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CNN Sunday Morning
Al Hirschfeld Continues Creating Art at 98
Aired January 20, 2002 - 08:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Finally, now, a man who draws great inspiration from plays and stars. You've seen these cartoons, right?
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Of course I have.
O'BRIEN: The deal is to count the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), right?
CALLAWAY: Right. Which is (UNINTELLIGIBLE), right?
O'BRIEN: It's great, entertaining fun.
CALLAWAY: All right. Here's CNN's Phil Hirschkorn introducing to the...
O'BRIEN: Hirschfeld. Hirschkorn on Hirschfeld.
CALLAWAY: Hirschkorn, yes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL HIRSCHKORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Name a major musical or play of the past 70 years, and Al Hirschfeld has drawn it and its stars. "Guys and Dolls," "West Side Story," "Peter Pan," "Rent." Hirschfeld and Broadway, synonymous since the 1930s. A performance mostly on the pages of the "New York Times."
AL HIRSCHFELD, ARTIST: We just shook hands some 70 years ago, and I'm -- only two years ago they wanted a contract. And I said, "You must be kidding."
HIRSCHKORN: Hirschfeld is 98 years old and still working. Alone on the top floor of his Manhattan townhouse, Hirschfeld creates his art. Nearly 100 Hirschfeld works are on display in a retrospective at the Museum of the City of New York; the city his family moved to in 1914.
HIRSCHFELD: We arrived at Penn Station, took the Amsterdam Avenue streetcar to the end of the line. There was a little frame house with a top floor for rent. My mother went in and rented it; it was $4 a month. And all around were apple orchards.
HIRSCHKORN: In magazines and books, Hirschfeld chronicled the changing city. Sidewalk cafeterias, where people met for lunch. Night clubs, where bartenders stayed in business during prohibition. Couples, strolling the streets of Harlem. World War II soldiers at a dance. His breakthrough happened by accident. When Hirschfeld sketched a well-known French actor on a program, a friend got it published in a newspaper, and Hirschfeld drawing theater, was on his way.
Playwrights became friends. From Eugene O'Neill to Arthur Miller. Composers, like the Gershwins, his subjects.
HIRSCHFELD: Years ago, there would be maybe three or four openings in one night. Now it's lucky if we get two openings a month. I rarely agreed with the critics.
HIRSCHKORN: But he didn't tell them what to write, and they didn't tell him what to draw.
ANDREA HENDERSON FAHNESTOCK, CURATOR, MUSEUM OF CITY OF NEW YORK: I think to have been drawn by Al Hirschfeld is a huge feather in your cap.
HIRSCHKORN: Andrea Henderson Fahnestock is the show's curator.
HENDERSON FAHNESTOCK: Well I think his daughter was born in 1945, and shortly after her birth -- as kind of a joke really -- he put her into one of his drawings.
HIRSCHKORN: Nina (ph) became a signature. Hirschfeld, hiding her name in the lines of his drawings. Clueing in readers how many times the name was there.
HIRSCHFELD: I did it just to herald her appearance on this planet. And I had no ulterior motive in doing it. I didn't think anybody would notice it. And after a couple of weeks, I thought the joke wore thin and I left it out. And I started getting calls and telegrams from across -- from Alaska.
HIRSCHKORN: New York has been providing inspiration, from the subways to the hot dog stands to the World's Fair. The city's cultural icons, his focus. Stars of film, of television and the stage, whether that's Carnegie Hall or Broadway.
(on camera): The hardest thing isn't the execution for you, but it's making up your mind what personality trait you want to depict.
HIRSCHFELD: That's correct, yeah. A lot of them are like blotch. You know, they don't register.
HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): When we visited Hirschfeld, he was working in the same barber chair he's used since 1954. He was drawing the four women who star in the HBO sitcom "Sex and the City."
HIRSCHFELD: Well, a lot of editors want a little color in it. And recently it's changing. It always changes. You have to roll with the punches, you know.
HIRSCHKORN: Hirschfeld has no idea how many drawings he's done over the years; certainly, thousands. Retirement is not on his agenda. Both of his parents lived into their 90s. Staying active, he believes, is the key.
HIRSCHFELD: Yeah, I think longevity has to do with genes. But I do think it doesn't hurt to be -- I know that I would be bored if I didn't have anything that I was really interested in that I'm -- I work seven days a week and I love it.
HIRSCHKORN: Hirschfeld's past is on display, but he's not looking back.
HIRSCHFELD: I'm only interested in the present. You always feel that the drawing you're working on is the best drawing you've ever done. I think what I'm doing now is better than I did last week.
HIRSCHKORN: Phil Hirschkorn, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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