Born in Oakland in 1915, Howard Brodie was destined to become one of the foremost illustrators of the twentieth century. In the middle of the Depression at the age of 18, Brodie entered a movie celebrity drawing contest sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner. Although he did not win, the contest launched his artistic career. The Examiner hired him, but he soon became a sports artist at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was free to choose his own subjects. His illustrations, drawn on the scene as well as from photographs and memories, frequently appeared in the “Sporting Green” section.
Encouraged by Olympians on The Chronicle staff, in 1939 Brodie joined The Olympic Club and has been a member since. For the Club, he completed hundreds of portraits, sports action, and genre drawings, including locker room scenes, many of which were depicted on the covers and pages of the Olympian. Most Olympic Club members will remember his athletic panels that hung in the Grill Room for 40 years. He also featured Olympians in his “Sporting Green” illustrations, showing snippets of Club life as well as portraits of fellow OC Hall of Famers such as Grover Klemmer, Dutch Warmerdam, Ben Eastman, and Fred Apostoli.
When the United States entered World War II, Brodie enlisted and became a combat artist for Yank Magazine. During the war, his illustrations revealed what no photograph could show – the anguish, fear, sorrow, and determination of the average GI. They reflected the horror as well as the heroism of war. He covered both the Pacific and European theaters and was awarded a Bronze Star for his coverage of the Battle of the Bulge.
Brodie saw action in the Korean War, with the French Foreign Legion in Indochina, and in the jungles of Vietnam. By then in his mid-fifties, he continued to risk his life to preserve the life and death struggles of soldiers half his age.
Brodie seemed to be everywhere throughout much of the twentieth century. The realism and immediacy of his drawings caught the significance of important events often better than the camera, recording twentieth century American history for a wide audience. He is said to have drawn more judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and juries than any man alive. His more infamous court subjects included Sirhan Sirhan, James Hoffa, John Hinckley, Jack Ruby, James Earl Ray, Patty Hearst, and Klaus Barbie, as well as the Watergate and Chicago Seven trials. He drew several U.S. Presidents, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard M. Nixon, as well as numerous U.S. Senators during the 607-hour Civil Rights filibuster and the Panama Canal debates.
Although without formal training, Brodie taught at The Academy of Art in San Francisco for many years and received a Doctor of Humane Letters in 1984. He was inducted to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2001.
