D R E W • F R I E D M A N

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Topps FLIP•O•VISION

Hey Kids! FLIP•O•VISION!

Flip•O•Vision produced back in 1949 by the TOPPS company, was a set of 60 flip
books that each made a mini-movie. Inside each elongated 5¢ pack contained
a booklet with 30 perforated pages folded like an accordion and a stick of bubblegum.
The pages had to be separated and then bound together with a rubber band to be
used as a "flip movie". The subjects featured in the "mini productions"
consisted of various performers, famous and obscure comedians, singers,
movie actors, radio actors, etc, all performing their various mute schtick for
TOPPS cameras, as well as a few film clips, (Bob Hope), pulled from current movies.
"Flip•O•Vision" was most likely the brainchild of the legendary
Woody Gelman, head of product development at TOPPS, in an
attempt to cash in on the newfangled invention called television,
(a TV set is even featured on the wrapper). Unfortunately for TOPPS,
television sort of caught on, Flip•O•Vision, which might have
seemed like a good idea at the time, did not. They've since become
highly sought out by collectors of vintage bubblegum cards and
film memorabilia.

Leonard Maltin discusses Flip O Vision and adds some additional vintage Flip Books here:
/blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/a-harpo-marx-flip-bookand-more

Henny Youngman stars in "Fiddle Fun"

Burns & Allen

Charlie Chan Flip•O•Vision front

a Flip•O•Vision title card

Original store ads

The Flip•O•Vision box

box side view

another side view, listing some of the top stars

the wrapper

Check list

Topps publicity photo

Topps Salesman's letter promoting Flip O Vision

Harpo Marx title card, complete with rubber band.

The complete Harpo Marx "Bubble Smoke" Flip book

And watch the animated version here:

/2.bp.blogspot.com/-ouS-BqXjNC4/T1OARJ1CZbI/AAAAAAAAAV0/5Zl_FYufGpM/s1600/Harpo.gif

Harpo and a young Marilyn Monroe, who had a small part (with Groucho) in their then current film "Love Happy"

Chico, Harpo and Marilyn

Marilyn & Harpo pose with the Flip O Vision camera

Chico's turn with Marilyn

larger view

more Harpo with Marilyn

photo taken at the shoot...

this one in color...

and the two brothers and MM…

Kirk Douglas...
animated...
http://kirkdouglaslives.com/topps-flip-o-vision-kirk-douglas-card/

Various Flip•O•Vision fronts...

The complete "The Ink Spots" flip book

The Cab Calloway tribute blog "HI DE HO', featuring the Cab Calloway Flip O Vision, Animated:

http://thehidehoblog.zumablog.com/index.php?sujet_id=18409

Leo Gorcey

some additional title cards...

Billy Gilbert

Al Schacht (and some Victor Moore)

Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy

the final flip book of the set

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Pete Hawley Movie Posters

Pete Hawley's (1916-1975) colorful artwork was some of the most appealing and instantly recognizable for nearly four decades, though, unlike, say, Norman Rockwell, few at the time actually knew his name. Hawley was possibly the most in-demand illustrator for greeting cards (for American Greetings), record album covers, coloring books, print advertisements, and MAINLY clothing ads, especially for swimsuits and lingerie, all featuring impossibly sexy young females, smiling, cheerful and horny young men, and adorable, rosy-cheeked children, babies and animals. Like Rockwell, Hawley employed his neighbors and family members to be his models, his work celebrating the fantasy world of idilic, healthy, active, beaming white-bread post World War II American's at their most cheerful.

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2009/05/pete-hawley-remembered.html

Hundred's of samples of Hawley's work can be seen on the web, so I'm, (mainly), focusing on his limited movie poster work here.

A Pete Hawley coloring book cover. No one drew happier children than Hawley.

An early fifties Hawley ad for the forgotten product "VEL", featuring a classic "Hawley American couple"

Hawley's first film poster from 1951, for this film comedy featuring Rhubarb the Cat and a post Lost Weekend Ray Milland.

Rhubarb half sheet

Hawley art for the DELL comic book adaption

Hawley's poster art for Disney's 1953 Peter Pan

and album cover art

Hawley art for this forgotten 1953 comedy featuring some of Hawley's patented sexy romping females.

Closer look at the original art

From 1954, Hawley's poster art for one of Bob Hope's last actually funny movies.

Hawley art for the 1956 poster for Martin & Lewis's final film together

A Pete Hawley LP cover featuring filmdom's the Little Rascals (Our Gang)

Hawley created the poster artwork for this 1963 Jackie Gleason comedy which sadly was Hawley's final film poster, (The era of the Jack Davis movie poster was about to dawn). I've mentioned before that Hawleys work, specifically this poster, had a clear influence on the wonderful comedy movie poster art of Frank Frazetta. See if you agree (Larger version below)

larger view

Hawley also did the album cover art for this early sixties Broadway musical

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

John Severin's CRACKED Paperback covers

1961

The late John Severin was a legendary comic book artist who's work appeared regularly in a wide variety of comics publications for more than half a century.

He was an artist for EC comics in the early fifties, mainly for their war titles such as "Two-Fisted Tales", and was also one of the five original MAD artists (along with Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Wally Wood and Jack Davis), contributing art to nine of the first ten issues, and later he became the main artist for the MAD imitation magazine, the much maligned "Cracked".

When I was a kid in the sixties, I was never much of a fan of Cracked (nor the other MAD imitation magazine "Sick"), realizing the writing was usually weak and unfunny, and the artwork was below par. I vastly preferred (and collected) the essential MAD...

"No one was ever a fan of Cracked. We would buy Mad every month, but about two weeks later we would get anxious for new material. We would tell ourselves, 'OK, we are not going to buy Cracked. Never again!' And we'd hold out for a while, but then as the month dragged on it just became, 'OK, I guess I'll buy Cracked.' Then you'd bring it home, and immediately you'd remember, 'Oh yeah, I hate Cracked!'"

- Dan Clowes, former Cracked artist

"Are you kidding? Was Cracked anyone's first choice?"

- Peter Bagge, former Cracked writer

...But I WAS a fan of John Severin's artwork, so I would pick up an occasional issue of Cracked over the years.

What I DID enjoy the most about Cracked though, and collected, were the sporadic paperbacks that featured beautifully painted covers by Severin, featuring their own Alfred E. Neuman imitation, side-splitting Cracked Mascot, janitor Sylvester P. Smythe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_P._Smythe

John Severin did only five of the Cracked paperback covers, all of which I've included here:

1961

1962

1965

1973

my portrait of John Severin created for "Heroes of the Comics" (Fantagraphics)

Monday, February 13, 2012

JUMPING COMEDIANS!

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis

Beginning in the early fifties, renowned LIFE magazine photographer Philippe Halsman would ask his portrait subjects to pose "jumping" for his camera for a series of photographs he called "Jumpology". He managed to amass 178 photos of movies stars, politicians, statesmen, dancers, artists and comedians all posed in the act of defied gravity. The photos were collected in "The Jump Book", published by Simon & Schuster in 1959. The book is long out of print.

Here are the "Jumpology" photos of the comedians/comic actors/comic performers, all captured in mid air: