Above: Political cartoon by Clifford Berryman depicting three supporters of the Neutrality Act, 1939; at right, Frank Sullivan at his favorite watering hole, the Worden Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. (nationalww2museum.org/digitalarchive.sspl.org)
In 1935 the American humorist Frank Sullivan introduced the “Cliche Expert” Mr. Arbuthnot to New Yorker readers, exploring a variety of bromides associated with everything from political campaigns to the legal system.
July 18, 1936 cover by Antonio Petruccelli.
For the July 18 issue Sullivan (1892–1976) called on Mr. Arbuthnot to explore the subject of war (Sullivan had some familiarity with the subject as a soldier in World War I). Below is the first of two excerpts from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War” (spot drawing by Susanne Suba):
A peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table, Sullivan wrote his first article for The New Yorker in 1925, and seven years later published his inaugural “Greetings, Friends!” Christmas poem (he would contribute forty-two of them, his last in 1974). He penned more than a dozen Mr. Arbuthnot stories from 1935 to 1952, and also introduced such characters as Aunt Sally Gallup, Martha Hepplethwaite, and the Forgotten Bach. An expert in comparative illusion, he is credited with this gem: “This is either a forgery or a damned clever original!”
Here is the second excerpt from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War”…
In a 1967 interview with The New York Times, Sullivan remarked that the war-divided country had lost its sense of humor. “But wars have never stopped humor,” he told Alden Whitman. Sullivan maintained that the world was more lighthearted in the 1920s and 30s, despite the horrors of World War I. “It was a time of beautiful nonsense,” he said.
SAGE OF SARATOGA was the nickname conferred upon Frank Sullivan, who preferred the simpler life in his hometown. Top left, the small clapboard house Sullivan shared with his sister in Saratoga Springs; at right, Sullivan reading the July 9, 1966 issue of The New Yorker; below, an Al Frueh illustration topped Sullivan’s annual “Greeting Friends!” message for the Dec. 26, 1936 issue. (algonquinroundtable.org/hillcountryobserver.com)
Here is the cover of the July 9, 1966 issue featured above; the painting is by Charles E Martin:
A final note: After his service in World War I, Sullivan moved to New York City and wrote for several newspapers including the New York World. After the World folded in 1931, Sullivan moved back to his hometown, Saratoga Springs, where he shared a small clapboard house with his older sister, Kate Sullivan. Of his preference for small town life, he wrote: “Once I visited New York for twenty years but I wouldn’t live there if you gave me Philadelphia. A small town is the place to live. I live in a small town 180 miles from New York and while I would not say it has New York beat by a mile I would put the distance at six furlongs.”
Called the “Ultimate Freelancer,” Sullivan wrote for The New Yorker for fifty years and also contributed to the New York Times sports section, the Saturday Evening Post, and Town & Country. His work is collected in more than a half-dozen books.
* * *
Hanging Around
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White noted the speed at which the Hindenburg made its Atlantic crossing, although the giant German airship had to hover over Lakehurst, N.J. for an extra hour to wait for customs officials to get out of bed. White also mentioned a “Dr. Eckener,” a reference to Zeppelin captain Hugo Eckener (see below), who was also manager of a German aircraft company that produced the ill-fated Hindenburg.
DOOMSDAY MACHINE…The Hindenburg flies above New York City in 1936—the airship made seventeen round trips across the Atlantic in 1936—its first and only full year of service—with ten trips to the United States. The Hindenburg would famously crash and burn while docking in Lakehurst, NJ on May 6, 1937. (zeppelin-museum.de)LOYAL TO AIRSHIPS, NOT GASBAGS…Airship innovator Hugo Eckener was apparently commanding the Hindenburg flight noted by E.B. White, but he was not on board when the giant airship crashed and burned the following May. A stickler for safety, Eckener was sidelined by the Nazi regime and replaced by Hitler loyalists. (Wikipedia)
White also commented on a recent evening at the movies “in the back country,” where a Clark Gable–Myrna Loy picture was playing in a makeshift theater outfitted with wooden benches.
RUSTIC RIVOLI…E.B. White found the silver screen a bit diluted in a “back country” theater, probably similar to the one pictured at left. He most likely took in the film Wife vs Secretary featuring Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. (facebook.com/MGM)
* * *
Komrade With Kamera
Humorist Leo C. Rosten contributed numerous short fiction stories to The New Yorker as well as several “A Reporter at Large” pieces between 1936 and 1939. He published “A Shot of Lenin’s Tomb” (classified as fiction) in the July 18 issue. Two brief excerpts:
THE SOUL OF WIT…Leo C. Rosten (1908–1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Fran Lebowitz once called Rosten “the Jewish James Thurber.” Above, Rosten circa 1940s and a foggy view of Lenin’s Tomb, undated. (forward.com/tass.com)
* * *
Crossing Over
Station wagons were first built in the 1910s as custom jobs—independent manufacturers would produce wooden bodies for the Model T chassis. These were considered “depot hacks” and commercial vehicles rather than family cars. But things changed in the 1930s as manufacturers saw their potential in the consumer market. Journalist George F.T. Ryall (pen name “Speed”), who wrote the “Motors” column for The New Yorker in the 1930s, looked in on the new automobiles that would foreshadow today’s crossovers.
IN THE FAMILY WAY…In the mid-1930s U.S. automakers began introducing a new kind of car—the station wagon. Pictured above are the 1936 Dodge Westchester Suburban (left) and the 1936 Chevrolet Carry-All Suburban. (Facebook.com/hemmings.com)
* * *
At the Movies
The 1929 play The Green Pastures, which portrayed Old Testament stories as seen through the eyes of a young Black child, was written by playwright Marc Connelly, one of founding members of the Algonquin Round Table. The play was based on Roark Bradford’s popular 1928 story collection Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun (strongly criticized over the years for its patronizing and demeaning portrayals of Black characters). Connelly, who won a Pulitzer for the play, also directed its screen adaptation, one of just six feature films in the Hollywood Studio era to feature an all-Black cast. Critic John Mosher gave the film, along two other releases, an unenthusiastic review.
HEAVEN CAN WAIT…Clockwise from top: Oscar Polk (left) as the Angel Gabriel with “De Lawd” (Rex Ingram) in The Green Pastures—the film was a commercial success despite criticisms about its racial stereotyping; Robert Young, Gene Raymond and Barbara Stanwyck in The Bride Walks Out; Dorothy Gish and Charles Laughton in Wanted Men, originally released as the 1930 British crime film Wolves. (cinemafaith.com/imdb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
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…on to our cartoonists, we begin with some heavy lifting from Garrett Price…
…Richard Taylor sketched up these merry illustrations for a Morris Bishop ditty…
…Alain engaged in some market research…
…and channelled a bit of Barbara Shermund humor…
…Dorothy McKay explored the sad world of phonies and cheapskates…
…Alan Dunn gave us a dutiful doorman…
…and Dunn again, contemplating a hefty tome…
…Helen Hokinson continued her exploration of department store drama…
…as well as the world of foreign affairs…
…Syd Hoff sounded the alarm on some burning cutlets…
…and we close with the master of dark humor, Charles Addams…
Above: Introduced by the American Tobacco Company in 1917, the iconic slogan "It's Toasted" became the cornerstone of Lucky Strike marketing in the 1930s. The company claimed their heat-curing method (as opposed to sun-drying) removed tobacco's "corrosive acids." This 1933 Lucky Strike advertisement was illustrated by Hayden Hayden. (wash.edu)
In May 1936 the Advertising Federation of America (AFA) celebrated the 25th anniversary of its “truth in advertising” movement, highlighting the work of vigilance committees that encouraged advertisers to avoid government intervention through self-regulation. As one can imagine, such voluntary efforts were largely ignored.
July 11, 1936 cover by William Steig.
The celebration was short-lived, for later that year the Food and Drug Administration’s Ruth Lamb, published American Chamber of Horrors: The Truth About Food and Drugs. Lamb, who was head of public relations for the FDA, based her publication on a FDA traveling exhibit that exposed dangerous, poisonous, and deceptively marketed cosmetics, foods, medicine, and medical treatments. Lamb played an important role in advising Congress on new regulations that culminated in the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938, which expanded the Federal Trade Commission’s unfair competition mandate to include consumer protections from “unfair or deceptive acts or practice.” That same year, Congress also passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, requiring pre-market safety testing and prohibiting false therapeutic claims.
BLISTERS INSTEAD OF BEAUTY…In 1933 the makers of Lash Lure mascara promised women a permanently made-up look using aniline dye on eyelashes. Tragically, Lash Lure contained p-phenylenediamine, which caused horrific blisters, abscesses and ulcers on the face, eyelids and eyes of Lash Lure users. It even led to blindness in some women. (livingnewdeal.org)
Apparently Lamb hadn’t yet published her American Chamber of Horrors when E.B. White filed his July 11 “Notes and Comment.” He did, however, pen this satirical take on the AFA’s sanctimonious commitment to the “truth.”
…Otto Soglow provided this apt illustration along the bottom of White’s “Notes” column…
HORROR SHOW…The FDA’s Ruth Lamb displays some of the worthless and harmful products in her “Chamber of Horrors.” Lamb was instrumental in advising Congress on new drug and food legislation. (Wikipedia)BUYER BEWARE…Clockwise, from top left: In the 1930s Othine promised to remove brown spots and lighten skin; the active ingredient was mercury; Bred-Spred was a line of beautifully colored “jellies” that did not contain the industry standard of 50 percent fruit/juice to qualify as jelly. Indeed, they had no fruit or juice at all—just artificial colors and flavors, and in the case of the “strawberry flavor” pictured above, a few hayseeds were added to simulate strawberry seeds; a circa 1930 ad claiming substantial weight loss simply by listening to a record. (fda.gov/brandingstrategyinsider.com)
Quackery was not confined to the smaller companies. Big Tobacco made outlandish claims regarding the health benefits of smoking…
BIG MONEY from tobacco companies financed these splashy ads from the 1930s, including, from left, Lucky Strike’s weight-loss claims; Philip Morris asserted they used a different type of moistening agent that also prevented throat irritation—these ads were aimed at easing smoker anxiety about deep inhaling; R.J. Reynolds claimed their Camels did everything from aiding digestion to easing one’s nerves. Many of the ads featured famous athletes claiming they could smoke all they wanted and still perform at their peak. (Stanford.edu)
* * *
A Quiet Place
E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) revealed a hallowed spot in the city where he could gather his thoughts on hot summer mornings…
REFUGE FROM THE HEAT AND DIN…This apartment building’s courtyard at 277 Park Avenue offered E.B. White a place to ponder on a summer day. Built in 1905 and designed by McKim, Mead and White, the apartments were demolished in 1964 and replaced with a glass tower. (mcny.org)
* * *
On Your Mark
“The Talk of the Town” visited the new Randalls Island Stadium (later renamed Downing Stadium). Built with WPA funding, the stadium hosted the Men’s Olympic Track and Field Trials where Jesse Owens qualified for the Berlin Summer Games.
READY TO RUN…Aerial photo of the new Randalls Island Stadium taken on July 10, 1936, the day before the Olympic trials; at right, Jesse Owens at the stadium’s Olympic tryouts—Owens dominated the competition by winning the 100-yard dash, the 220-yard run, and the broad jump. He would go on to win four gold medals at the Berlin Games. (Associated Press/randallsisland.org)
* * *
Ach Du Lieber
In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker offered his thoughts on the state of higher education in Nazi Germany:
* * *
Haggard and Debonair
Margaret Case Harriman profiled talent agent and theatrical producer Leland Hayward (1902–1971), a kid from Nebraska City, Nebraska who would become a renowned playboy (married five times) and agent to scores of Hollywood actors. He would also produce the original Broadway stage productions of South Pacific and The Sound of Music. Excerpts:
ALL SMILES…at left, Katharine Hepburn with agent/boyfriend Leland Hayward arriving at director George Cukor’s home, circa 1936; Hayward with wife number three Margaret Sullivan, circa 1940. (instagram.com/alchetron)
* * *
Juvie Justice
For the column “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Gamins”), Morris Markey looked in on the workings of the Children’s Court on East Twenty-second Street. Beginning with the sixth paragraph is an example of how teen pregnancies were addressed in New York ninety years ago. Excerpts:
Markey examined the possible outcomes of unwed mothers and fathers, and concluded that the Children’s Court was a realistic and kindly way to deal with these issues as well as a range of juvenile offenses. History seems to be on Markey’s side; for its time, the Children’s Court offered a progressive approach that kept minors from the horrors of the prison system.
STILL STANDING…The Children’s Court building on East Twenty-second Street was visited by Morris Markey for his column. Today it serves as Newman Hall for CUNY’s Baruch College. (J.C. Rice via nypost.com)JUST SOME KIDS HANGING OUT…Arnold Eagle’s Federal Art Project photo, “Boys Climbing the Fire Escape of a Deserted Building,” 1935. (mcny.org)
* * *
Some Lawn Tennis
American journalist and sports radio personality Cedric E. Adams (known as “Ced,” hence the initials below) occasionally provided tennis commentary for The New Yorker. Here he takes in Wimbledon, where he found the men’s matches dull and the women’s memorable.
THREE’S A CHARM…In 1936 Fred Perry won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon for the third year in a row, while Helen Jacobs’ “cool tactics” helped her capture the women’s title. (facebook.com/findagrave.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) was a rising star of the London stage when he moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Not making the breakthrough he had hoped for, he returned to London for stage and film work, including the 1935 film Moscow Nights, which was released in the U.S. in 1936 as I Stand Condemned. Critic John Mosher still wasn’t wowed by Olivier, but found the film better than average.
SPIES LIKE US…Laurence Olivier and Penelope Dudley-Ward in I Stand Condemned. Directed by Anthony Asquith, the film concerned a wounded officer who falls in love with his nurse. (rotten tomatoes.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “minor melodrama,” Forgotten Faces.
A GAMBLER AND A STRIPPER were portrayed by Herbert Marshall and Gertrude Michael in Forgotten Faces. (mubi.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Illustrator Jon Whitcomb sketched up this happy scene to promote this “Smart French Drink”…
…as noted in our lead story, cigarette manufacturers made all sorts of health claims connected to heavy smoking…
…now this was the way to travel…sadly the U.S. has largely abandoned reliable rail service…
…from the back of the book, enticements to escape the city into the countryside…
…another Dr. Seuss Flit ad, anticipating his 1954 bestseller Horton Hears a Who…
…on to our spots, we start with a summer stock-themed woodcut by Susan Willard Flint…
…escaping the heat with Christina Malman…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with caption-less entries by Constantin Alajalov…
…Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein…
…George Price…
…and Otto Soglow…
…Alan Dunn gave us a man seeking order in chaos…
…and Helen Hokinson gave us a woman turning chaos into order…
…another from Hokinson, anticipating a scene from The Music Man…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and a surprise announcement…
Above: Margaret Mitchell poses with her award-winning novel, c. 1938. Mitchell won the National Book Award for Fiction for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Gone With the Wind was the only novel she published in her lifetime. (britannica.com)
Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel Gone With the Wind and the 1939 film it inspired have both served as controversial reference points for cultural critics and scholars, particularly for the stereotypical and derogatory portrayals of African Americans in the 19th century South.
July 4, 1936 cover by Peter Arno.
Ninety years later the novel still proves divisive; it also remains one of America’s most-loved books. Worldwide, more than 30 million copies have been printed in the U.S. and abroad.
In 1936 the novel quickly rose to the top of fiction bestseller lists, and was generally well received by critics. Novelist and literary critic Louis Kronenberger (1904–1980), who sat in for Clifton Fadiman in The New Yorker’s book section, praised the novel for its “highfalutin absurdities,” calling it a “masterpiece of pure escapism.” Kronenberger wrote that Gone with the Wind provided “a kind of catharsis…of all the false sentiment and heady goo that even the austerest mind somehow accumulates and periodically needs to get rid of.” He correctly predicted that the novel would be “very feverishly discussed” once people found the time to read its thousand-plus pages. Excerpts:
GOO GONE…Clockwise, from top left: Reading Gone With the Wind will clear one’s “heady goo,” according to critic Louis Kronenberger; Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) seated before a selection of Gone With the Wind translations; an example of a German version of the novel—Gone With the Wind was translated into at least forty different languages with eight hundred unique international printings. (azquotes.com/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/georgiaencyclopedia.org)IT HAS HOW MANY PAGES?!…Clark Gable, who portrayed Rhett Butler in the 1939 film adaptation of Gone with the Wind, has a look at Margaret Mitchell’s doorstop of a book. Mitchell was not involved in the screenplay or film production. (yahoo.com)
* * *
Tweet From Tinseltown
Apparently actress Mary Astor was a New Yorker reader, having read an E.B. White “Notes” column that mentioned his stained-glass hummingbird feeders.
FOR THE BIRDS…A New Yorker column by E.B. White inspired actress Mary Astor to feed Hollywood’s hummingbirds. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Going, Going, Gone
A “Talk of the Town” piece co-written by A. J. Liebling and Russell Maloney tracked down what remained of the Central Park Casino, which had been demolished under the orders of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.
Moses hated former Mayor Jimmy Walker, and by association he hated Walker’s favorite haunt, the Central Park Casino. Despite pleas from preservationists to save the famous Art Deco supper club, which had been beautifully rebuilt by the late designerJoseph Urban, Moses moved as quickly as possible to demolish the building. Following a public auction, the iconic horseshoe-shaped bar and some interior fixtures were acquired by the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey and subsequently installed beside the park’s wave pool.
FROM GLITTER TO RUIN…Clockwise, from top left, the Central Park Casino on the evening of Sept.10, 1935; interior images of Joseph Urban’s elegant Art Deco designs; workers remove windows and interior fixtures as demolition commences in May 1936. (nycgovparks.com/centralpark.org/mcny.org)
* * *
Maddy Returns
It’s a shame that writer Maddy Vegtel is largely forgotten today. She wrote with great wit and verve, and was well known in the 1920s and 30s for her Vanity Fair profiles and for her articles about Holland, her native land. A contributor to The New Yorker from 1926 to 1956, she published this casual in July 4 issue.
