Nazi Germany – A New Yorker State of Mind

The Harsh Glare of Fame

Above: Posters advertising The Country Doctor, a film featuring the Dionne Quintuplets as "The Wyatt Quintuplets." (Wikipedia/imdb.com)

The Dionne Quintuplets, famed as the first quintuplets known to have survived infancy, appeared in a motion picture before their second birthday—The Country Doctor—just one example of the many ways the girls were exploited by the province of Ontario, their doctor, their father, and the companies who used their images to sell everything from toys to toothpaste.

March 21, 1936 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

The Country Doctor was the first of three 20th Century Fox films featuring the toddlers as the “The Wyatt Quintuplets.” Actor Jean Hersholt played the country doctor (“Dr. John Luke”) in all three films, his character based on Allan Roy Dafoe, the Ontario obstetrician who successfully delivered the identical quints in 1934. It was a sign of the times that no one seemed too concerned about the children’s welfare—The New Yorker’s John Mosher was joined by his fellow critics in generally praising the film.

MARKETING MATERNITY…*The Country Doctor* was the first of three 20th Century Fox films featuring the Dionne Quintuplets. Clockwise, from top left: **Slim Summerville, Jean Hersholt**, and **John Qualen** in *The Country Doctor*; Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn with the quintuplets in 1934; a 1936 book based on the film; a 1937 ad for Karo Syrup, a major sponsor of the girls and Dr. Dafoe; an array of quintuplet-related toys included paper dolls and the much sought after Madame Alexander dolls. (Wikipedia/ebay.com/facebook.com/pbs.org)

The Dionne Quintuplets were used to endorse an array of products including Quaker Oats, Colgate toothpaste, Palmolive soap, and Lysol disinfectant. Dr. Dafoe became a wealthy man due to his association with the quintuplets, while the government of Ontario saw enormous tourism potential (the girls were made wards of the province ostensibly to protect them from exploitation). At the age of four months the quintuplets were moved from the farmhouse where they were born to a compound (“Quintland”) that featured an outdoor playground designed as a public observation area.

SURROUNDED BY RICHES…at left, **Allen Roy DaFoe** on a postcard with the Dionne Quintuplets; tourists consult sign for the next public showing of the “Quints.”*(roadtripusa.com/facebook.com)*

CHA-CHING…**Oliva Dionne,** the quintuplets’ father, ran this souvenir and refreshment stand at Quintland, where the public flocked to view the girls playing. *(montrealgazette.com)*

The last surviving quintuplet, Annette, died on December 24, 2025, at the age of 91. Her sister Cécile died a few months earlier, also at age of 91.

John Mosher also reviewed Mae West’s latest film, Klondike Annie. Some critics regarded it as her finest film, despite heavy censorship and the outrage of “Decency people.”

GO WEST, WEST…**Mae West** portrayed a kept woman who murders her keeper in self-defense and escapes to Nome, Alaska in *Klondike Annie*. At left, West in a scene with Son Yong; at right, with **Phillip Reed**. *(Pinterest)*

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St. Katharine

Robert Benchley found Katharine Cornell’s theatrical performance in Saint Joan to be “as fine as was expected.” An excerpt:

KNOWN QUANTITIES was how **Robert Benchley** described the talents of stage actress **Katharine Cornell.** At left, Cornell as Saint Joan; at right, Cornell (1893–1974) is perhaps best known in her role as **Elizabeth Barrett** in the 1931 Broadway production of *The Barretts of Wimpole Street. (Wikipedia)*

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It Begins…

On March 7, 1936, 22,000 German army troops crossed a bridge over the Rhine River and entered the Rhineland, breaking the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which mandated a demilitarized Rhineland to ensure French safety. Despite the violation, and the fact that the German army was still weak, France and Britain took no military action. E.B. White reported:

REOCCUPATION…On March 7, 1936, German Army troops crossed a bridge over the Rhine River and entered the Rhineland for the first time since the end of World War I. The lack of response from France and Great Britain no doubt emboldened Hitler to annex Austria and occupy Czechoslovakia in 1938. (iwm.org.uk)

Howard Brubaker, in his column “Of All Things,” also noted:

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Some Pretty Things

“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to the Museum for the Arts of Decoration at the Cooper Union and found many treasures within, including a unique circular elevator.

BRIDGE TO THE PAST…The Cooper Union’s Museum for the Arts of Decoration held many treasures, including (at bottom) an Italian birdcage fashioned to resemble the Rialto Bridge; at top, rooms filled with examples from the decorative arts. *(cooperhewitt.org)*

The “Talk” visit included a ride up a circa 1850s elevator shaft designed by inventor Peter Cooper four years before safety elevators even existed. The design was based on Cooper’s belief that the circular shape was the most efficient.

ROUND AND SOUND…At left, entrance to Peter Cooper’s circa 1850s round elevator and the elevator’s shaft at the Cooper Union Foundation Building. The round shaft remains a central feature of the building today, now housing a modern round elevator designed in 1972. (Cooper Union Library)

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Commie Cutlery

American non-fiction writer Carl Carmer published the first part of a two-part essay on the revolutionary Oneida Community, which Carmer dubbed “a materially successful communist experiment…”

This polyamorous Christian utopia disbanded before the end of the 19th century and reemerged as a joint-stock company, Oneida Community Limited, which focused on making silverware. This brief excerpt is from the first paragraph.

COHABITING COMRADES…Oneida commune members gather on the lawn in front of the Community Mansion House in in Madison County, New York, circa 1860s. Members of the community practiced free love, women and men had equal freedom in sexual expression and commitment, and children were raised communally. (collectorsweekly.com)

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From Our Advertisers

Yes, take a doctor’s advice, and put some leaded gas in your car, and into the air you breathe…

…R.J. Reynolds presented three women who exemplified the “society model” trend of the 1930s…well-known debs and socialites who provided an air of prestige to a brand…especially cigarettes…

…Lorillard Tobacco Company, on the other hand, stuck with pin-up artist George Petty to push their Old Golds…

…General Motors took out the middle spread to tout their low-priced luxury automobile, the La Salle…

…the convertible La Salle looked handsome, if not a bit brisk with the top down…

…American luxury carmaker Packard proudly displayed their twelve-cylinder luxury model, but reminded readers they could have a lesser model, the 120, for a price “in the $1,000 field”…

…a couple of one-column ads…Don Herold helped Hale’s move mattresses, while fashion columnist Alma Archer employed class anxiety to promote her new book, The Secrets of Smartness and the Art of Allure…

SMARTNESS AUTHORITY **Alma Archer** in 1937. Archer (1898–1988) wrote a widely read column for the *New York Mirror* that was syndicated in more than a thousand newspapers.

…if you have been following this blog, you’ll recall the ads with angry duchesses fuming over tomato juice and rich old men fondly recalling their countrified youth via canned corn niblets…well here is one robber baron who needed some niblets pronto to quiet his rage…maybe a snifter or two of brandy would have also helped…

…on to our cartoonists, James Thurber kicked things off on page two…

…the “Goings On” section concluded on page four with this drawing by Charles Addams…

…a couple more spot drawings from the issue by Christina Malman (left) and Richard Taylor…

…Al Frueh offered this interpretation of the players in End of Summer…

…and we have Thurber again, with a hard-to-miss distraction…

…William Steig continued to explore the varieties of “Holy Wedlock”…

…Leonard Dove gave us a golddigger stranded at sea…

…Gardner Rea put a captain of industry in a tight spot…

…Ned Hilton encountered a hairy challenge…

…Eli Garson demonstrated some remarkable foot dexterity…

…while Robert Day showed a lack of dexterity a construction site…

…Charles Addams revealed a materialist in the brotherhood…

…Peter Arno’s charwomen let a sleeping dog lie…

…and we close Garrett Price, and one perceptive lad…

Next Time: Star Maker…

Nostalgic Notes

Above: Nightlife correspondent Lois Long checked out the latest clubs as well as old-time favorites in her column "Tables for Two." From left, advertisement for Restaurant Larue; Josephine Baker in 1937; and the entrance to Monte Proser's Beachcomber, an early iteration of the tiki bar that would become ubiquitous in midcentury America. (eBay.com/Wikipedia/mytiki.life)

Part three of Janet Flanner’s profile of Adolf Hitler can be found below, but it’s time to lead with something more pleasant, namely Manhattan nightlife through the eyes of Lois Long.

In her “Tables for Two” column headlined “Nostalgic Notes,” Long checked out the new Chez Josephine Baker, the garden-like delights of Restauarnt Larue, and the French-themed Le Coq Rouge.

NEW NIGHTLIFE…Clockwise from top left, ad for *Restaurant Larue;* 1930s postcard showing interior of *Larue*; **Josephine Baker,** proprietor of *Chez Josephine Baker;* ad for *Le Coq Rouge;* interior of *Le Coq Rouge,* 1930s. (eBay/Wikipedia)

Long also noted the Beachcomber Bar, which originated in the basement of an old church, and actor Dan Healy’s Broadway Room.

