Introduction to Toys for Boys

The sudden death of Yosef Gertrudis Drenters in the winter of 1983 brought to an early close a most distinguished career of a major Canadian sculptor, artist and preservationist.

Born in 1930 in The Netherlands, his youth was spent in classical studies preparing for the priesthood. At the age of 14 he began to take drawing instructions from a local artist, Willem van Ejendhoven. Yosef was also influenced by his father, a skilled blacksmith, who was adept at making small works in forged iron.

In 1951 after giving up his monastic life, he came to Canada with his family, who first settled in British Columbia. His first years in Canada were spent working variously as a lumberjack, a rancher, a miner and a farmer. In 1954 the family moved to Ontario and purchased a large farm on Highway 24 north of Guelph, where in 1958 Yosef began experimenting in sculpture after several years of painting.

His first solo exhibition was organized by Florence Partridge, Chief Librarian of Massey Library at the Ontario Agricultural College. In 1960 his work was exhibited in Toronto at Dorothy Cameron's Here and Now gallery, and he was heralded by critics and collectors as a major Canadian sculptor. He received a Canada Council grant in 1961, was the subject of a CBC documentary film, and was accepted as a member of the Ontario Society of Artists.

The Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce commissioned him to create a sculpture for the Tokyo Trade Fair in 1965. His Pioneer Family won the competition for sculpture for the Ontario Pavilion at Expo 67, and he was commissioned as well to create a giant toy horse for La Ronde. In 1974, Drenters was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy.

The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph held the last exhibition of his work Images of the Madonna during the winter of 19821983 Many of his pieces continue to be displayed in public collections including the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston; the Art Gallery of Windsor, Edmonton Art Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Princeton University Art Museum, Sarnia Public Library and Art Gallery, The University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

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In a series of performances from 2004 to 2007, Leonardo performed as El Conquistador or interchangeably El C., a Luchador, an alter ego, who is fighting a recurring battle with a fictional unseen opponent, The Invisible Man. His opponent's name, a reference to the title of Ralph Ellison's award-winning novel from 1952, exploring race and identity. Performed in front of live audiences, El Conquistador vs The Invisible Man explored the "struggle against physical and metaphorical invisibility in society, and with the complexities of hyper-masculine identity in Latino culture."

Shaun Leonardo's series "I Can't Breathe" began in 2015. The work came out of Leonardo's response to the death of Eric Garner and the non-indictment of the New York City Police Department officer responsible for his death. These performances are part self-defense class and part public-participatory performance. During the performance, Leonardo takes the audience through four moves: 1) How to break an arm hold; 2) how to reestablish distance if someone grabs your shirt; 3) how to block a punch; "The final maneuver is the chokehold. "The same chokehold that took Eric Garners life.

In Leonardo's 2008 installation and performance piece, Bull in the Ring, he and 10 semi-pro football players performed the Bull in the Ring training routine. A training routine that was banned from American football on the high school and collegiate levels. In the routine, the team forms a revolving circle around one player, the matador, would waits in the center of the ring. In its original form, the coach randomly choose players to play the part of the bull who then charge at the player in the center, possibly catching him off-guard, to deliver a blow. Leonardo had been practicing this training routing from 12 years old. Through the Bull in the Ring performance Leonardo explores the pressures young men have to face, to conform, and to prove their toughness.

At the Brooklyn Museum, Leonardo staged a dance hall event that toyed with traditional gender roles, Taxi Dance inspired by popular nightclub events in the 1920s, where men would pay women to dance. Leonardo instead had participants pay men to dance with them.

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FilmTess Skeffington, in Murder By Death, played by Eileen Brennan

Tess Carlisle, in Guarding Tess, played by Shirley MacLaine

Tess Carroll, in Charlie St. Cloud, played by Amanda Crew

Tess Coleman, in Freaky Friday, played by Jamie Lee Curtis

Tess Durbeyfield/D'Urberville, in Tess, based on Thomas Hardy's novel, played by Nastassja Kinski

Tess Finnegan, in Fool's Gold (2008), played by Kate Hudson

Tess Harding, in Woman of the Year, played by Katharine Hepburn

Tess McGill, in Working Girl, played by Melanie Griffith

Tess Nichols, in 27 Dresses, played by Malin kerman

Tess Ocean, in Ocean's Eleven (2001) and the sequel Ocean's Twelve, played by Julia Roberts

Tess Tyler, in the television movie Camp Rock and Billboard Dad, played by Mary-Kate Olsen , played by Meaghan Jette Martin

