Logo

To Love Movies Is to Love the Work of Saul Bass and His Associates. He Would Have Been 100 Years Old Today. A Tribute

May 8, 2020  •  Post A Comment

Who was Saul Bass? He was “one of the great figures of twentieth century design and filmmaking,” write his biographers. “In the mid to late 1950s he expanded the boundaries of graphic design to include film title sequences – a genre that he transformed. He is best known for a series of title sequences, posters and trademarks, featuring impossibly compressed and highly evocative images of intense clarity and subtle ambiguities….” The biography is “Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design,” by the esteemed art historian Pat Kirkham and Bass’ daughter, Jennifer.

Four years ago next week, I wrote the following piece about Bass. About it, Print magazine columnist Michael Dooley was kind enough to write, “What else can be said about Saul Bass? Plenty, as TV Week’s Chuck Ross demonstrated a few days ago when he posted twelve pages featuring “A Treasure Trove of Previously Unpublished Works,” with detailed commentary.” As a tribute to Bass on the hundredth anniversary of his birth, we are reprinting that piece below.

One would think a centenary celebration of Bass’ birth today would be a natural for Turner Classic Movies, but it’s not–unfortunately TCM has not been the same since its wonderfully passionate movie buff host Bob Osborne passed away.  However, the Criterion Channel is celebrating Bass, which you can find if you click here.

Please stay safe and healthy during this scary pandemic. And as you wash your hands today, sing “Happy Birthday” to Saul Bass, as we celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday. One more quick note: Al Kallis, who you will read about in the article, was 90 years old when I wrote this piece. I spoke to him several weeks ago, and he’s doing great at age 94.

A Treasure Trove of Previously Unpublished Works: More Than 50 Movie Posters and Ads Designed by Saul Bass and Illustrated by Al Kallis. Devilishly Fun

By Chuck Ross

It was love at first sight. The first time I saw the work of Saul Bass I fell madly in love with it.

What I saw that first time was the title sequence of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” It was 1973, and the movie was being shown at the Bing Theater in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of a tribute to Hitchcock organized by the Bing’s program director, the late Ron Haver. Here’s what I saw (watch it in full-screen mode if you can):

Also displayed at the theater was a one-sheet movie poster, by Bass, for “Vertigo.” It was unlike any other movie poster I had ever seen:

Vertigoposter

How creative. The titles and poster are just right.

Bass once wrote this delightful anecdote about what he did:

“My mother has a definition for creativity. For years she’s wondered what I do: that is, what I really do. She knew I did art work — and actually she was very happy about it despite some vagueness that surrounded the matter. Her only concern was that I should make a living and I seemed to be doing all right. But finally her curiosity overcame her timidity and, I think with some prompting from the neighbors, she finally asked me what it was that I really did.

“I pulled out a proof of an ad that I had designed and I showed it to her and said, ‘Mom, that’s what I do.’ She looked at this and said, ‘Oh, I see …’ and she pointed to a photograph in the ad and said, ‘That’s what you do?’ I said, ‘Oh no, you see, there are photographers — they are specialists — they know all about cameras and things of this kind, and they make the photographs.’

“‘Oh,’ she said, disappointed. ‘Then this is what you do?’ I said ‘No, that’s typography … you see there are special organizations who do nothing but set type — you know, Garamond, Caslon, etc. — these people do that.’

“Again, she was a little disappointed. She pointed to the lettering and we went through this again. Finally she looked at me somewhat concerned and said, ‘Well, now, what do you do?’ I said, ‘Well, you see, I conceive the whole thing, and then I get all these people together and get them to carry out the process.’

“She looked at me very coyly, and said, ‘Oh — you devil!’

“That’s my mother’s definition of creativity”

Academy Award-winning director Marty Scorsese once wrote: “Saul Bass. Before I ever met him, before we worked together, he was a legend in my eyes. His designs, for film titles and company logos and record albums and posters, defined an era. In essence, they found and distilled the poetry of the modern, industrialized world. They gave us a series of crystallized images, expressions of who and where we were and of the future ahead of us. They were images you could dream on. They still are.”

Scorsese wrote that in the foreword to the most complete book yet published about Bass and his work, “Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design,” from 2011. It’s a coffee table-size opus of 400 pages or so, filled with wonderful pictures of Bass’ work. It’s also a biography of Bass. It took years to put together, and kudos to its authors, Jennifer Bass (Saul’s daughter) and art historian Pat Kirkham. Saul himself died in 1996, just about two weeks shy of his 76th birthday.

