"Elmer Simms Campbell" [January 2,1906-January 27,1971)

Son of Elmer (a chemistry teacher and assistant principal) and Elizabeth Simms Campbell;married Constance,1936 (died 1940);married Vivian (Constance

sister);children Elizabeth Ann (second marriage).He attended various schools,including Lewis Institute (Chicago),University of Chicago,Art Institute of Chicago,Academy of Design (new York),and Art Students League (New York).Drew caricatures while a waiter on a dining car in St.Louis,1920s;hired by Triad Studios in St.Louis,1927;found work in a New York advertising studio,1929;began working for Esquire,1933;also contributed to Cosmopolitan,Red Book,The New Yorker Colliers,The Saturday Evening Post,College Humor,Playboy,Opportunity,Life,and Judge.He was the first African American artist hired by a national publication,Esquire magazine,and the first African American syndicated cartoonist.While he is best known for his voluptuous enchantresses and "Esky"-- the white-mustachioed,bulging-eyed connoisseur of feminine pulchritude-- featured in Esquire,Elmer produced award-winning artwork for numerous periodicals throughout his career.He was a master cartoonist of urbane humor,caricaturist,and artist.Elmer received his early education in St.Louis.When he was ready for high school,he went to live with his aunt in Chicago,graduating from Englewood High School.Englewood students and teachers were exceedingly interested in student artwork.Some of the school's earliest graduates had already made a name for themselves as cartoonists,and students whose artwork appeared in The 'E' Weekly,were given special notice Elmer drawings were soon among the most familiar ones in the school paper.In fact,his name as well known to classmates as were the names of Englewood's athletes.In 1923 he won a nationwide contest in a high school paper for an Armistice Day cartoon showing the debt of the nation to those who died in World War I.After high school Elmer attended the Lewis Institute and later tried the University of Chicago for a year.Neither school seemed right for him at the time,he stayed in Chicago and worked on the staff of the Phoenix,a humor magazine.Elmer then registered at the Art Institute of Chicago where he remained as a student for a brief period.At the institute he entered pictures in the International Water Color Exhibits,where they were accepted and commended.He financed his education through scholarships and summer jobs as a post office messenger and a dining car waiter.While in Chicago Elmer also participated in the creation of College Comics,a magazine in which he did many drawings, under various pseudonyms.The magazine failed and Elmer returned to St.Louis.The dates of his stay in Chicago and return to St.Louis are unavailable.Back in St.Louis Elmer was discouraged against a career in commercial art because of his race,he was dogged in his determination to break down the discrimination barrier in his area of interest.Serving as a waiter on dining car,he drew caricatures of the train passengers.Later he succeeded in showing his work to the manager of Triad Studios,J.P.Sauerwein.Triad was one of the largest commercial art studios in the West located in St.Louis. Elmer was hired.While his wages were better than those were better than those of most young me in their twenties and his job was secure, he continued to have tenacious yearing to do magazine illustrations,covers,cartoons, and caricatures.He worked for Triad for a year and a half, then went to New York City to try his luck as a freelance cartoonist.Elmer found found a job in a New York advertising studio where he earned about one-eight of his St.Louis salary.He also sold gags to other artists,sometimes 50 per week.He enrolled in the Academy of Design to increase his technical knowledge,and he studied at the Art Students League under the noted artist and printmaker George Grosz.Elmer soon contacted Ed Graham,a friend from Chicago who also worked on the Phoenix.Ed had become of the most notable cartoonist in the U.S. and was a regular contributor to humorous magazines.Impressed with Elmer's work Ed promised to help him effect his dreams.With Ed's counsel,Elmer was able to show his work to the editors and make his first sales.His covers in Opportunity were eye-catching,original lifelike,and genuine.Christmas of 1930 he had covers on both Life & Judge;during Christmas of 1931,he designed the cover of Judge.Sometime in the early 1930s,after Elmer had become a well-established cartoonist,he and entertainer Cab Calloway met at the Dunbar Apartments in Harlem.After then,the Campbell & Calloway families became friends. In Minnie the Moocher and me,Cab wrote about the close friendship the two men established.Cab asserted,"He was also,like me,a hard worker,a hard