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Life in Bronze
Lawrence M. Ludtke, Sculptor
By Amy L. Bacon Texas A&M University Press
Copyright © 2013 Amy L. Bacon
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60344-966-3
CHAPTER 1
Paintbrushes and Fastballs
Larry Ludtke took great pride in the fact that he was a fourth-generation Texan and native Houstonian. Given that both Texas and the Bayou City have always been associated with innovation, a can-do attitude, perseverance, creativity, and an entrepreneurial spirit, it is easy to see the source of his pride and perhaps how these characteristics took shape in him. The building of the Houston Ship Channel, the oil boom of the early 1900s, and the subsequent development of refineries and related industrial facilities brought significant population growth and development to the city of Houston and its surrounding areas in the 1920s. Neighborhoods began to spring up throughout the city. One of the oldest communities in eastern Houston, known as Denver Harbor, housed many families who had left their rural homes in hopes of making a better life by finding work on the railroad, along the ship channel, and in the industrial companies. There among the modest residences were all the trappings of an American neighborhood in the 1920s—schools, churches, a drugstore, a fire station, and even a movie house. A man named Monroe Ludtke owned and operated a meat market in Denver Harbor, and on October 18, 1929, he and his wife Dorothy welcomed Lawrence Monroe Ludtke into this world. Although his mother refused to call him by any name other than Lawrence, "Larry," as he became known, was a typical young boy, drawn to the game of baseball. Whether playing the game in the street or in a nearby vacant lot, Ludtke recalled the daily "banging of baseballs off our neighbors' roofs." As a student at Jefferson Davis High School, Larry was an All-City pitcher for the school's baseball team and got the opportunity to play in Houston's Buff Stadium, a sporting icon in the town. That eleven-thousand-seat stadium, which opened in 1928, was the home of the Texas League Houston Buffaloes, the minor league farm franchise for the Saint Louis Cardinals. Playing in the stadium gave the high school ballplayers a real sense of playing in the big leagues. As Ludtke remembered, "A lot of people came to watch high school baseball games because it was cheap entertainment. It cost too much to take a girl out to dinner, but you could take a date to the game and get some peanuts and popcorn."
In addition to his fascination with baseball, Larry had an unusual artistic ability buried deeply within him. Ludtke recalled having the ability to draw and paint from a young age; he was always quite fond of sketching and doodling. As a twelve-year-old, he ended up winning a local newspaper drawing contest with his entry of a cowboy and horse. In high school, Ludtke's interest in art had a more practical aspect: "It was an easy subject." He took an oil painting class as well as a watercolor class. His first painting, done in oils and depicting a snowy landscape, was bestowed upon his girlfriend at the time and was quite unusual given that Larry had never seen snow. His inspiration for the painting? "I had a lot of white paint!" His first "commission" came in the form of painting the backdrop for the Jefferson Davis High School prom. As Ludtke recalled, he painted "lollipops, ice cream cones, flowers—all sorts of useless, sweet things."
While Ludtke's mother recognized that he had artistic ability, she "certainly did not expect him to find success in the field of art, but always thought he would be a ball player." Baseball filled Ludtke's days and had become an integral part of his life. After graduating from high school, Ludtke went to Texas A&M University (at that time known as the Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College) to play on the freshman baseball team. At a baseball camp in Houston, a scout named Harry McCurdy discovered him. McCurdy was a former big league catcher then scouting for the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. McCurdy invited him to demonstrate his pitching skills, so at a nearby clearing Ludtke threw the ball for the scout. "I didn't know how to throw much of anything, but I could throw really hard," recalled Ludtke, "or as my grandfather said, I looked like I was falling out of a tree when I pitched." McCurdy must have liked what he saw because he offered Ludtke a contract. The following spring, in 1949, having withdrawn from Texas A&M, Ludtke went to a Dodger training camp in Maryland. It was an exciting and historic time to be involved in baseball. The Brooklyn Dodgers organization had chosen Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier in the major leagues in 1946. Robinson was signed to play first for the Montreal Royals and then, after a single season, was sent up to play for the parent club, propelling the Dodgers to win the National League pennant. Ludtke had become part of an organization making history.
