When Dr. Clark “Doc” Savage Jr. was being created, one of the inspirations was another Clark, and not just in name only.
In his book Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazines, Ron Goulart reprints the instructions that illustrator Walter Baumhofer was given for his covers:
A Man of Bronze — known as Doc, who looks very much like
Clark Gable. He is so well built that the impression is not of
size, but of power.
Baumhofer followed his own instincts instead and used model Bill Cuff as the basis for his Doc Savage covers. But illustrator Paul Orban took the instructions to heart — and then some.
Orban’s sketch of Doc for his second adventure, “The Land of Terror” (April 1933), is a direct swipe (to use the comic-book term) of a photograph of the actor that ran in the August 1931 issue of Vanity Fair. It was taken by the celebrated photographer Edward Steichen.
Well, it was almost a direct swipe; Gable’s pipe was carefully removed.
Later illustrations of the Man of Bronze left Gable’s image behind.
