THE CHARLES E. COOPER STUDIO.

The Charles E. Cooper Studio rented three floors in the high rent district of New York. When the magazines started to go out of business, one after another, the money was just not there to pay the overhead, the rent. So when Charles E. Cooper had to down size, one of his salesmen, Bill Erlacher, started his own group that Norman joined. Of all the artists at Cooper Studio the loss of Norman was perhaps the biggest blow to Cooper because at the time he was the most productive. There was no ill feelings. Norman kept doing jobs for Cooper who started another group on another floor to Artists Associates. But more and more, the most productive, creative, illustrators would end up with Bill Erlacher’s Artists Associates. The reason was simple. He could do what Charles E. Cooper never had to do: market his illustrators.

While most agents had scores of artists that mostly starved doing a rare job,  Bill worked with a relatively few artists who were the best at what they did, and so he could always find work to keep them busy. When Norman Adams joined Bill Erlacher’s Artists Associates he was certainly the most versatile if not the most successful illustrator in New York, which was the hub for the World.

While the images Charles E Cooper  put in his flyers did not make much difference to his business; the images Bill Erlacher put into his Artists Associates flyers made a huge difference for his business. 

One of the first advertising flyers for Artists Associates.

There is Norman Adams’ art on this flyer and then there is the art of Murray Tinkelman on the Charles E. Cooper flyer.