I'll never forget Charlie....

In the mid eighties I answered an ad in a photographic journal I subscribed to from Techno Balcar looking for a rep for their line of photographic equipment. They were based out of Chicago and wanted a rep for Missouri and Arkansas. They flew me to Chicago for training and my immediate supervisor was Charlie Moore. Charlie was about my age and looked to be Italian. We hit it off and I completed the training. Balcar made very sophisticated equipment meant for the true Professional Photographer. Very pricy equipment but it was worth the money. While them I was flown back to Chicago to help them cover Chi-Caribe a celebration for the media producers in Chicago. Models, suppliers, photographers, ad agencies, designers, anyone of notation within the Chicago area was there. It was a grand time and Tecno was photographing attendees and giving them 8 x 10 Polaroid prints. Charlie and I got one together.

Techno was sold to another supplier and my tenure with them was ended. It was a real shame as I had to return $ 100,000 worth of equipment they gave me to use and demonstrate to clients with. Part of the job was to demo the products at different shows. One was in Kansas City and I was responsible for my own accommodations. I took Motel Six close to the Missouri River as the Show was across the river and M6 was much cheaper that the hotel that housed the convention. Charlie had all of the ingredients for the hospitality room Techno was hosting and I had a six pack in my room. I had a car so I picked Charlie up as we were going to dinner at one of the KC steak Houses on the Plaza We decided to have a beer before we ate so we stopped by by room to get one. I pulled in about the same time a mud strewn Cadillac pulled in and three guys hopped out in Bib overalls. Reaching for the door handle in the car I started to get out. Charlie grabbed me and said STOP !! I looked at him and he had a look of terror in his face. I said "what's going on ??? Morgan you have to change hotels !! he replied. With a look of confusion I said "WTF Charlie...?? He asked if I had seen the guys get out of the car. I said "Yes"...He replied..."Didn't you see the overalls ??? I said" Yes"........."They're Rednecks Morgan......They may start something....MOVE OUT !!! " I was astounded....I explained to him that people in rural America have all at one time or another have owned one or more pairs of Bibs to work in.....don't be concerned. We got out of the car went into the room had a beer and went to eat. 

Techno closed and Charlie then started an apartment rehab business and was doing well and then had a cardiac surprise at almost killed him. He called after he got out of the hospital and gave me an update. The heart attack ended his rehab career but he then became a guide at night for the Observatory on the lakeshore and loved it. 

I got an assignment from the National Funeral Directors to create a multi-image slide show introducing Chicago to their attendees. I called Charlie explaining that I needed to show all parts of the city and some cemeteries to be included. I asked him to guide me through the city. I used Carl Sandburg writings as a basis for giving the city a personality of an old man. The show started with the morning light and ended with dusk into night. My nephew Tim Putnam created a terrific music background for the narration. Charlie and I covered the city in a day and decided to hit some Jazz clubs after dinner. We got back to his apartment about three in the morning and were pretty wound up after the day of shooting. 

I noticed a large photo album on his living room table and started to thumb through it. There were pictures of different black families, Charlie as a kid, his brothers and sisters, and as I was looking the asked me if I knew he was black. I said no, but so what ! He then started to tell me a little family history. He was what his family called high yellow....evidently meaning light skinned. I frankly told him that I thought he might have been Italian. In the conversation we had he told me one thing I had never considered.... the difference between being in the Minority and Majority. Charlie decided several years before that he needed to trace his family history which led him to take a trip to Africa. He said he found a tribe that he thought his ancestors came from and was pleased. He did say that for the first time in his life he was in the racial majority and he had NEVER been there before. 

Be low are two photographs Charlie and I at the Chi Caribe in an 8 x 10 polaroid and Charlie in one of the cemetery shots. Looking back...how much it says about the future. I got a call from one of the former employees of Techno telling me that Charlie had passed.....

He had a heart attack in the observatory and died. The Chicago Tribune ran an article on him with the Byline....Master of the Universe has passed......

Charlie was just a great guy and good friend.

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