May 23 is World Turtle Day

You have to wonder how Bolles pitched the concept for this cover to Harry Donenfeld, the publisher of Gay Parisienne.  Sure, there would be the pretty girl as always, but why not add an animal? Not a cute puppy or pony; that angle worked like a sort of innocence pass that let the artist forego clothes on the girl (think Mabel Rollins Harris).  No, let's make it an aquatic reptile. Granted, Bolles did throw in some odd props on a few other Gay Parisienne  covers, including a tuba!  And you have to give him points for a girl wearing a bikini long before you'd see a suit at the beach that revealed anywhere near that much acreage.  The turtle, which I'm guessing is a Hawksbill, also seems quite content.  So, no blow-back from decency societies specializing in protecting wildlife from abusive pinups.     


Still, I just don't get it. Gay Parisienne was one of the hottest of all the so-called smoosh mags and the decency leagues stalked it like Clyde Beatty on the trail after big game. This oddball cover from 1936 just doesn't jibe with the magazine's notorious reputation, its pulpy pages chock-full of raunchy novels, dirty drawings and photos of naked girls.  It got Donenfeld hauled into court so many times he ended buying his way up a notch in the publishing hierachy, buying out National Allied Publications, after first suing them for nonpayment.  By May  1938 is pulps, Gay Parisienne and Spicy Stories were out of circulation, while at the same time  Donenfeld published the first Superman story in Action Comics.  Breezy Stories began recycling Bolles covers and his last new cover painting was for the June issue. 

For the first time in his career, Bolles was down to just one magazine, and a mere  two months later Film Fun had a new cover artist, Albert Fisher.  The Bolles girl, who made her debut in 1914 and who had been adorning three to five magazine covers a month for nearly a decade, was gone.  

May Day is Lei Day!

I kid you not, May 1 is also officially known as Lei Day.  There was no way I could let this holiday pass without a Bolles and it was a lot of fun perusing covers for just the right example.  I've pretty much left this cover to the a 1931 issue of Hollywood Nights intact in its well-thumbed state.  For some reason I feel the wear adds something to it. 

Bolles did only a handful of covers for this magazine and others titles published by Henry Marcus' Follywood Publications. Among them are his only examples of pen and ink cover art out of the over 500 he created,  and this is one of his best. He would have been lucky to earn $40 for it. 

Hollywood Nights didn't last long; the combination of poor finances and the constant pursuit of the decency leagues would put Marcus out of business by the end of year.  But in the 1930s you couldn't put a good smoosh mag publisher down for long and by 1933 Marcus was back at it with a new publishing company  and new titles: Stolen Sweets, Tattle Tales, Bedtime Stories and Cupid's Capers.   Bolles teamed up with him again and produced the most provocative pulp covers ever printed (aside from Hugh Ward's sex-and--violence mash-ups, but they constitute an entirely different category).  They were successful, too successful. The Marcus lineup rose to the top (or sunk to the bottom, depending on your perspective) of the smoosh mag hit parade, and in the process became the equivalent of public enemy number-one for the New York vice cops and decency leagues.  Marcus would be out of business-again-before the end of 1934.  By then Bolles had moved on to another publisher.

Lass Clipping

I'd forgotten I had a scan around of the original drawing of the cover featured in the previous post. Take a close look and it tells a story.  As is plainly evident, the painting was barely altered at all from this sketch.  Also clear is that it would have taken Bolles mere minutes of effort to whip this out, meaning the art editor of Spicy Stories would approve a cover based on the "barest" of efforts.  Even after producing film fun covers for nearly 20 years, Bolles often would complete fully rendered comps (detailed concept paintings done on 9 by 12" canvasboard) of potential covers for Film Fun.  I have other examples of cover concept sketches that didn't see the light of day so it's likely that he would show a batch of them at a time.  Another thing that is evident upon inspection is just how precise a line Bolles had.  He started out drawing, not painting and won, not once but twice the Charles Loring Elliot medal for drawing from the National Academy of Design.  Oh how I wish the art that got him the awards was still around.

March 28: Weed Appreciation Day

Was there a "Weed Appreciation Day" back in 1936 when Enoch came up with his kinetic vision of lawn care?  If so, what kind of weed did the appreciation committee have in mind? Not that I've expended much effort at research but from what I've learned it seems the current interpretation is more along the line of consumption rather than eradication.  Clearly our Bolles girl is having plenty enough fun making hay instead of burning it.

