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.

DIRTY HARRY'S BIRTHDAY!

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930.

I must confess I never saw the celebrated TV show RAWHIDE, where Clint Eastwood became well-known; however,  I did read the Dell and Gold Key comics published around 1963, and had heard the fantastic theme song, expertly rendered by Frankie Laine.  But I missed the show's first run and I never could find it in syndication.

But my first encounter with the immortal Clint came with his first spaghetti western: A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and its subsequent sequels, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. The latter's main theme has been imbedded in my brain forever.

And since then, I jumped on the CLINT bandwagon never to get off!
The list of classic Clint Eatwood films is quite long. It's not necessary to repeat them here.
Suffice it to say, Mr. Eastwood has a very special place in movie history and no actor has yet come to replace him.

Long Live Dirty Harry!

Mort Drucker captured him beautifully in his MAD magazine parody of Dirty Harry:

His last film to date was 2018's THE MULE which earned $171.3 million at the box office, proving that no matter how old and ancient Clint may be, he still has a strong hold over his audience!

Today, my plan is to sit down and watch some of my favorite Clint Eastwood films, in honor of this great and everlasting movie icon!

Clint Eastwood: "Make my day!"

OSCAR NIGHT...

...and this happens when you're NOT rooting for any of the nominees!

THE GREAT MOVIE CARTOON PARADE!

This is an excellent (and long out of print) book about cartoons and cartoon characters, written by John Halas and David Rider. It was first published in 1976 by Triune Books in the UK and Bounty Books in the USA and I don't think there were any further editions. The text is quite informative and the BIG sized pages (14.75" x 10.25") are beautifully illustrated with some truly nice pictures of many cartoon characters, some of which are really obscure but nevertheless worthy of a glance. From Mickey Mouse to the Pink Panther, it covers many studios and eras and the sheer size of the images alone make it an attractive addition to any cartoon collector's library.

The book's price back in 1976 was $9.95!

                        

                            

    Due to its large size, the only real problem for me was finding a good fitting place for it in my bookshelf!

Movie Books!

Movie, TV, Comic Book Art and Music reference books have been a staple of my library and I frequently resort to them for information and material. My biggest source for acquiring media and entertainment literature before Amazon and the internet came into existence, had always been the fine cinema bookstores in the Hollywood area. Some of them are still in business and whenever possible, I drop by to check out the new releases. Visiting an actual bookstore is a unique experience, much more exciting and rewarding than simply shopping for books online!

Part of my book collection.

My favorite bookstores, apart from Amazon, where I have bought most of my cinema and other media books, are these: