Ben Marcus Rules

Researching a Malibu history book I’m gonna call Chumash to Hard Cash - if I ever finish the danged thing - I spent hours, days, weeks, months pouring through five or six massive photo and art archives, doing searches for anything Malibucentric. I thought I had seen it all. How did I miss the most excellent art of this French dude?

My guess is that Paul did not work to promote himself. He became very wealthy out of WWII airplane wing manufacturing design. After the war this practicing Catholic left his wife Olga and son Pierre and cold and snowy Buffalo, New York and came out to Topanga, California.

I believe he bought a home for his girlfriend Edith Feeny and her child Phyllis. Another for publisher/artist Margaret Sheehan and one for himself. He basically kept his head low until he divorced his wife Olga in 1952. Up until that point, he focused on his art, local shows, and being a member of the Topanga area. After the divorce, he married his girlfriend, moved to a custom-built home in Brentwood, and went back into the airplane mechanical engineering business.

I don’t think he ever wanted to focus on those years or bring attention to them.  As a result, there is very little in the records about him. He came across as a minor figure. Some small references in newspaper articles but that is about it.  Despite creating over 154 art postcards, he and/or Margaret Sheehan did not advertise in the local Malibu or Topanga newspapers.

Although the postcards were relatively common at the time, they were never added to the collections of any of the resources you mentioned.

So overall, there was just nothing to find that would have sparked your interest..

And where did you come across him?

I was collecting-up old Santa Monica postcards as a Christmas present for my brother in November of 2021. 

Where were you finding/collecting these postcards?

When I searched the internet, Ebay turned out to have a small number of the Dubosclard cards. Because most cards are not signed, the name M.A. Sheehan (publisher listed on card reverse) resulted in the most hits. The name Dubosclard would return a small number as well. Trying “Malibu postcard”, “Santa Barbara postcard”, “Topanga Canyon postcard” and “Santa Monica postcard” also led to some success.  Other searches included “serigraph postcard” and “silk screen postcard”.  Searching more broadly on the internet led to some European postcard sites, and several major postcard sellers like www.cardcow.com. The cards will sometimes be signed with a “P. Dubosclard” ink stamp or a “PM” pressed stamp. (PM are his middle initials).  

Keep in mind that these cards are original hand made silk screens / serigraphs. At the time they were made (1947/1948) no one else was making postcards in this time-consuming way, and there are very few examples of silk screened postcards between that time and today. A search for this type of card almost always leads to Dubosclard.

I spotted one of “The Cannon” cards and then several others, including a “Santa Monica City Hall,” “Church of Santa Monica” and “Santa Monica Public Library.” Possibly several with Topanga, Malibu and Santa Barbara themes. I became intrigued and did a search on the web. I came up with a donation of a single “Santa Monica City Hall” card to the Santa Monica Public Library / City of Santa Monica.

From there I started poking around and found tidbits here and there on the internet.  At the same time, I started collecting the cards as they became available on Ebay.  I found the online record of a Tax Court case in the late 40’s, which gave me the nuts and bolts to Paul’s history in mechanical engineering, jobs, date of birth, etc.  

Yep I have learned that when doing historical research and you want solid facts, look to court cases. Especially Supreme Court cases. They get it right.

I kept a file on information found as well as each card that I collected. Sometime in February of 2022, I made the decision to start working on a book.

This morning on the phone you gave a pretty lengthy timeline and turning points of this Dubosclard which included him being born in 1892, being taken prisoner during World War I, attending the Sorbonne to study art and engineering and then becomes vital to the war effort in designing airplane wings for airplane wings, a method of manufacturing that cut production time from hundreds of hours to 13 hours and a few scandals involving women and children and the tax office.  Is that all correct? What did I leave out? 

You got it all correct. What you might have left out are some of the specific details that support the timeline,  who was who, etc. You also did not mention anything regarding his art and postcards

If you wrote the screenplay, who do you see portraying Dubosclard Younger and Dubosclard the Elder. Olga? Other characters from his life?

I would cast Pete Davidson as Paul Dubosclard younger and Mark Ruffalo as the elder. Kate Blanchett as Olga. Edith Feeny played by Kristen Schall. Phyllis Dubosclard played by Amybeth McNulty. Margaret Sheehan played by Shelly Long. Oka Stewart played by Clint Howard.

Can you sum his life up in 10,000 words or less?

The book section covering his life is about 4000 words - which is relatively short for a guy who lived a long, interesting life, because there isn’t a lot of information about Dubosclard out there.

His art is very satisfying. This guy gets Malibu, and Topanga, and the light and the color of the sky. The ocean and the clouds. Clearly, he loves the joint and loved it at a time when it was maybe more loveable than now. How would you describe his art to someone who hasn’t seen it?

To start, Paul Dubosclard made art in many different mediums. We know him primarily for his serigraphs/silkscreen postcards. He also did watercolors, gouache, oils, pencil/ink drawings, woodblock/ linocuts, sculpture, physical models, and marionettes.  At one time he had a studio in his Brentwood home, which was full of art that disappeared after he and his wife had passed away.

