Paul Martin (June 6, 1883, New York City, New York – March 19, 1932, Ossining, New York)[1] was a graphic artist and illustrator.
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The Father of American Illustration was the multi-talented Howard Pyle. Others who gained much fame in this field included James Montgomery Flagg, Charles Dana Gibson, J.C. Leyendecker, Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth. The vast majority of illustrators, however, received little recognition compared to the fine arts painters. This was basically due to their artwork being viewed as more commercially than creatively inspired. Nonetheless, illustrators once played a powerful role in communicating the people's aspirations, concerns, customs, humor, labor and social interests.[2] One of these unheralded players was Paul Martin, whose work graced the covers of Collier's, Everybody's, Farm & Fireside, Liberty, Parents and People's Home Journal from the 1920s to early 1930s. These six each at one time ranked among the leading magazines. They all went out of business a long time ago, except for Parents. Their eventual downfall was caused by the changing times (or taste), radio and television (more attractive medium for advertisers) and economics (increased cost/decreased revenue). The more specialized ones tended to fare better. On a related note, major advancements in photographic equipment and technology took place during the 1930s. This brought about the gradual changeover from illustrated to photographic covers.[2]
General interest magazines (mixture of entertainment, pictures, politics, serials, short stories and sports) were once very popular and appealed to mass audiences. One of them was the historically significant Collier's, for which Martin drew numerous covers during the Roaring Twenties. His recurring theme was of a youthful boy in various situations. This included the following: catching a baseball, eating desserts (pictured below), playing the flute,[3] wearing a straw hat, shooting marbles, shoveling snow, carrying schoolbooks, riding a sled, winding up a toy, bobbing for apples, playing football (pictured), eating turkey, happily swimming, getting a shaved haircut, saying grace, working as a messenger, daydreaming at school and going down a water slide. He occasionally would veer from this subject matter. His simple yet bold drawing style captured the aspects of youth that were innocent and carefree. Martin excluded the non-essential details (extra people, structures, trees etc.), which allowed the viewer to make an instant connection. His paintings are often easy to recognize, since their theme and style remain fairly consistent.
Prelude: The Fisk Rubber Company (as originally known) switched over from producing primarily bicycle to automobile tires in 1901.[4] Their plant was located along the riverfront in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. Its facilities were making 5,000 tires a day in the 1920s.[4] Fisk struggled financially during most of the 1930s. They were bought out by U.S. Rubber (1940), which became known as Uniroyal Inc. (1961). Through a merger, their name changed again to Uniroyal Goodrich (1986). Four years later, this company sold its tire division to Michelin.
He completely reshaped one of the most famous characters in the history of American advertising. It was the Fisk Tire Company's yawning boy,[5][6] with the catchphrase "Time To Re-tire" (debut 1914).[7] An artistic touch-up turned the yawning into a smiling boy in early 1929. Martin was then commissioned to come up with a drastically different, well-defined, modern-day figure in late 1929.[8] During the changeover process, the lad's one-piece sleeper became a two-piece pajama. The slippers were also added. His nephew was used as the model (neck down).[9] Still, the pose itself remained basically intact. This new version was initially used by Fisk Tires to showcase their Air-Flight brand, in advertisements and promotions. This included twelve times in the Saturday Evening Post, between Feb. 8 and Aug. 23, 1930 (pictured above).[10] It was also offered to the public as an 11x14 inch art-print, via a special coupon offer in 1930.[11] The image appeared with a slight facial change in other formats as well, such as on the cover of their six promotional books titled "Time to Re-tire / A Bedtime Story" in 1931. Subjects: Candy Land, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Little Black Sambo, Peter Rabbit,[12] Three Bears and Three Little Kittens. Martin also drew a much scaled-down version that appeared in Boys' Life and other magazines from 1930-34.[13] Fisk Tires then went back to the original sleepy boy in 1935.[14] Incidentally, Norman Rockwell drew a series of paintings surrounding the character, which were published in 1917-19 and 1924-25.[15]
He painted a lively advertisement for General Electric Refrigerator in 1930. It featured two active boys running a lemonade stand, with their mother gleefully looking on through the open kitchen window.[16] Other credits include a girl playing with blocks that spell out GE, and two girls attentively listening to an enthusiastic sales boy.[17] Martin drew a poster for the old Hecker H-O Company (manufacturer of oatmeal), which received much acclaim.[18] Another popular one was titled "Juniors Helping Everywhere" (with twenty-one different scenes), for the American Junior Red Cross in 1930.[19] He designed a contest-winning poster titled "Usefulness • Beauty • Health • Truth • Knowledge," for the Girl Scouts in 1931.[20][21] This image appeared on the cover of their 1931 fall and 1932 spring catalogs.[21] It symbolized the Girl Scout movement and was in use until 1937.[21] His skillful drawings also ended up on Gerlach-Barklow calendars,[22] such as one titled "Singin' in the Rain" from 1931. It showed a boy sitting down and sheltering several pups with an umbrella (pictured). Some trade publications that used his artwork were Good Hardware, Progressive Grocer and Silent Hostess (devoted to the homemaker).[23]
Martin studied commercial art at the National Academy of Design in New York City[20] from 1902-06.[24] He then went to work for an outdoor advertising firm (before going freelance). Martin was one of the top-thirty ranked tennis players in the New York metropolitan area,[25][26] and won numerous trophies from the late 1910s[27] to early 1930s.[28] This included, for example, one for capturing the championship at Sunningdale Country Club in 1920.[29] Martin on occasion, battled against the boy wonder Vincent Richards.[30] He played number one singles and doubles for both the University Heights (Bronx, NY)[31] and County (Scarsdale, NY)[32] Tennis Clubs. The Westchester County Tennis League holds the annual Paul Martin Singles Tournament.[33][34] (Its namesake was one of the league's founding fathers.) The winners of this tournament have their names engraved, on one of Martin's first place trophies. His homes in New Rochelle (once known for its elite artists)[35] and Ossining, New York, doubled as studios.[9] He occasionally used family members as models. Uncle Paul's niece is shown writing down the license number of a boy's wagon (for knocking over her doll carriage),[9] on the Liberty cover of September 12, 1925. His mother-in-law is shown basting a turkey for Thanksgiving,[9] on the People's Home Journal cover of November 1928. Martin died of ulcers following a major operation at Ossining Hospital in 1932.[20][36] He was 48 years old. His wife (and occasional mixed doubles partner Lauretta)[31] survived him by forty years. She donated the tournament trophy named after her husband.
(Or else imprinted with the words "Cover by Paul Martin." His artwork featured on Foreign Service was initially sold to Parents in 1930. They ended up not using the piece and so it was resold. His artwork featured on Die Hausfrau was initially dealt to the Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company in Dec. of 1929. This is a list of known credits.)
(His artistic contributions to short stories, include the following from Scribner's Magazine: Tragedy by Eve Bernstein, April 1928 p. 479 and On the Dark Trail by Franklin Holt, July 1928 p. 71.)
