In the News-Ryan Germick

Merrillville Native Designs Addams Family Logo for Google

Merrillville native Ryan Germick recently created a logo for Google in which the members of the infamous Addams Family spell out the name of the world's most famous search engine. The altered logo appeared on the January 7, 2012, in honor of the 100th birthday of the late Charles Addams, creator of the eponymous family. Mr. Germick designed the logo after Google had secured permission by the estate of Charles Addams to re-create his characters. The Indiana artist was thrilled by the prospect of working on the project and coordinated his efforts closely with representatives from the estate, ensuring he did Addams’ work justice through his illustration. 

Ryan Germick has been a member of the Google Doodle Team since 2006. The team is the creative force behind special logos that appear on the Google search engine website on holidays and other special occasions. The Addams Family logo includes the major characters from Addams' long-running series of cartoons, which appeared in The New Yorker between 1938 and 1988, when Addams passed away. The Addams Family have also appeared in hardbound collections of cartoons, on television, in movies, and on stage. Addams never named his characters. The creators of the ABC-TV series gave them the names we know today, Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, and so on.

Mr. Germick, who graduated from Merrillville High School in 1998, received his early arts education in Merrillville and at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster, Indiana. (There's a small irony in the fact that a cartoonist who was educated in Munster has come to draw The Addams Family.) He went on to earn a liberal arts degree from Parsons Art School in New York and spent time in Tokyo, Japan, before joining the Google Doodle Team.

You can see the Google Addams Family logo by clicking here.

You can read a more detailed story, "Google This: Merrillville Man Has Dream Job as Search Website's 'Altered Logo' Illustrator," by Philip Potempa (March 15, 2012), at the website of the Northwest Indiana Times and Merrillville Community by clicking here.

Written by Bridget Hanley, Proficient Pen, and Terence E. Hanley.

Copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

In The News-The Addams Family Musical National Tour

The Addams Family and Indiana

Indiana native Cortney Wolfson has been cast in the role of Wednesday Addams for the first national tour of the musical The Addams Family. The cast and national tour dates were announced on August 8, 2011. Ms. Wolfson, who portrayed Wednesday for a long run on Broadway, has also appeared in the first national tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical and the Broadway revival of Les Miserables. A native of Lafayette, Indiana, she represented her home state as Junior Miss 2003. Ms. Wolfson received a degree in musical theatre from the University of Michigan.

The Addams Family was of course created by the cartoonist Charles Addams (1912-1988) and has appeared in movies and on television. Addams' ghoulish family made its debut in a cartoon for The New Yorker in 1938. Scores more drawings followed, though members of the Addams family went unnamed until the original ABC-TV show went into production in 1964.

The Addams Family connection to Indiana dates from 1943 when their creator married Barbara Jean Day, a woman seven years his junior and a recent graduate of Butler University. Described by Addams' biographer Linda H. Davis as "small and slender and feminine," Barbara Day bore a striking physical resemblance to Morticia Addams. "I think she lived to be plagued by that," said her husband. Charles Addams and Barbara Jean Day separated in 1951. She later married another contributor to The New Yorker, author John Hersey, and died in 2007.

To learn more about The Addams Family national tour, visit the show's website:

http://theaddamsfamilymusicaltour.com/.

You can read more about the cast on the website Broadwayworld.com and its recent article, “Douglas Sills, Sara Gettelfinger Lead Addams Family National Tour; Full Cast Announced,” posted Aug. 8, 2011.

Visit Cortney Wolfson’s website at www.cortneywolfson.com.

Written by Bridget Hanley and Terence Hanley.
Copyright 2011, 2024 Terence E. Hanley