* * *
Bad Men and Mad Men
The poet Ogden Nash shared his thoughts on the summer political convention season:
THE LORD’S ANOINTED…Ogden Nash (center) observed this belief in the political animal; at left and right, the Democratic and Republican nominees for president in 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alf Landon. (Wikimedia/poetryverse.com/Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
Critic John Mosher was on board for MGM’s musical-drama disaster film San Francisco, which told the story of a saloon keeper, a singer, and a priest caught up in 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
SHAKING IN THEIR BOOTS…Clockwise, from top left: MGM poster for San Francisco touts the first-time pairing of Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald in a film; scene from the film featuring, from left, Gable, Jack Holt, Spencer Tracy and MacDonald; the film included stunning effects, including an earthquake montage sequence that interspersed scenes of wreckage with the faces of terrified victims; Gable assesses the carnage in a scene from the film. (imdb.com/kittypackard.wordpress.com)
Mosher offered a tongue-cheek assessment of Shirley Temple’s appearance in her latest film, The Poor Little Rich Girl, noting that “There’s not the slightest indication of aging in Miss Temple.” The child star was just shy of eight years old when she filmed the picture. As for the The White Angel, Mosher found the Florence Nightingale biopic—with Kay Francis in the title role—”a little schoolbookish [and] quite on the dull side.”
THAT YOUTHFUL GLOW…Top photo: Critic John Mosher found Shirley Temple still able to “delight her tremendous public” in The Poor Little Rich Girl—she is seen here with co-stars Jack Haley and Alice Faye; Below: Kay Francis and Ian Hunter in The White Angel, a film about Florence Nightingale’s pioneering work as a nurse during the Crimean War. (tcm.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Sunscreen as we understand it today wasn’t available to New Yorkers in 1936, so they relied on zinc oxide and other mineral applications to avoid sunburns…however, Eugene Schueler, founder of L’Oréal, developed the first tanning oil with UV radiation-filtering properties in Europe in 1935 (active ingredient was benzyl salicylate), and later marketed it to the U.S. as Ambre Solaire…the brand is still sold today…
…Stage magazine continued to promote their 1911 throwback issue…
…the back cover belonged to Liggett & Myers, offering another romantic couple enjoying their Chesterfields…
…we open the cartoons with Richard Taylor, who felt the heat as summer took hold in the city…on July 4, 1936, the official high temperature in Central Park reached an unseasonably warm 93 degrees F (34 c), hitting 106 F (41C) five days later on July 9…that mark remains the city’s all-time absolute highest temperature…
…Otto Soglow’s spot art showed us how one well-heeled family escaped the hot city…
…while Susan Willard Flint offered a woodcut if a quiet cobbled street…
…Tom Holloway showed us how one posh kid delivered the Saturday Evening Post (Holloway was a cartoonist for the Post, contributing just two drawings to The New Yorker, both in 1936)…
…the woman’s expression says it all in this Helen Hokinson cartoon…
…George Price gave us a saleswoman who saw one two many pool floats…
…Gardner Rea drew up a vast estate for a man who (almost) had it all…
…Fritz Wilkinson did some deep sea swan diving…
…Gilbert Bundy found a clue at the gentleman’s club…
…Mary Petty went all out for the Fourth of July…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and the miracle of birth…
Above: Rochelle Hudson and W.C. Fields in scene from Poppy. Fields reprised his vaudeville character Professor McGargle (from the hit 1923 stage revue of the same name), who learns about a million-dollar inheritance meant for a long-lost local heiress and concocts a plan to pass off his daughter, Poppy, as the true heiress. (Facebook.com)
Eighty years after his death W.C. Fields is still recognized as one of the America’s great comic geniuses. When he made a sound film version of his hit Broadway play, Poppy, in 1936, many thought it would be his last, since he suffered from a variety of ailments including a bad back and chronic lung congestion. Doubtless two quarts of liquor a day also had a few people wondering.
June 27, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
It would have been an appropriate, if premature ending to Field’s career, since it was the Poppy stage play that launched him into national stardom (along with the play’s first adaptation into film, the 1925 silent Sally of the Sawdust). The play and the silent film introduced audiences to the lovable snake oil salesman “Professor” Eustace McGargle, who returned in the 1936 film, “a slightly blurred affair” according to critic John Mosher.
THE PROFESSOR RETURNS…Clockwise, from top left: W.C. Fields and Carole Dempster in 1925’s Sally of the Sawdust, which was based on the stage play Poppy and was directed by D.W. Griffith; Fields as Professor Eustace McGargle and Rochelle Hudson as Poppy in 1936’s Poppy; Fields and Catherine Doucet, who portrayed Countess Maggi Tubbs DePuizzi.(filmforum.org/doctormacro.com/facebook.com)
The “blurred” performance by Fields (1880–1946), the result of his various ills, didn’t seem to affect most critics—the New York Times, for example, called the film “a glorious victory.” Remarkably, Fields would live another ten years and go on to star in such classics as 1940’s My Little Chickadee, (with Mae West), 1940’s The Bank Dick, and 1941’s Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.
HELLO FRIENDS…W.C. Fields chats with his close friend and Poppy director Eddie Sutherland, who was accompanied by writer Dorothy Parker during a visit to the set of Poppy. (Facebook.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “sad” picture about the tragic life of a Tyrolean sexton, Sins of Man, and the musical comedy Dancing Pirate, which he deemed even sadder because it was so terrible (Mosher walked out during the middle of the picture).
FROM BELLS TO THE BOWERY…Jean Hersholt played a Tyrolian sexton with an American dream that goes awry in Sins of Man. (eBay.com)SEEING RED…Not even Technicolor could spare Dancing Pirate from John Mosher’s wrath. At left, Steffi Duna and Charles Collins in a dance scene; eighteen-year-old Rita Hayworth (right) appeared as an uncredited dancer in the film—here she poses in a publicity photo for 1936’s Human Cargos.(mediaplaynews.com/facebook.com)
* * *
All Aboard
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White described a trip on a Boston & Main streamliner that traveled along a branch line. Lacking a turning loop, the train had to run in reverse for half of the round trip.
TWO-WAY TICKET…The Boston & Main streamlined Flying Yankee (seen here in 1938) would run both forward and backward when traveling along a branch line that lacked a turning loop. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Furies Al Fresco
On June 17, 1936 Rockefeller Center opened the Promenade Café in the plaza surrounding the Prometheus Fountain (later that year a temporary ice skating rink took the spot, now a permanent, iconic feature of the plaza). Writing for “The Talk of the Town,” E.B. White commented on the breezy dining experience he shared with wife, Katharine Sergeant White. Excerpt:
FIRE AND ICE…Patrons enjoy dining with the god of fire in the plaza beneath 30 Rock, circa 1970. The plaza is converted to an ice skating rink in the winter. (eBay.com)
The magazine’s next issue (July 4) advertised dinner, dancing and thirty-five cent cocktails at the Promenade Café…
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We open with a June Bride and hubby tanking up on some leaded gas before heading to Niagara Falls…
…opposite the Ethyl ad was this Simeon Braguin-illustrated spot for Bergdorf…
…the pacifists behind the World Peaceways ads pulled no punches when delivering their anti-war message…
…Budweiser continued its laborious series of ads that employed analogies and metaphors to promote its best-selling suds…
…recall the ad from the April 18 issue of The New Yorker, when the brewer used this disagreeable analogy to tout its “vacuum-cleansing” process…
…the Revere Copper and Brass company responded to the recent invention of canned beer with an invention of its own…the Tapster, an elegant nickel and brass pitcher with a built-in punch on the underside of the lid…just insert a can, push down on the lid, and pour…great for the yacht, or as a gift to some newlyweds…
The nickel-silver and brass “Tapster” is highly sought by collectors today. (americanhistory.si.edu)
…in contrast to Budweiser’s wordy ads (or to White Rock’s colorful ones), the folks at Hoffman advertised their products with just a few lines of black ink…
…Don Dickerman continued to promote his latest “Pirates Den” near Port Chester…note that among many other talents, Dickerman was also an artist…he illustrated the ads for all of his enterprises, including this one…
…John Hanrahan, publisher and editor of Stage theater magazine (and who also helped put The New Yorker on solid financial footing), set aside the August 1936 issue as a special edition, the “1911 Number,” a nostalgic, tongue-in-cheek look back to the founding of Stage’s predecessor, The Theatre Guild Magazine. The magazine marked its 25th anniversary by examining the striking differences between 1911 and 1936 in the world of theater as well as in fashion and cultural mores.
…here is the cover of that issue, featuring Billie Burke, a leading Broadway actress who would marry producer and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr in 1914…she is still known today for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz…
(eBay.com)
…and Dr. Seuss was still at it, finding new and clever ways to deploy the insecticide Flit…
…the New York radio station WOR employed Otto Soglow to drum up some business for their ad department…WOR began broadcasting in early 1922, and is one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the U.S. (the three–letter call sign is characteristic of stations dating from the 1920s)…
…Soglow gives us a nice segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, beginning with a Susan Willard Flint woodcut…
…Alan Dunn contributed this spot drawing…
…as did Richard Taylor…
…Perry Barlow offered some sketches from the summer convention scene…
…Helen Hokinson considered the value of fortune-teller…
…Alain illustrated what dreams are made of, at least for one man…
…and what are friends for? Gardner Rea had an idea…
…Barbara Shermund offered a challenge at a dress shop…
…and Shermund again, with an enterprising commuter…
…just the facts ma’am, with Peter Arno in the court of law…
…Robert Day presented a construction conundrum…
…Rea Irvin took a child’s perspective of the wild world…
Above: Rudolf Persson's rendering of the main entrance to the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, designed by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund. The exhibition was a landmark event that introduced Functionalism to Swedish architecture and design.(Svensk Form)
Architecture critic Lewis Mumford turned his exacting eye on exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art that looked to the future of building design. Of particular interest was an exhibit on those world expositions that have given us everything from theEiffel Tower (1889 Exposition Universelle) to the car-dominated landscape that inspired millions of Depression-weary visitors at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair.
