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Show That Picture on the Calendar on Your Wall Is the Most Widely Known Also the Most Profitable Form of 'Art' in America Today J" , f i J I tr - - i fc:.wMfcaa-:v3tv.vS8fc nna-wf ir- .-. 1 V. jV f This is one of Andrew Loomis' paintings of the Dionne Quintuplets which, appearing on a Brown and Bigelow calendar, have made them America's favorite "pin-up girls" for the last nine years. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released by Western Newspaper Union. YOU gaze upon one there on the walls of your home or your office every day and you enjoy looking at it. Chances are that you never give a second sec-ond thought to that picture on the calendar any more than you do to any other familiar object in your daily life. But the truth is that when you look at a calendar picture you're looking at the most widely-known widely-known and most popular form of "art" in America today. For "calendar art" is truly the "art of the people" and it is seen and enjoyed every year by more people than have seen or enjoyed the combined com-bined output of all the "Great Masters" in history. Moreover, More-over, it's the most profitable form of art because the art-calendar art-calendar business is estimated estimat-ed at $20,000,000 annually and that has been going on for a number of years. Who selects these pictures that adorn our calendars? (Certainly, not the grocer or hardware merchant, or insurance agent, or some other business man or institution which provides us with a new calendar at the beginning 01 every year.) How do they know what subjects will be appealing and draw the eye to the picture (and incidentally to the advertising ad-vertising message that's usually just below it)? Well, the answer to those, and many other interesting questions which suggest themselves when -you begin investigating the subject of calendar art, can best be answered 11 you pay a visit to one of the "Big Six" art calendar companies Brown and Bigelow of St. Paul, Minn., the Osborne company of Clifton, Clif-ton, N. J.; the Shaw-Barton company com-pany of Coshocton, Ohio; the Thomas Thom-as D. Murphy company of Red Oak, Iowa; the Gerlach-Barklow company of Joliet, 111., and the Kemper-Thomas Kemper-Thomas company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Talk to the officials of one of these companies Brown and Bigelow, the the millions each year; 2Vz million at their peak, in 1936, and never less than a million a year. Girl calendars, nudes, leggy pictures, pic-tures, what is known to the newspaper news-paper man as "cheesecake," are next in popularity. Men like nudes best, and steel companies and tire companies send these to their men customers, garagemen, contractors, mechanics, etc. But a close runner up is the plain picture of a wholesome whole-some American girl, the clean-cut type of young girl of about 17. These are favorites with storekeepers, small town banks, beauty parlors, etc. A more sophisticated type is chosen by city shops, florists, milliners, mil-liners, and laundry and dry cleaning places. Besides the Quints, who are the essence of human interest, the human hu-man interest scenes go biggest in the average home pictures like Norman Nor-man Rockwell's, and the etchings of a boy and his dog. Religious pictures, pic-tures, which had waned somewhat in popularity, have spurted recently, undoubtedly due to the war. And the subject that is always sure of its popularity is the outdoor scene. Even the busiest of executives like them hanging in the office because it gives them a chance to relax for a moment by imagining themselves in the wide open spaces. Back in the decade from 1920 to 1930, the mother and child theme in calendar art was a popular one but it has fallen off somewhat in the last 10 years. Just why, no one knows. Calendar makers will tell you that the idea is "fundamentally sound" and the only explanation they have is that no artist recently has drawn a mother-child picture with exactly the right idea and technique. Similarly, Simi-larly, ship pictures especially the f Sir ' ' ' - I . ' ; 5 St ! 