Yummy! Today is National Chocolate Day

Isn't she sweet! I've waited a long time for a palatable excuse to share this image and today is it, so Part II of my little detective story will delayed a bit. Sorry this image isn't any better but it still looks better than the actual magazine cover. It was printed cheaply and in only three colors (skipping the black saves a print run). It's a pity that so many of Bolles' best covers suffered because stingy publishers were so intent on stretching a dime. Some of you will recognize this pose as very similar to one of Bolles most provocative covers for what else, Stolen Sweets!

Part 1: The Trail Begins

Try finding a more charming Bolles painting than this, despite the fact that Bolles left a legacy of over 500 others! Imagine my feelings when I learned the original painting was given to a letter writer to Film Fun who merely expressed the fact that he really liked it (well, I think he said he wanted it too, as if that made the difference). A decade ago when I started my project on Bolles the Internet was a wild free-for-all, open for grabs. I was able to download national archives and access death notices and even social security files. My search for information on Enoch strung on for months but finally led me to a fateful phone call with his daughter, Theresa; a vibrant 88 years young and the last surviving of his seven children. Sadly, Theresa passed away two years ago but her support and friendship still sustains me in my quest to learn more about her father and publish a book on his art and life.

In the interim the Internet has grown into a very different entity. Two years ago I learned about a historical database on national newspapers and naturally, I did a search on Enoch Bolles. What I found knocked the socks off me and started me down a trail that has not quite ended.

Coming-Part 2: False Leads and Dead Ends

What did Santa bring you?

What a cover. What an outfit!! This is one of those Film Fun covers that makes you wonder how Enoch got away with. He mastered the art of pushing the envelope to the limit without seeming too obvious about it, at least with his Film Fun covers. When it comes to the so-called "smooshes" such as Stolen Sweets and Cupid's Capers, then the censors' shackles are thrown off. Ironically it was Film Fun that ended up folding because it attracted the attention of the Postmaster General, who pulled its mailing privileges because of "salacious" content. Certainly, he could not have been referring to the covers.

Snowball

Such a great image, I'm only sorry I had to doctor it up so much, but it was the best that could be done with a middling scan. I'll be curious to hear if you prefer the previous scan that I didn't meddle with over this. Bolles painted for his personal enjoyment and completed a number of snowscapes. Here we see an effective integration of the chilly outdoors into the bullet theme we visited in a previous post.

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And here is one of my favorite Bolles advertising illustrations, which also happens to center on the theme of nature and the changing of the seasons. Not only is it an unusually sensitive treatment of the outdoors in, of all things, a mayonnaise ad but the composition has a nice flow despite the static structure in the composition. Notice how the lid and label of the jar continue the line of the hills from Winter to Spring. Bolles also hand lettered this.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It's nine degrees outside and the wind is howling. But our Bolles girl is not going to let a little snow cramp her style. This may be his first Film Fun cover where the girl has a cigarette, which in 1926 was still a transgressive act in polite circles. Not that Frosty is complaining.

Spreading Some Holiday Cheer

I'm just offering a little holiday eye candy today, all the covers I've picked out have similar poses. Bolles did a lot of Christmas themed paintings along and others with winter settings, and you'll be seeing more of these in the coming days. I'm also working on a post about a Bolles painting that I've been on the trail of for the past two years and thought lost, only to get news two days ago that it mysteriously resurfaced. The story is so convoluted that it will take me a while to piece it together for you.

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On our right we have a charming example of Bolles in his mid-20s period. Despite how relaxed his painting is he still invests it with telling details. I especially like the greenery that adds a diagonal sweep to what would otherwise be a rather static composition. See how he deals with this problem with this Film Fun cover from 1930 which is supposed to be Nancy Carroll. About all Bolles got right was the hair color but he did do a few of these "specially posed" covers that were pretty good likenesses and I have a really great portrait he did of her a year later. My guess is that the editors thought these would sell magazines, but it really works against Bolles' strengths. With the possible exception of the Lupe Velez Film Fun cover (which is the best of the lot) I'm sure Bolles used photos, but his daughter told me that she had heard that Lupe actually posed for him. A few years ago the original to the Nancy Carroll painting was sold on eBay and I sure wish I could get a good scan of it. Speaking of scans I've left the first two covers unaltered but have included yet another similar example below from 1929 that I've cleaned up. Let me know what you think. Last I finally have gotten my Google analytics up and working so now I'll be able to see if anybody's reading these other than me.

Come Fly With Me...Today is Wright Brothers Day

We continue with the occasional theme of Bolles covers that follow National holidays, ranging from the sanctioned to the obscure and downright ridiculous. As you will see in coming months, Bolles has supplied us with fodder for all. Here we have two carefree barnstormers performing their stunts with total confidence and ease. Robert Brown wrote that that the Bolles' girl was the most athletic of any pinup artist and these examples from the late 20s bear him out. Other Bolles girls showed their stuff in pursuits such as mountain climbing, sailing, and breaking tackles on the gridiron. But when you look at all of his covers it turns out that a lot more of his girls are engaged in more passive pursuits, and by the mid 30s they become downright sedentary. This may be just a reflection of the passing of the jazz age and its energetic symbol of the flapper, to be succeeded in the following decade by the vamp who wouldn't dare exercise, lest her makeup run.