Above: Modeling agency founder John Robert Powers poses with participants of a fashion queen contest at the 1939 New York World's Fair. (NYPL)
John Robert Powers was a household name in the 1930s, founder of one of the world’s first modeling agencies—he supplied countless advertisers with mostly female models, some moving on to Hollywood careers.
April 21, 1934 cover by Abner Dean.
Writing for “A Reporter at Large” under the title “Perfect 36,” frequent New Yorker short story contributor Nancy Hale (1908 –1988) looked into the mysteries behind the fabled “John Powers Book” and its collection of sophisticated models.
TYPING BOOK…John Robert Powers (1892–1977) wrote a bestselling 1941 book, The Powers Girls, that told “the story of models and modeling and the natural steps by which attractive girls are created,” organizing various models by type; at right, a page from the book featuring Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Gibbons—despite her Alabama roots, she was described by Powers as being “The Urban Type.” (Wikipedia/lastyeargirl.blogspot.com)
Hale was given a tour by a company representative who described the types of women the Powers company represented, noting the successes of women who landed in major cigarette ads or went on to become Hollywood stars:
SMOKE AND MIRRORS…Clockwise, from top left: Powers model Janice Jarratt (in a 1934 publicity photo from her only film, Kid Millions), who for a time was known as the “Lucky Strike Girl” as well as the “most photographed woman in the world”; Jarratt offering a Lucky to a nervous young man in a 1935 ad; Powers model Ethelyn Holt in a publicity photo for the Billy Rose Theatre; Holt in a 1933 ad for Camel cigarettes. (MGM/NPR/NYPL/propadv.com)
A number of Hollywood stars got their start or were discovered through their work with Powers, who himself was a sometime actor and the subject of a 1943 musical comedy, The Powers Girl.
POWER STARS…Former Powers models turned Hollywood stars included, from left, Norma Shearer,Frederic March and Kay Francis. (TCM/TMDB)
A note about the author, Nancy Hale: A brilliant short story writer, Hale published her first short story in The New Yorker in 1929 (when she was just 21) and would publish more than eighty stories in the magazine through 1969—she holds the record for the most stories in the magazine in a single year, publishing twelve between July 1954 and July 1955. New Yorker editor William Maxwell regarded Hale’s writing technique as “flawless.”
PROLIFIC…Nancy Hale published more than a hundred short stories in her lifetime, ten of which were recipients of an O. Henry Prize. Writer Joanne O’Leary (London Review of Books) notes that Hale also worked for Vogue (where she “pinch-hit as a model”) and became the first female news reporter at the New York Times. Above left, Hale in an undated photo; at right, Hale photographed in 1936 for Harper’s Bazaar. (Nancy Hale Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College)
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Tat For Tat
Alva Johnston explored the world of “tattooed people” in his second installment of a three-part profile series titled “Sideshow People”…
MARKED FOR LIFE…Alva Johnston noted such celebrated tattooed ladies as Mae Vandermark (left, circa 1920s), and Lady Viola, pictured at right with tattoo artist Fred Clark, 1930s. (Vintage Everyday)INKSLINGER…Charlie Wagner, a tattoo artist who lived from 1875 to 1953, is considered one of the kings of American tattooing. Practicing his art in New York’s Bowery, he not only developed an influential art style; he invented new machinery that helped spread the art of modern tattooing. (nyctattooshop.com)
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Bloody Satisfying
Film critic John Mosher declared David O. Selznick’s production Viva Villa! to be “thoroughly satisfying”—with a screenplay by Ben Hecht and starring actor Wallace Beery as Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, the film was considered violent and bloody by 1934 standards.
REVOLUTIONARY…Clockwise, from top left, Pancho Villa (Wallace Beery) finds himself attracted to a benefactor’s sister (Fay Wray); MGM film poster; Beery with Katherine DeMille (who was Cecil B. DeMille’s adopted daughter) and Stuart Erwin; Beery striking a pose on the set of Viva Villa! (IMDB)
Mosher found some of the film’s violence to be startling. Being one the last Pre-Code films, censors would start clamping down on such scenes in the coming years.
