“…writing is different because you do not have to learn or practise…”
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“Kissing your hand may make you feel very good but a diamond bracelet lasts forever.”
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Bergey, Bergey, Bergey!…
Earle K. Bergey, cover illustrator of mainstream publications, pulp magazines, and paperbacks – all in a variety of genres – produced a body of work that while more conventional in terms of subject matter than that of artists like Frank Kelly Freas or Edmund Emshwiller, is eye-catchingly distinctive, and is truly emblematic of mid-twentieth-century illustration.
His science-fiction art commenced in the late 1930s and continued until his untimely death in 1952 … see examples here, here, and here. As described at Wikipedia, his, “…science fiction covers, sometimes described as “Bim, BEM, Bum,” usually featured a woman being menaced by a Bug-Eyed Monster, alien, or robot, with an heroic male astronaut coming to her assistance. The bikini-tops he painted often resembled coppery metal, giving rise to the phrase “the girl in the brass bra,” used in reference to this sort of art. Visionaries in TV and film have been influenced by Bergey’s work. Gene Roddenberry, for example, provided his production designer for Star Trek with examples of Bergey’s futuristic pulp covers. The artist’s illustrations of scantily-clad women surviving in outer space served as an inspiration for Princess Leia‘s slave-girl outfit in Return of the Jedi, and Madonna’s conical brass brassiere.”
An example? The Spring, 1944, issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
Commencing in 1948, Bergey became heavily involved in creating cover art for paperbacks. This began with Popular Library’s 1948 edition of Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which was first published in 1925. Though the book is a light-hearted work of conventional fiction (perhaps lightly semi-autobiographical; perhaps loosely inspired by fact), Bergey’s cover is a sort-of…, kind-of…, maybe…, perhaps…, well…, variation on a theme of “Good Girl Art” characteristic of American fiction of the mid-twentieth-century, and likewise is a stylistic segue from Bergey’s science fiction pulp cover art. Sans shining copper brassiere, however.
Here is it…
From Bergey’s biographical profile at Wikipedia, here’s an image of the book’s original cover art. The only information about the painting (does it still exist?) is that it’s “oil on board”.
A notable aspect of this painting, aside from the extraordinarily and deliberately idealized depiction … exaggeration?! … of Miss Lorelei Lee (looks like she’s being illuminated by a klieg light, doesn’t it?) is the appearance of the men around her, each of whom is each vastly more caricature than character. Well, exaggeration can work in two directions.
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She was a
GIVE AND TAKE GIRL
Lorelei Lee was a cute number with lots of sex
appeal and the ability to make it pay off.
With her curious girl friend, Dorothy,
she embarked on a tour of England and the
Continent. And none of the men who crossed
their path was ever the same again.
When one of Lorelei’s admirers sent her a
diary she decided to write about her
adventures. They began with Gus Eisman, the
Button King, who wanted to improve her “mind”
and reached a climax in her society debut
party – a three-day circus that rocked
Broadway to its foundations.
A hilarious field study of the American
chorus girl in action set down in her
own inimitable style!
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Lorelei Lee’s appearance in Ralph Barton’s cartoons in the 1925 edition of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is – wellll, granting that they’re just cartoons; thirty-three appear in the book – vastly less exaggerated than her depiction on Bergey’s cover. Three of his cartoons are shown below…
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It would be strange if I turn out to be an authoress.
I mean at my home near Little Rock, Arkansas,
my family all wanted me to do something about my music.
Because all of my friends said I had talent and they all kept after me and kept after me about practising.
But some way I never seemed to care so much about practising.
I mean I simply could not sit for hours at a time practising just for the sake of a career.
So one day I got quite tempermental and threw the old mandolin clear across the room
and I have never really touched it since.
But writing is different because you do not have to learn or practise
and it is more tempermental because practising seems to take all the temperment out of me.
So now I really almost have to smile because I have just noticed
that I have written clear across two pages onto March 18th, so this will do for today and tomorrow.
And it just shows how tempermental I am when I get started. (Illustration p. 13)
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“Kissing your hand may make you feel very good but a diamond bracelet lasts forever.” (Illustration p. 101)
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“Dr. Froyd seemed to think that I was quite a famous case.” (Illustration p. 157)
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What would be the book without the movie? Here’s Howard Hawks’ 1953 production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, at Network Film’s YouTube channel.
A qualifier: Despite being a movie aficionado and voracious reader, I’ve not actually viewed this movie, for … despite being able to appreciate and enjoy most any genre of film … I’ve absolutely never been a fan of musicals. (Ick.)
What would Gentlemen Prefer Blondes be without “Diamond’s Are a Girl’s Best Friend”? (Starts at 59:00 in the film.) The idea of a rotating chandelier formed of women strikes me as really bizarre, if not disturbing… Oh, well.
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Some Other Things…
Anita Loos…
…at Wikipedia
…at Brittanica.com
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes…
…at Archive.org (“Gentlemen prefer blondes” : the illuminating diary of a professional lady, Boni & Liveright, New York, N.Y., 1925)
…at Wikipedia
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend…
…at Wikipedia
…at Genius.com (lyrics)
Earle K. Bergey…
…at Wikipedia