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October 26, 2001

A RARE WEST COAST exhibit of the works of Al Hirschfeld opened last evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.  It's free, it's there through 1/20/02 and you can get the hours (and a sneak peek at a few choice items) by clicking on this link.  If you're in New York and want to glimpse Hirschfeld originals, you can o.d. at the Margo Feiden Gallery, which is on Madison Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets...plus, Mr. Hirschfeld has been so prolific that there are a number of theaters and libraries around Manhattan with semi-permanent exhibits.  Indeed, it is not at all difficult if you're on that island to get a glimpse of originals by the one and only Al Hirschfeld.  But an exhibit in Los Angeles is a rare treat and for Mr. Hirschfeld, age 97, to take the train out to appear at last night's opening is even rarer.

A packed house — the theater seats 1,012 — enjoyed film clips and listened intently as Robert Osborne conducted a warm, informative interview with the world's greatest celebrity-renderer.  (It's a little difficult to hang a more specific job description than "artist" on what Hirschfeld does.  He doesn't cotton to the term "caricaturist," while "cartoonist" seems woefully inadequate.)

One drawing that is not included in the new exhibit is the above rendering of the operator of this website, the original to which is huge and on my wall.  In 1992, a TV producer for whom I'd worked arranged as a "thank-you" present for me to meet and sit for a caricature by the esteemed Mr. Hirschfeld.  The drawing, complete with three NINAs secreted in my hair, turned out to be the second-best part of the gift.  To spend an afternoon with the man was even better.

I arrived at his home precisely at 1 PM, as instructed, with photos I could leave for his later reference.  It turned out there had been a miscommunication — he thought it was 2:00 and was out — but that was okay.  I spent a lovely hour chatting with Dolly, his wife of more than 50 years, and a former actress whose career dated back to D.W. Griffith.  (Dolly has since passed away and Al has remarried.)

When Mr. Hirschfeld arrived, apologizing profusely and needlessly, he led me up four floors of stairs (it felt like nine) to the studio where he draws in his trusty barber's chair.  There I sat, self-consciously, as he did a few sketches of my puss.  Having spent much of his life drawing in dark theaters, he never once glanced at the pad of paper, but I did.  The roughs, in dark pencil, were dead-on as caricatures but decidedly more angular and exaggerated than his familiar style.  I asked and he explained that they were only for him — he almost never allows his roughs to be seen — and that, when he does the finished work, he "pretties up" his subjects.  "People would kill me," he explained, "if I drew them in print the way I draw them in my quick studies."

We spoke very little of cartooning and indeed, his studio was largely devoid of the kind of books, paraphernalia and even art supplies I have seen in every other cartoonist's work space I've visited.  One section was taken up with antique shadow puppets; another, with theatre books and memorabilia.  Apart from the barber chair and drawing table, the only clues as to the occupation of the resident were a small shelf of pens, pencils and bottles of ink, and a large pile of the oversized illustration boards on which he likes to work.  Having been informed I was versed in comic and cartooning lore, he offered that he was utterly naïve about the field.  He knew of Charles Schulz, Jim Davis, Garry Trudeau, a handful of political cartoonists...and absolutely no one else then drawing funny pictures for a living.  This was said, I thought, with a sense of distance.  People often asked him about others who output line drawings, particularly of celebrities, but he simply didn't feel he had anything in common with them.

Most of the afternoon, we spent discussing theatre and the then-recent "Rodney King" rioting in Los Angeles.  The former was what I wanted to talk about and he indulged me with some first-hand anecdotes about George S. Kaufman and Frank Loesser.  The latter was what interested him.  He said he'd read all the newspaper coverage but didn't trust what they said and wanted the impressions of someone who actually lived in Los Angeles — an interesting request from a man who had then been on the payroll of The New York Times for close to seventy years.

I allowed myself a few geeky, fan-type questions, one of which was, "Is there any one actor who was especially fun or challenging to draw?"  His answer on both counts — and I'm sure it was an answer he'd given before to an oft-asked query — was Zero Mostel.  "It was always a challenge to try to draw someone who was, as a person, more exaggerated than what I do."  A few years later, I got a very similar answer when I put the same question to Mort Drucker, considered by many to be the best caricaturist of another generation.  (Mr. Hirschfeld said that folks kept mentioning the name of Drucker to him, but he was unfamiliar with the man's work.)

