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A charismatic man with a handlebar mustache, an organ and a monkey is how this story starts. Joe Bush led an amazingly full life. As a teen he joined the Army and served in Germany, returning home he settled in New Jersey where he fostered his passion for the game of softball and playing the bass guitar. Both hobbies served him well: softball up until his mid-70s and playing his bass every Monday night up until two weeks before he passed. In addition to his company, Monkey Joe’s Big Nut Co., perhaps Joe’s most interesting lifelong career was that of an Organ Grinder.
In the early 1970s, as a cameraman for Channel 10 News, Joe’s lush mustache had grown to the point of curling at the corners and his friends teased him about looking like an organ grinder. Organ grinders had been banned in New York in 1935 by then Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, but the ban was lifted in 1970. Serendipity?
After purchasing his first Capuchin monkey named George, Joe’s persistence and George’s charm led to success. As one of the last organ grinders in NY, Joe and both partners (George l and George ll) went on to entertain at the White House, David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. Joe also made appearances with a host of celebrities, and his last commercial job was a movie titled Cabrini which was filmed in Buffalo, NY, and recently released in theaters.
Browse this sale to discover MCM furniture, a Milo Baughman “Racetrack” chrome table, a pair of Eames style leather chairs and vintage lighting all installed by their interior designer when Joe and his wife bought their home in 1974. Plus several vintage Fender bass guitars, drums, keyboards, speakers and audio equipment galore, a Harley Davidson XL1200, motorcycle leathers, neon signs and so much more.
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