Earle K. Bergey expanding paperback book industry along with skilled pulp artists like Rudolph Belarski, whose work is often confused with Bergey's. While continuing to paint pulp covers until his death, Bergey sold illustrations to at least four (4) leading paperback publishing houses, including Popular Library and Pocket Books. His art graced the covers of dozens of novels and helped to sell millions of volumes. His paperback cover illustrations were as diverse as his work for the pulps. In addition to his work on Anita Loos' famous "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", Bergey painted cover art for well-known authors from Émile Zola to the Western
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel) first film version, which is now lost, was released in 1928 and starred Ruth Taylor and Alice White. Better known is the 1953 film version of the musical, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. The novel's characters were licensed for use in a daily newspaper comic strip series that ran from April to September 1926. The comic strip was not an adaptation of the novel, but used the novel's characters in new gag situations. Although the writing was credited to Loos, it was presumably ghosted by the artists, Virginia Huget and Phil Cook. The original series was