Above: Behind the scenes production photo of the space gun used to launch a manned projectile to the moon in Things to Come. (Instagram)
One of the most anticipated films of the 1930s was the British production of Things to Come. Loosely based on the 1933 science fiction novel by H.G. Wells,The Shape of Things to Come, the film was an extraordinarily ambitious and expensive production featuring a huge cast and elaborate sets, both full-scale and in miniature.
April 25, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
Critic John Mosher wasn’t quite sure what to make of Things to Come, seizing on the film’s promise to end the common cold.
CLEANING CREW…A businessman in Everytown in the 1940s, John Cabal (Raymond Massey) returns in the 1970s to find his city in ruin and governed by a warlord. As a member of a secret organization called “Wings Over the World” (comprised of the last surviving band of engineers and mechanics), Cabal orders his organization to send giant flying wings over Everytown and saturate the population with a “Gas of Peace.” Not only does the gas make the population tranquil, it also kills the warlord, played by Ralph Richardson (right). (midnightonly.com/instagram.com)
In a review for The Criterion Collection, Geoffrey O’Brien notes that the film’s shocking scenes of war were shown to an audience “in active denial, many of them, of the possibility of such things coming to pass in the near future.”
But an antiseptic city with a population made docile by a “Gas of Peace” didn’t appear to be something one would look forward to either. O’Brien points to Jorge Luis Borges’ remarks regarding Things to Come: “The heaven of Wells and Alexander Korda, like that of so many other eschatologists and set designers, is not much different than their hell, though even less charming.” Borges dismissed the notion that science and technology would be the rallying force against tyranny: “In 1936, the power of almost all tyrants arises from their control of technology.”
WAR AND PEACE…At left, bombers lay waste to Everytown in the 1940s, seemingly forecasting The Blitz of London in 1940-41; at right, decades later, “Wings Over the World” sends giant flying wings (right) over Everytown to saturate the population with a “Gas of Peace.” (Illinois.edu/facebook.com)UTOPIA?…After years of rebuilding, a new, underground Everytown emerges in 2036. The set (left) was designed by director William Cameron Menzies and Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Above, transportation included autogyros; both men and women wore futuristic togas, including John Cabal’s great-granddaughter Catherine Cabal (Pearl Argyle). Note the acrylic furniture, ubiquitous in the future scenes of the film. (midnightonly.com/facebook.com/YouTube)
O’Brien concludes: “There is no way any audience, in the 1930s or now, would be likely to accept Raymond Massey’s Oswald Cabal as an empathetic spokesperson for the human race. He is essentially the chairman of the board of a quasi-fascist ruling elite—and not so very far from the idea that Wells, at best ambivalent about democracy, in fact had in mind.”
In all fairness, I should note that Massey did not like his character’s “heavy-handed speeches” that lacked human emotion. He complained H.G. Wells prioritized cold scientific ideals over personal character depth. “For heart interest, Mr. Wells hands you an electric switch,” Massey stated.
WISHES SOMETIMES COME TRUE…In the movie, a little girl in the year 2036 receives a history lesson from her great grandfather (including a video of 1936 New York), and she expresses delight that people will “keep on inventing things and making life lovelier and lovelier.” The little girl was played by eight-year-old Anne McLaren. The great grandfather was played by Charles Carson (1885–1977). (midnightonly.com)DAME McLAREN…In real life that little girl, Anne McLaren (1927–2007), did make life better, becoming a leading figure in developmental biology and paving the way for other women in science. Her work also helped lead to the development of human invitrofertilization. Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren received many honors for her research and ethical contributions. (YouTube.com/Wikipedia)POW! TO THE MOON…At left, Catherine Cabal (Pearl Argyle) and fellow scientist Maurice Passworthy (Kenneth Villiers) prepare to fly around the moon, launched from a gigantic space gun (right). (theguardian.com/YouTube)
Interestingly, Raymond Massey (1896–1983) and most of the film’s cast would live to see an actual moon landing in just 33 years. Most of them would also be involved in some way in the Second World War, Massey being wounded as part of the Canadian regiment.
American writer and editor Al Graham (1905–1972), who contributed a number of poems and “Talk of the Town” pieces to The New Yorker in the Thirties and Forties, offered some thoughts regarding Things to Come. Here are excerpts of the first and last parts of his piece:
SLOW AND STEADY…Al Graham is perhaps best known for his 1930s humorous verse and children’s literature such as Timothy Turtle (1946) and The Rhymes of Squire O’Squirrel (1963). At right is a cover of the first edition of H.G. Wells’The Shape of Things to Come. (Wikipedia)
Incidentally, the British automaker Triumph used Wells’ title in a 1970s ad campaign for the TR-7…
(The Daily Drive)
While we are talking movies, Mosher also reviewed Frank Capra’sMr. Deeds Goes to Town. Films such as Mr. Deeds and It’s a Wonderful Life were Capra’s “love letters to an idealized America—a cinematic landscape of his own invention,” wrote social critic Morris Dickstein. Or as actor/director John Cassavetes once observed: “Maybe there really wasn’t an America, it was only Frank Capra.” Whatever it was, Mr. Deeds would win Capra his second Oscar for Best Director (he would win three in all, plus a fourth for a World War II documentary).