MAKE SURE YOU GET MY GOOD SIDE…Pancho Villa (Wallace Beery) faces a firing squad before receiving a last-minute reprieve in Viva Villa! (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
MGM took out a full-page ad to tout the success of Viva Villa and other MGM “hits”…
…note the bottom left hand corner of the MGM ad—a cartoon by Otto Soglow promoting the upcoming film Hollywood Party, a star-studded comedy musical featuring Laurel & Hardy, Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez and Mickey Mouse…
…those looking for a different kind of entertainment could have been enticed by this lavish center-page spread from German ocean liner companies…they were inviting Americans to Oberammergau, Germany to witness the “only performances of the Passion Play until 1940″…the play was usually performed every ten years (years ending in the digit zero) but in 1934 a special performance was supported by the Nazi Party…incidentally, the 1940 play was cancelled due to World War II…
…the same German-American shipping companies also advertised an African cruise…with some racist imagery…
…perhaps you wanted to go to Europe on a ship with fewer Nazis on board…in that case you could grab a berth on a ship with the United States Lines, and hang out with these stiffs…
…the makers of Old Gold referenced a previous ad featuring Jimmy Durante with a new spot starring actor/comedian Eddie Cantor…both ads depicted impressionable young women admiring the smoking wisdom of older men…
…for reference, the creepy Durante ad…
…the famous “Call for Philip Morris” advertising campaign began during World War I, but in 1933 Johnny Roventini, a bellhop at the Hotel New Yorker, would become the living symbol of the cigarette brand…
…by contrast, Frankfort Distilleries showed us an image of man who would not represent them, namely Jed Clampett…
…Chevrolet continued its rebranding campaign, positioning itself as an affordable choice that was nevertheless favored by the posh set…
…who would rather be driving a Packard, here appealing to the nostalgic sensibilities of old-timers who had the means to afford one…
…on to our cartoons, and some “Small Fry” baseball from William Steig…
…an unusual captioned cartoon (from George Price) featured in the opening “Goings On About Town” section…
…Syd Hoff gave us an alarmed matron confronting the unthinkable…a doorman as a son-in-law…
…we haven’t seen Isadore Klein’s work in awhile—understandable, as he was busy in his career as an animator––in 1934 he worked on films for Van Beuren Studios (Rainbow Parade Cartoons) and in 1936 he would move to Disney’s Silly Symphonies…
…Paul Manship’sPrometheus at Rockefeller Center is iconic today, but when it was installed in 1934 it puzzled more than a few onlookers, including Robert Day…
…and we close with James Thurber, and a turn of events in his “war”…
Above: A scene from Mary Pickford’s 1922 film Tess of the Storm Country. (Library of Congress)
In today’s celebrity-saturated culture it is difficult to find a parallel to silent film star Mary Pickford, who was dubbed Queen of the Movies more than a century ago. Indeed, during the 1910s and 1920s Pickford was regarded as the most famous woman in the world.
April 7, 1934 cover by Rea Irvin.
Pickford was also known as “America’s Sweet” for her portrayal of gutsy but tenderhearted heroines. In real life she was also a gutsy and shrewd businesswoman who co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and director D. W. Griffith. Commanding a salary only rivaled by Chaplin, her stardom only grew when she married Fairbanks in 1920, forming the first celebrity supercouple; together they ruled Hollywood from their Beverly Hills mansion, Pickfair (apparently staging dull affairs, per the “Profile” excerpt below).
The end of the silent era also put an end to Pickford’s stardom, as well as to her fairytale marriage to Fairbanks. Margaret Case Harriman’s profile of Pickford, simply titled “Sweetheart,” gave readers a glimpse into the decline of a silent superstar. Excerpts:
SINGULAR STAR…Clockwise, from top left, Mary Pickford in a publicity photo, circa 1910; Pickford visits close friend and screenwriter Frances Marion during filming of Straight is the Way (1921); Douglas Fairbanks and Pickford in the early 1920s; Pickford with a movie camera in 1916—in addition to being a shrewd businesswoman, she was also skilled behind the camera. (thehollywoodtimes.today/Time/Library of Congress)
Harriman concluded her profile with some thoughts on Pickford’s future:
THE SOUND BARRIER…With the advent of sound movies Mary Pickford turned to writing books and serving various charities. From left, sharing ice cream with rising star Bing Crosby in 1934; center, Al Frueh’s caricature of Pickford for the profile; Pickford in a 1934 promotional picture supporting The Salvation Army. (Pinterest/Library of Congress)
A note on the profile’s writer, Margaret Case Harriman (1904-1966), who doubtless sharpened her people-watching skills at the Hotel Algonquin (famed birthing ground of the New Yorker), which was owned by her father, Frank Case. Douglas Fairbanks was one of Case’s best friends, and Harriman knew both Fairbanks and Pickford well, since they often stayed at the hotel.
