Zorthian, Jirayr Hamparzoom (34361495): Difference between revisions

His first marriage, to the shaving-cream heiress Betty Williams, ended in divorce, but it left him the first acres of the ranch in Altadena, California, where he lived from 1945 until his death. He turned the ranch into what he called "The Center for Research and Development with an Emphasis on Aesthetics", building rental houses, rock walls, towers, bridges, and walkways from telephone poles, railroad ties, and salvaged junk, painting in his studio, and breeding horses. With his second wife, Dabney (1933–2006), he lived largely self-sufficiently, raising livestock, goats, vegetables, and chickens. He chaired the Pasadena Art Fair in 1954 and 1955 and showed his work at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1953. His paintings, mostly of nudes, sold for tens of thousands of dollars, but he was at least as famous in Southern California for his bohemian life: a July 1952 party at the ranch featured Charlie Parker, and in his last decade he hosted springtime birthday parties as "Zor-Bacchus". His friends included Parker, Andy Warhol, and Richard Feynman, whom he met at a party where Feynman played bongos; the two tried to teach each other art and physics, as Feynman recounted in ''Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'', and Zorthian's lessons led Feynman to draw for the rest of his life. Zorthian died of congestive heart failure on 6 January 2004. Most of his archived artwork was destroyed when the Eaton Fire burned the ranch in January 2025.

== Gallery ==

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