Who Are the Models Behind Columbia Pictures' Lady Liberty Logo?
Rita Hayworth, Lucille Ball, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, and Julia Roberts are just a few of the trailblazing actresses who have shone bright on the big screen in films produced by Columbia Pictures, which was founded in 1912. A familiar and timeless presence in their movies has been none other than none, a beacon of hope and freedom ever present in the Columbia Pictures logo - the "Torch Lady," also affectionately known as Lady Liberty.
Lady Liberty premiered on the big screen in 1924, after the founders of Columbia Pictures, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and business partner Joe Brandt, decided to rename their company the Columbia Pictures, from its previous name, the Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation. The decision was motivated by a female personification of the United States, known as Lady Columbia.
Columbia, named after Christopher Columbus and inspired by the British goddess Britannia, was frequently used in the 1730s to refer to the thirteen colonies that became the United States. She was later depicted in cartoons, coins, and statues as a goddess-like figure, often shown wearing draped clothing. When the Cohn brothers and Brandt created the first logo for Columbia Pictures, they used an image of a Roman warrior as a tribute to this historic American figure.
The original logo showed Lady Liberty holding a shield and what appeared to be a laurel wreath covered sword. It wasn't until 1928 that the logo was revised to feature the muse holding a torch, an image that the studio would continually update over time and it became a signature look for the franchise. Some of the most notable updates were the 1936 Lady Liberty, which remained in use until 1976, and the 1992 version, which remains the present-day iteration.
Over the years, numerous actresses and models have claimed to have been the inspiration, or even the actual model, for photographers and artists who created the iconic logo, however, only a few were able to provide sufficient evidence to back up their Lady Liberty claims.
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Evelyn Venable, wife of cinematographer Hal Mohr, is notable for voicing and modeling as the Blue Fairy in Walt Disney's 1940 "Pinocchio." Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, she graduated from the University of Cincinnati. In 1936, she posed for the Columbia Pictures studios logo update, located in Hollywood, California, for a payment of $25. She never signed a contract for artistic rights with the studios.
"My mother said she never gave anyone permission to use her in Columbia's logo, and that was pretty standard for that time period, where studios did pretty much what they wanted," said Rosalia Mohr Woodson, Venable's daughter, in an interview with the University of Cincinnati magazine. Woodson also disputed the claim that her mom was chosen as Columbia Pictures' Lady Liberty, but acknowledged that the family couldn't confirm or deny it. "We've tried to get information from the studio in recent years, but all we've ever gotten was 'no comment' or 'we're not sure.' For me, though, that's what she was," Woodson stated. Venable passed away in 1993 at the age of 80.
It was also claimed to have been the model for the 1936 'Torch Lady' creation.
I think it was either 1935 or 1936 when I started out as a stock contract player, and for just $75 a week, I did pretty much everything but clean the floors. We took pictures, posed for various scenes, and sometimes even acted in three different movies in one day. It was extremely tough to get a job in those days, and $75 was a very good salary back then, when you could buy a loaf of bread for just a dime. I didn't mind posing, though. I'd already won a beauty contest in Dallas, and I really only had one dream: to get discovered.
In her 1962 autobiography "The Lonely Life", Bette Davis claimed Columbia Pictures had used a picture of showgirl Claudia Dell as their logo without her permission. "Little Claudia Dell", for whom Columbia Pictures was long associated, later saw the image bring her down. She ended up taking her own life, starting with the very letter that was the cause of her misery. Much later, Davis admitted to making up the story and never actually meeting Dell.
In 1986, The Chicago Daily News did an interview with Jane Bartholomew, who also claimed to have posed as the model for Lady Liberty back in the 1940s. The newspaper reported that in 1975, Bartholomew had contacted Columbia Pictures to confirm her story, and they sent her three copies of the photos she had taken during the photo shoot.
Columbia Pictures' "Lady Liberty" (1992)
Between 1976 and 1981, Columbia Pictures removed Lady Liberty from its logo. However, The Coca-Cola Company bought the studios in 1982 and brought the iconic image back into use. In 1989, the Coca-Cola Company sold Columbia Pictures to Tri-Star Pictures, which later sold the company to Sony in the same year.
(2023).
Deas says he contacted various models to work on the 1992 Columbia Pictures logo, but ultimately picked Jenny Joseph as his inspiration. She hadn't previously had any experience as a model or actress.
A woman dressed in a white, draped dress with a blue fabric draped over her left shoulder posed for Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Kathy Anderson in 1992, wearing her right arm up, supporting a lamp.
In 2012, "I just held that up, and we did that with a light bulb."
Deas drew inspiration from the images to create the 1992 version of the studio's logo that is still used to this day.
In 2023, Columbia Pictures released a new logo featuring Joseph as its model, with an upgraded glow coming from the torch, to commemorate the studio's 100th anniversary.
"There is one key difference that sets a major studio apart from all other content creators: history. At Columbia, that history is reflected in the countless cultural touchstones created by thousands of people over the past 100 years. Everyone at Columbia is proud of that heritage and honored to celebrate it," Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group, said in a statement following the logo reveal in 2023.
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