I think what Scorsese wrote captures how a lot of us feel about Bass’ work. It’s certainly how I feel. I was a junior at UCLA when I saw “Vertigo,” and soon after seeing the movie, in my spare time, I started researching other work Bass had done, and started collecting what I could.

I’ve been particularly interested in the posters and ads Bass did for the movies. And a lot of times they were connected. For example, you’ve seen his poster for “Vertigo,” above. Here’s a copy of an ad for the film, which ran in at least two colors, in Life and Look and many of the top magazines of the day:

vertigoad4

In this case the poster and the ads were virtually the same, and they both might be thought of as quintessential Saul Bass. But “Vertigo” didn’t come out until 1958, when Bass was 38 years old. By that time he had been working on movie ads, on and off — mostly on — for 20 years. The more interesting question, to me, is “How did his movie work evolve during those 20 years.”

The problem with answering that question is that we’ve only got sporadic information on which specific films Bass worked on earlier in his career.

Bass was born in the Bronx section of New York in 1920, and was already working on movie ads by the time he was 18.

While in New York, Bass worked for United Artists, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox. He also worked at some advertising agencies.

It was sometime during this time frame in New York that Al Kallis, now 90, recalls first meeting Bass. Al’s dad, Mischa — aka Maurice — an accomplished artist himself, was a top ad executive at Paramount Pictures, based in New York City. “Saul did lettering and paste-up, mostly for other studios,” Kallis told me. “I was interested in becoming an artist myself and I’d be hanging out with my Dad at his office and I recall meeting Saul.”

Maurice Kallis lost his job at Paramount and was then hired by Universal-International. But to take the job Maurice had to move to Los Angeles, which he did in 1943.

Three years later, Bass himself moved to Los Angeles, to work at the then-brand-new Los Angeles office of the ad agency Buchanan and Company. Through the agency, Bass started working closely with independent producer Stanley Kramer, who, according to an oral history done with Bass by Douglas Bell of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, “desired to be personally involved with the production of advertising” for his films.

In 1949 Bass came up with an ad for Kramer’s “Champion” that Bass said was considered a breakthrough in movie advertising. Here’s the ad — it’s all black and white except for the word “Champion,” which appears twice in the ad:

championb2

Says Bass in the Academy’s oral history, “It was a breakthrough ad generally. It was more a function of the audacity of using such a concentrated bullet in the center of the page. It really caused a tremendous stir at the time. You have to understand the abysmal state [of most other ads] … (laughs).”

Bass continues, “It’s a fairly, how shall I say, classic, emotional ‘POW!’ There’s nothing terribly — it’s not a sophisticated notion. If you took that same shot and blew it up, it would be embarrassing. It would be part of the things we joke about Hollywood, and … Hollywood advertising.”

He adds, “But what made it work is that it didn’t matter how outrageous or how corny the condition was — after all, Kirk Douglas standing there bare-chested with his hands at his side, his chest out, and his feet planted in the ground, the champion, you know, and then the lady wrapped around [him] — it’s a cliché. It’s a cliché which, however, when embedded in this new condition, transcended its clichéness.”

The same image from the ad was used as the 24-sheet to advertise the “Champion” on billboards, according to the pressbook for the movie.

After “Champion,” Bass continued doing consumer material such as ads (and sometimes posters as well) for various Kramer films, including “Cyrano De Bergerac,” “The Men” and “Death of a Salesman.”

“Death of a Salesman” came out in December 1951. In 1952 Bass left the agency world and became a freelance designer.

Another major breakthrough for Bass came in 1955. While working for Otto Preminger he came up with the iconic poster and ad campaign — consumer and trade — for “The Man With the Golden Arm.” Here’s one of the trade ads from that campaign that I found in an issue of Motion Picture Daily from Tuesday, Nov. 29, 1955.

golden-arm

As for the posters and other consumer movie material Bass worked on through the mid-1950s, work still remains to be done to get it all identified and made public. Not the least of this would be a definitive list of the movie material Bass worked on for Howard Hughes and RKO — if it’s even possible, at this late date, to ever compile such a list.

This article deals particularly with actual examples of Bass-designed movie ads and posters in 1954, 1955 and 1956 that were drawn for Bass — under his very specific instructions — by Al Kallis. They are mostly rough sketches, drawn in black and white, and a lot of them were not actually used. The value of those pieces is that they tell us what ads and posters Bass wanted to do for those films. As for the work that was used, it gives us, for the first time publicly, work that can now be definitely identified as Bass’s — since none of the material involved included his “designed by Saul Bass” signature.

