Esther and George “The Real” McCoy were good friends of Don and Lydia. George drove a New York Yellow Cab. Click here to view an article written by Al Hirschfeld in 1943 on George. A watercolor of Esther’s is shown below. For photographs and information, click here or on the image of the bathers.
This is Don’s article in “PM” Magazine from June 6, 1943. The text reads:
It wouldn’t be surprising if you have seen Esther sitting on some perilous rail or curb sketching and painting away. She certainly gets around. You yourself most likely are a page in her bulging sketch book.
Lately she hasn’t had much time to gather in her favorite subject matter because she has been working over at the Navy Yard as a drafter where ships are the subjects that matter. Her amazing eye for detail comes in handy for the exactness that is needed. But in what little time there is left she continues to catch people on the go.
Esther’s art career started when she shuffled off from Buffalo just at the time everyone was singing, about going there. She made straight for th Art Students League here in New York, where she studied with John Sloan and Harry Wickey. This is where the sparks began to fly from her irresistible current of wit and warmth. She once thought she might be a singer. But she decided to leaver that to the birds and use the language of line and lyrics.
One day while Esther was painting at the base of Gen. Sherman’s statue in the 59th Street plaza, an inquisitive old woman aksed: “You go to school for that – where they got them models?” Esther said she had studied at such places. There was a long silence, then her annoyer whispered, “Beautiful girls with nothing onto them?
Esther Becker Goetz (1907-1971) was born in Buffalo, New York and died in New York City. She studied at the Art Students League and with J. Sloan and H. Wickey as well as in Paris. She was a member of the Salon of Independent Artists and the Patteran Society, Buffalo.
Esther exhibited at the Salon of Independent Artists from 1931-44; the Salons of American in 1934; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1934; the Art Institute of Chicago in 1936 and 1939; the Boston Museum in 1935; the Village Indoor Exhibition, New York City in 1936; the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1938; the Museum of the City of New York in 1944 and 1954 and a solo exhibition there in 1945; the Albright Art Gallery 1945 (solo); Galerie Moderne, New York 1953 (solo) and a group exhibition there in 1955. Her art is in the Albright Art Gallery. Goetz was the illustrator of “Mr. Nosey” in 1945. She designed Christmas cards for Hallmark. She is also known as Mrs. George Braidwood McCoy.
On the back of the photograph, Esther wrote some notes to Don and Lydia, mostly about they people they knew together: Dolly & Al Hirschfeld, Lisa & Boris Aronson (the Broadway set designer).
This is a photograph from October 1962 of Esther and George. Don had Al Hirschfeld write a short biographical sketch on George and Don added an illustration in “PM” Magazine of July 18, 1943.
This is a “salute” written by Al Hirschfeld in “Don Freeman’s Newsstand” in PM Magazin from July 18, 1943 titled: “The Real McCoy is in the Army now”. The text reads:
“George (The Real) McCoy, whose middle monicker is Braidwood, came through the African campaign O.K. This startling piece of good news came to me by V-mail from the great man himself. I pass it along to you as an important war news item because gents of the McCoy stature don’t happen every day.
Almost a graduate of PS 132, Mac started his career with a borrowed umbrella. On rainy nights he would use this umbrella to escort stranded subway passengers from the 181st Street station to their homes. From Mac’s point of view this was not work because he liked to walk in the rain. And so it has been ever thus with McCoy. He uses up all of his energy in living, never seemingly to find the leisure for work. Endowed with a life saver’s physique, a policeman’s face, an allergy to money, a great capacity for friendship and an insatiable appetite, Mac has managed to invent a unique life for himself where all these qualities are given free expression. From life guard at Coney Island to Al Smith’s bodyguard on his presidential tour, from salesman for the Chick-Chick Easter Egg Dye Co. to New York’s accredited No. I gate-crasher, from Broadway interviewer for Station WEAF to overaged Pvt. G. B. McCoy in North Africa, is 20th century America.
Way back when automobiles were as common as ration books, Mac would start his day with a free demonstration in one of the more expensive models as a sort of pick-me-up. He explored this town of ours and discovered among other things music stores where the world’s treasure of music was being sold but could be heard for nothing. And the Waldorf-Astoria, at cocktail hour, where the generous management offered cigarettes and delicious little snacks free of charge. And the Automat where a free lemonade may be had for a minimum of effort. The iced tea glasses. with lemon slices decorating their rims merely needed a bit of free sugar from an joining table and fresh ice water.
The City of New York seemed to be organized to keep McCoy happy. He discovered conventions artd other public dinners at hotels where overzealous press agents would foist their releases on him in the mistaken idea that he was a newspaperman. The dinner. brandy and cigars at these public .gatherings were considered reasonable pay.
Mac was probably the only man in New York who had never seen the first act of a performance but had seen the second act of every show in town. This was due to his discovery that door checks were no longer issued at intermissions in the Broadway theaters.
The World’s Fair was adopted by McCoy and became his home for the duration. A school teacher at the head of the line of children unwittingly led Mac into the Fair. Mac was at the end of the line yelling at the kids to keep in line and before you could say Pantelleria Mac was having a free shave at the Barbasol exhibit. He lived at the Fair for some months sleeping at night in the private suite of The Royal Scot. The Royal Scot was a crack train shipped over here from the British Isles for the railroad exhibition at the Fair. Breakfast foods, candies, milk, swimming pools, massages, haircuts, shaves, cigarets, band concerts, fireworks, lectures, wine and beer samples were all there free for Mac to enjoy.
It was at the Fair that Mac’s education was completed. He came out of there a man of the world, traveled, informed and with a wonderful curiosity about people. Having spoken to everyone from everywhere he was ready for his career as a sidewalk interviewer. His first job with WEVD almost got away from him. He asked a Marine recently returned from the Orient, “Is it true what they say about Chinese women, that they are up in the trenches fighting with the men?†The second half of his query never had a chance. The studio cut him off. He managed to survive this insanity somehow and made his way to the major networks. One evening outside the Astor Hotel, where Mac usually held forth for WEAF, an unprepossessing stranger ambled up to the microphone. He was asked the usual questions, Name?, Where do you live?, etc. Mac then asked him, “What do you do to amuse yourself, brother?†Greeted by a hesitant reply, Mac pursued his prey further with, Well, what for instance, did you do this evening for amusement?†The unforgettable reply was “I had my hat cleaned.â€
Unpredictable product of a free America. Mac enlisted and was accepted for overseas duty. It is indeed wonderful to hear he came through Africa. O.K.”