New Yorker cartoons – Page 3 – A New Yorker State of Mind

A Return to Coney

Above: Coney Island "freak" show, summer of 1935. (seeoldnyc.com)

It has been about a year since we’ve visited Coney Island, and with summer upon us (and upon 1935 New York) let’s have a look at “The Talk of the Town” and see the latest attractions.

June 15, 1935 cover by Garrett Price. Price (1897–1979) illustrated 100 covers for the magazine.

**Garrett Price’s** first *New Yorker* cover, “Heat Wave,” Aug. 1, 1925.

This lengthy “Talk” entry (excerpted), attributed to Clifford Orr, noted that much was unchanged, including the “mustard-laden breezes.” The place was noisier, however, with carnival barkers increasing their range through loudspeakers.

THE HIGH AND LOWS of society were on display in various attractions at Coney Island. Clockwise from top left, gawkers gather at Coney Island freak show, which included the “Armadillo Boy,” August 5, 1935; strollers near the Virginia Reel and Wonder Wheel, circa 1935; Borden’s frozen custard stand, 1930s; couple have a nap on the beach, circa 1935. (seeoldnyc.com)

LINEUP…Beauty contests near the Steeplechase, like this one in 1935, were a common sight at Coney Island. (seeoldnyc.com)

LIKE MOTHS TO THE FLAME, the dazzling lights drew thousands to Coney Island’s Luna Park in the 1930s. (seeoldnyc.com)

THEY LOOK LIKE…ANTS…Aerial view of the beach in 1935. The Steeplechase ride is at the top left. (seeoldnyc.com)

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Ship Ahoy

E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) mentioned that he danced aboard the newly arrived S.S. Normandie (presumably with Katharine White) while it was docked at Pier 88.

GROOVY…**E.B. White** noted the “luminous grooves” of the S.S. *Normandie’s* theatre. (drivingfordeco.com)

JUGGERNAUT…The S.S. *Normandie* docked at New York’s Pier 88 after completing her maiden voyage on June 3, 1935. Note the paint chipped from the hull, the result of the ship’s record-breaking speed. (yesterdaystrails.wordpress.com)

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Another Freak Show

Theatre critic Wolcott Gibbs found Earl Carroll’s latest stage production to be nothing more than a “vulgar assortment of comedians, jugglers, and performing dogs,” accompanied by “very lovely and disarming” young ladies who chanted their lines “in high childish voices.” One skit apparently featured Abe Lincoln with “fifty-six young ladies in cellophane hoopskirts.” Too bad no one filmed that performance.

HOLDING IT TOGETHER…Gibbs noted that comedian **Ken Murray** carried most of the show’s comedy (Murray had found success on the New York stage after appearing in Carroll’s *Vanities* on Broadway in 1935); **Sibyl Bowen** was known for her impersonations of famous women. In *Sketchbook* she portrayed Martha Washington, among others. (eBay/entertainment.ie)

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Weathering the Field

Like the recent 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont (won by J.J. Spaun), ninety years ago Oakmont was also plagued by bad weather, and it also featured a tournament winner who outplayed the top golfers in the field. Excerpt:

WHY NOT ME?…**Sam Parks Jr.** (left) was considered an unlikely winner of the 1935 U.S. Open after competing with Hall of Famers at Oakmont. A 25-year-old club pro from Pittsburgh who played on the winter tour without ever winning, he bested a field that included **Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Denny Shute** and **Horton Smith**. His secret? For months leading up to the U.S. Open, Parks played nine holes at Oakmont every morning before going to work at nearby South Hills Country Club. He knew the course like the back of his hand. (progolfweekly.com)

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Straight From the Headlines

Film critic John Mosher noted how the storylines in latest “G-men” pictures seemed to be taken directly from the daily papers. Public Hero Number 1 was no exception.

THE GOOD GUYS…from left, **Chester Morris, Lionel Barrymore** and Jean Arthur in *Public Hero Number 1.* One effect of the Hays Code was to replace gangster films—which some believed glorified criminals—with films that depicted the dedication and courage of law enforcement officers. (Rotten Tomatoes)

Mosher suggested moviegoers would get more pleasure out of Public Hero Number 1 than from Our Little Girl, which seems an unfair comparison since gunplay was rare in a Shirley Temple flick.

NO GUNS, JUST SOME SCARY CLOWNS…**Joel McCrea** and Shirley Temple in *Our Little Girl.* (csfd.sk/film)

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Speaking Brooklynese

The June 15 issue featured Thomas Wolfe’s classic short story, “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn.” Written entirely in “Brooklynese” dialect, the simple plot features four men standing on a subway platform arguing about how to get to “Bensonhoist.” The story (seemingly told to the author himself) recalls the existential themes of Wolfe’s contemporary, the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. Here is an excerpt, the second paragraph of the story:

So like I say, I’m waitin’ for my train t’ come when I sees dis big guy standin’ deh—dis is duh foist I eveh see of him. Well, he’s lookin’ wild, y’know, an’ I can see dat he’s had plenty, but still he’s holdin’ it; he talks good an’ is walkin’ straight enough. So den, dis big guy steps up to a little guy dat’s standin’ deh, an’ says, “How d’yuh get t’ Eighteent’ Avenoo an’ Sixty-sevent’ Street?” he says.

