The makers.
Every person and studio named in this collection, with the dates its source record supports.
These were working commissions on weekly deadlines, not a movement. The illustrators were paid by the cover and the photographers were staff; the names survived because the magazines were archived and the copyright was not renewed.
Who made what
| Name | Dates | Role | Works here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harrison Fisher | 1875-1934 | Illustrator, US | Drew the American cover girl before the word pin-up was in use; nicknamed the Father of a Thousand Girls. Worked for Puck, Cosmopolitan and the Saturday Evening Post. Puck Christmas Cosmopolitan, November 1917 |
| Enoch Bolles | 1883-1976 | Illustrator, US | Painted newsstand covers through the 1920s, most often for Film Fun. Widely repeated references give 1882-1937 and a death in an asylum; the record used here gives 1883-1976. Film Fun, July 1927 Film Fun, October 1927 Woman in Pink |
| Edward Mason Eggleston | dates not stated here | Illustrator, US | Painted calendar prints published by Brown and Bigelow, the commercial channel that put these images on walls. A Day in June |
| Gil Elvgren | 1914-1980 | Illustrator, US | The best-known calendar artist of the 1940s and 1950s. Two objects here: a finished painting and the studio photograph made for a later picture. The Verdict Was, Wow! Anchors A-Wow, reference photo |
| Frank Powolny | dates not stated here | Photographer, 20th Century Fox | Ran studio portraiture at 20th Century Fox and made the publicity sittings associated with Betty Grable. References often give 1891-1964; the record used here gives 1901-1986. Betty Grable |
| RKO Pictures | studio | Publicity photography | The 1935 head shot in this collection is a studio product, filed with the numbers the publicity department used to order a specific pose. Betty Grable at RKO |
| Judge magazine | unnamed illustrator | Weekly, US | The 1916 cover in this collection carries no artist name on its source record, so no name is claimed here. Judge, 8 January 1916 |
| Coles Phillips | 1880-1927 | Illustrator, US | Invented the fadeaway: a figure whose dress dissolves into the white of the page. Not represented by a work in this collection; the portrait is by Bain News Service, Library of Congress. |
Why two of these dates are missing
Enoch Bolles is very commonly given as 1882-1937, with a story that he died young in an institution. Frank Powolny is commonly given as 1891-1964. Both of those pairs are contradicted by the records this site links to, which give Bolles as 1883-1976 and Powolny as 1901-1986. Rather than repeat a plausible wrong date, the table above leaves the dates out for Eggleston and Powolny and states the Bolles correction on his work page.
The same rule applies to names that appear only in a file title. The 1950 studio photograph behind Anchors A-Wow carries a model's name in its title, but the date on the record does not support it, so the model is not named anywhere on this site. The 1916 Judge cover has no illustrator on its record at all.