In my book, THE ME GENERATION... BY ME (GROWING UP IN THE '60s),
which you should buy already, I talk a lot of cartooning and doing caricatures during my teen years. I went through a real Al Hirschfeld period. He was the caricaturist of the NEW YORK TIMES for sixty years.
Once I got to the UCLA campus radio station KLA (all of this great stuff is in the book) I did the posters for them. I was so terrible on the air I probably would have been fired had I not been able to draw.
Anyway, one of my KLA colleagues, Sharon, recently unearthed a couple of the posters. So I thought I'd share them today.
This was for a concert we presented. Since everyone knows exactly what each member of the Grassroots looks like, you can see how expertly I captured them all.
Likewise, you know all of these people of course. By the way, Bill Pearl became Billy Pearl (a very successful disc jockey in the '70s who wound up on KHJ), Steve St. John became Steve Weed (a long time successful program director and jock with stints that included WXLO New York and KIIS Los Angeles), Don Enright became a well-known TV and movie producer, and Vincent G. Thomas is Tom Greenleigh who went on to own radio stations.
I haven't drawn in a few years. Maybe I'll pick it up again. Let me know if you have a concert you want promoted.
21 comments :
Where's Nina?
Y'know, that caricature with the DJs is really well done - the swirls in the design lead the eye around the drawing, the poses are excellent, and I love the little visual joke of the microphone cable becoming smoke.
To hell with concerts, Ken -- if you get into this again, draw caricatures of your fellow baseball broadcasters and maybe some players. Or atrocious ballpark fans!
"I was so terrible..."
Say what? I remember you as the second best jock at the station.
Who knew that Jim Jones worked at KLA pre-Kool Aid.
You were damn good, Ken. Any other art lying around? I'm sure we'd all love to see it.
Sitcom writer, baseball announcer, and now I find out you can draw.
Your life is like a list of things my 17 year old self (also my 37 year old self) would have loved to have been able to do.
It's a good thing I'm mentally balanced and mostly happy with my life as is and you seem like a good guy who worked hard and is deserving of your success or this blog would be creating a psycho stalker situation. It'd be like a Lifetime movie but for men.
Is one of the Grass Roots caricatures THE OFFICE's Creed Bratton? He was in the group from its inception till 1969.
Was Don Enright the son of Dan Enright, notorious for his role in the quiz show scandals of the 1950's with the program TWENTY ONE, but whom with his partner Jack Barry (felt to have miminal involvement or knowledge of what went on) returned in triumph during the 1970's with THE JOKER'S WILD and TIC TAC DOUGH?
Wow! That's how I broke into radio. KERN's mid 70s music survey was "The KERN Super Comics." My first radio gig was drawing the comics when the regular artist went on vacation. For no pay. But it did give me total access to the radio station. I hung around (pestered everybody) enough to finally be offered a weekend overnight shift.
I like them! Grassroots appearing in PARKING LOT 8, for $1/ticket! Reminds me that Led Zeppelin appeared in the Seattle area in the late 60s, as an opening act for 3 Dog Night. Tix: $2.50.
You can sketch during the Mariners' AB, cuz nothing is going to happen on the field, then.
I like them! Grassroots appearing in PARKING LOT 8, for $1/ticket! Reminds me that Led Zeppelin appeared in the Seattle area in the late 60s, as an opening act for 3 Dog Night. Tix: $2.50.
You can sketch during the Mariners' AB, cuz nothing is going to happen on the field, then.
Yesterday, while watching the Pirates/Houston game, their analyst, Bob Walk, mentioned that so and so (the pitcher), had better 'tend to his knitting.' Don't believe I've ever heard that line during a baseball game. See if you can work that one into your lexicon. Along with 'knit one, pearl two' perhaps?
Hmmm. What to say, what to say. Bill Pearl has left his law practice and now operates a website called LBReport.com. The "LB" stands for Long Beach. He operates it by himself. His wife, Sharon Katchen, formerly of KFWB news radio, used to help him with it but now she works for a councilperson in Long Beach. Pearl is, well, somewhat controversial in the town, often allowing one side of an issue to be voiced while purporting to be a news site. He has very thin skin when it comes to criticism, and has launched more than one investigation against an online competitor, whom he refused to acknowledge by name. When the young co-founder of this competitor was recently killed in an out of state automobile accident, Pearl published a third party investigation into the crash and steadfastly refused to publish the nameofhis competitor, which is the LB Post, by name. Pearl was hoping to show the late co-founder was somehow responsible for his own demise.
I would imagine most people in Long Beach would refuse to believe Bill Pearl was anything other in his life than a political curmudgeon.
That signature positively defines the rococo period!
Great art - they look just as fuzzy as ever. I totally wore out my vinyl "Grass Roots" album back in the day.
And then later stack parked in Lot 8 as a student at UCLA. Who knew those were related until today?!
Thanks Ken! There really are no accidents, only cosmic fender-benders!
The great thing about The Grassroots is even they didn't know how to spell their name. On some albums it's one word, on others two.
Return to your draw job, Ken, that's good stuff.
Maybe draw sketches at the ballparks you visit, such as a great catch against the wall in left field.
Have you ever done a drawing of the Cheers cast?
The first commenter alluded to it, but man, you could earn a fortune as an Al Hirschfeld forger.
I'll second what the others said. You weren't kidding about the Hirschfeld influence. Is there anything you can't do?
Purl two, BTW.
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