GONE TOO SOON…Portrait of Thomas Wolfe taken by **Carl Van Vechten** in 1937. He died the next year, eighteen days before his 38th birthday. (Library of Congress)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with this two-page spread—what readers of the June 15 issue would have seen after turning the cover page…

…the inside cover ad was part of an ongoing series of spots for Old Gold cigarettes illustrated by pin-up artist George Petty…almost all of the ads featured a fat, homely man (possibly a sugar daddy) mooning over a leggy blonde who relieves the tedium by reaching for an oversized cigarette…

…the ad on the facing page couldn’t be more different, except for the fact the woman is smoking, suggesting, of course, sophistication when paired with the latest fashions from Bergdorf Goodman…

…on the back cover we find these swells enjoying a belt at the horse races…

…while on the back cover, Camel gathered together all of its recent society endorsers for another round of shilling for R. J. Reynolds…

…swells and society women were the only persons (along with celebrities) who could afford to take this early version of a “red eye” to L.A. or San Francisco…it was not all that cushy, however…airliners were loud, cold, and not pressurized, so they flew at low altitudes and were often bounced about by the weather. The Boeing 247 also required several stops for refueling…

‘OL SPEEDY…This Boeing 247 was featured in the above ad. One of the first all-metal airliners, the 247 was considered revolutionary when introduced in 1933—United Airlines boasted that it cruised at speeds of three miles per minute and carried ten passengers across the country in twenty hours, cutting eight hours from previous travel times. Seven refueling stops included Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne and Salt Lake City. (Wikipedia)

WATCH YOUR STEP…Interior of the Boeing 247. Note that the main wing ran through the cabin, so persons moving down the aisle had to step over it. (Library of Congress)

…we learn a lot about a 1930s New Yorker reader by looking at the advertisements…it doubtful the magazine had many truly upper-class readers—the barbarians were content to flip through a copy of Town & Country or similar undemanding fare…what we do have are striving “smart set” readers, some with the means to buy a luxury automobile, fly cross-country, or cruise on the Normandie, all things one would desire as a member of upper-middle class or even the educated bourgeoisie in the middle…this Campbell’s soup ad is for the latter…the upper-middles would sniff at canned soup, while the barbarians would probably eat whatever was set in front of them, since talking about food would be considered vulgar…

…Pabst Blue Ribbon beer has been around since 1844…in the 20th century it was increasingly associated with the working class and rednecks until the brand caught on with urban hipsters in the early 2000s…

…in the May 25, 1935 issue we saw an ad promoting Walter Hagen’s “Honey Boy” golf balls, which contained real honey in their cores…the folks at MacGregor’s had a different idea—they inserted a pellet of dry ice into the center of their golf balls…what will they think of next?…

…we move on to our cartoonists, beginning with a James Thurber spot…

…and continuing with another Thurber classic…

…Robert Day took a lunch break in the opening pages…

…Alan Dunn felt charitable while relaxing in Westchester…

…Mary Petty gave us a wedding guest that would not be out of place today…the caption reads, “Home, Prince!”…

…Helen Hokinson went hog-wild in the garden…

…Barbara Shermund looked in on the idle thoughts of the idle rich…

…and we close where we began, with Daniel Brustlein aka Alain at Coney Island…

Next Time: Thackeray, In Color…

Not a Square Deal

Above: Postcard image of Washington Square Park, circa 1930. (citybeautifulblog.com)

New Yorkers know all about change, and especially during the 1920s and 30s when the city razed everything from Dutch settler houses to the Gilded Age mansions of Fifth Avenue. Landmarks such as the old Waldorf-Astoria were leveled to make way for the Empire State Building, while several blocks—22 acres of residential and commercial buildings—were scraped clean for Rockefeller Center.

June 8, 1935 cover by **Harry Brown.** This June bride-themed cover was Brown’s fourteenth of the eighteen covers he would create for *The New Yorker.*

Some things, like Washington Square, were still held dear by city residents. But very little was sacred to the city’s new park commissioner, Robert Moses, who had no problem leveling whole neighborhoods if they stood in way of a road or some other ambitious project.

It all seemed well at first when Moses called for the repair of neglected parks, including Washington Square. However, when changes to the park were revealed by the Villager, residents were outraged. Moses’ plan, designed by landscape architect Gilmore Clarke, was a complete reversal of the park’s existing design. In “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White explained:

Village residents organized a “Save Washington Square” committee and successfully blocked Moses from implementing his plan; in true Moses style, he responded by allowing the park to deteriorate.

MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS…Clockwise, from top left, Parks Commissioner **Robert Moses**; proposal to add colonnades to either side of the arch; landscape architect **Gilmore Clarke;** Clarke’s plan for the redesign. (Wikipedia/washingtonsqpark.org)

Moses, however, didn’t give up on Washington Square. Around 1940 he began floating the idea of building a double highway through the park. Local residents again rallied, joining business owners and NYU officials in blocking the audacious scheme.

White continued on the theme of city planning, calling on Moses this time to figure out a better plan for sidewalk cafés.

AL FRESCO…Postcard images of sidewalk cafés at 24 Fifth Avenue (top) and 23rd and Lexington, circa 1935. (picryl.com)

Additional note: The magazine’s June 15, 1935 issue featured Lois Long’s criticisms of sidewalk cafés in Manhattan:

Long did offer, however, a couple of recommendations for sidewalk dining, including the Breevort in Greenwich Village…

If you really wanted to eat outside, **Lois Long** suggested the Breevort in Greenwich Village. (New York Public Library)

…and the St. Moritz’s Café de la Paix at 50 Central Park South…

The St. Moritz’s Café de la Paix in the 1940s. (blog.bondbrand.com)

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Sexily Danced the Burlesques

New Yorker writers loved to take shots at Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Fortune. Wolcott Gibbs famously satirized Time’s writing style in a parody profile in 1936: “Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind.” When Fortune decided to take a look behind the curtain at a burlesque show (February 1935), “The Talk of the Town” was ready to pounce.

The Fortune piece featured oil paintings by Stuyvesant Van Veen, including this one depicting the Proscenium at the Irving Place…

…Van Veen got behind the curtain to create this painting (below) of “Burlesque Queens,” and the magazine chastely demonstrated the “cycle of the strip act” with the help of Miss Jean Lee, aka Miss Jess Mack…

The New Yorker also took a sideways glance at Fortune’s stuffy approach to the subject of striptease, suggesting that it was much ado about nothing.

IT’S ALL AN ACT, FELLAS…**Gypsy Rose Lee** in 1943. (nypl.org)

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Futures and Fascists

Before the days of television and the Internet, a world’s fair was the place to go to see the latest technologies and other attractions from countries around the world. Paris correspondent Janet Flanner filed a special report on the Brussels International Exposition of 1935, which attracted 20 million visitors in a little over six months.

EURO SPECTACLE…Clockwise, from top left, the menacing facade of the Italian Pavilion—its interior walls featured frescoes of marching fascists; the *Palais des Expositions* (*Grand Palais*) still stands today as the Brussels Exhibition Centre; an early demonstration of television; the U.S. featured an “Indian Village” at the Expo. (fomo.be/Wikimedia/en.worldsfairs.info)

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Matchbox Cars

The New Yorker regularly checked the automobile competition from overseas, and found a tiny German car to be “perfectly amazing,” even if it didn’t go over so well with consumers.

IT’S CUTE, BUT…Due to its extreme unbalance of the Mercedes-Benz 130 H (two-thirds of the mass, including the engine, was on the rear axle), the car apparently was awkward to handle. It was discontinued in 1936. (automobile-catalog.com)

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From Our Advertisers

Anyway, most Americans preferred bigger cars, especially ones by luxury makers such as Lincoln, if they could afford them…

…Lincoln’s parent company, Ford, offered up a more affordable convertible with some flair of its own…automakers were fond of the marriage theme in advertisements, especially in the month of June…

…automakers and related industries were important advertisers during The New Yorker’s first years…

…indeed, the back cover of Issue #1 (Feb. 21, 1925) featured this ad from the United States Rubber Company, promoting its U.S. Royal Cord Balloon Tires…

…another faithful advertiser in the magazine’s first decade was the Bermuda Trade Development Board…

…this ad for Four Roses whiskey recalled “the glamorous days” (ahem) before the Civil War…

…and this colorful ad from World Peaceways reminded readers there was nothing to celebrate about wars…these ads pulled no punches (read the first few lines)…

…”most interesting country in the world today!” proclaimed this ad inviting tourists to the Soviet Union…during 1934-35 Joseph Stalin was ruthlessly purging the Party, and local leaders across the country were being annihilated…of the 2.3 million people who had been party members in 1935, just under half were executed or perished in labor camps…this fact probably wasn’t mentioned in the travel folder…

…the Webster Cigar Company hired Otto Soglow to create an ad doubtless based on the popularity of “The Little King,” but this isn’t the diminutive monarch…

…which takes us to our cartoonists, beginning with this spot signed E.S., I believe, or L.S. (anyone know?)…at any rate, its whimsical…

…of course we know Robert Day…

…Day again, in a very different style…

…Helen Hokinson, sounding a contemporary note…

…a kindergarten political standoff, courtesy Garrett Price…

…Rea Irvin, and the obsolescence of Pan (today she’d have a cell phone)…

…Peter Arno, and a clueless, cold, cuckold…

…and we close with Alan Dunn, and the future of transportation…

Next Time: A Return to Coney…

Wining & Dining

Above: The Waldorf-Astoria's Starlight Roof, and a 1930s menu cover. (Facebook/Pinterest)

With summer approaching, the rooftop restaurants were in full swing, and Lois Long continued her exploration of favorite haunts, including one nightclub that drew many Manhattanites across the Hudson to the cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades.

Ben Marden couldn’t wait for the official end of Prohibition when he opened his Riviera Night Club in Fort Lee in 1931. The frequent site of raids until the repeal of the 18th Amendment, the Riviera continued to be a place well known to Bergen County police thanks to clientele that included racketeers and other unsavory types. But to New Yorkers like Long, it was a break from the din of the city to the relative green of the Garden State. Long wrote:

The Riviera closed during the first years of World War II, but it reopened in 1945 after Bill Miller bought it from Marden and apparently cleaned it up. It then attracted the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Martha Rae, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Pearl Bailey until it closed in 1953. It was demolished the following year.

THEY HAD FOOD, TOO…Clockwise, from left, the1936 spring menu cover of Ben Marden’s Riviera featured an illustration of the original Riviera (ringed by nude showgirls), which burned to the ground on Thanksgiving night, 1936; the building that replaced it was called an architectural wonder with its retractable roof, rotating stage, and glass windows that slid down to the floor; **Earl Carroll** and his “Beauties” performed at the Riviera in 1935–they are pictured here at a train station in Los Angeles, 1934. (ebay.com/patch.com/lapl.org)

Long also stayed in town to visit the Waldorf-Astoria’s Starlight Roof.

