Show f 1 J 1 1 t I j J paa r r y r ra a I CHARLES DANA GIBSON I W Who o Has J Been Depicting j I w LP k Types Types l f hood t for lor M More re J I r 1 Than Two Decades Contrasts j I A the Queenly Creatures 01 tl-le tl Gay Nineties Ni etie With theLt the Lt Chic Flappers o 01 f This W Sophisticated Era I r B By Carol Bird THAT HAT has happened to the Gibs Gibson n Girl a. a I That tall and willowy and stately creature of 1 the tip tip tilted tilted head the swanlike throat and proud S demeanor The lovely woman of the hour hourglass lass figure the mutton mutton chop chop sleeves the mass of hair combed u 5 pompadour coy curl over the left shoulder the lace T jabots and the frills the long flounced skirts the length elbow gloves the sailor hat perched high atop her wealth of glorious hair That original type of young womanhood who was for so long proclaimed the ideal type of Amert American Amer- Amer t ican girl has of course passed on and out with shirtwaists shirt shirt- a waists trailing dresses dotted veils box coats box coats was wasp waists and long hair aN 4 V x But didn't she leave behind her even a faint lavender memory and more important still still-a a sue sue- Ch Charles I D Dana Gb Gibson h fi t I fi d who 3 ar es ana I son w 0 first Irs glorified g Ie cessor I there a new GIbson GIrl And If so where American A gu girlhood Ih d with It h h his IS pen in th the c And is she And is she wo what is she like 00 I In order to t 0 fi find n d h her er Ch Charles ar I es Dana D ana Gibson Gb I son noted nineties artist creator of the Gibson Girl q was sought He it was who gave to two continents a type of F. F feminine loveliness which had a pow influence on society the stage the field of womans woman's dress and many other walks walks- of life S Mr Gibson is now president of Life Publishing Company Fame first came cameS came'S S 'S to him as a young artist when through sketches in Life he introduced the thee e new and distinctive type of American girl Mr Gibson is now 60 years old and for forty years he has been working in black and white Mr Gibson a big genial man more i. i S. S than six feet tall well well set uP white white- haired with strong features and a jovially jovially jo- jo benignant manner was found in his studio in Carnegie Hall New York City He has a droll sense of humor and it is difficult to pin him down to romance and a discussion of feminine t when beauty and dreams of yesterday he has such a facetious turn of thought and looks at life with his in his cheek Girl the new Gibson THAT THAT is V V type 1 you ask the creator of the old Gibson Girl America Columbus couldn't discover twice could he 1 And he follows this s 's up p he starts out in Each man when ideal of womanhood When life e has his I drew the Gibson Girl I was very young I didn't intend to create a certain type I didn't in fact know that I was doing so 50 My girls Just were tagged with by the editors The Gibson name 7 my Girls were simply the girls of that day when I started out in my art career I saw them everywhere in the shops on the streets at the theatres at parties parties par par- ties on the beach in homes Being young and idealistic I of of course like of had type a all very young men girl I glorified She was the queenly type Dont Don't you see 1 All women were I reverenced reverenced rever- rever queens to me in those days i idealized them admired them I 7 them Perhaps the girls did become queenly I evolve into thus and creatures on paper papel Gibson Girl But type the distinct a a. a that was long ago when life was young that older and matures As one grows f in ideal type fades grows less distinct outline Tastes and ideas change with of time F the years and the pissing I am I am often asked these days about my favorite type tIt cI model I presume presume pre pre- sume this is an to create a new Gibson Girl But I am forced to give the answer that my models are all dif dif- what sort of f work ferent It depends depend on I am e engaged in at the time and for what I am using the services of a model As to my favorite kind of model that aU all depends too If I am working on a picture soon to be finished a merely little face a headed curly charmer will serve the purpose very well But if I am doing something that requires me to work with the model a long stretch of time a merely pretty little face would become tiresome and unsuitable for my work Then it is that I require a beautiful woman of intelligence intelligence in- in and character and fine inner traits which which- reveal themselves in her lovely countenance IThe The same rule works out in mar mar- marriage for example A girl can go to a party or a dance with a looking good man who has nothing else but his shining shining shin shin- ing black hair and fine teeth to offer But she's an awful fool if she marches up to the altar with him to take him