Frederick "Fritz" Siebel (December 19, 1913 – December 1991) was an Austrian American illustrator, well known for his award winning World War II poster "Someone Talked" and his illustrations for the children's book

Amelia Bedelia Amelia Bedelia is the protagonist and title character of a series of American children's books that were written by Peggy Parish from 1963 until her death in 1988, and by her nephew, Herman, beginning in 1995. They have been illustrated by W ...

Peggy Parish Margaret Cecile "Peggy" Parish (July 14, 1927 – November 19, 1988) was an American writer known best for the children's book series and fictional character Amelia Bedelia. Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina attended the University of ...

Life

Early years

Siebel was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Czechoslovakian , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

parents. During his childhood he and his siblings spent summers at the family hops farm in Czechoslovakia. He studied Illustration and stage design at the

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

Vienna (now the

University of Applied Arts Vienna The University of Applied Arts Vienna (german: Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, or informally just ''Die Angewandte'') is an arts university and institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university sta ...

), after which, because of his dual citizenship, he was drafted to the Czech army where he served from 1934 to 1936.

Immigration to the USA

In 1936 Siebel immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and was joined by his family in 1937, and they settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The other relatives who remained in Europe perished in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

Death

Frederick Siebel died New York City in December 1991.

Work as a Graphic Artist

Early USA Years

In NYC, after his immigration, Siebel made a living illustrating posters and other advertising material for the Paramount Pictures movie studio. He also worked as a demonstrator of Austrian skiing techniques at

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington ...

WWII and the "Someone Talked" poster

During World War II Siebel served in the United States Army between 1941 and 1943. Before the war, in 1938, he submitted a poster to a national competition for posters on the subject of national security for which First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

was a judge. His entry, "Someone Talked", won several awards and was only published in 1942, during the war.

Trivia

The poster was chosen by

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...

as an "ominous World War II propaganda poster" on the wall in the workplace in his 1997

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

movie "

The Spanish Prisoner ''The Spanish Prisoner'' is a 1997 American neo-noir suspense film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara, Felicity Huffman and Ricky Jay. It tells a story of corporate espi ...

Advertising and Magazines

Following his work at Paramount Pictures and the success of "Someone Talked", there was a growing demand for Siebel's work, and he began creating illustrations for advertisements and for magazines, working among others with

Collier's Magazine ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...

, Holiday Magazine and

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

. Among others, he created ads for Ballantine Beer and

Schlitz beer Schlitz may refer to: * Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company * Schlitz, Hesse, a town in Germany * Schlitz (river), a river in Germany People with the surname * Don Schlitz (born 1952), award-winning country music songwriter * Joseph Schlitz Josep ...

Mr. Clean

In 1957, Siebel was contracted by the Tatum-Laird advertising agency to create a

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

figure for the new

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

cleaning product "

Mr. Clean Mr. Clean (or Mr. Proper) is a brand name and mascot, owned by the American company Procter & Gamble, used for an all-purpose cleaner and later also for a melamine foam abrasive sponge. The all-purpose cleaner was originally formulated by Linwo ...

". The result was the now world-wide familiar smiling bald man with an earring in his left ear, dubbed "Master Proper" in German-speaking countries, "Mastro Lindo" in Italy, "Monsieur Propre" in France, "Don Limpio" in Spain and "Pan Proper" in Poland. As part of the deal, he gave up all rights to this creation and thus was not credited for it, the copyright attributed solely to Procter & Gamble.

Children's book illustration

In 1958, Siebel began illustrating children's books. The first two, best-seller "A Fly Went By" and "Stop that Ball!" were written by Mike McClintock and were published in the

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Beginner Books Beginner Books is the Random House imprint for young children ages 3–9, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. Their first book was Dr. Seuss's '' The Cat in the Hat'' (1 ...

" series that was co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Helen Palmer Geisel Helen Marion Palmer Geisel (September 16, 1898 – October 23, 1967), known professionally as Helen Palmer, was an American children's writer, editor, and philanthropist. She was also the Founder and Vice President of Beginner Books, and was ...

. In 1962 he illustrated

Dorothy Kunhardt Dorothy Kunhardt (née Dorothy Meserve; September 29, 1901 – December 23, 1979) was an American children's-book author, best known for the baby book ''Pat the Bunny.'' She was also a historian and writer about the life of U.S. President Abraha ...

's "Dr. Dick". This book was published by Harper and Row (now

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

), who also published his most well known children's book –

Design Company

In the 1960s Siebel founded the Frederick Siebel Associates company, to provide "creative design for integrated programs of packaging, store display, and other sales-related materials." The company was later renamed "Siebel Marketing Company", and in 1998 was merged with the Chicago marketing agency Upshot under Ha-Lo Industries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siebel, Fritz 1913 births 1991 deaths American war artists World War II artists American children's book illustrators Artists from Vienna People from New York City Austrian emigrants to the United States