Mr Blackwell Fashion Critic TV Host

Mr Blackwell, the well-known fashion critic, artist, television personality, journalist, was born on August 29, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. He had a painful childhood, where his step-father used to beat him up quite often. His early life was spent in Bensonhurst (Brooklyn). In his childhood, he had as his neighbors, poor people of working class origin.

Mr. Blackwell, whose original name is Richard Sylvan Selzer, gets this name in the late 1950's, when his clothing line was presented. He got his name changed to Richard Blackwell by Howard Hughes. Mr. Blackwell was the first person whose clothing line was broadcasted on television. Later in 1968, he had even started a two-hour television show named Mr. Blackwell Presents. This show revealed his collection of costumes and was the first of its kind to be broadcast on television. He has also participated on other shows like The Tonight Show, Best Of The Tonight Show.

A famous designer, Mr. Blackwell's line got sold for $800 to $1,000. He has designed costumes for famous personalities like Jayne Mansfield, Jane Russell, Yvonne DeCarlo so on. He became very successful. His clothing line became equally popular to that of Versace, Valentino and even Richard Tyler. Mr. Blackwell also became popular as a fashion journalist. He had written the article 10 Best and Worst Dressed for the American weekly magazine and his worst dressed list became very famous.

In 1960, he presented Mr. Blackwell's Ten Worst Dressed Women. It did gain some immediate success but as time passes it became immensely popular. Every medium be it television, radio, magazines covered it and brought it to public notice. Many famous people's dressing techniques were criticized here. Some viewed it from a positive angle and at the same time the sentiments of many were hurt. Its criticism, in fact, at times was very rude. Despite the pros and cons, it was a huge success. So much so that it got imitated as in David Lettermans Top 10 Reasons, The Catwalk Queen and so on.

Mr. Blackwell had also taken up acting in theatre during his teenage. He has been a part of Sidney Kingsleys Dead End (1935). During the 1930's, he played some minor roles in motions picture industry. In 1944, he also played a role in Catherine Was Great with Mae West.

Mr. Blackwell suffered from Bell's palsy in 2001, due to which first time in a period of 40 years his 2001 list could not be revealed. He did not come to the public eye until 2001, when he appeared again with his 2001 list. Apart from his above-mentioned works, Mr. Blackwell is also credited for writing Mr. Blackwell: 30 Years of Fashion Fiascos, the Fabulous Fashion Independents. Richard Blackwell