June 20, 1936 cover by Adolph K. Kronengold. Kronengold (1900–1986) created twenty-three covers for the New Yorker from 1928 to 1947. Born and raised in New Orleans, he frequently used watercolors and often painted scenes honoring his hometown. The June 20 cover was Kronengold’s seventeenth for the magazine.
Mumford made passing mention to the museum’s exhibit on government housing (he noted it was below MoMA’s standard) and then turned his attention to a review of world’s fairs, examining how they have inspired both waves of architectural achievement and “counterfeits of civic grandeur…”
BREAK FROM THE PAST…Images from the covers of MoMA’s exhibition catalogs depict the 1934-35 Carl Mackley Houses in Philadelphia (top, from the government housing exhibit) and the 1930 Stockholm Exposition. (MoMA.org)STILL SERVING…the 1934-35 Carl Mackley Houses in Philadelphia have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. (Wikipedia)PONDERING what a modern exhibition should be, Lewis Mumford cited the granddaddy of them, the London Exhibition of 1851 (top), with its Crystal Palace, which he called “the first definitive monument of modern architecture,” as definitive and challenging as the Pavillon L’Esprit Nouveau (bottom), designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret for the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. (devonandexeterinstitution.org/Wikipedia)SHAM AESTHETIC…Mumford referred to buildings in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (left) as “laborious limestone counterfeits of civic grandeur,” while praising the 1893 and 1900 Paris expositions for design innovations including the Art Nouveau style—at right is Le Pavillon Bleu, a lavish restaurant once located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It was built by French architect René Dulong in collaboration with Belgian architect and designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. (getzen.com/messynessychic.com)
Looking ahead to the planned 1939 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows, Mumford believed the age of grand world expositions had passed, especially those that moved the needle on design innovation. Moreover, he observed that the lack of real drama or rational purpose would threaten bankruptcy to future fairs, a symptom especially acute in America: “…a hasty transfer of attention from the agents of production to the organs of reproduction; a bevy of naked hussies remind the spectator that there are other wonders in Nature besides the harnessing of Niagara Falls, or the five-millionth Ford car.”
POINTING TO THE FUTURE..Rosalie Fairbanks, a guide to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, points to the theme of the exposition—the Trylon and Perisphere—after the entire sheath of scaffolding was removed for the first time on February 22, 1939. (Associated Press)
Earth-movers were already at work sculpting the fair’s site from the swampland and ash heaps along the Flushing River when Mumford assembled a self-anointed advisory group in 1936. This group— the “Fair of the Future Committee”—urged the fair’s leaders to abandon superficial commercialism and instead demonstrate how technology could serve the public good and restore ecological balance in American communities. That did not come to pass; when the fair opened in 1939, Mumford wrote in his “Sky Line” column (titled “Genuine Bootleg”) that the committee’s “hopes and proposals for a major contribution to urban design were progressively defeated. Today their wreckage is strewed about the Fair, so thoroughly smashed and disfigured that their own fathers could scarcely identify the corpses.”
FUTURAMA was a popular exhibit and ride at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the General Motors pavilion, it proposed a sprawling car-based future that was the antitheses of Lewis Mumford’s vision of human-scaled, ecologically balanced development. (Wikipedia)
Mumford got one thing right. Although the 1939 fair attracted more than 45 million visitors, it lost a lot of money, recouping only 32 percent of its original cost.
* * *
Only a Memory
In “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White recalled the brief life of “America’s Little House” at 39th and Park in the Murray Hill neighborhood. The eight-room Georgian colonial was built in 1934 during the “Better Homes in America” campaign that promoted single-family home ownership as well as design innovations. The CBS radio network (which contributed $50,000 to the project) installed a studio in the house’s garage, from which it broadcast three national radio programs to a hundred stations across the country.
Open for about a year, the house was demolished in November 1935, its doors and interior furnishings sold to hostesses who had worked at the house. In its place William Van Alen—architect of the Chrysler Building—erected the all-steel “House of the Modern Age.”
CHANGE OF SCENE…At left, America’s Little House on Park Avenue and 39th Street, replaced by William Van Alen’s prefabricated steel house (right), “The House of the Modern Age,” detail from a photo by Berenice Abbott. (Wikipedia/cornell.edu)
…in the following week’s issue of The New Yorker, June 27, a back of the book ad from the Modernage Furniture Corporation touted the opening of “The House of the Modern Age”…
* * *
Fan Fans
Staying on the domestic scene, here is an excerpt from Barbara Blake’s “About the House” column, where she updated readers on the latest in electric fans (air-conditioning in private homes was still a rarity).
ELECTRIC WIND…Barbara Blake highlighted the latest in electric fans including, clockwise from top left, the Airflow Safefan, which moved air with looped ribbons; the Samson Safeflex employed rubber blades as a safety feature; the noted designer Robert Heller produced these fan designs (1936 and 1937) modeled on airplane propellers. (worthpoint.com/ebay.com/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
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Billy’s Beef
In 1899 vaudevillian Billy Watson (aka Isaac Levie) formed his Beef Trust burlesque troupe of plus-sized women. Although his shows starred women in the 200-pound range, he also relied on slight-of-hand provided by the “Tights King” Morris Kohan, who apparently could produce tights that could make a person look either heavier or slimmer. “The Talk of the Town” explains in this excerpt:
WHERE’S THE BEEF?…Billy Watson’s burlesque troupe of plus-sized women—the Beef Trust— padded their profiles with the aid of specially designed tights. (Facebook.com)
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Divine Dilemma
In Part Two of Father Divine’s profile, St. Clair McKelway and A.J. Liebling recounted the preacher’s 1931 arrest, prompted by ongoing complaints from the citizens of Sayville, New York about the traffic jams caused by Divine’s daily feasts as well as the noise generated by the faithful who would holler hallelujahs late into the evening. During one of these late night revivals police raided Divine’s property and fined each of the seventy-eight followers a few dollars apiece. Divine, however, insisted on a jury trial, which was held seven months later. The charge: Maintaining a public nuisance.
Jurors convicted Divine, with a request for leniency, but Justice Lewis Smith sentenced the preacher to a year in prison, calling him a “menace to society.” However, four days later the judge dropped dead of a heart attack, and Divine was freed. The notion that the judge’s death was divine retribution was naturally perpetuated by the media. A brief excerpt, with illustration by Abe Birnbaum.
GET OUT OF JAIL CARD…In 1931 Father Divine was arrested for maintaining a public nuisance. Following a jury trial and conviction, the presiding judge dropped dead, leading the preacher’s freedom a few days later. (facebook.com/nydailynews.com)
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At the Movies
The drama film Private Number was based on the 1915 play Common Clay, which had already been made as a silent in 1919 and as a sound film in 1930. The play had a somewhat scandalous theme for the time (a young servant is fired when she becomes pregnant by her employer’s son), but thanks to the Hays Code, the more scandalous parts of the earlier films were omitted in 1936’s Private Number, leaving the viewer with little except for some “old-fashioned hocus pocus,” according to critic John Mosher.
THE BUTLER DID IT…In Private Number,Basil Rathbone portrayed a tyrannical butler with a personal interest in one of his new maids (Loretta Young). She in turn secretly marries the scion of the family (Robert Taylor) and bears his child. Clockwise from top left: Poster for the film; Rathbone, Kane Richmond, and Young; Taylor, Young, and well-known canine actor Prince; rivals for a maid’s affection—Taylor and Rathbone. (Wikipedia/imdb.com/basilrathbone.net)
Thirty-nine-year-old Marion Davies appeared in one her final films, Hearts Divided, a musical based on the real-life marriage between American Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Although in real life Napoleon annulled the marriage, Hollywood gave the couple a happier ending.
THREE’S A CROWD…Napoleon (Claude Rains) comes between lovers Marion Davies and Dick Powell in Hearts Divided. The two also shared an off-screen romance behind the back of William Randolph Hearst, with whom Davies had a long-term relationship and to whom she believed she owed her career. (imdb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Illustrator R. John Holmgren drew up this non-partisan appeal for White Rock mineral water…
…Stage magazine touted its upcoming July issue, featuring the “Glamour Girls” of Hollywood…
…here is the cover of that July 1936 issue, illustrated by Abe Birnbaum, featuring caricatures of leading ladies including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Merle Oberon, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn…
(abebooks.com)
…longtime member of the New Yorker coterie and contributor Alexander Woollcott appeared in this full-page ad endorsing the work of the American Civil Liberties Union…
…from the 1920s to the 1940s the Powers Reproduction Corporation was a prominent, New York City photo-engraving firm that created high-quality color images for magazines and advertising agencies…
…these back of the book ads joined forces to promote the healing waters of Saratoga Springs and the Gideon Putnam hotel and spa…apparently the waters and other spa services treated everything from heart conditions to obesity…
…Dr. Seuss returned with another scenario for insecticide use…
…on the inside back cover, the distillers of Four Roses Whiskey conjured up a June bride as an apt metaphor for their blending techniques…
…while Lucky Strike reclaimed the back cover with an ad that promoted its low acid cigarettes, whatever that meant…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, we begin with Arnold Hall…
…and Robert Day…
…with other featured spots from John Groth…
…Richard Taylor…
…and Otto Soglow…
…James Thurber drew up an unusual development in the sheepfold…
…Barbara Shermund posed a challenge for a hair dresser…
…and Shermund again, revealing a tactic of the modern woman…
…Carl Rose commanded a two-page spread to tell his tale of sin and redemption…
…Ned Hilton needed a hand at the subway station…
…Mary Petty gave us a patient in need of a second opinion…
Above: Father Divine points to a Crum Elbow Estate sign (in Highland, NY) in July 1938. His followers purchased the 500-acre spread from anti-New Dealer Howland Spencer...the property was located directly across the Hudson from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Hyde Park family home. That same summer Father Divine would also buy a fifty-room double dwelling in New York City. These and other locations served as integrated "heavens" for his followers. (Wikimedia Commons)
America has long been fertile ground for various religious denominations, sects and cults. Although the U.S. Religion Census has cataloged more than 370 distinct religious groups and bodies in the U.S., there are tens of thousands of independents scattered across the country.
