# Artists/creators whose work is famous--yet they inexplicably are not! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 2, 2016, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453 "2016-10-02T09:04:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/21 "2016-10-03T21:03:45Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Popeye creator Elzie Segar is not as famous as he should be. As a matter of fact, a lot of people don’t even know Popeye was originally a character in one of the greatest comic strips ever. I’d imagine most comic strip artists toil in relative (or complete) anonymity, even super-popular ones like Bill Watterson or Berke Breathed. If I bumped into either one of those two at a party I’d have no idea, and I’ve read every comic either of them has ever published. I doubt I could even pick Charles Schulz out of a lineup. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/22 "2016-10-03T21:14:28Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > He also wrote “The Ballad of Rodger Young.” And in that vein, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.” ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/23 "2016-10-03T21:20:56Z")
Most people are aware of the most famous [work](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty)of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Few could come up with his name, I would think. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/24 "2016-10-03T22:27:40Z")
Victor Fleming. He directed some of Hollywood’s greatest movies but many people don’t know his name. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/25 "2016-10-03T22:39:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Victor Fleming. He directed some of Hollywood’s greatest movies but many people don’t know his name. That is a good one. I knew he was because I was shocked when I noticed that he directed both Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz that came out in the same year (1939). He was essentially competing with himself for the Best Director Academy Award (he won just as he would have almost any year). I don’t know why he isn’t more famous. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/26 "2016-10-04T00:07:57Z")
Mostly because that, other than GWTW and Oz, the rest of Fleming’s output was undistingushed. He did do the Spencer Tracy _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, but nothing much that people remember today. He was a competent studio director (much like Sam Wood), but not a great one. I’ll mention Frank Oz. He’s very successful as a performer (most notably the person behind Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, and Yoda) and directed some nice and underrated comedies. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/27 "2016-10-04T00:38:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Mostly because that, other than GWTW and Oz, the rest of Fleming’s output was undistingushed. Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln? Your standards are really high. I understand that studio directors from that period aren’t the same as directors today because they mainly just handled day to day management rather than overall vision but that is plenty. He is still the only director in the world to have two movies in many top-ten of all time lists yet most people have never heard of him. It is incredible that he could direct them both almost simultaneously especially because they are completely different styles. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/28 "2016-10-04T01:47:30Z")
\Sam Wood directed _A Night at the Opera_ and _A Day at the Races_, two classic, plus _Goodbye Mr. Chips_ He’s not a great director either. In the case of Fleming, the success of the films have little to do with his direction. Like Wood, he was in the right place at the right time. There were studio directors who were far better, like Michael Curtis: \* Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy \* (both in the same year) \*The Adventures of Robin Hood’ , Angels with Dirty Faces \* and other Bogart films. Or an even better candidate, Howard Hawks, who created classic westerns, comedies, film noir, and possibly science fiction. He was underrated while he was at his peak, was recognized toward the end of his career, but now is overlooked again. But he did \*Bringing Up Baby, Red River, The Big Sleep,Scarface, Red River, the Thing \* (possibly) and many more film classics. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/29 "2016-10-04T02:30:40Z")
**Scabpicker @ #17** : I read a HUGE biography of Grant Wood not long ago. Poor bastard was a closeted homosexual who ended up marrying a beard, becoming an alcoholic, and dying young. He studied art for several years in Europe as a young man, probably indulged his natural sexuality, but ended up coming back to Iowa and jumping back into the closet. His painting “Return from Bohemia” is simultaneously sad and eerie, the ghostly images of the rural types and the farm barn looming over the artist. > **[Return From Bohemia, 1935 - Grant Wood - WikiArt.org](https://www.wikiart.org/en/grant-wood/return-from-bohemia-1935)** > > ‘Return From Bohemia’ was created in 1935 by Grant Wood in Regionalism style. Find more prominent pieces of self-portrait at Wikiart.org – best visual art database. Living in New York, I can go see his “Paul Revere’s Ride” at the Met any time I want. He has Paul riding his horse over a modern, 1930s style highway instead of an 18th century rutted path. The house are BRIGHTLY lit, as if by electricity rather than oil lamps or candles. God knows what he was thinking… > **[The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931 - Grant Wood - WikiArt.org](https://www.wikiart.org/en/grant-wood/the-midnight-ride-of-paul-revere-1931)** > > ‘The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere’ was created in 1931 by Grant Wood in Regionalism style. Find more prominent pieces of cityscape at Wikiart.org – best visual art database. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/30 "2016-10-04T02:53:23Z")
Jeff Barry, one of the most prolific pop songwriters of all time. He wrote about a zillion songs, many, many of which were hits. He started his career writing with Ellie Greenwich, and worked with many other writers (and wrote plenty of songs by himself). A (very) partial list of songs he wrote: Da Doo Ron Ron Not Too Young to Get Married Then He Kissed Me Be My Baby Do-Wah-Diddy Chapel of Love Leader of the Pack River Deep - Mountain High Sugar, Sugar Montego Bay I Honestly Love You I Can Hear Music That’s about a dozen out of (probably) thousands. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/31 "2016-10-04T04:09:30Z")
I always think it’s interesting that we all know actors, many of us know a lot of directors, especially if they directed a lot of our favorite/popular movies. But how many people can tell you who wrote, _created_ a movie? Sure, if the movie came from a book, the author may see some publicity from it, but if someone wrote it for the screen, it’s the typically the director that gets the fame, not the writer/screenwriter. That always seemed odd to me. Again with music, there’s plenty of people who just sit in the background and churn out pop songs, tin pan alley style. If one were to look at the liner notes for all the pop songs on the Hot 100 list for the last 20 years, I’d be willing to bet a lot of the same writers would pop up over and over. Similarly, it’s often not until a famous musician dies that we hear (especially if you were only a casual fan) of the scores of other music they wrote. For a recent example, just look at Prince. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/32 "2016-10-04T05:05:58Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > If one were to look at the liner notes for all the pop songs on the Hot 100 list for the last 20 years, I’d be willing to bet a lot of the same writers would pop up over and over. Similarly, it’s often not until a famous musician dies that we hear (especially if you were only a casual fan) of the scores of other music they wrote. For a recent example, just look at Prince. They do, and a lot of them are famous. Like Max Martin, Dr Luke, Sia, Dianne Warren, The Matrix. Prince was known while he was alive as a prolific songwriter. I’m not sure what became more well known when he died, but I knew when I was 6 years old that he wrote “Manic Monday” and it was well publicized that he wrote Nothing Compares 2 U which was a hit when I was 12, and all about the Time, working w/ Sheena Easton, all his various girl groups, etc. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/33 "2016-10-04T15:32:03Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **Scabpicker @ #17** : I read a HUGE biography of Grant Wood not long ago. Poor bastard was a closeted homosexual who ended up marrying a beard, becoming an alcoholic, and dying young. Wow, they certainly didn’t cover that part in art history. Some teachers would get into the personal lives of the artists, but for the most part it was left out. > [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > He studied art for several years in Europe as a young man, probably indulged his natural sexuality, but ended up coming back to Iowa and jumping back into the closet. His painting “Return from Bohemia” is simultaneously sad and eerie, the ghostly images of the rural types and the farm barn looming over the artist. > > [Return From Bohemia, 1935 - Grant Wood - WikiArt.org](https://www.wikiart.org/en/grant-wood/return-from-bohemia-1935) That seems to be a perceptive interpretation of that painting. I’m not sure if they neglected that work in AH because it kind of has a narrative quality that was strongly discouraged at the time I was in school, or if they just didn’t want to deal with the complex situation he was in through a classroom setting. > [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Living in New York, I can go see his “Paul Revere’s Ride” at the Met any time I want. He has Paul riding his horse over a modern, 1930s style highway instead of an 18th century rutted path. The house are BRIGHTLY lit, as if by electricity rather than oil lamps or candles. God knows what he was thinking… > > [The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931 - Grant Wood - WikiArt.org](https://www.wikiart.org/en/grant-wood/the-midnight-ride-of-paul-revere-1931) And now that I cheat and look up his list of works, I actually do know [_Parson Weems’ Fable_](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Parson_Weems%27_Fable.jpg), very well. I see it pretty regularly at the Amon Carter museum in town. It kind of has the same quirkiness that _The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere_ has. It’s idyllic to the point where reality is taking a back seat to the story. I’m relatively sure that George Washington at 8 looked almost nothing like he does on the Quarter; but there he is, three feet tall and already recognizable. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/34 "2016-10-04T16:00:52Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > And now that I cheat and look up his list of works, I actually do know [_Parson Weems’ Fable_](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Parson_Weems%27_Fable.jpg), very well. I see it pretty regularly at the Amon Carter museum in town. > > It kind of has the same quirkiness that _The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere_ has. It’s idyllic to the point where reality is taking a back seat to the story. I’m relatively sure that George Washington at 8 looked almost nothing like he does on the Quarter; but there he is, three feet tall and already recognizable. Yeah, I’ve found all of the Grant Wood paintings pointed out in this thread very cool! I have seen the original American Gothic many times at the Art Institute of Chicago. I actually did know who did that painting, as my father told me once, and it stuck in my head. Thanks, guys, I’ve learned a bunch in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/35 "2016-10-04T16:42:30Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Yeah, I’ve found all of the Grant Wood paintings pointed out in this thread very cool! I have seen the original American Gothic many times at the Art Institute of Chicago. I actually did know who did that painting, as my father told me once, and it stuck in my head. > > Thanks, guys, I’ve learned a bunch in this thread. Man, I like the museums in my metro area, but Chi and NYC kind of take the cake. Walking around the corner and being face-to-face with Edward Hopper’s [_Nighthawks_](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Nighthawks_by_Edward_Hopper_1942.jpg) is a moment that still shakes me up in retrospect. And that’s another I’ll add to the thread. That painting has been popularized to the point where it’s sometimes used as a platform for kitsch. I imagine that the number of people who can recognize the artist or can remember another of their works is somewhere around the same as the number who recognize Grant Wood. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/36 "2016-10-04T17:37:36Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > **Tim Rice.** Whenever Andrew Lloyd-Weber’s many, many famous musicals come up, he seems to get 100% of the credit 90% of the time. But Rice wrote the goddamn lyrics, people! Last time I checked, that’s half the song. We talk about “Rogers and Hart” and “Rogers and Hammerstein,” but why don’t we talk about “Weber and Rice”? It makes no sense. First of all, it’s Lloyd Webber and Rice. Second of all, Tim Rice only wrote the lyrics for five of Lloyd Webber’s shows: Th Likes of Us, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, evita and Cricket. They have since parted ways, and have not worked on any major shows together. I agree that Tim Rice is one of the best lyricists going, and deserves more fame. In addition to the above, he did Blondel, Chess, and the Lion King. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/37 "2016-10-04T17:43:13Z")
_Tubular Bells_, the theme to _The Exorcist_, is pretty widely known. It was performed by Mike Oldfield when he was 19. He went on to release 30 more pop and classical albums, but he’s not exactly a household name. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/38 "2016-10-04T17:47:29Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > My contribution is [Hal Blaine](https://enhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Blaine.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Blaine). He was a member of the Wrecking Crew, but he played on a [staggering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recordings_of_songs_Hal_Blaine_has_played_on) number of other records with a beat that made your butt move. I don’t like all of those songs, but I can’t find fault with the drums on any pop song he played, and you’ve probably grooved to his drums at some point. +1 for Hal Blaine, as well as a number of other members of The Wrecking Crew. I was thinking about Blaine while driving home from work a couple of weeks ago, and thought that a SD thread about unsung studio musicians might be fun. Granted, The Wrecking Crew, The Funk Brothers, and The Swampers have all gotten much-deserved attention in the last 10-15 years because of documentaries, but there are plenty more session artists who haven’t gotten much acclaim. Like my contribution to the thread: Blaine’s protégé, Jim Gordon – a studio drummer who played on Mason Williams’ [Classical Gas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZkc88uNXo) and Nilsson’s [Jump Into the Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QghwNqlCRE), and was a member of Derek and the Dominoes (he played the piano coda for Layla) and of The Incredible Bongo Band, which recorded _[Apache](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY-Z6wm6TMQ)_, one of the most-sampled songs in rap music. Gordon’s discography as a session drummer is impressive – he’s on _Pet Sounds, Mad Dogs & Englishmen_ (he toured with Joe Cocker), _All Things Must Pass, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, Pretzel Logic_ … the list goes on and on. Sadly, he’s schizophrenic and has been incarcerated since 1984 (he murdered his mother). Really tragic story. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/39 "2016-10-04T20:54:14Z")
The Statue of Liberty is extremely famous. Its creator, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, is not. The Venus de Milo is one of the world’s best known statues. The sculptor who carved her (Alexander of Antioch, by some accounts) is unknown to most people. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453/40 "2016-10-04T20:57:24Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > The Statue of Liberty is extremely famous. Its creator, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, is not. > > The Venus de Milo is one of the world’s best known statues. The sculptor who carved her (Alexander of Antioch, by some accounts) is unknown to most people. See post 23. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-creators-whose-work-is-famous-yet-they-inexplicably-are-not/767453.md?page=3)