Judge for yourself

I haven't posted many of Bolles covers from Judge, the periodical that launched his magazine career back in 1914.  Here we see one of his most his most energetic compositions, published in 1924.  Enoch crowds more ladies on the page here than he has in all but one other example (do you know?) among his other 560 (and still counting) magazine covers.  After this, he would go on to paint only a few more covers for Judge and my guess is that Bolles, like the majority of artists and writers who contributed to the magazine, ended up getting stiffed more than once and finally said enough is enough. 

Among magazine editors the staff at Judge had a notorious reputation for delaying payment.  Theodor "Suess" Geisel was thrilled to get his first regular gig with Judge but within two months they had not only reduced his pay, but would then resorted to an odd form of IOU' vouchers that Geisel could redeem for products or services of companies that advertised in Judge (not that he had much of a choice,Judge consistently lagged in selling ad space) but not money. The editors even dared to skip paying James Montgomery Flagg until he showed up unannounced at the editors office and threw a pique until the cheque was cut (more than likely he demanded cash).  Bolles milder temperament was not conducive to such tactics and by 1924 he had diversified, not only painting covers on a regular basis for Film Fun, Snappy Stories and other periodicals, but also producing art for the advertising and film industries.  Norman Anthony, the art editor at Judge, would likely have been thrilled if Bolles had just put one dancehall on this cover but to his delight and ours, Enoch packed the house.