The happiest cartoonists of all time
One can only guess at what the occasion for this LIFE Magazine photo shoot was, but it must have been long remembered in the halls of NCS. Apparently a bunch of strip cartoonists were brought out to draw on the bathing suits of a bunch of comely young models. All that’s missing is a bunch of those cartoon sweat drops (”plewds”) surrounding the heads of these guys as they try to get a ballpoint pen to draw over the nylon-encased curves of the models’ “hites.”
Behold, Ernie Bushmiller.
Oh, Alfred Andriola! You didn’t!!
We’re not sure who this scamp is.
Nor the identities of these frumpy biddies.
Many thanks to Lance Smith for the link, who says “The whole set is filed under Ball Point Bathing Suits and is dated January 1, 1950 and is credited to Bernard Hoffman. Some of the other artists are Alfred Andriola (Kerry Drake), Bill Holman (Smokey Stover), Otto Soglow (The Little King) and maybe Harold Gray.”
08/7/09 at 1:33 pm
Let’s please bring back this tradition.
08/7/09 at 1:49 pm
All we need is this at San Diego to slow the lines down even further.
08/7/09 at 2:28 pm
What would be the equivalent of this sort of thing today? Perhaps the 4th photo down in this post gives us a hint…
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/07/30/sd09-popcult-party-pics/
08/7/09 at 2:34 pm
God, I want to be happy again.
I agree with Box, bring this back. However… I would add some men to the mix so the female creators can add their work, too.
08/7/09 at 2:38 pm
That’s the luckiest scamp of all! XD
08/7/09 at 2:41 pm
Mark, indeed, but the fellows at the Pop cult party were not wearing tweed suits!
The fabric on those swimsuits would also seem to be about the same weight as that used on a “panty girdle” these days.
08/7/09 at 2:45 pm
Looking at the entire photo spread (*ahem*), it seems that each artist was paired with a model, using the white swimsuits as canvases. I suspect this was a charity event, which might explain the society ladies.
Anyone have access to the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature? A search through 1949, 1950 volumes should list the correct citation. Microfilm or bound volumes would solve the mystery.
Any NCS historians?
08/7/09 at 2:47 pm
The only thing close to this I’ve done is drawn on the T-shirts for the volunteers of cons, you know like the ones wizards has? So they would walk around asking for artwork drawn on to them. Many would still have the shirts on them other would not.
08/7/09 at 2:51 pm
Can’t say for sure, but the “frumpy biddie” (biddy?) on the extreme right in the last row appears to be Eleanor Roosevelt.
08/7/09 at 2:53 pm
Meant to say “last photo” in my previous post, not “last row.” Please take out your pens and make the appropriate corrections in India ink on your screens.
08/7/09 at 3:11 pm
If Craig Yoe ever gets a hold of a time machine, we know the first place he’s going : )
08/7/09 at 3:30 pm
If I were Alfred Andriola, I would.
08/7/09 at 3:34 pm
Might the other biddie be Hedda Hopper, the famous gossip-maven of the 1940’s?
08/7/09 at 3:39 pm
Definitely not Eleanor Roosevelt, who looked like this in 1950:
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/78/19578-004-6E311E41.jpg
It looks more like the first Gladys Kravitz:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2407831552/nm0668879
And this is Hedda Hopper:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/%25252B%252522hedda%20hopper%252522%20%25252B1950/clara8000/HILDIE/hedda_hopper_f_516_3.jpg
08/7/09 at 3:59 pm
FASCINATING!!!!! O.O
08/7/09 at 4:02 pm
I have a feeling the biddie photo may have been mistagged and put in the grouping by mistake.
08/7/09 at 4:29 pm
Wooo!!! Bowtie twirling crazily as we speak.
08/7/09 at 5:03 pm
I wonder how many of those bathing suit masterpieces are still around somewhere? Any idea?
08/7/09 at 5:15 pm
Woah! What goes on HERE…a precursor to the wet t-shirt contest?
http://tinyurl.com/kqyar9
Incredibly creepy (while smoking!):
http://tinyurl.com/n5yo53
Holy…..God…..
http://tinyurl.com/lyfe9y
08/7/09 at 5:56 pm
“Where are you off to, honey?”
“Oh, just some boring photo session with some of my cartoonist buddies. Don’t bother waiting up.”
08/7/09 at 6:19 pm
I bet something similar happened at the party for the New York Chronicle staff after they were bought by Charles Foster Kane.
“there is a man, a certain man,…”
08/8/09 at 12:40 am
[…] A bunch of old school strip cartoonists draw on the bathing suits of comely young models […]
08/8/09 at 1:25 am
Coulda swore this outing was discussed at a Golden Age panel a few SDCCs ago, though I thought Al Capp was involved, too.