WITH THE STARS, UNDER THE STARS…Clockwise, from left, cocktail menu from the Waldorf’s Starlight Roof, 1935; outdoor seating on the Starlight Roof Terrace; special menu for the Gala Opening Dinner and Supper Dance on the Starlight Roof, May 14, 1935. It was a favorite destination of **Frank Sinatra, Cole Porter, Katharine Hepburn,** and **Ella Fitzgerald**, among others. (Pinterest)

Long also mentioned the appearance of Ray Noble in the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room. This full-page ad appeared in the June 1 issue:

Other summer season attractions were advertised in numerous back-of-the-book, one-column advertisements:

…and at the bottom of page 64…

Wining and dining were also the topic of the profile, a two-parter penned by Margaret Case Harriman, who took a look at New York’s famed Colony Restaurant.

ORIGINAL TRIO…**Al Frueh’s** caricatures of the Colony’s owners/headwaiters **Gene Cavallero** and **Ernest Cerutti**, who flank chef **Alfred Hartmann**, who was also part owner until he sold his interest to the other two in 1927 and retired to a farm in France. Harriman wrote that Cavallero and Cerutti were “born headwaiters—suave, solicitous, infallible.”

A PLACE TO BE SEEN…From the 1920s to the 1960s New York’s café society dined at the Colony. Rian James, in *Dining In New York* (1930) wrote “the Colony is the restaurant of the cosmopolite and the connoisseur; the rendezvous of the social register; the retreat of the Four Hundred.” Critic George Jean Nathan said the Colony was one of “civilization’s last strongholds in the department of cuisine.” Photo at left of the dining room around 1940; at right, co-owner **Eugene Cavallero** consults with a chef. (lostpastremembered.blogspot.com)

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The Business of News

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White contemplated the meaning of a free press, noting that nearly all media was at the mercy of advertisers. That included The New Yorker, which owed allegiance “to the makers of toilet articles, cigarettes, whiskey, and foundation garments.”

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Cat Lady

“The Talk of the Town” anticipated the arrival of French writer Colette (1873-1954) aboard the S.S. Normandie. This excerpt makes note of her high standing in society as well as her love of cats.

SHE ONCE OWNED AN OCELOT….Colette with her cats in an undated photo; at right, entering New York Harbor on the S.S. *Normandie*, 1935. (Pinterest)

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Public Artists

“The Talk of the Town” noted the latest Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition…

LENDING THEIR TALENTS…*New Yorker* cartoonists who helped promote the Outdoor Art Exhibition in Washington Square included **James Thurber, Otto Soglow,** and **William Steig.**

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Cutting Remarks

S.J. Perelman offered his thoughts on the decline of the tonsorial arts. In this excerpt, he sees his beloved Italian barber give way to a “knifelike individual in a surgical apron.” Excerpts:

IT’S A SCIENCE NOW, SIDNEY…**S.J. Perelman** worried about the displacement of Italian barbershops by cosmetologists in “surgical aprons,” such as the one modeled by **Helena Rubinstein** at right. (Pinterest)

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Even Those Eyes Couldn’t Help

Film critic John Mosher was sad to report that disappointment was in store for moviegoers who enjoyed seeing Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage. Her latest flick, The Girl from 10th Avenue, featured Davis murmuring “gentle nothings of a vaguely noble monotony.”

GET ME OUT OF THIS PICTURE…Left, **Bette Davis** with Ian Hunter in the uninspired *The Girl from 10th Avenue;* at right, screen shot of Davis in 1934’s Of Human Bondage, the film that made Davis a star. (thefilmexperience.net)

Other items in the editorial section included a casual by Dorothy Parker’s husband Alan Campbell (titled “Loyalty at Pool-Wah-Met”), and Morris Markey examined the Christian Science movement inspired of Mary Baker Eddy, in “A Reporter at Large” piece titled “But Thinking Makes It So.”

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with an advertising theme common through midcentury, namely, that you could smoke certain brands as much as you liked and still be a star athlete (as opposed to a wheezing husk of a human being)…

…not only did these cigarettes “steady your nerves” and preserve your “wind,” they also made for sweet, romantic moments…

…in between puffs you could also enjoy breathing in fumes from leaded gasoline…lead pollution increased by more than 625 times previous levels after leaded fuels were introduced in 1924…

…although they were being outlawed by New York Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia, an organ grinder nevertheless made an appearance in an Arrow Shirt ad that offered a lighthearted moment for all involved (except for the dude on ketamine)…

…when jeans were called “dungarees” they were reserved for gardening or fishing…at right you could land a pair of “Crazy Shoes” woven with “garish Mexican colours” for five-and-a-half bucks…

…the makers of White Rock kept it cool with this minimalist ad…

…luxury automaker Packard continued to hang on through the Depression by offering a downscale version…it appears their demographic was middle-aged men and women who still preferred the finer things even if they couldn’t afford them…

…now the property of Hearst, Otto Soglow’s Little King could still appear in The New Yorker via the advertising sections…

…and Soglow continued his contribution to the magazine’s cartoons with other multi-panel subjects…

…James Thurber kicked off the cartoonists with this tender spot…

…and contributed this cartoon…

…Alain found competition in the portrait trade…

…George Price was still afloat…

…Charles Addams was tied up with the sculptural arts…

…Denys Wortman shopped for DIY projects…

…Peter Arno found a sensitive side in one member of the NYPD…

…Mary Petty made some alterations…

…and we close with this terrific cartoon by Richard Decker…

Next Time: Not a Square Deal…

Vive La Normandie

Above: At left, Adolphe Cassandre's famed 1935 depiction of the S.S. Normandie; right, image from a 1935 promotional booklet published by the French Line.

When the S.S. Normandie entered service in 1935, she was the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a little over four days. The ship was so impressive that even the imperturbable Janet Flanner expressed enthusiasm over its launch.