HAPPY ENDING…Mr. Deeds (Gary Cooper) finds love and salvation with Jean Arthur in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. (britannica.com)
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Ah-Choo!
Those familiar with E.B. White’s writings are likely also familiar with his lifelong struggle with hay fever, or “catarrh” as it was also referred to in those days. White notably wrote about his condition in a 1938 New Yorker essay, “Daniel Webster, the Hay Fever, and Me.” He addresses the malady in his April 25, 1936 “Notes and Comment” column:
SNEEZING AND HONKING…Despite his allergies, E.B. White had a deep love for the countryside and nature. Although he grew up just outside New York City, he cultivated a love of rural life that was finally realized when he and wife Katharine bought a farm near Brooklin, Maine. Above is a 1974 photo (by Jill Krementz) of White at his Maine farm. (cornell.edu)
One of the more common and effective treatments for allergies in the Thirties was the benzedrine inhaler. The active ingredient was amphetamine. It was safe if inhaled, however some folks got the idea to crack open the inhaler and swallow the contents, which would induce a mind-altering effect (the amount of amphetamine in the inhaler was 250 milligrams, much greater than the five or ten milligrams in tablets prescribed for depression).
NOT SHIRLEY TEMPLE, however the marketers of the inhaler probably wanted consumers to make the connection. (mcgill.ca)
* * *
Before the Internet
What did some folks do in the evening before modern-day distractions? According to “The Talk of the Town,” at least one man and his family loved to gawk at the new Wrigley sign in Times Square.
CHEW ON THIS…The Wrigley sign spanned the block on Broadway from 44th Street to 45th Street. Designed by artist Dorothy Shepard, the display featured fish blowing bubbles and was lit by 29,608 lamps and 1,084 feet of neon tubing. It was so large that its electrical power usage was estimated to be equivalent to a small city of ten thousand people. (Wikipedia)
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From Our Advertisers
White Rock continued its series of brightly illustrated ads, this most likely the work of noted illustrator John Holmgren…
…Stage magazine continued to promote its star-studded content in full-page color ads…this one featured American stage and film actress Ina Claire…
Ina Claire, center, with Osgood Perkins and Doris Dudley in End of Summer.(jacksonupperco.com)
…ah, the pleasure of an after-dinner Lucky back in the day when you could still smoke indoors…
…another ad for Green Giant Niblets featuring a rich old toff who’s just over the moon about canned corn…
…these surreal Lyse Darcy ads for Guerlain really stood out in the magazine…
…speaking of standing out, who could resist the distraction of a tabloid, especially with the Gray Lady folded in one’s lap?…Alain illustrates…
…and per James Thurber, who was immune to the charms of a woman with a heart tattooed on her hip?…
…Charles Addams showed us a man with a built-in fishing advantage…
…Gregory d’Alessio gave us an understandable marital mix-up…
…Helen Hokinson offered a dose of “meh” in the hat department…
…Garrett Price showed us the consequences of Robert Moses’s transformation of Long Island from a rural area for the rich into a suburban landscape for the hoi polloi…
…and we close with Peter Arno, who wondered what’s the fun of drinking in the tropics when you can do the same thing in Queens?…
Above: Detail from illustration depicting the Philippine Clipper arriving in Hong Kong to establish the first commercial air service between North America and the continent of Asia on October 23, 1936. (Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami)
We take to the air with the April 18, 1936 edition of The New Yorker, namely via the China Clipper, a Pan American flying boat that was preparing to begin regular passenger service from San Francisco to the Philippines and Hong Kong along with its two sister ships.
April 18, 1930 cover by Rea Irvin.
Writing for “A Reporter at Large” under the title “See You in Shanghai,” Morris Markey offered an enthusiastic preview of the China Clipper, a Martin M-130 flying boat that was initially tested on a Trans-Pacific mail route laid out by famed navigator Fred Noonan (who would disappear the following year in a fateful flight with Amelia Earhart). Although Markey anticipated a summer launch, the first commercial trans-Pacific airmail and passenger service from San Francisco to Manila actually took place in October 1936, when the Hawaii Clipper made the first scheduled transoceanic passenger flight to the Philippines. The Philippine Clipper inaugurated the first passenger service into Hong Kong that same month, but it was a public relations VIP flight rather than a revenue generating one.
