Remembering Avala

[Chris G.]

Hi all

Some of the long-time Ripper board and chat room frequenters might remember Avala (Stanoje). I heard a couple of months ago from Carole Melis from Vermont that Avala had passed away in Belgrade. Av had apparently separated from his wife and left California to return to Belgrade. Funnily enough, Av denied to me that he was from the former Yugoslavia, but the name "Stanoje" sounded to me as if it was from that area of the world... and his chosen screen name of "Avala" happens to be a mountain in Serbia -- Av told me at one time that it was the name of a mountain. There are a couple of blogs that Av maintained and if I can find the addresses I will post them.

Chris

This was the email I received from Carole on September 4. We subsequently chatted by phone about Av:

"Hi, Chris, I just wanted to let you know that Avala from the old JTR chattery days, died last Thursday at the age of 69, very unexpectedly. We used to talk about attending the premiere of your play garbed in evening dress and drinking champagne with you to celebrate your triumph. I am so sad that we never got to do that, amongst so many other things."

And this is from an email that I received in October 2009 from Av. His email to me and my reply mention a couple of blogs that have photographs of Belgrade:

Maestro CG,

I have posted some snaps of my mother's growing up place here

http://pikpixs.blogspot.com/

It' s one of two places we are currently selling here.

Keep us abreast of your doings, s-v-p.

Best

************

I replied:

Enjoyed your pics and also looking through past postings on your site(s). Wondering which of the mateys might be Av???

http://stanojesnaps.blogspot.com/sea...-results=7 etc

*************

I never met Av in person but by a matter of elimination I have worked out that the following two photographs appear to be of Av (Stanoje). May he rest in peace.





It appears that Avala's real name was Stanoje Pantovic.

[Chris G.]

Hi All

Carole has confirmed that those photographs are of Avala. And she added the following information:

"You did guess right that those two photos were definitely Avala, back in the days he was a professional photographer. The snap of a man and woman in the water might also be him, I'm not sure. And the child in the old photos of his family were also of him. His family escaped from Yugoslavia when Av was 6 (in 1949) by hiring smugglers to take them over the Italian Alps. The smugglers robbed and abandoned them, but his family proceeded anyway. Av told me that at one point they were cowering under a rocky overhang and could see the boots and machine gun stock held by a Yugo soldier - had the man bent over and seen them, they would have been shot. A couple of days later they came to a checkpoint on a road. His father hid his wife and child and went up to the guards, not sure where they were or who the guards might be, but it turned out they were in Italy and the guards were British so they were safe. They lived in a refugee camp in Rome for some time, then moved into the city where they lived for 6 years before his father took a job coaching swimming in Montreal. Av swam competitively during their years in Montreal - he said he would have made the Canadian Olympics team but for having German Measles at the time of the tryouts. Then he got into photography, and was published in Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. Some of the other photos were some of his work, including Greg Louganis diving. (He'd sent those to me before.) I'm not sure when exactly he moved to the LA area but it was about in the mid-60's. To correct one thing, he was never married to Sigrid, the mother of his three kids."

Chris

[Chris G.]

Photographer on a Country Road

-- somewhere. . . in California or your native Serbia,
VW Beetle parked at the roadside in the distance,

like the VW on the Beatles' '69 "Abbey Road" cover;
license plate "28 IF." You were 69 when you passed

-- I never knew you, either in your Ashram days,
in Montreal or Pasadena, but I have your photos

-- black and white snaps of your Belgrade childhood
-- and the shot of you standing on that country road,

Avala Stanoje, as you photograph us for all time.

Christopher T. George

[Wicker Man]

Holy Cow!!
We were only talking with Avala a few weeks ago. He emailed us a few times and Ann chatted with him on facebook.

I'm speechless.....

[Lyn Resthal]

Avala

Yes, CTG, those photos are Av. A long time ago now. Fond memories of him and the old chattery as he, we, used to call it.

[Chris G.]

Thanks, Lyn. Av was one of a number of friends I have lost in the last year or so. Not only in the Ripper community but elsewhere in my world too.

[admin tim]

How sad.

Those were good times then, and Avala was a prime chatter.

May he rest in peace.

[Chris G.]

During his lifetime, as noted above, possibly for political reasons to do with Yugoslavia back then and the same place present day, Avala denied to me that he was from the former Yugoslavia. "Avala," however, is a mountain near Belgrade.



"View from new built tower (the old one was destroyed in Nato aggression to Serbia in 1999) on the top of a small mountain Avala near Belgrade." Photograph by Vladimir Stojkovic on Flickr.

[Chris G.]

I received the following email from a friend of Avala's that I thought would interest those of us who remember Av. She gave me permission to allow me to post her email here. Her email clarifies some information about the photographs posted here and on Av's own blog sites.

Re: the late Avala (Stanoje Pantovic)

Was looking for my old friend Stan Pantovic from back in the day in Montreal (late 60’s early 70’s) on the Internet and unfortunately found out that he had passed away around 3 years ago. That photo that is up on the Jack the Ripper site of Stan taking a photo and an old beat up VW Beetle in the background was my boyfriend Peter’s car (another Eastern European water polo player). Stan had just arrived in Montreal from visiting Belgrade in Sept. 1971 and asked Peter and I to give him a lift back to California where his parents were living in Burbank. We drove Stan from Montreal with a 400 mile detour to Edmonton (ha ha) to visit an old friend, Chester Heinz, a water polo player who played for the Pan Am Games, and then on to California. He was the cleverest, most entertaining fellow you would ever want to meet. I feel really sad that he went so young.

While Peter and Stan were in California for 2 weeks, both being photographers, Stan knew the Black Stuntmen of Hollywood, and we drove out to the desert, and they were dressed in Civil War gear, and I suggested a stained canvas tarp as a backdrop. I have been trying to trace these photographs that were taken in Sept. 1971 and I believe they were published in Sepia Magazine in December 1971, but to no avail.

If you could help trace these photos, it would be terrific. I’m an artist with my own website of paintings: deborahkivaimages.com

Happy Holidays to you and your family,

Debbie K. Dworkin

[Howard Brown]

CG:
Please tell Miss Dworkin that issue is available here :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sepi...wAAOSwcdBWTIow

[Chris G.]

CG:
Please tell Miss Dworkin that issue is available here :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sepi...wAAOSwcdBWTIow

Done. Thanks, Howard. Good work.

[Chris G.]

Photographer on a Country Road

-- somewhere. . . in California or your native Serbia,
VW Beetle parked at the roadside in the distance,

like the VW on the Beatles' '69 "Abbey Road" cover;
license plate "28 IF." You were 69 when you passed

-- I never knew you, either in your Ashram days,
in Montreal or Pasadena, but I have your photos

-- black and white snaps of your Belgrade childhood
-- and the shot of you standing on that country road,

Avala Stanoje, as you photograph us for all time.

Christopher T. George

A revised version of the above poem about our late friend Avala Stanoje was recently published in the on-line poetry blog "Here and Now" published by Western U.S. beat poet Allen Itz.

The poem, "Avala," plus two accompanying photographs of Av are in the August 16 issue of "Here and Now" at http://herenow.7beats.com/2020/08/my...evolution.html

Thank you each for your encouragement and support!

Cheers

Chris

[Wicker Man]

Fond memories