drinker,and a high liver.I used to think that I worked hard...But Campbell out did me.He drew a cartoon a day,not little line drawings,but full watercolor cartoons."The two men frequented the Harlem after-hours joints like the Rhythm Club,drank,and enjoyed each others company until the next morning."Somebody would get home and pour us into bed,and we'd be back at it again the next night,'Cab later recalled.Elmer began receiving plenty of commissions and soon after published his well-known "A Night-Club Map of Harlem," an engraving locating cafes,and such sites as the Lafayette Theater,the Cotton Club,Connie's Inn,and Small's Paradise;he placed Cab in a prominent position at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.The original drawing became a part of Cab's personal collection.The editors planning the first of Esquire magazine,in October of 1933,approached Elmer after having seen his work.He was commissioned to do a full-page drawing in color.Elmer was permitted to use any subject he liked as long as it had plenty of beautiful girls.For days myriad ideas dazzled him until one day he completed a design of a sultan surrounded by his harem of shapely femmes fatales.The editor published it.The cover was a smash hit and the public clamored it for more.Esquire hired Elmer under a long -term contract,and the sprawing signature E.Simms Campbell soon became a well-known to a vast number who avid read America's humorous magazines.Elmer serago beauties paid his bills,built him a bank account,and brought him a beautiful sprawing estate in White Plains,New York.Elmer's splendid black & white illustrations appeared in many magazines indicating that his talent was not confined to caricatures and cartoons.Elmer art appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines as a syndicated feature,and commercial advertising agencies employed his talent in the composition of their ads.In his arly thirties,Elmer became one of the highest paid commercial artist in his field.He was a tireless worker,producing about 300 full page drawings a year,creating many drawings for ads,serving as cartoonist for newspapers syndicates,and producing creative drawings for special purposes.Elmer was a contributor of cartoons and other work of art to Cosmopolitan magazine,red book magazine,The New Yorker,Collier magazine,The Saturday Evening post,College Humor,Playboy,and Opportunity.He contributed advertising illustrations and cartoons to Esquire;did full pages of of cartoons for the New York Sunday mirror;and the black& white illustrations for Jack Kofoed's Great Dramas in Sports,which appeared in Life magazine.Elmer designed the cover into the light,a brochure in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Young Men's Christian Association.Because he worked under a contract with King Features Syndicate,which served leading daily papers,his cartoons appeared in 145 newspapers throughout the U.S..He won the $1,000 prize in the 1936 national completion offered by the Chicago Hearst newspaper for the best cartoon depicting the Tax-grabber as the greedy profiteer.Elmer won an honorable mention for water color at the American Negro Exposition in 1940.For a number of years he was represented in the International Water Color Society's shows.A member of the Society Illustrators,the Society of Artists,and the National Society of  Cartoonists,he held honorable degrees from Lincoln & Wilberforce universities.Elmer work was gathered in two books-- Cuties in Arms (1942) and more cuties in arms (1943),both collections of his cartoons by David Mckay.One of his most satisfactory hobbies was functioning as a tutor and advisor to many rising young artists.A great deal of fan mail came to him,much of it from aspiring artists,often very young,or from parents  who were eager to learn whether their children possessed an artistic gift.Elmer answered all of this mail and gave generously of his time to young artists by inviting them to his home for criticism and advice,making connections for them in the commercial art world,and encouraging them as once he needed encouragement.In 1938 Elmer lost a New York Supreme application in White Plains that would have required mortgage trustees to sell a 12-acre estate in Mount Pleasant to him $ 18,000.His counsel, renown civil libertarian Arthur Garfield Hays,contended that Elmer proposal was rejected because of his race.In 1957,after his primary employer,Esquire changed its format,Elmer and his family moved to Swiitzerland,where they lived for 14 years.After his wife died of cancer in October 1970,he returned to the U.S..He was diagnosed with cancer as well.His daughter Elizabeth Ann Parks and a granddaughter survived him.Elizabeth had married Gordon Parks,the celebrated photographer,author,and filmmaker.