The last name is synonymous with nasty.
The first name no one knows.
We know him as “Mr. Blackwell,” he of the forked tongue and the infamous annual “Worst Dressed Women List”–the one that skewers celebrity wardrobes in a single bound.
He has overhauled his own image–including four plastic surgeries–as often as he has made over Hollywood’s divas. And now, with the release of his autobiography, “From Rags to Bitches,” Mr. Blackwell is aiming for yet another image tuneup: that of the tragically misunderstood Mr. Nice Guy.
“I wanted to be known as much more than a nasty, acerbic bitch who crawls out once a year from his hovel to say nasty things,” said the nattily dressed (right down to the watch fob) Mr. Blackwell during a trip last week to Chicago.
Before he ever gave hemlines a second thought, he was the gang-banging Richard Sylvan Selzer–an illegitimate, often-homeless kid who literally grew up in the Brooklyn streets. At 15, he moved to Hollywood to become “Richard Seltzer,” a “Dead End Kid” and not-so-successful studio bit player. Then the surgically improved “Dick Ellis,” boy-toy to the likes of Caesar Romero, Cary Grant and Tyrone Power. (“The Hollywood casting couch was something you had to go through,” Blackwell said. “I played the game.”) Finally, at the urging of Howard Hughes, Dick Ellis became “Richard Blackwell.”
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But a new name, hairlift and nose and ear jobs failed to resuscitate a go-nowhere acting career.
Still, a guy’s gotta eat.
And so, after short-lived stints as a waiter, used car salesman and paid “escort,” the outrageously bitchy, fashion-designing “Mr. Blackwell” was born in 1958.
“God may have created man,” he writes, “but I created Mr. Blackwell–the ultimate mix of madness, marketing and media attention.”
From day one, the newly created Mr. Blackwell was a bit of a, shall we say, media hog. His first line of women’s clothes was launched on national TV. Gossip queen Louella Parsons published his “Worst Dressed List” in her syndicated column. He was a “Tonight Show” regular, and later, a radio host.
But years later, no one remembers the clothes; his line died a quiet death in the 1980s. We do, however, remember the insults. Brigitte Bardot: “A cow wearing a girdle.” Elizabeth Taylor: “The rebirth of the zeppelin.” Lena Horne: “A plucked chicken.”
But times change.
Now, the man who made a living being mean wants to take it all back.
“I wrote Mr. Blackwell’s act,” Blackwell said. “Now I want to close his act and open a new one.” (The List, however, will live on.)
Stay tuned.
You can be sure the new act won’t be played off-stage.