Neysa McMein

• Born 1889-01-25 · Died 1949-05-12

For a time Neysa McMein was an actress in some of the plays of Paul Armstrong, Jr.; she also was the film reviewer for McCall’s magazine, where she was a contributor of cover art, and also provided the story for the movie Three Miles Out, 1924. She appeared as herself in the documentary of acting personalities Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12, from 1922, along with other popular figures such as William S. Hart, Will Rogers and Rudolph Valentino. Her primary career was that of artist, and, in addition to McCall's, provided cover art and illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post, McClure's and Collier's. She created the portrait likeness for the advertising character "Betty Crocker" for General Mills. Other commercial projects included advertisements for Palmolive soap and Lucky Strike cigarettes. McMein made posters for the French and United States governments during World War I, and traveled across France to entertain the troops in 1918 - she also possessed musical talent in addition to acting and art. Her portraits included noted figures such as actor Charlie Chaplin and writer Dorothy Parker. In 1942, she was the artist for the newspaper comic strip Deathless Deer, Chicago Tribune Syndicate; these do not appear to have been reprinted, although examples can be found online in a Facebook vintage comic strip group, and there are articles with reproductions at Don Markstein's Toonopedia and Four Color Shadows on blogspot.