Born in 1922 in a suburb of Chicago, Elliot apprenticed at the Stevens/Gross studio, where he had the opportunity to learn from Gil Elvgren, Joyce Ballantyne, Al Buell and Haddon Sundblom. Shortly after serving in the Navy in World War II, he was commissioned by Brown & Bigelow to create two sets of double card decks: Winning Aces and Hit the Deck bacame runaway best-sellers. In 1953, Elliot's work appeared on Brown & Bigelow's successful Ballyhoo Calendar, along with that of Esquire artists Al Moore, Ernest Chiriaka, Eddie Chan, and Ward Brackett. Millions of Americans saw his pin-ups on the covers of Hearst's Pictorial Weekly during the 1950s.