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.