Sunday, February 5, 2012

Mike Ludlow for Esquire Magazine

One of the most famous pin up artists and pulp illustrators of the golden era was Mike Ludlow, and i for one am a huge fan.
Ludlow was a glamour illustrator who did much pin-up work in the late 1950s for Esquire. He painted the entire twelve-page calendar for 1957 - the last published by the magazine. His pin-ups also appeared in the series of three-page centerfolds known as Esquire's Lady Fair. For these works, Ludlow often called on actresses like Virginia Mayo and popular personalities like Betsy Von Furstenberg in addition to professional models.

Besides painting his Esquire pin-ups, Ludlow had another entire career as an illustrator of romance articles, providing pictures of beautiful women to mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Collier's, and Family Circle. From 1950 to 1960, he also painted many front covers for paperback novels, including among his clients Pocket Books, Dell Books, and Bantam Books. All his paperback covers had a strong air of sensuality and featured sexy pin-up girls as the main figures.

*Source: The Great American Pin-up by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel.






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