At a salary of $150 a month, Ludtke thought he was living the dream, and he later recalled, "I was really thrilled to get it." He once said, "I would have paid them, just to get to play." He played for teams in Pulaski, Virginia; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and Miami, Florida. Larry recalled having to stay in private homes most of the time, usually with a couple of other players, because the minor leagues were not known for their glamour or luxurious accommodations. Occasionally, a few players even had to share beds. At their training camp in Vero Beach, Florida, Ludtke and his teammates found the living conditions less than ideal. The barracks of a decommissioned naval air station were used to house the players. They were old, crowded, and hot, and the food served there was "quite forgettable." However, none of this fazed Ludtke—he loved it. The camaraderie among the players brought him great enjoyment, and it was during his baseball days that Ludtke developed a strong work ethic and honed his ability to work with all types of people and personalities—traits that would certainly be needed later as a commissioned sculptor.
Ludtke recalled that, while he was playing for the Miami Sun Sox in the Florida International League, the team was the first to ever wear shorts on a baseball field. "While they worked out great in the heat, once you slid in them and endured a couple of bad 'strawberries,' that was the end of that." Ludtke's experience with the Miami Sun Sox proved to be even more rewarding due to the friendship he developed with the legendary Pepper Martin, one of the "Gashouse Gang" of the Saint Louis Cardinals of 1934. Labeled the "Wild Horse of the Osage" for his aggressive style of play, Pepper was a passionate player who commonly did belly flop slides into stolen bases and even threw at batters who bunted rather than throwing them out at first. Martin served as the manager of the Miami Sun Sox from 1949 to 1952 and began his first year by attempting to choke an umpire. As Ludtke recalled, Pepper was "just a wonderful, genuine character," one who typically wore the same thing every day—a baggy pair of pants with a zebra-stripe patterned shirt. "He didn't wear socks with his shoes, and he sure didn't wear laces in them, either," Ludtke said.
With the Sun Sox team, Ludtke never had a losing season. The Miami Herald, in one of its write-ups about a particular game against the Miami Beach Flamingos, cited the tremendous pitching and hitting of Ludtke: "Ludtke deserved an extra helping of credit as he rationed the Flamingos to three hits in the nine-inning nightcap, and drove in two runs to triumph, 4 to 1. Larry's pitching was brilliant, particularly in the second inning when it appeared his number was up. He started by walking Mort Smith[,] and two batters later the bases were jammed with Bob Morem singling and Chuck Ehlman drawing a walk. Smith scored on a fly ball, but then Ludtke bagged the next three outs in succession."
During the Korean War, the army slightly altered Larry's baseball career by drafting him in 1952. Ludtke was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he trained with the artillery but was also able to play on the post's baseball team. At that time, all the big military bases, such as Fletcher Airfield at Clarksdale, Mississippi, and Randolph and Lackland air force bases outside San Antonio, had great baseball teams with a lot of big leaguers who were fulfilling their military service. When he mustered out in 1954, Ludtke returned to play baseball with the Dodgers' organization, being assigned to Mobile on the advice of Pepper Martin, who always thought Ludtke had the makings of a big-league pitcher.
In 1955, Ludtke received an invitation to pitch a season of winter ball for Al Kubski's Carta Vieja team in Panama, where he tested himself against the big leaguers who played down there. The Caribbean Winter League provided professional baseball players with a unique opportunity to play during the off-season. At the annual Winter Leagues Classic in Caracas, Venezuela, Ludtke pitched for Panama in what turned out to be a significant event because Puerto Rico's team included future greats Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. Ludtke remembered that in this series, Mays did not have a good first outing, being unable to get a single hit in the first twelve times he was at bat. In the second game, when Mays came up against Ludtke and another pitcher, John Fitzgerald, he had little success. They did not allow him a hit.
By the late 1950s, Ludtke had started to grow weary of life as a baseball player. As he put it, "My baseball career kind of stalled. I never had a losing season, but I never had a great season. Finally, I just woke up one day and thought this is ridiculous. Here I am, sitting in a hotel room, having to wait three days to pitch again, and I'm just sick of it." Ludtke left the game with a career record of 56–27. He returned to Houston and finished his bachelor's degree in education at the University of Houston. In the meantime, Ludtke found a job as a sales representative for Riddell sporting goods, working the Texas Gulf Coast. Riddell was the primary maker of football helmets for collegiate and professional teams. While making a sales call at the Houston Oilers training camp, one of the trainers, Bobby Brown, asked Ludtke if he would design an oil derrick for their logo. At first he hesitated, saying, "I don't want to do that, I'm not involved in that at all. Just go down to any custom design place and have it done." Brown, however, did not let up, and Ludtke recalled his reply being, "No, Larry, any damned fool can draw an oil derrick, so you might as well draw it." Ludtke proceeded to sketch out a derrick, and he gave it to the Oilers to use. His latent talent had briefly resurfaced, but it was not until 1959 that both his personal life and his artistic life joined to become one.
