User:AriZadok/Len Steckler

Len Steckler (born May 6, 1930) is an American photographer, painter, film director, cinematographer and producer. Steckler is known for the artistry behind many famous ad campaigns, including Pepsi Cola’s “Refreshes Without Filling” illustrated advertisements in the 1950s, Noxzema’s “Take it off-- Take it all off” TV commercials in the early 1970s, and for famously putting Joe Namath in Hanes pantyhose. In 2010, he received widespread attention for the release of a previously unknown series of photographs entitled, “Marilyn Monroe: The Visit,” which offer a candid glimpse of a 1961 encounter between Monroe and famed poet Carl Sandburg.

Illustrative Career
Steckler began his artistic career with the brush, painting illustrations for short and serialized stories that appeared in leading magazines of the day, such as Collier's, Ladies’ Home Journal, McCalls, Esquire and Cosmopolitan. One of the youngest members of the Society of Illustrators, his major advertising clients included:
 * Pepsi Cola
 * Philip Morris cigarettes
 * Falstaff Brewing Corporation
 * Jacqueline shoes
 * Van Heusen shirts
 * Jayson clothes
 * Coty cosmetics

In 1956, Steckler and another artist, James Bama, were chosen by the Air Force to go to Japan and paint what they saw on the bases in and around the country. These paintings are part of the permanent collection in the Air Force Museum in Colorado Springs.

Photography
As illustration was gradually replaced by editorial photography, Steckler segued to a full-time career as a photographer. His fashion and beauty photography was featured in magazines like Vogue, Life, Harper's Bazaar and Look, and made the cover of publications such as US, Hood Housekeeping (1962-66), The Saturday Evening Post (1962-66), Popular Photography (1961-68) and Camera (1968-71). Some of the companies he shot for included:
 * Revlon
 * Faberge
 * Helena Rubinstein
 * CoverGirl cosmetics
 * AT&T
 * Ivory Soap
 * American Airlines
 * United Airlines
 * Olympic Airlines

Celebrities
Among Steckler's subjects were some of the most famous personalities in the world, including:
 * Marilyn Monroe
 * Carl Sandburg
 * John Wayne
 * Joe Namath
 * Andres Segovia
 * Joanne Woodward
 * Julie Newmar

Models
Often working with some of the most beautiful models in the world, Steckler earned a reputation as one of the preeminent definers of beauty for his generation. A partial list:
 * Dorian Leigh
 * Suzy Parker
 * Carmen
 * Dovima
 * Tippi Hedren
 * Cybill Shepherd
 * Jennifer O'Neill
 * Maud Adams
 * Susan Blakely
 * Veruschka
 * Wilhelmina Cooper
 * Jean Shrimpton

Television Commercials
For the next phase of his career, Steckler turned to directing television commercials. He made an impact on the medium with innovations such as solarization, extreme slow-motion and the use of subliminal imagery. Perhaps his most well known tv ad came in 1974, when he put NFL quarterback Joe Namath in pantyhose for a Hanes Beauty Mist commercial. Steckler won many awards for his commercial work, including numerous Clio awards, the Silver Lion (Leone d'Argento) of the Venice Film Festival (1970) and from such institutions as the Art Directors Club, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and The Chicago 4 Awards. A number of his commercials have been included in the collection of the Museum of Television and Radio. Some of the clients he created commercials for:
 * Clairol
 * Vaseline
 * Miller Beer
 * Polaroid
 * US Virgin Islands
 * Parfums Givenchy
 * Lipton
 * Sylvania Corp.
 * Anheuser-Busch
 * American Airlines

Film
In 1974, Steckler directed and filmed the live-action sequences for the Emmy award-winning television special, Free to Be... You and Me. Upon moving to Los Angeles in 1976, Steckler began directing and producing movies for television, including “Mad Bull” (1977), “Rodeo Girl” (1980), “The Demon Murders” (1983), and “Mercy or Murder” (1987).

Steckler is a collected and exhibited artist and photographer.

In 2005, Steckler lost his left eye to cancer.

In late 2009, Steckler’s son came upon a set of long-forgotten photographs Steckler had taken of Marilyn Monroe meeting with Carl Sandburg eight months before her death. As a result of this discovery, and of their subsequent release to the public, Len Steckler appeared on the “Today Show” (February, 2010), being interviewed by Meredith Viera about that incredible day in December of 1961. The response was an overwhelming global appreciation of these iconic images.