MAN ABOUT TOWN…**Dan Healy** was a well-known master of ceremonies in the Manhattan nightlife scene. He married the famed “boop-boop-a-doop” singer (and possible Betty Boop inspiration) **Helen Kane** in 1939—they later opened a New York restaurant together called Healy’s Grill. (whosdatedwho.com/Facebook)

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Bummed Out

E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) referred to confessional essays published in Esquire magazine by F. Scott Fitzgerald that frankly described his struggles with alcoholism and the decline of his literary reputation. The confessional tone of the essays (three in all, published in February, March and April 1936) proved controversial at the time.

In his first essay, “The Crack-Up,” Fitzgerald famously observed that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

A CRY FOR HELP?…At left, **F. Scott Fitzgerald** in the 1930s (top), and, apparently during happier days (below, with wife Zelda); at right, the opening page of “The Crack-Up.” (esquire.com/pbs.org)

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Say What?

New Yorker writers rarely missed an opportunity to poke fun of Time magazine’s unique ways with the English language. E.B. White again, in an excerpt:

TIMEWORDS…The March 16, 1936 issue of *Time*, and E.B. White. (time.com/imdb.com)

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Dying to Know

“The Talk of the Town” made brief mention of a rumor regarding Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton’s health. Reports of her demise were premature; she died in 1979.

HANGING IN THERE…**Barbara Hutton** with husband no. 2, **Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow,** circa 1936. Hutton married seven times, including a brief marriage to actor **Cary Grant**, who was husband no. 3. (whosdatedwho.com)

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Part Three

Janet Flanner completed her three-part profile of Adolf Hitler by looking into the man’s mind, if that was even possible.

OBEDIENT MASSES…Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler addresses soldiers at a rally in Dortmund, Germany, 1933. (encyclopedia.ushmm.org)

Flanner also noted the Führer’s early days as an unsuccessful painter, and an odd wedding gift to his buddy Hermann Göring:

GOOSED…Top, **Adolf Hitler** presented a specially painted copy of Correggio’s *Leda with the Swan* as a wedding gift to **Hermann Göring** and actress **Emmy Sonnemann** on April 10, 1935; below, Hitler painted this watercolor during his pre-WWI time in Munich, from May 1913 to August 1914. (Wikipedia)

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China Syndrome

Supporting herself as a writer for The New Yorker, Emily Hahn’s years in Shanghai, China (1935 to 1941) were tumultuous. Living in the city’s red light district, she became romantically involved with the Chinese poet and publisher Shao Xunmei (aka Sinmay Zau) and became addicted to opium. In this excerpted short essay, Hahn described her literary encounters with Shao Xunmei (here referred to as “Pan Heh-ven”) and a passel of translators.

ENOUGH OF THAT…**Emily Hahn** became romantically involved with the Chinese poet and publisher **Shao Xunmei** (aka Sinmay Zau), but ultimately left him in order to break her opium addiction. (Wikipedia)

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At the Movies

Critic John Mosher did his best to stay awake during the latest fare from Hollywood…

SPECIOUS SPECTACLE…Top, from left, **Louise Fazenda, Paul Draper, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell** and Hugh Herbert in *Colleen*; below, **Wendy Barrie** and **Gene Raymond** in *Love on a Bet.* (cometoverhollywood.com/imdb.com)

Mosher also commented on a film he walked out on (The Farmer in the Dell), and considered the twentieth anniversary of Intolerance, a 1916 drama that had become a “cheap amusement.”

HO HUM…Critic **John Mosher** walked out of *The Farmer in the Dell,* mostly due to boredom—above, **Frank Albertson, Jean Parker, Fred Stone** and Esther Dale in the romcom *The Farmer in the Dell;* below, scene from **D.W. Griffith’s** epic silent film from 1916, *Intolerance.* (imdb.com/cinemafromthespectrum.com)

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From Our Advertisers

The folks at Hormel once again claimed the inside front cover with this array of soups featured sideways, in full color…

…the illustrator of this Lord & Taylor advertisement hoped to superimpose a pair of shoes over a woman’s face, with less than convincing results…

…the makers of Packard automobiles sent a condescending message “To The Ladies,” promising not to “bore them” with talk of mechanical features…

…a sampling of one-column ads featured, from left, the renowned Russian Eagle cafe-bar at the Sherry-Netherland, the Modernage furniture store on East 33rd, and the Milwaukee Road railroad, which offered adventure at such places as a Montana dude ranch…

…the inside back cover featured this drawing of actress/dancer/singer June Knight by Abe Birnbaum…

…Birnbaum was a terrific artist, but his portrait of Knight was not terribly flattering…this is what she looked like in the 1930s…

**June Knight** (1913–1987) circa 1930s. (reddit.com)

…on to the cartoons, we kick off the issue with Canadian cartoonist Richard Taylor…

…and Taylor again, striking a pose…

…Arnold Hall contributed an example of floral marketing…

…Al Frueh contributed to “The Theatre” section…

…Jack Markow did some rubbernecking…

…Howard Baer welcomed a new tax deduction to the world…

…Perry Barlow drew up impressions of a field trip to the Hayden Planetarium…

…Barlow again…

…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” explained herself…

…Barbara Shermund interpreted modern dance…

…Alain sought some dish over tea with the vicar…

…and we close with James Thurber, and a penny for her thoughts…

Next Time: The Harsh Glare of Fame…

Making of a Madman

Above: At left, the Nazi Party sought to remake Christian holidays such as Christmas into Nazi-themed, pagan events, even trying to redefine St. Nicholas as Wotan, the ancient Germanic deity; at right, Adolf Hitler rejected Christianity, calling it a Jewish plot to undermine the heroic ideals of the Aryan-dominated Roman Empire. Here he is seen meeting the nuncio to Germany, Cesare Orsenigo, on January 1, 1935. (reddit.com/Wikipedia)

For the March 7 issue we look at the second part of Janet Flanner’s profile of German dictator Adolf Hitler, in which she attempted to identify the social and political influences that led to his peculiar vision of the world.

March 7, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.

Flanner noted that Hitler’s ancestors were intermarrying, pious Roman Catholic peasants, including his parents, second cousins Klara Pölzl and Alois Hitler. While Klara was a doting parent, Alois was often abusive and distant. And so it began.

MOM AND DAD…**Adolf Hitler’s** parents were second cousins Klara Pölzl (1860–1907) and **Alois Hitler** (1837–1903). Pölzl was the third wife of the much older Hitler, who was a stern, mid-level Austrian customs official. (Wikipedia)

Flanner described Hitler’s struggles as an artist (rejected twice by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts), however his real disappointment was nationalistic; serving as a courier (and wounded) in World War I, he blamed internal traitors for Germany’s defeat. To bolster his patriotic ideals, Hitler turned to books, and particularly to poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)—the Nazis would later manipulate Schiller’s works to fit the Party’s themes of nationalism, struggle, and obedience. Hitler would further hone his world view through the works of white supremacist Count de Gobineau (1816–1882), nihilist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), and philologist Max Müller (1823–1900), whose work inadvertently contributed to the idea of a superior “Aryan” race.

REWRITING HISTORY…Clockwise, from top, a 1940 Nazi propaganda film, *Friedrich Schiller— Der Triumph eines Genies*, portrayed Schiller (played by actor **Horst Caspar**) as an idealistic *Übermensch;* Hitler and the Nazis were also influenced by white supremacist **Count de Gobineau;** philologist Max Müller; and the nihilist philosopher **Friedrich Nietzsche.** *(film portal.de/Wikipedia)*

In her conclusion, Flanner noted Hitler’s dislike of jokes at his own expense, and she was surprised that German comedian Weiss Ferdl, known for his “Führer gibes,” wasn’t in a concentration camp with cabaret singer Claire Waldorff (somehow both survived the regime and the war). Flanner also touched on Hitler’s antipathy toward Christianity.

SURVIVORS…At left, **Weiss Ferdl** (1883-1949) was a German actor, humorous folksinger known for his jibes at Hitler; at right, **Claire Waldorff** (1884-1957) was a famous cabaret singer and entertainer in Berlin, known for performing ironic songs with lesbian undertones. *(Wikimedia Commons)*

I’LL TRY TO KILL YOU LATER…German Chancellor **Adolf Hitler** greets (l to r) Roman Catholic Abbot **Albanus Schachleiter** and Protestant Reichsbischof **Ludwig Müller,** outside the Frauenkirche in Nuremberg, September 1934. (Wikipedia)

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Thrill Ride

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White described “one of the strangest nightmares of motordom”…

THE GREAT WALL…**E.B. White** feared whatever might pop out of the dark tunnels on the northern stretches of Park Avenue. Clockwise, from top, an 1876 illustration of the new viaduct through the Harlem Flats; E. 108th Street pedestrian tunnel between Lexington and Park; Park Avenue Viaduct–La Marqueta. (Wikipedia/manhattanwalkblog.com/6tocelebrate.org)

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Ding-dong

Robert Benchley filed a brief review of The Postman Always Rings Twice, a stage adaptation at the Lyceum Theatre of James M. Cain’s acclaimed novel. Although the play was well received by audiences, many reviewers found the subject matter distasteful. Cain would later describe the 1936 production as “a dreadful experience from beginning to end.”

