“The Post cover is my best and only opportunity to express myself fully. And Ken [Stuart] lets me do it. He doesn’t impose restrictions. He has created for me the atmosphere in which I can do my best work. Ken does it to PERFECTION.” —Norman Rockwell

“Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post” is a new video release from Illustration magazine, the first in a series of biographical DVDs documenting the history of America’s greatest illustrators. Originally created in 1986, and available now for the first time on DVD, this hour-long film presents the inside story of the best 20 years of Norman Rockwell’s legendary covers for The Saturday Evening Post, circa 1943 to 1963.

Written, produced, and directed by four-time Emmy award winning filmmaker Lew Sayre Schwartz, the creation of the film was a natural outgrowth of his own career and participation in the graphic arts. Schwartz spent his early days as a cartoonist, working on comic strips for “Batman,” “The Saint,” and “Brick Bradford.” He became the youngest member of the National Cartoonists Society, and rubbed elbows with Milton Caniff, Al Capp, and Rube Goldberg. In the early 1960s he founded an advertising agency which became an overnight sensation, and soon found himself working with Jim Henson, Barbra Streisand and Walter Kronkite, as well as Stanley Kubrick on the set of “Dr. Strangelove.” His agency, Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz—which he described as “an irreverent TV commercial boutique”—also earned Lew six Clio awards for excellence in advertising.

Along the way, he also found time to teach, and started the film department at New York’s School of the Visual Arts.

All of this work in the film and television industries prepared him well for the launch of a new enterprise, a series of video profiles of famous artists and illustrators. The first film in the series was a profile of his old friend and mentor Milton Caniff, creator of the comic strips “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon.” The half-hour video, filmed in 1983 and narrated by Walter Kronkite, worked out so well that it inspired Schwartz to consider tackling an even bigger challenge.

A documentary on Norman Rockwell was a natural progression, and the idea surfaced when Schwartz and designer William Logan, an old neighbor from Connecticut and art director of the Famous Artists School, met to compare notes. The two dreamed up their wish-list of other major artists, cartoonists, and illustrators to feature in the series, and it wasn’t long before they arrived at Rockwell. It was a happy coincidence that both men were good friends with Kenneth Stuart, the legendary art director of the Post, and a man who could provide a unique angle for their film.
Anecdotal and charming, the late Ken Stuart—art editor for the Post from 1943 to 1963—soon became the focal point of the project. His participation in the film gave the producers an insider’s perspective on the many changes that took place at the magazine when he became art editor, how this affected the Post’s image, as well as its impact on Rockwell’s covers. His recollections presented a vital story not only of America’s most popular artist, but of an American publishing institution as well.

In one of the interviews in the film, Stuart tells of his first meeting with Rockwell:
“The first time Norman came in was after I was made Art Editor. Now, I told you how any artist is going to feel, there’s a new punk in here, or a new fella, and he probably has a lot of new ideas of his own, and he’s probably going to walk all over us. I pointed out to Norman that his covers were so good, and I admired his work and all, and he got a little more at his ease. So then he pulled out his sketches—he used to make these sketches, seven of them—and I looked them over and I thought to myself, if this is all I’ve got to do is look at this fellow’s marvelous work and say, “This’ll be great, go ahead!”, I thought, gee…I should take another job in the afternoons!”

Stuart’s sense of humor, personal charm, and his keen observations on Rockwell made him the perfect anchor for the documentary. With Ken on board, the filmmakers then set out to bring a number of other important figures into the production. Howell Dodd, former director of the Famous Artists School, illustrator Howard Munce, author Susan E. Meyer, and “Prince Valliant” cartoonist John Cullen Murphy (who was also one of Norman’s models when he was a boy), and a host of others were contacted for interviews. Of particular interest were some of Rockwell’s most recognizable cover models.

Susan Meyer stated, “Norman was always extremely humble about everything he did, and he always made the models feel as though the painting couldn’t have happened without them, and that his contribution to the effort was a rather minor one.” The film crew visited a number of these models, and their fascinating recollections were intercut throughout the film.

Arranged like chapters in a book, the documentary traces the highlights of Rockwell’s entire life and career. Dozens of vintage film clips and rare personal photographs discovered during a year-long process of extensive research are used to tell the story, and footage from his famous interview with television icon Edward R. Murrow is also included.

Ken Stuart used to say to Rockwell: “You’ve got to get them away from that television set with your pictures!” Ironically, this new DVD gives us a reason to turn the television back on.

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