May 25, 1935 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

As Paris correspondent, Flanner was giving New Yorker readers a preview of Normandie‘s May 29 maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York City.

HER ENTOURAGE…The S.S. *Normandie* was welcomed into New York Harbor on June 3, 1935. (Wikipedia)

IMAGINE THAT…An S.S. *Normandie* promotional poster from 1935 depicts the ocean liner making an unlikely entrance into Manhattan. The sleek ship measured 1,029 feet (313.6m) in length and carried nearly 2,000 passengers plus 1,345 crew. It was the first ocean liner to exceed 1,000 feet in length. (Museum of the City of New York–MCNY)

To give New Yorkers some idea of the liner’s size, Flanner noted that the Normandie would stretch from 43rd to 47th Street, and if stood on her stern, would stand nearly 180 feet above the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center.

FRENCH TOAST…Top, a crowd cheers the S.S. *Normandie* as it arrives at New York’s Pier 88 on June 3, 1935; below, the first class dining hall was 305 feet long, 46 feet wide and three decks high. (drivingfordeco.com/MCNY)

IN, AND ON THE WATER…Passengers take a plunge in the Normandie’s swimming pool, which included a bar at the far end. (MCNY)

EYE-POPPING…Colorized image of the first-class lounge. (Pinterest)

BARGAIN…Accommodations for weren’t too bad, either, for the other classes. Here is the 3rd class salon. (drivingfordeco.com)

TAKE YOUR PICK…Clockwise from top left, elevators decorated in sea shells; the rear of the Grand Salon; a first class suite; view of the swimming pool. An incredible scale model of the S.S. *Normandie* is displayed on the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked at Long Beach, CA. (MCNY)

World War II would cut short the Normandie’s life. Seized in New York and renamed USS Lafayette in 1942, she was being converted to a troopship when she caught fire, capsized onto the port side, and came to rest half submerged on the bottom of the Hudson at Pier 88, the same pier where she was welcomed in 1935. She was scrapped in 1946.

THE WAGES OF STUPIDITY…The *Normandie* after a fire brought her glory days to an end. (Reddit)

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A Critic Is Born

It turns out that Wolcott Gibbs (1902–1958) cut his teeth as The New Yorker’s theatre critic while he was still in short pants. Gibbs recalled his five-year-old self in an essay that described his first experience with the theatre—a play based on the New York Herald’s popular comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, by Winsor McCay. In parallel with Gibbs’ childhood, the strip ran from 1905 to 1911.

As a child, Gibbs was wild about Little Nemo’s adventures, but the stage adaptation left the child disillusioned (and feeling “tricked and furious”). The New York Public Library’s Douglas Reside wrote (in 2015) that the producers, seeking to draw as wide an audience as possible, presented Little Nemo “as a bloated mixture of theatrical styles, including the minstrel show, pantomime, operetta, farce-comedy, vaudeville, revue, and ballet,” featuring three comedians “mostly superfluous to Nemo’s story.” The part of Nemo was played by a 25-year-old actor with dwarfism.

DREAMLAND…The *Little Nemo* strip from Dec. 17, 1905 depicted the boy’s dream of a visit to Santa’s magical city at the North Pole. (Wikipedia)

THAT’S SHOWBIZ…As a boy, **Wolcott Gibbs** (left) was disillusioned by a 1907 theatre adaptation of his favorite comic strip, *Little Nemo in Slumberland.* The play was dominated by three comedians including **Joseph Cawthorn**, right, who burlesqued German linguistic and cultural mannerisms for comic effect. He played Dr. Pill, the quack doctor of Slumberland’s royal court. The “boy” in the bed portraying Nemo was 25-year-old “Master” Gabriel Weigel. (Wikipedia/New York Public Library)

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Humorous Humors

Clarence Day, best known for his Life with Father stories, wrote humorously about his physical ailments and contributed a number of cartoons to The New Yorker that were accompanied by satirical poems. Day would be dead by December—after a bout with pneumonia—however, despite his ailments he would spend his last months arranging publication of his Life with Father book, which was published posthumously.

* * *

Frankie Got Hitched

Film critic John Mosher still wasn’t finding much to rave about at the cinema, getting more chuckles from the monster mash-up of Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein than he did from the Dolores Del Rio vehicle Caliente.

DATE NIGHT…Top, **Elsa Lanchester** and Boris Karloff let the sparks fly in The Bride of Frankenstein, while **Dolores Del Rio** danced and chatted her way through the unfunny musical comedy *Caliente.* (Wikipedia/TCM)

* * *

Other features in the May 25 issue included H. L. Mencken’s continuing exploration into the origins of American names…

…and The New Yorker published its first John Cheever story, “Brooklyn Rooming House.” Of Cheever’s 180 short stories, the magazine would publish 121 of them.