SCHEMERS AND DREAMERS…**Richard Barthelmess** and **Mary Philips** portrayed star-crossed lovers in the 1936 stage production of *The Postman Always Rings Twice*. Philips was a noted Broadway performer and Humphey Bogart’s first wife. (Wikipedia/imdb.com)

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At the Movies

Critic John Mosher commented on familiar Hollywood tropes (doctors chasing nurses, execs pursuing secretaries etc.) and offered up the “tepid” example of Wife vs. Secretary, which featured three of Tinseltown’s top stars.

MILD HIJINKS…At left, **Clark Gable** and Jean Harlow in a scene from *Wife vs. Secretary*; at right, Gable with **Myrna Loy.** *(faintlyfamiliar.com/facebook.com)*

Mosher didn’t find much excitement in the dog-themed picture The Voice of Bugle Ann, and was left flat after seeing Road Gang and the German film Liebelei.

SWEET AND SOUR…**Lionel Barrymore** and Spring Byington were on one side of a feud over a special dog in *The Voice of Bugle Ann.* (tcm.com)

WELL THIS SUCKS…At left, **Donald Woods** and Carlyle Moore Jr. find themselves behind bars in *Road Gang;* at right, **Paul Hörbiger** and **Olga Tschechowa** in 1933’s Liebelei (aka Playing at Love). (rotten tomatoes.com/screenslate.com)

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Language Arts

H.L. Mencken continued his exploration of American English by taking a look at past attempts to simplify spelling—most of them unsuccessful. Excerpts:

NOT ONE FOR GIMMICKS…**H.L. Mencken** at his desk at the Baltimore Sun. *(Paris Review)*

Mencken noted the Chicago Tribune’s radical approach to simplified spelling in 1934, and the lasting effects of Noah Webster’s American dictionary.

“PEDAGOGUE” was one of the milder insults cast at **Noah Webster** by his peers. (National Portrait Gallery)

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First World Problem

Food critic Sheila Hibben looked into the complexities of tea-drinking during the cocktail hour, and vice-versa.

CHOOSE YOUR MOOD…The Plaza Hotel offered the ideal setting for whatever libation one chose at tea time. At left, the Plaza’s Persian Room, 1934, and the Palm Court, undated photo. (cooperhewitt.org/mcny.org)

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Finer Things

Rebecca West was a brilliant journalist and gifted prose writer, and when she published something people took notice, including critic Clifton Fadiman, who noted her return with The Thinking Reed. A brief excerpt:

A MIGHTY PEN…**Rebecca West** (1892-1983) was considered one of the finest prose writers of twentieth-century England. This 1934 photograph was produced by **Howard Coster.** (National Portrait Gallery)

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From Our Advertisers

The March 7 issue opened to this sumptuous image of luxury travel aboard the Normandie…

…the salons of Dorothy Gray returned with another tale of a magical transformation, here the plain “Miss Adams” suddenly becomes lovely and exciting thanks to the illusion of cosmetics…

…the makers of Packard automobiles took out this full page ad to gently chastise Time magazine for questioning the carmaker’s adherence to a timeless, “basic design”…

…although in Time’s defense the Packard didn’t look much different from this Lincoln…

…what did look different was the Chrysler/DeSoto Airflow, which had disappointing sales due to a streamlined design that was a bit too radical for consumers…

…actress and costume designer Kate Lawson (1894-1977) made her image available to promote washable wallpaper…

…in addition to calming nerves and boosting energy, Camels apparently aided one’s digestion, or so this ad claimed…

…Liggett & Myers stuck with the homespun approach, here three generations light up Chesterfields in the warm glow of the parlor…

…did you spot the cigarettes in the ad?…

…on to the cartoons, we have Al Frueh’s take on the Ziegfeld Follies…

…James Thurber contributed this to the calendar section…

…and Thurber again with his beloved dogs…

…George Price found a glitch at the weather bureau…

…Californians circled their wagons in the hostile Midwest, per Carl Rose…

…Alain saw a trip to the dentist in this man’s future…

…Helen Hokinson lost us in the peculiarities of needlepoint…

…Barbara Shermund found a bargain in portraiture…

…and Shermund again, in the dress department…

…and we close with Whitney Darrow Jr, and something to write about…

Next Time: Nostalgic Notes…

Führer Furor

Above, left, Janet Flanner regards the cover of the Sept. 13, 1931 issue of The New Yorker; at right, Adolf Hitler's chosen filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl at Nuremberg's "Shovel Day" parade, 1936. (Library of Congress/Sueddeutscher Verlag)

The February 29, 1936 issue stands out from pack not only for its cover—James Thurber’s first—but also for the magazine’s first in-depth look at a man who would spark the deadliest conflict in human history.

February 29, 1936 cover by James Thurber. This was the first of six covers Thurber contributed to *The New Yorker.* You can see all six covers at Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill, the go-to site for all things Thurber and so much more. **UPDATE:** Also check Maslin’s post regarding the repeat of this cover on Sept. 4, 2023. Fascinating read!

Before we jump in…Thurber’s close friend E.B. White noted another unusual fact about this issue…

…twenty-eight years later, and a dime extra (cover by Garrett Price)…

* * *

Inside the Feb. 29 issue, The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent Janet Flanner published the first part of a three-part profile on German dictator Adolf Hitler. In this first excerpt she described the Führer’s ascetic diet and personality (caricature by William Cotton).

NAZI NUM NUMS….Adolf Hitler with one of his official food tasters, **Margot Woelk**, during World War II. Woelk later claimed she was the sole survivor from a group of food tasters who were summarily executed by the Red Army after the fall of Berlin. *(warfarehistorynetwork.com)*

Flanner described Hitler’s relationships with influential women, particularly filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS…**Adolf Hitler** had influential admirers both in and outside of Germany, including, clockwise, from top left, filmmaker **Leni Riefenstahl** (in the white skirt described by Flanner) at the 1936 “Shovel Day” in Nuremburg; **Winifred Wagner,** daughter-in-law of composer **Richard Wagner,** in 1925; Hitler with **Unity Mitford,** one of six aristocratic Mitford sisters and a fanatical Nazi; Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl with another Mitford sister, **Diana Mitford,** at a 1934 Nuremberg rally. Diana as married to **Oswald Mosley,** leader of the British Union of Fascists, and Hanfstaengl was the son of **Katharina Wilhelmina Hanfstaengl,** a prominent Munich art publisher who helped finance Hitler’s rise to power. *(Sueddeutscher Verlag/Wikipedia/historyreader.com)*

Flanner concluded the piece with a look at Hitler’s sexuality, which seemed non-existent, and drew an ominous conclusion about his personality type.

EXPENDABLE…**Ernst Röhm** with Adolf Hitler in 1933. Although Hitler knew Röhm was gay, he also valued Röhm’s leadership and organizational skills, that is until his presence proved a liability. Röhm was murdered by the SS in 1934 during the “Night of the Long Knives.” *(Wikipedia)*

As part of a centenary series, The New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz recently looked at Flanner’s profile of Hitler, noting that she was “neither an antifascist, like her friend Dorothy Parker, nor a Fascist, like her friend Ezra Pound; she was against crude bigotry, but she was not the world’s greatest philo-Semite.”

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Lamour Amour

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White pointed out the challenges of expressing physical beauty over a non-visual medium like radio:

TELEGENIC…Hopefully E.B. White managed to see **Dorothy Lamour** on the “television waves… bumping along over the Alleghenies.” At left, publicity photo of Lamour from 1937; at right, Lamour appeared as a mystery guest on *What’s My Line?*, Feb. 20, 1955, seen here with host John Daly. In later years Lamour was a guest on a number of television shows, ranging from *Marcus Welby, M.D.* to *Remington Steele. (Wikipedia/YouTube.com)*

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Shadow Plays

Morris Bishop (1893-1973), a noted scholar of the Middle Ages as well as a writer of light verse, offered up these lines after screening early silent films at the Museum of Modern Art. The screenings were curated by Iris Barry to showcase MoMA’s new film library and to advance the study of film as a serious art form.

