Friday, March 30, 2012

Bad Medicine For Big Bombers: An Illustration For Westinghouse Electric

     It's easy to gravitate to Walter DuBois Richards's World War II illustrations.  While his career spanned nearly seven decades, there is a certain excitement and awe connected to this four year period that draws in my attention.


1942 Westinghouse Electric Illustration Navy Artillery anti-aircraft

     This action filled illustration by WDR gives us a good idea of just how intense a naval battle could get.   The above scene seems to depict the British Navy's QF 2 Pounder naval gun, also known as the 'pom pom.'   


1942 May Westinghouse Electric Navy battle     The Westinghouse Electric elevator company division was given the responsibility of producing gun mounts that controlled the aiming of anti-aircraft artillery guns or batteries found on many US Navy warships.  
    This illustration advertisement appeared in Collier's on May 2, 1942.  Like most American corporations during WWII like GE and GM, Westinghouse Electric devoted most of it's resources to giving the allies an edge over it's enemies, and wanted the home front to know it.    


1942 May Westinghouse Electric advertisement script

Thursday, March 15, 2012

WDR at Tranquillini Inc., a Cleveland Studio in 1931

     My father confirmed with his mother Glenora (Wally's wife) that the following illustrations were made by Wally while he was working for Tranquillini Inc. in Cleveland.  

1930s_Tranquillini_Advertisement
   
     As you can see in the illustration above, Tranquillini had branches in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis and New York.  It is at this studio that Walter met his lifelong friend and colleague, Stevan Dohanos.  

1931 Energine Cleaning Fluid
   
     When Walter Richards produced this drawing (or possibly a woodblock carving/linocut) for Energine, he was 24 years old and the Great Depression was in full swing.  He married Glenora Case a few months earlier on June 20, 1931.


1930s Greyhound Bus
An illustration WDR made for Greyhound while at Tranquillini Studios.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

A 1955 Sports Illustrated Illustration

     This Sports Illustrated ad drawn by Walter Richards was published in late April, 1955.   According to an article on the Dodgers found on the backside of this page (and at the bottom of this post), about one week earlier the Brooklyn team had broken Major League Baseball's record for most wins (10) to start a season.  Opening day for the Dodgers in 1955 was April 13.

1944 Sports Illustrated Illustration

     When he drew this lithograph, Wally was probably still working for the Steven Lions Studio in New York City.  

Boy In Sports Illustrated 1955


     Glenora always told me that one of Wally's strengths as an illustrator was his ability to show a variety of emotions in his subjects.  

Father in Sports Illustrated 1955

     I think this illustration is a good example of what she was talking about.   

1955 Sports Illustrated p.33 Dialoge


     The article below revealed several important clues narrowing the date of Wally's illustration to late April of 1955.   
Backside to 1955 Sports Illustrated Illustration

Friday, March 2, 2012

A 1943 Cadillac / Fighter Plane Illustration

WDR World War II Cadillac Advertisement
     Soon after joining the Charles E. Cooper Studio** in the late 1930s, Walter Richards began producing lithographic illustrations for Cadillac, a division of General Motors.  Its possible that Wally's work for Cadillac in the 1930s led into the various illustrations he made for General Motors throughout World War II and beyond.  For example, Walter produced a series of tank illustrations for Cadillac, as well as an illustration for the Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo built by Pontiac, also a division of General Motors. 


WDR World War II Cadillac Advertisement


     This illustration, published in Collier's on September 11, 1943, is meant to raise awareness that during WWII General Motors mass-produced precision parts for various machines; such as the Allison transmission found in the above fighter plane. 
     The detail seen in the ground crew's clothes, their ripples, their shadows and reflections; it's all very impressive to me.  I remember that Wally enjoyed working in this war-time atmosphere.  With a wink he would tell me that he was an officer in the military during WWII, and brandish an official-looking military identification.  He explained to me he was given his rank so that he could have priority flying from one assignment to another.  


WDR World War II Cadillac Advertisement
It's worth a read.  Notice the "Buy War Bonds And Stamps" stamp.  


   Starting in 1939, Cadillac began to focus it's manufacturing on producing precision parts for the liquid cooled Allison aircraft engine.  Turns out, WDR made illustrations profiling the Allison Transmission as well.  Impressively, Cadillac had to mass produce with extreme accuracy the machining of over 170 different aircraft parts.  Many of these machine parts required a tolerance grade of no more than three-ten thousandth of an inch.  Wow.  


I'm always interested in any further thoughts/knowledge you (the reader) may know about the illustrations I post, for example:

What type of plane is used for this illustration?
I see there are tents in the background, and the trees seem perhaps tropical in nature?  Is this an airfield in the South Pacific?

** This is a link to Leif Peng's Blog on illustration art titled "Today's Inspiration."   It is an endless and priceless source of information from which I have benefited many times over again and am forever grateful for.