Al Parker's ads for American Airlines

Here's the work of Al Parker, my idea of The Great One among illustrators.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Illustrations don't get better than this. The complete double page spread is shown below. It's the usual copy to induce readers to think about making travel plans. The two people with their fishing gear is a predictable illustration; the fetching young woman in the mid-century bikini is where Parker makes his skill as an illustrator so obvious. I swear that you can smell her sun-tan lotion.

Another one of the great ads he did for American Airlines. It's obvious and it's been done a thousand times or more, but not as well as Al Parker could do it.

A more typical solution. You can see that Parker was doing his best with what he was asked to do. A dull and boring setup that he energized by rendering a personable ticket agent and a sophisticated traveller.

Same boring concept probably dictated by the client, except that Parker has saved it with a very restrained drawing technique.

What could be worse than this? Back view of travellers approaching the plane. Yes, that's the way we used to board planes in those days. Sometimes we had to run, with crew running along with us.

Once again, Al Parker saves the day with a very fine portrait of a flight attendant, known as stewardesses then and not averse to helping with the baby. Here he has taken a mundane situation and made a painting out of it. BTW, that link has about as lukewarm a description of Parker as an illustrator as one could imagine, but it contains a photo of him at his beat-up old drawing table.

Comments

[giam]

Many thanks, Marty -- Look for more, coming up real soon.

[The Social Pathologist]

My God,

The women he drew were beautiful.
The age of style and class is gone.

[Marty Weil]

It's great to see ephemera like this in the spotlight. Very interesting. Great blog!

[Marty Weil]

It's great to see ephemera like this in the spotlight. Very interesting. Great blog!