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There were two seemingly insignificant events around then that helped shape his goals. He was given a stack of English magazines in payment for assisting a gentleman whose car had broken down in front of his parent’s store. The style and pageantry he found on those pages made a lasting impact. He caught a glimpse of a world beyond his Michigan home and yearned to be part of it. Also, he found book a by George Catlin in the local library. This began a fascination with the American Indian that stayed with him his entire life. He loved to draw and often went off by himself to draw cowboys, Indians, and horses. At 17, young Chuck went to Chicago to attend the Audubon Tyler School of Art. He then took a job with Lord & Thomas Advertising. By 19 he was working as a sketch man for N.W. Ayer & Son, an advertising agency in Philadelphia. Also working there was a copywriter named Raymond Rubicam. In 1923 Raymond Rubicam left N.W. Ayer & Son and together with an account executive named John Orr Young formed an agency of their own.

Charles Fox was one of a dozen young, creative artists who went with Raymond Rubicam to New York to become the nucleus of this new agency, Young & Rubicam. Fox drew ads for such Young & Rubicam clients as Jell-O, Postum, Vermont Maid Syrup, General Foods, and R.J. Reynolds.

Soon after arriving in the big city of New York, she started sitting in barber shops and sketching children getting hair cuts. She took a job at Best & Co decorating their shop windows. Slowly she started getting spots for McCalls, Parents Magazine and Good Housekeeping. In the spring of 1935, Dorothea began working for a small advertising studio, Ehrlich and Kenne. They would find commissions for her and take a cut of the proceeds, but she could also continue to accept jobs she found on her own. There she met Charles Fox. He was a handsome and dashing illustrator and commercial artist who often took long liquid lunches, then worked all night in the empty studio to meet his deadlines. He had just returned from a year long sabbatical on St. Lucia in the West Indies and was trying to apply himself again to the mundane task of making money.

Chuck, almost immediately, began teaching Dorothea the techniques of the trade and she quickly improved her skills. They each had very different styles, yet began to blend their talents to the benefit of both. New York City in the 1930’s was exciting and full of talented and fascinating people. Chuck and Dorothea lived right in the center of it all. Chuck started his own studio and drew ads for such companies as Contemps Fashions, Jarman Shoes, Manor Born Clothes, Arrow Shirts, Weber and Heilbroner, and Ludwig Baumann. His work appeared in Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Colliers, Woman’s Home Companion, Junior Home Magazine, Youth’s Companion, as well as most of the major New York newspapers

Soon after the move to Connecticut, Dorothea illustrated a new book by Dr. Benjamin Spock, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. This quickly became a best seller and provided a steady stream of royalty checks to help support their growing family. Dr. Spock’s book and Carter Baby clothes advertisements provided the basis for the family income for many years.

Chuck continued to draw on his own when he wasn’t building stone walls or clearing brush. His subject matter was American Indians, military men in fancy dress uniforms and, always, horses. These drawings were mostly in the form of doodles. He would work for hours on a painting and begin to fret and agonize that it was not as good as he felt it should be. Just before he was ready to tear it to shreds, Dorothea would snatch it up and put it away. The attic was filled with his unfinished sketches.

The bills continued to pile up and the commissions continued to dwindle. Dorothea looked for other ways to turn their talents into food on the table. She hit upon the idea of doing ceramic babies. She could create them in little shirts and gowns such as the company wanted, and they would use photographs of her ceramic babies as the advertisements. She took some lessons and bought a kiln and she and Chuck began producing ceramic pieces. This idea turned out to be impractical. It took much too long to create her ceramic masterpieces for them to be of any use.