Sunday, January 4, 2009

Florodora Girl as The Ideal

The image and allure of the Florodora Girl replaced the Gibson Girl as the feminine ideal in the early years of the 20th century. Here is an illustration by Hamilton King of a Florodora Girl (1902) which was distributed by Turkish Trophies Cigarettes:



Hamilton King would soon draw the famous Coca-Cola Girl (left) advertising image, and in June 1920 King drew this gorgeous Theatre Magazine cover portrait of Marion Davies (right), who was later the producer and star of the 1930 movie The Florodora Girl (see below).

To this day, the Society of Illustrators annually awards their Hamilton King award for excellence.