Marine Artist Designer of Early MGM Movie Posters

Posted April 15th, 2009 at 9:21 am in Marine Legends

"Hap" Hadley, born Alvan Cordell Hadley in 1895, was an American artist who gained world-wide acclaim specializing in pen and ink representations of popular subjects – he was especially adept at movie poster art in the 1930's. But if you asked him what was more memorable to him than a career in the movie industry he would modestly say it was his service in the United States Marine Corps during WWI that meant the most. He enlisted in the same place I did, St. Louis, MO, 51 years ealier in 1917. He was just 22 years old.

I have spoken in this blog many times about my uncle, SSgt Jack Rice, USMC, deceased. It was while arciving some of his Marine memorabilia that I discovered a rare gem, hidden away in Jack's personal papers a cartoon drawn by Hapley while enlisting in the USMC at age 22. Although Jack didn't get to know "Hap" Hapley until the late 60's, he followed his career as a movie poster artist and often spoke with him on the phone from his home in Los Angeles.

Jack and "Hap" finally met just before his death in 1976 and it wasn't until Jack's death in 1982 that I was made responsible (Jack's sister was my Mother) for putting his affairs in order. Among his most valued possessions I was amazed to find this cartoon rendering of the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in St. Louis reproduced in the August 5th, 1917 St. Louis Post Dispatch, Sunday Magazine Section, the place where Hap enlisted as a private in the Marine Corps during WWI. I was even more amazed to discover the artist of this little bit of cartoon mischief was none other than Alvan "Hap" Hapley himself!

I seems Mr. Hapley wanted to poke a little fun at his experience with the Marine Corps recruiting office in St. Louis. During intervals of waiting for various examinations while enlisting in the Marines he found the time to sketch his impressions – while at the same time providing the Marines with a boost in enlistments as a part of a recruiting effort by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The entire Sunday Magazine section was devoted to reproducing his cartoon along with this 1917 poster, in the August 5th, 1917 issue, so that families could proudly display this colorful and patriotically stirring 11" by 18" poster in their front window when one of their own enlisted in the Armed Services of the United States of America during WWI.

After his service during WWI, Hadley got back into his art and eventually became a movie poster artist for MGM, and produced movie posters in the 1930s for a number of Howard Hughes films, including “Hell’s Angels” (1930), starring Jean Harlow, and the controversial “Cock of the Air” (1932). “Cheating Blondes” (Equitable, 1933). He created movie posters for Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, as well as promotional posters for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and billboards for Roy Rogers, one of my all-time favorite childhood cowboy heroes.