"I’ve spent a good deal of time talking to people about where the design comes from. There’s a 1908 [William Howard] Taft; they show up in Lyndon Johnson for Senate posters, one shows up in 1940, and then by 1944 and on, they sort of become the wave, and in the 1950s, and up to about 1968, floating heads—I mean, no collar at all, just totally floating heads—are everywhere. And then they just disappear. The working theory right now is that jobbers just decided to do it that way. It wasn’t a grand design-school concept."
From "THE ART HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN POSTERS/Against the backdrop of the 2020 US presidential election, historian Hal Wert takes us through the artistic and political evolution of American campaign posters, from their origin in 1844 to the present. In an interview with Quarterly editor Gillian Jakab, Wert highlights an array of landmark posters and the artists who made them" (Gagosian).
I got there as I was researching posters from around 1900 that were characterized by Andrew Cuomo as trying "to communicate their whole platform on one piece of paper." I like the old-time-y posters that do that, but it would be wrong to think that extremely simple posters weren't around back then. I mean, this Taft poster is hilariously simple (and fantastic):
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Floating head posters are big in movie posters. The heads are typically not solo, instead hovering over a scene in the movie. But it's used (too) often. One of my favorites is the floating body used on the poster for "Being There".
I love the quotation marks around “Bill.” I suppose they’re to connote that it’s a nickname, but they’ll always be air quotes to me.
"I like the old-time-y posters that do that..."
To set the proper tone of sarsaparilla and buggy whips, one must spell it as 'olde.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Giant_Head
It's clear from the linked article that the "serious artist" community preferred Democrats (Calder, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Ruscha, Shahn, Corita Kent). Maybe Hunter Biden has yet another pathway to success...
Zardoz speaks to me.
Better than Empty Head we have now.
William Taft. Ran on a campaign platform of .... reinforced concrete. :)
Althouse writes. "I mean, this Taft poster is hilariously simple (and fantastic)..."
One wonders what Althouse means by her description of that William Howard Taft poster. If Jane tells us she had a fantastic cup of coffee at Starbuck's it fairly certain her cup o' joe did not have not have the Loch Ness monster swimming around in it. Most likely Jane was praising the coffee in the highest terms she can imagine, making her a member of that vast percentile of Americans who speak as if unaware that fantastic has three other definitions and that the one meaning an effulgent approbation is fourth on the list.
I do not believe I'm being pedantic here. Floating heads are vanishingly rare in nature, particularly live ones with jovial expressions. But even dead ones seldom float. Consequently, all floating heads are by default unreal objects of fantasy making Althouse's parenthetical adjective quite ambiguous. (Might one say fantastically ambiguous?)
The best floating head in my estimation was the Wizard of Oz in the classic 1939 MGM musical, definitely fantastic in every sense of the word. A far from the best yet highly significant floating head was Hitler's on a 1932 poster promoting his run for Reichspräsident. It featured Hitler's noggin wafting on a featureless black background and above the legend HITLER in block Helvetica, a recent innovation in Germany 91 years ago. The face wore a similarly featureless expression -- neither friendly nor unfriendly, certainly not an expression of insipid amiability like that Taft bill. Be that as it may, the Hitler poster failed.
The Nazi party took a minor drubbing that year. Was that floating head poster to blame? Taft's floating head drifted directly into the White House. Perhaps if Hitler's graphic designer (himself personally, in fact) had taken more inspiration from that successful floating head history would have been different. Perhaps a cheery green background? In 1908 many green inks and dyes were nastily toxic. A touch of arsenic would have appealed to the ideal Nazi voter. Perhaps if the Hitler head wore a grin? No, the best he could manage was a demonic leer. Maybe instead of the laconic HITLER legend "Dolfie" complete with quote marks? Yeah, that's the ticket! The Resident of the United States has risen from idiocy to dominating idiocy using "Joe".
Barbara writes, "I love the quotation marks around Bill. I suppose they’re to connote that it’s a nickname, but they’ll always be air quotes to me."
That was editorial style of the time. Bill without the quotes would imply a christened or legal name. The lapse of that standard is unfortunate. To my paranoid mind its use in the political realm suggests a nefarious exploitation of the credulity of voters -- vote for me, your longtime pal...
I think it may have started innocently enough with the unexpected elevation of Vice-President Truman in 1945. His legal name was Harry S. Truman, not Henry or Harold. The S didn't stand for anything, which confused the Chief Justice of the United States to the point of trying to swear him into office as Harry Ship Truman. Confronted with a President with a diminutive or familiar as a given name the press had to forego the quote marks. Within a few years Eisenhower won the White House with his floating head above IKE without quotes.
I would call the presidency of "Bill" Clinton the nadir of this trend of fraudulent familiarity if not for the disastrous James Earl Carter, Jr. who took the oath of office (perhaps unlawfully) as Jimmy Carter. (Or was that Jimmah Cahtah?) That was the absolute nadir of the Inauguration ceremony. False modesty, false familiarity -- walking to the Capitol without regard for the fearful panic it aroused in the Secret Service -- one blatant PR stunt after another. Jimmy instead of James Earl. Imagine Darth Vader voiced by Jimmy Jones. Carter deserves to have his name inclosed in quotes from now til the end of time as an example of a contrived product as opposed to an alleged human
Just a stray memory regarding " " marks.
Back around 1980 or so some friends and I left the interstate to get some food somewhere in SW Virginia. Found a little homey diner a mile or so off the highway. Every menu item and price had " " marks.
"Hamburger" "$2.00"
"Cheeseburger" "2.50"
"French Fries" ".75"
etc etc through all the meats, sides, and desserts and on the daily special board sorry "Daily Special" board too.
The Big Giant Head was the aliens' boss on Third Rock From The Sun.
"Found a little homey diner a mile or so off the highway. Every menu item and price had " " marks."
That was the Quotiddy Inn.
Nathan Mates,
🤣
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