Beautiful Mardee Hoff: McClelland Barclay's Last Muse
Who was Mardee Hoff? She was a leading Cover Girl model, and the last muse of McClelland Barclay. Their model and artist relationship blossomed into an intimate, but tragically short, love story.
Mardee is only part of his story -- he was married to two of his models before they met -- but she deserves special recognition. It is only because of Mardee’s acts to save Mac’s personal papers that allowed me to include more details of his life when I wrote his biography.
I'm not sure exactly when McClelland Barclay first set eyes on Mardee Hoff, but it may have been as early as 1934 or 1935 when he painted her for the first time for one of his 'Glamorous Girls' weekly newspaper inserts (above left Feb 1935). He was also one of the artists judging the beauty contest she won in 1935.
Mardee: the perfect figure and a 'Conover Cover Girl’
L to R: Mardee on the beach, 1940s ; original portrait of Mardee by her father, Guy Hoff, undated
Marjorie (Mardee) Saunders Hoff (1914-2004) was the beautiful daughter of photographer and illustrator Guy Hoff. (Collectors note: the original portrait of Mardee by Guy Hoff (shown above right), is soon to be listed for sale at the renown gallery: Taraba Illustration Art, LLC.)
As was popular at the time, Mardee's modelling career gained notice with beauty contest publicity when she was 21. By the late 1930s, Mardee had become one of the ‘Cover Girls’ at Harry Conover Model Agency, known for models having a well-scrubbed American-girl look.
The New Yorker, on January 11, 1936 noted Mardee Hoff was the "Perfect 34" when selected by a jury from the American Society of Illustrators as the possessor of “the most perfect figure in America,” winning the title ahead of 2,600 other contestants.
The magazine’s column “Talk of the Town” commented on how the contest was organized and judged - first by photographs and measurements - then 400 entrants were brought to the Commodore Hotel in mid-December 1935. The field was whittled down to 150, then to 22. Then, three society artists, Russell Patterson, McClelland Barclay and W.T. Benda, selected three final contestants.
Miss Hoff was announced the winner and was showered with clothes and a free hair-do. And she received plenty of publicity in the papers.
McClelland Barclay: the famous 'pretty girl' illustrator
L to R: Mac’s first wife Nan in Coca-Cola ad, Ladies Home Journal, April 1925; detail of 1929 Fisher Bodies ad with Helene Haskin, his second wife.
McClelland Barclay became a famous ‘pretty girl’ artist and tastemaker for two decades painting beautiful women. McClelland Barclay’s Glamorous Girls was a syndicated series of 1930s weekend newspaper inserts with his illustrations and comments on modern beauty. Mac's magazine covers and serial story illustrations appeared in many popular titles including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Pictorial Review, Redbook, and Saturday Evening Post.
Mac’s real-life muses and models appeared in illustrated magazine ads for soft drinks, silk hosiery and grocery brands. His first wife, Nan, is the model for several Coca-Cola ads that appeared in 1925 (above left). Fashions and lifestyles were changing fast, but his marriage was faltering.
For nearly ten years, 1923-1932, Mac painted models for his fashionable young women in Body by Fisher ads for General Motors cars. On recommendation from another artist, a young debutante model, Helene Haskin, came to model for him in March 1929.
For years I had painted an imaginary ideal girl. Answering the buzz at my door, opening it, I found to my utter astonishment a girl who seemed to be the living embodiment of my paintings … under her quirked eyebrow with appealing violet blue eyes…Her gorgeous red curls falling over her shoulders looked like a cascade of copper-gold … she was too beautiful; she was my ideal, living before my eyes ... You are the Fisher Body Girl." -- McClelland Barclay, unpublished memoirs
Helene appeared in Mac’s May-July 1929 Fisher Body ads, numerous magazine covers, and also modelled for his sculptures. In 1930, Helene became his second wife.
Hollywood fame, beauties and more
By the 1930s, Mac’s fame led to commissions from Hollywood movie studios’ national advertising, and for fan ‘zines like The New Movie and Photoplay. He painted female film stars like Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy and Anna Neagle.
In the 1937 Paramount musical comedy, Artists and Models, starring Jack Benny, Mac even painted and appeared beside Sandra Storme, the film’s candidate for “The Most Beautiful Model in the World” (below left). He was one of six famous artists portraying themselves: fellow illustrators Arthur William Brown, John La Gatta, Russell Patterson, cartoonists Peter Arno and Rube Goldberg.