A NEW FACE…In spring 1935 *The New Yorker* bought two **John Cheever stories**, paying $90 for “The Brooklyn Rooming House” and $45 for “Buffalo.” Fiction editor **Katharine White** urged the purchase of the stories. Above, **Walker Evan’s** photo of Cheever, circa 1940s. (metmuseum.org)

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From Our Advertisers

We start with some one-column gems from the back of the book including the latest innovation in electric refrigerators…a shelf in the door!…apparently Crosley was the first to invent this “Shelvador”…the ad to the right is interesting in that it advertises honey-filled golf balls…in the early 20th century some golf balls did contain real honey…apparently it was chosen for its consistent viscosity (or maybe for a quick snack on the ninth hole)…

…and from General Tire, we have another ominous warning from Dad as the teens head out for another night of crooning, or whatever they are dressed for…

…last week Chrysler was offering its sedans for $745, and this week you could have one of their Plymouths for just 510 bucks…the message: you would be admired by your polo buddies for your smart, thrifty choice…

…where the above ad crammed every square inch with information, the folks at Pierce Arrow offered a restrained, minimal message (suggesting “we can afford to buy a full-page ad and leave much of it blank”)…another class signifier was the absence of a price tag (about $150k in today’s dollars)…but Chrysler-Plymouth would survive the Depression because it sold affordable cars, while Pierce Arrow was on its last legs…

…here’s a couple of Pierce Arrow owners toasting the return of the Manhattan…

…Moët & Chandon offered up this whimsical tableau from the youth of Bacchus…

…Ethel Merman popped through a curtain on the inside back cover to invite readers to subscribe to The Stage magazine…

…and Lucky Strike claimed the back cover with another stylish woman and a talking cigarette bent on mind control…

…the Ritz-Carlton announced the spring re-opening of its famed Japanese Garden…

The Japanese Garden in 1924. (clickamericana)

…and we kick off our cartoonists with this “Goings On” topper by D. Krán…

…followed by this visit to the zoo by Abe Birnbaum…

…James Thurber was up for some fashion criticism…

…Helen Hokinson found a surprise in a paint-by-numbers kit..

…Peter Arno was up for some late night nuptials…

…Gluyas Williams continued to examine club life…

...George Price was back in the air…

…Alan Dunn gave us some men on a mission…

…and we close with Charles Addams, and some dam trouble…

Next Time: Wining and Dining…

Settling Down

Above: Celebrating the repeal of the 18th Amendment, 1933. (New York Times)

“Settling Down” was the title given to Morris Markey’s examination of the post-Prohibition world, which to no one’s surprise heartily embraced (and imbibed) everything this world had to offer.

May 18, 1935 cover by **Adolph K. Kronengold.**

In his column, “A Reporter at Large,” Markey examined the challenges faced by local and federal governments in reestablishing old liquor control laws, in many cases creating new ones to address the technological, economic and social changes that transpired during the fourteen years of Prohibition. Facing this challenge in New York was Edward P. Mulrooney (1874-1960), a former police commissioner tapped in 1933 to head the State Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Markey explained how Mulrooney and New York regulators tried to create new standards for alcohol consumption that would encourage moderation. Excerpts:

CAN’T HAVE A BELT IN THE BIBLE BELT…Published by The United States News on Nov. 11, 1933, this map shows how liquor laws varied by state following Prohibition. After Prohibition ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment, states gained the authority to regulate alcohol sales, leading to a wide variety of state and local laws. Many states adopted local option laws, allowing cities and counties to decide whether to allow alcohol sales, resulting in “wet,” “dry,” and “moist” jurisdictions. (us news.com)

Seventeen chief provisions for moderating alcohol use were published in The New York Times on Nov. 10, 1933, but ten of those provisions were quickly abandoned. Less than a year and a half after repeal, Markey noted that “the citizen is offered every inducement…to drink as much as he can possibly hold.”

SO MUCH FOR RULES…Celebrations for the repeal of Prohibition in bars and former speakeasies began when **Franklin Roosevelt** signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933; the president himself was known to enjoy a dry martini; former New York Police Commissioner **Edward P. Mulrooney** had the unlucky task of figuring out how to regulate the juice of the grape and the grain. In the end, people seemed to be drinking more than ever. (themobmuseum.org/thrillist.com/Condé Nast)

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Hordes From the Hinterland

There was a time, long ago, when Broadway catered mostly to New Yorkers, but with the advent of mass media and better transportation options folks from the hinterlands (from beyond the Hudson) began to descend on the Great White Way. Then as now, certain shows attracted thousands, including The Great Waltz, a musical based on the works of Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. It opened in September 1934 at the Center Theatre and ran for 289 performances. “The Talk of the Town” sniffed that “People who literally have never seen a play before in their lives turn up at Sixth Avenue and Forty-ninth Street, ready for anything.”

MANY AMERICANS WERE AGOG over the *The Great Waltz*…Clockwise, from top left, the play was performed at the Center Theatre (formerly the RKO Roxy Theatre) at 49th Street and 6th Avenue—sadly, it was demolished in 1954, the only building to ever be demolished from the original Rockefeller Center complex; cover of the *Playbill*; actress **Marie Burke** portrayed Countess Olga Baranskaja; **Al Hirschfeld** illustration of Burke and fellow actors **Guy Robertson** (as Johann Strauss) and **Marion Claire** as Therese. (cinematreasures.org/playbill.com/nyt.com)

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From Our Advertisers

Appropriately, this full-page advertisement for Gordon’s Gin appeared opposite the opening page of Morris Markey’s exploration of the post-Prohibition world…

…and business was booming in the liquor trades…most of the full-color ads in The New Yorker were placed by liquor companies, cigarette manufacturers, and automakers…the inside back cover shilled for Penn Maryland…

…while the back cover was once again claimed by big tobacco…here we have Newport deb Mary De Mumm expounding on wonders of Camel cigarettes, which somehow helped her feel both restful and energetic…

…those who enjoyed the finer things could buy this Packard for about $3,000 (nearly $90K today).