The serigraphs are generally done in the style most often associated with the WPA Poster Project back in the 1930’s. They are generally impressionistic landscapes using saturated soft colors sometimes combined with bold text in handmade fonts.

He made 14 cards which depicted historic people associated with the local coastline, including native peoples, Spanish settlers, military, explorers as well as several Catholic saints.  Dubosclard also did three sets of cards including “The Zodiac” (12), “Presidents” (32), “States” (48). Cards out of these last three are  relatively common. It is the complete sets that are hard to come by.

If you love Malibu and this area, you will love his art. I've interviewed a lot of surf stars and movie stars and people who've been around California for decades and they all say the same thing: The best time to be in California was post war, through the 1950s, into 1960. A lot of those surfers are moving on: Jack O'Neill, Greg Noll, Bruce Brown, Johnny Fain but I don't feel too bad for them, because they were lucky to be surfers in California and Hawaii in the 50s and 60s.

If you could live in any past era or decade or epoch, what would that be?

I have an interest in the granular details of history. I believe that every moment in history was a good time to be alive, and that each snapshot of time has aspects of the tragic, mundane and exultant.  There is no lock at any time on things to be fascinated or horrified by.  That being said, I have to say that my childhood and youth along the Santa Monica/Malibu coast was great, and that the less developed and regulated period between 1910 and 1960 would have been particularly interesting.  If I had to push the envelope and look back in time further, the Renaissance and Florence, Italy around 1494 would have been a particularly interesting geography/period.

This French guy had it good, didn't he? How do you romanticize his life? How would you have lived his life at that time?

I see him as follows. He must have been smart as hell and could run intellectual circles around almost anyone. His significant leg injury in combat and POW experience in WWI toughened him up significantly. Specifically working as an interpreter in the POW camp, he would have had to juggle German officers hounding him for info, but also gain the trust of other prisoners to keep it all up in the air. 

At the same time, he taught art to prisoners.  He coordinated with other POWs on escape plans. Maybe a little Paul Newman/“The Great Escape” feel.  After the war ends, he marries his college sweetheart and heads off to America. Once there he is immediately successful entering the field of mechanical engineering, and makes his way steadily up the ladder to the point where he becomes part owner of multiple companies.  

At the same time (1921 – 1933) he continues working on his art, to the extent that he is doing shows at galleries, museums, etc. He also teaches art.  

He is focused, tenacious, and social. He is a multitasker par extraordinaire.  He is simultaneously right-brained and left-brained. He oversees a company with 100+ employees, but is so important to the output of design work, that he quits as President to return to the design floor. He works all day doing the intellectual work of mechanical design, then leaves in the evening to attend gallery showings.  At 52 he is bold enough to have an affair with a 22 year old, has a child with her, and actually leaves his wife and heads to California.

Once in California, he uses his resources to set up himself, Edith, Phyllis and Margaret. Multiple houses.  He lives next door but spends his time with them. He enters the local art scene, setting up art shows, teaching art, and becoming a resource locally.  I assume he worked with Margaret to create the postcard business in early 1947. He makes them and she sells them. She keeps the profits. (He is rich as hell).  This goes on till mid ‘49 when Margaret died of pneumonia.  This kills the card business. 

He coordinates with the owner of the Postcard Collectors Magazine and Gazette / Postcard Collectors Club of America Bob Hendricks.  Hands the entire remaining stock of cards to Bob for marketing. Probably for pennies on the dollar just to get out of it.  Paul now can focus on divorcing his wife Olga. This gets done by 1952. Immediately after, he built a beautiful custom Spanish house in Brentwood with a swimming pool and art studio. Once there he rejoins mechanical engineering and Paul Dubosclard as artist / postcard serigraphist disappears.

How did you gather his art? How many pieces are featured in the book?

There are 144 images I have collected or know about - 143 are in the book and a watercolor of a female nude appeared after publishing.  I found almost all the cards on Ebay, as well as the large oil painting.

Because the cards are handmade, each one is unique.  For many cards, there are +_ 10 different editions or variants for each one.  Collecting the cards includes looking for unsigned cards, or cards signed with an ink hand stamp or cards signed with an embossing stamp. Many cards have different messages printed on the face, like “Greetings from Malibu,” “Malibu California,” “Topanga California,” etc. Some images have multiple color variants, including sunrises, foggy backgrounds, cloudy skies, etc.  Cards that have postmarks are very rare and help date when the cards were produced.

Because of the rarity and beauty of some cards, they almost never come up for sale. It took me almost two years to put together the collection I have.

What inspired you to produce a book?

I was inspired by the unique silk screening skills that Paul used to create these cards, as well as the unusual story of his art, his mechanical engineering, his importance to the war effort in WWII, and the fact that he almost disappeared totally from the record. Here is someone who needs to be recognized for living a great life, for contributing to world events, and for having the sense to live it out in one of the most beautiful and romantic places that exist… Malibu / Topanga California. 

How long did it take?

It took around a year and a half. Most of it was trying to document the images and ferreting-out the almost non-existent details of his life.

Any major finds in his work or his life story?

Read the book.  I think I have covered it pretty well here.