L to R: Sandra Storme and McClelland Barclay in publicity photo for the film Artists and Models 1937; Mardee modelled for McClelland Barclay's illustration for the film Hotel for Women 1939
In real life, Mac used fame and success as a commercial artist, launching McClelland Barclay Art Products, Inc. in 1930 to design and sell his own creations of decorative art. And in 1938, a line of McClelland Barclay signature costume jewellery was introduced by Rice-Weiner & Co. that was featured in Vogue and sold in upscale department stores like B. Altman and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Mardee models for Mac
So Mac was famous, and known to be attracted to a certain look for his youthful female models: red hair, vivacious. Mardee, the young, athletic red-haired beauty had an established modelling career.
Mardee's physical beauty was noted in a "Charm Beats Beauty" article by Florence Wessels, a features writer in the New York Journal-American. She described Mardee arriving at McClelland Barclay's 57th Street penthouse studio for a modelling session:
The girl who stepped off the elevator was a combination of New York grooming and the friendliest kind of charm. She had red-blond curls and very blue eyes, accented by naturally heavy brows. She had a nice tan. When she smiled, you couldn’t help smiling back. -- Florence Wessels, New York Journal-American, December 8, 1940.
The article quoted Mac as saying that charm beat beauty and could make up for any physical flaws. He described her as having "real American-girl charm which is made up of companionship, good fellowship and understanding...She has pep, energy and vitality... This kind of charm lasts a long time.”
When they met, Mardee Hoff was only in her 20s and single. He had already married and divorced twice before, and was in his 40s. And, as a Life magazine article tisked, he was engaged a third time to Virginia Moore, a 22-year-old socialite from South Carolina. I'm not sure it was because he was smitten by Mardee, but he soon broke off that engagement.
Mardee is the muse in many of Mac’s last artworks
McClelland Barclay's works with Mardee as model: L: Whitman's chocolates (1940); R: MGM's Ziegfeld Girl movie poster (1941)
Mardee was the muse for many of Mac’s later illustration works. Her likeness can be seen in his advertising campaign for Whitman’s Chocolates from 1939 to 1941 (above left). She is the model for some of the covers of This Week and Saturday Home newspaper supplements that replaced his earlier “Glamorous Girls” series, along with many of his later story illustrations.
Mardee modelled for Mac's 1939 poster for 20th Century Fox film Hotel for Women (previous paragraph, above right). And she was also his model for a contest between famous illustrators organized by the Art Students League to promote the 1941 MGM film Ziegfeld Girl. His work compares alongside fellow famous artists, John La Gatta, Neysa McMein, and Gilbert Bundy. As the portrayal of women had turned to more provocative 'pin-up' girls, he only went so far (above right).
Mardee models in Mac’s work during WWII
L to R: Sea Power July 1943 magazine cover with Mardee Hoff as model; Mac paints Dogs for Defense poster while Mardee hold the models, 1942; U.S.Navy WWII recruiting poster by Lt. Cmdr. Barclay
In 1938, Mac re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve using his skills as an artist for recruiting and wartime fundraising. Lt. Cmdr. Barclay actively sought deployment and did tours on numerous Navy warships where he could paint portraits of rank officers and sketch sailors in action along with nurses and USO entertainers.
Mardee modelled for Mac’s February 8, 1941 cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The same illustration also appears on the cover of Sea Power magazine July 1943 (above left). A naval officer is showing the young woman dressed in yellow how to use a sextant.
Mardee joined him in the war effort with Dogs for Defense national campaign (above middle), and continued her own modelling work. A photo of Mardee appeared on the October 21, 1940, cover of Life magazine, modelling one of the new fall sweaters (and wearing a McClelland Barclay sterling silver brooch).
Lives forever changed by war
Despite the war and his absences, Mardee and Mac continued their personal relationship. They shared time by the sea at Mac’s Hampton beach house with their Afghan dog. (detail of black & white photo in featured image)
Mac expressed his love of Mardee in his many letters to her while deployed at sea. It seems that meeting Mardee, and being a witness to war, changed his perspective on life. Mardee and Mac were not married to each other; but this may have been a post-war dream.
Their love story was cut tragically short, on July 17, 1943. McClelland Barclay was lost at sea in the Solomon Islands when the U.S. Navy landing ship he was on was hit by a Japanese torpedo. He was due to come home two weeks later.
Although not his next of kin, Mardee knew his fate when her last letter to him was received ‘return to sender’. In his will, Mac left Mardee his Long Island house, a car and personal effects. She donated his military artworks to the U.S. Navy in 1943, now part of the collection of the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command.
As I wrote in my article in Illustration, years later, Mardee married, but had no children. And, yet she kept Mac’s letters, personal notes, artists tools and some of his paintings the rest of her life. She found a way to honour him by supporting the 1995 nomination of him to the Hall of Fame of the Art Director's Club of New York. Mardee's devotion to Mac included her last wish that her ashes be sprinkled over the same spot in the South Pacific.
It is thanks to Mardee Hoff, McClelland Barclay’s last muse, that I was able to write my book to include their beautiful love story, and so much more about his life, loves and works.