himon on as a companion for life Of course sometimes she's fooled and believes that such a fancy exterior must be just an index to something else that's finer And if that poor girl later finds theres there's nothing but the shellacked hair the big soulful eyes and the well cut serge suit she has a right to return him and get her money back hasn't she For as a life partner a woman needs something more than superficial good lo looks ks She requires the understanding understanding under under- standing mind the mental companion companion- ship And so it goes with the conventional conven- conven beauty type A young man has hasa a preconceived idea of the One Woman If he is an artist he transfers that type to paper As he grows older and develops develops de- de and knows life better he no longer cherishes a type THIS does not mean that I ve lost my ideals I still have them and andin andin in greater measure I still think women are queenly I 1 like and admire women greatly They are very stimulating to tome tome me and to my work and I mean this inthe in inthe the highest and finest sense But I 1 also see beauty in a wider range of of women Perhaps you'd lik like to hear how the Gibson Girl came into being being-at least how she was christened Well I 1 was commissioned to illustrate a story written written writ writ- ten by a young woman J John oh 1 Hays Hammond for a monthly magazine They called the girl I 1 drew the Goodrich Goodrich Good rich Girl in print though no such name appeared in the story and my name is certainly not Goodrich That has always always al- al ways remained a mystery to me I have never been able to understand why that that a l 1 d girl I drew was given the name Goodrich Goodrich Good rich when a man named Gibson had drawn her and there wasn't a Goodrich girl in the story I 1 tried to figure it out in several ways I decided that perhaps the publication publication tion w was s so conservative that it feared pushing into prominence an unknown young artist by thus tagging his work with his own own name And I 1 had the idea too that perhaps the editor feared that an artist might get too much impressed with his own ability and value if his name were ere given su such h prominence that he might ask for a raise Of course other editors attached my name to my drawings and the Gibson Girl came into being just the same I 1 have often thought of the Goodrich matter and pondered over the odd psychology psychology of that misnaming But o return to a called so-called new type of Gibson Girl No Im not creating any As I 1 said before you cant can't discover America twice t A Gibson Girl wa born And she had her years of fame and queenly reign She cant can't be duplicated A new Gibson Girl doesn't step forth because girls are not as distinctive today as they were when I 1 drew the original Gibson Girl as some people believe It is quite true that in those days girls all wore long skirts shirtwaists bell sleeves long hair sailor ailor hats dotted veils But that was merely because those things were worn at that time They were the style Today girls have just as much of a standardized costume costume cos- cos tume as they had in the the reign of the Gibson Girl They all wear short skirts light hose bobbed hair funny little hats pulled down ofer oer their fa faces es A man these days has to lie on his back to see what the girl beside him looks like Now Mr Gibson was interrupted long I I I I I er I Ir r r I enough to inspect some new photographs of himself which had just been de- de livered They dont don't flatter me he said com com- And Im glad of that Its It's always well to have poor photographs of oneself go out People glance at the headed bald man in the picture and think t ink hes he's not so much to look at after all But then when they fee ee the original they ate are surprised and delighted Hes He's Hesso so much looking better than his photos Ah they exclaim Youre quite a handsome and young looking man considering considering con con- that you drew the first Gibson Girl a long long time ago Youre You're really not half bad It works out very well indeed Much better than if the situation were reversed and flattering flattering flat flat- photos were circulated and I couldn't live up to them On the subject of a 1927 Gibson Girl Mr Gibson remained noncommittal I haven't any type in mind he in- in There are plenty of beautiful girls today But they're all different Some like them short but I like them any way atall There are pre pretty ty little blondes and tall stately brunettes and charming red haired girls and nd fat ones and nice slim ones and nice ones of aU all ages They all have different personalities ties and they are all equally fascinating Their bobbed ha hair 1 doesn't detract from their good looks nor incline them to sameness in appearance They all have havea a spark of something different