Fanzine 137. Ladies & Gentlemen (Vol. 1) page 89
Published summer, 2008
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Liza: Minnelli On Minnelli 1999 Pen & ink drawing and watercolor on artists’ board and hand-signed limited-edition lithograph |
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Liza came to my Gallery wanting Hirschfeld portraits of herself, of her family, and of her family’s friends. Her list of Hirschfelds she wanted included the likes of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin and, of course her godfather, composer Ira Gershwin. (Liza gets her name from the Gershwin song of the same title). Liza certainly was a child of Hollywood. But perhaps the most memorable part of this story unfolded when I told Hirschfeld of Liza’s budding collection of his work. “You know,” he recounted to me, “they used my address in the song.” “What song?” I asked, “And what address?” “Oh,” he said, “you know, you knowthe one about the boyfriend!” Elucidation: Liza’s parents, Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli, fell in love while filming the movie, Meet Me In St. Louis. In the introduction to her song “The Boy Next Door,” Garland laments that the boy she loves never notices her, even… “Though I live at fifty-one thirty-five Kensington Avenue / And he lives at fifty-one thirty-three” In a nod to their good friend Al Hirschfeld, the writers used Hirschfeld’s actual boyhood address! |