So how DID he pronounce "AMSEL"?

I remember years ago – I think it was early September, 2016 – when Drew Struzan first called me on the phone in response to a heartfelt letter I’d written him, asking if he’d participate in the documentary.

“Hi Adam, this is Drew,” he said. His softspoken voice was instantly recognizable; I often compare it to that of filmmaker Werner Herzog, only without the German or the crazy.

“Drew!” I exclaimed…then I froze, tongue-tied.

“So is it ‘AM-zel’ or ‘am-ZELLE’?” he asked.

You’d think that after doing years of interviews, from family members to close friends and associates, the answer was obvious. But like almost everything concerning Richard Amsel, there were uncertainties.

Richard Amsel’s family commonly pronounced their German surname in the traditional way, “AM-zel” (similar to “EA-zel”, as in artist’s easel), as did many of Richard’s friends. Yet others close to him insisted it was ‘am-ZELLE’…  

And topping off all this was my late friend David Byrd, who, in his characteristic, endearingly silly fashion, would utilize both pronunciations interchangeably, even within the same sentence. “I was never really sure,” he giggled. “I thought it was ‘AM-zel’, but then he’d say ‘am-ZELLE’, so I’d go along with it, and then I’d forget!”

What matters, in the end, is how Richard wanted his name pronounced. The answer was evident in his televised interview with Dorian Hannaway in their October 1978 episode of The Emerald City, where she introduced the artist as ‘am-ZELLE’ – adding a more creative-sounding flourish to a personality that warranted (or perhaps demanded) it.

Such embellished affectations were hardly new in creative circles. Notorious filmmaker Michael Cimino, for example, insisted his surname be pronounced as “chi-MEE-noh”, despite the rest of his family continuing their traditional “si-MEE-noh”. Artists are a different breed, after all, so why bother to conform or keep up traditions?