Pete Hawley : A Big Hit

Pete Hawley's artwork has always been a big hit with the readers of this blog. Its fair to say that Hawley has legions of fans all over the world who admire his distinctive, immediately appealing style. But information about the artist has always been vague and sketchy. Earlier this year I began corresponding with Hawley's granddaughter, Shelley, who has helped fill in many gaps and correct many factual errors about the legendary artist.


As well, David of the retro art website Plan59 did some serious digging a few years ago and posted old newspaper articles on his site that nail down many interesting details from Pete Hawley's younger days. So here's what we know so far...

Pete Hawley was born in Oakland, California on July 13th, 1916. He became interested in drawing early in his childhood. He graduated at age 17 from University High School with a one year scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Hawley won his scholarship in a State-wide competition of high school artists. He was chosen as "the first artist in all the high senior grades in California"

It was not his first competition win. During his high school days he had created "prize-winning posters, designed maps, candy box covers and greeting cards" ( the latter perhaps portending what would one day become a significant aspect of his long career). Also during high school, Hawley painted a mural, the “Spirit of Achievement,” depicting University High, its students and activities, which was recognized for its excellence and later displayed in an Oakland department store.

Clearly, young Pete Hawley was destined to become a big hit.


In 1937, at age 20, he moved to Chicago and began working for Kling and Associates, one of the foremost art studios in America. The Line Book, a rare early cover illustration for a poetry collection published by the Chicago Tribune may have been a freelance editorial assignment...


... but at Kling the kid from Oakland confidently handled art chores on major national advertising accounts like these pieces for Heinz soups.


Though he was just 22 years old and barely beginning his professional career, Hawley's art for the Heinz Soup ad series won him an Award of Merit from the New York Art Directors Club.


Pete Hawley's style had not yet matured, but his natural talent for depicting mischievously cute kiddies is already evident in these early examples from around 1941.


It was that distinctive Pete Hawley 'king of cute' flair that would later win him many major national advertising accounts like the long-running Gripper series (example at top) as well as his memorable "Betsy Bell" campaign for Bell Telephone.


Hawley was living at 43 East Oak St.in Chicago when the NY Art Director's Club again chose one of his latest Heinz Soup ads for inclusion in the 1942 edition of their annual...


But the war was calling and Pete Hawley hoped to serve his nation as a bomber pilot.


Unfortunately for him (and perhaps fortunately for us?) it was discovered he was red/green colour blind. Hawley was instead assigned to head up the art department at Fort Mead, Maryland. There he and the men he supervised produced posters, pamphlets and instruction manuals like these examples above and below.


For a kid in his mid-20's, Pete Hawley had already accomplished more than many of us could hope to in a lifetime... but his biggest hits were yet to come.

* Many thanks to Shelley Nugent for providing art and information you see here today - and to Shane Glines of Cartoon Retro who graciously gave me permission to utilize additional scans from his collection. Thanks also to David of Plan 59 for posting articles about pete Hawley from the Oakland Tribune on his site

* My Pete Hawley Flickr set.

Pete Hawley's Fabulous 50's

Two of Pete and Micky Hawley's three children, Michael(b. 1945) and Susan(b. 1947) in New York, in a photo courtesy of Pete Hawley's granddaughter, Shelley.


When Pete Hawley decide after WWII to try his luck in the New York commercial art market, he and Micky found a place to start a family - not in the popular artist's enclave of Westport, Connecticut - but in nearby Riverside, CT, approximately 16 miles down the coast. This might have been because Pete wanted to be near his rep, Betty Irely, who also lived there. Pete and Betty "had known each other growing up," says Shelley. "She's the one who introduced my grandparents to each other."

"As a boy," says Shelley, "my dad (Pete's son, Michael) would go along when my grandpa went to Betty's house to discuss a job and he'd mow her lawn for her."

Being the child of a successful illustrator meant Michael Hawley had other duties to perform besides lawn care. Here, in a photo from the early 50's, Michael ( with an assist from mom, Micky, ) 'holds that pose' for what would become...


... the cover of the Walt Disney's Peter Pan record album. Talk about having some serious bragging rights!


* As an aside, I wonder if Hawley's work on Peter Pan lead to this assignment for Olin Batteries with its Tinkerbell-inspired mascot. The movie appeared in 1953, as did this ad. Hhmmm...