Here are excerpts from Markey’s report:
TAKING WING…Clockwise, from top left, carrying nearly 111,000 letters, the China Clipper passes over the San Francisco waterfront on its first airmail flight to Manila in November 1935; trading card from a pack of Player’s cigarettes; cutaway view of the Martin M-130 flying boat dubbed the China Clipper.(Wikipedia/frommers.com/Smithsonian)
Here is the flight schedule for the China Clipper’s first airmail flight to Manila in November 1935:
(messynessychic.com)
Today’s commercial aircraft squeeze passengers into about six square feet. Compare that to a Pan Am Clipper, which allotted twenty-two square feet per each passenger. They lounged on easy chairs and couches, enjoyed six-course meals served on fine china, and could even take a hot shower if so desired. Markey again:
THE ONLY WAY TO FLY if you had the means. The Clippers were divided into spacious cabins, with couches rather than airplane seats. The passenger compartments would transform at night into deluxe sleeper cabins. There was a dining salon, dressing rooms, and separate bathrooms for men and women. (messynessychic.com/Wikipedia/clipperflyingboats.com)
Talk about legroom…
(everythingpanam.com)
Writing for Messy Nessy,Luke Spencer notes this experience was only available to a select few: “…a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong would set you back $760 in 1939 (more than $13,000 today). But despite being largely reserved for the rich and famous, the seaplanes are so evocative of the bygone era, that today, it’s hard to imagine a vintage travel poster without a Flying Clipper in it, soaring above a distant island.” Indeed, the long-gone Clipper ships live on in popular vintage travel posters such as the one below depicting Pan Am’s most advanced, largest and last flying boat, the Boeing 314. The circa 1939 illustration is by George Lawler:
(panam.org)
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Don’t Step On Them
Suede shoes (aka Bucks, Reverse Calfskin) caught the attention of E.B. White, who thought this “new kind of men’s shoe” resembled a wire-haired dachshund. Suede shoes (blue ones would come later) were introduced as a preppy alternative to heavy lace-up shoes in the 1930s. They were favored (and made popular) by fashion trendsetter Edward, Duke of Windsor, who briefly reigned as British king in 1936 before abdicating the throne.
GOING CASUAL…Suede shoes offered a less formal option to men who still wanted to look stylish about town or at the club. At left is an ad from the 1940s, and at right is a one-column ad from the April 18, 1936 issue of The New Yorker. One wonders if E.B. White noticed it. (chronicallyvintage.com)
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Cowboys and Elephants
The “Talk of the Town” noted the latest attractions the Ringling Brothers were bringing to Madison Square Garden, including B-grade Western film actor ColonelTim McCoy and a trio of elephants who played a rudimentary form of baseball.
NICE DUDS…American actor and military officer Colonel Tim McCoy (1891–1978) was a popular cowboy film star; he was even honored with his picture on a Wheaties box. (Wikipedia/nypl.org)
The tallest person ever recorded, Robert Wadlow (1918–1940), became a celebrity after his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus, appearing at Madison Square Garden in the center ring, and never in the sideshow.
ON DISPLAY…The 8 foot, 11.1 inch Robert Wadlow shares a moment with Harry Earles (aka Harry Doll) behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1936. During his appearance, Wadlow dressed in his everyday clothes and refused the circus’s request that he wear a top hat and tails. (reddit.com)
In addition to Col. McCoy, the circus also featured the daring high wire act of the famous Wallenda family:
IT’S A LIVING…The Wallendas performing at Madison Square Garden in 1934. (facebook.com)
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Sage Advice
Dorothea Brande (1892–1948) was the author of two popular advice books: Becoming a Writer (1934) remains in print today, and her motivational Wake Up and Live (1936) sold more than a million copies and inspired an eponymous 1937 Hollywood movie.
As we’ve seen before, James Thurber relished the opportunity to satirize the writers of motivational books, and Brande’s Wake Up and Live proved to be irresistible. Here are some choice excerpts:
IDEAL FOR AN AIRPORT READ if such a thing would have existed in 1936. Above, Dorothea Brande circa 1937 and her 1936 bestseller, Wake Up and Live, which sold more than a million copies and inspired a Hollywood movie. (Wikipedia/matthewsbookshop.com)
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Legacy Lines
In 1936 Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) was more widely read than any American poet, but his popularity didn’t diminish the respect he received from literary critics. So no wonder The New Yorker gave him a two-page spread to publish his “Notes To Be Left In A Cornerstone.” It’s too large to reproduce here, but this is how it looked in the magazine (with great spot art by Hugo Gellert)…
A closer look at Gellert’s illustration…
…and here are the last two stanzas of the poem:
* * *
Ray Gets Rough
Ray Bolger’s long career included everything from dancing in vaudeville shows and acting on Broadway to appearing in his own television sitcom and in a 1981 Dr. Pepper commercial (dancing, of course). He is best remembered as the lovable, loose-limbed Scarecrow in 1939’s Wizard of Oz. So it was a surprise to learn that the Tony-winning actor could also play a tough guy, a turn that delighted critic Wolcott Gibbs, who penned this review of the Rodgers and Hart comedy musical On Your Toes:
I CAN SCARE MORE THAN CROWS…Ray Bolger (left) gets rough with a thug as Tamara Geva looks on in the musical comedy On Your Toes. (rodgersandhammerstein.com)
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Bio Myopic
Biopics reached a height of popularity in the Thirties, with dozens of these pictures featuring major stars including Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and Rembrandt (1936), Barbara Stanwyck in Annie Oakley (1935), Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933), and Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934). Paul Muni, the king of biopics, appeared in at least a half-dozen including The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936). The year 1936 also brought us The Great Ziegfeld, starring William Powell as Flo Ziegfeld, Myrna Loy as his wife, Billie Burke, and Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld’s first wife, Anna Held. Critic JohnMosher takes it from here:
DOUBLE TAKE..Ziegfeld Follies star Will Rogers was originally intended to appear in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld, but died in a plane crash in August 1935 before filming began. A.A. Trimble (pictured at left), was a map salesman by trade, but was also known to perform impersonations of Rogers at events like Rotarian lunches. Critic John Mosher was shocked by Trimble’s uncanny impersonation of Rogers in the film, which also featured Ziegfeld headliner Fanny Brice (right), the real one. (facebook.com/amazon.com)OSCAR-WORTHY…William Powell and Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Dance Direction, and Best Actress, which went to Rainer. (tcm.com)
A note on Luise Rainer (1910–2014): The Austrian-American Rainer was the first person to win two Academy Awards in a row. The first was for her role as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld, and the second was for her role as a Chinese farm wife in 1937’s The Good Earth.