TIME CAPSULES…The Museum of Modern Art was a pioneer in the study of film as a modern art form. Among the films screened at MoMA in 1936 (clockwise, from top left): famed stage actress **Sarah Bernhardt** as Queen Elizabeth in the *Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth* (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth) with **Lou Tellegen,** 1912; Bernhardt in the film *Camille* (*La Dame aux camélias*) with **André Calmettes,** 1911; **Theda Bara’s** 1917 take on *Camille*, in a scene with Alan Roscoe; **Gloria Swanson** in *Zaza,* 1923. *(Wikipedia/imdb.com/YouTube.com)*

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A Reporter’s Chops

With so much attention given to James Thurber as a humorist, it is easy to forget that he was an experienced journalist, and that he could apply his considerable gifts as a writer to narrative non-fiction. For the Feb. 29 “A Reporter at Large” column, Thurber penned “Crime in the Cumberlands.” I can’t do it justice through excerpts, but I highly recommend giving it a read as a prime example of Thurber’s skills as a reporter.

SERIOUSLY SERIOUS WRITER…You can find both humorous and not-so-humorous crime stories (and drawings, of course) in 1991’s *Thurber on Crime,* edited by Robert Lopresti. “Crime in the Cumberlands” is included in the collection. *(jamesthurber.org/barnesandnoble.com)*

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At the Movies

Not so serious were the films being churned out by Hollywood, including the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers toe-tapper Follow the Fleet, set to an Irving Berlin score that featured the hit “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” Critic John Mosher was on board for the ride.

GOOD CLEAN FUN…Dance partners “Bake” Baker (**Fred Astaire**) and Sherry Martin (**Ginger Rogers**) find love during shore leave in *Follow the Fleet.* *(Toronto Film Society)*

Bandleader Harry Richman, well known in the New York nightlife scene of the 1920s and 30s, showed his acting chops in The Music Goes ‘Round…

I CAN SING TOO…**Rochelle Hudson** and **Harry Richman** in The Music Goes ‘Round. (imdb.com)

…Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sydney, Henry Fonda and Fred Stone appeared in living color in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine–it was just the second full-length feature to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first to be shot outdoors in Technicolor…

LIFELIKE…Clockwise, from top left: **Fred MacMurray; Sylvia Sydney**; a Paramount movie poster; **Henry Fonda** and **Fred Stone.** *(moviesalamark.com/imdb.com)*

…the 1936 film Rhodes (aka Rhodes of Africa) featured the massive acting talents of Walter Huston and Peggy Ashcroft; not surprisingly, the subject matter of the film has not aged well…a 2015 review in The Guardian is headlined: “Rhodes of Africa: only slightly less offensive than the man himself”…

COLONIAL KLINK…**Walter Huston** and **Peggy Ashcroft** in Rhodes. *(imdb.com)*

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with a Stage magazine ad from the inside front cover, featuring an illustration by Alexander King…

…only new-money swells would be seen doing this…old money wouldn’t dare enter the kitchen, unless they needed to sack the cook…

…on the back cover of the Feb. 29 issue you would find this elegant woman taking a break from her vanity to enjoy a “toasted” Lucky…

…we join our cartoonists, starting with this spot by Richard Taylor…

…Garrett Price got stuck over the frozen falls…

…George Price drew up a sandwich board competition…

…Al Frueh continued to illuminate “The Theatre” section…

…James Thurber posed a loaded question…

…Denys Wortman got down to some debugging…

…Carl Rose offered up another example of rugged individualism…

…Charles Addams came down to earth…

…Alain illustrated a case of jury tampering…

…Helen Hokinson demonstrated the allure of a netted hat…

…and Hokinson again, doing some early spring cleaning…

…and Barbara Shermund explored the idyll of wanderlust…

…and before we go, here is the New Yorker cover—by Helen Hokinson, Sept. 12, 1931—that was the object of Janet Flanner’s attention…

Next Time: Making of a Madman…

Two Nights At The Opera

Above: Left image, coloratura soprano Lily Pons with Henry Fonda in I Dream Too Much;at right, Kitty Carlisle and Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera. (rottentomatoes.com/IMDB)

The title of this post refers to two items below, which you’ll discover as we make our way through the December 7, 1935 issue of The New Yorker.

December 7, 1935 cover by **Robert Day.** A longtime contributor to *The New Yorker,* Day (1900-1985) contributed hundreds of cartoons as well as eight covers from 1931 to 1976.

**Robert Day** (photo from *This Week* anthology via Ink Spill.)

Our first night at the opera comes courtesy of RKO Pictures, which presented French-American coloratura soprano Lily Pons as the star of the musical rom-com I Dream Too Much. Critic John Mosher found the film enjoyable, singling out Pons for praise while chastising the screenwriters for interrupting the lively farce with some “social research.”

DREAM DATE…Clockwise, from top left: **Henry Fonda** in his third screen appearance as **Lily Pons’** love interest in RKO’s *I Dream Too Much;* movie poster and publicity photo of Pons from the film; **Lucille Ball** (seen here with actress **Esther Dale**), appeared in a bit part as a gawky American teenage tourist in Paris (which was actually an RKO studio lot)…little did Ball know that one day she would own that RKO studio lot with husband Desi Arnaz as home to their Desilu Productions facility. *(IMDB/Wikipedia/TCM)*

Mosher also said farewell to Will Rogers in his final film, In Old Kentucky, which he found to be a “minor affair.” He also reviewed The Land of Promise, a film about Palestine that indicated to Mosher that “life there is highly successful for all present.”

THIS IS GOODBYE…**Will Rogers** in a scene with **Dorothy Wilson** in Rogers’ final film appearance, *In Old Kentucky. (rotten tomatoes.com)*

ORIGIN STORY…According to the Israel Film Archive, **Judah Leman’s** *The Land of Promise* “laid the cinematic groundwork for all subsequent Zionist propaganda films that would follow.” *(IMDB)*

* * *

E.B. White keeps us on the cinema trail with some thoughts on the film, Mutiny on the Bounty, namely a certain historical inaccuracy:

AHEAD OF HIS TIME…**E.B. White** noted that Roger Byam (**Franchot Tone**) would have to wait seventy years to learn about germ theory. In addition, the trailer for *Mutiny on the Bounty* (above) incorrectly referred to Tone’s character as an ensign, when in fact Tone’s role was as a midshipman. (Wikipedia)

* * *

They Had It First

The swastika was among the more popular designs incorporated into southwestern tribal art during the American tourist era (roughly 1890 to the 1930s). For the Navajo, the symbol represented humanity and life, and was used in healing rituals (it was also widely used by tribal peoples across Europe and Asia). Tourism promoters (called “hotel men” here) encouraged the symbol’s use until the 1930s, when it was increasingly associated with Germany’s Nazi Party. E.B. White explained:

TOURIST FAVORITE…Navajo blankets such as this example, made from 1864 to 1910, were popular with tourists. (Wichita State University)

* * *

Lois Long’s fashion column continued to be dominated by exhaustive Christmas shopping lists, in this issue stretching from pages 58 to 97…here are the first and last paragraphs of the column…

* * *

A Woolly Read

Perhaps your special someone was hoping for a thousand-page book under the tree; then look no further than The Woollcott Reader, a collection of stories, essays and other literary gems by New Yorker personality and former “Shouts and Murmurs” columnist Alexander Woollcott. In this excerpt, book critic Clifton Fadiman noted that a signed copy could be had for $7.50.

MY GIFT TO THE WORLD…**Alexander Woollcott** in 1939, as photographed by **Carl Van Vechten**, and the $3 brown cloth edition. (Wikipedia/Abebooks.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Colorful advertisements brightened the 149 pages of the Dec. 7 issue…we begin with this colorful array from Martex…

…the women’s specialty shop Jane Engel commissioned one of the best-known commercial photographers of the day, Ruzzie Green, to capture this glamorous image…

…Caron Paris offered up this cheerful bouquet…

…the makers of White Rock were enjoying the fruits of post-Prohibition days…

…the publishers of Stage magazine highlighted Beatrice Lillie’s Broadway revue, At Home Abroad…

…the Capitol Theatre took out this full-page advertisement to tout the opening of the latest Marx Brothers film…

…here is a close-up of the ad’s “testimonials”…

…and what awaited audiences…

…the Lord & Thomas advertising firm imitated the New Yorker style in this full-page promotion…

…now who wouldn’t want a Philco “Radiobar” for the holidays?…

…found this one on 1stdibs.com…pretty cool…

…or you could get a little something for every one of your smoking friends (likely everyone)…

…and you could keep those holiday memories alive with a swell Kodak movie camera…

…Schrafft’s must have been something like an upscale Cracker Barrel…

…house ads from The New Yorker included this Otto Soglow-illustrated full pager…

…the magazine also touted books and poems by its contributors…

…and the Seventh New Yorker Album…

…more James Thurber here in this spot drawing for the “Books” section…

…and in this cartoon filled with holiday hijinks…

…Ilonka Karasz gave us a hockey goalie to open the calendar listings…

…George Price drew up this Depression-themed drawing at the bottom of the “Goings On” section…

…a great spot drawing by Aaron Sopher (1905–1972), who is perhaps best known for his depictions of everyday life in Baltimore…it was oddly placed amidst the “Christmas Gifts” section…

…according to Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill, Sopher contributed just two cartoons to the magazine, in the issues of June 15, 1929, and December 6, 1930 (pictured below)…

…back to the Dec. 7 issue, and at the Velodrome with Robert Day…

…who also visited an ill-suited Santa…

…Helen Hokinson pondered gift ideas…

…Carl Rose illustrated an unspeakable act at a progressive school…

…Mary Petty gave us a straightforward diagnosis…

…Alain asked us to ponder the fate of one man…

…Whitney Darrow Jr eavesdropped on some child philosophy…

…and we close with Peter Arno, and a groom’s surprise at the altar…

Next Time: Marxist Mayhem…

It Can’t Happen Here

Above: Cover of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a fascist takeover of America, It Can't Happen Here. At right, 22,000 people attended a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. (Wikipedia/Reddit)

Ninety years ago Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here, a dystopian novel that responded to the rise of fascism in Europe as well as to American demagogues like Louisiana Senator Huey Long.

