1945 - The American Weekly

For reasons that aren't really clear, The Saturday Evening Post gradually ended its relationship with J.C. Leyendecker in the early 1940s.  This was after he had done no less than 321 covers.  Norman Rockwell, who was inspired by Leyendecker, stopped at 320, and several knowledgeable persons have said that Rockwell intentionally did that so as to not upstage his idol.  Some say the magazine heard rumors of the artist's homosexuality, and others say that the Post was just moving on stylistically.  In any case, Leyendecker's income dropped drastically.  He was able to get some commissions from the far less popular American Weekly, and he did some patriotic pieces for the government during World War II.  (I will do a series on the latter in the future.)  The cover shown above has a young sailor returning after the war to Thanksgiving dinner at home.