I went right by Bill Saroyan’s final house in Fresno the other day and didn’t realize it until I had to pull up Google Maps to see what house I was going to (day job). As I was looking for the address, there it was, the William Saroyan house.
It’s weird, I had always thought it was in Southeast Fresno, but the house is off Marks, between Ashlan & Dakota.
It’s so nondescript. So track house. So Fresno.
Nobody lives there, it’s an appointment-only museum. I can remember reading about it in the Fresno Bee but never checked it out beyond that – one of those Fresno things I have always meant to get to.
See what it is like and book a tour by checking out this page.
This sent me down a Billy Saroyan rabbit hole that had been coming for a long time. I am ashamed to admit I do not own any Saroyan material. And I have only read pieces of his writing.
Please feel embarrassed for me.
I only very vaguely knew that his book, The Human Comedy, was made into a movie starring Mickey Rooney. The novel is based on the fictional town of Ithicha (but we all know there is a lot of Fresno in this Ithaca place).
Then something I didn’t know, The Human Comedy movie was remade and called “Ithaca” and has Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan involved:
I rented The Human Comedy but stupidly chose to watch it at night and ended up falling asleep 10 minutes in – there goes $3. Maybe I will have better luck with the Meg Ryan version.
