Michael Dormer or Michael Henry Dashwood Dormer (Hollywood, California, 1935 - 2012) was an American fine artist, writer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and creator of the 1960s TV show Shrimpenstein.
Michael Dormer or Michael Henry Dashwood Dormer (Hollywood, California, 1935 - 2012) was an American fine artist, writer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and creator of the 1960s TV show Shrimpenstein.
A childhood protégé of artist Louis Geddes, Dormer took first prize in a National Fire Prevention poster contest at age 12. Dormer studied art at San Diego State College and Chouinard Art Institute. [1] At 18 Dormer was working in art full-time.
In 1957 Dormer established a painting studio in La Jolla and moonlighted as a part-time night club comic and jazz poet at the Pour House, a cabaret in Bird Rock. He also published an art and poetry magazine, titled Scavenger.
In 1968 Dormer painted his first aluminum piece; a technique he developed, which has never been used by any other artist. These pieces are part of private collections across the globe. His vast body of work includes his mid-century Crankshaft series, an extensive collection of nudes, oils, watercolors, sculpture, intricate pencil drawings, charcoals, and murals.
Dormer, with his lifelong friend and collaborator, Lee Teacher, created a counter-culture sculpture Hot Curl, [2] a 400-pound (180 kg) concrete statue, and installed it on the rocks near the surf shack at Windansea Beach in La Jolla in San Diego, California. The sculpture of a mop-haired, 6-foot-tall (1.8 m), knobby-kneed surfer gazed out at the sea with a beer in his hand. The pot-bellied surf god quickly became a nationwide sensation, appearing in SurfToons comics and as a plastic model kit, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Today, Hot Curl appears regularly in Surfer magazine.
In 1964 Dormer's artwork was featured in the opening credits of Muscle Beach Party , which featured the first film appearance of Hot Curl [3] and “Little” Stevie Wonder. He also doubled as a talent scout for that film and subsequent surf films, recruiting actual surfers and surfer girls off the beaches of La Jolla to serve as extras. [4]
In 1963 Dormer and Teacher created and launched Shrimpenstein, an off-beat children's television show which aired live weekdays on Channel 9 in Los Angeles. The program, which featured a miniature Frankenstein monster, brought to life when his creator, Dr. Von Schtick, accidentally dropped a bag of jelly beans in his monster machine. The wacky adventures of the little monster, and his eccentric pals, enchanted, with double entendre, and wit fit for children and adults, grew a great following. Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack sought out Dormer to tell him they never missed an episode.
In the early 1970s Dormer and his wife Flicka lived in Florence, Italy. While there, Dormer began experimenting with holographic photography. The City of Florence later used his methods as an aid in restoring artworks. [1]
Dormer lived in Ocean Beach in San Diego, California.
Michael Dormer died at home in Ocean Beach, San Diego, California on 10 September 2012.
Pacific Beach is a neighborhood in San Diego, bounded by La Jolla to the north, Mission Beach and Mission Bay to the south, Interstate 5 to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. While formerly largely populated by young people, surfers, and college students, because of rising property and rental costs the population is gradually becoming older and more affluent. "P.B.," as it is known as by local residents, is home to one of San Diego's more developed nightlife scenes, with a great variety of bars, eateries, and clothing stores located along Garnet Avenue and Mission Boulevard.
Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,324 at the 2010 census. The city is the southernmost city in California and the West Coast of the United States. It is in the South Bay area of San Diego County, 14.1 miles (22.7 km) south of downtown San Diego and 5 miles (8 km) northwest of downtown Tijuana, Mexico.
La Jolla is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying 7 miles (11 km) of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time.
Ocean Beach is a beach on the west coast of San Francisco, California, United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. It is adjacent to Golden Gate Park, the Richmond District, and the Sunset District. The Great Highway runs alongside the beach, and the Cliff House and the site of the former Sutro Baths sit at the northern end. The beach is a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is administered by the National Park Service.
Black's Beach is a secluded section of beach beneath the bluffs of Torrey Pines on the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States. It is officially part of Torrey Pines State Beach. The northern portion of Black's Beach is owned and managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, while the southern portion of the beach, officially known as Torrey Pines City Beach, is jointly owned by the city of San Diego and the state park, but is managed by the city of San Diego. This distinction is important as Black's Beach is most known as a nude beach, a practice that is now prohibited in the southern portion managed by the city of San Diego.