TIME WAS ON HER SIDE…Luise Rainer in 1936. (Wikipedia)
At the time of her death in 2014, thirteen days shy of her 105th birthday, Rainer was the longest-lived Oscar recipient, and the longest-lived female star from Classic Hollywood.
Mosher also reviewed Desire, a romantic crime drama that reunited the stars of the 1930 pre-code film Morocco, Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper.
REKINDLING THOSE SPARKS…Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper reunite in Desire. (video librarian.com)HMMM…Desire also featured character actor William Frawley (seen here with Cooper), who would go on to greater fame in television, playing Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. (facebook.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We begin with the inside front cover, where the makers of leaded gasoline appealed to homespun sensibilities with an odd juxtaposition…
…oil companies and other auto-related industries were big advertisers in The New Yorker, including the United States Rubber Company…
…which ran this back cover ad in the very first issue of the magazine, Feb. 21, 1925…
…another advertiser with deep pockets was big tobacco…R.J. Reynolds continued to make the ridiculous claim that their Camel cigarettes aided digestion…
…the makers of Old Gold stuck with sex to sell their smokes, featuring illustrations by pin-up artist George Petty…
…Hiram Walker boasted the availability of their Canadian Club whiskey in “87 lands”…
…at first glance I thought this was a soap advertisement…one doubts this analogy prompted more people to pick up a case of Bud…
…the makers of College Inn Tomato Juice Cocktail continued to employ the social faux pas to sell their product…note the outraged duchess making an appearance on the right…
…Heineken established its U.S. presence in 1933, becoming the first imported beer legally sold after the end of Prohibition…
…Amer Picon called on the talents of illustrator Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) to create this stylish advertisement…
Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) was known primarily for his illustrations of glamorous young women, including his signature “Whitcomb Girl.” Born and raised in the Midwest, Whitcomb moved to New York City in 1934, joining with Al Cooper to found the Cooper Studio. At left, Whitcomb circa 1940s; at right, his illustration for the cover of Colliers, Aug. 23, 1941. (illustrationhistory.org)
…on to our cartoonists, we have a spot illustration by Richard Taylor to kick off the issue…
…Leonard Dove gave us a frustrated sugar daddy…
…Alain illustrated the perils of social realism…
…Whitney Darrow Jr’s butler made himself right at home…
…Ned Hilton’s harpist found a way to adapt to her surroundings…
…Robert Day required a layout adjustment for his human cannonball…
…Mary Petty took an unusual request at the soda fountain…
…Peter Arno diagnosed an incurable eye condition…
…Otto Soglow offered up a surprise at the automat…
…Helen Hokinson went apartment hunting…
…and we close with Barbara Shermund, and a big ask…
Above: The Morris B. Sanders Studio and Apartment is the second-oldest modern townhouse in Manhattan. Sanders designed the townhouse, located on 49th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, in 1934 for his own use, and construction was completed in December 1935. (Wikipedia/docomomo-nytri.org)
Today we barely notice the tens of thousands of shiny glass buildings that populate our cities, not to mention the countless postwar houses that feature vast expanses of glass from floor to ceiling.
April 11, 1936 cover by Helen Hokinson.
In 1936 a house made of glass, especially as a structural element, seemed unlikely to most folks, if not downright bizarre. Enter Lewis Mumford, arts and architecture critic for The New Yorker, who was critical of many modern industrial trends and often promoted his ideal of human-scaled, organic design in buildings and cities. Mumford was not opposed to new technologies, such as glass block, as long as it was employed with sensitivity and good taste. Here are some of Mumford’s observations after visiting the American Glass Industries Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum:
NEW NEIGHBOR…Morris B. Sanders’ studio and apartment at 219 East 49th Street in Turtle Bay boldly interrupted a stodgy row of brownstones. Lewis Mumford pronounced the 1936 building “very handsome.” The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as an official landmark in 2008. (curbed.com/Wikipedia)
The Sanders House wasn’t the first time a brownstone was replaced by a modernist building. That honor goes to another Turtle Bay-area house, just one block from the Sanders house, designed by architect William Lescaze in 1933-34.
ODD COUPLE…Designed by William Lescaze in the International Style between 1933 and 1934 as a renovation of a 19th-century brownstone townhouse, 211 East 48th Street was one of three houses in Manhattan designed by Lescaze. (atlasobscura.com/inside inside.org)
The Brooklyn Museum exhibition also included commercial examples such as one of the world’s first buildings to be completely covered in glass, the Owens-Illinois Glass Research Laboratory in Toledo, Ohio. Mumford also commented extensively on the new uses of glass in Times Square, namely the rebuilt Rialto Theatre and a Childs restaurant located next door. Excerpts:
THINGS TO COME…Clockwise, from top left, the Owens-Illinois Glass Research Laboratory in Toledo, Ohio, built between 1935 and 1936, is recognized as one of the world’s first buildings to be completely covered in glass, utilizing glass blocks for the facade; Lewis Mumford was less impressed with the use of glass by the newly rebuilt Rialto Theatre, but praised the new Childs location next door for being full of “vitality and color.” (facebook.com/dinerhunter.com)
* * *
Down on Il Duce
Last week we saw Robert Benchley’s review of the anti-war play, Idiot’s Delight. This week he reviews another play with themes that resonated in the moment, Bitter Stream. Written by Victor Wolfson and adapted from Ignazio Silone’s novel, Fontamara, the play depicted the horrors of fascism as Mussolini’s Black Shirts brutally seize an Italian neighborhood. It featured relative newcomer Lee J. Cobb as well as Frances Bavier, who twenty-four years later would portray Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show. Excerpts:
TROUBLE IN SUNNY ITALY…A scene set in Fontamara Square in the play Bitter Stream, which ran for sixty-one performances at the Civic Repertory Theatre. At right, Lee J. Cobb portrayed Don Circonstantza, and Frances Bavier played the part of Soreanera. Bavier is best known for her portrayal of Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968). (revolutions newsstand.com/facebook.com)
* * *
Sick Leave
Also last week we saw the first part of Edmund Wilson’s account of his travels in the Soviet Union. For the April 11 installment of “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Scarlet Fever in Odessa”), Wilson recounted his six-week stay in a filthy Soviet hospital. Excerpts:
WANTING OUT…Edmund Wilson couldn’t wait to get out of the “terribly dirty” Odessa hospital where he was quarantined with scarlet fever for six weeks. At left, photo by Margaret Bourke White, “In a Hospital Waiting Room, Moscow,” 1932. At right, Wilson in 1936. (nyamcenterforhistory.org/Wikipedia)
* * *
Gall in Gaul
In her Paris Letter, Janet Flanner continued to share her observations about the French mood (agitated) in the wake of the German occupation of the Rhineland.
HOW ABOUT A NICE DITTY INSTEAD?…Janet Flanner reported that there was a “near riot” when a performance at the Paramount Theater (left) included “military music.” At left, the Paramount in 1927; at right, a Popular Front demonstration in Paris, 1936. (Wikimedia/Bibliothèque nationale de France)
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At the Movies
Little Lord Fauntleroy was Selznick International Pictures’ most profitable film until Gone with the Wind, and it featured one of the top child stars of the 1930s, English-American child actor Freddie Bartholomew (1924–1992). However, New Yorker film critic John Mosher was “bored to extinction” by the popular film.
SLUMMING…At left, Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Rooney once said of Bartholomew: “He was one of the finest, if not the finest child stars that we had on the scene at that time”; at right, Aubrey Smith, Bartholomew and Dolores Costello in a scene from the film. (MGM/Wikipedia)
One of Hollywood’s greatest screen villains, English actor Henry Daniell, caught Mosher’s attention for his “smooth” performance as a blackmailer in The Unguarded Hour. The critic also enjoyed the thriller The House of a Thousand Candles, but was left flat by Give Us This Night.
A MANNERED SCAMP was how John Mosher described one of Hollywood’s greatest screen villains, English actor Henry Daniell (right) in The Unguarded Hour, which also starred (at left) Loretta Young and Lewis Stone. (imdb.com/facebook.com)THRILLS AND TRILLS…Top photo, Mae Clarke and Phillips Holmes in the spy thriller The House of a Thousand Candles; below, Give Us This Night was one of five films produced by Paramount that featured the popular Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Gladys Swarthout, seen here with Polish opera singer and actor Jan Kiepura.(imdb.com/mabumbe.com)
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From Our Advertisers
If you could afford it, a first-class salon on the Normandie sure looked like a great way to travel to France…
…this full-page ad enticed moviegoers with a quiz that promoted MGM’s The Great Ziegfeld…one of the most successful films of the 1930s, the movie won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Luise Rainer), and Best Dance Direction…
…who knows what will happen after the honeymoon, but we do know they will driving around in this swell-looking Packard 120, a lower-priced model that helped keep Packard afloat during the waning days of the Depression…
…Forstmann Woolens continued to entice buyers with their seasonal images of fine fashions…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with the illustration for “The Theatre” section, this week Miguel Covarrubias taking over for Al Frueh…
…Richard Taylor contributed this fine spot illustration…
…and we have another spot by Helen Moore Sewell…
…James Thurber made an awkward introduction…
…George Price hoped for some comic relief at the theatre…
…Eli Garson found religious zeal at a street corner…
…Alan Dunn gave us a great opening line for an insurance salesman…
…Perry Barlow was inspired by bargains on Union Square…
…Helen Hokinson spotted a familiar face in the crowd…
…a quickie marriage left no room for romance, per Peter Arno…
…Whitney Darrow Jr signed us off with an endorsed blessing…
Above: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne headed the cast of Idiot's Delight, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning play by Robert E. Sherwood. The anti-war play premiered at Broadway's Shubert Theatre on March 24, 1936, and ran for three hundred performances. (latimes.com)
Set against the backdrop of impending war in Europe, Robert Sherwood’sIdiot’s Delight was a timely exploration of how individuals might respond to a major upheaval. The play’s themes about the futility of war resonate as much today as they did in 1936.
April 4, 1936 cover by Harry Brown. Although he created some distinctive, whimsical covers for The New Yorker (including today’s), there is very little biographical information available on the artist. Brown created eighteen covers for the magazine from 1931 to 1937.
