"I look like I paint. Who am I?" [by David Lehman]

Rhapsodic blues. . taciturn Cal Coolidge. . ."you lose"
as the market reaches record highs, speculators buy on margin,
Babe Ruth makes more money than the president, having had a better year,
Lucky Lindy to Paris, Showboat on Broadway, Al Jolson on screen,
Bernice bobs her hair and wears the diamond bigger than the Ritz,
Flappers flirt, philosophers drink bootleg gin,
And this singular fellow may be looking out the window
Of a hotel room with luggage beside the bed
A woman, maybe his wife, puts on her lipstick,
There's neon at night in the city, but where he is
The people turn their back and look at the sea.

Clues:

1) Dennis
2) William
3) Edward
4) Hedda

Comments

[Emily Fragos]

1-4: Hopper! Fun clues.

[Mark C. Minton]

That was pretty easy, and the self- portrait was instantly recognizable by style, even if one knew nothing about Hopper's appearance!

[jim c]

Hedda Hopper was the mother of William Hopper, who played Paul Drake in the Perry Mason series. But here's the fun fact: she married DeWolf Hopper, an actor and vaudevillian, who gave the first known public recital of the poem "Casey At The Bat," by Ernest Thayer, which had been published (if I recall correctly) in a recent San Francisco Chronicle. Hopper went on to declaim (over-the-toply) the poem more than 10,000 times from then on. (Not a typo: ten thousand.) The first presentation was to an audience that included the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs baseball teams in the late 19th century. John McGraw, the Giants' manager and several veteran players were reputed to have cried, but DeWolf, who married five times (Hedda was the fifth) was prone to slight exaggeration. DeWolf was a maniac baseball fan and love the 'Jints.' Hedda Hopper was, of course, a 'gossip columnist,' big in '40s and '50s Hollywood, and quite a meddler in people's lives: she supported McCarthy and the HUAC blacklist, and named 'communists' in her column. Her memoir is entitled THE WHOLE TRUTH. And yes, I read the damn thing.

[Dan A]

Funny he actually looks like Wallace Stevens.
https://images.app.goo.gl/b1ND7tC35UvhHogL8

[Peter Frank]

Funny to think of Edward Hopper as a jazz-age artist, but he really was the ekphrastic equivalent of Aaron Copland ("Quiet City") or Sinclair Lewis ("Babbitt")

[Jimmy Van Heusen]

Funny, that rainy day is here.

[Vincent Canizaro]

Song of Water

The song of water
is not a constant song;
it sings of cypress and pine
and fireflies that flicker softly
against a city's neon grin.

(Thanks to Eclectica Magazine)

[Bobby Potato]

He's funny that way.