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Peru native Frank Vlastnik recalls Bob Mackie’s life story in ‘The Art of Bob Mackie’ · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Peru native Frank Vlasnik recalls Bob Mackey's life story and The Art
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  of Bob Mackey. Written by Emily Beebe. This article is being read
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  by an automated voice, brought to you by Everlit. Bob Mackey designed
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  the most iconic costumes in American entertainment, such as shares, show stopping
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  owns and Carol Burnett's most memorable looks. He costumed the women who
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  defined an era. Mackey died at eighty-seven to pneumonia on September fourteenth
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  in Palm Springs, California. Frank Vlasnik, who grew up in Peru and
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  whose family owns Vlasnik's Mensware at 1809 Fourth Street, spent three years
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  sitting in Mackey's design studio listening to him tell the story of
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  his life's work. Vlasnik is The co author of The Art of
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  Bob Mackey, published by Simon and Schuster in twenty twenty one, which
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  chronicles Mackey's sketches, costumes, and career through his own words. The foreword
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  is by Carol Burnett and the afterw is by Cher. The book
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  almost didn't happen. Vlastnik
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  flew from New York to Los Angeles for what was supposed to
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  be a half hour interview with Mackie and his design director Joe
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  McFaith. He stayed three hours At the end Mackey stood up, opened
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  his arms, and said, Well, let's do it. Then came March twenty
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  twenty. Vlasnik flew to Los Angeles for what was supposed to be
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  three days. He visited Mackey on Friday, march thirteenth. After about three
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  hours, Mackey told him he had to leave. He'd bought a new
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  home in Palm Springs and needed to get on the road. I
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  said, Oh, I'm going to Palm Springs too, Vlasnik said. He said,
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  Oh, perfect. All right. We'll have lunch on Sunday, and we'll continue
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  to talk about the book As The
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  drove to Palm Springs, the world shut down. Vlastnik spent six weeks
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  living in a motel. Friends wouldn't let him stay. He'd just flown
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  in from New York, and nobody knew the incubation period. He thought
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  he'd only be there for three days. He hadn't brought his laptop.
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  He wrote the book on his cell phone. The book was three
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  days from going to print, Vlasnik still didn't have Cher's piece. He'd
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  never met her. He told Mackie they needed it now. Mackie asked
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  if he wanted to call her. Vlasnik called, she answered. Oh yeah,
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  I'm supposed to write something for that. I'll Get
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  around to it, she told him. No share, we need it now,
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  he said. Well, I'm dyslexic, she said. He told her to find
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  her personal assistant and ask how to do voice to text on
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  her phone. She didn't know what that was. He explained that she
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  could talk into her phone and it would write down what she
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  was saying. Get out of here, she said. That's crazy. An hour
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  and a half later she had written something beautiful for the book.
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  What will stay with Vlasnik is what he saw the first time
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  he walked into Mackie's design studio. First time I went to his
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  studio, Vlasnik said, I through remember in the movie Willy Wonka and
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  the Chocolate Factory, when the kids first get into the factory and
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  The all look around and all the trees are like lollipops and
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  there's a river of chocolate. That's the way I felt when I
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  walked in there. I was just like, oh my gosh, his is
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  like Willy Wonka's factory. For Vlasnik, the path here ran straight through
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  the Illinois Valley. If he'd been born somewhere warm, he said, he
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  wouldn't have spent so much time inside watching TV. The cold winters,
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  cooped up at home and sledding at Centennial Park, gave him a
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  lifetime of stored knowledge about entertainment. He credits two teachers, Mrs. Dellinger
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  at Northview and Mrs. Vicini at Washington, with encouraging his creativity and
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  writing. I never thought I'd be a writer, he said. I always
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  wanted to be an actor. He lived in New York for twenty-eight
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  years and fell into writing books. It gives me hometown pride, he
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  said, that I was able to pull this book off. Mackie died
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  in the home he was driving to the day the world shut
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  down. Vlasnik was supposed to have lunch with him that Sunday, but
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  they never got the chance.