“Can you find all the Nina’s?“

I remember my first Al Hirschfeld drawing. It was his illustration of magician Harry Blackstone, Jr.  A budding magician myself, my parents drove us to West Point Military Academy in 1981 to see his full-evening show on the stage of the Eisenhower Hall theater. As memorable as the show was (a lightbulb floated out, illuminated, over the heads of the audience!), equally memorable was the playbill.

There on its cover was Blackstone, captured by Hirschfeld’s pen, five Nina’s hidden away in a pigeon’s tailfeathers. There were just enough pen strokes in the drawing to capture the essence of the subject, no more and no less. As I write this, it reminds me of my high school English teacher who said that the Red Badge of Courage contained precisely the number of words necessary to deem it a great American novel, no more and no less. Hirschfeld’s illustration of Blackstone did the same sort of thing, but with lines.

I became fascinated by Hirschfeld’s work, and over the years have been collecting both originals, lithographs, and gicleé prints by Hirschfeld. The crowning glory was when, in 2000, Hirschfeld did an illustration of me.

Ace of Hearts, signed for me by Al Hirschfeld in his studio, August 27, 2000

What an honor – I’ll explain the whole experience in another blog post, including the unveiling at Margo Feiden’s gallery on Madison Avenue (she’s since moved to a townhouse downtown).

What I’d like to do here is record every magician that Hirschfeld drew, to my knowledge. Some are professional magicians, some are amateurs. Some I have scans of, and others I don’t.

UPDATED ON MAY 29, 2019 WITH AN ADDITIONAL IMAGE I’VE LOCATED,

THANKS TO READERS OF THIS BLOG.

Magicians captured by Al Hirschfeld’s pen:

Houdini

David Copperfield

David didn’t like the original Hirschfeld illustration for his Broadway show “Dreams and Nightmares” (pictured above) so he commissioned Hirschfeld to create another one:

Penn & Teller

Harry Blackstone, Jr.

Doug Henning, in the Broadway musical Merlin

Doug Henning, in The Magic Show

Ricky Jay (w/ David Mamet)

Orson Welles

Danny Kaye (also an amateur magician)

Cary Grant (on board of directors of the Magic Castle, Hollywood, CA)

Johnny Carson (known as the Great Carsoni, early in his career)

Woody Allen

Harry Lorayne

Harry Anderson, with cast of Night Court

Steve Martin

Dick Cavett

Alan “Ace” Greenberg (of Bear Stearns)

Milton Berle

Dom DeLuise

Tony Curtis, with Janet Leigh, Houdini movie

Ray Bolger, as a bumbling magician

Avner the Eccentric

Bob Fitch

Jason Alexander, with cast of Seinfeld

Jackie Gleason, with Art Carney

Dick Van Dyke

If you know of others, please contact me. My goal is to list every known magic-related Hirschfeld illustration.

The post Al Hirschfeld’s magicians – UPDATED appeared first on Chamber Magic.

Cole Porter’s piano – a small mahogany Steinway with Louis XVI courtly figures – is on display in the Park Avenue cocktail terrace of The Waldorf-Astoria. If you’re a Cole Porter fan, it’s definitely worth a visit. He composed many of his most famous songs on this piano, including I’ve Got You Under My Skin. 

Al Hirschfeld illustration of Cole Porter

Porter gave the piano to the hotel as a gift in 1939, and kept it in his suite until his death in 1964. There were actually two pianos in his suite, positioned curve to curve, so that two players could face each other while playing.

Here’s a floorplan I found online of suite 33A (click the image to enlarge):

Cole Porter kept two cats in this apartment for a while, one named “Anything” and the other one “Goes.” The cats reportedly never left the luxurious confines of their Towers suite.

Suite 33A was in the news in 2008 when it was put up for rental at $140,000 per month. Of course, that rental comes with twice-daily maid service.

Back to the piano. Cole Porter’s piano features double Empire-style legs, intricate hand carvings and decorative paintings. The keyboard lid is kept locked, so you unfortunately can’t tickle the ivories during your visit. However, I’ve heard pianist Daryl Sherman play this piano during her long tenure as the Waldorf’s pianist, and it sounds magnificent. The talented Ms. Sherman was kind enough to entertain over a hundred guests at my book launch party for Win The Crowd several years back.

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