The Fabuleous Fifties

The paper with the prints.

Wednesday Ad Day

Looking for the David Crane strips in my collection, I came across more of the Erveready ads Flessel did for Johstone and Cushing. This was a series he was proud of and justly so. Not only do the ads look gorgeous, the concept doesn't change from beginning to start. I don't know when the series started, but the earliest samples I found this time aroun dare from 1951. The latest in my previous batch of three was from 1960, so the series ran unchanged for almost ten years, maybe more. In the 2007 interview that Mike Lynch linked us to Flessel says he worked for 25 years for Johstone and Cushing. Even if we assume he worked there till 1965 (for which I have not yet found any proof), that would mean he started there as early as 1940. It's been very hard for me to find samples of his work before 1950, since I have no handle on his style. The Eveready ads I only recognized, becuae he mentioned them himself in Tom Heintjes Hogan's Alley article on Johnstone and Cushing. I had seen an autograph on most of the ads, but I didn't know if it was for Gill Fox, Gene Fawcette or anyone else. Turns out what I saw as a G and an F locked into each other, was a C and an F.

So here are some more Eveready ads. I have more, but they will have to wait till later. The first two are from 1951, februari and june. As I said, the concept is there from the start. The exagarrated first panel, de whole idea of using 'real' stories from readers. Even the color scheme remains the same, with most of the obligated night scenes done in green tints rather than blue.





The next two are from 1959 (januari and februari). One of them is a thre tiered half tabloid format. I am not quite sure if any art was moved or removed to create the two tier format from the three tier format. I don't think so, but I would have to see more to make sure.