Chez Panisse) and many cookbooks. (I remember once Karen confided that Alice liked to take baths, and since she herself did not, it seemed very odd to her that Alice should do so.)

Before I worked for them, they had had a big house in the Berkeley flatlands, which was known for its hospitality, with employees and other friends coming and going at all hours. By the early '80s, though, they had bought a house in Orinda, a wealthy little town just over the Berkeley Hills. There they lived with their two rather assertive ocelots (I would much rather not have a cat that large take my wrist in its mouth, thank you very much) and their ardently pursued hobbies. The interior of the house was disorientingly mind-boggling, with every inch of wall space covered with color and texture: strands of beads, exotic art, and the paintings and drawings of developmentally disabled people the artistic Karen worked with. Matt had a separate, smaller, house in the back for his own collections, including a vast library and a great many toys and full-sized old-fashioned arcade games.

And this is where we come to today's Google discoveries. Karen's house has been featured on at least two television shows, I have learned, and here are some pictures. Matt, on the other hand, is now famous in his own right. Look at this:



Matt's toy robot collection sold at Sotheby's auction house in 1996 for $379,206! The auction catalog is now considered the authoritative reference guide to toy robots, too. Wow!

In other news, what do Queen Victoria, Bob Dylan, and my late cat Mugwump have in common? Today is their birthday.