October 26, 1935 cover by Roger Duvoisin. Duvoisin (1900–1980) was a Swiss-born American writer and illustrator best known for children’s picture books. He illustrated 32 covers for *The New Yorker,* along with five cartoons. Duvoisin won the Caldecott Medal in 1948 (along with author **Alvin Tresselt**) for *White Snow, Bright Snow.*

In his 2016 New Yorker article, “Getting Close to Fascism with Sinclair Lewis’s ‘It Can’t Happen Here,'” journalist Alexander Nazaryan notes how Lewis was arguing for journalism and civic education as essential pillars of democracy. The title of Lewis’s book, Nazaryan observes, suggests that ‘It’ was something more subtle: “a collective apathy, born of ignorance, and a populace that can no longer make the kind of judgments that participatory democracy requires.”

Lewis’s novel also made book critic Clifton Fadiman sit up and take notice. Here are excerpts from the first part of his review:

HOME-GROWN…American fascism was represented by organizations such as the German American Bund, the Silver Legion of America, and radio host Charles Coughlin, who opposed the New Deal and promoted conspiracy theories and antisemitic views. Clockwise, from top left: Nearly a thousand uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands and carrying Nazi banners parade past a reviewing stand in New Jersey on July 18, 1937. The New Jersey division of the German-American Bund had opened the 100-acre Camp Nordland at Sussex Hills; **Huey Long** in 1935, the same year he was assassinated; Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. (AP/Wikipedia)

If you zoom in on the photo at bottom right, you can’t help but notice the woman in the black hat, who seems a little unsure about what she is doing, especially in front of a camera…the woman to her right appears to be hiding her face.

Here is more of Fadiman’s review (click to enlarge). It’s worth a read.

WE’VE BEEN WARNED…Published nearly seventy years apart, **Sinclair Lewis’s** *It Can’t Happen Here* (1935) and **Philip Roth’s** *The Plot Against America* (2004) both explored the dangers of fascism in the United States. (pulitzer.org/Wikipedia/Nancy Crampton via stanford.edu)

* * *

It Was Happening There

In her “Letter from Paris,” Janet Flanner was noting “increasing Fascist sentiment and sympathy” in her adopted city:

OVER THERE…The French Popular Party (*Parti populaire français,* PPF) was a French fascist and anti-semitic political party led by **Jacques Doriot** before and during World War II. Formed in June 1936, with an estimated 120,000 members by 1937, it is generally regarded as the most collaborationist party of France. (thefrenchhistorypodcast.com)

* * *

All Talk

Marion Sayle Taylor (1889–1942) was the popular host of a radio advice show, The Voice of Experience. Margaret Case Harriman (1901–1966) penned a two-part profile of Taylor titled “The Voice.” I’ve included the opening lines to Part One here:

IF ONLY SHE KNEW…**Margaret Case Harriman,** left, circa 1936, profiled **Marion Sayle Taylor** before his misdeeds were revealed. (Vogue Archive/eleanorbritton.blogspot.com/Oregon Encyclopedia)

After reading both parts of Harriman’s profile piece, it appears she wasn’t yet aware that Taylor was more than a radio personality; he was also dishonest, manipulative, and opportunistic, according to a biography by Dick and Judy Wagner featured in the Oregon Encyclopedia. For example, Harriman reported (likely from Taylor’s official bio) that Taylor’s first wife, Pauline, had died in childbirth, when in fact she was quite alive and suing him for divorce that same year. Taylor also divorced his second wife, Jessie, who sued him in 1936 after he deceived her about another woman. Not surprisingly, his radio image as a reliable marriage counselor was damaged irretrievably.

FALSE ADVERTISING…A streetcar, possibly in Newark, N.J., advertising a lecture by Taylor, circa 1931. In addition to hiding a previous prison record, Taylor also falsely reported that he had studied at several universities (he did not earn a Ph.D, as the redundant title claims in the above photo). It appears Taylor also kept much of the money he solicited for charitable causes. (Oregon Encyclopedia)

* * *

Selling Pooh

Commercial cross-marketing of children’s books with toys and other products had its origins in the late nineteenth century with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and in the first years of the 20th century Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series inspired everything from dishes and wallpaper to board games and dolls—in 1903 Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy.

Then came another character from British children’s literature, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. In January 1930, Stephen Slesinger (1901–1953) purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording, and other trade rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works from Milne (for $1,000, plus royalties), marketing a wide range of products. For the column “Onward & Upward With the Arts,” St. Clair McKelway paid a visit to Slesinger at the Park Avenue offices of Winnie-the-Pooh Association, Inc. Excerpts:

KEEP YER SHIRT ON…The Parker Brothers were the first to feature Winnie-the-Pooh in color for a 1932 board game. Stephan Slesinger added the iconic red t-shirt to Pooh for the game and a children’s record, a look that was later adopted by the Disney Corporation when it acquired the rights from Slesinger’s widow and daughter in 1961. (thedisneyclassics.com)

FUNNIES MAN…At left, **Stephan Slesinger** in an undated photo. Slesinger was a radio, television and film producer, and a curator of comic strip characters including *Alley Cop, Captain Easy, Buck Rogers* and Blondie, among others; at center, a record of “Winnie-the-Pooh Songs,” 1932; an ad for the *Red Ryder* BB gun—in 1938 Slesinger created the comic strip *Red Ryder along* with artist **Fred Harmon**. (alchetron/yesterdaysgallery.com/Port Isabel Press)

In another excerpt, McKelway gave us an idea of the scope of Slesinger’s Pooh empire:

* * *

At the Movies

Critic John Mosher found few thrills in the latest fare from Hollywood, offering his views of Admiral Richard Byrd’s Into Little America and the musical Metropolitan, featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett.

FOR THE BYRDS…At left, lobby card for *Into Little America;* at right, **Alice Brad**y and Lawrence Tibbett in Metropolitan. (eBay.uk/rottentomatoes.com)

With a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and direction by Howard Hawks, one would hope for some rough and tumble in a film about Gold Rush San Francisco. Instead, Mosher found the trappings of Barbary Coast rather mild. This was doubtless due in part to the Hays Code that curtailed the sex and violence portrayed in films of the 1920s and early 1930s.

TAKING A SPIN…**Miriam Hopkins** runs the roulette wheel as **Edward G. Robinson** looks on in *Barbary Coast.* A brief 2019 review in the *Harvard Film Archive* praised the film’s Gothic feel created by the “evocative portrayal of early San Francisco as a foggy labyrinth of rickety boardwalks and ominous, sky-high ship masts…” (harvardfimarchive.org)

One might think that a film featuring the destruction of Pompeii would have some thrills, however RKO’s The Last Days of Pompeii proved to be a “temperate affair” in Mosher’s eyes, “one of the great bores of the moment.” The Dick Powell/U.S. Navy vehicle Shipmates Forever didn’t prove to be any better.

HOT TIMES IN POMPEII?…**John Mosher** called *The Last Days of Pompeii* “one of the great bores of the moment,” including the “drearily enacted” eruption of Vesuvius in which “Paper temples fall and there is a bit of bustle, and that is all there is to that.” Mosher did single out **Basil Rathbone’s** performance as an urbane Pontius Pilate, “a Pontius Pilate with a Long Island manner.” (tcm.com)

GO GET ‘EM DICK…The U.S. Naval Academy provided the setting for the musical *Shipmates Forever,* featuring Dick Powell as a crooner who ultimately chooses the Navy over a singing career. (tcm.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with the inside front cover, where the folks at Fisher touted their innovative “Turret Top” design…Body by Fisher began as a separate company in 1908, specializing as an automobile coach builder…although acquired by General Motors in 1926, the Fisher brand was promoted until the 1980s…

…there were many fall and winter fashion ads in this issue, including this continuing series by Russeks promoting Rayon fabrics…and women smoking, no doubt considered a sign of sophistication…

…Guerlain perfume ads featured the unmistakable style of illustrator Lyse Darcy…

…the Heyward/Gershwin production of Porgy and Bess made a splash in this ad for Stage magazine…

…World Peaceways often used terrifying imagery to promote their anti-war messages…this ad was on the inside back cover…

…and as you closed the magazine, the back cover greeted you with this stylish appeal to smoke Luckies…

…on to our cartoonists, starting with Al Frueh in the Theatre section…

…and Frueh again, in this interesting arrangement…

…George Price was featured twice…

…with scenes of domestic life as only Price could render…

…and speaking of distinctive, no one did it quite like the great James Thurber…

…Robert Day gave us two Republicans looking in on the progress of the New Deal…

…Carl Rose bid farewell to a writer sick of his peace and quiet…

…Whitney Darrow Jr illustrated a literary exchange on a park bench…

…and I close with today’s New Yorker cover artist, Roger Duvoisin—here is his cover for White Snow, Bright Snow, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1948.

