The President’s Mystery

Above: President Franklin D. Roosevelt was credited as a writer on the film "The President's Mystery," although his role was more one of inspiration; at right, Betty Furness and Henry Wilcoxon starred in the film. (rottentomatoes.com)

Just one month before the 1936 general election, Republic Pictures released a film “conceived by Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

October 24, 1936 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

Yes, the president of the United States, standing for re-election in November (which he would win by a landslide), was actually credited as a writer for the film The President’s Mystery, although FDR’s actual role in the film was its concept. While visiting with Fulton Oursler, editor of Liberty magazine, Roosevelt posed the question: “How can a man disappear with five million dollars of his own money in negotiable form and not be traced?” Oursler, a close friend of the president’s, responded by enlisting several prominent authors to write a screenplay. New Yorker film critic John Mosher takes it from there:

The story behind the film was first featured in the Nov. 16, 1935 issue of Liberty magazine…

…and released as a movie on Sept. 28, 1936…

MAN OF MYSTERY…Clockwise, from top left, President **Franklin D. Roosevelt,** a fan of mysteries, conceived the idea for *The President’s Mystery*; **Henry Wilcoxon, Frank O’Connor**, an unidentified actor, and **Wade Boteler** featured on a lobby card promoting the film ; **Betty Furness, Si Jenks**, and **Henry Wilcoxon** in a promo shot for the film; poster for the film featured an image of FDR on the cover of Liberty magazine. *(instagram.com/imdb.com/themovieb.org)*

Mosher also had “pretty good fun” with the star-studded screwball comedy, Libeled Lady, which was acclaimed by critics and nominated for Best Picture:

LOVE QUADRANGLE…Lovers spats and romantic mix-ups were just part of the stew in the screwball comedy Libeled Lady. At left, **Myrna Loy** and **Spencer Tracy;** at right, **William Powell** and Jean Harlow. *(imdb.com/movie nation.com)*

There were still other films reviewed by Mosher, including The Devil is a Sissy, starring sixteen-year-old Mickey Rooney, still emerging as a star, as well as famed child actors Jackie Cooper and Freddie Bartholomew. There was also a film featuring Clark Gable as a prize fighter, and a movie titled The Longest Night, ironically the shortest feature ever produced by MGM—just 51 minutes.

STREET SMARTS…**Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper,** and Freddie Bartholomew in *The Devil is a Sissy*, a story about a posh kid who befriends a couple of ruffians; **Clark Gable** was down for the count in *Cain and Mabel,* co-starring **Marion Davies**; **Robert Young** teamed up with **Florence Rice** in the mystery-thriller, *The Longest Night*—Florence Rice was the only child of sportswriter **Grantland Rice**. (Wikipedia/mubi.com/tcm.com)

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A Second Life

E.B. White still wasn’t done with the new Life magazine—recall his “Notes and Comment” from Sept. 19, when he lamented a magazine that would “consist almost entirely of pictures” and would “do away with the last vestiges of privacy in America.” Here White notes the purchase of Life by Time, Inc., and compares it to the old Life.

ASKING FOR MERCY…**E.B. White** hoped the new *Life* magazine would have some of the mercy and grace of its predecessor. (sunrisepoint.com/time.com)

LIFELESS…Launched in 1883, *Life* was an American humor and general-interest magazine. Purchased and shut down in 1936 by Henry Luce, he replaced it with his new, and very different Life. The image above is the cover of the Feb. 2, 1922 issue of the old magazine. (Wikipedia)

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A Sensitive Hamlet

There are as many approaches to playing Hamlet as there are versions of the famous Shakespeare play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In the case of actor John Gielgud, as reported in “The Talk of the Town,” Hamlet was quite sane, although he was “immensely sensitive.”

MOMMY DEAREST…At left, **Judith Anderson** as Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, and **John Gielgud** as Hamlet in Broadway’s 1936 production of the Shakespeare play; at right, **Carl Van Vechten** portrait of Gielgud during the actor’s time on Broadway, December 1936. Gielgud is widely regarded as one of the definitive Hamlets of the 20th century. *(newyorktheater.me/newworldencyclopedia.org)*

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Safety Last

Morris Markey was on hand for the Vanderbilt Cup Race (recently featured here), offering a track-side look at the pit crews. Notable in this excerpt is the complete lack of safety protocols, from gasoline poured out of wide-mouthed cans to smoking and drinking among drivers and pit crews. The race winner, Tazio Nuvolari (who refuses some brandy but puffs on a cigarette) would eventually have to retire by 1950 due to his total deafness and other health problems—he spent years racing in an open cockpit with the manifold ends right next to his ear. Those combustion gases—containing gasoline juiced with methanol, benzene, acetone, and nitrobenzene—easily penetrated Nuvolari’s ears and nose and were absorbed directly into his skin and bloodstream.

GUTS AND GLORY…Italian racing legend **Tazio Nuvolari** (1892–1953) with his Alfa Romeo before the start of the 1935 Nice Grand Prix in France. Nuvolari easily won the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island. *(notenoughcylinders.com)*

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Color My World

The works of John Marin, considered one of America’s finest water-colorists, were featured in a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. In addition to a review by art critic Lewis Mumford, Marin was featured in this mini bio on the opening pages…caricature by William Auerbach-Levy…

MASTER WATER-COLORIST…**John Marin’s** *Movement No. 2, Related to Downtown New York (The Black Sun)*, 1926. Image reproduced from the 1936 MoMA exhibition catalog. (moma.org)

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From Our Advertisers

The Oct. 24 issue opened with this advertisement by the distillers of Old Taylor, who continued to compare their product to the work of “masters,” here the painter Frederic Remington…

…on the opposite page, this spare ad from Chrysler, a stark contrast to their previous week’s very wordy appeal…

…the promoters of Budweiser took a cue from the whiskey distillers, invoking the words of an historic personage to promote their product…

…predating modern thermostats by decades, the mechanical Chronotherm was one of the earliest automated room thermostats ever produced by the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company…it was often used to control coal or early heating systems by automatically adjusting dampers or furnaces on a schedule…

The Minneapolis-Honeywell Chronotherm retailed for about $41 in the 1930s (equivalent to roughly $970 today). It was considered a high-end luxury upgrade for the home. *(si.edu)*

…Martini & Rossi would have about six more months to serve their vermouth on the Hindenburg before it would go down in a fireball on May 6, 1937…

…the illustrations in this No-Mal ad mimicked the style of Otto Soglow to market a new patent medicine touted as a stimulant and hangover cure, among other things…these remedies often contained heavy doses of caffeine plus aspirin, mild laxatives, and antacids, while some also contained the amphetamine Benzedrine…

…model railroading for adults started to build up steam in the 1930s…here’s a back of the book ad aimed at those who couldn’t afford to travel but who could afford a Scale-Craft kit…