Leo Reisman's Orch. - My Sweeter Than Sweet, 1929

In the slideshow are the illustrations by Joseph Christian LEYENDECKER (March 23, 1874 Montabaur, Germany - July 25, 1951 in New Rochelle, New York) - who was a 20th century American illustrator. He is most well known for his men's fashion advertisements, particularly the Arrow Collar Man, and as Norman Rockwell's predecessor as the premier illustrator of covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1882, the Leyendecker family immigrated to Chicago, Illinois, where they founded the successful McAvoy Brewing Company. After studying under John H. Vanderpoel at the Chicago Art Institute, J.C. Leyendecker and his younger brother Frank enrolled in the Académie Julian in Paris for a year, where they were exposed to the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret, and also Alfons Mucha, founder of the Art Nouveau movement. While Frank returned to the U.S. with serious addictions and a lack of direction, Joseph returned with a drive for success and a clear vision of whats sold and how to achieve it. Soon he got his first commission for a Saturday Evening Post cover the beginning of his forty-four year association with the most popular magazine in the country. In 1900, Joe, Frank, and their sister Mary moved to New York City, taking full advantage of all the opportunities that the city offered, finding much in the way of corporate illustration commissions. During the next decade, both brothers began lucrative relationships with manufactures such as Interwoven Socks, B. Kuppenheimer & Co., and Cluett Peabody & Company, for which he created the Arrow Collar Man (the first brand name in advertising), based on his lover and favorite model, Charles Beach.

In 1914, the Leyendeckers, accompanied by Charles Beach, moved into their mansion and studio in New Rochelle, New York, where Joe would reside for the rest of his life. J.C. Leyendecker's biographers describe his lifestyle as that of an openly gay man, but by the time of his death he had become a secretive recluse. In an era when such a sexual orientation was taboo, Leyendecker's personal life was brushed aside in the popular media in favor of focusing on his fame as an artist. Leyendecker may have attempted to disguise the homoerotic content of his drawings by including women adoring the handsome men. A few images are more overtly homoerotic, such as advertisements for Gillette, in which scantily clad men teach each other how to use disposable razors, while other like the sports or military covers refer to man-to-man homosexual desires in almost clandestine way.

Due to his fame as an illustrator, Leyendecker was able to indulge in a very luxurious lifestyle which in many ways embodied the decadence of the Roaring Twenties. However, when commissions began to wane in the 1930s, he was forced to curtail spending considerably. By the time of his death, Leyendecker had let all of the household staff at his New Rochelle estate go, with he and Beach attempting to maintain the extensive estate themselves. He is buried alongside parents and Frank at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. Charles's grave site is unknown.