I was very excited when Al Kallis recently shared with me the 66 movie-related pieces he drew for Bass, and I am equally excited that’s he’s agreed to let me share this work with you.

In a few interviews over the years — including one with Pat Kirkham, the co-author of the authoritative “Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design” book — illustrator Al Kallis has spoken about the work he did for Bass.

By the summer of 1954 Bass had been on his own for several years. Al Kallis was also in L.A. by then, and was working as a freelance illustrator.

The first movie project they worked on together was for “Magnificent Obsession.” Interestingly, it was a Universal-International film, so Al’s Dad, Maurice, was ultimately responsible for the campaign.

In his 2015 memoir, “Living the Gift of Time,” Al Kallis writes, “My most interesting client was the gifted designer Saul Bass. Early in his career Saul was primarily involved with motion picture advertising. I made rough layout art based on his ideas and also created finished art.

“Saul was my only encounter with an art director with an original eye. He was beyond the basics of earning a living and pleasing the client. He believed the design was of equal importance to the message. I found it inspiring to work with him.”

Kallis was even more expansive in the interview he did with Pat Kirkham that appears in the Bass book she co-wrote: “No matter how small an image or job, Saul articulated exactly what he wanted. In the explanation of a job, he showed a deep understanding of the motivation of the material. He spent a lot of time on that sort of thing. It was rare to get such an intensive briefing from anyone else. Others would state briefly what they wanted. It was over in five minutes. With Saul it was different. He knew exactly what he wanted you to do!”

One can only imagine their conversations, back in 1954 — Bass the independent art director, at 34, giving the independent, freelance illustrator Al Kallis, five years his junior, explicit directions on what he wanted.

Fortunately for us, Kallis kept photographic copies of the movie work he did for Bass. Kallis kept the copies for the simple reason that he was a freelancer and needed them to show others examples of his work.

To see the work Kallis did for Bass, I’ve created a page for each film. Here they are, in order of the film’s release date. Each line below is a separate clickable link:

“Magnificent Obsession” — Universal-International — release/premiere date: Aug. 4, 1954

“A Star is Born” — Warner Bros. — Sept. 29, 1954

“Carmen Jones” — Twentieth Century Fox — Oct. 5, 1954

“The Racers” — Twentieth Century Fox — Feb. 4, 1955

“Not as a Stranger” — United Artists — June 28, 1955

“The Shrike” — Universal-International — July 7, 1955

“The Virgin Queen” — Twentieth Century Fox — July 22, 1955

“Mister Roberts” — Warner Bros. — July 30, 1955

“My Sister Eileen” — Columbia — Sept. 22, 1955

“The Rose Tattoo” — Paramount — Dec. 12, 1955

“The Conqueror” — RKO — Feb. 22, 1956

“On the Threshold of Space” — Twentieth Century Fox — March 29, 1956

[NOTE: The opening line in this essay I borrowed from the first line of Joseph Heller’s great novel “Catch-22.” One question you might have is why Pat Kirkham only included two of Kallis’ publicly unseen movie works for Saul Bass in the book she and Jennifer Bass had published in 2011, “Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design.” Kallis said he showed her most if not all of his Bass movie work, and she indeed refers to some of it in the book. And the two pieces that are in the book give no credit to Kallis for actually drawing them. It may be that Kirkham and Jennifer Bass primarily wanted to focus on Bass’ finished products. Likewise, Jan-Christopher Horak interviewed Kallis for his 2014 book “Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design.” He also mentions the unseen work Kallis did for Bass, but only requested to put one of Kallis’ sketches — the one for “The Shrike” — into his book. Finally, in 2015, Al published seven of his movie posters/ads that he drew for Bass in his own memoir, “Living the Gift of Time.” Today, however, marks the first public presentation of all 66 movie-related drawings Kallis did on assignment for Bass. I want to thank Al and his wife, Trudy, for their hospitality during the several afternoons we’ve spent together, and Al’s generosity in allowing me to share all of his Bass work with you. The story Bass wrote about his mother and creativity that I cite above is included in an essay Bass wrote for the book “Creativity, An Examination of the Creative Process,” which was published by the Art Directors Club of New York in 1959.]

28 Comments

  1. thank you, Chuck. and many thanks again for bringing Al Kallis to my LMU “History of Design” class. I’ll never forget that afternoon, and I’m sure many of my students won’t, either. my fond memories include our lovely outdoor “afterparty” late lunch at Gulp in Playa Vista. I’m so very grateful to you both.

