The Best Of Everything

Quick Draw

Celebrity caricatures and clowns are Hy Vogel's claim to fame.

once called "The
... One with Durante and part of his
right then and there ...
can't,'" said
Man of a Thousand Faces"
nose ... and another with the rest of
Hy. "I've got butterflies in my stom-
... But it had nothing to do
Durante's nose.
ach. Can I start tomorrow?'" ... After a
with the way he looked.
About Bob Hope, Hy said his nose
good laugh, the Detroit News editor
In his prime, Hy Vogel put more
tilted up like a hockey stick, and he
agreed to let the job-seeker start the
faces on canvas in one week than Jack
was one of the most stubborn men Hy
next day ... Hy agrees that his new
Dempsey and Joe Louis did in their
had ever met.
request could easily have cost him the
entire boxing careers.
Of John Barrymore, he says
job he wanted so much ...
For over 47 years, Hy was resident
that while drawing him, the
and needed.
caricaturist at the famed London
Great Profile looked straight
An explosion at the Den
Chop House in downtown Detroit on
ahead and seemed more inter-
of 40 Thieves ruined all of
Congress Street ... and its prior loca-
ested in telling Hy, "You know,
his works when firemen
tion and names ... He had been with
I used to be a cartoonist. Yes, I
trampled on the fallen glass
owner Les Gruber since 1940 ... draw-
used to make S15 a week.'"
frames.
ing everybody within eyeshot of his
Hv remembers starting at
After the explosion, it
palette ... who were always lined up
Les Gruber's Den of 40 Thieves
became London Bar ...
waiting for their names to be called.
on Broadway ... He had left the
and when the restaurant
DANNY
Now living at Fleishman Residence
World's Fair and Chicago,
moved to the Murphy
RASKIN
in West Bloomfield, Hy recently cele-
where Hy did caricatures of
Building on Congress, it
brated his 99th birthday ... and still
radio personalities who worked Local Columnist was originally to become
remembers so many celebrities whose
there, to do caricatures for the
Gruber's Chop House ...
colorful caricatures lined the ceiling
Detroit News.
But instead was named
beams at the internationally known
He had been told to go to the
London Chop House.
London Chop House..
News, but didn't want to because they
In the meantime, Hy had gone to
On the walls at his Fleishman
already had an artist ... and Hy always
Ft. Worth, Tex., to do caricatures for
Residence apartment are pho-
hated being turned down... But he
a newspaper there ... Les Gruber
tographs of Ed Wynn, Buddy Lester,
went anyway... and did the likenesses
wrote him a letter that all the pic-
Jerry Colonna, Bob Hope, Sylvia
of Hershel Hart, Ty Tyson and Rex
tures had been ruined ... and could
Sidney, Woody Herman, Jimmy
White After seeing them, White,
he come back.
Durante, John Barrymore and Hank
who was editor, asked him to start
Hy says that when he walked
Greenberg.
downstairs, a shock
A scrapbook shows the
wave of tearful joy
front pages of the Detroit
greeted him ... There
News in 1934 ... with cari-
on the walls leading to
catures of Detroit Tigers
the restaurant were his
players ... Another front
ruined " caricatures ...
page is of Max Baer and
As a coming home
Primo Camera before
present, Gruber had
their heavyweight boxing
them cleaned up and
bout.
reframed.
Hy used to sit all
One afternoon,
evening drawing pictures
recalls Hy, a man sitting in a
of customers who came to
booth asked to talk to him ... A
the London Chop House
waiter came and said, "A cus-
... including so many from
tomer wants to know if you can
the worlds of show busi-
paint clowns' ... Hy went over
ness, sports, politics, high
to the head of Stouffer's and said
society, etc.
that he could ... "I'm a clown
His studio was a table
collector,'" said the man, an
at the Chop House ...
I'll buy all that you can paint'"
beneath beams lined with
... Hy could see that the cus-
several hundreds of Hy's
tomer had once been a clown.
caricatures ... mainly
• Even though he had told the
celebrities.
gent that he could paint
In some of the carica-
clowns, Hy had never painted
tures he drew were stories
one before ... and went to a cir-
... Hv liked to read faces ...
cus that was in town .. strictly
In jimmy Durante, he saw
to do portraits of clowns ...
a sense of humor ... Jimmy
Why not start with the top
loved the wonderful carica-
Hy Vogel shown with some of his works; his caricatures
one? he asked himself .1. and so
ture Hy put in two frames
.decorated the old London Chop House.
his first subject was Emmett

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