June 13, 1936 cover by Leonard Dove.
Some of these remain small, while others grow into megachurches often organized around a charismatic leader. Such was the case with Father Divine (1876–1965), aka Reverend Major Jealous Divine, aka George Baker.
His life as George Baker of Valdosta, Georgia came to an end in 1907 when he became known as “the Messenger.” He parted ways with the Baptist church, declared himself a god, and was asked to leave Georgia after his 1914 arrest for lunacy. He led his followers to Brooklyn and later to a commune in Sayville, New York (Long Island), where he founded the International Peace Mission movement and came to be known as Father Divine. By the early 1930s his small and predominantly black congregation had grown into a multiracial and international church.
So intriguing was his story that The New Yorker published a lengthy, three-part profile written by St. Clair McKelway and A.J. Liebling. Here are excerpts from Part One (illustration by William Cotton):
A DEFT DUO…A.J. Liebling (left) and St. Clair McKelway, both acclaimed journalists, co-authored the three-part profile of Father Divine. Liebling (1904–1963) was closely associated with The New Yorker, joining the magazine in 1935 (he was also a well-known gastronome); McKelway (1905–1980) served as The New Yorker’s managing editor for journalistic contributions from 1936 to 1939 and wrote for the magazine for forty-seven years. (Wikipedia/sfgate.com)DIVINE’S PATH…Clockwise, from top left: After relocating to Brooklyn in 1914, Father Divine married his first wife, Peninniah—they are shown here admiring his portrait; Father Divine led large gatherings centered on food—here he entertains guests at a summer retreat in upstate New York in 1938; following the death of Peninniah, the 70-year-old Father Divine married 21-year-old Edna Ritchings in 1946—she took the name “Mother Divine, with Father Divine claiming she was the reincarnation of Penninah; in 1953 Father Divine was given a hilltop estate (“Woodmont”) in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, by follower John Devoute. The estate is the center of the International Peace Mission movement, a shrine to Father Divine’s life, and a meeting place for the few remaining followers. (thecityroot.com/Newark Public Library/hsmcpa.org/Wikipedia)
How did Father Divine come to believe he was a god? This excerpt offers some insights into his early development:
One of the perils of this kind of thinking is that it can lead to the formation of dangerous cults. Jim Jones, the notorious leader of the Peoples Temple, heavily modeled his early church activities and authoritarian structure on Father Divine’s example. Jones even attempted to take over the International Peace Mission after Father Divine’s death—in 1971 he tried to convert the Peace Mission’s followers, claiming he was the reincarnated Father Divine. His takeover attempt was thwarted by Mother Divine, who went to the media and publicly denounced Jones and the Peoples Temple. In 1974 Jones and his followers would relocate to a Guyana commune he called Jonestown. Four years later Jones would lead the mass murder-suicide of 909 Jonestown inhabitants.
AT ODDS…Jim Jones (left, circa 1970) attempted to take over the International Peace Mission after Father Divine’s death, but was publicly denounced by Mother Divine. At right, Mother Divine giving her first interview following the death of Father Divine in 1965. (Wikipedia/temple.edu)
* * *
At the Movies
The media has always thrived on crime stories, feeding the public’s insatiable desire to be tantalized; once sated, they often demand swift justice. Take the heavily publicized 1933 case of two San Jose, California men who were accused of kidnapping and murdering a department store heir. Rather than wait for justice to be served, an angry mob broke into the jail and lynched the accused. Fascinated by the story, MGM screenwriter Norman Krasna pitched it as a potential film.
That film would become Fury, German director Fritz Lang’s first American project. Prior to fleeing the Third Reich in 1933, Lang was perhaps best known to Americans for his pioneering 1927 silent sci-fi film Metropolis and the 1931 thriller M. Lang sought to demonstrate how a decent and civilized man could become filled with vengeance and hate. Although critic John Mosher could see how the film had been tampered with by studio execs (and the Hays Code), he was nevertheless impressed by Lang’s direction and by the performances of lead actors Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy.
WRONG TURN…Clockwise, from top left: In Fury,Spencer Tracy played gas station owner Joe Wilson, who drives west to reunite with his fiancée—the dog seated to his right is Terry, the same Cairn Terrier who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz; while camping outside a small town, Joe is arrested by a creepy local deputy (Walter Brennan) on suspicion of kidnapping a child; a mob forms and tries to burn Joe in his cell; in the confusion of the fire he escapes and seeks vengeance on the mob, but in the end finds peace with his fiancée (Sylvia Sidney). (imdb.com)
Peter Lorre, who was famously directed by Fritz Lang in the 1931 German thriller M, was starring in Alfred Hitchcock’sSecret Agent, which also featured John Gielgud (already famous as a London stage performer), Madeline Carroll, and Robert Young.
SECRETS AND LIES…Clockwise from top left: Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, Madeline Carroll, and Robert Young in Secret Agent; Carroll with Young, who played a German mole; Carroll, Gielgud and Lorre amid the wreckage of a train; Lorre in a scene with Lilli Palmer. (imdb.com)
Mosher briefly mentioned a new Fred MacMurray/Carole Lombard comedy–mystery, and the return of two silent movie stars.
CHOOSE YOUR PARTNER…The second of four films Fred MacMurray made with Carole Lombard between 1935 and 1937, The Princess Comes Across featured Lombard doing a clever take-off on Greta Garbo; silent-film veterans Harry Carey and Hoot Gibson stood for the ideals of the Old West in a culture clash with scientific crime-fighting in The Last Outlaw. The film was a remake of a 1919 silent film originally written and directed by John Ford.(imdb.com/csfd.cz)
* * *
Beer Bottle Battle
E.B. White (in his “Notes and Comment”) seized on the battle between bottle and can manufacturers as an apt metaphor for the jousting of Republicans and Democrats ahead of the November elections.
FOAMING AT THE MOUTH…Competing ads from Collier’s magazine circa 1935-36 illustrate the battle between can and bottle manufacturers. Ninety years later, beer drinkers still debate the merits of glass over cans. (boakandbailey.com/ebay.com)
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From Our Advertisers
In 1936 whisky was still firmly in bottle form, and the makers of Canadian Club—through a series of ads—wanted to let us know you could enjoy their tipple almost anywhere in the world…
…this woman poses an interesting question, considering the fellas are riding atop a dusty stagecoach in the Arizona heat—in formal attire no less…
…over the years we’ve seen a lot of Adolph Teidler’s work for the Bermuda Board of Trade…Teidler (1886–1981) was also well known for his Saturday Evening Post covers…
…here’s an example of Teidler’s work for the Bermuda Board of Trade from the Feb. 22, 1936 issue of The New Yorker…
…the Zenith Radio Corporation touted their modern, streamlined “Zephyr” radio by industrial designer Robert Davol Budlong…
A restored Zenith 10-S-147 Zephyr chairside radio. (Pete Johnson–Zenith Radios Enthusiasts and Collectors via Facebook.com)
…Frank Quail Jr was a prominent automotive illustrator active from the 1920s through the 1930s. He was well-known for his work with luxury automobile brands such as Cadillac, LaSalle and Packard…here he conjures up a breezy seaside image for Cadillac’s more affordable LaSalle model (most of these ads were two-page spreads, with promo copy on the right-hand page)…
…and more Dr. Seuss on behalf of Flit insecticide…
…we begin the cartoon section with some spot art…here are two by Arnold Hall…
…and one from Richard Taylor…
…Alain referenced the upcoming heavyweight bout at Yankee Stadium between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis…their two fights in 1936 and 1938 were international sensations…
…more glimpses of “Holy Wedlock” from William Steig…
…a bit of trouble in Yonkers, per Carl Rose…
…George Price brought out the fire brigade for the Crêpes Suzette…
…Peter Arno drew up a colonel with a communication issue…
…William Crawford Galbraith celebrated the June bride…
…two by Mary Petty, at the dress shop…
and at the in-laws…
…Petty’s husband Alan Dunn feted the Class of ’36 (and ’06)…
…Perry Barlow illustrated a scoutmaster’s leadership skills…
Above: Former Prohibition agents Isidor "Izzy" Einstein (right) and Moe W. Smith meet at a New York City bar in 1935. Known for their clever disguises and unorthodox tactics, from 1920 to 1925 the duo confiscated roughly five million bottles of illicit liquor and arrested 4,932 people. (Wikipedia)
Legendary Americans come from all walks of life—sports stars, movie actors, political and business leaders—and they also come from unlikely places; take for example a pushcart peddler and a cigar store owner who became national celebrities for their exploits during the first years of Prohibition.
