The art of Alan Jedla

Bob Hope by Alan Jedla

Alan Jedla was a modernist caricaturist who appeared on the scene in the late forties and quickly became, alongside pinup artist Vargas,  one of Esquire magazine's preeminent artists, creating portraits for many of their show business features. Esquire thought so highly of Jedla's work ( they referred to him as a "caricatoonist") that they gave him a regular page beginning in Jan 1947 ("January's Children", "February's Children", etc) , a pictorial guessing game depicting six celebrities born that that particular month with various clues to their identities. This series ran till July then abruptly stopped. In fact, Jedla's career as a caricaturist seems to have stopped. Aside from speculation that he perhaps returned home to his original country ("Jedla" is a village on the Bohemian border in the Czech Republic) or took up another occupation altogether, there is no record of his work or what became of him beyond the late forties.

Leonard Maltin recently introduced me to the work of Alan Jedla, who I had been  completely unfamiliar with. Some of these Esquire pages are available as prints. Like Sam Berman, he's a masterful mid-20th century caricaturist who's work has been largely forgotten. If anyone can supply any information, it would be most welcome. In the meantime, enjoy the whimsical, wonderful work of Alan Jedla...

Thanks to Mike Lee