{"id":5872,"date":"2008-06-10T23:10:45","date_gmt":"2008-06-11T06:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/10\/5872\/"},"modified":"2008-06-11T13:59:34","modified_gmt":"2008-06-11T20:59:34","slug":"julian-winston-may-31-1941-june-12-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/?p=5872","title":{"rendered":"Julian Winston (May 31, 1941 – June 12, 2005)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello Gwyneth [Julian’s widow]- <\/p>\n

I am a computer programmer and independent filmmaker living in the San Francisco bay area. I grew up in Palo Alto, and like many well-educated, liberal parents, my parents provided me with a bunch of hand-made wooden toys as an alternative to the plastic toys that were becoming more popular in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

While on a break from editing a movie today (June 10th 2008) I was idly playing with one of these toys I still have, a hand-cranked music box, and I turned it over to see the Creative Playthings logo. On a whim I surfed on it and found your late husband Julian had designed it<\/a>. I also learned of his passing in 2005.<\/p>\n

I am now 33 years old and I still love my music box. It’s such a simple design, and apparently rugged with long-lasting “repeat play value,” since I still have it and use it. I’m a bit sad I couldn’t thank Julian while he was still with us, but a close second is thanking you.<\/p>\n

Thanks again<\/p>\n

Dear Brian
\nSince my beloved husband died I have had several emails from folk in USA who still have a working model of the music box and such fond memories of it. I don’t know if Julian had such emails before his passing — maybe he did. I do know that he would be pleased that something which he created has brought pleasure to so many AND that it is still in working order. I have the original on my shelf here– it plays ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon’ as well as the model which was produced for retail which plays an excerpt from Swan Lake I think. I guess that is the one you have. It really is something to realise how long since its creation and how durable. Guess you parents choice against the plastics was a good one!<\/p>\n

Thank you for taking the time to email.<\/p>\n

Go well.<\/p>\n

Gwyneth Evans<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So it looks like they all play Swan Lake. It’s such a great design; maybe I should make my own based on the shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello Gwyneth [Julian’s widow]- I am a computer programmer and independent filmmaker living in the San Francisco bay area. I grew up in Palo Alto, and like many well-educated, liberal parents, my parents provided me with a bunch of hand-made wooden toys as an alternative to the plastic toys that were becoming more popular in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stardate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}