For those who google today on their computers, IPADs, IPhones or other forms of technology, they will see a picture of "The Addams Family", made famous by cartoonist and illustrator Charles Addams. Addams would be 100 today (he was 76 when he died), so Google is honoring his centennial with an assortment of information readers can browse about the artist, who is described as “ghoulish, macabre demonic, depraved bizarre, eerie, and weird to describe his work and the characters therein. Adorable, sweet, charming, humorous, enchanting, tender and captivating are also adjectives used to describe the same body of work, as well as the man himself, the extraordinary artist Charles Addams. His rare gift was the ability to enjoin such dichotomies in wonderfully crafted cartoons and drawings loved by millions worldwide.”
The morbid character in the 1930s worked in the layout department for True Detective magazine retouching photos of bloody corpses that appeared in the magazine. Addams had to remove the blood, a task he found disappointing. He also started to work for The New Yorker, where many of his artistic pieces became famously known.
Addams’ personal life may have caused a macabre environment for himself. His second wife, Barbara Barb, whom he married in 1954, was a calculating lawyer who controlled his television and movie deals and took out a $100,000 insurance policy. It is believed that her looks resembled Morticia, the wife of Gomez in the Addams Family TV series and that her “plot” was similar to actress Barbara Stanwyck’s role in the classic film noir “Double Indemnity”; where she commits adultery and convinces the insurance agent she runs with, played by actor Fred McMurray, to murder her husband. Addams divorced his wife two years later.
Michael Cavna, writer for the Washington Post, had this to say about Addams in his article “CHARLES ADDAMS GOOGLE DOODLE: Spooky ‘Addams Family’ logo celebrates macabre cartoonist”: “Addams’s sly, morbid wit shined brilliantly through his sometimes darkly Gothic cartoons. He was Poe if the “Raven” writer had been a master gag-man. Among the monikers attached to the irrepressible Addams were “the graveyard guru,” “the Bela Lugosi of the cartoonists” and “the Van Gogh of the Ghouls.”
Charles Addams’ creation of the TV series “The Addams Family” was very popular and ran for two seasons (1964-1966). The program concentrated on two characters, husband and wife Morticia (played by actress Carolyn Jones) and Gomez Addams (played by actor John Astin). The wildly weird, ghoulish and wealthy couple also had an assortment of other bizarre characters in their dark mansion that included their children and other relatives, a Frankenstein-like butler, cannibal eating plants, wild animals and a hand in a box called "Thing". The “normal” world outside their atmosphere was considered abnormal to them, which was mysterious to outsiders who visited and indicated an eeriness of immortality.
The wealth of the Addams Family for mortals has turned into a lucrative business development which includes other television shows, movies, animated cartoons, pinball and video games, and advertising. A Broadway musical is now on tour called “The Addams Family – A New Musical Comedy" that started in 2010. Actors Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth played Gomez and Morticia; the 2011 tour replaces the 2010 stars featuring actors Roger Rees and Brooke Shields. The tour of the new musical will be in Baltimore, Maryland at the Hippodrome Theatre March 6-18, 2012 and in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center Opera House beginning July 10-19, 2012. Check www.addamsfamilytours.com and www.broadwayacrossamerica.com for more details. The tour’s website gives the following description -
“THE ADDAMS FAMILY" features an original story, and it’s every father’s nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. A man her parents have never met. And if that weren’t upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before — keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.”
Charles Addams has been celebrated in Westfield, New Jersey, his birthplace and the home he lived in for 27 years is currently up for sale. The website www.nj.com has details on Addams and photos of his home for prospective buyers. There was also an Addams exhibit of many of his illustrations at the Museum of the City of New York in 2010. Despite his macabre reputation, his artistic talent is a joyful celebration for all.
Comments