All Betts Are On

Saturday Advertising Day. 

Jack Betts was one of the stallwards of the Johnstone and Cushing agency in the forties nd fifties. I have show a lot of hs work for J&C asd well as some of his work before and during his time there. He disappeqred in the late fifties, something I have written about as well. At J&C, he had two major accounts, for Nestlé's chocloate drink Nesquick and one for the pain relief creme Ben-Gay. The Ben-Gay ads always featured the green monster called Peter Pain. Here are some more I gathered from my own collection. The last one in this post is not by Jack Betts, but by some combination of Elmer Wexler and Creig Flessell, two other J&C regulars. I think it is from before Betts' disappearance, but maybe it was and he dsiappeared sooner than I thought. After the color ones, I have a whole set of black and white versions, from the earliest period of Betts' involvement.

 

Best Betts

Wednesday Advertising Day.

What I like most about these Peter Pain ads (which I keep showing as long as I find new ones) is how long they ran. The earliest ones I have seen were from 1944 and the last ones from 1955. After that Jack Betts fell of th face of the earth. People who worked at Johnstone and Cushing in the late fifties had either never heard about him or forgotten him even though he worked there for more than ten years. Anyway, these samples range from 1953 (possibly the earliest I have) to 1954 and show Betts' lovely style at his best.

Gay Abandon

Wednesday Advertising Day.

As long as I am doing old favorites, lets revisit Jack Betts. I really like this advertising artist from the forties and the ffities, with his loose and lively style. For a long time I thought he might have taken this approach from Hank ketcham, but it seems he started opening up his art before Ketcham even established his style. Last time I showed some of his work, it was hs long running Neddy Nestlee series and some earlier work he did for Nestlee. Here are some samples of his other longrunning series, Pter Pain for Ben Gay. I have added some of his other work, some of it even signed and including the earliest piece I ever saw of Betts, from early in 1940.

Hey JB, JB...

Wednesday Advertising Day

I have previously shown work by Jack Betts, one of the more interesting of the unknown artists working for the comic strip ad agency Johnstoen and Cushing. He had two accounts, which both ran for years. The Peter Pain ad series for Ben Gay and Neddy for Nestlé. He also did illustrations, but not as many as you might expect. And he did not turn up with the other regulars at Boy's Life.

Here are some of his newspaper ads, along with some lesser seen illustration work. The bulk of these is from the fifties. Some of these are signed and the others, I don't know. The more I look at them, the more I suspect they are by somebody else. Maybe Bob Bugg, but he usually signed his work as well. (later note: two of these I have shown again in August 2010, the third one seems to be neither by Bugg or Betts).

It is interesting to note that Betts seems to have started drawing 'open' clothes folds before Hank Ketcham did and turned them into a signature element of his style.

Early Nestlé ad without Neddy (1944):


Peter Pain from 1944 to 1952:























This Week 1950:







And this is the earliest work by Betts I have ran across:

American Legion 1938: