Bridge Fishing Cover Art Post August 8, 1959

Saturday Evening Post, 1959. softcover. Good. Thornton Utz. ORIGINAL MAGAZINE COVER Saturday Evening Post ---Bridge Fishing --- This is the front cover only, not the entire magazine. It measures approx. 11 by 14 inches tall. Condition: Good - a few small worn spots and a mailing label on cover Cover Illustration: Bridge Fishing Cover Artist:Thornton Utz Cover Artist: Thornton Utz A 1949 Post article salutes Utz, delighted that he and artists like him could disprove the old canard that Art doesnt pay.? Thanks largely to magazines like yours truly, artists moved out of the garret and into the ranks of the regular eaters.? And Utz and family were able to eat well. The article happily reports that last year his net income topped $30,000.? If youre not impressed, be hereby reminded that the average salary in 1948 was $3,600. It would appear that Post readers readily identified with Dad going to work in the morning and coming back whipped (6/28/52) or how one dad just gave up on yard work and painted the patio green (5/2/1953). Were those neighbors envious of his ingenuity“or did they think he was nuts? These were among the many multiscene covers, such as Mr. Mom from May 12, 1956. Nine scenes show us Dad getting up early, fixing breakfast, putting in a full day at work, getting the kids to bed and getting his payoff“a visit to his newest pride and joy. As a gawky 12-year-old himself, Utz started out with a comic strip he handed out to neighborhood kids. High school was Memphis Technical, where he studied his craft. With an equally enterprising classmate, he did display work for the Memphis Mid-South Fair, splitting the $3 a week they earned. They knew they wanted to be illustrators like J.C. Leyendecker, but had no idea how to accomplish this. Either of us could probably have been talked out of the whole idea if we had been offered a good job driving a laundry truck.? By (daughter) Diana Denny . Saturday Evening Post Thornton Utz was born Nov. 15, 1914, in Memphis, Tenn., where he spent his young years doodling in textbooks. After discovering his artistic talent, he struggled to save enough money to attend art school in Chicago. With the country in a depression, Utz could afford only one year at the American Academy of the Arts, and though he studied there for only a short time, he learned the secret to being a great artist: drawing continually. And draw Utz did, as well as paint, illustrate and design. Initial recognition of his work came for his illustrations. During the 1940s and '50s, Utz provided advertising illustrations for clients such as Coca-Cola, General Electric and Ford Motor Co. His work also graced more than 50 covers of the 'Saturday Evening Post.' Eventually, Utz dedicated himself full time to working in the fine arts, which for him included portraiture and sculpture. International fame came with portraits of Princess Grace of Monaco and President Jimmy Carter, as well as the Carter family.