Mainly, I just found Al Hirschfeld to be a charming, delightful gent.  Last night, at the Academy, 1000+ people found that out, as well.  It's nice to see a man honored like that at what I'd like to think is the mid-point of his career.

By the way: If you are interested in purchasing signed lithographs or originals by Mr. Hirschfeld, you can contact his agents, the Margo Feiden Gallery at — you're way ahead of me — www.alhirschfeld.com.  There are also some wonderful pieces available for viewing on that site if you just want to Windows™-shop.

NOT MUCH TO SAY about the big Anthrax story except that there is one good cure for a lot of the panic currently gripping the nation.  It's called, "Not watching the news."

IGNORE WHAT I SAID a few weeks ago here about the new DVD release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  This is not the "restored" version (which is not really restored) that was released on Laserdisc a few years ago, though it contains some of the same special features, including trailers and the "Making Of..." documentary.  The version of the film on the DVD is...well, let's run through this again and I hope I get it right...

The film, as released in November of 1963 in selected cities was 192 minutes long.  This includes the overture and entr'acte music.

Around a half-hour was then cut for the nationwide general release.  This version was either 161, 162 or 163 minutes, depending on who was running the stopwatch.  Again, the overture and entr'acte music are included in that total.  (Like the version above, this one was on 70mm film.)

The first 35mm version was then mastered for general theatrical release.  This one was without the orchestra and entr'acte music and lost one or two short scenes, as well.  It clocked in at 154-156 minutes and was the version initially released on home video and used for most TV prints.  Producer-director Stanley Kramer was sometimes quoted as preferring this version, explaining that the studio had pushed for a box office spectacle.

A few years ago, a fake "restored" version was released on Laserdisc and VHS, and run occasionally on Turner-owned TV networks.  This one incorporated deleted footage (i.e., footage that was never in any theatrical release) and came in at 186 minutes.  Some of the added material consisted of alternate takes for scenes that were cut after Version #1.  Other scenes were ones that Kramer himself cut before the film's debut.  Whatever, it was generally misunderstood to be a version in which someone had re-inserted all the material that had ever been excised.  Not so.  Almost none of the new footage was ever in the above two versions and many, many scenes were absent in any form, including a choice one involving a split-screen phone call between Spencer Tracy and Buster Keaton.

The new DVD features, on one side, a good print of the 154-156 minute version.  Flip the disc over and, among the special features you'll find is a whole mess — an hour or so — of deleted scenes.  They are not in sequence and some of the picture quality varies.  I haven't waded through them all yet but it would seem to be everything they could find, as of the DVD's mastering.  (A rumor I cannot corroborate says that even more lost footage has since become un-lost.)

Video and audio quality are quite good, so I would say that this DVD does the film justice and is the best-possible product that could be issued at this time.

I still love this movie but I do not disagree strenuously with the criticisms that my pal Andy Ihnatko voices in his review of the DVD.  It hasn't been posted yet but it should turn up any day on Aaron Barnhart's splendid site, TV Barn, which you oughta be visiting anyway.

MEDIA ALERT:  My friend Bob Elisberg informs me that, this Saturday at 5 PM, Turner Classic Movies is presenting a special 40th anniversary broadcast of West Side Story.  Says Bob, "They're promoting it as having new interviews with many of the surviving participants that they'll run before and after the movie."

WHO SAYS Broadway is suffering?  The producers of The Producers are going to mark up the price of certain of their best seats, all the way from $100 to $480.  This is, they say, a way to combat scalpers.  Details are here but since it's a New York Times link, you have to register (it's free) and it may expire soon.

A FOLLOW-UP on our item about the World Trade Center being quietly removed from Conan O'Brien's set: The facade of the New York, New York casino depicts scaled-down versions of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and other major Manhattan landmarks.  So do they now have to remove the W.T.C.?  No.  The World Trade Center was never part of the tableau, apparently because the planners felt that the Twin Towers would present certain design problems.  So they just omitted them...and now, the depiction of N.Y. is sadly accurate.

JUST ADDED a column here called "The Rules," giving ten tips about working in the comic book field.  But most of them apply to any kind of professional writing.  Here's that link.

LASTLY: This is to inform all that, effective as of last week, I am no longer one of the owners of the restaurant known as Hamptons Hollywood Cafe in the great state of Hollywood.  Nor will I probably be dining there in the future, either.  (It's a long story...)

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