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Brown
& Bigelow did several spin-offs of its Mac Pherson-originated
"Artist's Sketchbook" series. Promo indicates Ted Withers worked
out of Tinsel Town, turning out sketchbook calendars in the
early '50s, supposedly featuring Hollywood starlets who were
rarely identifiable, even if the blonde on this card is clearly
Marilyn Monroe.
Withers' femmes were dreamy in face, figure and attitude; self-absorbed,
they lounged nude or semi-nude (more explicitly than typical
for the times), studying scripts in the altogether, or trying
on a bikini bottom, or getting their hair brushed by some mostly
off-stage attendee.
He apparently worked in gouache, although oil originals of his
have turned up; his sketchbook pin-ups included Mac Pherson-like
pencil "side sketches." In Marianne Ohl Phillips' article on
Zoe Mozert, the late great Zoe described Withers as "5' 10"
and just delightful." According to Mozert, Withers was from
New Zealand and did movie title card art for Columbia Pictures
prior to his pin-up career.
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