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★ ★ ★THE FIRST Annual Home Show, currently being presented nightly at Fair Park Coliseum by The Avalanche-Joumal and several score Lubbock firms, has many wonders to catch the eye of the homeowner and the home-maker. Separate and apart, however, fromhome-making per se is the amazing collection of carvings calledthe Potvin Exhibition,The Potvin Exhibition is '‘something extra/' insofar as the Home Show is concerned. It is one of numerous side features to catch ' the interest and entertain the visitors. It consists of a half-dozen or more large scenes, all fashioned with pocket knives during the more than half century of carving done by the late Moise Potvin. H i s animated, life-long figures — with everything on an intricate scale— are little short of amazing.The truth is, they lack description. They have to be seen to be understood and appreciated.★ ★ ★A man by the name of Ralph Del Ray owns the Potvin Exhibition.He makes all home shows over the nation which are under the direction of Carl Olson. a professional in the field with whom The Avalanche-Journal arranged to put on this year’s show here.Mr, Del Ray makes no setcharge for viewing the wonders of the Potvin Exhibition, here, or anywhere else. In fact, most of the hundreds of thousands of people who see it— from one end of the U. S. to the other—each year see itfor free. Those who wish, make a donation.Therefore, it is interesting that Mr. Del Ray makes expenses in all but five of the big city shows each year: New York, Chicago, Detroit. Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada.But on those Big Five he makes his profit.The profit, incidentally, is ahandsome return on his investment, worth more than $300,000. not including traveling, shipping and other normal expenses.• 'Jr -ifT WAS only last year that El Rancho, a gambling-night spot in Las Vegas, Nev., offered Mr.Del Ray a flat $300,000 in cash for the Potvin Exhibition. Mr. Del Ray said No. thanks.” and wisely so. lie makes a very' good scratch j racli year out of the exhibition j and it never will be worth any | less. Therefore, there’s no sense in selling, at least until he’s ready to quit traveling.As usual in these cases, themar. who made these marvelouscarvings and 60 fine, handsome violins. to boot, got relatively little for his wizardry. The truth is that Moise Potvin, who died in 194S, barely scraped out a living for his wife and 12 children during his lifetime. Shortly before he died of a lingering illness, he called on Del Ray, an old friend, and put his treasures in the latter’s hands. Taking a flier in the hope of coming out—he had no idea how the nexhibitions would do. financially— JDel Ray made a deal with Potvin ‘ -under which the family is welltaken care of, and Del Ray gets tire rest.The exhibits are the only ones of their kind in the wide, wideworld and have beer shown in every major city in this countryard many abroad.By themselves, they are worth driving many times the distance between any point in Lubbock and the Fair Park Coliseum.★ ★ ★f fill U ^ fll*l AIaahTit
Newspaper Details
Lubbock Evening Journal
Lubbock, Texas, US
Wed, Mar 16, 1955
Page 30
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 13 Nov 2022
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