08/8/09 at 6:51 am
Erm….afterglow??
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?q=ballpoint+bathing+suits+source:life&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dballpoint%2Bbathing%2Bsuits%2Bsource:life%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D40&imgurl=0cb85ec6da039b22
08/8/09 at 9:07 am
Much better than drawing on a Cintiq!
08/8/09 at 9:46 am
It appears none of these guys knew where to find the booty. Biggest canvas spaces, you could do whole landscapes back there.
08/8/09 at 12:59 pm
Guess this is why old time cartoonists always longed to get their own newspaper strip. The idea of Ernie Bushmiller drawing upon a “comely model” somehow combines the ridiculous and the sublime.
I suspect the modern-day equivalent of this would be those guys who paint swimsuits onto nude models.
08/8/09 at 2:23 pm
Could that “frump” be Dale Messick, creator of “Brenda Starr”?
08/8/09 at 2:46 pm
These guys are actually writing their phone numbers on the model’s suits. I’m sure those cartoonists were so irresistible and charming, that they were receiving phone calls within the hour. Uhhh… no. A bunch of social misfits all gathered together to ogle pretty women, that sounds familiar, actually they changed the name to San Diego Comic-Con. This reminds me of an episode of Madmen.
08/8/09 at 2:59 pm
@Box Brown: “Let’s please bring back this tradition.”
http://nova100.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c684553ef0120a4d7cc6d970b-pi
Oh, Frank Cho! You didn’t!!
:-)
08/8/09 at 5:05 pm
The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature did not suggest anything.
Life Magazine microfilm includes an index at the beginning of each roll, but nothing suggesting the above photos.
Scanning the film from January through February 13, 1950 found nothing. (Lots of cartoon advertisements…)
It is possible that the Google date is generic… pictures could date from late 1950.
Also possible that pictures were never used.
Perhaps Mort Walker knows. Must investigate further. Hurmmm…
08/8/09 at 5:13 pm
Possibly. Below is a photo of Messick from Wikipedia:
08/8/09 at 5:32 pm
BTW, it wasn’t unusual for cartoonists to be around women in bathing suits. From Soper’s Garry Trudeau:
08/8/09 at 9:08 pm
[…] A bunch of old school strip cartoonists draw on the bathing suits of comely young models […]
08/9/09 at 4:07 am
… The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy recommends that one always have a towel…
08/9/09 at 12:07 pm
Great shots! Can’t imagine this looking so cool today.
08/9/09 at 3:14 pm
You would have to have a very fine pen point and a magnifying glass to draw on the thongy bathing suits of today.
Except for the men’s suits. Sign me up.
Strange. Back then men wore Speedo type suits, now they are draped with fabric.
Bring back the Speedo.
08/9/09 at 3:34 pm
if only Cho had a tweed suit and a pipe, it’d be classy.
08/10/09 at 12:43 am
I see a Milton Caniff example. The suit with the “terry and the pirates” drawn on it on page… 3 I believe.
08/10/09 at 6:25 am
According to Luca Boschi’s blog
http://lucaboschi.nova100.ilsole24ore.com/2009/08/quando-manca-la-carta-ovvero-arturo-e-zoe-sulle-modelle.html
there were:
- C.D. Russell http://nova100.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c684553ef0120a53375ab970c-pi
- George Wunder http://nova100.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c684553ef0120a5337609970c-pi
08/10/09 at 10:48 am
Thanks for the links, Gigi. It’s interesting that Mr. Boschi dated the event to New Year’s Eve, 1950. Here’s a link to the translated blog entry.
SRS
08/10/09 at 10:57 am
Syn — that translatio is pretty rough but I like this:
>>>Below, even Alfred Andriola (Kerry Drake) sign a sort of a bathing suit for bacchettoni (but is about to begin the holy year!).
08/12/09 at 4:15 pm
the lady on the right is Eleanor Roosevelt.
08/13/09 at 11:42 am
[…] Our post spotlighting a LIFE magazine archive of photos of 1950 cartoonists drawing on swimsuit models, got lots and lots of attention, but no one seemed to know if the photos had ever appeared in print. […]
09/13/09 at 3:13 pm
There is a fascinating coincidence here, between this event/photoshoot on New Year’s Day and “The Beckett/Bushmiller Letters” - by A.S. Hamrah & Robert Sikoryak - Hermenaut Magazine #15, Summer 1999.
In one of Ernie’s letters to Samuel Beckett, he extends an invitation to attend the annual NCS New Year’s Party in NYC.
Ernie writes “… there nothing like NYC on New Year’s Eve…” (sic).
Beckett graciously declines the invitation, stating he’s “… never been one for parties…”
The Uncanny Old Gags never end.
09/30/09 at 7:33 pm
looking good
10/17/09 at 2:54 pm
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