Tess, in Burlesque, played by CherTelevisionTess Adamson, on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street

Tess Bateman, on the British medical drama Casualty, played by Suzanne Packer

Teresa Bell, on the Australian soap opera Neighbours

Tess Doerner, on the American science fiction series The 4400, played by Summer Glau

Tess Fontana, on the American series Eureka

Tess Foster, protagonist of the Canadian sitcom Life with Boys

Tess Harding, on the series Roswell, played by Emilie de Ravin

Tess Silverman McLeod, on the Australian series McLeod's Daughters, played by Bridie Carter

Tess Mercer, on the American series Smallville

Tess Ramsey, on the American soap opera Port Charles, played by Kelly Monaco

Tess Smith, an alternate personality of the character Jessica Buchanan on the American soap opera One Life to Live, played by Bree Williamson

Tess, on the television series Touched by an Angel, played by Della ReeseBooks and comicsTess Durbeyfield/D'Urberville, in the novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Tess Clark, in Chuck Palahniuk's novel Haunted

Tess Trueheart, in the Dick Tracy comic strip series

Tess, in the Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comic book seriesToys and video gamesTess, in the Betty Spaghetty line of toys

Tess, in the Jak and Daxter video game series

Tess, in the game The Last of Us

Tess Wintory, in the game Test Drive Unlimited 2

Tess Everis, in the game Destiny (video game)

Tess Greymane, in the game World of Warcraft

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IGN, an American entertainment website, has generally commented positively on him. They pointed out that Herbert is one of the most popular recurring characters in the series, referring to him (with his dog Jesse) as one of the characters that stuck out from the rest. They also noted that one of the reasons Herbert is funny is because of his "soft, high-pitched whistling voice".

Although IGN has praised Herbert in general they have criticized some aspects of him. In their review of "Blue Harvest", a retelling and parody of the 1977 film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, recasting the show's characters into Star Wars roles, IGN criticized the choice of putting Herbert in the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, stating that it never creates any actual humor. They also criticized the constant use of Herbert, commenting that it was entertaining for the first two times, but that it quickly became overused. In their list of "What Else Should Family Guy Make Fun Of?", IGN commented that Herbert would be perfect to play Major Toht and Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor should Family Guy ever decide to make parodies of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Harry Potter, respectively.

A February 2015 article written by Hanh Nguyen for TV Guide listed pedophilia among the 12 biggest taboos shown on Family Guy, naming Herbert as the "creepiest of all" references to the disorder. Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club criticized the character as an example of how the series occasionally fails in its deliberately offensive humor. He called him "a black hole of shittiness whose every appearance brings out the worst tendencies of Family Guy", adding that his "appearance brings every episode he's in to a screeching halt".

Herbert, along with his dog Jesse, ranked spot number 16 in IGN's "Top 25 Family Guy Characters".

Herbert also ranked number five on IGN's "The Cleveland Show Casting Couch", which showed characters that IGN would find interesting to put in The Cleveland Show.

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Chasen was born Veronica Cohen to a Jewish family in Kingston, New York in 1946. She was raised in both the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx and the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. She won a series of Duncan Toys Company yo-yo contests held in Morningside Heights as a child.

Chasen began her early career as a publicist for her brother, film director Larry Cohen, who hired her as a publicist for his 1973 blaxploitation film, Hell Up in Harlem, which became one of her earliest jobs in the industry.

Chasen became known in Hollywood for her PR work on such films as On Golden Pond, and the second film in the Oliver Stone/Michael Douglas Wall Street film franchise, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. She was pushing for Oscar recognition for Douglas in his role as the money hungry, risk averse character Gordon Gekko. Chasen successfully directed the Oscar campaign for the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture the following year.

In addition to being named the Senior Vice President for Publicity at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1993, Chasen owned the PR firm Chasen & Co., in which she focused on artists who composed film music, such as Trevor Horn, Mark Isham, Hans Zimmer, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, and brothers David and Thomas Newman. Laura Dunn of the Society of Composers and Lyricists said of Chasen, "She laid the groundwork for so many others on how to be a top publicist in the film music industry representing top composers and songwriters."

According to Los Angeles Times film critic Patrick Goldstein, Chasen reminisced about her early years while working with George Burns on the hit 1970s film The Sunshine Boys and coaching the budding star John Travolta on how to handle his first interview after his fame first broke during Welcome Back Kotter.

Chasen was working with Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Zanuck for the Oscar campaign of the 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland, at the time of her death. Following her murder, Chasen was called "Hollywood's ultimate old-school publicist" by Patrick Goldstein.