The Town Broker

A Westfield Tribute to Charles Addams

They’re creepy and their kooky, mysterious and spooky. They’re all together ooky. But to those of us in Westfield, hey…they’re family!

Do you remember these words to the theme song from the 1960’s TV sitcom The Addams Family? (OK… so maybe I’m giving away my age.) But I remember watching this show as a kid. Then, in the 1990’s, there was the movie. And now in 2010, a new Broadway musical is about to open starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth! And all of this is the inspiration of Westfield’s very own native cartoonist, Charles Addams.

“A Is For Addams” Tribute Scheduled

A very special local tribute is going to be paid in town to Charles Addams on Monday, April 5th beginning at  1pm. Members of the Westfield Board of Education, The Downtown Westfield Corporation, The Westfield Historical Society and The Charles Addams Art Scholarship will unveil six large wooden letters that spell out the name ADDAMS. Each of the letters will be decorated by the children in the Westfield school system.

Mr. Addams was an artist for The New Yorker Magazine. A Westfield native and 1929 graduate of  Westfield High School, he drew over 1,500 cartoons. Some of these drawings were the inspiration for The Addams Family. According to his Wikkipedia page:

“That house at 552 Elm Street (now a local landmark), and another on Dudley Avenue that police once caught him breaking into, are said to be the inspiration for the Addams Family mansion in his cartoons. He was fond of visiting the Presbyterian Cemetery on Mountain Avenue. One friend said of him, “His sense of humor was a little different from everybody else’s”.

Addams died in 1988, but his legacy lives on. The “A Is For Addams” event is a celebration of Mr. Addams life, and a recognition of what a terrific artist he was!

For more information about the event, contact: Ron MacCloskey, founder of The Charles Addams Art Scholarship, at 732-925-6089 (cell).

Tags: Addams Family, Charles Addams, Westfield

This entry was posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Cool Stuff I Like, Local Happenings, Westfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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