Amsel's lost art: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN

As with Bette Midler, Richard Amsel had a unique association with actress/comedienne Lily Tomlin, which we intend to explore in the documentary.

He did a celebrated portrait of her for the cover of TIME (featured at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery), as well as posters for THE LATE SHOW, and unused posters for the film NASHVILLE, and Tomlin's hit stage show, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE.

A fascinating, unexplored part of this association was Amsel's ambitions to become an animator. He had done a pencil test using Tomlin's Edith Ann character -- a self-taught animation exercise that a number of people saw, but the footage has, tragically, remained lost for years.

Tomlin would go on to develop Edith Ann into an animated cartoon special, which the LOS ANGELES TIMES profiled in early 1994. In their interview Tomlin mentioned Amsel's work:

“He was a big Edith fan and he was also a Disney fan. He could draw, but he couldn’t animate so he taught himself how to animate. He did about a minute and half of Edith and he filmed me first on 8 millimeter,” Tomlin recalls. “It was just so adorable. I don’t know where that film is. It was real appealing. It was just in her little voice.”

Amsel also created a poster design for Tomlin's 1981 comedy, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN. Marketing director Merv Bloch, who I interviewed some years ago in NYC, talked a bit about Amsel's poster concepts, and Bloch's own copy and title design.

• 

• 

• 

• 

While Amsel's artwork wasn't used for the film's final poster campaign, it was featured prominently in a variety of newspaper ads. The art is very similar, save for an alternate pose and expression of Lily Tomlin.

• 

• 

I was reminded of the film recently, having just revisited Tomlin's classic comedy 9 TO 5 with Jane Fonda and the late Dolly Parton (we love you, Dolly!), and also learning that August 29th would have been the late director Joel Schumacher's 87th birthday.

For the record, I've tried numerous times over the years to reach out to Ms. Tomlin's camp, asking if she'd be willing to participate in the documentary. So far, no success... If anyone has any leads to help, please let me know!