Yesterday was International Bow Day!

As you can see, our Bolles girl is none too happy.  After she learned about International Bow Day she spent hours and hours sewing this costume for the occasion, only to have me get her to the event a day late. She's already working something extra special for an upcoming celebration and you can bet I will make doubly sure she's there on time. 

This Bolles girl from 1936 thought it was International Ribbon day, but she was able to make a quick fix to suite the occasion. For her sake, let's just hope she doesn't show up in this costume on National Ribbon Cutting day!

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. 

W.C. Fields, Bolles Fan!

You have to believe that this famous Film Fun reading film star, comedian, and world class juggler was a Bolles fan. Certainly W.C.'s not perusing the pages for the jokes. Notice just how carefully he's holding the magazine, as not to get his fingerprints on the cover art. And regarding the cover art, I've made another version that gives us the Bolles girl in full color. Enjoy! 

 

April 27 was International Sculpture Day!

This magazine cover from 1935 gives a whole new meaning to how 'modeling clay' got its name. Enoch's sly sense of humor is evident here. Many of his magazine covers, particularly the smooshes, were chock full of visual puns or double entendres. Our Bolles girl is rightly proud of her well-sculpted figurine, but she's not the only one who took notice. 
As you can plainly see, to label this cover from New York Knights a swipe is to give stealing a bad name. The artist here, as many of you will recognize, is George Quintana. I think you could make a strong case that he owes his career as a cover artist to Bolles. He swiped so often and so thoroughly that his work is often misattributed to Bolles. Some of you may also know that I've written about the theory that George Quintana was a nom de plume of the artist, George Quaintance, famous for his muscle man magazine covers that predated Tom of Finland. I've shifted back and forth on my theory since then, and so for now I'll reserve judgement about who's who, but you can't ignore some similarities in their the styles and between their signatures (granted, Quintana played around with his more). Anyway if you are interested in making your own comparisons or learning more, here's a great web site on Quaintance by his biographer, Ken Furtado, who definitely comes down against the Quintana-Quaintance connection.  

But back to the swiping. Bolles was definitely aware of Quintana's covers, and so were the editors of Film Fun, who brought a law suit against Quintana's most visible publication

vehicle, Movie Humor. While the lawsuit was ongoing, Movie Humor went so far as to print disclaimers on the covers to allay any confusion in the weak-eyed reader.  The judge acknowledged similarities between the magazines he rejected the lawsuit. But Quintana wasn't the only artist who 'borrowed' from Enoch, and from time to time I've posted examples. I thought the theme was worth revisiting so I'll soon be starting a new series called "Cases from the Swipe Files".  So stay posted, my friends. 
 

March 5 is World Tennis Day!

Today I am serving up an overhead slam of a cover by our man Enoch.This 1935 cover for Spicy Stories was the first of only two tennis themed covers by Bolles.  It's a bit unusual because his Spicy Stories were generally not at all inclined toward sports. In fact by the mid-30's Enoch had pretty much departed from the sports themes so common in his earlier work. 

To our right is an original done for Breezy Stories that according to the amazing Galactic Central, magazine repository, appeared in 1941.I have to believe, however, she must have been on an earlier cover of the magazine. For one, after 1938 Bolles was only producing new works for Film Fun. And there's another clue. Around 1937-38 Enoch had begun leaving the unworked parts of the canvas raw and outlining the figure in a band of white, most likely to save on both time and money. Take a look at her shoes, you have to wonder if she skipped the match and went right to the lemonade stand!  

Enjoying Valentine's Day, courtesy Enoch Bolles

This 1924 Film Fun cover is the earliest Bolles' reference to Valentine's day I've found. The helpless little men theme may come across as peculiar but during the mid-20's it was all the rage among illustrators who specialized in 'pretty-girl' art. In a future post I'll include every example that Bolles painted. This cover pose was reworked by Enoch five years later for a Spicy Stories cover, and he also did another variant used for an ad that ran in the same issue. The rendering of the later cover is so close I fear Enoch simply reworked the Film Fun painting, rather than start with a blank canvas.  Let's hope someone proves my theory wrong and comes up with both paintings. Now that would be some Valentine's Day present!

John Buscema, Bolles fan?

I saw this panel from a 1993 Punisher comic drawn by the famed Marvel comics artist John Buschema and thought it had to be more than just coincidence. Take a look at the flipped cover from a 1934 Film Fun (I posted a long series on this painting several years back and and how I came to find the original).  What do you think? Was "Big John" a Bolles fan? 

February 1: Working Naked Day!

Not to worry, our man Bolles has this one (un)covered. Nuff said!

