The Continuing Mystery of Brad Keeler and Art Bronze

Recently I learned where the John G. Bullock bronze bust wound up: a Macy's in Pasadena which has been kept in its original condition from when it first opened as a Bullock's in 1947. I don't know when, but at some point the Bullock bust moved from the Los Angeles Wilshire Bullock's to this Pasadena on Lake Ave one, where it sits along the wall in a hallway toward the restrooms in the basement.

Now knowing where it is, I couldn't resist the urge to go find it and see it in person. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see the signature on the back but I figured I could get up close and personal with it, at the very least. Which I did. 

Of course I posed with it. I tried to replicate my grandfather's pose, but a) I'm shorter, and b) the bust is on a higher table, so most of the results look like me on my tippy toes straining to put my elbow on his head. This was the closest approximation I could get in a semi-relaxed pose. 

Further, I was able to (gently, gingerly) pull the bust away from the wall enough to see the signature on the back! This was super exciting because it was confirmation of what I believed I already knew. 

It's a little hard to read, but it says, "Keeler Art Bronze Fndy". This was a thrill, because my mom remembers seeing the signature when she was a young woman shopping for a bridesmaid's dress for her middle brother's second wedding, to Auntie Judy, with Grandma Catherine at that Bullock's in Downtown Los Angeles. 

But here's the twist: On the way home, I decided to run a google search of "Keeler Art Bronze" to see if that might bring up other works he was involved with, and what I found was surprising indeed. 

Research on my family connection to the Oscars led me to learn more about Guido Nelli, the first bronze foundry to cast the original Oscars. Well, Nelli happened to have a partner. His name was Fred E. Keeler. Keeler was a partner in Nelli's California Art Bronze Foundry and he had his own: Keeler Art Bronze Foundry. I know these things because of archives on the web.

The Gilcrease Museum, aka the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is home to the archives of the Charles M. Russell research collection. In this collection are documents outlining a relationship between Russell, a sculptor, and Nelli and Keeler, the bronze foundry where Russell's sculptures were cast. Where Keeler is mentioned, he is named as the Keeler Art Bronze Foundry. 

Coincidence? Did Brad, working for Phillips, just happen to give his work the same exact name? Or is there another piece of the puzzle I have yet to uncover?

My first thought was somehow that Fred Keeler might be a relative, but if he is, it's not clear or direct. My family tree on Ancestry has no one in it named Fred, and Fred's has none of the same distant family that I would expect to find. There are no Rufuses, for instance, and no Josiah. But he does go way back to the Keeler Tavern in Connecticut. So even assuming for a minute that there is some genetic connection, there's no evidence that the two men knew each other. But, weirdly coincidental, Fred Keeler also was involved in ceramics. He ran Empire China in Burbank. There is even a Keeler Street. And, later, he became the founder of the now infamous Lockheed Aircraft Company. 

I am so confused! 

If it weren't for the family photographs, I would have attributed this bust to Fred Keeler's short-lived Keeler Art Bronze Foundry. But I have the pictures to prove my grandfather's involvement. So there remains the mystery. 

Did Brad work for Fred, too? Did Fred and Rae Warren Phillips work together too? There is that Oscars connection, the brief contract that moved from Nelli to Phillips in 1935. 

Clearly there is more research to do. I'll leave you with this clipping announcing the launch of the unveiling of the bust, naming the sculpters as Holger and Helen Jensen.