Volume 16–1.pdf

10
Rex Harrison, The Fighting Cock," 1959.
back by boat to The New York Herald
Tribune. He also wrote and illustrated
a book on Soviet theatre
which was unforgivably lost by an
American publisher, Boni and
Liveright.
He has trouble remembering
when his fluid linear style was
developed. It was probably sometime
in the late '20s or early '30s
and was definitely a response to the
constraints of the media. "It
asserted itself after many years of
trial and error..." recalls Hirschfeld,
"I discovered that the safest way to
reproduce on the toilet paper that
newspapers are printed on—which
they haven't improved since the
process was invented — was to stick
with pure line. I kept eliminating
and eliminating, and getting down
to the bare essentials. I still do,
in a way."
While plying his craft as a
caricaturist for many New York
newspapers during the early '30s,
he co-edited, with Alexander King, a
satirical journal called Americana,
which included contributions by
Nathaniel West, e.e. cummings,
George Grosz and S.J. Perelman.
With Sid Perelman a
"mutual admiration society" developed.
They wrote a musical
together and, later, a successful
book. The musical called "Sweet
Bye and Bye,' was their first collabo-
Lillian Gish, "The Trip to Bountiful," 1953.
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Sammy Davis, Jr., Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Laurel and Hardy, John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn (date unknown).
ration, and had lyrics by Ogden
Nash, music by Vernon Duke, and
sets by Boris Aronson. A great combination,
yet a memorable disaster.
"Sid and I were the culprits:' recalls a
bemused Hirschfeld. "We wrote a
musical about the future. Well, you
can do that visually. But the thing
that didn't work was the music. How
do you write music for the future?
I mean, these fellows (the composers),
naturally want to get their
stuff played. But once you start
being satirical about music, you're
out of business:' Shortly after their
flop, Perelman and Hischfeld had
lunch with Ted Patrick, the brilliant
editor of Holiday Magazine, who
suggested that the duo travel
around the world and record in picture
and word their experiences.
They agreed, since, "after this
stinker we had to leave the country
anyway." And within a week the idea
was also signed on as a book for
Simon and Schuster. The wonderful
expedition lasted two months, and
the resulting Westward Ha! became
a runaway bestseller.
Hirschfeld did drawings for
most of the major American magazines,
including Life, The Saturday
Evening Post, The American Mer-
cury, and TV Guide. For Collier's he