1955 American Legion Cover: The Statue of Liberty

     A great advantage of working for an art conglomerate like the Charles E. Cooper Studio in mid-twentieth century New York City is that it can bring exposure, recognition, and prestige to an artist.  For decades, the CEC Studio attracted, developed and promoted an astounding number talented artists such as James Bama, Sheila Beckett, Bernie D'Andrea, Stevan Dohanos, George Hughes, Al Parker, Coby Whitmore, and Jon Whitcomb.  

Pages 2-3 of  "Facts & Figures About Charles E. Cooper, Inc."

     You'll find their commercial art throughout all of the most recognized magazines of America's past.  And on their covers.  Many of them are in the Illustrator Hall of Fame today.  They also represented brands that we consider today icons of American industry and commerce such as Ford, Cambell, General Electric and General Motors.  

     So it was quite a stroke of luck and fortune that Walter D. Richards came to work there starting in the late 1930s.  He was pulled into the studio in large part because of his friend and fellow artist Stevan Dohanos.   They had met in Cleveland and had studied together under the tutelage of the lithographer and print artist Rockwell Kent.  

   One productive relationship that stemmed from Walter's time at the CEC was with the American Legion Magazine.  Walter DuBois Richards illustrated no less than fifteen covers for the American Legion Magazine over the better part of a decade.  His first cover for this magazine (that I know of) is an animated scene of two men bowling, published in February of 1949.  His final cover was published in June of 1957.  Over the next three decades Wally would produce covers for Argosy Magazine, The Coronet, Men True Adventure, Male, Outdoor Life, Medical Times and more.  

     This particular blog post focuses on his August 1955 cover.  It is a scene of tourists on a ferry heading out to visit the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.   

The American Legion Magazine August 1955 edition.  Cover by Walter DuBois Richards.

   This is a particularly fun post because I've found some provenance for the August cover in the form of  field research photography.  It was buried and undeveloped in the mass of negatives Wally or Glenny had preserved over the decades. 

I highlighted areas of the photograph that Wally used in his cover for American Legion Magazine.

If you look carefully at these pictures you can find the subjects he used for the illustration.



You can find the complete roll Walter took in my Flickr account for this blog by clicking on any of the photographs or scans in this post. 

1941 Cadillac Fleetwood Advertisement

     In an earlier post about a Cadillac fighter plane illustration I had played with the idea that Wally did a great deal of work for General Motors during World War II because of his experience doing illustrations for Cadillac in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  Here is one of those illustrations.

     While a specific date is no where to be found on this illustration, I would guess it is Cadillac's series 67/75 Fleetwood limousine.  It was introduced in 1941 as one of Cadillac's premiere luxury vehicles.  Here's the wikipedia take on this series.  

     What is also interesting about this illustration is that it is a color proving stock for Fortune Magazine, where it was published.  This scan below is the backside to the above illustration for Cadillac.  

     Someday, when I can find the time, I'd love to know more about what this proving stock really is, and what role did it play for Fortune Magazine.  Furthermore, why did my grandfather have this in his possession?

A 1943 Cadillac / Fighter Plane Illustration

     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. 

     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.  

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.