Friday, June 24, 2016

Fun Finds: Italian Caricature Cards, 1971.

Sometimes we wonder if the roller coaster of life will ever slow down enough to where we can take the time necessary to delve into one of the posts that is on deck, but never permitted to come to fruition! Work is still as busy as ever (and thanks to someone recently giving two weeks notice, is about to become even worse!) and evenings have been sucked up by a landslide of activities. I've been in rehearsals for a theatre excerpt which performs this weekend at a regional convention. So I'm going to be out of the loop for several days.

To bridge the gap a little, I'm sharing these cards. From a series called Once Upon a Time, they are from 1971, made in Italy, and feature caricatures of some of the movies' biggest stars. I actually am not a huge fan of caricatures as a rule. The artists always seem to zero in on some distinctive aspect of a face and distort it, often in an unflattering way.  My grandmother used to get so upset at newspaper political cartoons that offered up grotesque renditions of our Presidents. (I'd die if someone did one of me and can never understand why people go to theme parks and pay to have one done! LOL) Some of these are more flattering than others.  I believe only one of these folks is still alive today, though many of them were at the time of release. This collection isn't even half of them if the numbers on them are any representation. I'm presenting them in numerical order.






































3 comments:

angelman66 said...

Very strange indeed, but fascinating. Caricatures can be so grotesque, and as you said, you never know how the artist will see YOU. Two of the screen's greatest beauties, Elizabeth Taylor and Greta Garbo, are among the most hideous here! Crawford and Hedy Lamarr must have had perfectly symmetrical bone structure to get off so easy...

You are right, Miss Maclaine is the only one who is still with us. Not very flattering of her either!

Another amazing curio from the Cabinet of Dr, Poseidon! Keep em coming!!
-Chris

Gingerguy said...

Super strange. I was fascinated, most really do look like the person. For some reason they reminded me of the "Monty Python" animation I thought was so weird when I was a kid. Good luck on all your endeavors Poseidon and thanks for this bit of ephemera.

Poseidon3 said...

Angelman, I felt EXACTLY the same as you about how Liz and Greta came out (Ava isn't much better... the teeth!!) as well as Joan and Hedy (and Shirley.) LOL about the "Cabinet of Dr. Poseidon!" Hilarious....

Gingerguy, you're right! I had several friends who were in to Monty Python and I never was, which left me in the dark whenever they'd begin to quote all of it and fall to the floor laughing.