About the Film
Jack Ofield\'s portrait of Tinker John Forshee. Forshee was born about 1883 and died in 1974 at Cincinnatus, NY. He was at least a third generation tinsmith as he was using his grandfather\'s patented tinsmithing tools.
Jack: “I learned about John Forshee from Del Smith, the blacksmith, and filmed John working at home. Later, we visited each craftsmen and projected the film on sheets hung up in their homes. But at John’s home we found the porch covered in newspapers. He’d had a stroke and was in a nursing home in a room with three other men. He was hard of hearing, so we yelled to communicate. There was one of those nurses like in ‘East of Eden.’ The nursing home was near his house. He got out, went home and shot himself. I arranged with his son to place the tinker tools and work samples with the NY Historical Association. Hope that actually happened. Louis Jones is long gone.”