I wasn't able to find any information on whether Betty Irely worked as an independent sales rep or for one of the many New York art studios, but while researching that matter I discovered the only reference to Pete Hawley in any of the 1950's volumes of the New York Art Directors Annuals...

...for 1954 and 1955 Pete Hawley's name appears in the ads of Stephan Lion Inc.


Looking down the list of artists represented by Lion, I recognized several names of prominent illustrators whose work appeared regularly in the pages of all the major magazines. Long-time readers will want especially to take note that Pete Hawley shared a rep with Frank Soltesz, who has been the subject of much admiration on this blog.


Notice also that Betty Irely isn't listed as a Stephan Lion rep.

Whether Hawley and Irely continued to work together during the mid-50's, I'm not sure, but SLI must have been responsible for at least some of the tremendous volume of advertising art Pete Hawley produced during this prolific period in his career.




After 1955, Stephan Lion Inc disappeared from the Art Directors Annuals... as did any mention of Pete Hawley.


Whatever his business arrangements might have been, he seems to have managed to keep extremely busy.



All the while continuing to produce his signature Jantzen ads.


But as you can see from these 1960 examples, the look of the ads and of his work for them was shifting.


Whether he was responsible for the shift or whether it was client directed, its clear something was up with his longest running (and probably most lucrative) account. The timing, as we know from all other artists we've looked at, is perfect. Photography was rapidly gaining ground over illustration around 1960 and, after a decade of literal realism, artists were searching for styles that would hopefully keep clients interested in employing them.


These ads look like an attempt to 'up' the fashion illustration factor and, although beautiful, they don't feel like genuine Pete Hawley. I have to wonder if his heart was in them the way it had been in all those earlier Jantzen ads.

I haven't seen any Pete Hawley jantzen ads post-1960... and I suspect that, unfortunately, this account ran dry for him around that time. But in the periphery of his final Jantzen ads we see the genesis of the next phase of his career. You see Pete Hawley wasn't finished drawing pretty girls. He was simply trading in the old gal...


... for a new one!


* Many thanks to Shelley Nugent for all her invaluable assistance with this week's series on her grandpa, Pete Hawley.

* Thanks as well to Shane Glines of Cartoon Retro for generously allowing me to use several of his Pete Hawley scans today.

* My Pete Hawley Flickr set.

Pete Hawley: No doubt, the envy of his peers!

Pete Hawley and his beautiful young bride, Mary Jane "Micky" Hawley, probably c. 1945, in a cherished photo courtesy of their granddaughter, Shelley.


Shelley says, "They were two very different people. Different religious backgrounds, different political views... but they made it work - and they were a lovely couple."

When Pete Hawley was discharged from the army he must have felt he was ready for "the big time". Despite his pre-WWII success in Chicago he chose instead to move to New York. There he shared a studio with two friends who had served with him at Fort Mead - Sherwood Finley and Irving Werbin. Werbin was a lettering artist who would later become a partner in an ad agency called Irving & Morell. Finley did fashion illustrations "of men in Brooks Brothers suits," says Shelley. "They worked together for years."


Around 1943, Pete Hawley had begun illustrating ads for Jantzen clothing. One has to wonder how this account came to be his... was it the result of his friendship with the fashion artist, Finley? If both men were working together in the Fort Mead art department and Finley already had established contacts in the fashion industry, its possible that he had passed the client along to Hawley, whose earlier work doesn't show any inclination toward fashion illustration.


Whatever the case may be, the Jantzen account would prove to be one of the most fortuitous business relationships an illustrator could ever hope for. Over the next decade-plus Pete Hawley illustrated countless ads for the various divisions of the Jantzen clothing company.


On these ads his style truly began to mature. Initially, in the early 40's, it was quite "straight" and literal. Gradually it became more playful and stylized. You can see in these ads from around 1950 that Hawley had become extremely confident and comfortable in his ability to portray a sort of innocent sexuality that was perfectly suited to the subject matter.


Having the steady income of a lucrative advertising account and the opportunity to paint gorgeous girls in their underwear must have made Pete Hawley the envy of many of his peers!


One can fairly say that by the early 50's Pete Hawley had established the signature "look" for Jantzen's foundation garment ads. That fresh, appealing style might have caught the attention of Esquire magazine's AD, because Hawley did two Esquire Girl pinups in the early 50's.


As far as I know, this was his only foray into pinup art.


