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Above are a pair of covers by French illustrator Jacques Leclerq, aka Jihel, who by coincidence went in a similar direction on both, though it looks to us like the top book, 1957’s 3 filles en folie, features his trio of filles in a somewhat paradisiacal setting, while the the bottom one, 1953’s Le temps des filles, features them in a place that looks a lot like hell. We bet the trio in hell are more fun. See more from Jihel by clicking his keywords just below.
We could have added this cover for Arthur Jacmi’s 1958 novel Les affriolantes to our recent collection of women in bars, but it especially appealed to us, with its femme fatale sipping a drink through a straw, so we decided to give it a separate post. It was painted by Jihel, a pseudonym for French caricaturist Jacques Leclerq. There was another Jihel—French caricaturist Jacques Camille Lardie. Lately he’s had a revival, so when you look up Jihel online you’ll get more hits on Lardie than on Leclerq, but they were different people. When you look up Arthur Jacmi you’ll find that virtually no info about him exists. That’s a real shame. We won’t be able to make more quips about his name. C’est la vie. See more Jihel here and here.
More from France today. Above you see Envoûtement sensuel, by Pierre Sénard for Éditions C.P.E., published in 1958. The title translates to “sensual enchantment,” and enchanting is a perfect word to describe this cover, which has a very romantic feel. The art wraps around onto the book’s spine too, which makes it even nicer. We assume the cover figure is contemplating something other than her right shoe, but maybe not—we know a couple of women that get this way about footwear. The artist here is Jacques Leclerc, who signed his work as Jihel, and we think it’s among his best.
Souris à croquer means “chewable mouse.” Nothing more to add there, really, except to speculate that maybe it’s a slang phrase. French friends help us out. Moving on, you may already know the master illustrator Jean David, who signed his work J. David. Did he write this book? We have no idea, and neither did anyone else we asked. Considering J. David painted from the 1940s onward, and this book by Jean David appeared in 1958, it’s certainly possible they’re the same person. Note to selves: more research. Souris à croquer, by the way, means “chewable mouse.” Did we mention that already? Well, it bears repeating. The cover art here is not by J. David, but by Jihel, aka Jacques Leclerc.
Update: Jo B. from Marseille has the answer, writing: “Souris à croquer” means “a mouse to eat.” “Mouse” is a little slang term (not vulgar) to designate a pretty girl. “Croquer” is the way you eat an apple, a bar of chocolate or something like that. I don’t know the real word in English (munch, crunch?). Maybe we have two mice to crunch on the cover as “souris” can be one mouse or many mice.
Thanks so much Jo.
Below: La Vie Parisienne #79, published July 1957, with Roger Brard cover art along with beautiful interior pieces from Jihel, Donnés, Jac, Denis, van Homme, and others.
Above: the cover and assorted interior pages from La Vie Parisienne, October 1956, with art from Jihel, aka Jacques Leclerc, in panel two. You can see five prime examples of Jihel at his best here.
Five brilliant La Compagnie d’Edition Parisienne erotic pulp covers, circa 1950 to 1954, featuring the work of French illustrator Jacques Leclerc, who painted under the name Jihel (there was another French illustrator who used Jihel as a nickname—caricaturist Jacques Camille Lardie, not the same person). Leclerc/Jihel also painted illustrations for the classic French erotic magazine La Vie Parisienne, and we have a few copies we picked up in Paris that we’ll show you in the near future.
Above: two editions of Ellen Edisson’s Aller simple pour Moscou, aka One Way to Moscow. The first was published in 1956 by Thill in its Stop-Espionnage alter-ego as part of its Serie Le Loup, and the second appeared in 1959 from Champ de Mars, and was the first in its popular series Le Moulin Noir.
American blues and jazz singer Billie Holiday records “Strange Fruit”, which is considered to be the first civil rights song. It began as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, which he later set to music and performed live with his wife Laura Duncan. The song became a Holiday standard immediately after she recorded it, and it remains one of the most highly regarded pieces of music in American history.
American actress and playwright Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for the content of her play Sex. The trial occurred even though the play had run for a year and had been seen by 325,000 people. However West’s considerable popularity, already based on her risque image, only increased due to the controversy.
In the U.S, cult leader Charles Manson is sentenced to death for inciting the murders of Sharon Tate and several other people. Three accomplices, who had actually done the killing, were also sentenced to death, but the state of California abolished capital punishment in 1972 and neither they nor Manson were ever actually executed.
In New York City, Yankee Stadium, home of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, opens with the Yankees beating their eternal rivals the Boston Red Sox 4 to 1. The stadium, which is nicknamed The House that Ruth Built, sees the Yankees become the most successful franchise in baseball history. It is eventually replaced by a new Yankee Stadium and closes in September 2008.
A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. However, the invasion fails badly and the result is embarrassment for U.S. president John F. Kennedy and a major boost in popularity for Fidel Castro, and also has the effect of pushing him toward the Soviet Union for protection.
