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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Sorry, It's Sold

True Strange Marilyn Monroe

Artist:Tom Beecham
Date:1957
Medium:Oil on board with applied paper collage element
Dimensions:Sight size 15 3/4" by 21" Framed 22 1/4" by 27 3/4"
Condition:Excellent
Original Use:Cover for True Strange Magazine - August, 1957
Full view of cover illustration painting
Full view of cover illustration painting
The artist's signature lower right
The artist’s signature lower right
The painting as it appeared as the cover of True Strange Magazine
The painting as it appeared as the cover of True Strange Magazine

A truly bizarre pop culture cover painting for the August 1957 edition of the short-lived True Strange Magazine. The title is fascinating to us, an attempt to merge the men’s magazine post-war-pulp genre with Weekly World News inspired supermarket tabloid fare; with an odd supernatural, occult stories angle sprinkled in – all marketed with lurid cover paintings of celebrity icons like James Dean, Elvis Presley, Sophia Loren and–in this instance–Marilyn Monroe. The illustrator of these covers was Thomas Beecham, who later became known as a go-to artist for Western and wildlife art.

This cover painting is comprised of a montage of Marilyn Monroe imagery. The lower right shows a young Norma Jeane being manhandled by a farmhand, the upper left shows a workingman face down on a tavern table with a bottle in his hand (likely first husband James Dougherty), and in a neat touch by the artist, the lower-left has a hand painted calendar pin-up image collage element, which intentionally appears as a worn and previously folded magazine tear page – as a homage to the now historically important centerfold nude image of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of Playboy Magazine taken by Tom Kelley. Central to the scene is a gimlet eyed view of Marilyn with signature bombshell hair and makeup. This was published five years before the star’s death by overdose, during a period where evidence of Monroe’s emotional fragility and substance abuse were becoming impossible to hide, and common tabloid fodder. The published magazine cover teased an article on “The Fantastic Dream That Brought Fame To Marilyn Monroe” but the artwork suggests a much darker story. Handsomely matted and framed under glass in a period limed wood vintage frame. A High-grade complete edition of the magazine in included in the sale.

Framed view
Framed view
Frame corner profile
Frame corner profile
Verso view before framing
Verso view before framing

True Strange Marilyn Monroe

Artist: Tom Beecham

Filed Under: Paperback & Pulp Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, magazine cover, Marilyn Monroe, original cover art, pulp, True Strange Magazine
Added to Gallery: November 10, 2017

 

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