Face of Malibu Rebuilds is a new series from artist Johanna Spinks, featuring Malibu residents and their experiences before, during and after the Woolsey Fire. If you have a fire story you would like to share with The Malibu Times, a person of note or courage, or a person who just needs some cheer around this difficult rebuild time, to be sketched for this series, please contact Spinks at johanna@johannaspinks.com or The Malibu Times Managing Editor Emily Sawicki at emily@malibutimes.com.
Spinks, a professional portrait artist and longtime Malibu resident, is donating her time to this series for the interviews and sketches. Readers may remember her original Face of Malibu portrait series that ran monthly in The Malibu Times for five years. You can see more examples of her portrait work at johannaspinks.com.
Jerry Magusen lived in Decker Canyon for four decades before his home was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire in November. Magusen, who spent years working at Warner Brothers Studio, spent the last month living in a hotel but just recently moved into a longterm renal. He and his wife Patty—a sculptor who salvaged a number of her pieces from the fire—plan to rebuild their beloved house, where they raised four children together in Malibu.
What is your backstory with Malibu? Tell us a little about your life and old home.
I moved into our house about 40 years [ago]—in the old days, it was called Decker, now it’s Westlake Boulevard. We were high up in the mountains. I liked the seclusion, the quietness; I liked everything about my house. Everything. I lived there with my wife Patty, [Patricia, 75] and the four children we have between us, plus six grandchildren. It was a little difficult for the kids growing up, as they had no one to play with.
I commuted every day for 35 years from this house to Burbank. I was the manager of the STAFF shop for Warner Brothers Studios. Staff is a product of Plaster of Paris. Sculpting, mold making, model making, casting in the shop, cement work, plastering on the walls, tiling—anything that was masonry involved. That’s what my shop did. I was involved in producing the large gold Oscar statue for the Academy Award shows. We brought in a bunch of high-density foam and we had a sculptor from the department sculpt it from head to toe; we made a mold from that, and then we cast it from fiberglass.
Coming home to my house after work was like a sanctuary. I had a friend who once came up to stay at the house and said he couldn’t sleep as it was too quiet.
Some of my favorite memories of the house are definitely the holidays. Patty did two big parties a year, at Easter and Christmas. Those were always fun. If we didn’t get to see our relatives any other time of the year, we would get to see them then. A highlight was the annual Christmas tree decorating party. Patty would start baking for the holidays right after Thanksgiving. Ahh… the smell of baked goods in our house. I will never forget that.
What was your direct experience of the Woolsey Fire?
It was scary. We were sitting in the house and Patty was about to make breakfast but the electric went out. My front window looked out over the mountains and as we watched the fire we thought we looked safe. All of a sudden, I heard sirens and the police came up to our house and said: “Get out!” And we did! We could see the fire coming at our house from the car as we were leaving. I got down to the front gate, where a cop car was blocking our path. I said to him: “Get the hell out of the way,” which he did. We were in a hurry. Duh. We drove down to Westlake and Potrero. We thought we would be able to get back to the house, which is why I left the “best” car in the garage—gone now. I can’t stop thinking about that. A 2010 black Mustang convertible. Low mileage. This was not my commuting car. We didn’t realize the house was gone until about two or three days later. The guy across from us stayed there and got information to us that the house was gone. It was surreal seeing it burned down for the first time—like a war zone. We stayed at our daughter’s house for a few days and then came to the hotel for over a month now. Now we are moving into a rental in Westlake. It’s nice. Got a little stream with ducks, quiet, although I haven’t spent the night there yet.
What will your rebuild look like?
So far, we are definitely planning on rebuilding, maybe a titch smaller. We haven’t really decided how we want it to look, but we may set it back a bit from the old house. At 76, it’s a little daunting. If we don’t finish it, one of our kids can. (Laughs)
Overall, you have to have a good attitude. My wife has that. She carries us all with that.
Regarding our insurance, it’s been “so far, so good,” although I have heard some stories. I had the hardest time contacting the DMV for a disabled sticker, but our insurance agent was great—she stepped in and really helped me to get an appointment with them. The DMV is now sending me one in the mail.
What has been the hardest aspect of this experience for you?
I think not living in familiar surroundings. Spacey, lost, discombobulated, all of the above. When we were at the house, we knew what we were going to do, now we don’t. It’s not the same.
Any shining moments?
There was one moment when we were at the bottom of the road at a road block not able to get to the house after it had burned to the ground when a good neighborhood friend managed to get beer and pizza up to us, which meant a lot at the time because we had been stuck there all day long hoping we could get back to the house to look at the damage.
What is the biggest challenge ahead for you?
Rebuilding… I’m going to get a contractor and just let him do it all. It will make it a little easier. We have a one-year rental with an option to go longer. We built our garage with a dwelling on top of it a few years ago and it was pain.
Any suggestions or advice for other displaced fire people?
Keep up with your fire insurances and all insurances. Just try to get back to normal, and try to do what you used to do. For example, Patty is playing golf for the first time today with some donated clubs, and that’s important. I just went back to work one day a week as a marshal at the Westlake Golf Club. It felt good the first day back when I saw all my old buddies.