Next Time: Planes, Trains and Automobiles…

A Double-Header

Heading into the dog days of summer we take a look at the last two issues of July 1935, both somewhat scant in editorial content but still offering up fascinating glimpses of Manhattan life ninety years ago.

July 20, 1935 cover by William Crawford Galbraith. He contributed seven covers and 151 cartoons to the magazine.

That includes the observations of theatre critic Wolcott Gibbs and film critic John Mosher, both escaping the summer heat to take in some very different forms of entertainment.

Gibbs found himself “fifty dizzy stories above Forty-second Street” in the Chanin Building’s auditorium, where he experienced New York’s take on Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol. Founded in Paris by Oscar Méténier in 1897, Grand Guignol featured realistic shows that enacted, in gory detail, the horrific existence of the disadvantaged and working classes. It seems audiences were drawn to the shows more out of prurient interest (or sadistic pleasure) than for any desire to help the underclasses.

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART…**Wolcott Gibbs** recommended the Grand-Guignol only for those who “admire a frank, uncomplicated approach to the slaughterhouse and the operating table.” (Image: Wikipedia)

PRETTY HORRORS…Clockwise from top left, the original Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, in the Pigalle district of Paris–it operated from 1897 until 1962, specializing in horror theatre; a poster from one of its productions; New York’s Chanin building, circa 1930s; the Chanin’s auditorium “fifty dizzy stories above 42nd Street”; fake blood applied to an actress’ neck before a scene from *The Hussy*; **Wolcott Gibbs** described a madhouse scene from **André de Lorde’s** *The Old Women,* which depicted the fury of ancient inmates performing “optical surgery” on a young woman. (*thegrandguignol.com/Wikipedia/NYPL/props.eric-hart.com)*

* * *

Popeye to the Rescue

With the Hays Code in effect you wouldn’t see anything like the Grand-Guignol on the silver screen. Indeed, with the exception of a Popeye cartoon, critic John Mosher found little to get excited about at the movies. He did, however, enjoy the air conditioning that offered a break from the hot city streets.

THEY ALL COULD HAVE USED SOME SPINACH…Clockwise, from top left, **Popeye** and **Bluto** strike an unlikely partnership in *Dizzy Divers;* **Bette Davis** and George Brent in *Front Page Woman;* **Will Rogers** and Billie Burke in *Doubting Thomas;* **James Blakeley** and **Ida Lupino** in *Paris in Spring.* (brothersink.com / rottentomatoes.com / cometoverhollywood.com / classiccartooncorner.substack.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Just a few ads from this issue, first, a jolly appeal from one of the magazine’s newer advertisers, the makers of the French apertif Dubonnet…

…by contrast, this quaint slice of Americana from Nash…

…and a shot of pesticide from Dr. Seuss…

…our cartoonists include Constantin Alajalov, contributing this bit of spot art to the opening pages…

…Barbara Shermund explored the world of hypnotic suggestion…

…Peter Arno prepared to address the nation…

…William Steig checked the weather forecast…

…Helen Hokinson’s girls questioned the burden of a lei…

…Carl Rose found himself on opposite sides of the page in this unusual layout…

…Richard Decker joined the crowd in a lighthouse rendering…

…Ned Hilton reminds us that it was unusual for women to wear trousers ninety years ago…

…Mary Petty examined the complications of marital discord…

…and Charles Addams shone a blue light on a YMCA lecture…

…on to July 27, 1935, with a terrific summertime cover by William Steig…

July 27, 1935 cover by **William Steig,** one of his 117 covers for the magazine.

E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) was ahead of his time in suggesting that the city needed to build “bicycle paths paralleling motor highways” and invest in more pedestrian pathways.

NEW YORK’S FINEST…**Doris Kopsky,** who trained in Central Park, won the first Amateur Bicycle League of America Women’s Championship in 1937. Bicycle races were a big draw in the 1930s. (crca.net)

* * *

Breaking News

“The Talk of the Town” checked in on the New York Times’ “electric bulletin,” commonly known as “The Zipper.” Excerpt:

* * *

Dog Knots

“Talk” also took a look backstage at the Winter Garden, where burlesque performers shared the stage with a contortionist dog called “Red Dust.” Excerpt:

WOOF…Famed animal trainer **Robert “Bob” Williams** with one of his pupils. The dog in the photo is misidentified as Red Dust (he was actually a Malemute/chow mix).

* * *

Suddenly Famous

Charles Butterworth (1896-1946) earned a law degree from Notre Dame before becoming a newspaper reporter. But his life would take on a new twist in 1926 when he delivered his comical “Rotary Club Talk” at J.P. McEvoy’s Americana revue in 1926. Hollywood would come calling in the 1930s, and his doleful-looking, deadpan characters would become familiar to movie audiences through a string of films in the thirties and forties. Alva Johnston profiled Butterworth in the July 27 issue. Here are brief excerpts:

**Charles Butterworth** (left) and Jimmy Durante in *Student Tour* (1934). A bit of trivia: Butterworth’s distinctive voice was the inspiration for the Cap’n Crunch commercials voiced by **Daws Butler** beginning in the early 1960s. Butterworth’s life was cut short in 1946 when he crashed his imported roadster into a lamppost on Sunset Boulevard. (Detail from film still via IMDB)

* * *

Noisy Neighborhood

The “Vienna Letter” (written by “F.S.”–possibly Frank Sullivan) noted the rumblings of fascism in a grand old European city known for its many cultural delights as well as its many factions that included Nazis, Socialists and Communists (and no doubt a few Royalists). An excerpt:

CALM BEFORE THE STORM…Vienna in 1935, less than three years before the Anschluss, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. (meisterdrucke.us)

* * *

Ex Machina

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) penned this poem for The New Yorker that is somewhat appropriate to our own age and our fears of the rise of A.I. In “Nightmare Number Three,” Benét described a dystopian world where machines have revolted against humans.

BOTH CLASSY AND FOLKSY is how some today describe **Stephen Vincent Benét**, who in 1928 wrote a book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, *John Brown’s Body,* for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He was also know for such short stories as *The Devil and Daniel Webster,* published in 1936. (mypoeticside.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with more extraordinary claims from R.J. Reynolds, who convinced a lot of folks that drawing smoke into your lungs actually improved your athletic stamina…

…the makers of Lucky Strike, on the other hand, stuck with images of nature and romance to suggest the joys of inhaling tar and nicotine…

…General Tire took a cue from Goodyear, suggesting that an investment in their “Blowout-Proof Tires” was an investment in the very lives of a person’s loved ones (even though they apparently drove to the beach without seatbelts or even a windshield)…

…another colorful advertisement from the makers of White Rock, who wisely tied their product to ardent spirits as liquor consumption continued to rebound from Prohibition…

…I toss this in for the lovely rendering on behalf of Saks…it looks like the work of illustrator Carl “Eric” Erickson, but he had many imitators…

…we do, however, know the identity of this artist, and his drawings on behalf of the pesticide Flit, which apparently in those days of innocence was thought appropriate for use around infants…

…great spot drawing in the opening pages…I should know the signature but it escapes me at the moment…

…James Thurber quoted Blaise Pascal for this tender moment ( “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing”)…

…Peter Arno illustrated the horrors of finding one’s grandmother out of context…

…Helen Hokinson’s girls employed a malaprop to besmirch the good name of an innocent mountain…

…Richard Decker discovered the missing link(s) with two archeologists…

…Alan Dunn narrowly averted a surprise greeting…

…George Price added a new twist to a billiards match…

…Price again, at the corner newstand…

…Al Frueh bit off more than he could chew…

…and we close with Barbara Shermund, and a prattling mooch…

Next Time: La Marseillaise…

A German Problem

Above: A German American Bund parade in New York City on East 86th Street. Oct. 30, 1937. (Library of Congress)

Among the many ethnic enclaves of 1930s New York City was a neighborhood that was feeling the influence of world events, and not necessarily in a good way.

July 13, 1935 cover by **Helen Hokinson.** One of the first cartoonists to be published in *The New Yorker*, she appeared in the magazine for the first time in the July 4, 1925 issue. She contributed 68 covers and more than 1,800 cartoons to the magazine.

Journalist Chester L. Morrison looked at life among German immigrants on the Upper East Side for “A Reporter at Large.” Under the title “Muenchen Im Kleinen” (Little Munich), Morrison examined the everyday life of the Yorkville district between East 79th and East 96th streets.

Germans had settled in New York City almost from its first days, and by 1885 the city had the third-largest German-speaking population in the world, outside of Vienna and Berlin, the majority settling in what is today the East Village. Following the General Slocum disaster in 1904, German settlement migrated to Yorkville, which was commonly referred to as Germantown. Here are excerpts of Morrison’s observations:

ENCLAVE…Clockwise, from top left, Rudi and Maxl’s Brau-Haus at 239 East 86th; Oktoberfest celebration in Yorkville, undated; **Walker Evans** photo with Rupert Brewery sign in the background; the Yorkville neighborhood in the 1930s with the old Third Avenue El in the background. (postcardhistory.net/boweryboyshistory.com/metmuseum/gothamcenter.org)

With the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s, a pro-Hitler group called the German-American Bund began to organize street rallies and marches on 86^th Street and on 2^nd Avenue. Although they represented a minority of German settlers, the Bund made itself visible in parades and other public events that culminated in a mass demonstration at Madison Square Garden in 1939. The Bund also organized training camps for young men outside of the city, such as Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, L.I.

Morrison noted that Yorkville homes looked like many others across the city, that is until you saw the pictures on their walls.

SCOUT’S HONOR?…At a German-American Bund camp in Andover, New Jersey, young campers stand at attention as the American flag and the German-American Youth Movement flag are lowered at sundown, July 21, 1937. (AP)

THE MADNESS OF CROWDS…A German-American Bund color guard marches through Madison Square Garden, Feb. 20, 1939. (AP)

* * *

Garden Varieties

Now for a palate cleanser as we turn to Lois Long and her “Tables For Two” column, in which she examined the confluence of hotel gardens and marriage proposals. Excerpts:

OASIS…**Lois Long** recommended the Hotel Marguery’s formal garden as a place to “fritter away” an afternoon. The hotel was demolished in 1957 to make way for the Union Carbide Building. (*Museum of the City of New York)*

A COOL, SWISS CHALET was how Long described the new Alpine Room in the basement of the Gotham Hotel. (daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com)

Long continued as she set her sights on Brooklyn…

HE WILL LIKELY SAY YES, according to Long, if you got your beau to accompany you to the roof of the Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn. (brownstoner.com)

THE TUNEFUL SURROUNDINGS of the Famous Door were a bit too crowded for Long, however this group seems to have had plenty of room to enjoy the greats **Ben Webster, Eddie Barefield, Buck Clayton,** and **Benny Morton** on stage at the Famous Door in 1947. (Wikipedia)

* * *

Monster Mash-up

Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are synonymous with 1930s monster flicks (they did eight together) but their latest outing, The Raven, left critic John Mosher wondering where the Poe was in the midst of this “sadistic trifle.”

BUDDY FILM…*The Raven* (which had almost nothing to do with **Edgar Allen Poe’s** famous narrative poem) was the third of eight films that featured **Boris Karloff** and Bela Lugosi. According to film historian **Karina Longworth,** thanks to a wave of monster movie hits in the 1930s, these two middle-aged, foreign, struggling actors became huge stars. (cerealatmidnight.com)

TYPECAST? WHO CARES?…**Bela Lugosi** and Boris Karloff in 1932. Despite being monster movie rivals, the two seemed get along well off-screen, perhaps appreciating their mutual good fortune. (beladraculalugosi.wordpress.com)

* * *

Ode to Education

Clarence Day, best known for his Life With Father stories, also contributed a number of cartoons to The New Yorker that were accompanied by satirical poems…here he examines attempts at education in the arts and sciences…

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We start at the back of the book, and a couple of one-column ads (appearing on the opposite sides of the same page) that catered to very different clientele…

…the makers of Lincoln luxury cars knew the type of client they were fishing for here…

…pin-up artist George Petty continued exploring his beauty and the beast theme on behalf of Old Gold cigarettes…

…and Camel offered more reasons why you should smoke your way to athletic glory…

…this inside back cover advertisement reminds us that we are indeed back in 1935…

…as does this one from Dr. Seuss, with a shot of insecticide for a talking toddler…

…on to our cartoonists, beginning with Charles Addams and some Navy hijincks…

…Gluyas Williams offered his latest take on American club life…

…William Steig took us to summer camp…

…Otto Soglow looked for a good night’s rest…

…Mary Petty explored the latest in bathing fashions…

…Perry Barlow introduced us to some proud parents…

…and to close with Helen Hokinson, who showed us some innocents abroad…

Next Time: A Double-Header…

Broadacre City

Above: Detail from Spanish architect David Romero's computer-generated model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City, complete with an "aerotor" flying car.

To be sure, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a visionary, creating a uniquely American vernacular that influences architecture and design to this day. That might also true for his Broadacre City concept, which demonstrated how four square miles (10.3 km2) of countryside might be settled by 1,400 families. Wright unveiled this escape to the countryside in the middle of Manhattan.

April 27, 1930 cover by **Reginald Marsh.**

On April 15, 1935, the Industrial Arts Exposition opened at Rockefeller Center, and Wright (1867-1959) was front and center with his audacious proposal to resettle the entire population of the United States onto individual homesteads. Critic Lewis Mumford observed that Wright “carries the tradition of romantic isolation and reunion with the soil” by putting every American family on a minimum of five acres of land.

FLAT EARTH…Clockwise, from top left, cover of Rockefeller Center Weekly featuring the Industrial Arts Exposition—the model on the cover is identified as “Miss Typical Consumer”; detail from the magazine depicting a “streamlined farmstead” in Broadacre City; **Frank Lloyd Wright** examining the Broadacre City model, circa 1935; Wright students who crafted the 12×12-foot model, circa 1935. (digital.hagley.org/franklloydwright.org)

Wright first presented the idea of Broadacre City in his book The Disappearing City in 1932…

ROMANTIC ISOLATION…Broadacre City as depicted in Wright’s 1932 book *The Disappearing City.* (Wikipedia)

…note how the above drawing is reflected in one of Wright’s last designs, the Marin County Civic Center:

A detailed 12×12-foot scale model of Broadacre City—crafted by Wright’s student interns at Taliesin, was unveiled at the Industrial Arts Exposition:

GREEN ACRES…The 12×12-foot model (top images) crafted by student interns who worked for Wright at Taliesin is now housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); bottom right, Wright’s rendering of Broadacre City, and at left, detail from Spanish architect **David Romero’s** computer-generated model of Broadacre City (more images below). (MoMA/David Romero via *Smithsonian*)

For the most part Mumford reacted favorably to Wright’s vision, which is no surprise considering that Mumford derided the dehumanizing skyscrapers popping up all over his city (including Rockefeller Center).

Despite his patrician demeanor, Wright envisioned an egalitarian Broadacre City, with every family having access to cars, telephones and other appliances. Power would come from solar and electric energy, and any technological advances would be applied at a local level toward the common good.

VIRTUAL REALITY…In 2018 Spanish architect **David Romero** created computer-generated models to see what Wright’s unrealized structures might have looked like. At left, cars (based on Wright concepts) in Broadacre City, and an aerial view featuring a tower that bears a strong resemblance to Wright’s 1956 Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Modeling Broadacre took Romero more than eight months to complete—it contains more than one hundred detailed buildings, one hundred ships, two hundred “aerotors” (based on the autogyros of the day), 5,800 cars, and more than 250,000 trees. (David Romero via *Smithsonian* and openculture.com)

What Mumford (and perhaps Wright) didn’t fully anticipate was the urban sprawl such a vision would help inspire, the suburban and exurban landscape that would lead to a car-dominated world of congested, multi-lane highways and housing developments that continue to encroach on our woodlands and wetlands. And we didn’t get those groovy aerotors either.

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Little House on the Avenue

E.B. White, in his “Notes and Comment,” also offered some observations on housing trends, noting the manufactured “Motohome” displayed at Wanamaker’s as well as “America’s Little House,” plopped down at the corner of 39th and Park Avenue.

