When Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) died this year, a piece of entertainment history died with him. He wasn't an entertainer in the way we usually think of entertainers -- as performers -- but he entertained millions of fans nonetheless with his caricatures of the most famous people in show business. From Liza Minelli to Bogey and Bacall, he drew them all with his characteristic elegant lines, and anybody who was anybody wanted to be drawn by him. Hirschfeld would have been 100 on June 21 this year. In 2000, in honor of the bicentennial of the Library of Congress, Hirschfeld donated many of his works, augmenting the Hirschfelds already in the collections. An exhibition was mounted called Al Hirschfeld: Beyond Broadway. It featured many of the lesser-known works of this American master. It also offered new opportunities for lovers of his work to find the "Ninas." Beginning in 1945, he began hiding the name of his daughter in his drawings. The number following his signature indicates how many times her name appears in a drawing. There is one "Nina" in Hirschfeld's representation of Billy Graham, above. Can you find it? There are five "Ninas" in the other drawing. |
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