Art: Live Models

The beautiful girls in the magazine advertising sections came alive last week. Heretofore they have been hired by the illustrators, advertising artists and photographers who immortalize them, chiefly through agents John Robert Powers and Walter Thornton, who collect a commission for being in touch with artists. Counting on their own touch, 300 of Manhattan’s 2,000 models—men, women & children—last week broke with the agents, organized a co-operative Models’ Guild, complete with lounging rooms.

One of those to come alive was the girl in blue in the new Chesterfield cigaret advertisements. Said she, named Hazel Grace: “I take care of my aged grandmother. All artists are swell, just swell. I have never been insulted.” Another was little black-eyed Dorothy Hart, one of Artist Haskell Coffin’s magazine cover models. Said silver-haired Mrs. George Snyder: “I have been insulted. An artist actually had the nerve to ask if my hair was genuine.”

The modeling life of a girl is about four years. The Guild’s success will depend on its ability to find new girls eventually to displace its present members, to give artists what they want.