New Batch of Mario Lanza Pictures

VOTE MARIO

He (or she) is at it again !!!

Thanks to sharp-eyed Jo Doggett who found this beermat in the magazine rack in the Spar at Crestwood on Sunday 5th June 2009.

Click on the image to see more examples of AJW's art.

About time we found out who he or she is - or is it just one person?

Of note this time are the initials "AJW"

Also an email address, which I will be exploring soon.

Since my childhood days I have heard of the legendary doodlings found in various pubs and other locations. John Stait contacted me last year as he had a series of drawings apparently coming from the same pen. The identity of the originator is still not known (and he/she may never be identified, but, unlike the Loch Ness monster, evidence of existence is plentiful.

Hope you enjoy these images and if you have any more, or any knowledge of current activity, please let me know.

Mike Pearson
A simple image, caption reads "All the best of Mario Lanza". The rose features in some of the other drawings.

The text reads:

Mountain Gorrila

Rare

This Magnificent Creature

Can grow over Six feet

Weigh Thirty Stone

Have the Strength of Ten Men

Lives happily in Groups

Largest in the World

Other than King Kong

and Joe Young

His Greatest enemy is Man

The interesting features are:

  • Mis-spelling of the word "gorilla"
  • Capital letter usage in the middle of a line
The picture that goes with the above caption, again the title "gorilla" is mis-spelled.

The caption on this reads:

All the very Best

Bob Warman

Central News

Central

 
First of a number of images of cars - a Jaguar XJ6
The rear of the Jaguar, of interest here is the music bar, the word "Como" (Perry Como)
and the line "And I love (you) so", together with the scrolling line below the words.
Finally the front view of the Jaguar, the song title "Nessun Dorma" (translates to "No one shall sleep") from the Puccini opera Turandot.
I can find no reference to anyone called Nash having anything to do with the aria or the opera, maybe someone can solve that clue?
Another classisc car - this time a Ferrari, I cannot find a Concorde model in their range,
nor have I been able to identify which model is illustrated here.
An Aston Martin V8 gets the treatment, clearly sports cars are of interest to the artist
Another Aston Martin V8, soft top this time, with a slightly different colour, hopefully someone can pin down the exact model (if it exists)

I asked Tim Cottingham, owner of www.AstonMartins.com about the cars, his expert opinion is as follows:

The pictures are very interesting indeed - they do have an Aston grille BUT are not like any AM that I have ever seen - they look like they could be mid engined but are just a design created by the artist - the Jaguar is also somewhat 'freelance'. They sort of look much like the Ferrari 308 but with AM grille - wish he had done a front view

But the artist has skill - those cars look real and believable.

Aston Martin have only made one mid engined can, the 'Bulldog' - they also had a smaller mid engined car planned in 2000 but the project was canned before anyone saw it.

A more traditional image of the man himself, if you want to read information on the man himelf there is a good page on Wikipedia

"Granada" (on the shirt collar) is probably a reference to a track on one of Lanza's albums.

Have a look at the British Mario Lanza Society website for some images. Interestingly, I have seen photos of him with beard and moustache or clean shaven - never with just a moustache.

The final image, depicting Mario (or is it Sean Connery?) as a character from the 1990 film? starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin. Now sporting the beard and moustache (with a fuller m oustache than the previous image).

I am aware of no link between Lanza and the film.
That's all - for now - any more information or images, theories, beer mats, suggestions for the identity, please email me at the address below.

email the web master Mick Pearson: