"Mr. Barstow, who taught Latin and otherwise acted like a drone, had a secret passion.. one the school board would have looked upon with distinct disfavor"
Its not what you think. That misleading teaser had me thinking those 50's Cosmo editors were willing to broach the topic of teacher/ student romance, but it turns out Mr. Barstow's sweet on the newly arrived Typing and Office Practice teacher, Miss Wells. Hey, I had to find out!
This illustration, by the undisputed master of "the clinch", Jon Whitcomb, is especially refreshing for being so atypical of much of his work. Take a look at my Jon Whitcomb Flickr set for some examples of what I mean.
Also in the same issue of Cosmo is another installment of Jon Whitcomb's page, where the artist amuses us with anecdotes from his work day.
This time, Whitcomb relates how a new model brought in to pose with her handsome counterpart was unable to fake a passionate kiss. Whitcomb says "I stood in front of Miss A. and demonstrated" how to kiss Mr. R. Now that sounds like a particularly amusing scenario! You can read the whole thing here. Click the "All Sizes" tab for the largest scan.
Leif, when you wrote "you can read the whole thing here" I thought you meant the love story, not Whitcomb's article. I can't tell you the number of times when one of your illustrations has gotten me hooked on the beginning of a story (as they were intended to do) only to run into a brick wall when I can't turn the page. Those old stories were corny and melodramatic but you can tell they were from a more literate era,and some of them have have great opening teasers As a result, Today's Inspiration is sometimes "Today's Frustration."
ReplyDeleteYou're not the first person who's requested "the rest of the story', David. I can imagine your frustration but I do enough scanning as it is! All you intrepid readers will just have imagine how it all came out. I'll give you a hint: they fall madly in love and live happily ever after. The End. ;-)
ReplyDelete