Presented at Shubert Theatre, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play was set at a hotel in the Italian Alps, where the guests—among them a military captain, a German scientist, a radical socialist, and a honeymooning couple—find themselves trapped by the sudden onset of world war. The cast was led by Alfred Lunt, who played a small-time American entertainer accompanied by a troupe of chorines, and Lynn Fontanne, who portrayed a mysterious Russian woman who was traveling with an arms dealer.
The Pulitzer jury called the play first-rate, full of dramatic invention and “Molierian richness.” Critic Robert Benchley heartily agreed:
FRIVOLITY AMID THE CHAOS OF WAR…Clockwise, from top left, souvenir program for Idiot’s Delight; Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in a scene from the play; playwright Robert E. Sherwood; Lunt with a chorus line in Idiot’s Delight. The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote that the play “demonstrates Mr. Sherwood’s taste for exuberance and jovial skulduggery.”(eBay.com/nypl.org/imdb.com)
Benchley concluded that the play was at once entertaining and edifying:
FORGET ABOUT IT…In Idiot’s Delight, Sydney Greenstreet (left) portrayed a doctor who, in the face of senseless war deaths, gives up on his life-saving research; at right, Jean MacIntyre (left) portrayed Mrs. Cherry, part of a young English honeymooning couple stranded at a hotel due to the sudden closing of the border. With her in the scene are Fontanne and Lunt. (radioclassics.com/Public Domain)
Sherwood adapted the play into a 1939 film of the same name, starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable.
* * *
Earth Gazing
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White mused about plans at the Hayden Planetarium for a program that would give visitors some idea of how earth would appear from a point in space. Earthlings would have to wait until 1968 to actually see a clear, color image of their planet.
THE WONDER OF IT ALL…Clockwise, from top left, the cosmosarium at the Hayden Planetarium, circa 1935; Howard Russell Butler’s attempt at an accurate portrayal of the earth for the American Museum of Natural History, circa 1920s; in 1966, Lunar Orbiter I sent back this image of Earth from the vicinity of the Moon; Earthrise is a famous photograph of Earth taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. (facebook.com/pinterest.com/NASA)
* * *
From Russia With Love
Journalist and literary critic Edmund Wilson Jr (1895–1972) traveled in Russia from May to October 1935, and later filed a couple of articles in The New Yorker detailing his travels. Writing for the column “A Reporter at Large,” Wilson described his journey by boat from London to Leningrad, finding an unexpected kinship with his Soviet cabin mates. Excerpts:
DESTINATION…Leningrad’s Nevsky Prospect 1930s; Edmund Wilson Jr in 1936. (pinterest.com/Wikipedia)
Wilson found that he preferred the company of the Soviets to a stuffy English couple who were his dining companions. He concluded:
It should be noted that Wilson, despite his Marxist sympathies, would soon become disillusioned with the Soviet experiment; his travels concluded just before the onset of Josef Stalin’s “Great Purge,” which featured the notorious Moscow Show Trials that sent millions of innocent Soviet citizens to labor camps or to their deaths in prisons.
DOOMED…During the Great Terror, which included the notorious show trials of Stalin’s former Bolshevik opponents in 1936-1938 and reached its peak in 1937 and 1938, millions of innocent Soviet citizens were sent off to labor camps or killed in prison. This image from 1936 shows defendants dressed in prison clothing during one of the Moscow Show Trials. (umkc.edu)
* * *
At the Movies
Film critic John Mosher observed that moviegoers mostly needed “thrills and nonsense” at the cinema. Thrills were not to be found, but Harold Lloyd provided the nonsense.
PUNCH LINES…Harold Lloyd (left), portrayed an unlikely middleweight boxer in The Milky Way. Above is a scene with Adolphe Menjou (center) and Lionel Stander. (obscurehollywood.net)
The “thriller” of the week was Moonlight Murder, which Mosher suggested audiences could “dismiss at once.”
DISMISSED…Katharine Alexander, Leo Carrillo and Benita Hume in Moonlight Murder. (rotten tomatoes.com)
Mosher also offered tepid reviews of Everybody’s Old Man and Sutter’s Gold, despite these films featuring a popular humorist and a respected character actor, respectively.
