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Day Tripper

Now or Never: The Lost Photos of Diane Arbus


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Published: Mar 26, 2008

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Sat., April 5, 10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., $145 (full trip), $55 (New York portion), depart from First Person Arts, One S. Broad St., 267-402-2056, firstpersonarts.org.

It may all seem a little incongruous — a champagne breakfast on a bus? En route to an upscale auction house in Chelsea to pore over sideshow memorabilia from the tawdry, pre-Disney days of Times Square? No matter how bizarre the prospects of next Saturday's trip may seem, they pale in comparison to the journey that the Hubert's Museum collection — and in particular, the previously unknown Diane Arbus photos that have become its centerpiece — has taken to end up at the same point.

That story, as told by author Gregory Gibson in his rollicking new account, Hubert's Freaks (Harcourt, $24), centers on Philadelphian Bob Langmuir, collector and proprietor of the Rittenhouse Square shop Book Mark, who'll be along for the bus ride. After Langmuir ceased running the Book Mark as an active store to concentrate on collecting African-Americana, he acquired the archives of Hubert's, a Times Square dime museum that Arbus and other photographers frequented.

But along with the sideshow memorabilia and riveting — if barely literate — firsthand account of proprietor/performer Charlie Lucas, the collection contained almost 30 Arbus photos, some little more than private personal snapshots of the performers she'd come to befriend, others precursors of her iconic images of freaks and outcasts.

The collection will be auctioned by Phillips du Pury & Co. on April 8, so this excursion, which benefits First Person Arts, may be the final opportunity to see the photos — with the rare accompaniment of personal recollections from the Philly eccentric who made their discovery as unusual a tale as their production.

Visit citypaper.net/artsagenda for more images of Hubert's dime museum.