Jergens Is As Good As Mine

Saturday Leftover Day.

I have shown movie ads, I have shown Lou Fine commercial art, but I don't think I have ever shown (or seen) these Lou Fine drawn Jergens ads using a movie rather than a particular spokespercon to endorse the product. I have no date on them but they seem to be early in Fine's career. Maybe even from before he did those movie ads in 1947/48, which you can see if you follow the links.

Master of His World

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Regular visitor may have noticed that I have not been keeping up my blog as often as I have been doing over the past ten years. The main reason for that is that I am in a deadline crunch for a book that I am doing here in Holland. Not only does that eat at my time, but it also onvolves a lot of scanning and cleaning up - which is exactly the same sort of work I am doing for this blog. So let me make you a deal. If you return next Saturday I will take care to have an extra special post. In the meantime, I have a good one here as well. And suited to official theme of this day, even.

As you may know, I have a fondness for comic strip movie ads. Lou Fine did a terrific run of them in the late forties, most of which you can find if you follow the link. I am also a big fan of the work of Alex Toth (also shown here with rare material). So imagine my surprise when I found a 1961 movie ad in a paper I bought for something else that I have not seen ever before.

No artist's work is so well loved and well documented by his fans as that of Alex Toth. So a find like this is really exciting and I can't really believe I am the first one finding it. A brief look at the internet yielded nothing, but please correct me is it is collected somewhere, at leats not in color. There is one black and white version on one of the Toth fansites.

The ad itself is from the time that Toth was working for Hanna Barbera as a character designer and for Disney as a story board artist. It has the best qualities of his work from the sixties; action, clarity, character and lots of design. It bears some similarity to the Ad for Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I have always suspected to have some Toth involvement - but the small version I have seen was not actually by him (you can find it by following the movie ad link).
This scan also clearly shows that the ad itself was made through Sponsored Comics, the commercial outfit run by Zek Zekely in California. He was also responsible for the short run free grocery store Family Comics newspaper section, which you can also find by following the link. Sadly, Toth was not in those. Lastly I would d myself short if I didn't mention the connection between this ad and the Hot Wheels ads he did for Mattel (also to be found by following the link). They are very similar in format and style and make one extra sad to note that Toth was not asked to do this sort of thing more often.

Fine An' Wild

Wednesday Advertising Day.

From the I Love Comic site come two Sam Spade ads I think I didn't show yet. I love Lou Fine's realistic art work in the late forties, which I why I have tried to find all of his movie ads as well. And what do you know, I Love Comics also had one I didn't have! Follow the link for more , film ads, Sam Spade and Charlie Wild Wildroot ads.

Lost and Found

Saturday Advertising Day.

I have seen this late film ad many times, but always in black and white and usually in a microcrofiche version. This made that I could never figure out who drew it. I was secretly hoping to find it was by Alex Toth, who had also done the Dell comic book adatation of the same movie. Recently I came across a color version and I am sad to say it wss not by Alex Toth. In fact, I don't think it was by any familiar comic book artist but rather by some advertising guy. Anyway, it is noce to share in coor, one of the last comic book style movie ads to be done for the newspapers.

The Life of the Party

Saturday Leftover Day.

You know I like movie ads. I have shown a whole run of movie ads from 1947 by Lou Fine. The most famous movie of them was The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with Cary Grant and Shirley Temple. I also came across one for Walter Mitty, possibly not by Lou Fine, but it was not in very good condition. So here is a better one. It looks like a gag Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder would later do for Trumpo about pulp illustrations.

Food For Feud

Saturday Leftover Day.

Last Saturday I shiwed a feature from Click magazine about Disney's Fantasia. Here is a piece from another film from that period I like the Fred Allen/Jack Benny comedy Love Thy Neighbour. Not as funny as either man's radio show, but still a great chance to see them together. And here they are in a four page article based on stills of that film.

Treasure Hunt

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Here's a new film ad I found of a great, classic movie. Again, I don't think this ne is by Lou Fine (who did so many of them). Maybe someone more familiar with Disney than I am (Alberto?) can give me a clue.

When Cowboys Ruled The Cinema

Wednesday Advertising Day.

As I have shown many times before in the late forties it suddenly became a popular thing to advertise your movie with a newspaper strip ad. I have shown many of these, almost all my own scans. So here is another quite early one. The artist is unknown. It doesn't seem to be Lou Fine, who later became associated with most of them.

Haire Care Products

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Some time ago I showed almost all of Lou Fine's run on the Wildroot advertising strips Sam Spade and Charlie Wild by Lou Fine. Fine was a prolific artist, who did a lot of that sort of ads in the late forties and early fifties ina distinctive style. ThisI have adde this early sample to that post, one of three that seem tom be in a different style, possibly by another artist.

After that, I have yet another ad Fine seems to have done in 1950 and a couple from 1955, when his regular acccounts had stopped.

Selling With The Stars

Wednesday Advertising Day.

I love it when movies used comic strips to advertise or when advertisers used movies. Here are some more samples. The second one is from a short series in 1960, which also inlcuded Sink the Bismarck and Journey to the Center of the Earth. They alle were painted and haven't survived the microfiche process well.

