1. Neysa McMein began her career as an illustrator and during World War I, she traveled across France entertaining military troops with Anita P Wilcox and Jane Bulley and made posters to support the war effort.
47 Facts About Neysa McMein
1. 2.
Neysa McMein was made an honorary non-commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps for her contributions to the war effort.
3.
Neysa McMein created the portrait of a fictional housewife "Betty Crocker" for General Mills.
4.
Neysa McMein was a successful portrait painter who painted the portraits of presidents, actors, and writers.
5.
Neysa McMein had an open marriage to John G Baragwanath, during which she had affairs with Charlie Chaplin and George Abbott.
6.
Neysa McMein was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 1984,35 years after her death.
7.
Neysa McMein was one of 20 Society of Illustrators' artists to have their work published on a United States Postal Service Collectible Stamp sheet in 2001.
8.
Marjorie Frances Neysa McMein was born in Quincy, Illinois on January 24,1888.
9.
Neysa McMein was the daughter of Harry Moran and Isabelle Parker McMein.
10.
Harry Neysa McMein was a reporter before he worked for the Neysa McMein Publishing Company, a family business.
11.
Neysa McMein worked at a large millinery firm, where she became lead designer.
12.
John Baragwanath, her husband, stated that she chose the name Neysa McMein after meeting one of Homer Davenport's fillies at his stables.
13.
Whatever the original impetus for the change, McMein thought that the name Neysa "had a commercial value" above that of her birth name.
14.
Neysa McMein studied at the Art Students League of New York in 1914.
15.
Neysa McMein sold her first drawing to the Boston Star in 1914.
16.
However, an earlier illustration by Neysa McMein was used in 1912 by Associated Sunday Magazines, dated November 10,1912.
17.
Neysa McMein created Harry Horowitz's portrait in 1915 before he was executed for Herman Rosenthal's murder.
18.
Neysa McMein made posters for French and United States governments during World War I, as did Thelma Cudlipp, Helen Hyde and Mary Brewster Hazelton.
19.
Neysa McMein traveled across France to entertain the troops in 1918.
20.
Neysa McMein made portraits of some of the soldiers, drew cartoons, and colored the design of the Indian head insignia that was then used by the 93rd Bomb Squadron to denote the number of German planes that a given plane shot down by drawing a German black cross over one of the bear teeth in a necklace worn around the Indian head.
21.
Neysa McMein returned to the United States to care for her mother after her father died.
22.
In 1917, noted poet Berton Braley wrote Front Page Stuff about her magazine cover art, the last portion of which is: Yes, Neysa McMein, we're strong for your stuff,.
23.
Neysa McMein's illustrations appeared on the covers and within articles for McClure's magazine by 1919.
24.
Carolyn Kitch, author of the book The Girl on the Magazine Cover, finds that Neysa McMein created illustrations of confident, modern New Women for her magazine covers, while Jessie Wilcox Smith concentrated more steadily on children.
25.
From 1923 through 1937, Neysa McMein created all of McCall's covers.
26.
Neysa McMein supplied work to National Geographic, Woman's Home Companion, Collier's, and Photoplay.
27.
Neysa McMein earned up to $2,500 per cover illustration.
28.
Neysa McMein created advertising graphics for Cadillac, Lucky Strike cigarettes and Palmolive soap.
29.
Neysa McMein designed silk textiles in the mid-1920s, three examples of which are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
30.
Neysa McMein created an official portrait of Betty Crocker by combining features of the home economists employed by the company, which helped reinforce that Crocker was a real person.
31.
Neysa McMein entered the field of portraiture, at first using pastels to depict Dorothy Parker, Edna St Vincent Millay, and Helen Hayes.
32.
Neysa McMein painted portraits of presidents Herbert Hoover and Warren G Harding, author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and actors Charlie Chaplin and Beatrice Lillie.
33.
Neysa McMein painted Katharine Cornell, Kay Francis, Janet Flanner, Dorothy Thompson, Anatole France, Charles Evans Hughes and Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
34.
Neysa McMein's father died in 1918 while McMein was overseas entertaining the troops.
35.
Neysa McMein moved her mother Belle from Quincy, Illinois to live with her in New York.
36.
Neysa McMein rode across an Arab desert with a woman journalist and friend and was proposed to by an Arab sheik in Algiers.
37.
Neysa McMein, who was a talented musician, had written an opera by that time, too.
38.
In 1921, Neysa McMein was among the first to join the Lucy Stone League, an organization that fought for women to preserve their birth names after marriage in the manner of Lucy Stone.
39.
Neysa McMein was prone to working in her smock at an easel as her guests enjoyed lively discussions and piano playing.
40.
Neysa McMein provided the cover illustration of Berlin's biography by Alexander Woollcott.
41.
Neysa McMein interspersed her life as an artist with riding on the back of an elephant in a parade, taking a swim on a whim, and enjoying parties.
42.
Neysa McMein hosted parties with games for adults to entertain artists, writers, actors and other celebrities.
43.
Neysa McMein entertained at the house she bought with Baragwanath on the North Shore of Long Island in Sands Point.
44.
Neysa McMein was then required to have surgery to graft part of her hip to her spine.
45.
Neysa McMein died of cancer on May 12,1949, in New York City and was survived by daughter Joan and her husband John Baragwanath.
46.
In 1984, Neysa McMein was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame.
47.
Neysa McMein was portrayed by actress Rebecca Miller in the film Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle.