Douglas Heller describes the synergy between himself and Paul Hollister. Oral history interview with Douglas Heller, September 7, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:40.
Douglas Heller: Paul was a character extraordinaire, you know. I mean, he was obviously extremely knowledgeable, but he was also very quirky and both myself and my partner were very quirky. We were not like the antique dealers that we would meet at the show, they were also idiosyncratic people, but different, you know. So Josh was six foot four with a big beard, he was—he had been an art director at Ted Bates art agency, he followed the dictum of Tim Leary, and tuned in and dropped out, you know. And we were involved in a lot of interesting explorations during that time. I had long hair—not as crazy as Josh, you know, and beard—but we were not your usual Madison Avenue dealers and I’m sure they were people, who opened the door, took a peek in, and said: ‘Whoop, wrong place,’ you know, and went out. But Paul Hollister, while he looked very mainstream, conservative, sort of Ivy League, you know—he was conservatively dressed in tweed, always proper and clean-shaven and short hair, you know, and extremely erudite and knowledgeable, but he was, as I said, an extreme character, and I think there was a synergy and an attraction in the personalities. Yes, he was interested in glass and that was unusual, too. And then, you know, he was interested in history. So that made it an enriched relationship, it was a lot of fun because of that.