One Shot Deal

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Here is a batch of movie ads that were done for Trim. The movies are all from Paramount (except the first one, which I suspect was disttributed by them) so someone must have made a deal. Artist unkbiwn. I am adding a later ad with a similar deal. Don't know if there were more of those.

The Thief Of Bad Scans

Wednesday Advertising Day.

This is similar to the film Ad for The Journey to the Centre of the Earth, so I guess it is by the same company of artist. I have no idea who that could be and the poor quality of the scans is no help.

Ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Short post today. I found another comic strip movie ad. Great movie, too.

The art probably is not by Lou Fine, who did so many of these. Although I do see traces of his style in the girl in the left hand top corner.

The Beautiful People

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Those of you following my blog will know of my fondness for newspaper comic strip ads for movies. Part of that comes from the fact that there was a whole series of ads by Lou Fine in the late forties, that are just gorgeous. If they aren't ncluded in the new upcoming book by Rick Marshall on Sunday newspaper ads, I'll be thoroughly dsappointed. But part of it also is the fact that at one time ad agencies actually thought it was a good idea to advertise movies through a comic strip version in the Sunday Comics section. Or, if an out and out advertisement was out of the question, to do some sort of product placement deal with a movie being mentioned in an ad for another product. Also from 1948 comes a run of ads for Trim hair tonic that does just that. There will have been more, these are just from a small period between March and May. As per usual, they were twoweekly. The artist is unknown and seem to me to have been an illustrator doing comics, instead of the other way around. I guess it was cheaper than getting the actors to pose for a photograph.

Black is Black

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Yet another newspaper strip film ad from the late forties. There must be more. I am surprised no one ever wrote about them or collected them, because they are gorgeous.

Hoggatta poggatta

Wednesday Advertising Extra.

Looking for more of CHeko, I came across this wonderful comic strip film ads. I have shown quite few of those from the same period, but most of them were unknown and all of them B-pictures. To find an ad for such a great movie as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty witk Danny Kaye, is something I wouldn't expect. Some people have told me that the other film ads must have been by Lou Fine, so I guess these fit the bill as well.

Morris Dancers

Wednesday Advertising Day.

As I mentioned earlier I have just recieved a whole lot of advertising strips. Unfortunately I just missed out on a lot of Philip Morris ads, but there were two still attached to the Bond Street ads by Frank Robbins I showed last week. Looking at those Philip Morris ads, I was struck by how much there looked like the Sam Spade ads that are always attributed to Lou Fine. And on the other hand, they also look like the film ads I always assumed were by Leonard Starr. At the same time I recieved the newspaper ads, I also got a General Motors Information Rack comic book called Steel! by what seemed to be the same artist. But this 16 page informational booklet was published in 1954 and produced by Johnstone and Cushing. And Lou Fine had struck out on his own in the late forties, even though he may have started with Johnsone and Cushing and is reported to have worked for the J&C produced Boy's Life.

But... if Lou Fine is not the artist of the Steel! booklet, he probably is not the artist of the Philip Morris series either and then the resemblance between that series and the Sam Spade ads becomes troublesome.

To figure it all out, I have collected all the Philip Morris Ads and movie ads I have already shown here, together with the new Philip Morris scans and a whole lot of Philip Morris ads I have found on NewspaperArchive. Tomorrow I will show all of the Sam Spade ads I have already show plus about ten new color scans I got (together representing what must be more than half of that series). I will point out the similarities there, but for now I ask you to have a good look at the lions shown here in one of the ads and the bullfighter scene in another. On friday I will show the Steel! booklet, a great thing by itself. In that case it's the faces you should look for.

Also on friday I will join in with Craig Yoe's great Frankenstein simulpost in honor of his new Dick Briefer book, but I will probably do that as an extra. In the meantime, make sure to come back and have a look at there great realistic ads. If any of you hav any ideas about the artists involved, I would be glad to hear it.

The Film ads from 1946 to 1948:



















March 16 1947:


Philip Morris from 1950 to 1952:

#62:

Feb 12 1950:


April 2 1950:


#66, April 16 1950:

April 30 1950:


May 21 1950:


June 6 1950:


July 7 1950:


Aug 1950:


Oct 15 1950:


And a different version that ís cropped:

Nov 12 1950:


Nov 19 1950:


Dec 10 1950:


Jan 7 1951:


#85, Jan 21 1951:

#86, Feb 4 1951:


#87, Feb 18 1951:

March 4 1951:


#90, April 1 1951:


And then something I can't explain in any other way than a numbering mistake: in October the numering picks up at #90 again and continues from there! I have not yet had a chance to look at the intervening months, but I will do so and get back to this.

Oct 7 1951:


And why would I have two different ones for October 28?

Oct 28 1951:


Oct 28 1951:


Nov 2 1951:


Nov 25 1951:

Dec 2 1951:


Dec 23 1951:


Then I have a gap, which is where this one fits, #104:

After the summer the series moved into a I Love Lucy ad series, still featuring the bellhop (who was also used on the ads in that tv-show).

Aug 17 1952:


Sept 7 1952:


Sept 9 1952:


Sept 28 1952:


Oct 5 1952:


Oct 19 1952:


Nov 9 1952:


Nov 30 1952:


Dec 20 1952: