William Rose (illustrator)

William F. Rose (September 16, 1909 – May 29, 1972) was an American illustrator and film poster artist active in the 1930s and 1940s. He is recognized as one of the most distinctive poster artists of the Classical Hollywood era, a time when most film posters featured painted illustrations rather than photography. Rose painted dozens of poster illustrations for RKO Radio Pictures and other studios. As one of the leading designers in RKO's art department, he helped to define the studio's bold visual aesthetic. Although he was prolific, only a fraction of his poster designs have been individually attributed to him. Most of his output remains unidentified. His artwork is prized by collectors, and original prints of his posters have fetched high prices at auction.

William Rose
Rose as a college senior, 1930
Born
William Frank Rose

(1909-09-16)September 16, 1909
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMay 29, 1972(1972-05-29) (aged 62)
New York City, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Institute (Carnegie Mellon University) College of Fine Arts
OccupationIllustrator of film posters, magazines, and paperbacks
Spouse(s)
Miriam Roberts Rose
​
​
(m. 1935; died 1964)​
Children2
Signature

One of his most iconic posters is the alternate "Style B" design for Citizen Kane (1941), which pitched the film as a more conventional romance than it actually was. The poster failed as a marketing ploy but, in hindsight, has been considered superior to the primary "Style A" design. In posters for films like Out of the Past (1947), Rose made significant contributions to the film noir aesthetic. He also illustrated all the promotional artwork for producer Val Lewton's series of low-budget B movies at RKO, most notably the horror film Cat People (1942).

Apart from his work for Hollywood art departments, Rose was also an active illustrator for magazines and paperback fiction. Born and educated in Pittsburgh, Rose resided in Oceanside, New York for most of his professional career. He was married to Miriam Roberts Rose, a pianist, and had two children. In 1972, he died in New York City at the age of 62.

Early life and education

William Frank Rose was born on September 16, 1909, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[1] He studied at the University of Pittsburgh and the College of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Institute.[2] At Carnegie, he was an editor of student publications and a member of the Jewish fraternity Beta Sigma Rho; he graduated in 1930 with a B.A. in painting and decorating.[3]

Career and artwork

Rose lived and worked in the New York metropolitan area, residing in the suburban hamlet of Oceanside on Long Island. He was a member of the New York-based professional Society of Illustrators, which featured his artwork in its 1945 and 1946 annual exhibitions. His artwork was also displayed at the 1966 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition.[2]

The majority of Rose's output consisted of illustrations for movie posters, paperback books, and magazines; his contributions to poster art remain his best-remembered work.[4] He produced book cover art for such paperback publishers as Avon, Cardinal Edition, Dell, Permabooks, Pocket Books, Pyramid Books, and Ace Books.[5] His magazine work, to the extent it is known, included illustrations for such publications as The American Magazine, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Today's Woman, Woman, Woman's Day, and the nationally syndicated Sunday magazines This Week and The American Weekly.[6]

Film posters

According to film historians Stephen Rebello and Richard C. Allen, Rose was "[o]ne of Hollywood's busiest and best posterists".[4] He was closely identified with RKO Radio Pictures, where he worked in-house for many years.[7] His artwork shaped the "colorful and brash" direction taken by the studio's advertising department.[8] He mostly painted in pastel and watercolor, which were the media typically used in the RKO art department.[9] Aside from RKO, he contributed artwork to Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).[10]

Most of his poster work was in the 1930s and 1940s, during the Classic Hollywood era and the peak of the studio system. At that time, most poster artists worked for studio art departments and, as a result, most of these artists' individual contributions went unrecognized; many iconic posters of the period are considered anonymous works. Rose is considered one of the rare poster artists of the period whose individual style has achieved recognition, alongside others like Al Hirschfeld, Alberto Vargas, and Reynold Brown.[11] In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked his alternate poster for Citizen Kane (1941) at no. 36 on its "100 Years... 100 American Movie Poster Classics" list.[12]

Jane Greer
as Kathie Moffat
Moffat's revolver
Robert Mitchum
as Jeff Bailey
Details from the noir-style poster for Out of the Past (1947). Rose painted Mitchum as a weary detective with a cigarette hanging from his mouth and Greer as an alluring femme fatale holding a revolver in a delicate, ambiguously threatening manner.[13]

Rose's illustrations helped to define the visual conventions associated with certain genres of classic Hollywood film.[14] Critics have especially noted his influence on noir and horror iconography. His poster for Out of the Past (1947) typified the noir style, portraying Jane Greer's character as a "invitingly hallucinatory babe" and Robert Mitchum's as a "lovesick, surly chump" with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.[15] Film historian Eddie Muller called it a "classic poster" that captured the character dynamic of attraction matched with distrust, noting that Greer's "dangling gun is a masterstroke: Is she about to toss it away—or open fire?"[13] Muller cited the poster for Born to Kill (1947) as another important visual touchstone.[16] In the Historical Dictionary of Film Noir, Andrew Spicer praised the Born to Kill poster for its depiction of Lawrence Tierney as a "tough guy" with "stony features" and a "ubiquitous hanging cigarette" in his mouth beside Claire Trevor as "the femme fatale ... in the customary long, sheathlike dress".[17] In the horror genre, Rose is credited with the posters for RKO's string of B movies produced by Val Lewton, including Cat People (1942) and The Body Snatcher (1945).[18] Rebello and Allen ranked these posters among the era's finest in the horror genre, equaled only by Karoly Grosz's illustrations for Universal Classic Monsters film posters of the 1930s.[19] Described as "striking" by poster historians Tony Nourmand and Graham Marsh, the poster for Cat People has become one of the "most sought-after [posters] of the horror genre" among collectors, according to auction house Bonhams.[20]

"Style A"
Unknown artist
"Style B"
William Rose
Rose's alternate Citizen Kane poster reflected RKO's efforts to market the film as an accessible romance.[21] Although it failed to turn out audiences, the design has been lauded and regarded as superior to the primary poster.[22]

While Rose's artwork was often genre-defining, it could also be genre-defying. Critical appraisals of his posters for Citizen Kane and Cat People have described stylistic clashes between Rose's illustrations and the actual tone, genre, and themes of the advertised films. As advertisements, these posters arguably set misleading expectations for prospective moviegoers, but they have been praised for their bold imagery. Rose's alternate "Style B" poster for Citizen Kane was part of the studio's efforts to market the film as "more conventional and accessible" to a Middle-American audience, who executives feared would be dissuaded by the film's "highbrow" style.[23] Writing for Heritage Auctions, Jim Halperin and Hector Cantu noted that Rose's "Style B" poster "sold the film as a more conventional love story" and, compared with the "Style A" poster by a different artist, Rose's design is now "considered by far the more desirable".[22] English writer Matthew Sweet said that the Cat People illustration acquired its "arresting power" through "its rejection of the picture it advertises".[24] Instead of offering a painting in "moody chiaroscuro", which Sweet asserted would have more accurately conveyed the "poetic horror film['s]" atmosphere of subtle dread, Rose's decidedly unsubtle illustration boasted "a snarling Panther of the Baskervilles and a red-hot dame in a strapless dress".[24]

Valuation

Some of Rose's paintings and prints have become valuable as collectables. In March 2009, an original linen print of his "style B" Citizen Kane poster sold at auction for $47,800 (equivalent to $57,000 in 2019).[25] In 2015, an original Cat People print sold at auction for $10,625 (equivalent to $11,000 in 2019).[26]

Rose's other illustrations are also collected, though they have not been valued as highly as his posters. Among collectors of vintage paperbacks, Rose has been considered an especially desirable cover illustrator.[27] In November 2011, Rose's watercolor painting for the cover of the 1961 paperback Woman Missing and Other Stories by Helen Nielsen, bundled with a copy of the book itself, sold at auction for $1,015.75 (approx. $1,200 in 2019).[28]

Several original copies of his magazine illustrations for The American Weekly have sold at auction as well. A signed illustration titled "Strike Up the Band" (1951)—a tempera painting depicting Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in the 1940 film of the same name—was valued at $500 c. 1991 (around $940 in 2019).[29] His illustration "Anna Gould's Bitter Romance" (1950) sold for $632 in 2003 ($878 in 2019), while "Sheba's Secret" (undated) sold for only $87 in 2012.[30]

Personal life and death

Rose was married to Miriam Roberts Rose (née Rubin; 1912/1913 – March 8, 1964), a concert pianist from New York. Their wedding took place on October 9, 1935, in Pittsburgh.[31] She gave recitals in both Pennsylvania and New York and worked for many years as a private piano teacher. They had two daughters, Penny and Tina. Miriam Rose died at age 51 at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital on March 8, 1964, survived by her husband and children.[32]

William Rose died at age 62 in New York City on May 29, 1972.[33]

Attributed illustrations

List of film posters attributed to Rose

Rose reportedly illustrated "dozens" of posters for RKO Radio Pictures alone, in addition to work for other studios. However, only a fraction of his posters have been attributed to him.[34] While he is known to have contributed poster art to Paramount Pictures, none of his illustrations for the studio have been attributed.[35]

Film posters by William Rose
Date Film title Studio Ref.
Year Premiere or
release
1935 Dec 18,
1935		 Whipsaw Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) [36]
1936 Sep 4,
1936		 Swing Time RKO Radio Pictures [37]
1941 May 1,
1941		 Citizen Kane [25]
Aug 20,
1941		 The Little Foxes [38]
Nov 14,
1941		 Suspicion [39]
Dec 31,
1941		 Babes on Broadway Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) [4]
1942 Dec 25,
1942		 Cat People RKO Radio Pictures [40]
1943 Feb 12,
1943		 Journey into Fear [40]
Apr 21,
1943		 I Walked with a Zombie [41]
May 8,
1943		 The Leopard Man [41]
Aug 21,
1943		 The Seventh Victim [41]
Dec 24,
1943		 The Ghost Ship[note 1] [42]
1944 Mar 2,
1944		 The Curse of the Cat People [41]
Jul 28,
1944		 Mademoiselle Fifi [41]
Sep 1,
1944		 Youth Runs Wild [41]
1945 May 25,
1945		 The Body Snatcher [18]
Sep 7,
1945		 Isle of the Dead [41]
1946 May 10,
1946		 Bedlam [41]
Oct 29,
1946		 Nocturne [40]
1947 May 3,
1947		 Born to Kill [40]
Nov 25,
1947		 Out of the Past [43]
Dec 9,
1947		 The Bishop's Wife [44]

List of book covers attributed to Rose

The list below includes book cover illustrations that have been credited to Rose in either an online scan of the original book or a secondary source. It is not necessarily exhaustive.

Book covers by William Rose
Year Book title Author Publisher Edition information Ref.
Ed. 1st
pub.		 No.
1954 The Girl with the Scarlet Brand Charles Boswell and Lewis Thompson Gold Medal Books 1st N/A GMB #384 [45]
1955 My Name Is Michael Sibley John Bingham Dell Books Reprint 1952 Dell #813 [46]
There Is a Tide Agatha Christie Reprint 1948 Dell #830 [47]
The Frightened Fiancée George Harmon Coxe Reprint 1953 Dell #838 [48]
The Bridal Bed Murders A. E. Martin Reprint 1954 Dell #840 [49]
The Evil of Time Evelyn Berckman Reprint 1954 Dell #841 [48]
The Shocking Secret Holly Roth 1st N/A Dell #850 [48]
The Frightened Wife Mary Roberts Rinehart Reprint 1953 Dell D154 [48]
1956 Joy Street Clifton Cuthbert Lion Books Reprint 1933 LL75 [50]
Julie George Milburn 1st N/A LL82 [51]
Woman Without Love André Maurois (trans. Joan Charles) Pyramid Books Reprint 1945 R232 [52]
To Walk the Night William Sloane Dell Books Reprint 1937 Dell #856 [53]
The Murder That Wouldn't Stay Solved Hampton Stone Reprint 1951 Dell #883 [48]
The Butcher's Wife Owen Cameron Reprint 1954 Dell #896 [48]
Washington Whispers Murder Leslie Ford Reprint 1953 Dell #908 [48]
1957 So Young, So Wicked Jonathan Craig Gold Medal Books 1st N/A GMB #669 [54]
Dead Stop (Dark Road) Doris Miles Disney Dell Books Reprint 1946 Dell #929 [48]
Diamonds Are Forever Ian Fleming Permabooks 1st US 1956 M-3084 [55]
Hellflower George O. Smith Pyramid Books Reprint 1953 G298 [56]
The Kill-Off Jim Thompson Lion Books 1st N/A LL142 [57]
1958 Strange Fulfillment Denys Val Baker Pyramid Books 1st N/A G341 [58]
Good Luck to the Corpse Max Murray Reprint 1951 G362 [59]
The Case of the Runaway Corpse Erle Stanley Gardner Pocket Books (Cardinal Edition) Reprint 1954 C-281 [60]
The Four of Hearts Ellery Queen Avon Reprint 1938 T-242 [61]
1960 Playback Raymond Chandler Pocket Books (Cardinal Edition) 4th (1st pbk) 1958 C-375 [62]
The Man Who Disappeared George Harmon Coxe Dell Books Reprint 1953 Dell #1013 [48]
1961 Woman Missing and Other Stories Helen Nielsen Ace Books (mystery double series) 1st N/A F-121 [63]
The Berlin Couriers James McGovern Pyramid Books Reprint 1960 G651 [64]

List of magazine illustrations attributed to Rose

The list below includes magazine illustrations that have been credited to Rose in a secondary source or a version of the magazine that can be accessed online. It is not necessarily comprehensive.

Magazine illustrations by William Rose
Date Magazine Article or story Ref.
Year Pub. Title Author
1943 Oct 16,
1943		 Collier's "The Disguise" Hamlen Hunt [65]
Nov 20,
1943		 "George Is a Noble Guy" William F. Jenkins [65]
Dec 11,
1943		 "Without Security" Elsie Taye [65]
1944 Feb 5,
1944		 "War Wedding" (Part 1 of 4) Margaret Culkin Banning [66]
Feb 12,
1944		 "War Wedding" (Part 2 of 4) [67]
Feb 19,
1944		 "War Wedding" (Part 3 of 4) [68]
Feb 26,
1944		 "War Wedding" (Part 4 of 4) [69]
1945 Mar 31,
1944		 "Person to Person" Nancy Lyon [70]
1946 May 25,
1946		 "Echo of an Old Refrain" Isabel Moore [65]
Oct 26,
1946		 "The Genius" Barbara Dickinson [65]
1947 Feb 8,
1947		 "Perfect Bride" Faith Reyher Cook [65]
Mar 22,
1947		 "Out-of-Town Visitor" Walter Weir [65]
Apr 12,
1947		 "The Blond Hairpin" Ramona Stewart [65]
1949 July
1949		 Cosmopolitan "None Before Me" Sidney Carroll [65]
October
1949		 "The Perfect Couple" Rachel Thornton [65]
1950 Jan 22,
1950		 The American Weekly "Anna Gould's Bitter Romance"[note 2] Unknown [72]
May
1950		 Woman's Day "The Little Cheat" Betty Kjelgaard [65]
Dec 24,
1950		 The American Weekly "The Hollywood Story"[note 3] Adela Rogers St. Johns [73]
1951 Unknown "Gable Remembers Lombard" Unknown [73]
Unknown "Strike Up the Band"[note 4]</ref> Unknown [29]
1952 November
1952		 The American Magazine Front cover N/A [65]
Nov 15,
1952		 Collier's "Weep with Me" John Clare [74]
1953 May
1953		 Today's Woman "Smartest Girl in Town?" Faith Baldwin [75]
1962 July
1962		 Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine Front cover[note 5] N/A [65]
Sep 29
1962		 Woman "The Chief Requirement" Alec Rackowe [65]
1965 October
1965		 Redbook "Sheltering a Life" Norma Rosen [65]
Unknown The American Weekly "Sheba's Secret" Unknown [76]

See also

Notes
  1. Heritage Auctions has twice noted that poster art for The Ghost Ship was "most likely executed by artist William Rose."[42] Reel Art attributes Rose as the illustrator of all of the posters for RKO films produced by Val Lewton, which would include The Ghost Ship.[41]
  2. The illustration carried the following caption: "'Yes,' Anna whispered to the romantic pleas of the titled Frenchman, as they stood before the cathedral in Quebec."[71]
  3. The illustration depicts American actor Lon Chaney with several of his characters reflected in a vanity mirror.[73]
  4. The illustration depicts Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in the 1940 film Strike Up the Band.<ref name='FOOTNOTEGilbert1991266, 312 (fn.<span class="nowrap">&nbsp;</span>29)'>Gilbert 1991, pp. 266, 312 (fn. 29).
  5. Cover reused from Rose's illustration for the 1957 US paperback edition of Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming.

References

Citations
  1. Ancestry Library n.d.; Falk 1985, p. 528.
  2. Falk 1999, p. 2824.
  3. Zeiher & Anderson 1930, p. 58.
  4. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 327.
  5. Papillon Gallery n.d.; Clement n.d.; Smith 2014.
  6. Stephensen-Payne n.d.; Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 327; Gilbert 1991, p. 266.
  7. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 90, 327; Muller 2002, p. 19.
  8. Horak 2014, p. 137.
  9. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 90, 228; Muller 2002, p. 19.
  10. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 50–52 (Paramount); 63 (MGM).
  11. White 2015.
  12. Dirks n.d. (providing general information about AFI's "100 American Movie Poster Classics" list); MovieGoods.com 2007 (entries 1–50 from AFI's list, including poster images).
  13. Muller 2002, p. 80.
  14. Neale 2000, p. 36.
  15. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 255.
  16. Muller 2002, p. 19.
  17. Spicer 2010, p. 240.
  18. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 228–229.
  19. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 215.
  20. Nourmand & Marsh 2004, pp. 156–157; Bonhams 2015.
  21. Halperin & Cantu 2009, pp. 202–203.
  22. Halperin & Cantu 2009, p. 78.
  23. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 202–203.
  24. Sweet 2015, p. 53.
  25. Halperin & Cantu 2009, pp. 78–79.
  26. Bonhams 2015.
  27. Rosenkrantz 2001, p. C-6.
  28. Heritage Auctions 2011.
  29. Gilbert 1991, pp. 266, 312 (fn. 29).
  30. Heritage Auctions 2003 (title provided by Clement n.d.); Heritage Auctions 2012.
  31. The Pittsburgh Press 1935, p. 23.
  32. The New York Times 1964.
  33. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 1972, p. 20.
  34. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 327; Mendez 2003, p. 79 ("Rebello says Rose did 'dozens' of RKO titles. Too bad [Reel Art] didn't list more...").
  35. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 50–52.
  36. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 63.
  37. Rebello & Allen 1988, pp. 239–241.
  38. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 91.
  39. Curtis 1996, p. 178.
  40. Mendez 2003, p. 79.
  41. Rebello & Allen 1988, p. 228.
  42. Smith et al. 2004a, p. 48; Smith et al. 2004b, p. 21.
  43. Curtis 1996, p. 163.
  44. Heritage Auctions 2019.
  45. OCLC 14696827; United States Copyright Office 1955, p. 88 (via Google Books).
  46. OCLC 1057073486; Lyles 1983.
  47. Lyles 1983; Baker 2014.
  48. Lyles 1983.
  49. OCLC 18092253; Lyles 1983.
  50. Stephens 1991, p. 28.
  51. Stephens 1991, p. 49.
  52. OCLC 6900711.
  53. Lyles 1983; O'Neill 2015.
  54. Harper n.d.; Stephensen-Payne n.d.
  55. Silver 2019.
  56. OCLC 38463219; Stephens 2008, p. 10.
  57. Alamy n.d.
  58. OCLC 37629660; Dearly Departed Books n.d.
  59. Price n.d.
  60. Queen 1958, signature at bottom left of front cover (scan via Flickr; archived on March 13, 2019).
  61. OCLC 3174098; L. W. Currey, Inc. n.d.
  62. Heritage Auctions 2011; Smith 2014.
  63. DP Paperbacks & Antiquarian Books n.d.
  64. Stephensen-Payne n.d.
  65. Clement n.d.; Banning 1944a, p. 11.
  66. Clement n.d.; Banning 1944b, p. 18.
  67. Clement n.d.; Banning 1944c, p. 16.
  68. Clement n.d.; Banning 1944d, p. 17.
  69. Clement n.d.; Lyon 1945, p. 24.
  70. Heritage Auctions 2003.
  71. Clement n.d.; Heritage Auctions 2003.
  72. Clement n.d.
  73. Clare 1952, p. 44.
  74. Baldwin 1953, pp. 24–25.
  75. Heritage Auctions 2012.

Sources

Further reading
  • Basten, Fred E. (1996). The Lost Artwork of Hollywood: Classic Images from Cinema's Golden Age. New York: Watson-Guptill. ISBN 0-8230-8345-4.
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