HOME SWEET HOME…Margaret Case Harriman, photographed May 31, 1937 by Carl Van Vechten. Harriman was born in 1904 in room 1206 of the Hotel Algonquin, which was owned by her father, Frank Case. (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
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Master of Masters
The founder of perhaps the world’s most prestigious golf tournament was an amateur and a working lawyer by profession. When Bobby Jones (1902–1971) co-founded the Masters Tournament in 1934 with investment dealer Clifford Robert, it was called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament (it was Robert’s idea to call it The Masters, a name Jones thought immodest). Jones dominated top-level amateur competition from the early 1920s through 1930—the year he achieved a Grand Slam by winning golf ’s four major tournaments in the same year. However, by the 1934 Jones’s skills began to wane. The New Yorker had little to say about the first Masters (it wasn’t a big deal yet), other than Howard Brubaker making this observation in “Of All Things”…
A SWING INTO HISTORY…Bobby Jones (center) drives during the first-ever Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia on March 22, 1934. (augusta.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Wanna get away? This colorful advertisement beckoned New Yorker readers to take the next boat to sunny Bermuda…
…while the Grace Line offered a southern cruise through the Panama Canal…
…but who needed to travel when you could enjoy a beer that was beloved the world over?…
…Mrs. Potter d’Orsay PalmerneeMaria Eugenia Martinez de Hoz was content to stay home in Chicago and smoke a few Camels, apparently…
…we’ve encountered her before—she appeared in a Ponds ad (below) in the Aug. 8, 1931 issue of the New Yorker, where we learned she was wife No. 2 of Potter d’Orsay Palmer, son of the wealthy family of Chicago Palmer House fame…they would divorce in 1937, and the playboy Potter would marry two more times before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage in May 1939—following a drunken brawl in Sarasota, Florida with a meat cutter called Kenneth Nosworthy. Maria Eugenia would remarry and return to her homeland of Argentina to raise a family…
…this ad from Nash looks like a scene from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, if she had a car to match, that is…
…the Cadillac V-16 was a truly massive automobile, but in contrast to the Nash ad, you can barely see the car as it approaches from the vanishing distance…
…E. Simms Campbell got in on the advertising game with this spot that features contrasting images of storm and calm…
…James Thurber offered this cartoon on behalf of Heinz soups…
…and Thurber again, as we kick off the cartoons with the ongoing battle…
…Adolph Schus made a rare appearance in the New Yorker…according to Ink Spill, he also contributed a cartoon on March 19, 1938, and was editor of Pageant Magazine in 1945…
…Gluyas Williams looked in on the sorrows of moneyed classes…
…Helen Hokinson’s “girls” were in search of lunch, and propriety…
…and Leonard Dove gave us a renter surprised by something not included in his lease…
…on to April 14, 1934…
April 14, 1934 cover by Harry Brown.
…and book reviewer Clifton Fadiman, who found F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary gifts “bewilderingly varied”…
A NOT-SO-TENDER RECEPTION…F. Scott Fitzgerald’s status as a symbol of Jazz Age excess hurt his career during the Depression years. Tender Is the Night received mixed reviews, which didn’t help his alcoholism and deteriorating health. When Carl Van Vechten took this photo of Fitzgerald in June 1937, the author had a little over three years to live. (Wikipedia)
…speaking of F. Scott Fitzgerald, fellow author Ernest Hemingway defended Fitzgerald’s writing, arguing that criticism of his Jazz Age settings stemmed from superficial readings. One then wonders what Hemingway thought of E.B. White’s poetic “tribute” to his big game hunting excursions…
I ONLY SHOOT STRANGERS…Author Ernest Hemingway poses with a lion shot during a safari in Africa in 1934. (MPR News)
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From History’s Ash Heap
Various reference sources cite “freak shows” as a normal part of American culture in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, but I have to admit I saw exhibits at state fairs of half-ton humans and conjoined twins when I was a kid in the 1970s (not to mention things in jars at a carnival in St. Louis that should have been given a decent burial).
