Friday, March 04, 2011

Art and the movies

The actress Jane Russell died on Tuesday, she was 89. It was Russell’s provocative appearance in the 1943 movie The Outlaw that shifted the tight morality rules that were in place in Hollywood at the time. The movie remained in the can for three years as the studio fought to have it released and when it was the promotion depicted Russell as both sexy and in control, something the guys didn’t see too much on screen at the time. 

But was it one of the guys who painted the sizzling film poster? Not a chance, it was Zoë Mozert, that’s who. And yes, you guessed it, Mozert wasn’t her real name which in fact was a less exotic Alice Adelaide Moser. Mozert was trained by the same guy who taught Maxfield Parrish and Andrew’s Dad, illustrator N. C. Wyeth. She did her best-known work out of New York where she was to become famous for her movie posters and, in particular, her OMG work for The Outlaw.

Image: Left: Zoë Mozert pretending to complete her painting of Jane Russell with what looks like the end of a cigarette. Right, the completed poster for The Outlaw.