Torrey Pines State Beach is a public beach located in the San Diego, California community of Torrey Pines, south of Del Mar and north of La Jolla. Coastal erosion from the adjacent Torrey Pines State Reserve makes for a picturesque landscape. It is a local favorite among surfers and remains a quintessential Southern California beach. Occurrences of bioluminescence in the waters near the beach have been noted.
Charles M. Van Artsdalen was a surfer. He moved to La Jolla, California, from his birthplace of Norfolk, Virginia, at age 14. Van Artsdalen is best known as a pioneer of surfing 25-foot waves at such North Shore locations as Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach; and tube riding in Hawaii during the early 1960-1970s. A member of the Duke Kahanamoku Surf Team, he appeared in several surf movies and remained a fixture of the international surfing community until his death from alcohol-related illness in 1979.
Windansea Beach is a stretch of coastline located in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. The neighborhood adjacent to the beach is named Windansea after the beach. It is named after the 1909 oceanfront Strand Hotel that was renamed "Windansea" Hotel in 1919 after the owner Arthur Snell ran a "naming contest". The Windansea Hotel which was located on Neptune Avenue between Playa del Sur and Playa del Norte burned down in 1943. Geographically, it is defined by the beachfront extending north of Palomar Avenue and south of Westbourne Street.
Surf art is visual art about or related to the sport of surfing, waves, and the culture that surrounds beaches.
Bill Andrews (1944-2017) was a surfer, documentary photographer/videographer, and archivist. During his daily reportage of modern surf culture, Andrews archived over 20,000 surf-related photographs and videos. His work can be seen on the online chronicle "A Day with BA" and on youtube.
Hot Curl is a cartoon character created in 1963 by Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.
Kelsey Ross Brookes is an artist who resides in San Diego, California. He is associated with RVCA, Pictures On Walls in London, Lazarides Gallery in London, as well as a number of other ongoing projects.
Roman de Salvo(born 1965) is a contemporary American conceptual artist who creates sculpture and installation art.
Marine Street Beach is a public beach located in the community of La Jolla in San Diego, California, on the Pacific Ocean. It sits at the western terminus of Marine Street, with Children's Pool Beach to the north and Windansea Beach to the south. The surf has been described as rough and not suitable for children. However, the rough surf has made the beach popular with surfers and bodyboarders. Nearby kelp beds host marine life making the area a popular dive spot.
Kevin A. Short is an American painter and printmaker, recognized for his modern landscapes of the Pacific Coast and American Southwest. He is considered an integral observer and portrayer of the surfing subculture there. His use of heavy brushstrokes and vivid pigments are a recognizable trademark of his painting style.
San Diego Surf is a 1968 feature film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, and filmed in La Jolla, California in May 1968. On June 3, 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, bringing work on the film to a halt. In 1996, the Andy Warhol Foundation commissioned Morrissey to "finish editing the film based on Warhol's notes".
Bird Rock is a seaside neighborhood within the larger community of La Jolla in San Diego, California. It lies on the Pacific Ocean at the southernmost end of La Jolla, just north of Pacific Beach. The mostly residential neighborhood includes homes for 1,400 to 1,500 families, with a commercial district along the main street, La Jolla Boulevard. The shore is rocky and has no beach, but offshore reefs are used for surfing.
Anthony Friedkin is an American photographer whose works have chronicled California's landscapes, cities and people. His topics include phenomena such as surf culture, prisons, cinema, and gay culture. Friedkin’s photographs have been exhibited in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. His photographs are included in major Museum collections: New York's Museum of Modern Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum and others. He is represented in numerous private collections as well. His pictures have been published in Japan, Russia, Europe, and many Fine Art magazines in America.
"Surfin' U.S.A." is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys credited to Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson. It is a rewritten version of Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" set to new lyrics penned by Wilson and an uncredited Mike Love. The song was released as a single on March 4, 1963, backed with "Shut Down". It was then placed as the opening track on their album of the same name.