Shinbone Alley" (illustration)

No place, 1957. Original caricature by George Wachsteter (1911-2004) of the 1957 Broadway musical Shinbone Alley, starring Eartha Kitt, published in the New York Journal American on April 11, 1957. Co-written by Mel Brooks in his first Broadway book credit, Shinbone Alley was a stage adaptation of Don Marquis' popular Archy and Mehitabel tales, featuring a philosopher-poet cockroach "who had to express himself or die," and his muse, a free-spirited alley cat. Though Shinbone Alley ran only for forty-nine performances, the show was well-received: New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson wrote that composer George Kleinsinger "improvised an animal and insect world out of music with humor, drollery, street tunes and juke-box pandemonium." Wachsteter's vibrant image centers Kitt as Mehitabel, dancing in the sparkly tabby-patterned bodysuit that earned costume designer Motley a Tony nomination. Behind her is Eddie Bracken's Archy, hoisting a giant pencil to erase a line on his typewriter, the running gag of a small bug struggling to manipulate the machine's keys and platen. Archy is flanked by Erik Rhodes as Tyrone Tattersall and Ross Martin as the Lightening Bug. Along with Al Hirschfeld, Wachsteter was one of the most visible American theatrical caricaturists of the twentieth century. His humorous and elegant line drawings of stage, radio, television, and film performers appeared on the major networks and in newspapers across the country, before the gradual loss of his vision ended his career prematurely in the late 1960s. A graphically dynamic original Broadway illustration. Pen and ink with Benday tinting on illustration board, image measuring 12.5 x 16.5 inches on board measuring 15 x 20 inches, matted to 17 x 21 inches. Signed "Wachsteter" in lower right image. Publisher's pencil notes in margins, portion of original printing order sheet from the New York Journal American partially mounted and folded on verso, tissue overlay folded over verso for matting. Small, mostly marginal ink soiling at bottom. With: clipping of the published appearance.