James Flora (January 25, 1914 ‒ July 9, 1998), best known for his distinctive and idiosyncratic album cover art for RCA Victor and Columbia Records during the 1940s and 1950s, was also a prolific commercial illustrator from the 1940s to the 1970s and the author/illustrator of 17 popular children's books. He was a fine artist as well, who created hundreds of paintings, drawings, etchings and sketches over his 84-year life.
Life and early career
Born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, Flora attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1935 to 1939. In 1938, he met writer Robert Lowry, then a student at the University of Cincinnati. They launched The Little Man Press, a letterpress series of limited edition publications, for which Flora supplied illustrations, design, and layout, and on which they collaborated until 1942. (Lowry later self-published many works under a revived Little Man imprint without Flora's involvement.)
In 1941, Flora married his college sweetheart, artist Jane Sinnicksen. After a brief period as a commercial artist in Cincinnati, he was hired at $55 a week by Columbia Records in 1942, at which time the Floras moved to Westport, Connecticut, since Columbia was then based in Bridgeport.
Beginning work in the art department under Alex Steinweiss, inventor of the illustrated album cover, Flora illustrated ads, new release bulletins, and retail and trade literature. In 1943, when Steinweiss entered the navy, Flora was promoted to art director. Building out his creative team, he hired Richard Staples Dodge and Ginnie Hofmann whom he had known from the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
That year, he launched Columbia's monthly new release booklet, Coda, which he continued illustrating and designing through 1945, when he was promoted to advertising manager. The Floras relocated to Rowayton, Connecticut, where they lived the remainder of their lives, eventually having five children.
Flora's artwork began appearing on Columbia 78 rpm album covers in 1947.
Flora became Columbia's sales promotion manager, but soon grew frustrated with a position where he produced little art. Finally reaching his limit of what he called "endless meetings, endless memos, and wrestling with budgets," he resigned in 1950. He drove to Mexico with his family; they remained south of the border for 15 months, during which time Jim and Jane painted, created woodcuts, and lived as bohemian gringos in Taxco.
Commercial art and books
The Floras returned to Connecticut in 1951, and he embarked on a freelance commercial art career, illustrating covers and articles for dozens of mainstream magazines including Fortune, Holiday, Life, Look, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, Mademoiselle, Charm, Research and Engineering, Computer Design, Sports Illustrated, Collier's and Pic.
From January to December 1952, Flora was art director at Park East magazine, for which he published the first commercial illustrations by R.O. Blechman, as well as spot illustrations by the young Andy Warhol. Flora resigned at the end of 1952, and was replaced by Robert M. Jones, who in 1945 had replaced him as art director at Columbia Records.
In March 1953, Jones became art director at RCA Victor Records, where he soon began giving album cover assignments to his friend Flora. This resulted in a Golden Age of Flora LP covers, including such celebrated designs as Mambo For Cats, Inside Sauter-Finegan, Lord Buckley's Hipsters, Flipsters, and Finger-Poppin' Daddies, Knock Me Your Lobes, and Shorty Rogers Courts the Count. Around this time, Flora also did spot jobs for Columbia as a freelancer, illustrating album covers and reviving Coda during 1952 and 1953.
Among his assignments in the 1950s, Flora drew a number of commercial storyboards for the pioneering animation studio United Productions of America (UPA), on assignment from UPA Creative Director Gene Deitch. From September 1955 to August 1956 he was art director for a short-lived technical monthly, Research & Engineering. He illustrated the cover of Computer Design magazine for 17 years (1960s and '70s), and frequent covers for American Legion magazine (1970s).
Between 1955 and 1969, working with children's book editor Margaret K. McElderry at Harcourt Brace, Flora wrote and illustrated 11 books for young readers, including The Fabulous Firework Family (1955), The Day the Cow Sneezed (1957), Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys (1959) and Leopold, the See-Through Crumbpicker (1961).