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Long-time South Orange resident Paul Lewis is hovering over a photograph of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Shot in 1961 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, the image also shows Meinhardt Raabe, the original “Little Oscar” who drove that quirky vehicle around the country to showcase the company’s famed hot dog.
The original Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. (Courtesy of Paul Lewis)
Lewis admires the classic composition and expertly describes the story behind the image. Raabe, who was one of the Munchkin actors in “The Wizard of Oz,” played the coroner who pronounced the death of the Wicked Witch of the East. The photo is one of almost 200,000 images that Lewis recently purchased as part of an archive of photos commissioned and taken by the Sickles Photo Reporting Service. Founded in 1938 by Maplewood resident Gus Sickle — who died in 2003 at age 97 — the reporting service amassed such an iconic collection that the Smithsonian referred to it as “a true snapshot of America as we grew into the largest industrialized nation on Earth.”
Selections from the collection are currently on display at Pickers NJ (formerly 2 Guys from Newstead), a salvage and restoration business located at 491 Valley Street (near Parker Avenue) in Maplewood. Lewis debuted the collection on June 24, 2023 and has remade the storefront as the Gallery on Valley.
“Gus Sickles was the first guy to set up a nationwide network of commercial photography. It’s an amazing national story, but it’s also an amazing Maplewood story because he operated out of here,” says Lewis. According to Lewis, Sickles worked out of the building at 195 Maplewood Avenue (currently the village’s post office), a plumbing supply shop building that sat in what is now the Baker Street Parking Lot, and at 410 Ridgewood Road, which currently houses Milk Money.
Paul Lewis showing a photo from the Sickles family reporting service archives. (Photo by Donny Levit)
Paul Lewis has as many stories to tell as the layers of paint he’s uncovered on the windows he’s restored throughout South Orange and Maplewood. Born in Troy, New York, Lewis moved down to the city to attend Fordham University. “For 22 years, I was a corporate sales guy,” he says. Lewis also studied at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (now UrbanGlass) and has created multiple neon art pieces.
Soon after 9/11, Lewis was downsized from his job. “I’m standing on my front lawn, talking to headhunters to get back to work, and my neighbor is doing the exact same thing,” recalls Lewis. “And he says, ‘Hey, why don’t we just start fixing some stuff?’ And I thought that was a good idea.”
Lewis and his neighbor Lee Martin named their company “2 Guys from Newstead” – a riff on the popular discount store in Harrison, New Jersey called “2 Guys from Harrison.” The two quickly had more handyman work than they ever expected, working 70 hours a week, getting to know the quirks of homes throughout the area, and building a sterling reputation. While Martin moved on after two years, Lewis kept the moniker.
Years later, Lewis is focused primarily on window restoration. And Pickers NJ became a salvage business. “I have this habit,” says Lewis, as he describes his obsession with collecting objects.
If you peered into the window four months ago, you may recall those salvage objects stacked up towards the ceiling. But as Lewis’ career shifts again, he has become very interested in collecting photography and art. The Sickles Photo Reporting Service is the first of what he hopes will be many exhibitions.
The story of how Lewis acquired the archive has its own fascinating twists and turns. And once again, it’s a very Maplewood and South Orange story. Retired photographer and artist Peter Sickles – son of reporting service founder Gus Sickles — invited Lewis to view the collection of photos. Peter had been working as a photographer for the family business for many years. “Peter was a beat photographer for local newspapers back in the 1970s. That was when you got your news at 6 an 11, and the paper arrived on your front porch at dawn,” says Lewis. “He’s also art-school trained, and got back to painting in the 1990s.”
Mixed media painting and photograph by Peter Sickles. (Courtesy of Paul Lewis)
Years before, the Smithsonian Institute wanted to acquire the entire collection for their archives. The Sickles family turned them down, as the Smithsonian would not pay for the collection. The family licensed many photos to Shutterstock and Getty Images, and received licensing fees for their years of work.
Lewis was stunned by the archives when he was invited to Peter’s apartment on Academy Street. Not only did he purchase the entire reporting collection, Lewis also invested in Peter’s artwork. In addition to original paintings, Peter painted on select photographs from the archive, turning them into mixed media pieces. “If you’re going to be into somebody’s art, you have to put your money where your mouth is. That’s just the way I am,” says Lewis. “Everything you see here is what I own.”
As jazz trumpeter Chet Baker plays in the background, Lewis is the ideal museum guide for this collection. Even though the archives were logged with great detail, Lewis speaks about them as if he’s carefully studied each photograph and work of art. And his dream is to share it with the community. “Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone in Maplewood and South Orange owned a piece of this archive?” says Lewis. “Now that’d be another great story.”
Interior of Pickers NJ. (Photo by Donny Levit)
Pickers NJ at 491 Valley Street. (Photo by Donny Levit)
The Gallery on Valley / Pickers NJ is located at 491 Valley Street in Maplewood. Hours are Saturdays from 11am-4pm or by appointment. Contact Paul Lewis at [email protected].
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