Something funny is going on over at the Pearly Gates in the CartoonStock Caption Contest #138. My three entries may be seen below. The drawing is by David Borchart.The contest was extended an additional week after this posting, to my surprise.
"Why can't I be in front for just HALF of eternity?" "Last name first?" "It turns out they DO shoot horses."
September 28, 2021 Update:Lawrence Wood, in his caption contest commentary, mentioned one of my entries. This is the thirteenth time he's done this.
I wrapped up my Al Hirschfeld posts neatly and tied them with a bow on Sunday well in time for his birthday, which fell yesterday, on Monday. Yet after ten years of writing this blog, I continue to be surprised by the high quality work that comes my way when I least expect it. By now, I should know better and be ready for it. This time it was Scott Burns who sent me his copy of another early Hirschfeld book with yet another magnificent self-portrait. But that's not all. Scott writes:
I’m probably late to the party but here’s another nice self-portrait of Hirschfeld. His first book Manhattan Oases (1932), unfortunately not in the best condition. Also something you don’t see often. A color insert in the May 3, 1943 issue of The Hollywood Reporter promoting the MGM musical “Cabin in the Sky” featuring Lena Horne and Duke Ellington.
You're not late to the party at all, Scott. Hirschfeld's work is worth remembering on his birthday because it's worth remembering every day. I'm pleased to continue the Hirschfeld celebration beyond his birthday with these images.
As a historical note, Prohibition was still in force in 1932 when Hirschfeld published Manhattan Oases, his book on speakeasies. But it was getting old.
It's evident that Hirschfeld's movie work is every bit as vivid and expressive as his theater work:
Al Hirschfeld "Cabin in the Sky" (1943)
Jim Henry's Paradise
"Cabin in the Sky" (1943)
Note: I am grateful to Scott Burns for sharing scans of his wonderful Hirschfeld book. There's nothing like the posts of the last few days to convince me that I should have devoted some of the 1980s to hunting down Hirschfeld with old books for signing. But I was busy then, as I recall, and that kind of advance planning is really not my way, even today. For the record, I also think the "Cabin in the Sky" art is fantastic and my thanks extend to that as well.
Today Tom Bloom provides us with a scan of a first edition of The Lorax (1971), Dr. Seuss'sinfluential children's book warning of the dangers of plundering our environment. The Lorax, as Tom likes to remind me, holds pride of place up in the header of this blog, a quotation from the book filling the space where a blog description is meant to go. The Seuss quotation is, I think, a delightful but ultimately imperfect choice on my part. It is intended by the good Dr. Seuss to be a criticism of unbridled commercialism. In the context of this blog, though, any contemplation of the market's supposed excesses is necessarily tempered by a certain wonderment with the many unique items out there. To wit:
The Lorax (1971) Dr. Seuss
Scan by Tom Bloom
I do have a runner-up quotation in reserve. It is for use in the unlikely event that I'm ever willing to part with the Lorax. It's the "Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson, verse XXIV from A Child's Garden of Verses.
"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
This is such a positive ideal, but I'm afraid in the context of this blog it could be perceived as too materialistic. Stevenson's "things" I take to be much broader than the physical objects in any of my blog posts; he is asking us to seek happiness in all the world's wonders and not just, say, in first editions.
Note: My thanks to Tom Bloom for the scan, which makes me happy as a king. Tom just helped out in identifying one of the New Yorker Profiles illustrators in my post on Hendrik Willem van Loon, so by my reckoning we are now at his thirteenth contribution to this blog.
Here's how the quotation that appears above all my posts appears in the book:
Surprisingly, my adopted quotation actually does not occur in the animated television special that served as my own first encounter with the Lorax. It has been rewritten (by Dr. Seuss himself, I believe). You may view it at 6:13 in the video. "The birth of an industry! You poor stupid guy: You telling me what the public will buy?" That variant, alas, will never appear in my header.