Juxtaposing Pete Hawley's Jantzen lingerie and swimwear ads against his Esquire illustrations raises an interesting question: was he a pinup artist doing fashion illustrations or a fashion illustrator with a knack for pinup?

Whatever the case, just imagine how much Pete Hawley must have enjoyed getting up to go to work every day! When I asked Shelley about her grandpa's Jantzen ads she wrote back, "I do know that he had models in their underpants at his house in the studio. LOL!"


"I know that my grandma was a great sport."

* Many thanks to Shelley Nugent for all her invaluable assistance with this week's series on her grandpa, Pete Hawley.

* Thanks as well to Shane Glines of Cartoon Retro for generously allowing me to use his Pete Hawley Esquire Girl scan.

* My Pete Hawley Flickr set.

Pete Hawley: Betsy Bell Ushers In the 60's

Scroll back through this week's posts and look closely at Pete Hawley's many Jantzen ads. Once you regain your composure from the sight of all those gorgeous gals in their unmentionables you'll notice those ads often featured cute little kids and critters - not exactly co-starring - but certainly acting in a supporting role.


As Hawley's Jantzen girls began to bow out at the end of the 50's it was his affinity for drawing cute characters that increasingly took centre stage with his clients.

Around 1958 Pete Hawley began working on a new, long series of ads for a major national account: he created a little cutie named 'Betsy Bell' for the Bell Telephone System.


She must have been extremely popular, because for the next several years Bell regularly called on Hawley to create more Betsy ads.


As mentioned often on this blog, the 60's was a time of tremendous change in the illustration business. Television was increasingly grabbing available ad dollars and the diminished surviving magazines increasingly turned to photography for visual content.

Illustrators with contemporary styles could still grab the attention of art directors, but the market for traditional illustration simply no longer existed.


Many illustrators who had been wildly successful during the 40's and 50's doing art for magazines and print advertising found themselves out in the cold. As one of those veteran artists with twenty-plus years of professional experience under his belt, one might expect that Pete Hawley would be one of those illustrators struggling to compete in the new order of things.


In fact he continued to be consistently busy.

Frustratingly, the 60's decade is the one of which we have the least specific detail about Hawley's business arrangements. I don't know if he was still working with his old rep, Betty Irely, or with someone he'd met at Stephan Lion Inc., or with another completely unknown salesperson...


After all those years in the business, he may have simply been so well established that he could rely on his network of clients to keep coming back with new assignments...


Whatever the case, Hawley managed to continue to do high profile advertising art.


Beginning in the early 50's, he'd connected with the film industry and begun doing movie posters, like this one from 1953...


... and this from 1954.


That relationship continued into the 1960's. Here's a poster Pete Hawley did in 1963. How many posters he did over the years is unclear, but once again, it was a long (and no doubt enviably lucrative) relationship with a major account.


In 1964 Pete and Micky Hawley packed up their clan and moved across the country to a beautiful home on the outskirts of Sedona, Arizona. Pete had visited Sedona with a buddy on an earlier occasion and had fallen in love with the arid climate and wide open spaces.


Pete's granddaughter, Shelley, provided this photo of the Hawley family home. That's Pete's studio just beyond the patio railing. Shelley remembers, "My grandpa had a studio off the kitchen with it's own bathroom. It had windows all the way around it. When you'd open the door, you'd have to step down 2 steps. It always smelled like Old Spice and paint."


Despite the remote location (and remember, this was long before fax machines and FedEx!) Hawley maintained a busy schedule with his many clients, including RCA Records.


Shelley recalls, "When I was a kid we used to get in his Jeep and go with him to the post office..."


"Everybody knew him so well at the post office!"


"At the time I thought it was just that sort of 'small town' thing... now I realize it was because he was constantly mailing away finished jobs."


She concludes, "I guess I wish we'd talked more about his work, but as my Grandpa it was going for walks, collecting rocks & flowers, riding around town in his red Jeep -- you know, kid/grandpa stuff. As a teenager you get selfish and want to talk about yourself and boys... We walked a lot and talked about life in general, but I never asked for details about his work. He was either in the studio working or he was with us, out of the work mode."

* Many thanks to Shelley Nugent for all her invaluable assistance with this week's series on her grandpa, Pete Hawley.

* Thanks as well to Shane Glines of Cartoon Retro for generously allowing me to use several of his Pete Hawley scans today.

* My Pete Hawley Flickr set.