SETTING A STANDARD…Above, the factory-manufactured Motohome (above) was touted as the solution to the nation’s housing shortage. The federal Better Homes in America organization built a model house (“America’s Little House,” below) at 39th and Park Avenue to illustrate how standardized components and methods could make home improvement easier. (Google Books/Johns Hopkins)

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Horsing Around

Although known for their nonchalance, New Yorkers could still find some enthusiasm when the circus came to town. “The Talk of the Town” looked in on the star of the circus, Dorothy Herbert (1910-1994), a trick rider with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

WHOA NELLY…One of **Dorothy Herbert’s** signature moves was her layback on a rearing horse. Here she demonstrates the move in 1939. (equineink.com)

HOT STUFF…Circus poster touts Herbert’s ride over flaming hurdles in the company of twelve riderless horses. (circushistory.org)

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Don’t Call Him ‘Tiny’

He was known as “The Little Napoleon of Showmanship,” but there was nothing small about Billy Rose’s accomplishments as an impresario, theatrical showman, composer, lyricist and columnist. Here are excerpts from Alva Johnston’s profile:

JUMBO-SIZED ENTERTAINMENT…Clockwise, from top left, **Billy Rose** and his first wife, comedian-actress **Fanny Brice**; illustration of Rose for the profile; poster announcing Rose’s 1935 stage spectacle Jumbo at the Hippodrome; described as more circus than musical comedy, *Jumbo* was one of the most expensive theatrical events of the first half of the 20th century. (jacksonupperco.com)

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On Guard

We shift gears and turn to more sobering events of the 1930s, namely the rise of fascism in Europe. In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker pondered the possibilities of fascism in his own country…

…meanwhile, Paris correspondent Janet Flanner was finding nothing funny about the uneasy calm among Parisians as war with Germany seemed likely.

C’EST LA VIE…**Janet Flanner** found Parisians resigned to whatever fate awaited them in 1935. (unjourdeplusaparis.com)

Flanner also remarked on Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). Flanner’s assessment of this “best recent European pageant” wryly underscored the horrors the film portends.

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News From An Old Friend

Longtime readers may recall one of my earliest entries on Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938); the March 14, 1925 edition of The New Yorker (issue #4) found New Yorkers “agog” over her planned 1926 visit to the city. Her comings and goings were followed for a time (she also appeared in a Pond’s Cold Cream ad in the June 6, 1925 issue), but then she abruptly disappeared. Here she is again, courtesy of a glowing book review by Clifton Fadiman. An excerpt:

A PROGRESSIVE THINKER for her time, **Marie of Romania** was immensely popular in America. Born into the British royal family, she was the last queen of Romania from 1914 to 1927. At left, portrait from 1920; at right, during her 1926 visit to the States, Marie received a headdress from two American Indian tribes. They named her “Morning Star” and “Winyan Kipanpi Win”—“The Woman Who Was Waited For.” (Wikipedia/brilliantstarmagazine.org)

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From Our Advertisers

Although we’ve seen plenty of ads from prestige automakers such as Packard, it was clear that companies found their sweet spot in lower-priced models that still suggested “prestige”…here’s an example from Cadillac’s budget line LaSalle…

…for less than half the price of a LaSalle you could get behind the wheel of Hudson, its makers suggesting that prestige doesn’t preclude thrift…this ad seems to have been hastily produced–note the right side of ad, with just a slice of some toff squeezed next to the copy…

…this advertisement would only appeal to those who were among the tiny minority who could afford to fly…from 1924 to 1939 this early long-range airline served British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East…

…for reference, detail below of a Scylla-class airliner used by Imperial Airways…

…and what would the back cover be without a photo of a stylish woman having a smoke?…

…a few advertisers referenced the circus in town to drum up business…

…and we segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, and this circus-themed spot from an illustrator signed “Geoffrey”…

…a more familiar name is found at the bottom of page 4…namely Charles Addams…the milk order outside the tomb hints at things to come…

…Addams again, going from Bacchus to beige…

…George Price, and well, you know…

…Robert Day was aloft with a speculative builder…

…William Steig typecast his Small Fry…

…Leonard Dove made a sudden exit…

…Gilbert Bundy found one old boy unaffected by spring fever…

…Alain channeled Barbara Shermund to give us this gem…

…and we close with a typical day in James Thurber’s world…

Next Time: The Royal Treatment…

Keep Calm and Carry On

If you lived in Germany in 1935, or in Italy or Spain for that matter, the world would have looked very different from the one most Americans were experiencing, clawing their way out of the Great Depression and hoping to improve their domestic lives. War was not big on their worry list.

April 6, 1935 cover by **Leonard Dove.**

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White satirized the talk about war that was filling more column inches in the nation’s newspapers. He was particularly scornful of journalists such as Arthur Brisbane—the influential editor of William Randolph Hearst’s media empire—who was fond of giant headlines warning of impending war.

TEND YOUR OWN GARDEN...E.B. White in 1946. (Britannica)

White wasn’t naive about the possibilities of war; however, he believed obsessing about things over which we have little control did little to help the human condition. Helping one’s neighbor, on the other hand, would do the world more good. In 1939, just six months before Germany invaded Poland, White wrote a piece titled “Education” for his Harper’s Magazine column, One Man’s Meat. This excerpt helps define his worldview:

“I find that keeping abreast of my neighbors’ affairs has increased, not diminished, my human sympathies…in New York I rise and scan Europe in the Times; in the country I get up and look at the thermometer—a thoroughly set-contained point of view which, if it could infect everybody everywhere, would I am sure be the most salutary thing that could happen to the world.”

With that, here is a selection from the April 6 “Notes and Comment”…

TANKS A LOT…Clockwise, from top left, German war production in the 1930s—by increasing the size of the army by 500,000 and establishing the *Luftwaffe* in early 1935, Germany broke international law and the Treaty of Versailles; the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement was the first sign of British and European appeasement—photo shows the launch of the *Admiral Graf Spee*; a display of force at Nuremberg, mid 1930s; cartoon by **Bernard Partridge** from Punch (September 1932) foresaw the inevitable. (parisology.net/theholocaustexplained.org/Punch Limited)

In March 1973, a “Mr. Nadeau” wrote a letter to E. B. White expressing fears about humanity’s bleak future. Here are the first and last lines of White’s reply:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness…Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

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Another Viewpoint

Ever the observer of the passing scene, Howard Brubaker made these relevant observations in “Of All Things”…

…and back to White’s “Notes,” and the imminent passing of the beloved organ grinder…

THE OLD GRIND…Above, one of New York City’s last organ grinders in Washington Heights, ca. 1935. Organ grinders had been fixtures in Manhattan since the 1850s, and by 1880 roughly five percent of Italian men living in Five Points were organ grinders, often accompanied by monkeys who entertained and collected coins. Organ grinders were outlawed in 1936 by Mayor **Fiorello La Guardia.** It is thought the mayor disliked the Italian immigrant stereotype. (Library of Congress)

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Give Him More Mickey Mouse

John Mosher expressed his displeasure with movies that failed to deliver some escape from life’s mundane realities or offered little more than tepid storylines.

IN SEARCH OF A CREDIBLE PLOT…Critic John Mosher found Claudette Colbert (top left) both unbelievable and unqualified to be a psychiatrist in Private Worlds; at top right, **Joan Blondell** and Glenda Farrell offered some mindless distractions in *Traveling Saleslady* (from 1933 to 1936 Blondell and Farrell appeared together in seven films); bottom, Mosher called The Woman in Red an “anemic” tale. **Barbara Stanwyck** seems to be wondering why she took the part. (rottentomatoes.com/TCM)

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Odds and Ends

Also in the issue, John O’Hara kicked off the short fiction with “I Could Have Had A Yacht,” Margaret Case Harriman penned a profile of Elizabeth Arden (of cosmetics empire fame), and theatre critic Wolcott Gibbs enjoyed the “bitterly effective performances” in Clifford Odets’ Waiting For Lefty, which was being produced at the Longacre Theatre.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH...Elia Kazan led the cast in the original production of **Clifford Odets’** iconic 1935 play *Waiting for Lefty.* Centered around a taxi drivers’ strike, *Lefty* was produced by The Group Theatre, which sought to perform plays that functioned as social commentaries on the inequality and poverty of 1930s America. Some referred to Kazan as the “Proletarian Thunderbolt.” (Creative Commons)

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From Our Advertisers

While Hitler ramped up weapons production and prepared to enact the Nuremberg Race Laws, the German Tourist Office touted their country as “The Land of Music” in this one-column advertisement on page 66 (left)…a couple of pages later we have an old chap looking forward to a German cruise and a quiet soak at Baden-Baden in the midst of madness…

…now this is more like it, fine dining under the stars aboard the Santa Paula, far from the maddening crowds…

…there were several colorful full-page ads in the issue, including this splashy display from the very un-splashy-sounding Bermuda Trade Development Board…

…cherry blossoms lined the path of Lincoln’s Le Baron Roadster…

…Camel played to a wide demographic, from ads featuring stylish young women to ads like this that roped in everyone from an “enthusiastic horsewoman” to an engineer working on the Boulder (now Hoover) Dam…

…I’m not sure what “Life begins at sixty” is supposed to mean, unless it’s about tempting young women with your bad habit…

…the New York American was hoping that some of the “Best People” who read The New Yorker would also want to read their apartment rental want ads…

…spring was in the air at Richard Hudnut’s Fifth Avenue salon…if you had dry skin, it was recommended you try a product with the unfortunate name “Du Barry Special Skin Food”…

…Taylor Instruments hoped readers would monitor the spring weather with one of their stylish thermometers…American graphic artist and illustrator Ervine Metzl provided the artwork…he was best known for his posters and postage stamp designs…