"mademoiselle colombe"

Edna Best, Sam Jaffe, Julie Harris, and Eli Wallach, 1954

“The first intimation that I had created a Frankenstein’s monster was the incredible response I received the first time I deliberately left Nina’s name out of a drawing. Mail descended on me from all over, demanding where it was; most letters contained a copy of the drawing with imaginary NINAs circled for positive identification! The next folly I committed was the unpardonable error of acceding to a request of Nina’s to put her girl friend’s, LIZA, in a drawing (Liza was the daughter of the critic Louis Kronenberger). All hell broke loose when it appeared microscopically the following Sunday in the Times. Flowers and telegrams arrived, congratulating my wife and me on the new arrival! Walter Winchell wrote in his column, “The Hirschfelds are infanticipating.”

Al Hirschfeld