Photo credit: Courtesy of AFI DOCS
“Herblock could do with one cartoon what writers couldn’t do in a thousand words,” said veteran journalist and author Myra MacPherson who worked at The Washington Post with the acclaimed political cartoonest.
Director Michael Stevens
HERBLOCK The Black & The White was presented during the AFI DOCS Film Festival at the Newseum sponsored by Audi.
Born Herbert Lawrence Block, the young boy who took art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago when he was merely eleven and who adopted the “Herblock” signature while in high school, went on to win three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartoons, The Presidential Medal of Freedom and was inducted into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame.
Producer George Stevens, Jr.
“With his drawings he nailed the person, the issue, the importance unlike any other cartoonist– often needing no caption because the illustration captured it all,” continued MacPherson. “He would often shop his drawings around in the office for reporters’ reactions before publishing. God knows how he found anything in his office. When the Post renovated and provided fresh quarters some of us made bets as to how long it would take for Herblock to make it look like an avalanche of newspapers, notes, piled up copy paper, pencils etc. I think it was half a day.
I once was in his apartment and marveled at how a plant seemed to be growing straight up from a mound of newspapers. One wouldn’t know it, but there was a coffee table underneath.”
Clarence Page, George Stevens, Jr., Liz Stevens and Jim Lehrer
“I’m happy to say that I was delighted to see my fellow Gridiron Club member Herb Block get the sort of tribute he deserves.
It’s an important film. I hope at least 500 million people see it,” said Clarence Page, syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune. “I also hope young people will find inspiration in his talent and courage, especially during the 1950s period of bullying “McCarthysism,” a term Herb is credited with adding to the English language. (Look it up, kids).”
Katharine Graham, then publisher of The Washington Post, said this about his 50th Anniversary with the paper in an appreciation piece: “Herb fought for and earned a unique position at the paper: one of complete independence of anybody and anything. Journalistic enterprises run best when writers and editors have a lot of autonomy. But Herb’s case is extreme. And because he’s a genius, it works.”
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