Russell Patterson
Encyclopedia
Russell Patterson was a celebrated and prolific American cartoonist
, illustrator
and scenic designer. Patterson’s art deco
magazine illustrations helped promote the idea of the 1920s and 1930s fashion style known as the flapper
.
Patterson was born in Omaha, Nebraska
. Although he claimed he knew at age 17 that he wanted to be a magazine cover artist, he took a circuitous route to his ultimate success in that field. His family left his hometown of Omaha and settled in Montreal
when he was still a boy. He studied architecture briefly at college, then became an undistinguished cartoonist
for some newspapers in Montreal, contributing Pierre et Pierrette to La Patrie
. Rejected by the Canadian army at the start of World War I
, he moved to Chicago
to become a catalog illustrator.
A trip to Paris
gave him the opportunity to paint and attend life-drawing classes. However, it also left him in debt, and so he reluctantly returned to the dull work of advertising art in Chicago.
From 1916 to 1919, he intermittently attended the Art Institute of Chicago
. From 1922 to 1925, Patterson, as Charles N. Landon
had done before, distributed a mail-order art instruction course. Consisting of 20 lessons, it was called "The Last Word in Humorous Illustrations" (despite that title, he later contributed to the instruction books of the Art Instruction Schools
).
In 1924, Patterson made an attempt to carve out a living as a fine artist. Traveling to the Southwest
with his paintings, however, he found the art galleries indifferent to his work.
In 1925, having arrived in New York City
, Patterson suddenly found his direction. He put aside his fine arts ambitions and turned his talents toward illustration
. Drawing on his experience sketching beautiful women in Paris, he began adorning covers and interiors for magazines like College Humor and Judge
, and later Life
and Ballyhoo with his vivacious flapper
s. Within a couple of years, Russell Patterson the illustrator went from obscurity to celebrity, at a time when the leading graphic artists were as famous as movie stars. As his career blossomed, his ubiquitous version of the modern Jazz Age
woman graced the covers and interior pages of The Saturday Evening Post
, Vogue
, Vanity Fair
, Cosmopolitan
, Redbook
and Photoplay
, among many other magazines. As celebrated at that time as the "Gibson Girl
" had been years before, his "Patterson Girl" was, in the words of Armando Mendez, "simultaneously brazen and innocent." Martha H. Kennedy cites Patterson's dependence on the "graphic power of elegant, outlined forms, linear patterns of clothing and trailing smoke to compose strongly decorative, eye-catching designs." Women of the time turned to Patterson's work to follow trends in clothing, jewelry and cosmetics.
on a number of productions in various creative capacities: The Gang's All Here (1931) as Costume Designer
; Ballyhoo of 1932 (1932) as Costume Designer, Director and Scenic Designer; Hold Your Horses (1933) as Costume Designer and Scenic Designer; Fools Rush In (1934) as Scenic Designer; Ziegfeld Follies
of 1934 as Costume Designer; and George White's Scandals
(1936) as Scenic Designer.
He also worked in Hollywood for the silver screen
. Patterson had an on-screen part playing himself in, and created life-like dolls he called "Personettes" for, the film Artists and Models, which starred Jack Benny
(four other cartoonists including Rube Goldberg
also appeared). A New York Times movie reviewer wrote on August 5, 1937, "the appearance of the 'Personettes' struck me as satire of a high order. The puppets, you see, have a production number of their own… It seemed to me to be the perfect spoof of the usual song-and-dance interlude, proving how unnecessary it really is and how easy to duplicate (in fact, improve upon) with dolls." Patterson was art director on Stand Up and Cheer!
(1934), and designed costumes and dance sets for Bottoms Up
(1934). He also designed scenes and costumes for other films such as the Bob Hope
and Martha Raye
vehicle, Give Me a Sailor
(1938).
Russell returned to the newspaper fold in the 1940s. He collaborated with Carolyn Wells
on several series for the American Weekly Hearst Sunday magazine, all featuring the character Flossy Frills. From 1942-46 he produced a Sunday and daily panel cartoon series for Hearst's King Features Syndicate titled "Pin-Up Girls".