SAY SOMETHING FUNNY…Rochelle Hudson, Irvin S. Cobb and Warren Hymer in Everybody’s Old Man. (imdb.com)WHO AM I?…A vague narrative left critic John Mosher wondering if Edward Arnold’s character was supposed to be a “hero, villain, scamp, or fool” in Sutter’s Gold. Above, Arnold in a scene with Binnie Barnes. (film booster.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Arrow Shirts rolled out a colorful array of pre-shrunk sanforized shirts and neckties just in time for the Easter holiday…
…from the 1930s through the 1950s the distinctive voice of James Wallington (1907–1972) filled the airwaves on both radio and television…here he endorses those “Sanforized Shrunk” shirts…
…French costume designer and illustrator Marcel Vertès (1895–1961) provided the art for the Antoine de Paris lipstick line at Saks…Vertès created the original murals in the Carlyle Hotel’s Café Carlyle and in the Waldorf-Astoria’s Peacock Alley… he also won two Academy Awards for his work on the 1952 film Moulin Rouge…
…Hockanum Mills announced its new line of woolens for the spring racing season…
Hockanum’s Rockville mills were shut down in 1951. Today the site is being redeveloped for commercial and light industrial uses as well as the site for the New England Motorcycle Museum. (historicbuildingsct.com)
…more claims from R.J. Reynolds regarding the gastrointestinal benefits of their Camel cigarettes…
…while Liggett and Myers stuck with the pleasures of hearth and home, and a pack of Chesterfields…
…on to the cartoon section, we begin with Christina Malman…
…Richard Taylor…
…Robert Day…
…and a wonderful spot drawing by illustrator and children’s book author Helen Moore Sewell…
…who won a Caldecott Medal for her illustrations featured in Alice Dalgliesh’sThe Thanksgiving Story (1954)…
…we go shopping with Helen Hokinson in the garden section…
…and in the hat department…
…Mary Petty caught up on the latest gossip…
…Perry Barlow gave us a shopkeeper in need of some marketing tips…
…William Steig continued to probe the joys of married life…
…even one’s dream world required some careful grooming, per Otto Soglow…
…James Thurber drew up a duet out of tune…
…outside of Wall Street, Leonard Dove’s titan of business was just another sugar daddy…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and strangers on a train…
Above: Although MGM head Louis B. Mayer (right) had a strong business sense, he needed Irving Thalberg's keen ability to combine artistic quality with commercial success. During his twelve years at MGM, Thalberg supervised the production of more than four hundred films. (artsfuse.org)
Born in a Ukrainian village in 1884, Louis B. Mayer grew up poor in Canada and dropped out of school at age twelve to support his family. Nearly three decades later he co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, lured the “boy genius” Irving Thalberg from Universal, and went on to lead one Hollywood’s most prestigious filmmaking companies.
March 28, 1936 cover by Perry Barlow.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Henry F. Pringle (1897–1958) looked into Mayer’s life in a two-part profile, leading with a look into the movie mogul’s ability to control his vast stable of stars (illustration by Hugo Gellert):
BOY GENIUS…Clockwise, from top left, MGM producer Irving Thalberg (seen here in 1929 with wife and actress Norma Shearer), had a knack for combining quality art with commercial appeal. Born with a weak heart, Thalberg died in September 1936 at age 37; The Great Ziegfeld was one of MGM’s top movies in 1936—it won three Academy Awards including Best Picture; Louis B. Mayer with young MGM stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; Shirley Temple signing with MGM in 1941 with Mayer, Garland and Rooney. (theguardian.com/Wikipedia/facebook.com)
Mayer (1884–1957) is credited with helping to create the “star system” in Hollywood. “The idea of a star being born is bush-wah,” Mayer once said. “A star is made, created; carefully and cold-bloodedly built up from nothing, from nobody.” Mayer believed he “made” his stars, and therefore had the right to control their careers as well as their very lives. Pringle explained the predicament of actress Joan Crawford:
MAYER-MADE…Louis B. Mayer not only gave Joan Crawford a new name (she was born Lucille LeSueur), he was also instrumental in transforming her from a dancer to a major Hollywood star. Throughout her career at MGM Crawford pestered Mayer for better roles (until she finally left MGM in 1943). However, they remained friends until his death in 1957. Crawford once called Mayer “the best friend I ever had.” (Wikipedia/imdb.com)
Many stars were less forgiving than Crawford regarding Mayer’s controlling behavior. Although many male actors saw him as a father figure, women often had a very different view. A young Elizabeth Taylor called him a “monster” for his attempts to oversee her life, while Judy Garland was forced to go on diets and take amphetamines and barbiturates to meet Mayer’s punishing work schedules. Many believe this led to Garland’s lifelong addiction issues.
* * *
Water Water Everywhere
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White was at a loss for words to describe the floods in the northeastern U.S. that followed a bitter winter. A combination of rain and the melting of heavy snowpack caused massive damage in the Connecticut and Merrimack River valleys as well as in the Pittsburgh area. In addition to approximately two hundred fatalities, hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
DELUGE…The flooding in Albany, NY, in 1936 (top) was part of a series of devastating floods that affected much of the northeastern United States. Below, the Holyoke Dam in Massachusetts, March 19, 1936. (South Hadley Public Library/sungazette.com)
White’s “Notes” also included an update on the “aesthetic restlessness” at Rockefeller Center, where the statues Youth and Maiden were removed from the Paul Manship-designed Prometheus fountain. The artist decided the two bronze figures did not fit well in the fountain, so they were moved to the roof garden of the Palazzo d’Italia.
EXILED…Paul Manship’s two gilded figures, Youth and Maiden, representing mankind receiving the fire, originally flanked Prometheus (top photo). In 1936 they were moved to the roof garden of the Palazzo d’Italia, but were returned to the Plaza in the 1980s. Pictured below, the six-foot statues were again moved in 2001 to the top of the Plaza staircase between the Channel Gardens and the Sunken Plaza.(mcny.org/Elisa.rolle/photo-opsblogspot.com)
* * *
Pyramid Scheme
“The Talk of the Town” commented on some unusual research conducted by Dr. A.E. Strath-Gordon, in which he used measurements from the Great Pyramid to predict the end of the Depression. Excerpts:
JUST READ THE STONES…Dr. A.E. Strath-Gordon (1873–1952) was a spiritualist, researcher, author, and lecturer on the occult and paranormal subjects. (strathgordon.wordpress.com)
* * *
Deeper South
James Thurber had some fun with novels about the Deep South that sought to employ authentic dialogue—but not as successfully as novelist Erskine Caldwell. These excerpts are the first and last paragraphs from the piece.