    • Hi Michael. Great to hear from you. Al and I had a great time that day as well!

      Chuck Ross
  2. How creative. The titles and posters are just right. Great job. pittsburgh roofing company

  3. It was love at first sight. The first time I saw the work of Saul Bass I fell madly in love with it.
    bhagalpuri silk sarees wholesale

  4. Thanks for sharing with us informative post .
    Bollywood Fashion

  5. Saul bass was one of the greatest and will always be remembered. Thanks for sharing and will recommend it at https://www.drywallmodesto.com/.

  6. Saul Bass was amazing. I just got back from reading a list of the best medieval movies so I have a renewed appreciation for the art, although MR Bass seems to have never lost it in the first place.

  7. he made such great and timeless movies. so inspirational https://www.basementwaterproofinglethbridge.com/

  8. Saul Bass will always be a legend. He’s been a great trademark as well.
    leading Cincinnati SEO

  9. I am grateful for the value he has given to the movie world. I will always appreciate his craft.
    best SEO Tampa

  10. Wow, he is so talented. I’m also amazed by his works. http://www.inspectionmanaging.com/

  11. A tribute to his beautiful soul.
    generatorable.com

  12. Nice post. I learn something harder on distinct blogs everyday. Most commonly it is stimulating to learn content from other writers and exercise a specific thing from their store.메이저토토

  13. If you are looking for an author to write on your site, please contact me. I have some good posts that you might be interested in. I’m sure my post will be a good asset for me. If that’s burdensome, can I quote your blog data on my blog? If you’re interested, please send me an email. Thank you. 메이저토토

  14. HAHAHA!! I’m so happy to find your blog. I can’t believe I’m seeing a different opinion about the field I’ I’m sure there’s something on my blog that you might be interested in. I’d like you to stop by. 메이저토토

  15. Love this article. Thanks for sharing.
    stamped concrete ocean county

  16. Thanks for the updates.
    Residential retaining wall contractors

  17. Thanks for the information.
    buy junk cars lawrence

  18. There are a few key strategies you can use to find best linkedin summary statements:

    Look for inspiration within your own network: Check out the profiles of people within your industry or job field to see how they’ve crafted their LinkedIn summaries.

    Search for LinkedIn summary examples: Use a search engine to find LinkedIn summary examples that are relevant to your industry or job field.

    Check out LinkedIn resources: LinkedIn offers a variety of resources for job seekers, including tips and examples for crafting effective summary statements.

    Utilize LinkedIn’s Summary Inspiration tool: LinkedIn’s Summary Inspiration tool can help you generate ideas and phrases for your summary statement based on your industry, job title, and skills.

    By using a combination of these strategies, you should be able to find plenty of inspiration and guidance for crafting an effective LinkedIn summary statement.

  19. I like this blog so much, saved it to my bookmarks. Tree Services Longmont

  20. trying to find a TV WEEK published as a newspaper, with a zip code that ties it to a specific area and has TV PROGRAMMING. i would like to order a trial period subscription if possible. THANK YOU Jeanne McLemore

  21. Such a pretty cool site. This is a really great guide for me! san antonio retaining wall

  22. President Obama’s Climate Action Plan is a beacon of hope in our fight against climate change. It emphasizes reducing carbon pollution, preparing for impacts, and leading global efforts. Our leather jackets business echoes this commitment to sustainable choices in fashion. Just as we invest in clean energy, our jackets represent a choice for enduring style. Both initiatives, whether in policy or fashion, drive progress towards a greener future. Together, they inspire and lead the way towards a more sustainable world.

  23. Saul Bass was truly a design and filmmaking genius, and this tribute on his 100th birthday is a wonderful celebration of his extraordinary legacy. His innovative work has left an indelible mark on the world of graphic design and film title sequences, and it’s heartwarming to see his contributions recognized and celebrated. Happy 100th birthday, Saul Bass! https://leotoystore.com/ 🎂🎥🎨

  24. Thanks for posting…
    fashion photographers in india

  25. They wanted to convey the importance of well-being in a way that would resonate with the hearts of the audience. The magic of Saul Bass’s artistic touch was just what digital health needed to make their message memorable.

  26. Great post, this movie information is good for me.
    https://www.madamsavings.com/giant-eagle-weekly-ad/

Leave a Reply to Bollywood Fashion Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)