The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 186

Your Neighbors vy -j. Norristown's jack-of-all painter IN NORRISTOWN Art League circles, William P. Nuttall is re-, garded as a painter of historic scenes, such as the mural in the Knights of Columbus Hall. Old-timers recall him as a scene painter for Lubin Film's Betzwood studios. And advertisers know him for his sign work.

But most of the visitors to the basement studio in his home at 3302 DeKalb si. want to see the novelties he has invented. "See this drawing of Uncle Sam?" says Nuttall. "It contains all 48 States arranged to make the figure. I sold 25,000 of them at a national American Legion convention in Cleveland, made enough money to outfit our post's Scotch Kiltie Band." Another of his paintings (shown in photograph) depicts the interior of Valley Forge Chapel.

At first glance it resembles a conventional painting. Actually it's a bas-relief with its three-dimensional look accentuated by the lighting of its stained-glass window and lamps. Nuttall once arranged vignettes of Valley Forge scenes to form a head of George Washington, painted the whole in gold leaf on a tray which he sent to President Eisenhower. Nuttall came here from his native Lancastershire, England, in 1910 at the age of 27. The next year he sent to Nottingham for Mabel Peacock to come to America.

They've been married 46 years, have two sons, one daughter and four grandchildren. He served with the Canadian Army in the First World War, is past commander of both British and American Legion posts. He believes bats make fine pets A VETERAN naturalist at 18, James D. (Skip) Lazell recently completed a definitive study of the local long-tailed salamander. He has been working on the project since he was 13.

"I dabble in birds, small mammals and spiders," says Skip, "but reptiles are my principal interest." Last summer he accompanied a moth-collecting expedition to the Caribbean, then struck out on his own on an assignment for the Philadelphia Zoo. He captured crocodiles in Jamaica, had only one mishap. "I had a beautiful eight-foot Yellow snake eaten by a mongoose," he reports. An habitue of the Zoo from the time he was old enough to ride a trolley car alone, he was formerly one of the three juvenile panelists on the "Meet Me at the Zoo" television program. "He knew how to say Analis carolinensis before he could say chameleon," his mother recalls.

In first grade he started taxidermy, bringing home badly-mangled stuffed specimens of local fauna for his mother's admiration. This steeled her for his later enthusiasms, including a collection of live bats which she was obliged to feed and exercise when Skip was away for the week end. "Bats make wonderful pets," he insists. 'They tame in two weeks." Graduated from Germantown Friends School last June where he made his letter in football and wrestling he lives with his parents, Mr. and Mrs.

J. D. Lazell, at 133 Harvey st. Currently he is a freshman at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. His gear for college included one pet a three-foot King snake.

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