About the artist
Earle Bergey, born as Earl Kulp Bergey on August 26, 1901 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, showed an early interest in becoming a newspaper cartoonist during his time at Philadelphia's Northeast High School. He began contributing drawings to school publications and yearbooks. In 1927, Bergey became the artist for the daily comic strip "Deb Days," featured in The Philadelphia Ledger and other syndicated newspapers nationwide. With the decline in newspaper advertising revenue during the Great Depression, Bergey seised opportunities in the flourishing pulp magazine industry in New York City. He painted covers for pin-up magazines distributed by Paul Sampliner at Eastern Distributing Company. Later, Bergey gained recognition for his cover art for Popular Library paperback books, including "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by Anita Loos. Tragically, Bergey died at age fifty-one due to a heart attack while undergoing a stress test at his doctor's office on September 30, 1952.
