HERB MOSKOVITZ

Herb Moskovitz is an arts coordinator for the Philadelphia Recreation Department and a theatrical designer. He is a charter member of the International Carl Barks Fan Club.

A Birthday in Duckburg

One happy day in 1996, I was invited to help Carl Barks celebrate his 95th birthday in Baltimore. The party was held on March 27, 1996, right on Carl's birthday.

I arrived in Baltimore around noon and I decided to look for the Diamond International Gallery where I was told many of the lithographs of Carl's paintings were on display.

I found the Gallery easily enough, but they were open for the press only. I later learned that they were busy entertaining the press from 7 in the morning to just moments before the guests arrived at six o'clock.

But for the few seconds I was in the Gallery, I felt as if I was in King Solomon's mines. I saw an original painting of "The Sheriff of Bullet Valley," as well as a sculpture of the same scene, and a sculpture of "Jungle Safari" with $crooge and his nephews riding a charging rhinoceros. This looked far more promising than the lithographs I was expecting.

Back at the hotel, Becky Hoff, a friend from Seattle called. She suggested we meet for a light lunch in the hotel restaurant. We met in the hall and went downstairs. As we entered the lobby a couple crossed our paths. The woman was wearing a Donald Duck patch and I commented that here was somebody else coming to wish Carl a happy birthday.

Becky and I sat down and were chatting when the couple returned to the lobby area and asked if they could join us. The man seemed embarrassed, but we assured them that any friend of Carl's is a friend of ours. They were Pat and Shelly Block. Pat draws and writes. Shelly writes and works with schools and libraries teaching that comics have educational value and are often a door to more serious reading. I could see that one of the major advantages of coming to this birthday party was the opportunity to meet people and make new friends. Shelly later showed us an autograph book she has to collect drawings and autographs of cartoonists.

Around six o'clock we went over to the Diamond International Gallery for a cocktail reception. First we went into an area where posters, books, pins, etc. were being offered. "The Barkster" sculpture, a statue of a Barks duck holding a drawing pen was available for a special birthday party price.

In the Diamond Gallery, we saw that they had gathered one hundred and four of Carl's original works. These ranged from the very first drawings that Carl submitted to the Disney studio when he was looking for a job, to the complete pen and ink story of "North to the Yukon" to watercolors and oils of the ducks done for fans, to oils done for lithographs. There was also a healthy selection of comic books including a number of premiums and giveaways from Firestone.

Many of my favorite paintings were there: An Embarrassment of Riches, Golden Fleece, Hands off my Playthings, July Fourth in Duckburg, Afoul of the Flying Dutchman, Wanderers of Wonderlands and Sailing the Spanish Main. Although I have seen a number of lithographs and own two myself, I wasn't prepared for the luminosity of the original oils. They positively glowed.

There were also a number of non-Disney oils and watercolors that Carl did during a period when Disney withdrew permission. One of these was a Porky (Pig) of the Mounties. Some of the paintings answer the question, "How would famous figures of history have looked if their genes had been mixed with those of waterfowl? The non-Disney works were being incorporated into a new book, Animal Quakers, published by Gemstone Publishing.

I don't know what I enjoyed more, seeing paintings I was familiar with in their original incarnation, or seeing works that I had never seen before. Before I arrived I had no idea that we were going to be in for such a treat.

As we roamed the Gallery I asked the Reverend Ed Bergen, "Is this what heaven is like?" The Reverend Ed replied, "It is... for Barks lovers."

There were also quite a number of sculptures, porcelains and bronzes. Usually the sculpture was displayed with the oil that had inspired it close by, so we could inspect the creative process used to interpret the ducks from one medium to another.

Carl sat down at a table in the beautiful library of the Diamond Galleries where he greeted guests and signed personalized autographs on lithographs to be inserted into the Animal Quakers books.

We boarded buses to go to the Birthday Party Dinner at Liberatore's Restaurant. In honor of $crooge McDuck, Carl's most famous creation, the tables were decorated with centerpieces of either mining cars or wheelbarrows. Carl had signed each centerpiece. There were lots of gold coins strewn about the tables. These were the best kind of gold coins: the kind that were really chocolate.

Stephen Geppi, Chief Executive Director of Diamond International Galleries greeted the guests. He introduced Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois and Boner's Ark. Mort was the founder of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA). The proceeds from the event went to the IMCA.

Mort presented Carl with an IMCA award which featured $crooge McDuck. Mort then showed a movie that gave us a fascinating glimpse of the opening of the museum in early March. Carl Barks artwork is featured prominently in the museum, as well as numerous other examples of Disney art.

Before dinner was served, Reverend Ed Bergen gave a most appropriate prayer.

