Marin Iorda, pen name of Marin Iordache (30 August 1901 – 23 June 1972), was a Romanian visual artist, writer, filmmaker, and theatrical director. His beginnings were as a teen-aged cartoonist, employed on Constantin Costa-Foru's magazine for youth. Specializing in line art and graphic design, then formalizing his training with courses at the Art Academy, he spent the early interwar years as a regular at various cultural magazines in Bucharest. From 1919, Iorda was also promoted and educated by the writer, cartoonist and theater producer Victor Ion Popa, who inspired him to take up stage design; they functioned for decades as a two-man team, with Iorda as the less conspicuous one. As part of his more independent ventures, in 1924 he partnered with another writer, Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, in creating a comic strip for children, called Haplea. It was highly successful, inspiring Iorda to also draw, animate and produce a 1927 Haplea film, which is the first-ever feature-length Romanian cartoon. He followed up in live action, with the 1928 silent film Așa e viața, enlisting Jean Georgescu as his aide.
From about 1930 to the 1957, Iorda was mainly employed as a stage director, dramaturge, and producer. During the early 1930s, he was in Brașov, where he founded and directed a children's theater; during his stint there, he also took up wood engraving and became noted as a glider operator for an experimental airmail service. After his theater failed, he turned to work for Radio Bucharest, writing and producing a string of radioplays, as well as directing its children's programming, and also served as editor in chief at the children's edition of Dimineața daily. Iorda's credentials as a leftist were established at around the same time, when he published novellas for grownups, noted for their anti-elitist and anti-capitalist messages; on the cusp of World War II, he was also briefly a pacifist activist.
Iorda's services were still used by the authoritarian regime formed around King Carol II and the National Renaissance Front in 1938. He returned as editor of Curentuls children's paper, and as writer of Romania's first graphic novel, which included praise of Carol. He and Popa ran the Workers' Theater on Uranus Hill, working under direct supervision by the Ministry of Labor. They were thus allowed to entertain the proletarian masses, though prevented from engaging in radical politics—a status which was also maintained throughout Ion Antonescu's Nazi-aligned dictatorship, down to 1944. During their cohabitation with the latter regime, Iorda and Popa also worked with each other on a police procedural, which was only partly filmed in 1942–1943. Upon Antonescu's fall in August 1944, Romania experienced a leftist turn, allowing the Uranus-Hill Theater to reemerge as an institution for the promotion of socialist aesthetics; also working as director for the National Theater Bucharest, Iorda reemerged as an ally of the Romanian Communist Party, and in 1945 published what may have been Romania's first socialist-realist epic.
In September 1947, Iorda was assigned by his friend Ion Pas, the titular Minister of Arts, as manager of the National Theater Iași. During his tenure, the Kingdom of Romania was formally ended, and a communist regime was proclaimed in its stead. In September 1948, Iorda was reassigned to the National Theater Craiova; while there, he embraced Marxism-Leninism and Stanislavski's system, applying both to the reinterpretation of works by classics such as Ion Luca Caragiale and Nicolae Filimon. Collaborating with various theatrical venues across the country, he was reassigned as a regular director at the Workers' Theater, and later the Bucharest Youth Theater. During his final decade, he had a comeback as a cartoonist: relaunching Haplea alongside writer Tudor Mușatescu, in a "re-educated" version, he also presented his lifelong drawings in various art shows.
Biography Early life The future "Marin Iorda" was born in Bucharest, capital of the Romanian Kingdom, on 30 August 1901; his parents were Constantin and Comana Iordache,Faifer, p. 331 who, by his own testimony, lived on "some godforsaken street on the outskirts"."Fascinația", p. 269 In 1912, the boy made his way into a cinema, and was fascinated by the spectacle, later skipping school, and braving increasingly serious punishments by his family, to see productions starring Charles Prince and Max Linder."Fascinația", pp. 269–270 Both parents wanted him to train for a career in the Romanian Land Forces or in the Orthodox Church. Marin disliked these options, and eventually ran away from home, discovering an interest in painting. His first notable employment was as a cartoonist (as well as proofreader and occasional writer) for the youth magazine Revista Copiilor și Tinerimii, founded by Constantin Costa-Foru. While literary history records this debut as occurring in 1919, Iorda himself claimed that he had begun working there during World War I, and recalled his participation in staff meetings with literary celebrities such as Ioan Slavici and Gala Galaction.Isac, p. 143 This period saw him drawing Slavici's portrait.Miron Radu Paraschivescu, "Civilizația ochiului. Retrospectiva Marin Iorda", in Luceafărul, Vol. VIII, Issue 17, August 1965, p. 10
Literary critic Carol Isac notes that Revista Copiilor și Tinerimii allowed Iordache to experiment in the new field of "children's journalism".Isac, p. 142 Writer Miron Radu Paraschivescu, who grew up reading Costa-Foru's publication, reserved praise for Iorda's "countless illustrations", done in a style that (he argued) was unique in Romanian art, with line art that is "somewhere between branch and snake". He saw Iorda as Romania's own Toulouse-Lautrec, and as someone born to do animation. As the war ended, Iordache moved on to jobs at Adevărul Literar și Artistic and Rampa, where he also specialized in graphic design for advertising content; for a while, he worked in a workshop that put out marketing content. He entered the Bucharest Art Academy upon passing his entry exam in 1919. Though still focused on graphic art, his training was guided by sculptors Dimitrie Paciurea and Frederic Storck.Isac, p. 143. See also Faifer, p. 331; Popica, p. 19 Curator Eugenia Antonescu sees him as excelling as a portraitist and caricaturist, with sketches that depicted a variety of human faces—from anonymous Romanian peasants to politicians such as Marcel Cachin and writers such as Mihail Sorbul.Eugenia Antonescu, "Carnet cultural. Expoziția de desen și acuarelă Marin Iorda", in Steagul Roșu, 12 April 1967, p. 2 He remained attached to drawing and watercolor in a miniature style, producing only a few easel paintings.
