Roy Wallisch, who lit up Sea Point shopping strip, dies of a broken heart

[Grant]

Roy Edmund Wallisch, the flamboyant owner of Sea Point’s Balletique, has died at 69 after decades of turning his colourful shop into a local landmark. Outspoken, theatrical and often outrageous, he left behind a legacy of characters, controversy and community spirit as redevelopment forced the closure of the business he had run since 1979.

Wallisch died of a heart attack at the age of 69 while in a shop in the central business district in Cape Town. He would have turned 70 on 26 September.

As with many long-time businesses in Sea Point, he was told to shut shop more than a year ago and leave the building, built in 1929, to make way for a new multi-storey development. Balletique was one of many long-time businesses in the area that have had to make way for new buildings.

Others include The Corner Bar, the Cape Flats Development Association (Cafda) bookshop, the Seven Spur, Harry’s Supermarket and many more. Like Balletique, most of them were nearly or over 50 years old.

Roy Wallisch, the outrageous showman who lit up Sea Point, dies at 69

Roy Edmund Wallisch, the flamboyant owner of Sea Point’s Balletique, has died at 69 after decades of turning his colourful shop into a local landmark. Outspoken, theatrical and often outrageous, he le…

www.dailymaverick.co.za

 

[Grant]

thanks, berman brothers

 

[Grant]

every area has one or two eccentric characters that stand head and shoulders above everyone.
roy was one, and dora was the other.

dora had a 2nd hand furniture shop on main rd, next to cash crusaders.
her shop was packed to the rafters with anything and everything - from the sublime to the ridiculous.
she had a massive desk from which she held court - the desk, like the rest of the shop was covered with things.

you would go in:
"hey dora, how you doing" ?
"loverly sweetie" how can i help you" would be her reply.
"dora, i'm looking for a bamboo chair with walnut armrests an orange velvet cushion".
"come with me dahling" - she would get up and go marching off to the back of the shop, you would dutifully follow.
"there dahling" - and she would point out a bamboo chair with walnut armrests and orange velvet cushion.
that she had such a thing in stock was one mystery, and how she always managed to locate anything instantly in a shop that resembled ground zero, was another thing entirely !
then would come the customary haggling , no matter the item or it's price, haggling was de rigueur.

i knew roy well - sometimes stopping at the shop, for no other reason than to talk k@k.
he lived in camps bay.
his mother had a big old house there - roy was on one side, she was on the other, his brother stayed downstairs.
sometimes days would pass where none would even see the other.
his mother was the sweetest thing, elderly and frail.
i would be in the lounge, she would be on her side of the house.
if roy went to the kitchen to make coffee or whatever, she would leave her bedroom via the patio door, sneak along the patio and into the lounge to get a cigarette from me, then slip away again.
while she was using the patio to slip in and out, roy would be trotting up and down the passage on the other side of the lounge - blissfully unaware as to what was going on under his nose (she was not supposed to be smoking).

his health took a dive and i guess stress played a big part.
there were 2 shops in a row - his, call-a-pizza and brad's grill.
all had to pack up and go, thanks to developers - this pattern has repeated itself everywhere in the area where small family owned and operated businesses are having to shut down.

many blame greedy developers, but it is the democratic alliance that paved the way for developers to run riot in the area.
they quietly amended some by-laws without any public participation process.
those amended by-laws allow developers to construct 8 floor buildings, without providing a single off-street parking bay for residents of visitors if the building is on a public transport route, or within 50m - this is why the buildings are mushrooming up along a very specific strip of land.
coct is constantly allowing departures from various building and planning rules.
so it's bonanza time for developers - who can blame them, it's what they do for profit.
it is the city that has thrown the gates wide open with scant concern for it's residents, in it's quest to satisfy it's urban densification fetish !

 

[Mirai]

The denizens of Sea Point.

 

[vigras rojara]

He must have been really well known and liked in the area. I've had more than one FB friend post about his passing.

 

[Binary_Bark]

Such a nice guy, met him 3 times and will always remember.
RIP, you beautiful soul