[Feynman, R.P.]

A BUST OF RICHARD FEYNMAN SAID TO HAVE BEEN DISPLAYED IN GIANONNI'S, HIS FAVORITE HAUNT

When he wasn't lecturing on Quantum Mechanics and the laws of Physics at his beloved Cal Tech, one of Richard Feynman's most infamous hangout spots was Gianonni's in the Pasadena/Altadena area, a topless bar where there 'was always something going on in the afternoon,' according to Feynman's friend, Richard Sherman. In No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman, Sherman recalls:

"We'd walk in and grab a table. Feynman knew everybody there - all the ladies, Gianonni the owner, and anybody who was a regular. He would go behind the bar and pick up an orange juice, because he never drank anything alcoholic. He would also grab a half-inch stack of those paper doilies, or placemats they put down on the tables in restaurants and come back to the table. We would continue doing physics, or we might watch the ladies dancing on the stage."

(No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman)

Gianonni's was one of Feynman's favorite hangouts, and it seems that their placemats were one of his preferred items on which to work out whatever physics problems were occupying his mind at the moment. In his own words:

"There was a period when there were topless restaurants in town: You could go there for lunch or dinner, and the girls would dance without a top, and after a while without anything. One of these places, it turned out, was only a mile and a half away from my house, so I went there very often. I'd sit in one of the booths and work a little physics on the paper placemats with the scalloped edges, and sometimes I'd draw one of the dancing girls or one of the customers, just to practice." (Richard Feynman, "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!", p. 309)

As nudes were a favorite subject of Feynman, Gianonni's and his rotating cast of comely performers provided a playground of inspiration for the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was never truly "off-duty" - Sherman later remembers finding a stack of those placemats he used in Feynman's home where "every one of them was covered from one edge to the other with mathematical computations and theoretical physics!"  

The present lot is said to have been displayed in Gianonni's for years in honor of their famous regular. Upon the bar's closure, it was then offered to Dr. Joan Feynman. A particularly good likeness of the famous physicist, who was a talented artist in his own right, this bust serves both as a striking portrait and reminder of the colorful life he led.