My Grandfather:
'The Prince Of Ballyhoo'
About C. J. "Jack" De Garis by his grandson Richard "Rick" De Garis Doble
He was a tireless promoter of his company, Sun-Raysed dried fruits,
which he combined with his writing, publishing, and theatrical interests.
Respected entrepreneur Claude Kingston described CJ affectionately
as the 'prince of ballyhoo'.
as the 'prince of ballyhoo'.
"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
William Faulkner
This blog is about the human experience of time.
One of those experiences is about events from the past
suddenly appearing in the present and causing things to change.
One of those experiences is about events from the past
suddenly appearing in the present and causing things to change.
It was like an earthquake,
like a tear in my personal space-time
A hundred-year-old history
I knew nothing about
opened up a chasm
and a new understanding of my life
An email from a biographer in Australia
had asked about my mother
Why, I wondered?
She was the favorite daughter
of your grandfather
Clement John De Garis
known as "Jack"
he said
For perhaps a decade
while my mother was growing up
CJ had been in the Australian spotlight
with his exploits of flying across the continent
while publishing a daily newspaper
and writing musicals and short stories
Four feet eleven inches tall
he managed a dried fruit company
known as "Sun-Raysed"
and was well respected as an entrepreneur
CJ was always thinking of new ways to promote his business.
In this case, it was sheet music for a Sun-Raysed waltz
In this case, it was sheet music for a Sun-Raysed waltz
But all of this collapsed
which caused him to try to disappear
when he faked his own death
and then later committed suicide in 1926
But for my mother the abandonment
had begun three years earlier
at age 13
when he had divorced my grandmother
Years later, in 1935, she would try to disappear
and leave for London
hoping to distance herself
from her famous father's demise
but also to hide the past
from herself
There, in London, working as a
developer at Kodak
she met my father in 1939
With war about to break out
he took her back to the United States
and they were married
But after a tumultuous union
that resulted in decades-long litigation,
they never understood
what had brought them together
Both of them suffered from
what is now called PTSD
Theirs was not just a sudden trauma
but one that lingered on
for years
my father was a prisoner in WWI
and my mother was forced to watch the tragedy
of her father slowly unfold
while she was relegated to the sidelines
When I had asked my mother
about her father,
the answer had always been vague
"he was flamboyant but he died of suicide"
And that was all she would ever say
before she changed the subject
What I now understand is that
my parents' trauma is what they had in common
that it brought them together
and it drove them apart
And I also began to relive moments
with my mother
when I assumed her distant demeanor
was due to her proper English upbringing
as she had me believe
and not a door from the past
that she had permanently shut
She was loving but removed
not cold but not warm
seemingly in control
yet angrily taking my father to court
for more than twenty years
although their marriage had only lasted eight
What, I wondered, might have happened
if they had shared their traumas
and realized that what they had experienced
was similar
and that for two such people to find each other
was unique?
But my Dad was the emotional one
and my mother reserved
she probably saw his open feelings
as a kind of weakness
one that she had learned to master
In a later email
the Australian biographer
noted that my mother's two other
sisters had married men with the name of 'John'
CJ's middle name
but not Jack as he was generally called
yet my mother had not,
as my Dad's name was Enoch
When I got this email
I almost laughed
no one called my father Enoch
they all called him
Jack
____________________________________________
AFTERWORD
ABOUT MY POEMS:
This free verse poem will be in the updated 2nd edition of my autobiography in poetry entitled:
Living My Life As an Artist, an Autobiography:
True Stories of Art, Love, Family & the Creative Process Told in Poetic Form
You can download the first edition (free) at:
OR
This book of poems is a full autobiography in poetry from age four to my current age. I believe it is the only such work in the English language.
ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR POEM:
Every so often a work has a life of its own. That was the case with this poem. Around the 15th of August, I began hearing lines from this poem and a sense of a general outline about how the story should be told in my particular free verse poetic style. But it was only after I had finished writing that I reread his biography and realized that he had died on August 17.
MORE ABOUT
Clement John ("Jack") de Garis
(some publications use a small de some do not)
Officiating at de Garis’ funeral, the Rev Charles Tregear said;
“Today we are laying to rest the body of no ordinary man. I will alter that, and say he was a most extraordinary man, a man with brains, wonderful vision, courage, and business ability. But behind it all, he was a kindly and good man”.
Brighton General Cemetery
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
C. J. De Garis
De Garis, Clement John (Jack) (1884–1926)
The daily newspaper he founded more than 100 years ago still publishes today:
Sunraysia Daily
Sunraysia Daily celebrates its 100th birthday
The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. Your Grandfather lives on in you. I still have photos of yours from NC I live on the Washington coast now and love it.
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