Demure? Moi?

One day in 1967 Charlie White III and Dave Willardson were out for a drive and saw a billboard. Dave mentioned that it would be cool to advertise Charlie's studio with such a large scale format. So they went back to "The White House" and called the billboard company. Turned out they couldn't just rent one -- they had to rent five! Black and white was cheapest, so Charlie dug up a b&w promo photo he had from a photo booth, Dave set the type and before they knew it, they had five billboards up around L.A. advertising the man himself. This was very much in the tongue-in-cheek, pop style of the day. Advertise the man/brand ahead of the art! At the time Charlie was going full guns as the premiere West Coast pop-style illustrator. Charlie has since mentioned that it was taken the wrong way by some, who thought it was, um, a tad immodest. But nevertheless these billboards are still remembered by L.A. oldsters as an iconic image around the city. But the idea nicely foreshadow today's strategies (think Shephard Fairey) in its simplicity and persona-driven directness. The billboards begat a whole campaign, including the decal seen at right and the booklet below.

Charles E. White III Rules The World

The clinically shy Charlie White produced this humble self promotion piece in 1967 featuring spectacular photographs by David Willardson. The layout, right down to the typography, was influenced by their L.A. contemporary Ed Ruscha's books from that period. Of course this booklet dovetailed nicely with the Charlie White III billboards that went up around L.A. at the time. More on that later.

Paint

This film of Charlie White was made in 1968 by the Haboush Company. Victor Haboush, whose career has spanned 1950s Disney films to the more recent Iron Giant, produced the film via his own company. From a studio in Santa Monica Haboush produced well over 1000 commercials. Victor remembers Paint as a novelty project, shot just for fun, and Charlie as "an exciting guy and an adventurer in the business." Charlie himself notes that Norman Gollin, who directed the film, was a major West Coast presence as an art director, and that he shot it all in one take. No paint-overs, and no practice. It was pure psychedelic improvisation.

The Original Ruler

This week I'll be uploading a rash of crap recently unearthed at Charles White III's studio in Venice California. Charlie had a colorful career way before he turned into the compressed air king covered in Overspray. This is a photo of Charlie back in the day, sitting under a bedspread (yes, really!) created by his disgustingly talented wife Linda, who's a noted interior designer. So come back soon, there's some good stuff on it's way...

Update:
Due to the amount of interest in the wall hanging I phoned Linda White to ask about the TV Dinner, She said it was created for a Bloomingdales Model Room in the 70s for interior designer Robert K Lewis. Bloomingdales was pretty hip at the time and featured contemporary interior designers work within the store. Linda said this room was all done in Brown and white with the TV Dinner bedspread providing the only color. Linda went on from creating textile art and tapestries to designing complete interiors. She heads her own company White Design based in Venice Beach in Los Angeles. She said she still has the bedspread and can see it poking out from her loft storage space from where she sits.

Unfinished Business

While trawling through the extensive archive of Charles White III for the upcoming Overspray exhibition, publisher Dan Nadel uncovered this gem. Gives a glimpse of the painstaking airbrush painting technique.

70s Shirtage

While trawling through the archives for the upcoming Overspray gallery show, Dan uncovered this treasure designed by Charles White III back in the 70s.