…anticipation was building for the June arrival of the new French liner S.S. Normandie, the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat…

S.S. *Normandie* on the high seas. (Wikipedia)

…the Hamburg-American Line was another way to get across the pond, and it promised a ship filled with famous and classy people (and likely more than a few Nazis)…the single-column ad on the right suggested you could spend your summer in Germany…the tourist bureau claimed that Germany was known as “the healing country,” and doubtless many needed healing after being beaten by Brownshirts…

…a couple more single-column ads, first from our friends at College Inn, who dumped the furious Duchess in favor of a dyspeptic father-in-law who brings his daughter-in-law to tears over her choice of tomato juice…the ad at right advertised the services of Mr. Louis, Mr. Jack, and Mr. Paul at the hair stylist Fred, while a tiny ad at the bottom offered a luncheon for a buck at New York’s “Smartest Boulevard Cafe”…

…the key word in many New Yorker advertisements was luxury, and for a fraction of what you would pay for a Packard, you could, apparently, experience luxury for as little as $745…

…or you could enjoy a bit of elegance by opening a some cans of Heinz soup, chili sauce, stuffed olives and other delectables…here a couple of shady-looking butlers are serving nothing but canned goods at a swanky party, much to the annoyance of the cook, who appears poised to take a cleaver to the scheming pair…

…and look what else you can get from a can, some soup with a “personality”…

…enough of that nonsense, on to our cartoonists, with two spots from James Thurber…

...Lloyd Coe gave us this musical multi-panel…

…Leonard Dove looked in on the complex world of young love…

…George Price found the Yuletide spirit still alive among procrastinators…

…and we close with Alan Dunn, and some earthy reading…

Next Time: Vive La Normandie…

What’s in a Name?

Above: H.L. Mencken at the Baltimore Sun, circa 1930. From April 1934 to September 1949, Mencken contributed more than fifty articles to The New Yorker.

The American journalist Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) was well-known as a biting satirist and cultural critic, but he was also a noted scholar of the English language and its various quirks.

May 11, 1935, Mother’s Day cover by **William Cotton.**

One of those quirks was explored in Mencken’s essay, “The Advance of Nomenclatural Eugenics In the Republic,” for the column “Onward & Upward With The Arts.” Broadly defined, eugenics refers to the discredited belief that selective breeding could be used to improve the human race. Mencken used the term satirically to describe the anglicization of immigrant names, either to conform to English spellings or, in many cases, to avoid racial and ethnic discrimination. An excerpt:

A PERFECT PAIRING, for **H. L. Mencken**, was a beer and a cigar. Here he is accepting “his first public glass of post-Prohibition beer” at the Rennert Hotel in Baltimore on April 7, 1933. In 1924 Mencken wrote: “Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists.” (digitalmaryland.org)

Many Jewish immigrants also abandoned their surnames, seeking to blend in and avoid discrimination. Historian and author Kirsten Fermaglich (A Rosenberg by Any Other Name, 2016) found that persons with Jewish-sounding last names made up 65 percent of all name change requests in New York in the first quarter of the 20th century. Mencken observed:

MEET BERNARD, BETTY, ISSUR AND MARGARITA…Some more famous examples of name changes in the first half of the 20th century. From left, actors (and New Yorkers) **Tony Curtis** (Bernard Schwartz), **Lauren Bacall** (Betty Joan Perske), **Kirk Douglas** (Issur Danielovitch Demsky), and **Rita Hayworth** (Margarita Carmen Cansino). (Wikipedia)

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Canada Dry

In his column, “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker noted the “well-merited spanking” FDR gave to military leaders who were talking about fortifying the border with Canada. Brubaker agreed with FDR’s action, observing how Canadians came to the aid of thirsty Americans during Prohibition.

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Air France

Paris correspondent Janet Flanner considered the state of French aviation as well as signs of war preparation. She also noted the birthday of German dictator Adolf Hitler, the birth of French television, and the streamlined taxis that had suddenly appeared on the streets of Paris. Excerpts:

SOME ICE CREAM WITH YOUR SLICE OF HATE?…Clockwise, from top left, bakers carefully carry **Adolf Hitler’s** birthday cake in April 1935; the French, meanwhile, were ramping up war production including the manufacture of the M210 bomber; airplane factory workers fashion sheet metal in a factory in Châteauroux-Déols; streamlined Peugeot 401 taxis hit the Paris streets in 1935. (reddit.com/dassault-aviation.com/imcdc.org)

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Vamps and Vampires

John Mosher offered mixed reviews of Hollywood’s latest fare, finding Marlene Dietrich’s latest vehicle “fun,” and the singing and dancing of husband/wife Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler “uninspired,” a term he also applied to Bela Lugosi’s latest vampire flick.

TAKE YOUR PICK…Critic **John Mosher** sampled some very different films including, left, **Marlene Dietrich** and Lionel Atwill in *The Devil Is a Woman*; top, **Ruby Keeler** with her then-husband **Al Jolson** in *Go Into Your Dance*; and **Bela Lugosi** did his vampire schtick with the help of **Carroll Borland** (who played Dracula’s daughter) in *Mark of the Vampire*. (MoMA/Pinterest/Instagram)

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From Our Advertisers

We start off with a bang from Goodyear…tire blowouts were common in the 1930s as tire technology could not keep pace with the increasing speed of automobiles, nor the poor condition of many roads…

…after many weeks, the back cover went to something other than cigarette manufacturers…

…let’s take a look at some of the one-column ads from the back pages…many of them highlighted the various nighttime entertainments, from the rooftop of Hotel Pierre to the air-conditioned lounge at the Savoy-Plaza (plus that weird ad that suggested Corn Flakes as a nightcap)…