In 1951, Patterson created the cartoon Mamie, a Sunday page
for United Feature Syndicate. Mamie was part of a revival of the glamorous "dumb blonde" in comics, in the movies and on the stage. The strip's beautiful lead was lovingly rendered, as was the New York City setting. Patterson added a panel of paper dolls
to many of these Sunday comics
. Maurice Horn called Mamie an "elegantly drawn, exquisitely composed page", but with "thin" humor, "a flapper strip that had somehow wandered into the wrong decade." Still, it ran until 1956 on the strength of Patterson's art and fashion-sense.
During the 1960s, arthritis
began to limit his ability to draw. Patterson began mentoring younger artists as a faculty member of the National Institute of Art and Design.
Coulton Waugh
gives much of the credit for the "creation of the lithe, full-breasted, long-legged American girl-goddess" to Patterson. Waugh notes Don Flowers
’ statement that his being an "ardent admirer" of Patterson should be readily apparent in his work. Flapper
specialist Ethel Hays
is also numbered among cartoonists influenced by Patterson, and E. Simms Campbell
actually became a "girlie" cartoonist upon Russell Patterson’s personal advice. Milton Caniff
himself said that Patterson held a "king-pin place among illustrators", and also said that it was Patterson who best defined the "strut and fret" of American life between the two World Wars. Armando Mendez concludes that "it can be said with confidence that Patterson's trademark girl touched virtually every girlie comic artist working between 1930 and 1960."
A beauty expert, Patterson judged Miss America
contests from 1927 to 1945 and Miss Universe
pageants from 1960 through 1963. A well-known costumer and fashion designer, he contributed ideas in the early 1940s for the uniform of the fledgling Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
. He served as President of the National Cartoonist Society from 1952 to 1953. Patterson received the National Cartoonists Society
's Advertising and Illustration Award for 1957 and the Elzie Segar Award in 1974. His fame and reputation were such that his endorsements of Medaglia D'Oro coffee and Lord Calvert whiskey were trumpeted in magazine advertisements.
Russell Patterson died in Atlantic City of heart failure on March 17, 1977, as the Delaware Art Museum
was preparing the first significant retrospective of his work. In 2006, Fantagraphics published Top Hats and Flappers: The Art of Russell Patterson, edited by Shane Glines and Alex Chun, with a foreword by Armando Mendez.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
and scenic designer. Patterson’s art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
magazine illustrations helped promote the idea of the 1920s and 1930s fashion style known as the flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
.
Patterson was born in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
. Although he claimed he knew at age 17 that he wanted to be a magazine cover artist, he took a circuitous route to his ultimate success in that field. His family left his hometown of Omaha and settled in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
when he was still a boy. He studied architecture briefly at college, then became an undistinguished cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
for some newspapers in Montreal, contributing Pierre et Pierrette to La Patrie
La Patrie
La Patrie was a Montreal, Quebec daily newspaper founded by Honoré Beaugrand on February 24, 1879. It became a weekly in 1957 and folded in 1978....
. Rejected by the Canadian army at the start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to become a catalog illustrator.
A trip to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
gave him the opportunity to paint and attend life-drawing classes. However, it also left him in debt, and so he reluctantly returned to the dull work of advertising art in Chicago.
From 1916 to 1919, he intermittently attended the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. From 1922 to 1925, Patterson, as Charles N. Landon
Charles N. Landon
Charles Nelson Landon , also known as C.N. Landon, was an illustrator for The Cleveland Press, art director for the Newspaper Enterprise Association and art editor of Cosmopolitan...
had done before, distributed a mail-order art instruction course. Consisting of 20 lessons, it was called "The Last Word in Humorous Illustrations" (despite that title, he later contributed to the instruction books of the Art Instruction Schools
Art Instruction Schools
Art Instruction Schools, better known to many as Art Instruction, Inc., is a home study correspondence course providing training in cartooning and illustration...
).
In 1924, Patterson made an attempt to carve out a living as a fine artist. Traveling to the Southwest
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
with his paintings, however, he found the art galleries indifferent to his work.