When Alva Johnston penned the first installment of a three-part profile series titled “Sideshow People,” such attractions could be found across the U.S. and Europe—Coney Island featured “Zip the Pinhead,” who was actually William Henry Johnson (1842–1926), one of six children born to former slaves living in New Jersey. His desperately poor parents agreed to allow P.T. Barnum to display him at a museum and at circus performances billed as a missing link, a “What-Is-It” supposedly caught in Africa.
FOR THE SUCKERS…P.T. Barnum exhibited William Henry Johnson as a “wild man”, a “What-Is-It” that subsisted on raw meat, nuts, and fruit, but was learning to eat more civilized fare such as bread and cake. Note the difference between the poster depiction at left and the actual man. Civil War-era photo at right by Mathew Brady’s photography studio in New York City. (National Portrait Gallery)
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Floating and Sinking
As much as New Yorker cartoonists (and E.B. White) liked to take pokes at Chrysler’s futuristic Airflow, there was much to be admired by the innovations the car represented. Unfortunately, the car’s design was too advanced for the buying public, and despite a big manufacturing and sales push by Chrysler the car was shelved by late 1936.
Writing for Time, Dan Neil noted the Airflow’s spectacularly bad timing. “Twenty years later, the car’s many design and engineering innovations — the aerodynamic singlet-style fuselage, steel-spaceframe construction, near 50-50 front-rear weight distribution and light weight—would have been celebrated. As it was, in 1934, the car’s dramatic streamliner styling antagonized Americans on some deep level, almost as if it were designed by Bolsheviks.”
SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA. A restored 1934 Airflow. (Hagerty Media)
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More From Our Advertisers
Maybe the buying public wasn’t ready for a car with a sloping hood and embedded headlights, but the folks at Cadillac were eager to unveil concepts for the new streamlined La Salle, which retained the familiar bullet headlights so as not to alarm consumers too much…
…and here’s a lovely image from Goodyear…I assume this woman is merely resting in a rumble seat, since this pose would not be possible above 25 mph…
…full-bleed color ads were coming into their own, as demonstrated by this stylish entry from the purveyors of silk garments…
…on the other hand, our well-heeled friends at Ponds stuck with the tried and true copy-heavy approach…here they offer the flawless features of Anne Gould (1913–1962), granddaughter of Gilded Age robber baron Jay Gould…
…R.J. Reynolds continued their campaign to convince us that Camels bring success to the average Joe and the champion athlete…
…the makers of Old Gold opted for the super creepy approach, asking entertainer Jimmy Durante to shove a pack of smokes into the face of what appears to be a teenager…
…here’s another ad from World Peaceways, reminding us of the futility of war…
…speaking of futility, you could visit the USSR, which doubtless took great pains to steer tourists away from mass starvation in Ukraine and mass executions of Stalin’s many “enemies”…
…while folks in the USSR were worshiping Lenin and Stalin, Americans were rightly transfixed by the miracle of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes…a producer of industrial and advertising films, Castle Films would become a subsidiary of Universal and would go on to make a line of science-fiction and horror films including The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.
…on to our cartoons, Alain took on the recent MoMA exhibition of “Machine Art”…
…and speaking of machine art, George Price was to latest cartoonist to take a crack at the Airflow…
…James Thurber offered this bit of spot art for the opening pages…
…and returned to a somber scene on the battlefield of the sexes…
Above, from left: When Teddy Roosevelt announced in 1912 that he would run for president against his former VP, William Howard Taft, Brown Brothers sent photographer Charles Duprez to Oyster Bay to take this famous photo; President Taft and his wife, Helen “Nellie” Taft, in 1909; famed New York Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson warms up before a game, circa 1912. (liveauctioneers.com/cabinetcardgallery.com/psacard.com)
Before there were photo agencies like Magnum or archives such as Getty Images there was a company named Brown Brothers, the world’s first stock photo agency founded by Arthur and Charles Brown in New York City in 1904.
