Mort Drucker was born March 22,1929 in Brooklyn, New York.
His work and caricatures at MAD Magazine, beginning in 1956, soon became legendary. Mort's artwork was the first thing that attracted me to Mad Magazine back in the Sixties, and I became an ardent fan of his drawings. Mort Drucker's on-target depictions of celebrities were my inspiration to become a full time cartoonist.
Of course I never aspired to emulate him and my drawing style differs sharply from his, but he was the reason I kept buying Mad even into the 2000s even though I believed the rest of the magazine was going rapidly downhill. When Mort ceased to submit his work to the magazine, I stopped buying it.
Anyway, happy 90th birthday to one of my heroes...the one and only MORT DRUCKER!
And of course there are many ways to remember St. Patrick's holiday which must include watching some great classic Irish-themed cartoons!
These two are my perennial favorites!
1951 - WEARING OF THE GRIN. Written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones. The expressions on Porky's face make this, one of the funniest entries in the Merrie Melodies library!
1958 - DROOPY LEPRECHAUN - MGM-Hanna-Barbera Productions. Directed by Michael Lah. Droopy's last theatrical cartoon is memorable for Spike, the Irish dog who's obsessed with catching a leprechaun!
Being a Laurel and Hardy fan since my early childhood, I was pleasantly surprised back in 1962 when I discovered Dell Publishing's first Laurel and Hardy comic book and immediately began to look for all their following issues. The names of the writers and artists on these are sadly unavailable.
Unfortunately, only four issues were produced before the title was discontinued.
Later on, Gold Key comics took another shot at it and published two more Laurel and Hardy issues, in 1967.
Again, in 1972, DC Comics tried one more time to promote a Laurel and Hardy comic with so much luck, they only came out with one lone issue.
Today, thanks to the internet, it's very easy to track down most of the Laurel and Hardy back issues, even dating to the St. John comics from the late forties.
It is even possible to locate some rare foreign editions like these from England, Spain and Mexico.
54 years ago, we lost Stan Laurel, a comedy genius and my own personal idol.
From Wikipedia:
In January 1965, Stan Laurel underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth.He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack on 19 February.Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.
At Forest Lawn Cemetery, a plaque was placed reading:
STAN LAUREL
1890 - 1965
A MASTER OF COMEDY
HIS GENIUS IN THE ART OF HUMOR BROUGHT GLADNESS TO THE WORLD HE LOVED.
Joining the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, the Sons Of The Desert, I was fortunate enough to meet Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois Laurel Hawes and visit Stan's final resting place with her, back in 1980, during the Sons of the Desert Second International Convention in Hollywood.
I've always been a big fan of Big Band Swing music which I've been listening to since my early childhood. My parents had a good sized collection of old 78 RPM shellac records which I continually played on an old Motorola player and later, on a Garrard turntable. The music of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and several other big band leaders, was a staple of their collection.
Later on, I managed to get hold of a second-hand clarinet and taught myself how to play the instrument, aided by Paul Harvey's THE COMPLETE CLARINET PLAYER Omnibus Edition from 1986 and A. Magnani's Complete Method for Clarinet in Two Books. Since there were no YouTube tutorials back then, and I didn't have the time to take lessons from a qualified music teacher, the learning process was quite slow and lengthy.
Of course, no virtuosity was achieved but after much practice, I managed to play it with limited proficiency, enough to carry me by when I had to perform in public for a musical play.
I don't remember the name of the show but I do recall I had two solo numbers with a piano accompanist: As Time Goes By and St. Louis Blues.
My clarinet kit.
The clarinet is no longer functional for lack of proper maintenance; however, I still keep it for nostalgic reasons and am planning to buy me a new one someday soon. Playing the clarinet along with Goodman and Shaw's recordings used to be a very pleasant pastime years ago and I hope I can indulge myself once more.