Our next post will be on the subject of Bolles' celebrity paintings for Film Fun. There's a rare example painted in 1928 coming up for bid at Heritage Auctions and the time is right to take a closer look at this short-lived theme among Film Fun covers. Just to let you know, posts will be slower for a while. I'm working on a draft of a Bolles book that I hope to have ready for review soon.  The time seems right for a Bolles book.  Don't you agree?

March 11 is Johnny Appleseed Day!

I was waiting patiently for some excuse, oddball holiday or otherwise, to post this cover. It's a reprint that appeared in a 1946 issue of Breezy Stories but was likely  first published in 1937 or '38.  Out of the the 20 plus magazine titles Bolles did work for my records for Breezy are the spottiest.  Why I have no idea. 

The Bolles Girl in the Flesh!

 

From time to time I've published photos of models who posed for Enoch as well as photos he clipped from magazines that served as the basis for covers. To wit, the photo of Mary Carlyle that he turned into such a lovely cover for Breezy Stories. You can imagine my reaction when I ran across these amazing recreations of Bolles covers by Mala Mastroberte. Mala doesn't just pose for these, she controls every step in the creative process from start to finish, composing and shooting her magazine covers without any assistants.  She does the styling, the layout, props, wardrobe, shoes (!), makeup, hair, lighting and photography to bring the Bolles covergirl to life with amazing fidelity.  Mala has also created several of her own original covers that are inspired by Bolles' work and you can really tell she has a grasp on what makes Bolles unique.

I asked Mala how she first became interested in creating her own versions of old magazine and paperback covers. 

"I've been always interested in history, vintage clothing, antiques, old photographs, etc... I grew up in Poland, a country with a great history, but quite different than American or even Western Europe. When I first moved here 10 years ago, naturally I felt homesick and bit out of place in a country so much "younger" than my own. I started visiting every antique shop in sight, going to flea markets and then browsing the internet in search of anything with a past. That is how I discovered vintage magazines and began collecting them. Few years ago I started taking self portraits, at first just generally inspired by the pin-up genre. With time, once I accumulated more props and wigs, I was able to be more true to the beloved originals. I prefer the illustrated covers, for their fantasy quality. As a child I loved comic books and wanted to become a comic book character when I grow up. So this is, in a way, realizing my childhood dream."

"When I feel "inspired" I just set up my studio, take out my books or originals and shoot away. Sometimes I get the right pose in a few shots, sometimes it takes tens of photos (thank goodness for the digital cameras), but it is always lots of fun. So much so, that sometimes I do not even notice that hours have passed."

Mala has recreated a score of magazine and paperback covers spanning the 1930s to the 1960s.  You can view them all at on her Flickr site.  Of course I had to ask how she came to be so interested in the work of Enoch Bolles.
 
"Enoch Bolles, where do I begin! I do not think I have to convince you, or other fans that his illustrations are special. My favorive is his later period, once he established his original style. Even though I admired his pin-ups for a very long time, I did not dare to take them on until recently. Not only poses are particularly challenging but those recreations demand special and more skilled editing."

Dragon Girl-Part One

She's not a Bolles. Sorry. This tidbit of subterfuge has been in the works for quite a while. The vision of how Enoch might have interpreted the über-it-girl" of the millennium, Lisbeth Salander has been thrashing back and forth in my head and wouldn't leave me alone.  So I dusted off my paint kit, picked through a passel of pulps for inspiration, took a deep breath and put brush to canvas. 

And so here's the finished product, a pale imitation for certain. Ok, I'll give myself a little credit, she's a step or two above the standard Quintana knockoff of Bolles, and the "distressing" was spot-on if I say so myself (having spent so much time-and money-on stacks of ratty pulps has given me a certain experience in this regard).  Some of you picked up on it immediately and I bet others recognized the original inspiration for this cover, which was published in 1938 (there really was a Swedish detective writer named Stig Johansson from back in the 1940s). If the bug stays with me, there will be others to come based on three different Bolles covers for inspiration.  Can you guess which?  

Coming soon: a fabulous and contemporary photographic take on the Bolles girl.