guy on bus

Reinhold was a dear friend, one of my closest friends. I always enjoyed his company.    Lou Zelie

Self Portrait by Reiny Marxhausen,
oil painting, signed December 12, 1947

Stanley Bielecky was the art instructor that had Reiny as an art student 1947-1948 at Valparaiso University. (courtesy of 1948 Beacon yearbook, page 21)

Theodore Hoelty-Nickel directed the smaller Valpo choir Reiny and Lou Zeile were in. (courtesy of 1948 Beacon yearbook)

Oh. I remember there was a one day excursion bus trip to a small town in South Michigan. Your dad and I were in the choir from Valpo. It wasn’t the big choir, the smaller one. Dr. Theodore Hoelty-Nickel was the director. Marx was the entertainment of the bus. He picked up the newspaper and decided he was going the read off the movies to the bus riders. It was classic Marxhausen. Very funny.

I told him we should stop off at his apartment. He told me, “I’m across from the twitching pig.” There was a store in Valpo that had a bright neon sign of a twitching pig.

 

Well, we arrived at his apartment and I got to see his work. There was art all over the place, his easel. So next, he asked me if I wanted a beer and I said “sure.” He disappeared out back and came in with a muddy one quart bottle of beer. He said he did not have a refrigerator, so he buried in the ground to keep it cool.                     Lou Zeile

 

people, instructors, sports sketches by Reiny 1947

Marx did a sketchpad of people at the bar. In appreciation for the drawing, they would send over a round of drinks to us. A night when nothing else was going on. Stiles Service. We’d play pool. There was a pool table downtown Valpo across from the courthouse.       Lou Zeile

 

Sketch of pool hall by Reinhold Marxhausen 1947 (above) Photo of pool hall courtesy of Lou Zeile (below)

We would go into the grocery store to buy carrots and celery before going to a movie. Disrupting people watching the movie with all our crunching and munching...... He’d make remarks at the grocery, like: “Look at the beauty of that cabbage."  Lou Zeile

Marx lent an element of humor to my life!!

        Lou Zelie

Lou Zeile 1948 Stiles Service

• Valpo photos courtesy of Valparaiso University Digital Collections, www.collections.valpo.edu, accessed May 17, 2016.

• Self Portrait, Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen painting, courtesy of Concordia University, Art Archives, Seward, Nebraska.

• Photos of Reinhold Marxhausen on tall bicycle courtesy of Marxhausen Estate.  Excerpts from conversations with Lou Zeile, property of Karl Marxhausen, 2016