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reviews_and_ramblings ([personal profile] reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2010-10-16 10:42 am

Behind the Cover: Earl Somers Cordrey

Cordrey was born September 6, 1902 in Piru, California.

He grew up Los Angeles, and studied at the Chouinard School of Art in the early 1920s. He began his career as a freelance illustrator in the Sam Hyde Harris studio, and after moving to New York in 1927, studied at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City.

 


American Magazine, I Was So Young, 1943


American Magazine, The Roller In The Isle, 1943


American Weekly, 1950


American Weekly, 1951


American Weekly, Lon Chaney, The Man of 1000 Faces, 1950


Colliers, 1939


Colliers, 1948


Colliers, April In Spring, 1943


Colliers, Front Door To Love, 1944


Colliers, Ring Twice For Laura, 1942


Colliers, The Lavendar Land, 1944


Colliers, The Sergeant Isn't Serious, 1944


Colliers, Time To Go, 1942


Woman's Home Companion, This Was Meant To Be, 1946


Dextrose, 1941


Dextrose, 1941


Duraglas, 1941


Hudson Hosiery, 1945


Listerine, 1946


Mallory Hats, 1942


Mallory Hats, 1942


Mallory Hats, 1947


Mallory Hats, 1948













 

Specializing in tightly rendered and highly posed romantic scenes, his covers and story illustrations, including those for F. Scott Fitzgerald, appeared in numerous magazines including Cosmopolitan, Redbook, The American Weekly, and Collier’s in the 1930s and ’40s. He also created post cards of the Stork Club and other high profile commissions outside of periodical illustration.

In 1942, he moved back to Southern California and in addition to his ongoing career as an illustrator, worked as an art director and designed the logo for Palm Springs Life magazine, the official seal for the city of Palm Spring, California, and actor William Holden’s Mount Kenyan Safari Club.

He retired from commercial work in 1951, but continued to paint landscapes of the California and Mexico desert until his death in 1977. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators.