Here’s a fun booklet filled with Illustrations all over. It’s for Columbia Records. I’m going to go ahead and label this as a Jim Flora piece since he was in charge of most of the Columbia Records materials at the time and the style of illustration matches that of Flora’s earlier career. I know that George Maas and Robert Jones also illustrated some Disc Digest issues. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. This one is from a record store in San Francisco. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Thanks to the wonderful Irwin Chusid — who is an expert in this subject — we now know that only the cover was designed by Jim Flora.
Design: Jim Flora | Year: 1946 | Photo: Javier García
The cover of the May 1946 Disc Digest is indeed by Flora, but the interior illustrations are not. Flora was succeeded as Columbia art director in 1945 by Robert M. Jones, and was no longer “in charge of” such publications. His contributions to Columbia print ephemera after 1945 are rare, but a series of successor artists on staff did their best to maintain the style. Flora’s main reason for leaving the company in 1950 is specifically because his administrative responsibilities largely precluded such illustration.
Thanks for filling in the gap Irwin, it’s always a pleasure having such a knowledgeable person comment. This is the March issue though, I will assume it applies to it as well.
It’s the May issue. Open the issue to the table of contents page; on the top of the opposite page it says “The May List.” That’s the month of the issue.
You are absolutely right! Thanks so much for chipping in.