CHAPTER 2
An Awakening
With baseball now behind him, Ludtke focused on settling into his life as a sporting goods salesman for Riddell. The life of a salesman often led to great outings on the golf course, and for Ludtke a golf course was always a welcome sight. Every aspect of the game brought him great pleasure—being outside, basking in Mother Nature, and enjoying the company of good friends. One friend in particular decided to play matchmaker. During their golf games, this friend often told Ludtke that he wanted him to meet one of his clients, a young woman who could "out-talk you and just as sharp a girl as any guy could want to meet." In the fall of 1959, the details were settled for him to have lunch with this young German woman named Erika Lewandowski. He was to pick her up at her office, where she worked for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS Airlines). Erika clearly remembers the day when Ludtke walked into her office as she was sitting behind her desk. Her eyes kept going up, and up, and up as she thought to herself, "Oh, my God, it doesn't end, he is so tall!" The date was a success, for when Ludtke asked her out for the following weekend, she said yes.
Erika was unlike any other woman Ludtke had met before. The petite native of Berlin was a survivor of the Allied bombings in World War II. She was seventeen years old when the war ended. She said, "My generation had nothing to do with the Third Reich, except we had to clean up the mess it made." Ludtke was captivated by the vivacious young woman and was not deterred one bit by the fact that she already had a young daughter, named Ellen. He found Erika to be intelligent, charming, and "the most beautiful girl I had ever dated." He remembered praying, "Dear God, don't let this beautiful woman ever get away from me. This is the one." Erika herself was falling for the tall Texan, noting that he was "a real gentleman, so kind and honest." She knew their relationship was becoming more serious when Ludtke invited her to his church to meet his mother, the pianist. This Denver Harbor church held a special place in his family given that it was named the Ludtke Methodist Church. The Ludtke brothers financed the complete debt on the church, and it was named in honor of Larry's great-grandparents. Four months after they first met, Ludtke took Erika's hand in marriage in this same church, surrounded by family and friends.
A trip to Europe was the perfect honeymoon for the newlyweds, and it turned out to be an event that would shape their lives. The first thing Erika wanted to do was to have Ludtke meet her mother in Berlin, then travel to Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, and Greece. It was while touring the land of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and other Renaissance masters that, according to Ludtke, "a light went on." The couple went from museum to museum, viewing the paintings, the sculptures, and the architecture. Ludtke found himself mesmerized by the sculptures, especially the works of Michelangelo, which brought on intense emotions he never had experienced. The more sculptures he saw, "the more excited I got," recalled Ludtke. Erika recognized immediately that Ludtke presented a great natural understanding of depth and proportion, as well as a unique intuitive comprehension of the techniques and styles of the masters they were viewing. An overwhelming desire to become a sculptor began to take hold.
CHAPTER 3
A Guiding Hand from the Past
Upon returning home from the honeymoon in Europe, Ludtke was determined to learn everything he could about sculpting while he worked for Riddell and then Spalding to earn a living. It was not an easy task to take on during this time when his young family was growing. Ludtke had adopted Ellen, Erika's daughter, and, soon after, the couple welcomed the birth of their son, Erik. Despite the increasing responsibilities, Ludtke found a way to balance his work, his family, and his desire to learn how to sculpt. He immersed himself in all things related to classical figure and portrait sculpture. He read hundreds of books and manuals about the art form and the process of casting bronze, as well as biographies of Michelangelo, Rodin, and others, including one sculptor with interesting Texas ties—Pompeo Coppini. Coppini, an Italian-born sculptor who had studied in Florence, came to the United States in 1896, at first living in New York. By 1901 he was residing in San Antonio. After spending some time in Texas and working on large commissions of historical figures, he moved to Chicago, New York again, and then permanently returned to Texas, where he produced some of the state's best-known monumental sculptures, including the Alamo Cenotaph and the Littlefield Fountain at the University of Texas. He was knighted by the king of Italy in 1931, receiving the title Commendatore of the Order of the Crown for his art contributions to the United States. He was an opponent of modernism and abstract figurative sculpture, stating that "any individual who dares to call himself an artist, but who uses graphic methods of distorting, elongating, dissecting, or disfiguring God's given body, has in himself ... a criminal." In Ludtke's words, "Coppini was a magnificent sculptor and I could not scratch the mud off his boots."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Life in Bronze by Amy L. Bacon. Copyright © 2013 Amy L. Bacon. Excerpted by permission of Texas A&M University Press.
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