Howard Fine -- known for San Francisco radio commercials
deb...@comcast.net
Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
A memorial service will be held in San Francisco on Friday for Howard
Fine, an ebullient businessman whose enthusiastic radio advertisements
for the phone number of his house painting firm -- it's "three sevens
and a one-two-three-four!" -- made him famous to Bay Area listeners for
more than 30 years.
Mr. Fine died Sunday at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa. He was
one week short of his 79th birthday.
He did some 400 commercials over the years for Armstrong Painting,
Roofing & Windows, booming enticements that rang out from such
well-known radio stations as KCBS, KGO and KSFO, among others, urging
customers to get their houses painted by calling that phone number --
777-1234 -- which conveniently works from most area codes in the Bay
Area without having to dial the three extra numbers. Some of his
advertisements included verbal testimonials from sports personalities,
such as Jim Plunkett and Willie McCovey.
Less publicized, but equally important in his life, was his absolute
passion for art and the esteem in which he held the world's best
artists, writers, musicians and politicians. He had an insatiable
curiosity about people, how they worked, how they thought, and he was a
voracious reader of histories and biographies -- he especially liked
books on Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
"What was the inspiration that made these people exceptional?" Mr. Fine
often wondered, according to his son, Mitchell Fine. And Mr. Fine was
equally fascinated with art and color.
"He always had an esthetic sense for beauty, whether it was picking
people's colors (for their houses), and he was always obsessed with
bringing beauty to the world," said Mitchell Fine, who now runs the
painting firm. "He always celebrated great artists, and there was some
sense in him that he didn't have that genius and inspiration. He was
fascinated with that -- how is a person able to create such beauty in
this world?"
Mr. Fine was particularly fascinated with Jewish art -- he was amazed
that "in the face of such adversity, people were able to create such
work. He thought that some of the best art came from artists who had
challenges in their lives," Mitchell Fine said.
In the early 1990s, Mr. Fine was president of the board of directors of
the Judith L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley. On Tuesday, the museum's
founder and director emeritus, Seymour Fromer, said from the moment he
came on the board, Mr. Fine "encouraged a program of acquisitions of
paintings and graphics. He was very warm and was very appreciative of
artists and musicians."
Mr. Fine was born and raised in Pittsburgh and served in the U.S.
merchant marine during World War II. After the war, Mr. Fine went to
the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in the 1940s, and then went to
work for Armstrong Windows in Pittsburgh, a firm that was an offshoot
of another family business that had been operating in New York City.
Soon, Mr. Fine broke away and opened up his own company, Armstrong
Painting, which stayed in Pittsburgh until 1966, when Mr. Fine moved
the company to Northern California, where it has operated ever since.
Its headquarters are in Emeryville.
In addition to running his painting and roofing business and collecting
art -- he was a connoisseur of French poster artist Henri de Toulouse-
Lautrec and American artist Wayne Thiebaud -- Mr. Fine loved the world
of music. In the 1980s, Mr. Fine became friends with famed saxophonist
Stan Getz, who was playing many gigs in the Bay Area as well as
teaching at Stanford University. Mitchell Fine said his father had
sponsored a number of Bay Area jazz festivals.
Mr. Fine was also a director of the Concordia-Argonaut Club in San
Francisco. After a fire in 1982 gutted the club, Mr. Fine, who chaired
the club's art committee, took on the task of finding and buying new
works of art for the club's new walls.
Mr. Fine is survived by his wife, Stephanie, of Napa; two sons,
Mitchell Fine of San Francisco and Thomas Fine of Napa; and two
daughters, Carolyn Fine of Fort Pierce, Fla., and Deidre Fine of San
Francisco.
Friday's memorial service will be at 11:30 a.m. at the Concordia-
Argonaut Club, 1142 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. The family suggests
contributions in Mr. Fine's name to the Judith L. Magnes Museum, 2911
Russell St., Berkeley CA 94705.