Vanished, it would seem, are the days when admission to any event cost less than ten dollars, as it did when Frank Borth designed this $1.75 ticket to tour the Montauk Lighthouse. A professional illustrator, he was a true friend to the Montauk Historical Society as well as other community organizations, including the fire department, the community church, and the library.
In addition to applying his more-often humorous talents to this admission ticket, Borth created a comic strip that featured Cap’n Ayup, the Light House Keeper, sporting a flannel shirt, white beard, and corncob pipe, all with a captain’s hat on top. At one time Borth even decorated the interior of a bar at the lighthouse, painting mermaids and fish while skillfully entertaining patrons unfazed by the smell of turpentine.
Frank and his wife, Barbara, described this and other exploits in a 2002 oral history interview with Suzanne Gosman for the Montauk Library. You can listen to it here before heading out east to visit the Lighthouse, which will be open every day beginning this Friday, April 3. Even better, if you hold a Montauk Library card, stop first at the library to borrow a pass for free admission.
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