Friday, August 9, 2019

Bolles sighting!


Sorry for the gap since my last post. I'm back in the Bolles archive and will endeavor to get some long languishing projects online soon.  During part of my absence I was away for work in Japan when my spidey-sense for all things Bolles started tingling. It wasn't long before I spotted the source. It was a store devoted entirely to Zippo lighters. Many of you already know the story behind Bolles' connection with Zippo lighters.  Briefly, he created the famous Windy Girl that was featured in the first ad published for Zippo, which you can see in the photo above.  Unfortunately, they gave short shrift to Bolles. Soon his name was yanked from the ad and when they created a re-issue of her in 1993, Windy was attributed to Alberto Vargas (in the re-issue she was called the Varga Windy, which is an insult to dearly departed Alberto).  Zippo has since created a number of variations on Windy but I had no
clue just how many until I checked out the display inside the store.  I just hope that someday they make one that actually gives Bolles his rightful due.  Maybe we should start a write-in campaign. 

4 comments:

Li-An said...

Interesting story. I will write about this on my blog. Such a pity from Zippo.

Li-An said...

I read here that Vargas had worked on the design. What is the true story ? https://blog.smoking.fr/2013/12/lady-zippo/

Bolles Fan 1 said...

No, Vargas had nothing to do with the design and the original ad even gave Bolles credit, though his name was mis-spelled. The whole Vargas connection was a marketing ploy done because Zippo wanted to connect the image to the most well-known pinup artist, not the man who actually did the art!

Li-An said...

Thanks for the precisions.