The story of 'Julie Gibson'

James E. Brewton. "Julie Gibson." n.d., oils on canvas.

With its nod to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Moulin Rouge: La Goulue poster, Jim Brewton's Julie Gibson portrays the aspiring actress performing her strip show, "Dance of the Bashful Bride." Gibson's burlesque act was often booked at a Philadelphia bar, The Wedge. The painting is one of two known homages to Toulouse-Lautrec by Brewton.

Jim's Julie Gibson was a commission that the owner displayed but didn't pay for; after Jim's death, friends of his repossessed the painting. Decades later, they donated it to the Brewton Foundation.

Thanks to a blog on ww2aircraft.net and to a few other sources, we learned that during the Cold War, the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) in Warminster was involved in developing passive-listening sonobuoys to detect quiet submarines.
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Some of the NADC men saw Gibson performing her "Dance of the Bashful Bride" at The Wedge. They made a pun that her act "made passive buoys go active", and named their project "Julie." Gibson added the slogan to her publicity photos.