Portrait of James Comisar by Al Hirschfeld
date: label: date made
content: 1996
name: label: maker
content: Hirschfeld, Al
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Lithographic print of a portrait of James Comisar made by Al Hirschfeld in 1996. The caricature-style portrait in black and gold ink depicts Comisar in shirt and tie holding a smoking vase, the genie bottle prop from the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Comisar has used the portrait in marketing materials and media appearances related to his entertainment memorabilia career.
label: Description (Brief)
content: James Comisar began collecting entertainment memorabilia in the 1980s and represents the second generation of collectors who expanded and broadened the entertainment memorabilia market in the late 20th century. Comisar built a career as a television writer before realizing that the studio lots on which he worked were full of historic production-related costumes and props that were relegated to deep storage or rental stock, and not receiving the elevated care he felt they deserved as cultural objects. He began to work with production companies and individuals to acquire costumes and props and founded his own historic collection of television memorabilia, The Comisar Collection, in 1989. Comisar has acquired and cared for what he bills as "the most comprehensive archive of original television costumes, props, sets, and related ephemera in extant,” and was among the first collectors to specifically search out, curate and conserve “TV treasures” for their cultural significance.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Collectors
label: Subject
content: Television
label: Subject
content: Portraits
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0006.03
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0006.03
label: accession number
content: 2022.0006
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 in x 29 in; 45.72 cm x 73.66 cm