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The Chip Board Archive 23

MORE CUGART CARICATURES IN COLOR, and ANSWERS

http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2012/12/who-hell-is-dining-at-melvyns.html

"Dining At Melvyn's" was a large panoramic mishmash drawn by "The Rumba King", Cuban bandleader/caricaturist Xavier Cugat created when Melvyn Haber ("Mr. Palm Springs") opened the restaurant in 1975. Melvyn's continues to be a popular Palm Springs restaurant/tourist stop, and this piece featured many of the new "regulars", or at least 1975 Palm Springs regulars. A print of the art still hangs there above the men's room urinal. Some of the caricatures are clearly identifiable (thanks to his basing them on Al Hirschfeld caricatures), some continue to baffle to this day. Cugat took his master list and the mystery to the grave with him in 1990. People have debated this for years.
The best I can make out:
Top Row: Possibly John Carradine, Abbey Lane or Charo (both Cugat wives), the artist himself-Cugat, Liza Minelli, Phyllis Diller, possibly Ernest Borgnine, or, a restaurant bouncer?, the following the most confusing of all: possibly Eddie Fisher and his latest squeeze, or, as some have speculated, restaurant owner Melvyn's "agent" with his girlfriend, although why a restaurant owner would have an agent is confusing, and finally possibly Melvyn himself?
Row 2: David Niven, Tony Bennett, Buddy Hackett, Liberace, Charles Bronson, Jerry Lewis (some had guessed Clark Gable, but ears way too small and he was long deceased)
Row 3: John Wayne, Hugh Hefner, Katherine Hepburn, Danny Kaye, Jackie Gleason, Barbra Streisand
Row 4: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Sonny and Cher, Sammy Davis Jr. (??), Alfred Hitchcock (via Hirschfeld), Anthony Quinn, Frank Sinatra
Bottom Row: Rex Harrison, Kirk Douglas, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, Danny Thomas and Groucho Marx (what, no Zeppo who lived in Palm Springs?)

Messages In This Thread

GAME: Name the celebrity on the Agua Caliente menu
11: Eddie Cantor?
Guesses: 15-Milton Berle, 71-Orson Welles
28 looks like Joe E. Brown
Is 32 Judy Garland?
Looks Like Carol Channig To Me
yes, 32 looks like Carol Channing
No:Carol Channing was 13 years old in 1934
83 Laurel and Hardy
3 Marx Brothers
21 Paul Whiteman, 85 Ethel Barrymore --List SO FAR
Re: 21 Paul Whiteman, 85 Ethel Barrymore --List SO
Big guess-- Louis B. Mayer. 87
That pencil mustache---Paul Lukas 34
34. Xavier Cugat
30. Eddie Duchin? List so far
My guesses !!
51: Leo Carrillo ?
Caricitures could be better. Answers so far.
7: a strong Cugat (Carmen Miranda should be there)
55: good profile of George Gessel ?
The 2nd scan, bottom right table ...
89. Jack Warner
MORE CUGART CARICATURES IN COLOR, and ANSWERS
8 looks like Dustin Hoffman, 7 Faye Dunaway?
Re: MORE CARICATURES - Brown Derby
thanks, nice

Copyright 2022 David Spragg