The King of Funk: James Brown & The Cape Routine

Growing up in the 1960s, I saw a lot of the Sunday night television program, “The Ed Sullivan Show.” I was eleven years old when James Brown appeared on the variety show in 1966. I’d never seen anyone perform like him before. He just came all apart on stage. He sang and sweated and scooted [...]

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Annie Leibovitz Shoots the Obamas

The White House has released the first official – and wonderful! – family portrait of President Barack Obama and his family. The photograph, taken by famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, was shot in the Green Room of the White House on September 1, 2009. It shows a happy First Family, from left to right, the [...]

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Dalí Atomicus

After meeting in New York in 1941, surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and Latvian-born photographer Phillipe Halsman began a three-decade partnership. The most notable and iconic of their projects is this playful tableau, “Dalí Atomicus,” in which Dalí, his canvas, furniture, cats, and water all appear suspended in air. It took 28 takes to complete the photograph, each time throwing [...]

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Al Hirschfeld: Looking for Nina

Albert “Al” Hirschfeld ( 1903 – 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his simple black and white satirical portraits of celebrities. He had the unique ability to capture a person’s likeness with few and simple lines. His eight-decade career included drawing the entire casts of Broadway plays to include alongside reviews in The [...]

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Queen Elizabeth with 12 U.S. Presidents

In February 1952, Princess Elizabeth was touring Kenya with her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh when she received the bad news that her father, King George VI of Great Britain, had passed away. Thus, at the tender age of 25, Elizabeth ascended the throne to become Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, [...]

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I Love Lucy: Lucy Meets Bill Holden, Part 3

Readers: Read the two previous posts before continuing:  “I Love Lucy: Lucy Meets Bill Holden, Part 1″ “I Love Lucy: Lucy Meets Bill Holden, Part 2″ Doll maker Mattel has immortalized some of Lucy’s most famous roles by creating a line of collector Barbies. Mattel no longer makes the dolls but they are widely available [...]

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I Love Lucy: Lucy Meets Bill Holden, Part 2

*Readers: If you haven’t already done so, read “I Love Lucy: Lucy Meets Bill Holden, Part 1″ before continuing.  In my last post, I revealed that my absolute favorite “I Love Lucy” episode is  “L.A. at Last!” and showed you a video of the first half, the famous scene when Lucy and the Mertzes spy actor Bill [...]

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I Love Lucy: Lucy Meets Bill Holden, Part 1

Everybody has a favorite “I Love Lucy” episode and this is mine: “L.A. at Last!”* Lucy’s husband Ricky Ricardo is filming a picture out in L.A. and has taken Lucy and the Mertzes out to California with him. This scene opens with Lucy, Fred, and Ethel out star hunting. They are having lunch at the Brown Derby, a popular haunt [...]

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The Duke and Duchess of Windsor: We Are Not Amused

Photographer Annie Leibovitz doesn’t talk to her subjects when photographing them. “I certainly can’t talk to people and take pictures at the same time. For one thing, I look through a viewfinder when I work.” (1) But famed photographer Richard Avedon had a different style. Leibovitz observed that Avedon “seduced his subjects with conversation. He had [...]

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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Master of All He Surveys

The portraits of Arnold Schwarzenegger by Annie Leibowitz represent a long collaboration. The two first worked together in 1975, when Arnold was competing in the Mr. Olympia body-bulding contest in South Africa. Arnold was 28 then and had already won the contest five times. It was this Mr. Olympia competition that formed the basis for the [...]

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1936 The Year of the Three Kings

The year 1936 brought many changes within the British monarchy. In January of that year, the first monarch of the House of Windsor, King George V, died and his son, Edward VIII ascended the throne. King Edward VIII though was not destined to rule long. He had a married American mistress – Wallis Warfield Simpson – who was [...]

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