When Iorda began writing for children, it was after being encouraged to do so by a more established author and illustrator, Victor Ion Popa. As he himself put it: "I first met Victor Ion Popa in the winter of 1919. From that first moment, he viewed me as his younger brother. He taught me lots of things; I worked side by side with him as he was rehearsing, designing sets or costumes, or trying on makeup." During the early months of 1922, Popa attracted his young acolyte into the "Salon of Humorists", which he had founded. Before it went down in 1928, the Salon was also frequented by artists such as Ion Valentin Anestin, Jacques Kapralik, Sigismund Maur, and Iosif Ross.Petru Comarnescu, "Cronica artelor. Agora. Strălucitul Salon al umoriștilor", in Cronica, Vol. III, Issue 30, July 1968, p. 4 Iorda recalls having accompanied Popa on commissions for drawing caricatures of politicians (usually done from live sittings); in 1925, the two of them worked together on a production of The Mandrake, by Niccolò Machiavelli, during which Popa allowed him full liberty to work on the set design, including for hand-painting the actual props.Iorda (1970), pp. 134–135
Dramatist Sarina Cassvan, who worked with both Popa and Iorda, recalls that the latter "cared not for the benefits of publicity", maintaining a low profile in Popa's shadow. This, she notes, led many to ignore his multilateral talents—the fact that "he knew everything, and he did everything too." She recalls that he went as far as to erect the props using "the most astounding materials", and that he once crafted a single shoe, just to prove to himself that he could.Sarina Cassvan, "Un om și o carte", in Luceafărul, Vol. XV, Issue 49, December 1972, p. 6 In 1924,Ifrim & Gheorghe, p. 71; Isac, p. 142 alongside the newspaper editor Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Iorda created Haplea. This comic strip, purportedly Romania's first ongoing series, greatly contributed to his fame.Isac, p. 142. See also Faifer, p. 331; Ifrim & Gheorghe, p. 71 Thousands of young readers were regular subscribers, and many of them wrote letters to Haplea, thinking that he was a real-life person; Iorda would maintain the illusion by replying back in-character.
Iorda also debuted in Romanian cinema with a 1927 Haplea film—locally famous as the first-ever feature-length Romanian cartoon.Faifer, p. 331; Isac, p. 144. See also Popica, p. 19 He could find no financing for this project, and consequently created it entirely on his own, from script to production, and even to janitorial work on the studio; the only outside help was from cameraman Eftimie Vasilescu, who helped him procure and edit the film stock.Isac, p. 144 The end product, which only ran at cinemas in Bucharest and Brașov, had 400 meters (or 440 yards) of film, comprising some thousands of individual drawings. During Hapleas production, he had interrupted himself to visit Gabriel Rosca and his crew, who were filming the silent film Le Chemin de la rémission in the nearby Cișmigiu Gardens, and who gave him tips about camera work.Marin Iorda, "Maria Ciucurescu la Radio și pe scenă", in Magazin, Vol. X, Issue 472, October 1966, pp. 1, 4
Brașov and late interwar Using Haplea as his training in animation, Iorda was later inspired to create and debut his own cartoon character, Guguță. He also went on to write, direct and produce the 1928 live action, Așa e viața ("Such is Life"). He had co-written the screenplay with Jean Georgescu, and employed mime artists from Georgescu's private school of acting.Aura Puran, "Filmografie deschisă Jean Georgescu", in Magazin Estival Cinema 1982, p. 106 As a short film in the burlesque genre, it remains Iorda's second and last directorial credit in cinema."Fascinația", p. 284. See also Isac, p. 144 His steady contribution in the press now included works in the reportage and memoir genres, as well as samples of theater, film and art criticism—favorite venues included Adevărul, Curentul, Cuvântul Liber, Dimineața, Timpul, and Vremea. In the 1930s, his interests focused on theatrical ventures, and he joined Popa as a stage designer and director of plays.