Harry Moskovitz was born in Feb 1894 in Philadelphia, both his parents were immigrants from Kiev Russia, and in 1906, age the age of eleven, he began to take drawing lessons at the Graphic Sketch Club, which is America's oldest artist's club. It still exists today and continues to offer the public affordable art lessons.
On July 18, 1918, during the Great War, Harry Moskovitz was drafted into the Army. He served as a private in Company D, 54th Pioneer Infantry. He did his basic training at Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina, and was sent overseas, where he fought in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He then worked as an art instructor at the Army's Educational Center in Coblentz, Germany, for which he received a government citation. He was honorably discharged on July 10, 1919.
After his service, he remained in Europe to study art at the Hilde School in Germany. After six months he traveled to France, where he studied at the Beaune Art School in Paris.
In 1920 he returned to Philadelphia and resumed his art career.
In 1925 he designed the original advertisement for the three Pep Boys, a local auto-parts supply company. The Pep Boys ad became an iconic graphic image that continued to appear in print for over six decades.
Thank you for this history. I know of The Pep Boys but this history is new to me - at my old age.
ReplyDeletethen I haven't lost my touch completely!
DeleteHA! Glad to be a source of entertainment, and interesting history