Walter Baumhofer, one of the best cover artists for the pulps, got his start with Street and Smith in an interesting manner.
In 1930, Baumhofer married another artist Alureda, whose nickname was "Pete". Their income dropped precipitously due to reductions in advertising budgets during the Great Depression and by 1932, the Baumhofers were running out of money. They had one month's rent left in savings.
"Like any sensible young squirt, instead of paying the landlord, I took a chance and invested $30 to hire a model and paint a rather more detailed speculative cover for [pulp fiction publishers] Street & Smith. They were crazy about it. The general reaction from the top brass was overwhelming, and they hired me to paint covers of Doc Savage and Pete Rice. That pretty much ended the Depression for me."
This is that famous cover that launched his career; it was on the September 3, 1932 issue despite having been the first one accepted. Maybe they waited till they had a story they considered worthy of the cover.
Great cover, and he followed it up with some more amazing covers for
Western Story, a couple of which i have below:
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| Western Story, December 12, 1931 cover by Walter M. Baumhofer |
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| Western Story, September 19, 1931 cover by Walter M. Baumhofer |
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| Notes in my copy of the Sep 3, 1932 issue. Guess who the author is... |
