Chester Abbott Bloom was born July 28, 1918 in Regina, Canada, the capital city of Saskatchewan. The family was of German ancestry. His father, also named Chester Abbott Bloom, was a renowned newspaper correspondent for The Calgary Herald, who had been born in Edina, Missouri in 1882. His mother was Margaret Dunlop Bloom. His brother Frederick was three years older. They lived at 3150 Rae Street in Regina.
In 1933, at the age of fourteen, his family immigrated to the United States for permanent residence, when his father became a reporter for The Washington News Bureau.
They lived at 47 Markwood Road in Forest Hills, Queens, NY.
In 1936 he returned to Canada to complete his high school education at The Glebe Collegiate Institute of Ottawa.
In 1938 he 1939 he returned to New York City to work as a commercial illustrator. His work first appeared in pulp magazines from Thrilling Publications, such as The Masked Rider Western and The Masked Detective.
In 1940, at the age of 22 he enrolled in The Art Students League on 57th Street in NYC. But his art studies and his fledgling career as a pulp magazine illustrator were suddenly sidetracked by World War Two.
One month after the Japanese sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor he applied for naturalized U.S. citizenship and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He did his basic training at Camp Upton in Yaphank, NY, in Suffolk County. He was recorded at that time to be five-foot-nine, 145 pounds, light complexion, Brown hair, hazel eyes and with a scar on his forehead. he was also listed as having studied one year at college.
After the war he returned to New York City and rented an apartment at 120 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village. He resumed his commercial illustration career as well as his enrollment at the Art Students League.
He primarily worked for Martin Goodman's Stadium Publishing Company to illustrate sport-themed pulp magazines, such as Best Sports, Big Book Sports, Complete Sports, Sports Action, and Sports Leaders. He drew black and white story illustrations and he painted covers. His work also appeared in the Popular Publications pulp magazine, Fifteen Sports Stories. His last work in the pulps was published in 1950.
In 1952 he won the Art Students League Edward G. McDowell Traveling Scholarship. He used the opportunity to spend a year in Europe, where he visited museums in France, Switzerland and Italy. He retained Canadian citizenship, but his home address was still 47 Markwood Road, Forrest Hills, Queens, NY.
In 1954 he exhibited at the Art Students League Gallery the drawings and paintings he had produced during his year abroad.
He worked for the rest of his life as a portrait artist in the New York region. In 1974 he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the famous opera star, Renata Tebaldi.
Chester Bloom died at age 70 on June 15, 1989 and is buried at the National Cemetery in Calverton, NY.
© David Saunders 2009 |