about them Mr 11 Gibson seemed reluctant to bring his G Gibson Girl to life again even in conversation Tall and willowy 1 I 1 didn't intend that she should be so If sM she appeared that yay perhaps it was because the girl of her day wore longer skirts had a somewhat different carriage I 1 only inS in- in J fJ w S fL a p J j I I r II r Y v ill I I l I r 4 41 I 1 r r I S S 9 f c I 5 7 Coi j- j GIbson GIrls Cirie depicted on thIs page Are Gre reproduced through the courtesy courle Y ot of Dana Gibson an and the Publishing Company This is recent ample of his work presenting the contrast THE ANNUAL Where DEMAND do we go from here drawing a eJ I I between the flappers of today and their sc sedate ate predecessors at the top of the page I I 4 i L o o f f t tended I her t to be b qu queenly enly for then I Iwas was wasa a a boy and all all' women as I 1 said before were Queens to tome me Though Ive I've been drawing for forty years they still are in my my estimation queenly creat creatures res Forty years Its It's a along long long t me i nt it The gall gallant mt Charles Dana Gibson was looking down the vista of the years as his interviewer left him to visit the office office of- of fice of Life a large factor in whose rise was the acquisition n of Charles Dana Gibson unknown at the time when Life began to accept his work Now Mr Gibsons Gibson's Gibson Gib- Gib son sons son's s drawings depict the girl of today though she is not tagged The Gib Gibson on Girl but she is reminiscent of her herold old older r. r sister in some some of her pensive moods It was a somewhat interesting though melancholy business going through the r files looking at the parade of lovely women starting with the stately and statuesque girls of 1899 and leading up up to the he pert little girls of 1927 1927 R ROMANCE Ol seemed to hover more closely over the Gibson Girls of long ago T Tinder love and sweet s sentiment sentiment senti- senti ment were much in evidence Take for instance Mr Gibsons Gibson's drawing called A Receipt for Kisses drawn in 1900 and which appeared in Life tt It showed a bevy of flounced corseted corseted cor- cor haired long sleeved long high high- necked trailing skirted girls of a dead and sentimental past They were grouped about a little tIe Cupid garbed as a chef who stood on a barrel reading off the receipt for kisses s. s Then The girls all looked lo ked ecstatic and were various in-various in various poses of of- adulation some some some- with tapering fing fingers rs interlocked under pretty chins hins Even the recipe reflects the spirit of the times the days pf twenty seven years ago w ago len love was less bold and brazen than it is today The kiss formula To one piece of dark piazza add dd a little moonlight take for granted t two o people Press in two strong g ones a small soft hand Sift lightly tw two ounces of attraction ounce of romance add a large measure of folly stir in a floating ruffle ruffle r and one or two whispers Dissolve half hait a dozen glances in iii a well of silence dust in a small qu quantity of hesitation one ounce of resistance two of yIelding yIeld yIeld- ing Place the kisses on a flushed cheek or or- two lips flavor with a slight scream am and set aside to cool This will succeed in any climate if it directions are carefully carefully care care- fully followed Kisses on a flushed cheek A sm small ll quantity ot of hesitation A ruffle r A A slight scream am Surely a different recipe for courtship is is' in use in this year 1927 j jh h THE Gibson Girls Girl peeled ed from many pages through ugh the dusty files of years Always wearing billowing long skirts revealing not even so much as ai the tip of a slipper high collars hiding throats long kid gloves above the elbows elbows el- el bows big unwieldy hats perched atop great masses of hair built up in monuments monuments ments of curls and puffs and figure eights and psyche knots floating dotted Veils feather hair ornaments ornaments Then among the recent drawings of Charles Dana Gibson there appeared appe the modern girl the flapper of the present age Here she is' is in a c charming arming drawing called Bedtime Stories Curled up in big armchair rm hair fast asleep lulled to rest lest ti jazz songs spilling from a aradio radio aradio Her skimPy short ho skirts are pulled high above her shapely knees long slender legs sprawled out Her heels are alc stilts lIer Ier hair is cut in the latest bob And still another recent draWing titled The Annu Annual i Demand Where Demand where Do We Go From Froin Here g a group group of bobbed s skirted short cigar cigar- sm ette-sm smoking ette-smoking king flappers in the bosom of their family annoying father with their tl jazzy urge to step out and start something Gibson Gi Girls ls But what w would uld their sisters of f 1899 I Ih h lave vc said to such goings on by Publio Ledger 1 |