Dos Sombreros!

The image on the left comes from a 1933 issue of Tattle Tales, and on the right is Joan Blondell from 1938. It's the only photo I've ever seen where she's a brunette. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that the photo pose was swiped or even inspired by the Bolles image. After all there's five years between them and Tattle Tales could only be bought at smoke shops, pool halls or from a newsstand where you had a connection. You'd have to have been seriously moved by that image to have it stick in your mind for that long.

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Yet on the other hand there is an undeniable resemblance. Was it that both Bolles and the photographer were tapping into the same cliche' or were they inspired by something they both saw? Certainly Joan had more than a little of the Bolles girl look about her. Who knows, but I see these sorts of connections all the time, and not just with vintage photos. And I keep searching because I have found examples that were undeniably swiped from Bolles. I'll be posting more of these in the future including one Bolles cover that was copied at least four times. Have you found any?

Passing Resemblance or More?

I see these sort of connections all the time, whether they are real or not. The question is who influenced who? I forgot to mention, that's Carole Lombard on the right.

Which Came First?

My Bolles pal, the artist Jared Joslin (check out his link on this page) sent me this photo by Paul Outerbridge dated 1937. He thought that Bolles used it as a reference and so did I until I noticed that the Bolles cover was published in 1935. But now I think that Outerbridge borrowed from Bolles. He wouldn't be the first as I've found plenty of other examples, done both by photographers and artists.

Here's another example form 1927 and I'm pretty sure that the Bolles image came first. The caption on the photo was taken right off the magazine cover.

Now the next two go the other direction. These were photos that Bolles used for inspiration. For me what is most interesting is the changes that Bolles made in the covers. I've seen photos used by pinup illustrators such as Elvgren where the fidelity between photo and painting so close that you can superimpose them. On the other hand Bolles used these photos as a starting point but it was rare that his depictions bordered on a copy.

The example below is something different. The photo is of a model posing in Bolles' studio. But again you can see that the photo was just a starting point of what ended up being a very different looking image. I have a number of photos of models that Bolles used and what is interesting is that you would never recognize any of them from the paintings.