March 24, 1934 cover by Garrett Price.
“The Talk of the Town” looked in on Brown Brothers, “the largest collection of photographs in the world—more than a million,” including a famous image of Teddy Roosevelt and the first photographic portrait of a woman’s face.
Brown Brothers photos could be seen everywhere in the early 20th century—their staff of twelve photographers provided images to New York newspapers at a time when the technology for publishing photos in the dailies was in its infancy and most papers didn’t employ staff photographers. Even the venerable New York Times hired the Browns to cover news events until they established their own team of photographers.
LITTLE DID DOROTHY DRAPER KNOW that she would become world famous when she sat for this photo (left) taken by her brother Dr. John W. Draper in his Washington Square studio at NYU in 1839 or 1840. Dorothy had to sit unblinking for the 65-second exposure—apparently her brother dusted her face with white flour to enhance the contrast. The Drapers still go down in history as creators of the oldest photo of a woman; at right, Dorothy Draper in the 1890s, in a photograph taken by her nephew. (boweryboyshistory.com/MCNY)ONE IN A MILLION…The early 20th century image at left is just one of as many as three million images amassed in the Brown Brothers archive; at right, a Brown Brothers archivist at work. (Pinterest/sportscollectorsdigest.com)
Note: The Brown Brothers’ archive of photos and negatives went up for sale in 2014, and was ultimately acquired by Leland’s in 2020.
* * *
De Terraplane!
E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) was also looking at a photo, or rather scrutinizing one that was featured in a Saturday Evening Post advertisement for Hudson’s Terraplane:
…here is the ad from the Post…
…and a closer look at the image, which had White seeing double.
(Both images courtesy The Saturday Evening Post)
* * *
Escape Artist
In his “Of All Things” column, Howard Brubaker included the following item about a new telescope, ostensibly to set up a quip about John Dillinger’s recent prison break (his second):
YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED…The FBI issued this “Wanted” poster of gangster John Dillinger— “Public Enemy No. 1″—in June 1934. The Feds gunned him down a month later. (AP Photo)
* * *
Playing Nice
The New Yorker commented on the trend toward fewer fights in the world of hockey, and although fighting in general ebbed a bit through mid-century, it nevertheless remained a staple of the game. Indeed the New York Rangers founder, Tex Rickard, who also promoted boxing at Madison Square Garden, knew quite well that hockey fights were one reason folks attended the games.
FACE OFF?…At left, goaltender Andy Aitkenhead of the New York Rangers padded his legs and arms but put his clean-shaven mug on the line in December 1934— it wasn’t until 1959, 42 years into the NHL’s existence, that a league goalie wore a mask on the ice. At right, New York Rangers captain Bill Cook (right) flanks coach and manager Lester Patrick alongside Frank Boucher on the ice at the Chicago Stadium in November of 1934. (Pinterest)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with this sumptuous ad from Packard, appealing to those who could afford to own this luxury brand…
…if you couldn’t afford a Packard, you could rest assured that even a well-heeled deb could be happy with a Chevy…
…the folks at Powers Reproduction continued to tout the wonders of their color photography, even if their cake looked less than appetizing…
…Fanny Brice was appearing with the 1934 Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, so the folks at Spud jumped on her celebrity bandwagon…
…while R.J. Reynolds was suggesting we replace our chewed up pencils with a nice Camel cigarette…now, don’t you feel better?…
…the Canadian distillery giant Gooderham & Worts offered all sorts of options to calm our jangled nerves in this two-page spread…
…while the Germans continued to entice us onto their cruise ships perfected by science and featuring “the strapping sons of sailor families”…hmmm…
…in 1934 the New Yorker began featuring mostly wordless cartoons on the opening page of “The Talk of the Town,” including this one by Robert Day featuring Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia checking up on city employees…
…Richard Decker gave us an Irish Sweepstakes winner from Brooklyn who displayed some modesty and media savvy…
…Decker again, with the latest in perambulators…
…Otto Soglow’s Little King put his back into a ceremonial groundbreaking…
…Peter Arno’s sugar daddy received some not-so-happy returns…
…one of William Steig’s “Small Fry” was doing some serious reading…
…and James Thurber’s war continued from the rooftops…
…on to March 31, 1934…
March 31, 1934 cover by Rea Irvin.