I sat at a table that included three $crooge collectors: Michael Naiman, Pat Hanifin and Becky Hoff. If you put all of our $crooge collections together they still wouldn't equal the collection of the ultimate $crooge collector, Wes Plumbtree. Wes unfortunately was unable to make it to the party.

Carl also received an E Award from the Diamond International Gallery celebrating a lifetime of excellence in the arts.

The Birthday Cake featured $crooge's Money Bin with figures of $crooge and his nephews.

Stephen Geppi owns two original drawings that Carl Barks submitted to the Disney studios in 1935 as samples of his drawing ability. The drawings show Mickey and Minnie having adventures during a stagecoach ride out west. Stephen allowed the works to be reproduced in a limited edition of 120 sets of prints. Each guest received a set of the prints. Quite a souvenir!

The next morning the Diamond Gallery served brunch to the guests. The gallery was less crowded and this allowed the guests to view the works with more leisure and comfort. Afterwards my friends and I just hung out and talked. Becky and Pat casually mentioned that we were meeting with Carl's managers, Bill and Kathy, and Carl himself later in the afternoon. What a pleasant surprise!

I told my friends how I had bumped into Carl in a clothing store on Main Street in Walt Disney World in 1994. He was buying a pair Donald Duck socks and I told him I had just found a pair of Uncle Scrooge socks in the Antique and Collectible show of the Disneyana Convention. Carl replied he would like a pair of $crooge socks.

When I was invited to the party I decided I would give Carl the socks as a birthday gift.

When we arrived at Carl's suite he was busy signing the lithographs for the Animal Crackers book. He was very energetic, showing no signs of having overdone things the night before. He was wearing a white shortsleeve shirt, a black tie and a casual blue zippered vest. Bill and Kathy greeted us. On the dining room table we saw a number of gifts that Carl had received. Among them were a couple of bottles of wine from Duckburg and a toilet paper holder with duck feet. A Scandinavian friend had sent a basket of various varieties of herring. I was searching my brain for a Barksian reference to herrings but was coming up blank when Bill assured me there was no reference. Now if it had been horseradish....

I presented the socks to Carl. He was delighted to receive them. Becky had brought a bottle of wine and wineglasses and Bill and Kathy quickly set up things so we could all toast to Carl's health.

I was wondering if it would be appropriate to take photos, but Kathy seemed to read my thoughts and suggested we have a photo session before we sat down to chat. Bill posed us and took pictures of Carl, my friends and me with every camera in the room. Kathy and Bill have an incredible eye for detail. When I was photographing some of Carl's birthday gifts, Bill rotated a wine bottle so that the better side was showing. When Bill was photographing me with my friends and Carl, Kathy straightened my tie.

Becky asked Carl how he felt seeing all of his works together in one room. He said he hadn't seen many of them for twenty years. He was painting them for fans in those days and often finished a painting in ten days. Because the fans were so anxious to receive them quickly, he sometimes sent them newly framed but with the paint still wet. Since Carl was using inexpensive Mexican frames the fan would often decide to have the work reframed. But then the paint would come off with the old frame. So the fan would send the painting back to Carl for touch-ups.

Carl also commented that when he looked at things he had painted twenty years ago, he was sometimes amazed that he could once paint so well. We all assured him that he still paints that well. (Most artists I know are very critical of their work that has just been completed but look more kindly on things they haven't seen for a long time.)

Becky then read a poem to Carl that she had written in honor of his birthday. The rest of the conversation was just general chitchat. We talked about Pat's career as a stand-up comic and his fanzine, The Duck Hunter. I told Carl how Pat sometimes sells an item for less than he paid for it and how I once created a letter that purported to have come from Scrooge McDuck himself, telling Pat that after all those years of reading Uncle $crooge comics he didn't understand why Pat didn't realize the number one rule of finance is to "Buy Low and Sell High." We then talked of Bill and Kathy's parrot and the cat I named after Glittering Goldie and her kitten, Nugget.

Writer John Lustig showed Carl some of the wickedly funny satires of Love Comics he has created and Carl got some good laughs out of them. I was glad that we could give Carl a few good laughs, after all the years of laughter he has given us.

I noticed that Carl wasn't wearing a Disney character watch. I asked him if he didn't have a Donald or a $crooge watch. He said that he did, they were in the bedroom, but his ninety-five year old eyes appreciated the ease his very basic analogue watch with large numbers provided.

Towards the end of our visit, Becky asked Carl if there was anything he wanted. He thought for a minute and then said he would like some good ideas for a few more paintings.

The thing that impressed me the most about him was that through most of our "Tea" with him, he kept turning the conversation to Pat, Becky, John and my own interests and away from himself. He was genuinely interested in us, our interests and our lives.

Barks arriving at his birthday party

Becky, Pat, Barks, Herb, and John

A version of this article was first published in the magazine Magical Moments and Memories. © Herb Moskovitz