OK, here's a great regret: I wish that I'd gotten famous in musical theater while Al Hirschfeld was still alive. I always wanted a Hirschfeld of myself in The New York Times, or at least on of those caricatures hanging in Sardi's...

"For almost 75 years in The New York Times, Al Hirschfeld's line drawings captured the vividness of American theater. A self-described "characterist," Hirschfeld (1903 - 2003) said his contribution was to take the character, created by the playwright and portrayed by the actor, and to reinvent it for the reader. His drawings, which often appeared before a show opened, gave many readers their first look at Broadway's newest offerings. This archive is a selection of works published in The Times."

My favorite piece of Hirschfeld trivia is the word "Nina", the name of his daughter, which he hid in the lines of his drawings. To indicate how many Ninas he had hidden in a picture, he would put a number next to his signature. So, "Hirschfeld 4" means that there are 4 Ninas in the picture: The fun is finding them.

"Almost everyone knows that Al Hirschfeld hid his daughter's name, Nina, in the designs of his drawings.

To herald her birth in November 1945, Hirschfeld facetiously included her name in a drawing for a forgettable musical called "Are You With It?" The musical's circus setting allowed him to include among the freak show posters one for "NINA the Wonder Child." He thought that only "close friends and immediate family enjoyed a mild snicker over this infantile prank."

According to the artist he put Ninas "in folds of sleeves, tousled hairdos, eyebrows, wrinkles, backgrounds, shoelaces -- anywhere to make it difficult, but not too difficult, to find." This playful gesture spawned a ritual; readers began looking for Ninas in every Hirschfeld drawing. He discovered that when he left out his daughter's name, he was deluged by mail demanding to know where it was.

Over the years Hirschfeld tried to end what he called "a national insanity." But he said, "I learned, the hard way, to put Nina's name in the drawing before I proudly display my own signature."

In the summer of 1960 Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, received a letter suggesting that Hirschfeld let readers know how many Ninas they should look for in his drawings. Hirschfeld responded by including a number next to his name for the number of Ninas to be found in a drawing. When there is no number, it means there is only one Nina."