Film Fun, July 1927
Enoch Bolles · 1927
- Artist
- Enoch Bolles (1883–1976)
- Published
- Film Fun, July 1927
- Medium
- Cover illustration
- Reuse
- Public domain in the US
Film Fun, July 1927Source record & reuse status
A magazine cover by Enoch Bolles for the July 1927 issue of Film Fun. Three colours do all the work: red lettering, a blue circle behind the figure, and the white of a sailor outfit. The figure steps past the edge of the circle, so the illustration breaks its own frame and touches the rest of the page.
How the cover gets attention
The title sits at the top in red; the circle sits under it and holds the figure; the outfit repeats the white of the page. Because the figure overlaps the circle, the composition reads as depth on a flat sheet without any shading trick. It is a compact lesson in newsstand design: one shape, one figure, one accent colour, legible from across a shop.
Bolles drew covers for Film Fun through the 1920s. The record for this file gives the July 1927 issue date and the illustrator's name; the scan is reproduced whole, so the printed page edges are part of the image.
Why Bolles matters to pin-up
Enoch Bolles (1883–1976) worked a generation before the calendar girls of the 1940s, and his subject was the same joke repeated: a woman aware of being looked at, drawn in a costume that is almost, but not quite, the point. His covers were printed cheaply and thrown away, which is why surviving copies are now the primary record of the style.
Dates matter here. Widely repeated references give Bolles 1882–1937, including a story about an early death; the record used on this page gives 1883–1976. Only the second is consistent with the sources cited by the file page, so the older claim is not used anywhere on this site.