…where we find Alice Frankforter covering an exhibition dubbed “A Mile of Art.” I’m guessing critic Lewis Mumford passed on this opportunity to offer some blistering commentary. As for Frankforter, she found the spectacle puzzling, if not irritating. An excerpt:
Constantin Alajalov offered his perspective on the art world stunt with this bit of spot art…
…and more from Frankforter, now reaching a state of exhaustion and near-delirium as she approached the end of the exhibit:
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Biblical Babbitts
Frank Buchman’s First Century Christian Fellowship (aka the Oxford Group) meeting in New York featured a lot of people chuckling and bubbling, but all that forced conviviality left critic Edmund Wilson feeling “quite morose.” Writing for the “A Reporter at Large” column, Wilson looked in on the group as they awaited Buchman’s arrival at a preliminary rally. The column was subtitled, “Saving the Better Classes and Their Butlers.” An excerpt:
Like other critics at the time, Wilson saw “Buchmanism” as bourgeois optimism and boosterism, interested more in converting the souls of the wealthy and celebrated rather than serving the needs of poor.
ODD COUPLE…Frank Buchman liked to be seen with the rich and famous. In 1939 he asked for a half hour of Mae West’s time, ostensibly to get this photo of him sharing some wisdom from his “Moral Re-assessment” booklet. West seems less than enamored by the encounter, regarding Buchman as some sort of alien creature; right, Buchman on the cover of April 20, 1936 edition of Time, which identified him as “Cultist Buchman.” (maewest.blogspot.com/Time)
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Carnegie’s Couture
Vogue magazine fashion editor Nancy Hardin and the New Yorker’s fashion editor Lois Long teamed up on a profile about Hattie Carnegie (1889 -1956) titled “Luxury, Inc.” Born Henrietta Kanengeiser in Vienna, Carnegie immigrated with her family to New York in 1900; nine years later she adopted the name “Carnegie” after Andrew Carnegie, the richest person in America. Through hard work and an inherent instinct for what American women desired, she built a fashion design business that thrived in Depression and catered to stars and celebrities including Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Fontaine, Lucille Ball, and Joan Crawford. An excerpt, with illustration by Hugo Gellert:
FUR SURE…Hattie Carnegie posing for a 1951 Vogue magazine photo. (Vogue)
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Steampunk Dream
In my previous entry I featured Robert Coates’s observations on the new Machine Art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. For the March 31 issue critic Lewis Mumford, celebrant of the simple and unpretentious, waxed nostalgic over the novel exhibit:
I’M A LITTLE TEAPOT that made a big advance in the design world, according to critic Lewis Mumford. (MoMA)
Alan Dunn was also inspired by the exhibit, as evidenced in this cartoon from the April 7 issue…
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More From Our Advertisers
Founded in October 1933, the men’s magazine Esquire took off with a bang, and the publishers were not shy about boasting of its early success…
…cover of the April 1934 issue, featuring the mustachioed mascot Esky…based on a drawing by cartoonist E. Simms Campbell, Esky was featured on the cover in various situations until 1961…
…Peter Arno’s “Whoops Sisters” appeared sixty-three times in the New Yorker between 1926 and 1927 before Arno retired them (they occasionally popped up in other publications, and in a 1931 Cunard ad)…it seems odd that they would make an appearance in a cheap thermometer ad in 1934…at any rate, it is difficult to tell if this is by Arno or by a clever forger…
…there’s no mistaking the cartoonist behind this ad…
…and this one by Otto Soglow…
…and we close our advertising section by raising a glass to Frankfort Distilleries…
…on to our March 31 cartoons, and a lineup of New Yorker regulars Abe Birnbaum…
A New Yorker State of Mind 