D R E W • F R I E D M A N

Monday, May 20, 2013

Joey Adams Wrote A Lot Of Books

The late Borscht Belt comedian Joey Adams (Joseph Abramowitz, 1911-1999) was a sometimes vaudeville, nightclub and TV comic, stage actor, comedy/joke/gag writer, comedy/showbiz historian, novelist, film actor, newspaper columnist, radio host, dial a comic, Friars club Roastmaster, husband to society/gossip columnist Cindy Adams, friend of politicians... and most prolifically, an author of many, many books.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/03/arts/joey-adams-88-veteran-borscht-belt-comic.html

Here's the proof, some with various covers, most if not all now long out of print...

My portrait of Joey & Cindy Adams from "Even MORE Old Jewish Comedians"

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners" caricature

Jackie Gleason by Sam
Berman

In Oct 1955, The Honeymooners starring Jackie Gleason as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden debuted as a weekly filmed sitcom on CBS television, Saturdays at 8.30. The show lasted only one year, producing 39 episodes ("The Classic 39") before it was canceled by CBS (finally trounced by the Perry Como show on NBC). The Honeymooners is of course now considered a television comedy classic, arguably the funniest show ever.

William Golden, the creator of the iconic CBS "eye" was their creative director in the fifties and hired a number of top illustrators and designers to create artwork on behalf of the TV network. Included among them was fashion illustrator Rene Bouche who created a portrait of Jack Benny that would become the famous opening logo for The Jack Benny Program, and the famed caricaturist Sam Berman, the creator of the opening caricature sculptures for the 1937 screwball film comedy classic "Nothing Sacred", who would draw a circular wide-eyed Jackie Gleason head inside the Moon, rising above Brooklyn to the strains of Gleason's "You're My Greatest Love" at the beginning of each episode of The Honeymooners...

For years I speculated about who the artist was who drew that iconic caricature, yet, typically, no artist credit was ever given for the image in the show's closing credits, nor in any of CBS's Honeymooners publicity. There has also never been a single reference or mention of who drew that iconic image in any Jackie Gleason biographies or Honeymooners books, nor in any caricature or television history book. Apparently, not even worth researching.

I've blogged at length on the career of the once celebrated, now long forgotten artist Sam Berman and based on his distinctive, lush yet economic style and his work for television advertising/publicity in the fifties, all indications finally pointed to him clearly being the artist. With the confirmation of caricaturist historian Zach Trenholm, (and, to my knowledge), for the first time I'm disclosing it here.

All about Sam Berman, and his incredible 1947 "NBC Parade of Stars" promotional booklet...
http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2011/06/sam-berman-1947-nbc-parade-of-stars.html

The Honeymooners...

The moon rises above Brooklyn...

evolves into Sam Berman's Jackie Gleason caricature...

fades into Gleason's name...

and the show's titles

Sam Berman at work

preliminary drawing of

Frank Sinatra by Berman, in a similar

economic style to the Gleason caricature

William Bendix as Chester A. Riley by Berman.

Jackie Gleason played Riley

in the original, pre-Honeymooners "The Life

of Riley" TV series

a more recent Honeymooners comic book featuring a cover by Jack Davis and the (re-drawn)

Berman/Gleason caricature used as the logo

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Rene Bouche's Jack Benny portrait and more

Rene Bouche (1905-1963) was a renowned 20th century fashion illustrator working for decades for various publications, primarily VOGUE, where he rendered many cover images. He also drew, in his loose, sketchy and elegant style, a number of celebrity portraits and advertisements for magazines. In the early 1950's he was hired by CBS's creative director William Golden to create portraits of their current stars to be used for advertising and promotional materials. Among these drawings was possibly what would become his most iconic image, a charcoal/marker & gouache silhouette of a relaxed Jack Benny. Benny was so taken with the drawing he used it for his TV show opening and closing and as his official logo throughout the rest of his career.

Read about the origin of the Jack Benny illustration here:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/the-creative-integrity-of-william-golden-17171.html