Tony Starcer is probably the best known and most prolific nose
art painter of WWII but his talents were discovered by chance when,
during training, he entered the officers' Club at the USAAF base at
Sheppard Field, Texas. Starcer watched a man painting a wall mural and
criticised his use of colour. Challenged to do better he set about
doing just that by finishing the mural.
After arriving in England and being posted to Bassingbourn with the
91st Bomb Group, Starcer was assigned to the task of painting official
markings, squadron letters and aircraft codes, etc, onto the group's
B17s. By popular demand, this quickly expanded into an astounding
array of nose art. As Starcer's skill developed, his reputation spread
and the 91st soon sported some of the finest examples of nose art to
be seen in England. Working with whatever paint he could find, mostly
house paint, he drained off surplus oil and then added linseed oil to
thin it again and make it workable. The subtle flesh tones he achieved
on many of his later pin-up figures amazed everyone, especially those
who knew only too well the difficulties of his working environment.
Although the rain storms, biting winds and the numbing cold of English
weather worked against him Starcer produced a dazzling wealth of
imagery inspite of it all. Working almost ceaselessly he could paint
the nose art on a B17 in day or less and then set about painting
smaller similar designs onto the jackets of the crew men. These were
left with him to paint in the evenings and in more conducive
surroundings and when the crew men did not return from a mission to
claim their A-2 jackets they were given to the ground crew. Such was
the demand for Starcer's time and skill that he was often assisted by
others who would paint leather jacket patches or the titling on the
nose and allow him to concentrate on the illustrative imagery.
Tony Starcer painted more than 130 nose art designs on B17s and
countless crewmen's jackets. Some of the most famous Flying Forts
carried his artwork; "Shoo Shoo Baby" and "Memphis Belle" are two
which survived to this day -- renovated and restored for future
generations. Starcer drew his subjects from a wide range of
contemporary sources, not least the ever-popular Vargas, Petty and
Elvgren girls. The cover from "TIME" magazine was used to create the
artwork for "General Ike" -- a B17G christened (somewhat reluctantly)
by "Ike" himself when he visited Bassingbourn. Other superb examples
of his mastery were "Sleepy Time Gal", "Sugar Blues", "Red Alert",
"Bride of Mars". Not all of his designs included pin-ups: "Outhouse
Mouse", "Man O War", "Paper Dolly" and "Spirit of 44" brought
refreshing variety to the ranks of B17s lining the runways at
Bassingbourn.
At war's end, Starcer laid down his paint brush and for 23 years
had little time for painting. In the 1970s, interest grew about
wartime nose art and he began to paint renditions of his former works.
When "Shoo Shoo Baby" was brought back to Dover AFB for restoration,
Starcer was the obvious person to repaint its nose art and in 1981 he
proved he had lost none of his former skills when he completed the
restoration of a design he had spawned 37 years earlier.
© Ray Bowden