Magazine illustration
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Patterson suddenly found his direction. He put aside his fine arts ambitions and turned his talents toward illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
. Drawing on his experience sketching beautiful women in Paris, he began adorning covers and interiors for magazines like College Humor and Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, and later Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
and Ballyhoo with his vivacious flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
s. Within a couple of years, Russell Patterson the illustrator went from obscurity to celebrity, at a time when the leading graphic artists were as famous as movie stars. As his career blossomed, his ubiquitous version of the modern Jazz Age
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged. The movement came about with the introduction of mainstream radio and the end of the war. This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has...
woman graced the covers and interior pages of The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
and Photoplay
Photoplay
Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded a similar magazine entitled Motion Picture Story...
, among many other magazines. As celebrated at that time as the "Gibson Girl
Gibson Girl
The Gibson Girl was the personification of a feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical pen-and-ink-illustrated stories created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States.Some people argue that the...
" had been years before, his "Patterson Girl" was, in the words of Armando Mendez, "simultaneously brazen and innocent." Martha H. Kennedy cites Patterson's dependence on the "graphic power of elegant, outlined forms, linear patterns of clothing and trailing smoke to compose strongly decorative, eye-catching designs." Women of the time turned to Patterson's work to follow trends in clothing, jewelry and cosmetics.
Broadway
Branching out from magazine illustration, Patterson worked on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on a number of productions in various creative capacities: The Gang's All Here (1931) as Costume Designer
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
; Ballyhoo of 1932 (1932) as Costume Designer, Director and Scenic Designer; Hold Your Horses (1933) as Costume Designer and Scenic Designer; Fools Rush In (1934) as Scenic Designer; Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
of 1934 as Costume Designer; and George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...
(1936) as Scenic Designer.
Films
Silver screen
A silver screen, also known as a silver lenticular screen, is a type of projection screen that was popular in the early years of the motion picture industry and passed into popular usage as a metonym for the cinema industry...
. Patterson had an on-screen part playing himself in, and created life-like dolls he called "Personettes" for, the film Artists and Models, which starred Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
(four other cartoonists including Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to...
also appeared). A New York Times movie reviewer wrote on August 5, 1937, "the appearance of the 'Personettes' struck me as satire of a high order. The puppets, you see, have a production number of their own… It seemed to me to be the perfect spoof of the usual song-and-dance interlude, proving how unnecessary it really is and how easy to duplicate (in fact, improve upon) with dolls." Patterson was art director on Stand Up and Cheer!
Stand Up and Cheer!
Stand Up and Cheer! is a 1934 American musical film directed by Hamilton MacFadden. The screenplay by Lew Brown and Ralph Spence was based upon a story idea by Will Rogers and Philip Klein. The film is about efforts undertaken during the Great Depression to boost the morale of the country...
(1934), and designed costumes and dance sets for Bottoms Up
Bottoms Up (1934 film)
Bottoms Up is a 1934 musical comedy film made by Fox Film Corporation, and was directed by David Butler who co-wrote original story and screenplay with producer Buddy G. DeSylva and co-star Sid Silvers. The film stars Spencer Tracy, Pat Paterson, John Boles and Herbert Mundin...
(1934). He also designed scenes and costumes for other films such as the Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
and Martha Raye
Martha Raye
Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
vehicle, Give Me a Sailor
Give Me a Sailor
Give Me a Sailor is a 1938 film directed by Elliott Nugent. It stars Martha Raye and Bob Hope.-Cast:*Martha Raye as Lett Larkin*Bob Hope as Jim Brewster*Betty Grable as Nancy Larkin*Jack Whiting as Walter Brewster*Clarence Kolb as Captain Tallant...
(1938).
Comic strips
In 1929 Patterson began illustrating Sunday newspaper magazine cover series for the Hearst chain. Among the series was "Runaway Ruth" (1929) and "Wings of Love" (1929-30). Each series ran for several months, and Patterson produced these on a semi-regular basis until 1933.Russell returned to the newspaper fold in the 1940s. He collaborated with Carolyn Wells
Carolyn Wells
Carolyn Wells was an American author and poet. Born in Rahway, New Jersey, she was the daughter of William E. and Anna Wells. She died at the Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City in 1942....
on several series for the American Weekly Hearst Sunday magazine, all featuring the character Flossy Frills. From 1942-46 he produced a Sunday and daily panel cartoon series for Hearst's King Features Syndicate titled "Pin-Up Girls".