June 6, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Prohibition agents Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (1880–1938) and Moe W. Smith (1887–1960) were known for their clever disguises, but the author of their “Where Are They Now?” profile was also in disguise—the piece was written by James Thurber under the pseudonym Jared L. Manley.
Einstein was 40-year-old pushcart peddler and postal clerk when he applied for a job as an enforcement agent at forty dollars a week. Although the 5-foot-5, 225 pound Einstein wasn’t the agency’s “type,” he convinced the feds that there was an advantage to not looking the part (the Austrian-born Einstein also spoke six languages). After landing the job, he asked if his friend, cigar store owner Moe Smith, could join him, since “he doesn’t look like an agent, either.” Some brief excerpts from part one of “Where Are They Now?”
TRICKSTERS…Clockwise, from top left: Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (right) and Moe W. Smith; the pair sported hundreds of disguises (Einstein on the left); Einstein’s badge and his bestselling 1932 book Prohibition Agent No 1; Daily News clipping from September 1920 showing results of a raid—Izzy and Moe are at right and left. (history.com/Library of Congress/Wikipedia/goodreads.com/nydailynews.com)
In her 2012 article for Smithsonianmagazine (“Prohibition’s Premier Hooch Hounds”), Abbott Kahler notes that the agents were victims of their own success. “Superiors grew to resent their headlines, and other agents complained that their productivity made their own records look bad…In November 1925, Izzy and Moe were among 35 agents to be dropped from the force.” Both men went on to successful careers as insurance salesmen. Want to know more? Read Kahler’s excellent account of the duo at the Smithsonian magazine’s website.
TRIBUTE ON THE TUBE…In 1985 Art Carney and Jackie Gleason starred in CBS’s made-for-television film, Izzy & Moe, which was loosely based on the exploits of Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith. (imdb.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Two of the better films playing in Manhattan cinemas featured murders and matrons, the matrons played by Britain’s top female screen star, Madeleine Carroll, and America’s queen of screwball comedy, Jean Arthur. Critic John Mosher observed that their films were the only ones with any “life.”
TRADING GALLOWS FOR A GROOM…Top, Madeleine Carroll portrayed a “lady of privilege,” accused of murder, who falls in love with the prosecuting district attorney (George Brent) in The Case Against Mrs. Ames—Scotty Beckett played Carroll’s son; below, Jean Arthur and William Powell in the comedy-mystery The Ex-Mrs. Bradford.(imdb.com/mikestakeonthemovies.com)
Other films reviewed by Mosher were rated as “negligible” and “disappointing,” despite their talented casts…
TRAIN SPOTTING…Clockwise from top left: Esther Howard portrayed a “flirtatious dowager” who worked her charms on Jack Oakie (center) in Florida Special; Sally Eilers prepares to board the Florida Special with Dwight Frye and Claude Gillingwater; Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in Trouble for Two; Montgomery (left), Leonard Carey, and Frank Morgan in Trouble for Two. (pinterest.com/imdb.com)THE OLD PRINCESS IN DISGUISE TRICK…From left, Grace Moore, Eve Southern, and Franchot Tone in The King Steps Out. (IMDb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Last week Lois Long mentioned the return of famed Greenwich Village restaurateur and Sheridan Square funboy Don Dickerman. The June 6 issue featured two back-of-the-book ads placed by Dickerman that promoted his latest venture at Port Chester…this ad was on the bottom of page 75…
…and turning the page, you’d find this at the bottom of page 76…
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN…In 1916 Don Dickerman (1893–1981) opened a tearoom called the Pirate’s Cave at 133 Washington Place in Greenwich Village. The 6-foot-6 artist and entrepreneur was famous for his many themed establishments as well as for his eccentricities. Obsessed with pirate life, he dressed in full pirate gear in both public and private life. (facebook.com)
…Pacific Pottery was among firms in the 1930s marketing informal dinnerware featuring vibrant glazes and Art Deco streamline designs…
…you don’t hear much about the “June Bride” these days, but 1930s advertisers played up the tradition to sell everything from fashions to refrigerators…here the folks at Fisher made sure they connected their solid steel “Turret Top” to the safety of newlyweds…
…Stage magazine promoted its extensive coverage of “After-Dark” entertainments at home and abroad…
…the brewers of Pabst joined a handful of other beer companies promoting their product in newfangled cans…
…Dr. Seuss continued to find new gags to promote Flit insecticide…
…James Thurber kicked things off for the issue’s cartoonists…
…Charles Addams took in the sites along with some June brides at Niagara Falls (the barrel in the water reads “Just Married”)…
…W.P. Trent contributed this caption-less cartoon…
…Carl Rose continued to document the strange happenings of an election year…
…William Steig got superstitious…
…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” gave props to lemon meringue…
…and Hokinson again, and an unlikely claim at the salon…
…Alain presented an artist’s greatest challenge…
…Otto Soglow gave us an ideal sandwich board duo…
…Alan Dunn illustrated a “selfless” act…
…a moviegoer found a derivative moment at the cinema, per Whitney Darrow Jr…
…and we close with some idle chat, courtesy of Barbara Shermund…
Above: The RMS Queen Mary arriving at New York harbor accompanied by a flotilla of escorts on June 1, 1936. (liverpool.ac.uk)
The RMS Queen Mary was launched in the age of superliners that included the SS Bremen, the SS Île de France and the SS Normandie. These and other liners competed for the Blue Riband, an unofficial honor bestowed on Atlantic Ocean liners achieving the highest average speed. These ships also vied for the distinction of being the most luxurious.
May 30, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin, celebrating the arrival of the June bride.
The Queen Mary was a top contender for both honors when she departed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on May 27, 1936. London correspondent Samuel Jeake, Jr (aka American poet and novelist Conrad Aiken) paid a visit to the liner just days before her first Atlantic crossing. Excerpts:
BOAT AFLOAT…Clockwise, from top left, a Bentley automobile is brought aboard the Queen Mary before her maiden voyage; the liner departs from Southampton, May 27, 1936; first-class passengers dining during that first crossing; the Queen Mary arriving at the newly built Pier 90 in New York Harbor, June 1, 1936. The Queen Mary and the SS Normandie were speedy competitors for the Blue Riband in the 1930s. (RMS Queen Mary via Facebook/NYC Municipal Archives)SEEING STARS…Celebrities on the maiden voyage included John F. Kennedy and his father, Joseph P. Kennedy (top left), as well as actress Joan Crawford (right). Bob Hope, Mae West, and Noël Coward were also spotted aboard the maiden voyage.Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Dolores Del Rio (bottom left) were photographed on the liner’s second departure from Southhampton. (cruiselinehistory.com/RMS Queen Mary via Facebook)HOME AWAY FROM HOME…First-class accommodations on the Queen Mary included, clockwise from top left, the Main Lounge; the Queen Mary Suite; swimming pool; and Observation Bar. (RMS Queen Mary via Facebook)NOT BAD…Conrad Aiken called the liner’s second-class (Tourist class) sections “one of the best travel bargains in the world.” Photos at left show lounge areas, while at right is the ship’s Shopping Centre, open to all passengers. (RMS Queen Mary via Facebook)OUT TO PASTURE…The majority of the great superliners were either destroyed during World War II or scrapped after their service. However the RMS Queen Mary, after her retirement in 1967, was permanently moored at Long Beach, California as a hotel, museum, and convention space. During her years of service she crossed the Atlantic 1,001 times, carrying more than two million passengers. From 1939 to 1946 the liner also served the war effort, transporting more than 800,000 troops. (visitlongbeach.com)
* * *
Green Acres
It’s hard to believe that at one time Greenwich Village was home to trash-filled back yards and deteriorating tenements. Beginning in the 1920s, residents transformed these back yards into communal green oases. “The Talk of the Town” visited three that had “more or less grown together.” Spot art by Christina Malman. Excerpts:
URBAN OASIS…Undated photo shows the interior courtyard garden shared by twenty-one row houses of the Macdougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District in Greenwich Village. (nytimes.com)
* * *
Art for the People
Geoffrey Hellman penned a profile of social realist artist George Biddle (1885– 1973), who played a major role in establishing the WPA’s Federal Art Project and who created murals for government buildings in the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico. Excerpt:
SERVING THE PUBLIC GOOD…George Biddle at work on a fresco titled Society Freed through Justice, located in the fifth floor lobby of the Attorney General’s office in the Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C. (Wikipedia)AMERICAN IDEAL…Detail from Biddle’s fresco painting Society Freed Through Justice. (Library of Congress)
* * *
The Shoe Fits
Architecture critic Lewis Mumford was unimpressed with latest designs in commercial shops, however for “some mysterious reason” he was quite taken with various shoe stores in Midtown. Excerpts:
BRIGHT SPOTS…Lewis Mumford lauded the shoe company Thom McAn (top left) for its pioneering designs. Other notables included I. Miller & Sons (top right) on Fifth Avenue, and below, Florsheim Shoe on West 37th. (clickamericana.com)
* * *
A Pirate Sets Sail
In her “Tables for Two” column, Lois Long noted a few of the summertime getaways near the city including the Westchester Embassy Club. She also mentioned the re-emergence of Don Dickerman, famed for his series of gaudy themed restaurants in the West Village from the late 1910s to 1930. Among those was his famed Pirate’s Den, which was destroyed in a 1929 fire. With the stock market crash Dickerman (1893-1981) was forced to sell the location, and he declared bankruptcy in 1932. However by 1936 he was on his way back, opening a pirate-themed enterprise near Port Chester:
SUMMER DIVERSIONS…At top is a postcard image of the Westchester Embassy Club; below, Don Dickerman at his Los Angeles Pirates’ Den with his fifth wife, Thelma Mills Wunder (he had at least seven known wives). Originally a fixture of Greenwich Village, Dickerman emerged from his 1932 bankruptcy to open themed restaurants in Miami, Miami Beach, Port Chester, NY , Washington DC, and Hollywood. Bottom right, a matchbook cover from Dickerman’s revived Pirate’s Den at Port Chester, which was mentioned by Lois Long. (facebook.com/restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/ebay.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Under the strict moral guidelines of the Hays Code, gangster films of the Pre-Code era gave way to milder fare, much to the chagrin of film critic John Mosher.
