Back On The Subject Of Drawing ...

Left To Right: Walter Lantz, Gary Cooper, Walter Winchell, and Walt Disney
at the Paramount Commissary in 1932

The Artist That Was Gary Cooper

Could Gary Cooper have gotten a job at Disney's? The 20's timing seems right. Walt was doing his Alice series and needed artists. Cooper was lately in from Helena, Montana roots to seek newspaper work as a political cartoonist, his going into movies not a first career choice. Talent was indicated from youth, with art classes taken, and potential shown. At least one of "Frank" Cooper's political jibes had been published in a hometown Helena sheet (see fine further research by Cliff Aleperti). Frank might have made a fine animator under Disney training, with no need for name change to Gary in that event, his accumulated portfolio putting Cooper on track toward Mickey Mouse and eventual Snow White participation. Disney was known for recognizing germs of talent and developing same to a height his hires never imagined for themselves. But for extra work taken in a pinch and discovery by Paramount creatives (including Bill Wellman), could Cooper have made his career at an animator's desk?

Cooper Drew This During a Break in Filming The Plainsman (1936)

Enough with the speculation, however. What we do know is that Gary Cooper became a star for Paramount and continued drawing in hobbyist capacity. He liked to sketch and was increasingly good at it. This became colorful background for studio publicity --- the young man who embraced art before marquees claimed him. Bios told of creative beginning at Grinnell College in Iowa, where Cooper did posters for campus theatricals, including Mister Antonio, by Booth Tarkington (might any of his student posters survive?). Paramount issued stills of Cooper at his easel, and casual drawing on the set. If nothing else, this would differentiate him from other contract players. On one occasion, he film-portrayed an artist, in Ernst Lubitsch's Design For Living (1933), but opportunity was missed by not showing the Cooper character at work with paints. A best onscreen glimpse of the actor-artist remains The Fountainhead (below), where he's shown with pencil/pad, and even does a lightning sketch house plan for Raymond Massey. In this respect, at least, Gary Cooper was well cast as architect Howard Roark.

MORE FROM MILT: The quest for Milt Kahl ad art continues. I found one more last night, from Night After Night, with George Raft (his presence at Greenbriar seems ongoing, if not insistent --- there's another Raft film among a coming week posts). Kahl's distinctive "K" is visible here, as was case with previous Dancers In The Dark, and as identified by commenter Galen Fott, on Chandu The Magician and Island Of Lost Souls. Fott's eagle eye caught the "K" in Chandu and "Milt Kahl" spelled out on Souls. I wonder how many movie ads the future Disney animator contributed to, and what of these survived in scrapbooks he kept. It's an obscure chapter in Kahl's career, but one that fascinates me, as his are certainly some of the most arresting ads I've come across.








UPDATE --- 11/8 --- 12:50 PM --- Another Initialled Ad By Milt Kahl
For Paramount's 1931 Clara Bow Vehicle, No Limit