In 1951, Patterson created the cartoon Mamie, a Sunday page
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
for United Feature Syndicate. Mamie was part of a revival of the glamorous "dumb blonde" in comics, in the movies and on the stage. The strip's beautiful lead was lovingly rendered, as was the New York City setting. Patterson added a panel of paper dolls
Paper Dolls
Paper Dolls is an American prime time soap opera which aired for 14 episodes on ABC from September 23, 1984 to December 25, 1984. Set in New York's fashion industry, the show centered around top modeling agency owner Racine , her conflicts with the family of cosmetics tycoon Grant Harper , and the...
to many of these Sunday comics
Sunday comics
Sunday comics is the commonly accepted term for the full-color comic strip section carried in most American newspapers. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies....
. Maurice Horn called Mamie an "elegantly drawn, exquisitely composed page", but with "thin" humor, "a flapper strip that had somehow wandered into the wrong decade." Still, it ran until 1956 on the strength of Patterson's art and fashion-sense.
During the 1960s, arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
began to limit his ability to draw. Patterson began mentoring younger artists as a faculty member of the National Institute of Art and Design.
Legacy and awards
Coulton Waugh
Frederick Coulton Waugh was a cartoonist, painter, teacher and author, best known for his illustration work on the comic strip Dickie Dare and his book The Comics , the first major study of the field.His father was the marine artist Frederick Judd Waugh, and his grandfather was the Philadelphia...
gives much of the credit for the "creation of the lithe, full-breasted, long-legged American girl-goddess" to Patterson. Waugh notes Don Flowers
Don Flowers
Don Flowers was an American cartoonist best known for his syndicated panel Glamor Girls. Flowers was noted for his fluid ink work, prompting Coulton Waugh to write that Flowers displayed "about the finest line ever bequeathed to a cartoonist...
’ statement that his being an "ardent admirer" of Patterson should be readily apparent in his work. Flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
specialist Ethel Hays
Ethel Hays
Ethel Hays was an American syndicated cartoonist specializing in flapper-themed comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. She drew in an art deco style. In the later part of her career, during the 1940s and 1950s, she became one of the country's most accomplished children's book illustrators.-Early...
is also numbered among cartoonists influenced by Patterson, and E. Simms Campbell
E. Simms Campbell
Elmer Simms Campbell was an American cartoonist who signed his work E. Simms Campbell. He was the first African American cartoonist published in nationally distributed slick magazines, and he was the creator of Esky, the familiar pop-eyed mascot of Esquire.-Humor magazines:Born in St...
actually became a "girlie" cartoonist upon Russell Patterson’s personal advice. Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
himself said that Patterson held a "king-pin place among illustrators", and also said that it was Patterson who best defined the "strut and fret" of American life between the two World Wars. Armando Mendez concludes that "it can be said with confidence that Patterson's trademark girl touched virtually every girlie comic artist working between 1930 and 1960."
A beauty expert, Patterson judged Miss America
Miss America
The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
contests from 1927 to 1945 and Miss Universe
Miss Universe
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers....
pageants from 1960 through 1963. A well-known costumer and fashion designer, he contributed ideas in the early 1940s for the uniform of the fledgling Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
Women's Army Corps
The Women's Army Corps was the women's branch of the US Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps on 15 May 1942 by Public Law 554, and converted to full status as the WAC in 1943...
. He served as President of the National Cartoonist Society from 1952 to 1953. Patterson received the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
's Advertising and Illustration Award for 1957 and the Elzie Segar Award in 1974. His fame and reputation were such that his endorsements of Medaglia D'Oro coffee and Lord Calvert whiskey were trumpeted in magazine advertisements.
Russell Patterson died in Atlantic City of heart failure on March 17, 1977, as the Delaware Art Museum
Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 works. The museum, was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artist Howard Pyle and is now celebrating its centennial...
was preparing the first significant retrospective of his work. In 2006, Fantagraphics published Top Hats and Flappers: The Art of Russell Patterson, edited by Shane Glines and Alex Chun, with a foreword by Armando Mendez.
