In this segment, a faux Vincent Price is reading Maggie a bedtime story in rhyming couplets ala Edward Gorey extolling Bart's misdeeds during each month of the year. This is not the first time The Simpsons have honored Mr. Gorey with an animated segment - see my post from October 13, 2018 for the Too Short Story.
To view The Telltale Bart on YouTube, go HERE.
As a way to re-energize myself and reconnect with my collection, I created this Goreyana blog on October 5, 2008. My intention was to show pieces from my collection, inform interested parties about Gorey happenings, pass along many of the stories that I had gathered over the years and hopefully begin conversations with others interested in Edward Gorey and his works. Thirteen years of diligent posting have not dampened my curiosity and enthusiasm for all things Gorey and I look forward to creating upcoming posts that everyone will find informative and entertaining.
- Irwin Terry
goreyana.blogspot.com
ampootozote@aol.com
This beautifully rendered piece makes superb use of the white space, giving the image a sense of time passing as the industrious cat patiently draws the wallpaper design freestyle. In a sense, this piece could be considered a self portrait of Edward Gorey at his drawing table, endlessly adding detail to his intricate works of art.
To see the other pieces from the 1974 Graham show, see my post: https://goreyana.blogspot.com/2014/02/edward-goreys-1974-graham-gallery.html
Traditionally, collecting has been a solitary endeavor with collectors privately enjoying their treasures while keeping their collections private. There has been a change in the ozone in Goreyland recently. Perhaps it was the pandemic shutdowns that led collectors to begin more openly engaging with other collectors, sharing the pieces they love on Facebook and Instagram. The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust began regularly sharing pieces from the Gorey archives on social media in August 2019. The result of all this activity is that there is more specialized information available to those interested in the works of Edward Gorey than ever before, which is never a bad thing.
To view or contribute to the fun that is Gorey collecting, join Facebook Groups: Edward Gorey and/or Edward Gorey Fans, and follow The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. A increasing number of collectors have been showing pieces from their collections, which leads to interesting conversational threads.
On Instagram:
edwardgoreytrust - Images from the Edward Gorey Archives are posted regularly, many of which have not been seen before outside of the archive.
toddcamp - Todd Camp posts images and in-depth explanations of pieces from his collection which he has dubbed the Goreyphemera Archive.
edgoreyfashion -An interesting collection of Gorey images paired with real life fashion, past and present.
edward.gorey - Drummond Miles shows off a variety of objects and artworks.
edward.gorey.house - Keep up with the latest happenings in the Gorey world and see images from current exhibitions at The House.
There are, of course other places to find posts and information on the web, but these places are great places to see interesting things.
When creating artwork for a piece that would be reproduced with a full bleed ( the image would extend to the edge of the printed piece with no white margins), Edward Gorey would draw the image slightly larger than the final size and indicate how it was to be cropped. In this instance, the image was drawn 4% larger than the final postcard size of 4" x 6". The mastery and precision of Mr. Gorey's pen strokes is evident at the edges of the drawing. Without inking a border line to contain the image, each pen stroke stops at the precise edge of the drawing field. Since the image was intended to be trimmed, Mr. Gorey could have made the edge of the artwork ragged.
The idea for this post came from an online chat group.
The PBS Masterpiece Theater program Mystery! began in 1980 and continued into the 2000's before changing into a new format. By the late 80's the program and its unique introductions became a firmly established cultural fixture. At the same time Edward Gorey also became something of a household name due in large part to the the animated sequence he created with Derek Lamb that opened each episode. After the animated sequence, a host would introduce the program in a set designed to look like an interior by Mr. Gorey. Host Vincent Price often begin his introductions by welcoming viewers to "Gorey Mansion". It can come as no surprise that the opening of the show was parodied on many television programs in the '80's & '90's.
One of the more unexpected programs to do a parody of Mystery! was Sesame Street, which produced an ongoing series of segments spoofing the show and its format. The segments were entitled Mysterious Theater! and each began with a title card spoofing the Gorey/Lamb animation. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Mysterious_Theater lists five segments of Mysterious Theater!, the first appearing in Season 20 (1989).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ8A-FQ7OSA
All of the Mysterious Theater! segments featured were hosted by a Muppet named Vincent Twice, who always said his entire name twice. The segments also only spoofed the Sherlock Holmes stories with a clueless detective named Sherlock Hemlock and his dog Watson. Of course, Watson solves every mystery.
On June 30, 2021, Ashcroft and Moore Auctions hosted Gotham Gorey Squared, their second auction of items from The Gotham Book Mart's (GBM) remaining inventory. GBM closed in 2007 and the contents of the store went into hiding until recently coming to light. Ashcroft and Moore is one of several auction houses that has offered items from GBM's final inventory.
Of special interest to collectors in this sale was a stunning collection of the various stuffed creatures that were completely hand made by Edward Gorey. These creatures were usually used as gifts to friends, but they would also occasionally be sold at his theatrical productions or through GBM. Most of the creatures in this sale appear in quantity, but it should be remembered that each of these objects was hand made by Mr. Gorey himself and they are actually quite rare. Until this auction, these items have only rarely appeared on the secondary market.
Edward Gorey spent a lot of time watching television and rather than just sit and stare at the screen, he multi-tasked and kept busy hand sewing these (and other) creatures while viewing programs. Mr. Gorey created stuffed Frogs in two basic styles - with splayed back legs, long front legs, and rounded toes (approximately 9.5" x 9.5"); and more streamlined version with short front legs and pointed toes (approximately 9" x 6"). There was no standard fabric color preference on the frogs, and most have small button eyes.
Salamanders are one of the more complex creatures Edward Gorey designed. Mr. Gorey stuffed his creatures with Uncle Ben's Rice - he claimed that this brand had the best pouring spout - and he used a chopstick to shove the rice into the nooks and crannies such as the salamander's curving tail. The salamanders are approximately 9" x 8" and tend to have less robustly colored fabrics. They tend to be well stuffed and are not as flexible as the frogs, which can be flopped and easily positioned into humorous attitudes. One of the salamanders has been created with a patriotic fabric that Mr. Gorey seemed to have a fondness for. He used this American flag motif often with other animals (but which were not part of this sale).
There was only one Alligator offered in this sale. At 10.5" x 5", it is one of the larger creatures created by Edward Gorey. Very few alligators are known.
Over the years, this creature has been described both as The Doubtful Guest and as a Penguin, with no definitive answer as to what it actually is
meant to be. I recall Andreas Brown calling them penguins on
occasion and the answer can presumably be found in Lot #427. This creature, in black fabric, is accompanied by a hand written note by Edward Gorey that is titled "Oiseau funebre (or what you get when you ask for a penguin). The title translates into "Funeral Bird", and penguins are one of the few animals that are known to mourn and bury their dead when a chick or mate dies, often gathering in groups.
Who asked for a penguin? Was this the first of its kind to be created? Unfortunately, we may never know for sure, but since this was part of the GBM inventory and presumably came direct from Edward Gorey himself, it can be assumed that Mr. Brown may have been the original recipient of this rare bird and that this flock is indeed intended to be penguins. To cover all the bases, one collector I know has started referring to them as Penguin Guests!
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