Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/679317
Mr. Allen soon found himself not only a student but an instructor at Chouinard's. He then transferred to Herbert Jepson's art school, again as an instructor/ student. By 1948, Mr. Allen had become a rising art school star, who had honed his skills as a sketch artist with a forceful, uncluttered and commercial style. He made application at the studios, and was soon hired by chief draftsman George Dudley at Twentieth Century-Fox, then at the height of its post-war achievement. Mr. Allen, following a decade's hiatus, was decidedly back in the movies, and in style. He worked directly with most of the key Twentieth Century-Fox Art Directors such as Maurice Ransford, Chester Gore, George Davis, Joseph Wright, John DeCuir and Richard Irvine. Fatefully, it was during this early 1950s period that Mr. Allen had his first contact with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Mr. Allen was instrumental in organizing the sketch artists at Twentieth Century-Fox. It is probably not coincidental that his services were rather soon dispensed with by Fox, as his role in such organizing became known, but Mr. Allen had achieved his ultimate end. Hollywood's sketch artists were finally affiliated and represented within the IATSE. Mr. Allen was the Hollywood sketch artists' initial elected representative. He then freelanced for a short period during the early 1950s, working at Columbia Pictures, for instance, as sketch artist for No Sad Songs for Me, as well as at RKO on Flying Leathernecks. Neither of these studio associations stuck, however. His talent was evident, but so was his sketch artist activism. He was soon hired by Warner Bros., the studio that had initially employed him in the 1930s, during his teenage years. Following the hand of fate, it was as a Warner Bros. Art Director that Mr. Allen would ultimately become best known, but no one could have predicted the rapidity of his rise, and by which unique route. During this period, it customarily took a sketch artist or a draftsman many years to become an Art Director within the studios. The great majority of these artists never made the transition. To all appearances, Mr. Allen was on his way to becoming yet another of these essential subordinate artists, vital, yet publicly invisible.