It’s not simple being inexperienced.
Of the almost 1,000 movie star caricatures on the partitions of iconic theater-district establishment Sardi’s, the one pilfered essentially the most, oddly, is Kermit the Frog.
“Kermit was stolen three times. And then we screwed him up to the wall,” Johnny Felidi, longtime maître d’ on the 100-year-old eatery, advised The Submit forward of Sunday’s Tony Awards.
One other movie star who needed to be screwed on the beloved West forty fourth Avenue restaurant: Barbra Streisand.
After her authentic 1963 portrait was purloined, it took the “Funny Girl” 55 years to agree to a different caricature.
“And you’re gonna love what she wrote on it — ‘Don’t steal this one,’” mentioned Felidi, who has labored at Sardi’s for 26 years.
“Julie Andrews was another one that went missing for a long time and then it was allegedly found at an auction,” added receptionist Lydia DeLuca, who spent final summer time updating the binder that lists each celeb’s identify and their location on three flooring of the four-story restaurant.
Bob Hope’s was looted as nicely — and his thief, who was consuming on the bar, was captured on their safety cameras.
“So we got their credit card information, called them up . . . and of course they get belligerent. And we said, ‘We don’t want to have law enforcement involved, so just return the caricature.’ And they did,” recalled Felidi, a local of Parma, Italy, who grew up within the Bronx.
Attributable to all of the star-snatching, the priceless portraits adorning the partitions of Sardi’s — the place the concept for the Tonys was conceived over lunch — are actually duplicates of the originals, that are saved in a protected.
It wasn’t till 1986, after the loss of life of James Cagney, that founder Vincent Sardi determined to start out utilizing dupes.
“The night he died, they stole his caricature, never to be seen again,” mentioned Felidi.
The time-honored custom began when Sardi employed Russian immigrant Alex Gard to create the portraits within the fledgling restaurant in trade for meals in an try to “drum up business.”
Brooklyn native Richard Baratz, a former engraver for the treasury division, is now the artist behind the boldfaced names.
“That’s why now you see tiny little lines in his work,” Felidi famous.
This season, Baratz sketched the portraits of Broadway A-listers Nick Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington and George Clooney — nominated for a Tony for his debut on the Nice White Method in “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has six Tonys and is nominated for an additional for “Sunset Boulevard,” additionally went up this 12 months, after a decade-long wait.
“We’ve had his caricature ready and drawn. It was scheduling conflicts and so we never had our paths crossed enough to do it until recently,” DeLuca defined.
To make room for the newcomers, present proprietor Max Klimavicius chooses which of them to take away and places them into their storage facility, which incorporates round 500 portraits. About 230 others have been donated to the New York Public Library.
Most of the well-known faces are purposefully positioned — and movie star {couples} corresponding to Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are nestled aspect by aspect.
“We have Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster together — they’re dating,” Felidi mentioned of Broadway’s latest it couple.
“When Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith got divorced, we separated them. We have Richard Burton up there, we have Liz Taylor down here so they don’t fight.”
When Tony Danza starred in “Chicago,” he received his portrait executed — however solely agreed to it below one situation.
“He said, ‘Please put me next to Sammy Davis Jr. And never take me away.’”
Two former staff — who labored at Sardi’s earlier than they received well-known — additionally had their photos drawn.
“Martin Sheen worked here as a busboy in the 1960s,” Felidi mentioned, pointing to the picture of Sheen on the again wall of the first-floor eating room.
Nonetheless, Chevy Chase, who labored there as a doorman within the ’70s, nonetheless hasn’t gotten his hung.
“Every time he comes here he goes, ‘Where’s my caricature?’ And I tell him, ‘Chevy, it’s in the office, we’re waiting for you to sign it.’ And he says, ‘Okay, after I finish my meal, I’m gonna sign it.’ And he always forgets.”
