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Beautiful. Like a German expressionist painting. Lotte Lenya was married to Kurt Weill who wrote “Three Penny Opera” with Bertolt Brecht. Lotte played the main role of Jenny in the original staging. Fyi, she was also in the movie “From Russia With Love”. Thanks again to Kerstan for sending this in.
Artist and underground comic legend Robert Crumb created some great lp covers beginning with the classic cover illustration for Big Brother and the Holding Company’s “Cheap Thrills” album and including many for his own jazz band the “Cheapsuit Serenaders. Crumb amassed a world-class collection of rare 78 records and the Serenaders play classic jazz from that era. Here’s one on Blue Goose Records courtesy of frequent contributor and cover afficianado Kerstan Reineke.
Anything on Dig Records is cool. “Wiggin with Wig” The Gerald Wiggin’s Trio. I think Johnny Otis started the Dig Label and he’s the producer here.
“How To Speak Hip” Mercury Records (1959) Brian Wilson reportedly was a fan of this record and listened to it during the recording of Pet Sounds. (This is born out in excerpts from the Pet Sounds session outtakes where he makes reference to the album.) Del Close also put out the very funny “Do It Yourself Psychoanalysis Kit” record.
Del was one of the founders of Second City, performing with folks like Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Harris and Joan Rivers in the early “Ëœ60s, eventually leaving Chicago to do a stint with the Committee (and folks like Howard Hesseman) in San Francisco in the ’60s. While on the West Coast, Del was a regular on My Mother the Car and had a recurring role on Get Smart. And in his spare time, he used to do light shows for the Grateful Dead.
In the early “Ëœ70s he directed Second City, and discovered John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis, Betty Thomas, George Wendt, Tim Kazurinsky and John Candy; most of them still consider Del their most important teacher.
The words creative genius may be bandied about far too frequently, but in Del’s case, they truly apply. Del remains an incredibly important figure in American comedy/improv, and his influence will long live on. He was undoubtedly the best (and most influential) improv teacher in the U.S., and traveled all over giving his workshops. He didn’t invent improv, but he is probably most responsible for making it into its own art form, particularly with the work he’s done in long-form improv in the past 20 years.
Del Close died March 4, 1999 at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. He was 64. Del’s Will was fairly straightforward, but there was one odd provision. He bequeathed his own skull to the Goodman Theatre, to be used in their productions of Hamlet, with him getting a credit in the program.
This one came with a “magic witches wand” that glows in the dark. I like the simple, childlike illustration on the cover. Kind of an unusual one for collectors of all things “monster,” “horror,” “witchcraft,” etc.
This is beautiful. A 1950’s piece of art from Bogota, Columbia and the Sonolux label.