KINDER, GENTLER GANGSTERS…Clockwise from top left, poster for Bullets or Ballots gave Edward G. Robinson top billing with Joan Blondell also prominently featured—Humphrey Bogart was a relative newcomer in the movies, seen here in a scene with Robinson in Bullets or Ballots; Robert Young and Betty Furness in The 3 Wise Guys; James Cagney and Loretta Young in the pre-Code film Taxi, which was released in 1932 but reissued in 1936 (SEE BELOW) to capitalize on Cagney’s new superstar status. The film also featured the famously misquoted line: “Come out and take it, you dirty yellow-bellied rat.” (imdb.com/tcm.com)
In the following week’s issue (June 6), Mosher noted that he’d forgotten about his previous review of the Cagney film Taxi in 1932:
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From Our Advertisers
Appropriately buried in the back pages of The New Yorker was this tiny ad promoting Don Dickerman’s new Pirates’ Den at Port Chester, referenced above in Lois Long’s “Tables for Two” column…
…the Cunard White Star Line took out this two-page spread to announce the launch of the Queen Mary…
…illustrators with European roots brought modern touches to fashion advertisements…the Ukrainian-born Simeon Braguin (1907–1997), who created the ad below for Bergdorf Goodman, emerged in the 1930s as a prominent fashion illustrator, ultimately becoming the Creative Director for Vogue…during that time (1940s) he supported the work of an unknown artist, Andy Warhol…
…the artist behind this next fashion illustration was the prominent French-Hungarian costume designer and illustrator Marcel Vertès (1895–1961)…
…the prolific illustrator R. John Holmgren (1897- 1963) worked for dozens of publications, and was well known for his White Rock ads in the 1930s and 40s…
…the folks at R.J. Reynolds were still pushing their digestion claims along with their cigarettes…here they demonstrated the appeal of Camels to both the working class and the classy…
…Brown & Williamson introduced a new cigarette to the market…Viceroy was the first brand to feature a cork-tipped filter…
…Liggett & Myers continued to run their somewhat old-fashioned ads with softly lit, romantic settings…illustrator McClelland Barclay (1891–1943) created this look to promote the company’s Chesterfield brand…
…Barclay’s work recalled similar imagery used in a controversial 1926 ad for Chesterfield that sought to break the taboo placed on women smokers…
…not so controversial was Susan Willard Flint, who opened the magazine along with…
…Otto Soglow…
…and Richard Taylor…
…we turn to the cartoons starting with Whitney Darrow Jr and a canoodling couple…
…Charles Addams found some formidable bowling opponents…
…and Addams again at the races…
…Alain showed us the harder edges of marital bliss…
…while William Steig was all sweetness and light…
…Peter Arno showed us some political intrigue…
…Alan Dunn offered a new twist in hat fashions…
…and we close with Denys Wortman, and a very posh lion…
Above: Pierre Lelong painting (circa 1950s) of the outdoor café at New York's Hotel St. Moritz (left); view of the St. Moritz and Café de la Paix, 1944.
After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, nightlife in Manhattan slowly picked up steam. By 1936 things were swinging, and although the club scene wasn’t as heady as the Roaring Twenties, there was still plenty to entice New Yorkers into the night air.
May 23, 1936 cover by Perry Barlow. The Texas-born Barlow (1892–1977) published 135 covers and 1,574 drawings in The New Yorker from 1926 to 1974. According to the late Lee Lorenz, Barlow’s drawings were elegant and deceptively casual, “delineating the absurdities and frustrations of the suburban middle class.” Barlow’s wife, Dorothy Hope Smith (also a successful artist) collaborated with her husband on many of his covers. Lorenz noted that “being partly color-blind, [Barlow] depended on his wife to provide the color for his drawings.”Before we get to our top story, here is a self portrait of Barlow featured in the April 26, 1941 issue of Colliers (via Mike Lynch Cartoons):
Lee Lorenz described Perry Barlow as a modest man: “Tall, lean, and soft-spoken, he seemed to many of his friends the image of the laconic Texan…(his) drawings remain fresh, and the generous and civilized sensibility behind them is a reminder of a quieter, kinder world.”
Now let’s enjoy a relaxing evening with the world’s greatest nightlife correspondent, Lois Long, who checked out the latest outdoor drinking and dining options in Manhattan. Excerpts:
AL FRESCO…Clockwise from top left: Whimsical illustration of the outdoor cafe at the Hotel St. Moritz by French Post-Impressionist painter Pierre Lelong, circa 1950s; view of St. Moritz Hotel and Cafe’ de la Paix, 1944 (in 1997 Donald Trump planned to gut the St. Moritz and cover it in glass; fortunately it was sold before that could happen); circa 1940s postcard depicting outdoor dining/dancing area at Tavern on the Green; dancing and drinks at Tavern on the Green, 1963. (scan by author/mcny.org/ephemeralnewyork.com/nytimes.com)
DANCING WITH THE STARS…Clockwise, from top left: The Waldorf’s Starlight Rooftop in the 1930s; Lois Long referred to the Waldorf’s multi-talented bandleader Orville Knapp as a “handsome dog”; actress Mary Taylor makes an entrance at the El Morocco in the 1930s; color image of the El Morocco’s Champagne Room, 1960. (notjustalabel.com/findagrave.com/facebook.com/life.com)
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Keeping the Flame
E.B. White began his column with a hopeful message regarding the power of truth in the face of Nazism:
OH SHUT UP…Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels giving a speech in Lustgarten, Berlin, August 1934. (Wikipedia)
…White also commented on some “unnerving” moments while encountering quadruplets and a Nazi dirigible…
SISTER ACT…At left, the Keys Sisters circa 1936—Leota, Mary, Mona, and Roberta—were a national sensation and America’s most famous set of quadruplets. They were the first quadruplets in history to graduate from college (Baylor 1937), and they traveled thousands of miles on “goodwill tours” to promote Baylor University and the Texas Centennial Exposition of 1936; at right, the Hindenburg looms in the night sky just minutes before it was destroyed while attempting to dock in Lakehurst, N.J. (baylor.edu/British Pathé)
…and one more from White, here musing about Lucky Luciano’s residence at the Waldorf (Penthouse 39C, where Luciano was registered as “Charles Ross”)…
WALDORF ROUND TABLE…Lucky Luciano (back, center) with associates at the Waldorf-Astoria, circa 1936. Luciano regularly entertained prominent mobsters like Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello at the hotel. (dc.lib.jjay.cuny.edu)
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Headline Acts
From 1935 to 1939, the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project gave work to more than 12,000 unemployed actors, directors, writers, designers, stagehands, and seamstresses while staging more than 1,200 productions across twenty-nine states. Although Wolcott Gibbs wasn’t too impressed with the project’s “Living Newspaper” performance, he deemed it worth seeing as the best thing on stage in the waning days of the theater season.
TOO SUCCESSFUL…As the director of the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project from 1935 to 1939, Hallie Flanagan (left) oversaw the hiring of thousands of unemployed theater workers and the production of nearly 64,000 theatrical performances. At right, a scene from a “Living Newspaper” performance in the 1930s. Despite its enormous success, the project was abruptly shut down by Congress on June 30, 1939, due to its progressive social commentary. (nara.gov/loc.gov)
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At the Movies
The romantic musical Showboat was a big hit with Broadway audiences after it premiered in 1927, but the play’s first film adaptation in 1929 fell flat; it was shot as a silent and then partially re-shot to incorporate sound dialogue and singing. Film critic John Mosher referred to that version as something “made awful on the screen,” and wanted his readers to know that the new 1936 adaptation had been “magnificently handled” by director James Whale (perhaps best remembered for 1931’s Frankenstein).
THE OLD MAN…Clockwise, from top left: the show boat Cotton Palace sets out on the Mississippi River to much fanfare in 1936’s Show Boat; Jeanette Dickson and Jimmy Jackson kick up their heels before the boat departs; Irene Dunne (right) and Helen Morgan in a dramatic scene; Paul Robeson performing his iconic rendition of “Ol’ Man River.” (collider.com/criterion.com/nystagereview.com)
Mosher also reviewed the musical It’s Love Again, finding the comedy “cumbersome,” filled with “very British stuff of the kind we don’t understand over here at all.” He also had little to say about And So They Were Married, expressing sympathy to actress Mary Astor as “the conspicuous victim of effort…”
NOT PLAYING DOCTOR…Folks of certain age will recognize Robert Young from the 1970s TV series Marcus Welby, M.D. Prior to that he appeared in more than one hundred films. Top photo, Athene Seyler, Robert Young, and Jessie Matthews in It’s Love Again; Below, Mary Astor and Melvyn Douglas with child actors Edith Fellows and Jackie Moran in And So They Were Married. (imdb.com)
And then there was Speed, Jimmy Stewart’s first leading role. Mosher couldn’t make sense of it, but the film did launch Stewart into bigger roles.
