Tranquilli, nessun allarme, per una volta; in questi momenti “complessi”, per così dire, a fine 2011 un Maestro americano che abbiamo rammentato di recente, età 93, ancora danza.
E ricorda, sul New York Times, la sua felicità quando, un giorno di settembre del 1955, cominciò a disegnare la striscia Dondi.
Dalla striscia venne ricavato il film omonimo, Dondi, il cui tema musicale ho “ficcato” sopra, in un estratto della pellicola, che si avvaleva degli attori David Janssen, Patti Page, Arnold Stang e del piccolo David Kory, non esattamente un bambino prodigio nella recitazione…
Qualche passo dell’articolo che riguarda Irwin, redatto da Corey Kilgannon:
Mr. Hasen lives alone, and the centerpiece of the apartment is his small, cheery bar, at the ready with Scotch and martini mixings. He never married or had children. The strip was like a son.
(…)
Just as Dondi never aged, Mr. Hasen, by his account, has still never grown up. His height, or lack of it, kept him out of combat in World War II. With the women, it both helped and hurt. “To this day, I have no idea why they liked me, but they did,” he said. “Being short, that was my shtick.”
Instead of family pictures, his walls are covered with his sketches of the naked likenesses of his girlfriends. It is his favorite topic, all the girls he’s loved, and all the joy and regret they left him with. “She was a fling,” he said pointing to one. “That’s the one that got away,” he said of another.
One illustration depicts a veritable harem of past girlfriends — all tall, buxom and naked. Drawn tiny in the corner is the laughing Mr. Hasen, bringing in a tray of martinis.
E qua sotto il link con il video, non embeddabile:
