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Chico Marx & Concertina Sculpture


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Years ago, I posted this image here.

 

post-65-1149626568.jpg

 
It is a drawing by Al Hirschfeld of the Marx Brothers. Groucho being Groucho, Harpo playing (with) a harp, and Chico playing... a concertina??! I still haven't found anyone who can link Chico to the concertina. Apparently it was just easier to include in the drawing than a piano.
 
My uncle, Sam Goldstein, is 97 years old (he'll be 98 in another month and a half). He has a hobby of making sculptures out of soldered copper wire of line art by recognizable artists. Here he is with some of his renderings of Hirschfeld and Dr. Seuss drawings.
 
04_1.jpg
 
He's always looking for new projects, so last month, his daughter (my cousin), Laurie, asked me if there was a drawing I'd like him to do for me. I showed her the above, and also a version with everything photoshopped out of it but Chico and the concertina.
 
Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We spent the afternoon and evening at Laurie's house an hour and a quarter down the river from here. Sam was there and presented me with this:
 
Sam's%20Chico.jpg?raw=1
 
Thank you, Sam.
Edited by David Barnert
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Years ago, I posted this image here.

 

post-65-1149626568.jpg

It is a drawing by Al Hirschfeld of the Marx Brothers. Groucho being Groucho, Harpo playing (with) a harp, and Chico playing... a concertina??! I still haven't found anyone who can link Chico to the concertina. Apparently it was just easier to include in the drawing than a piano.

 

Take a look at this c.1936 photo David, which is evidently linked to Al Hirschfeld's drawing: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm577015552/nm0555597# But the instrument in the photo (a cheap German concertina) is obviously only a prop because only four out of the eleven buttons are left on the end showing, and he's holding it upside-down...

 

And congratulations to your uncle, Sam Goldstein, on his delightful sculpture!

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Thank you, Stephen. I've been wondering about that since the drawing appeared in Hirschfeld's obituary in the New York Times in 2003.

 

I'm going to link to the photo here, so everyone can see it without having to click the link.

 

chicoconcertinaphoto.jpg?raw=1

 

Notice the position of Chico's left hand (reminder for the non-doctors in the group, that's the one on the right). It's identical in the photo and the drawing.

Edited by David Barnert
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I'm going to link to the photo here, so everyone can see it without having to click the link.

 

MV5BMTc0Njc3NDc2OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTkz

 

 

Normally I'd have saved the photo to Photobucket and displayed it here that way David, but there's 1978 copyright claimed on it (though the photo was taken about 1936 - so I'm not sure how that works!) so I just provided a link to where it can be seen...

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Normally I'd have saved the photo to Photobucket and displayed it here that way David, but there's 1978 copyright claimed on it (though the photo was taken about 1936 - so I'm not sure how that works!) so I just provided a link to where it can be seen...

 

But I didn't save it to Photobucket, and I didn't upload it to concertina.net's servers. I just opened a window so we can see it where it resides on IMDB's servers.

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That didn't work so here you go:

 

 

MV5BMTc0Njc3NDc2OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTkz

 

 

It DID work. I saw it, and from his comments, I assume Stephen saw it, too. But I don't see it now. Neither do I see yours.

 

Of course, the most important thing about Hirschfeld's concertina is that's where NINA resides.

 

Mike

 

Yes. I didn't have the heart to tell Sam he left that part out.

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What I saw/see in your post and Steve's quote was/is part of the address of the image. Based on that I assumed you made a cut/paste mistake and left out the image tag. I still see mine but that's probably loaded from cache. I assume IMdB has some sort of protection against hot linking images. Many sites have that.

 

See if this works :

 

tumblr_lqej7dMB4p1r1x0ppo1_400.jpg

Edited by Peter Laban
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As I said, I am getting a defense against hot linking images. I see part of the address but when I made my previous post I had a closer look and noticed that line of text acts like a link. While it looks you made a cut/paste error, it actually isn't. When right clicking that part of your post and >view image I reach this :

Referral DeniedYou don't have permission to access "http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc0Njc3NDc2OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTkzNTgxMw@@._V1__SX1194_SY631_.jpg" on this server.Reference #24.d4a8869f.1449048562.11d89df8

The denial may be location related to location, at least that would explain why you can see it and Steve and I, both in Co Clare, can't. But then again, I can still see the image I linked the first time. So maybe it's all a bit strange.

Edited by Peter Laban
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