John Held Jr. - part 3

John Held, Jr. (1889-1958) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a cartoonist whose work epitomised the “jazz age” of the 1920s in the United States. At the age of 16 he was drawing sports and political cartoons for the Salt Lake Tribune, and at 19 he sold his first cartoon to a national magazine. Shortly afterward he moved to New York City, where he worked in the art department of a newspaper.

After service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Held returned to New York City, where he gained fame and wealth for his drawings in the popular humour magazines Life, Judge, and College Humor. These drawings conveyed a spirit of the era comparable to that in the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In particular, Held created such immortal characters as the short-skirted, short-haired “flapper,” who rolled her stockings and used a long cigarette holder, and her escort, who wore a raccoon coat, had patent-leather hair parted in the middle, smoked a pipe, and carried a hip flask. Held’s ability to point up the foibles of the time without sentimentality or bitterness made his cartoons notable. Also during the 1920s, he drew two comic strips: “Merely Margie, an Awfully Sweet Girl” and “Rah, Rah, Rosalie,” both of which ended with the Depression.

During the 1930s Held wrote novels and short stories and did sculpture and woodcuts. His woodcuts, often evoking the “Gay Nineties,” appeared in The New Yorker magazine. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and was stationed in Belmar, N.J., where he made his home after the war. Held’s Angels (1952), illustrated by Held, with text by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., was a word and picture evocation of the 1920s.

For more information on John Held Jr. see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 & 2 also. 

This is part 3 of a 6-part series on the works of John Held Jr:

1923 Where the Blue Begins

c1923 Life magazine artwork
The Girl Who Gave Him The Cold Shoulder
gouache 83.5 x 76.7 cm

after 1924 The New Haven R.R.
poster 106.5 x 72.9 cm

1924 Hose and Pipe, Look Magazine illustration
ink and watercolour on board 25.4 x 25.4 cm

1924 Hose and Pipe, Look Magazine illustration
ink and watercolour on board

1924 Judge May 24, College Wits Number
"It Hasn't Scratched Yet!"

1924 Judge magazine, September 13
"Nothing but Cold Shoulder"

1924 Life magazine, October 2, Chicago Number
"This Little Pig Went to Market"

1924 Life magazine, November 13, The Football Number
"Her Her Tackling Dummy"

1924 Life magazine, December 18
"To Bob or Not to Bob"
original artwork

1924 Life magazine, December 18
"To Bob or Not to Bob
The girl who couldn't make up her mind

1925 College Humor, June issue
"Finishing Neck and Neck"

1925 Go West movie poster 

1925 Hold 'em

1925 Life magazine, November 19
"Hold 'em"

1925 Judge magazine
"They're Off!"

1925 Life magazine April 30
"A Heavy Date"

1925 Life magazine, September 10
"The Burlesque Number"

1925 Life magazine, October 1
"She Left Home Under A Cloud"

1925 Life magazine, October 29
 "All Wet"

1925 Life magazine, December 17
"The All Year Round Girl"

1925 Nantucket poster
The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co.
107.9 x 71 cm

1925 Original artwork for Life magazine
"Silly Geese"

1925 The Rumrunner's Sister-in-Law
wood engraving

c1925 People in the Street
pen and watercolour?

1926 Eastern Canada and Newfoundland Calling
The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co.
poster 106 x 71 cm

1926 It's Vacation Time in the Berkshires
The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co.
poster 105.5 x 71 cm

1926 Life magazine, February 18
Teaching old Dogs new tricks

1926 Life Magazine, June 3
The Sweet Girl Graduate

1926 Life magazine, July 29
The Laughing Stock

1926 Life magazine, September 30, Freshman Number
Sweet Sexteen

1926 Life magazine, October 21
"A Poor Fish Out of Water"

1926 Life magazine, November 25
"A Simple Hook-Up"
 gouache and ink on board 36.2 x 28.6 cm

1926 Life magazine, November 25
"A Simple Hook-Up"

1926 The American Legion Weekly, February 26 issue

1926 Life magazine, March 18
"The Thinker"
watercolour and ink on board 34.3 x 26.7 cm

1926 Tin Hats, MGM lobby card

1926 Tin Hats, MGM movie poster

1927 Colleen Moore in "Her Wild Oat" movie poster

1927 Colleen Moore in "Naughty but Nice" movie poster

1927 Jesse James
woodcut

1927 Life magazine, February 3
Comic Strip Number

1927 Life magazine, April 28
"She Missed the Boat"

1927 Life magazine Back Number, May 18

1927 Life magazine, July 7 issue
"Pulling For Him"

1927 Life magazine, August 11
"The Faded Blonde"

1927 Life magazine, September 15
"It Won't Be Long Now"

1927 Life magazine, September 29, Freshman Number
"Entrance Examinations"

1927 Lucky Strike Half and Half tobacco advertisement
"Between the Halves Half and Half"

1927 Lucky Strike Half and Half tobacco advertisement
"Pretty Smooth like Half and Half"

1927 Lucky Strike
details not found

1927 Yale Princeton, November 12
hand-coloured wood engraving