OUT OF GAS…Jimmy Stewart as race car driver Terry Martin in Speed.Wendy Barrie played the love interest Jane Mitchell, who was secretly the heiress Jane Emery. The film received tepid reviews, but it helped launch Stewart to stardom. (collider.com)
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From Our Advertisers
The folks at Hormel were back on the inside front cover with another tale from the annals of onion soup…
…and summer fashions once again dominated the opening pages of the magazine…
…Packard answered Cadillac’s pastoral ads with one of its own…
…while the distillers at Seagram’s wanted to reassure thirsty Americans that there was plenty of the hard stuff to go around…
…anticipating the season of the June bride, this ad helpfully suggested the Toastmaster toaster (and accessories) as the ideal gift for the newlywed…
…this ad for Stage magazine featured actress Lynn Fontanne as the mysterious countess Iréne in Idiot’s Delight…
…Fontanne’s play, along with several other stage and screen diversions, were advertised in the back of the book…
…pin-up artist George Petty drew up another odd couple for Old Gold cigarettes…
…While the makers of Lucky Strike cigarettes gave their smokes a homey appeal…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, we have spot art from Susan Willard Flint…
…and Christina Malman…
…and Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein (for the “Theatre” section)…
…this next bit of spot art has me confused…the signature appears to belong to Arthur Getz, yet the image suggests an early drawing by Ludwig Bemelmans…Getz and Bemelmans were contemporaries at the New Yorker, and both were prolific spot art contributors…
…the drawing seems to anticipate Bemelmans’ 1939 children’s book Madeline…
…Richard Taylor found inspiration on the Broadway stage…
…Peter Arno showed us a sugar daddy receiving an earful (via ear trumpet)…
…Carl Rose offered some Southern-style electioneering in this lively illustration…
…by contrast, James Thurber’s spare lines told us everything we needed to know about this couple…
…Ned Hilton spotted an outlier at an outdoor café...
…Alain again, here anticipating a big surprise…
…Helen Hokinson offered a helpful fashion tip…
…and we close with Mary Petty, and a motherly retort…
Above: Undated image (left) demonstrates the versatility of the Model T Ford. At right, E.B. White and Katharine Sergeant White take a spin in a Model T Roadster. (freep.com/whistlestoppers.com)
E.B. White often shared anachronistic views on progress, decrying everything from streamlined cars to fully-enclosed city buses that removed passengers from the open air.
May 16, 2026 cover by Leonard Dove. Note the star next to the date. On older New Yorker magazine covers, the star was a printer’s mark indicating a split run or a specific newsstand edition.
Instead, White celebrated the simplicity and mechanical quirks of earlier motor vehicles, including his beloved Ford Model T. For the May 16 issue White collaborated with journalist Richard Lee Strout on a homage to the old motorcar, “Farewell, My Lovely!” Strout’s contribution is important here, since it was he who originally submitted a manuscript to editor Harold Ross about the Model T. Either White rewrote Strout’s submission or used it as inspiration for “Farewell, My Lovely!” At any rate, that explains the blended byline, “Lee Strout White.” Here are some excerpts (spot art by Constantin Alajalov):
MIX AND MATCH…E.B. White’s famous Model T was a 1917 Roadster like the one pictured at top left. He purchased the car shortly after college and famously drove it across the country in 1922; at top right, the dash featured the ignition key and nothing else, however you could add such extras as radiator “Moto Wings” or a Ruby Safety Reflector. (volocars.com/ebay.com)KEEPING IT HUMMING…As E.B. White noted in his opening lines, you could buy an axle as well as a number of other parts for the Model T from the Sears catalog. Clockwise, from top left: Cover of the 1936 “Golden Jubilee” catalog; replacement parts featured in the catalog included new car tops and an array of replacement parts. (archive.org/babel.hathitrust.org)
Model T owners developed all sorts of hacks to keep their Lizzies running. White wrote that “Dropping a camphor ball into the gas tank was a popular expedient; it seemed to have a tonic effect on both man and machine.” He also noted that the Ford driver “flew blind,” given that on earlier models the dashboard was bare save for an ignition key. Those cars lacked speedometers, fuel gauges, as well as gauges for engine temperature and oil pressure. “Whatever the driver learned of his motor,” White wrote, “he learned not through instruments but through sudden developments.” He concluded his piece with some thoughts on the golden days of the automobile.
SHOWOFF…The Model T’s unique transmission and gravity-fed fuel system were key to the rugged car’s many stunts. In scaling Scotland’s Ben Nevis mountain, the driver often had to go backwards up inclines to maintain fuel flow. Above is a photo of a Model T climbing the stairs of the Tennessee State Capitol in 1911. (media.lincoln.com)
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Total Recall
E.B. White also filed a lengthy “Notes and Comment” comprised entirely of brief dispatches from around the country:
CIVILIZED SHOPPING…Tea time was observed every afternoon at Kress’s department store—images above are of the store’s ladies lounge; body builder and fitness magazine publisher Benarr Macfadden (seen here with President Franklin Roosevelt circa mid-1930s) said he had no plans to run for president; bottom left, a sale was in progress at the Rolls-Royce building on East 57th. (nypl.org/public domain/mcny.org)
Here are the rest of White’s notes on the passing scene:
LIMITATION OF STATUES…At left, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia presides over the dedication ceremonies of a Times Square statue honoring Father Francis Patrick Duffy, May 2, 1937—apparently some folks were opposed to a statue honoring the most decorated chaplain in Army history; at right, a Borden’s milkman making a delivery in New York City, 1936. (facebook.com/photo army.mil)
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Not Playing in Peoria
Jack Kirkland’s play Tobacco Road, based on the 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell, was one of the longest-running plays in theater history, with 3,182 performances from 1933 to 1941. Although banned in major cities such as Chicago and Detroit for being sensational and immoral (and panned by critics), it nevertheless saw huge success on Broadway and with its touring company. “The Talk of the Town” checked the status of the play at the Forrest Theatre, where it had exceeded the millionth ticket mark.
WORD GETS AROUND…Folks queue up in 1937 to see Tobacco Road at Omaha’s Paramount Theater. Despite being banned in many cities, the play ran until 1941. (Wikipedia)
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At the Movies
One Rainy Afternoon was the first of a small number of films from United Artists produced by its vice-president, Mary Pickford, through her Pickford-Lasky production company. In his opening lines critic John Mosher alluded to Pickford’s popular 1934 essay, Why Not Try God?
HONEST MISTAKE…Francis Lederer played a debonair actor who accidentally kisses young socialite Ida Lupino in a darkened theatre in One Rainy Afternoon. Hilarity and romance follow. Lederer (1899–2000) would enjoy a successful stage, film and television career while becoming wealthy as an L.A. real estate investor. Lupino (1918–1995) was an actress, director, writer, and producer, appearing in 59 films and directing eight. She is regarded as the most prominent woman filmmaker working during the Hollywood studio system of the 1950s. (Wikipedia)
Mosher also reviewed some “Good mid-May entertainment for honest idlers” and a documentary about the Dust Bowl.
MAY DIVERSIONS…Clockwise, from top left: Herbert Marshall and Gertrude Michael in Till We Meet Again; Margaret Sullavan and Henry Fonda in The Moon’s Our Home; Thomas Beck and Helen Wood in Champagne Charlie; a farmer looks to the sky in the Dust Bowl documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains. (csfd.cz,pinterest.com/imdb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
The makers of Campbell’s soups continued to market their product as an upscale starter for dinner…or perhaps a time-saver for the cook, Madam none the wiser…
…Cadillac continued to entice buyers with bucolic scenes dominated by their luxury sedans…the price isn’t outrageous, roughly equivalent to $40K today…
…we experience much of 1930s history in black and white, but according to this ad things were quite colorful…
…now a couple of ads with an eye on the clock…here we have a suggestion that Johnnie Walker can be enjoyed before dinner and up to bedtime…
…the brewers of Guinness suggested their tipple was suitable for lunchtime, before bed, or when one is “tired or depressed”…
…as we already know, R.J. Reynolds encouraged folks to smoke from morning to night, with the added benefit of improved digestion…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with a spot by Abe Birnbaum…
…and spots from frequent contributors Richard Taylor…
…and Christina Malman…
…and a spot drawing on the opening pages by James Thurber…
…who also contributed this cartoon to the issue…
…Thurber’s caption refers to journalist and radio broadcaster Dorothy Thompson. One of the few women radio news commentators of the 1930s, she was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934. In 1936 Thompson launched her “On the Record” column, syndicated nationwide by the New York Herald Tribune…
Dorothy Thompson in 1937. (Wikipedia)
…we continue our cartoons with Charles Addams (apologies for the quality) floating to earth…
…which recalled another Addams cartoon from the Aug 3, 1935 issue (caption reads “My wife crocheted it.”)…
…and Addams again, this time down to earth…
…Mary Petty looked in on the art world…
…William Crawford Galbraith continued to explore lives and loves of sugar daddies…
…Alain had folks deciphering the news crawler at Times Square…
…Helen Hokinson avoided temptation at the pet shop…
…and we close with Whitney Darrow Jr, and a bedtime story that would keep the sandman at bay…
A New Yorker State of Mind 