Stan Laurel - Born on this day, 133 years ago.

Double Image

Random House Dictionary defines self-image as “the idea, conception, or mental image one has of oneself.”   What you see when you look in the mirror and how you picture yourself in your head is your self-image. Similarly, self-image has a lot to do with self-esteem. After all, how we see ourselves is a big contributing factor to how we feel about ourselves. However, self-esteem goes deeper than self-image. Self-esteem is the overall sense of respect for ourselves and involves how favorably (or unfavorably) we feel about ourselves. On the other hand, there's the way other people perceive you and, not surprisingly,  most of the time it can be quite different!

COMEDIANS OF THE WORLD.

Somewhere in the Mexican town of San Miguel Allende you could find this painting, which was donated by Mario Moreno Foundation to the National Association of Actors in 1993. The painting by Antonio Navarrete was created many years before and it features Buster Keaton playing the harp, Red Skelton, guitar, Danny Kaye, violin, Bob Hope, guitar, Charles Chaplin, conductor, Cantinflas, guitar, Fernandel, trumpet, Luis Sandrini, french horn and Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy at the vibraphone.

Try to Google it and you'll find zilch!

The New Stand-Up Comedy Rules?

MY TEN MOST-WATCHED FILMS

I've seen quite a lot of films during my 69 years of life but just a chosen few have been revisited by me over and over again for different reasons.  This here is a list of the first 10 films I know I have seen more than a 100 times, although there are more than 50 in my complete most-watched checklist. The question people may ask about this is: why watch a film over and over again when you've already seen it and know every scene by heart? Isn't once enough?
If you have your own MOST-WATCHED FILMS tally, then you know the answer!

And without any further explanation, here we go:

THUNDERBALL (1965)

BULLITT (1968)

GOLDFINGER (1964)

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)

CASABLANCA (1943)

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975)

THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)

WAY OUT WEST (1937)

THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

CHARADE (1963)

I'll post 10 more in a later chapter.

OLIVER HARDY: A GENIUS OF COMEDY!

We lost Oliver Norvell Hardy 62 years ago but his legacy lives on 

for those of us who still enjoy his talent on the silver screen!

AL HIRSCHFELD

One of my most admired cartoonists has always been Al Hirschfeld.

His way of capturing likenesses and translating them into simple, flowing and dynamic lines is absolutely amazing and even poetic.

His caricatures are widely known and renowned, and almost every self-respecting cartoonist has learned part of his craft by studying Hirschfeld's renderings.

                                       

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the famed Algonquin Hotel located at 59, West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan and was greeted by some framed examples of Al Hirschfeld's artwork.

  

The story of the Algonquin Hotel is part of New York City's folklore and so is Mr. Hirschfeld.
Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 21, 1903 and died January 20, 2003 at the age of 99.           

In 1943, Hirschfeld married famous European actress Dolly Haas and they had one daughter, Nina, born in 1945. After her birth, Hirschfeld developed the habit of hiding her name, spelled in capital letters, on most every drawing he did thereafter. The number of NINAs concealed in every drawing was shown next to the artist's signature.  It quickly became a favorite pastime to try and find out the hidden NINAs in the cartoons.