Page 30 - October1997

212 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN October 1997

BUTTOI\ BITS bVE ATA.NC LOCKiC

I I recently visited The Button Store in Los Angeles, where costume
designers get buttons for many of Hollywood's blockbuster movies and
television shows. Store owner Or-nid Hashemi says, however, that his
best customer is a parrot named Syd. Syd goes through his owners'
closet at home and chews off the buttons on their clothes, frequently
breaking the buttons. Syd's owners replace their buttons at The Button
Store. They also bring Syd to the store twice a month to pick out his
own buttons where Syd is "like a kid in a candy store!"

I How many of you have read O. Henry's shorl story, "A Municipal
Report'?" Caryl Beck in Goose Lake, IA, shares with us that a button the
size of a half-dollar and made of yellow horn plays a pivotal role in this
delightful story.

I Joan Helton in San Diego, CA sent in a tidbit she saw on PBS television
recently: Jack Paar. the famous talk show host, overcame a speech
impedirnent quickly by practicing his speech with buttons in his rnouth.
At age sixteen he became one ofthe youngest radio announcers in the
United States. The buttons he used were fi'om his rnother's button box in
the basement of their home in Cleveland.

I Lapel buttons served a clandestine purpose for Freemasons in Germany.
In the 1930's after Hitler's rise to power. masonry was forced
underground. The Masons used lapel buttons in the shape of forget-me-
not flowers on them as their rneans of identification.

I This good advice is from Sandra Mary Foster, President of the
Australian Button Collectors Society: "As you travel through life my
friend; keep your eye upon the button. and not upon the hole."
Ellaroine is v'riting o button./blklore book and is looking.fbr nnre nuteriul. If .t'otr
have an anecdote, pleuse send it to her at 627 Templelon Ct., Sunnyvalc, CA 910B7.