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[[image - black and white drawing of a man and woman, signed Hirschfeld]] [[caption]] Tracy and Hepburn in Woman of the Year [[/caption]] "The catalyst that sends me to the blank piece of paper is the same impulse [the playwright] went through writing the play"--Al Hirschfeld he says. "I never thought about my age until recent years. I'd always been the youngest person wherever I went. I got used to that because, as a young man, I was associated with much older people. I was art director of Selznick Pictures when I was 18. I was always 'that young kid.' My intimates called me Babe in those days. Suddenly, I'm no longer the youngest man in the room. I'm old--not just old, either. I'm the oldest wherever I go. I went to an old folks' home not long ago to give a lecture, and I was the oldest one there ." At 17 Hirschfeld made his first career move, running errands in the art department of Goldwyn Pictures for four dollars a week. Howard Dietz, who ran the department (and would later run MGM's where Hirschfeld free-lanced a good 20 years), spotted the young man drawing in his spare time and asked him to draw an ad. "It was like James Montgomery Flagg, that kind of crosspatching drawing. I had no opinion about it. Back then, I wanted to be a painter or sculptor, and this was a way of making a living." His switch from advertising to editorial caricaturing occurred--"like most of the things in my life, by accident"--in 1926 when he accompanied a publicist friend, Richard Maney, to see Sacha Guitry in a play. Maney noticed Hirschfeld making rough sketches on the PLAYBILL during the performance and, impressed, suggested that he transfer the drawings to a clean sheet of paper, and he would peddle them to the various newspapers around town. The following Sunday Hirschfeld debuted in The New York Herald Tribune. A few weeks later, Arthur Fallwell (who ran The Trib's drama department) phoned to see if Hirschfeld would be open to other assignments. A simple Yes! "'We don't pay for it, however,' he told me. 'The producer pays for it. You just bill the producer. It's ten dollars a column. We'll give you four columns.' For a year and a half, I did drawings not only for The Trib but also for The Telegram, The Mirror-Post, and The Brooklyn Eagle." The New York Times, which has been Hirschfeld's primary base since the late twenties, finally put its ora in via a telegram from Sam Zolotow, requesting a drawing of Harry Lauter in one of his "farewell" tours. Hirschfeld did as directed and left the drawing with The Time's doorman. [[image - color drawing of a woman in the arms of a beast with copyright 1994 AL HIRSCHFELD]] caption for images]] Although he is known primarily for stunning black and white drawings, such as Tracy and Hepburn in Woman of the Year (above) Hirschfeld's Beauty and the Beast (below) is one of the artist's many vibrant color illustrations 18 continued on page 48 [[end page]] [[start page]] [[advertisement]] PARLIAMENT Lights [[image - color photograph of a Parliament cigarette box and a cigarette]] THE PERFECT RECESS [[image - color photograph of a man and woman wearing swimwear poolside]] copyright Philip Morris Inc. 1998 D1 8 mg "tar," 0.7 mg nicotine av. per cigarette by FTC method [[box]] SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide. [[/box]] [[/advertisement]]