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED…Erskine Caldwell’s writings about poverty and racism in his native South included novels such as Tobacco Road (1932) and God’s Little Acre (1933). Unlike Thurber’s parody, Caldwell’s writing style has been described as spare, direct and unadorned. (Wikipedia/etsy.com)
* * *
An Introduction
I didn’t know much about the novelist Leane Zugsmith until I read her short story in the March 28, 1936 edition of The New Yorker. During the 1930s she was prominent among writers who focused on the struggles of the working class during the Great Depression. “Mr. Milliner” was the eighth short story she published in the magazine, out of a total of fifteen from 1934 to 1949. Here are the opening lines:
FED UP…Writer Leane Zugsmith(1903–1969) focused on the shortcomings of capitalism in her novels and short stories, including her 1936 novel A Time to Remember, which depicted a department store strike and the rise of white-collar unions. She published fifteen short stories in The New Yorker from 1934 to 1949. (bolerium.com)
* * *
Over There
In her latest dispatch from Paris, Janet Flanner noted the growing anxiety among Parisians over Germany’s arms buildup and its re-occupation of the Rhineland.
HAIRY HEADLINES…Janet Flanner noted the anxious crowds around newspaper kiosks (unlike the quiet image above) and the boos being issued by the market women in the Halles (at passing soldiers) as war with Germany was being seen as inevitable. (tresors-de-paris.com/mattbarrett-travel.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Lillian Hellman’s drama The Children’s Hour premiered on Broadway on Nov. 24, 1934, and ran for 691 performances—but bringing it to the screen in the era of the Motion Picture Production Code (aka Hays Code) proved a bit tricky, according to film critic John Mosher. Hellman’s play centered on a schoolgirl’s false accusation of lesbianism against two of her teachers, or as Mosher put it rather delicately, “a friendship of two young women…characterized by such emotional undercurrents as are not held seemly for screen exposition.”
Hellman rewrote the play to conform to the Code, removing any mention of lesbianism and changing the dramatic focus to a schoolteacher accused of having sex with another’s fiance. It appeared in 1936 under the title These Three.
Mosher wished the film could have included Florence McGee, who portrayed the conniving student protagonist Mary Tilford in the original play. The part in These Three went instead to Bonita Granville, who at age fourteen earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Mary Tilford.
TWO TAKES…Florence McGee (pictured at right, seated center) portrayed the conniving student protagonist Mary Tilford in the Broadway production of The Children’s Hour. The part of Mary Tilford in the re-written film version of the play, These Three, went to Bonita Granville (left), who at age fourteen earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance. (oscarchamps.com/Wikipedia)THREE TOTALLY STRAIGHT PEOPLE…Joel McCrea, Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins starred in These Three, a cinematic rewrite of Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour. (quadcinema.com)
Mosher also reviewed Petticoat Fever, a “trifle” starring Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery.
BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE…Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery in Petticoat Fever. Montgomery was the father of Elizabeth Montgomery, best known for her portrayal of Samantha Stephens on the TV sitcom Bewitched. (IMDb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
The inside front cover advertisement belonged to the “House of Schenley,” which emphasized the purity of Kentucky’s “limestone waters”…
…the makers of Packard automobiles also appealed to bucolic sensibilities with this homespun image…
…the Easter Parade has been a New York tradition since the 1870s, when New York’s elite would walk down Fifth Avenue to show off the latest European fashions…the event was largely centered around churches like St. Patrick’s, hence the ad from its neighbor across the street, Rockefeller Center…today the event is called the Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival, a more inclusive event featuring eccentric, handcrafted bonnets…
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…a twelve-cylinder engine was usually a feature of top-of-the-line luxury automobiles, but the folks at Lincoln put one into their medium-priced Zephyr…the car succeeded in reigniting sales at Lincoln dealerships during the Depression…
…beginning in the late nineteenth century cigarette companies included coupons that could be redeemed for items ranging from cocktail sets to silk stockings (per this ad)…Brown & Williamson, the makers of Raleigh and Kool cigarettes, featured coupons on the back of every pack, and smokers could write the company for a free premium catalog…
…this Raleigh catalog from the early 1950s even featured toys…250 coupons could get you a “Teddy bear with plastic nose”…so keep on puffing…
…Luckies went with the glamour of flying, an experience only the well-heeled could afford…
…on to our cartoonists, we have Richard Taylor…
…and Barbara Shermund welcoming us into the issue…
…and a this nice spot from Christina Malman…
…Al Frueh gave us his interpretation of Saint Joan…
…W.P. Trent explored the deep seas…
…Helen Hokinson revealed a secret…
…Gluyas Williams was still examining club life…
…William Steig went for a haircut (across two pages)…
…Leonard Dove received some junk mail…
…George Price uncovered a spy…
…Garrett Price assessed the price of fame…
…William Crawford Galbraith continued to explore the world of sugar daddies and chlorines…
A New Yorker State of Mind 