5a who live up in Canada the famous Dionne Quintuplets. Moreover, they've held that honor for the last nine years and it's doubtful if any Hollywood star or curvaceous Powers Pow-ers model will ever displace them since it seems that the plain people of America have, both figuratively and literally, pinned their devotion to Annette, Cecile, Yvonne, Emilie and Marie Dionne, whose childish charms have been displayed the length and breadth of this land in paintings by Artist Andrew Loomis on Brown and Bigelow calendars. By actual count calendars bearing the picture of the Quints have sold into the tens of millions! What is true of this picture is true to almost as great an extent of pictures pic-tures produced by other artists mentioned men-tioned above. For they have .produced .pro-duced pictures in every field landscapes, land-scapes, portraits, "leg art" and nudes, also some of the best known sporting pictures in the world. Undoubtedly Un-doubtedly the average American knows the baby pictures of Maud Towsey Fangel better than the "Boy With the Fife" of Manet, and the Norman Rockwell "BoysScout" better bet-ter than the "Blue Boy" of Gains-boro. Gains-boro. He has become better acquainted ac-quainted with the landscapes of Max-field Max-field Parrish, and feels closer to his famous blues arid purples than to the landscapes of Turner and Corot. And from daily glances in his office of-fice and on his living room walls, the average American who hunts and fishes (and there are 15 million more of him) has come to know and love pictures like Frank Hoffman's "At Bay," one of the outstanding calendar pictures in the Brown and Bigelow catalogue, better than any of Rosa Bonheur's masterpieces. No, the average American may not be tremendously art-conscious, but he likes pictures and knows what he likes. Moreover, you'll find what he likes hanging in his office, home, garage, work room, and places of recreation. And he can hardly wait till his bank, grocery, gas, or tire company, or other concern with whom he does business, or doesn't, sends him a calendar with his favorite artist's picture on it. Whether it's a nude or revealing bit of anatomy by Rolf Armstrong or Zoe Mozert, or a more artistic lanscape by Maxfield Parrish, Par-rish, a tragi-comic situation painted in his inimitable fashion by Norman Rockwell, or a hunting scene by Frank Hoffman, each of these artists art-ists has his fans, and as soon as the calendar is brought in by the postman, post-man, it is unwrapped, and the plain American or his Missus hangs it up at the time-honored spot on the wall. The subjects they like run from the Dionne Quintuplets to historical scenes such as Columbus Discovering Discover-ing America or Washington Crossing Cross-ing the Delaware. If you think the present "pin-up" craze is big, remember re-member back to the days when practically every American home either hung "September Morn" on the wall, or fought bitterly about the propriety and even morality of having hav-ing it there. But the favorite subject, according accord-ing to a Brown and Bigelow survey, sur-vey, has always been the landscape. The scene must be a homely, comfortable com-fortable and comforting one not the noisy, over-colored, flashy, modern mod-ern art. However, the outstanding favorite of the average American, a favorite that has held its leadership for nine years, are the calendars picturing the Quints. Andrew Loomis' Loo-mis' drawings of Canada's chief peacetime industry have sold into 5 s .'' ' i r .'V i f -! t Aj . . : C ' " i- , " ft A I K " s , -r , " i I' v ; ! ? J Boy meets girl (in an automobile) was a favorite calendar art theme around 1913. biggest of the "Big Six," for instance in-stance and you'll learn that they have experts whose business it is to "keep their ears to the ground" and find out what kind of picture Mr. and Mrs. America like best on their calendars. They get that kind of picture from American artists who are outstanding outstand-ing in the field of illustration from Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, Lawson Wood, Rolf Armstrong, Anton An-ton Otto Fischer, Frank Hoffman, N. C. Wyeth and Maud Tousey Fan-gel Fan-gel and a few months later the art calendar company's giant presses are turning out full-color or black-and-white reproductions of their paintings to adorn calendars which will hang in millions of homes and offices throughout the United States. Since our fighting men have been serving overseas, we've been hearing hear-ing a lot about "pin-up" girls Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Dorothy La-mour La-mour and other Hollywood celebrities. celebri-ties. Are any of these the favorite "pin-up girls" of civilian America Amer-ica as well as military America? The answer is "They are NOT!" The favorite "pin-up girls" in the American home are five little girls Tins bathing beauty was considered consid-ered a very snappy number for calendars cal-endars back in 1904. sailing ship scudding along in a stiff breeze have declined in popularity. However, as the American navy wins more and more victories, it is probable that pictures of warships will appear more frequently. But whether they choose the Quints, landscapes, human interest, or girl art, the American public is "pin-up" minded. It has been long before the war, and will be as long as, about this time of the year, the postman comes around with a calendar cal-endar and its picture by the American's Amer-ican's favorite artist |