One-Off Part Seven

It's fitting that our final entry in the One-Off series is likely the last painting Bolles did for a magazine. She appeared in 1943 on the inaugural issue of the problematically titled men's
magazine,Titter. Our reflective Bolles girl strongly resembles a cover he did for the December, 1941 issue of Film Fun. Curiously, however, these images were inspired by different photographs of different models. My guess is that our solo choir girl in the in the green opera gloves was done at the same time as the trio but didn't make the audition for Film Fun. So she was later repurposed for Titter. I'm even more sure the actual painting (if only it was still around!) faced left and was flipped for the magazine. The Film Fun painting was flipped for the cover and as you can see, the photo reference for the Titter cover-girl faces left.  More interesting is that the photo bears only a cursory resemblance to the Bolles girl in the painting.  As the late artist and collector, Francis Smith told me long ago, "Bolles was an interpreter". That he certainly was!

Today is Cider Monday!

What a great cover! Don't you just love those shorts with the trendy cuffs? There's a story behind them. Long ago when Enoch's daughter saw this cover she told me she thought Enoch did the shorts in denim because at the time bluejeans were becoming a fashion trend. And of course our man Enoch would be all over that. The rolled stockings were a big deal at the time too. A couple years earlier Louise Brooks starred in a movie called, of all things, Rolled Stockings.

Enoch Bolles Reminds you Not to Forget to Vote!

September 22 is Bright Pink Lipstick Day!

One-Off Part Six

Our newest edition of the the One-Off series happens to be the very first of all Enoch's one-offs, and his third magazine cover.  Puck was an odd duck, paddling back and forth from a partisan political rag to a sort of humor mag.  For a brief stretch the covers featured what you might call proto-pinups, which were painted by the likes of Rolf Armstrong, Harry Horst Meyers, Neysa McMein and our man Bolles. Batting cleanup in this stellar lineup was the Viennese artist,Raphael Kirchner. Before moving from Paris to New York in 1914, Kirchner had established a thriving career as a society artist as well as providing illustrations for the likes of La Vie Parisienne. His work for Puck showcased a French inflected and ungartered eroticism that was absent from American illustrators.  A masterful technician, he worked in a number of media and strongly influenced the work of Alberto Vargas, who took Kirchner's place as the artist for the Zeigfeld Follies after his untimely death in 1917.  

Unlike the the girls of Kirchner and Vargas, who were content lounging in the boudoir, the Bolles girl was outdoors and on the go. Other artists, most notably Fisher and Gibson, were also painting the so-called New American Girl, but the Bolles girl was different. While the girls of Fisher or Gibson might be content with a game of croquet, the Bolles girl would rather pole dance off a buoy.  

Years later Bolles revisited this theme. The buoy may have been updated, but our Bolles girl hadn't changed a bit. She still loved to boogie!   .  

RIP Mary Carlisle 1914-2018, A True Bolles Girl

I was very sorry to learn about the recent passing of the actress, Mary Carlisle, who well may have been the last living actress to have starred in a silent movie. Some of you may recall the post I made about Mary some months ago. In it I described how Enoch often used references for his magazine covers but as far as I could tell, Mary was the only case where he deliberately kept her likeness intact. And one look at Mary makes it clear why!  I was able to locate Mary and mailed her copies two magazine covers inspired by her and she graciously signed them for me. 

If you'd like to learn about the life and career of Mary here's a good place to start.

July 3 is Stay Out of the Sun Day!

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Today's Bolles girl knows that if she gets too much sun her skin tone may end up matching her swimsuit! This charming cover hit the newsstands 83 years ago this month (in 1935, if you don't want to do the math) and is one of several Enoch painted over the years featuring sun parasols. I think used them to add some interest to the composition and I'd be very curious to know if the tips of the parasol were cropped out of view in the original painting. The overhang of the parasol, along with the girl's extended legs, each work to project the painting toward the viewer, and that cool blue shadow adds additional depth to the perspective.

Stay tuned to this channel for more Summer themed posts as well as the continuing "One-Off" series featuring magazines that Enoch only painted a single cover for.  And there may be a post in the near future with some Big Bolles news.  That's all I can say for now.  In the meantime, don't forget to use sunscreen of one sort or another when you go out in the sun.

One-off Part Five

Our latest installment in the One-off series ranks as the biggest outlier of them all. Bolles would only paint two more covers for the movie fan magazine genre and this was his sole cover for Screen Romances. I think the only reason Bolles did the cover was due to the prodding of the magazine's art director, Abril Lamarque, who also served in that role for Film Fun. Initially, Lamarque was hired by Film Fun to draw monthly full page pen and ink panels but he was soon given additional responsibilities to rework the look of the  magazine.

While I'd rank this as a very successful cover and a good likeness, Bolles artistic DNA is anything but dominant. My theory is that he was assigned to make this cover as Rolf Armstrong-like as possible. Hence the gigantic signature, which is uncharacteristically camouflaged into the background. Neither Armstrong nor Bolles were shy about making their signatures pop out with bold tones.  Another reason I think Bolles channeled Armstrong is that his blending and tonality make the image look more like it was done with pastels, the medium Armstrong worked in (he had an enormous pallet of over a thousand pastels) than oil. In fact I think Armstrong took notice when Bolles produced a cover the movie fan magazine,Talking Screen (which was soon re-titled Silver Screen after the novelty of the "talkies" wore off).  Barely a month after Bolles' cover appeared, Armstrong duplicated the exact pose for a competing magazine (but that's another story left for later).

So why didn't Bolles do more of these? There certainly was a market for movie star portraiture and this example proves he could depict accurate likenesses in the prevailing style of the time. Bolles had also completed several full-figure poses of movie stars for Film Fun. The answer I think was a matter of economy and economics. More than once Bolles whipped out a cover painting for the spicy pulps (call them smooshes if you wish) within the span of a single day, and he was pretty much free to create what he wished with little or no meddling by the art director (if there was one). And for a time he had a virtual monopoly on them (Tattle Tales, Gay Book, Pep Stories, Bedtime Stories, Stolen Sweets, Spicy Stories, Gay Parisienne...). The money may not have been great but all those covers added up.  In contrast, the competition by artists for the movie fan mags was fierce and the covers required precise but flattering portraiture. 

But let's not lay blame on our man Bolles for taking the easy way out. Working for the movie fan mags would have yielded a modest number of beautiful but blandish images, each toeing to the approved style and closely based on stock head shots provided by the movie studios. Instead, we are witnesses to the three decade journey of an unfettered artistic original who left a legacy of nearly 600 magazine covers free from the dictates of art directors, finicky fans, ego-driven stars, and the priggish censor.  Lucky us!

One-Off Part Four

Of all Bolles' one-shot covers today's example, published in 1929, reigns above all others. What a mashup!  There's the piquant; a fairy.  There's the pungent; she happens to be naked (except for the stylish shoes. No way Bolles could resist adding them). There's the peppery; she's embracing a rather dour peacock. And then the pleasing; the ultramarine field of pansies.  Yes, Ginger was preserved, perfectly!  Sadly, Bolles was never to paint another cover for this title. But if you want your own there's a really great copy currently for sale on eBay But don't hesitate, this auction ends in just a few hours!

Yesterday: March 29 was Little Red Wagon Day

In 1923 when this cover of Film Fun cover was published, this was as red as toy wagons got.  It wasn't until 1927 that the now ubiquitous Radio Flyer (then called the Liberty Coaster) debuted.  Curiously there are more covers of Bolles girls riding turtles than any four wheeled vehicle, either human or gasoline powered. As geometrically exacting as Bolles' art could be, I've long wondered why he didn't do any automobile advertising (or perhaps it's yet to be discovered).

Enoch Bolles Loves International Pi(e) Day!

No matter how you slice it, our man Bolles loves pi/pie!

March 10: International Bagpipe Day

This cover appeared at the very end of Enoch's nearly four decade career. The year was 1942. Sadly, the next issue of Film Fun would be its last.  There would be another Bolles painting in early 1943 for the debut issue of Titter (more on that in later as part of my serious on one-off's) and an enigmatic cover that appeared in the final issue of Breezy Stories published in 1949. But that's it.  As you may know, during this period Enoch was in and out of mental hospitals.  Yet he was still painting, and in fact continued to until his death three decades later.  During the early 40's Enoch was at home during what his doctors called "paroles" he resumed his work for Film Fun.  But even while hospitalized he would conscript nurses to serve as models in a spare room he converted into a studio. 

Despite his troubles, this cover serves as unequivocal evidence that Enoch's artistic chops were still intact, as was his inventiveness and humor (it also dispels the persisting false story that his career ended because of a debilitating stroke).  During this period he adopted emerging fashions and his girls began to sport hairdos reminiscent of Rita Hayworth or the popular Victory curl look.  At this time Enoch also became intrigued with adorning his girls in patterned material as is evident here by not one but three distinct tartans.  It all makes one wish that things would have turned out differently, Enoch was only 59 and there were new pinup magazines appearing in the newsstands. And things almost did.

Far from being burned out from the business of painting "chlorines", Enoch told one of his his grandchildren that he had some "new ideas" about pinups he wanted to explore. And after he left the hospital for good he tried to do something about it.  Enoch very likely learned of the revived career of his compatriot, Alberto Vargas, who was producing new pinups for Playboy.  So he painted some new samples that he took to their main competitor.  But alas, it was not to be. Penthouse was not in the market for pinup.