Author Bio
I was born in Norwich, Connecticut, a small town, 14 miles up the Thames river from Long Island Sound.
At about age thirteen on a Boy Scout scrap drive, I was hit by a stray, November, 1941 Esquire. 1941 was a banner Esquire year for pin-up devotees: Each issue contained not only a gatefold by the phenomenally popular George Petty, but, further back in the book another by the artist, Alberto Vargas, who would (successfully) force the ouster of said Petty Girl.
Thus, did I come to be ruled by two similar, but quite different, artists each in his turn or both at once. If a gloomy day came, for solace, I would invariably seek out my ever at hand collection- a sunny day could prompt the same reaction. They were my constant companions through thick and thin. Every job I got was because one or the other had his work appear in their leading publications-Fawcett's True and Playboy being the primary examples. Incidentally, I have never been able to definitively decide which I prefer. It would depend on the day and hour you asked me.
My Mom, bless her, was very laid back about walls brimming with Varga and Petty Girls, commenting only that if the walls of our cold water flat hadn't been papered, the riddled plaster would have collapsed under the assault of, oh, so many thumbtacks. Regarding those jobs, Playboy was the kicker: While I was employed at Playboy in 1961, Vargas was hired as a regular contributor. And, lo, amazingly, nay, biblically. I became his art director and friend.
When Alberto's wife Anna Mae died in 1974 his grief was so enormous, as distraction and stimulation, I suggested we collaborate on his biography. So began my literary career which prior to this amounted to greeked-in titles and subheads for comp layouts I was involved with. That first biography in 1978 did quite well, selling around 90-odd thousand copies.
Subsequently, I edited a book devoted to his "Varga" Girl period at Esquire in the 1940s and have since written a number of articles on both men, and in 1997 had published, after sixteen years of trying, an illustrated biography of George Petty.
Mother never said it would be easy.