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| Flip Wilson by Bill Utterback |
Bill Utterback (1931-2010) was, beginning in the early nineteen sixties, Playboy magazine's resident caricaturist, and was also considered by many to be the most popular caricaturist living in Chicago. In fact, he was often cited as "The Hirschfeld of the Windy City".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Utterback
In the seventies, his caricatures of "Second City" comedian/improv cast members graced the lobby bar of the legendary Second City Comedy theatre in Chicago, where many famous comedians first got their start.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2010/02/12/second-city-caricaturist-is-dead
Beginning in the early sixties and lasting into the seventies, Utterback contributed a regular black and white caricature that would appear in Playboy's offshoot magazine "V.I.P., The Playboy Club Magazine":
Playboy published V.I.P. (Very Important Playboys) as a way of keeping members of the Playboy Club informed about all things Playboy. In particular, the magazine let members know which entertainers were due to perform at their various Playboy clubs. Many of the portraits would then hang in the Playboy clubs.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2010/02/12/second-city-caricaturist-is-dead
Beginning in the early sixties and lasting into the seventies, Utterback contributed a regular black and white caricature that would appear in Playboy's offshoot magazine "V.I.P., The Playboy Club Magazine":
Playboy published V.I.P. (Very Important Playboys) as a way of keeping members of the Playboy Club informed about all things Playboy. In particular, the magazine let members know which entertainers were due to perform at their various Playboy clubs. Many of the portraits would then hang in the Playboy clubs.
I've long enjoyed these elegant, (and in some cases, very sexy) lush, B&W watercolor caricature portraits of various "hip" comedians and singers (some still famous, some totally forgotten). Bill Utterback also created (full color) caricatures for the popular annual Playboy features "That Was The Year That Was" and for their "Playboy Jazz/Pop Poll"
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| Henry Mancini for Playboy The caricatures he created for V.I.P. magazine have rarely been seen, outside of subscribers to V.I.P.(which no longer exists), and to member's of the Playboy clubs. So, if these fabulous drawings are new to you, enjoy! Some samples of Utterback's annual All-Star Bands from Playboy: |
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The 1967 Playboy All-Star Jazz band   The V.I.P. drawings... |
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| Joan Rivers |
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| Jackie Mason |
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| Beverly Saunders |
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| Shelley Berman |
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| Florence Henderson |
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| Donna Theadore |
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Bobby Sargent |
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| Michael Dees |
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| Diahann Carroll |
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| Misty Walker |
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| Vic Damone |
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| Lonnie Shorr |
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Teri Thornton |
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| The Everly Brothers |
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| Mort Sahl |
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| Liza Minnelli |
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| Flip Wilson |
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| Flip Wilson II |
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| Jackie Curtiss |
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| Sammy Davis, Jr. |
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Sonny & Cher |
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| Tiny Tim |
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| Gabriel Kaplan |
wow. i could look at his stuff for hours.
ReplyDeleteGREAT !
These are wonderful! I've never seen them before. That's what I get for not being a Very Important Playboy.
ReplyDeleteJackie Curtiss was the primary booker, ontop of being a comedian hismelf, for the Playboy Club(s) for several years.
ReplyDeleteI like this blog because it's funny, it salutes great artists of the past, and it even occasionally introduces me to someone I didn't know (or fully appreciate) before. What's a Bill Utterback? I couldn't have told you, but I remember the Playboy jazz poll caricatures, not that you mention 'em.
ReplyDeleteJeez, these are beautiful. Even the ones I don't know here have a specificity about them that tells you it looks just like that person - whoever he or she is. (I first saw Peter Lorre, Edward G. Robinson and Charles Laughton in Bugs Bunny cartoons when I was five. Those caricatures were SO vivid and specific that I knew them instantly later, when I started watching classic films.)
Utterback's style reminds me a little of Al Kilgore. Also, I have a theory: You're not officially a caricaturist until you've done at least one Sammy Davis Jr.
Um, I meant "now that you mention 'em."
ReplyDeleteRackin' frackin' typos...
Mike, all good points but I did mention his Playboy jazz/pop caricatures in the text.
ReplyDelete