…interior designer Elsie de Wolfe rolled out “Iron with Tape” chairs, which might be the first example of what would become the ubiquitous webbed lawn chair…also advertised were apartments in the former Pulitzer mansion…

…the Pulitzer apartments were one happy outcome of the Great Depression, which foiled the plans of investors to demolish the house in 1934 and erect an apartment building…

The Pulitzer mansion still stands today, now divided into high-class coops. (daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com)

…here’s something new from the Jay Thorpe shop, “noted for unusual sportswear”…

…perhaps inspired by Hollywood…

**Ruby Keeler** in 1935’s *Shipmates Forever.* (Reddit)

…illustrator Lyse Darcy created many of these distinctive ads for Guerlain products from the 1930s through the 1950s…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with spot art from James Thurber…

…and Thurber again…

…and we have two from George Price…

…Otto Soglow continued with his multi-panel tricks…

…Howard Baer did some eavesdropping on the rails…

…while Barbara Shermund checked in on her modern women…

…Alan Dunn gave us a mother who took care of herself on Mother’s Day…

…Peter Arno found some kindly advice in the crowded city…

…Al Frueh put the “tennis” back into table tennis…

…and we close with Charles Addams, who had become a regular contributor but was still more than three years away from launching his “Addams Family” cartoons…

Next Time: Settling Down, In a Way…

The Royal Treatment

Above: King George V and Queen Mary posed for portraits by John St Helier Lander to commemorate the king’s Silver Jubilee in 1935. (Wikipedia)

The British Royal Family has never been my cup of tea, but its hard to deny their influence on world affairs, even if today it is mostly ceremonial. The king and queen were also figureheads back in 1935, however they could still claim to lead a vast empire, albeit one badly fraying at the seams.

Then as now, the power of the royals lay largely in their ability to boost the political and economic fortunes of their island nation. Such was observed by The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent Janet Flanner, who penned a two-part profile of Queen Mary (nee Mary of Teck or more formally Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India). Flanner wrote the profile of Queen Mary (1867-1953) in anticipation of the Silver Jubilee of her husband, King-Emperor George V (1865-1936). Excerpts:

A DEB AND A DUKE…In 1886 Mary was a an unmarried British princess who was not descended from Queen Victoria, so she was a suitable candidate for the royal family’s most eligible bachelor, Mary’s second cousin **Prince Albert Victor**, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. In early December 1891 Albert Victor (left photo) proposed marriage to Mary, but he died six weeks later in the Russian flu pandemic. Less than two years later (July 1893) Albert Victor’s brother, **Prince George,** Duke of York, would wed Mary—at right, their wedding day photo. (Wikipedia)

Flanner noted that the King George V and Queen Mary were rated by British industrialists as the Empire’s “two best salesmen,” however it was Mary who proved the most influential whether she was buying a hat or a refrigerator. Excerpts:

SILVER AND GOLD…Top photo: to mark the king’s Silver Jubilee on May 6, 1935, **King George V** and Queen Mary greet their subjects from a balcony at Buckingham Palace with their grandchildren, (from left) **Princess Margaret Rose, Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Princess Elizabeth,** and **Viscount Lascelles**. Below, King George V, the **Duke** and **Duchess of York**, and Princess Elizabeth take a trip in the royal carriage, 1933. The Duke and Duchess would succeed the throne upon the death of King George in 1936 and the abdication of the Duke’s brother, **Edward**, that same year. (Reddit/Town & Country)

Naturally, not everyone in the kingdom was thrilled by the Silver Jubilee…

OPPOSING VIEWPOINT…The anti-monarchist cartoonist Desmond Rowney commemorated the Silver Jubilee with this cartoon in the *Daily Worker*. The public expense for the Silver Jubilee in the midst of a financial depression caused some controversy. (National Archives UK)

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Corn-fed Canvasses

Critic Lewis Mumford, like many East Coast intellectuals, was allergic to the over-patriotic and the sentimental, so when it came to assessing the work of the regionalist painter Grant Wood (1891-1942), Mumford found himself perplexed but hopeful that Wood would one day “find himself” and produce “first rate” art.

FLANKING THE ICONIC painting *American Gothic* (1930) are **Grant Wood’s** *Self Portrait* (1932) and, at right, *Arnold Comes of Age* (1930). **Lewis Mumford** considered *American Gothic* to be Wood’s best work. (figgeartmuseum.org/whitney.org/sheldonartmuseum.org)

Mumford did not mince words, however, when it came to Wood’s contemporary landscapes, which he called “unmitigatedly bad…If that is what the vegetation of Iowa is like, the farmers ought to be able to sell their corn for chewing gum…”

BUBBLEGUM TREES…From 1919 to 1925, **Grant Wood** taught junior high art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The seasonal nature of teaching allowed Wood to take summer trips to Europe to study art, and his early work showed strong post-impressionist influences, including his impressionistic *Vegetable Farm* (top) from 1924; below, Mumford thought Grant’s later landscapes looked like they were made of cotton and sponge rubber, including *Near Sundown*, from 1933. (wikiart.org)

HOPE AND NOPE…Mumford wrote that Wood’s more “hopeful” works included, top left, *Death on Ridge Road* and, top right, *Adolescence.* On the other hand, he found the portraiture in *Dinner for Threshers* (bottom) vacuous, suggesting “a color photograph of a model of Life in Iowa done for a historical museum.” (wikiart.org/figgeartmuseum.org)

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Daring Young Man

“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to William Saroyan (1908–1981), an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer who would go on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940 and a 1943 Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. An excerpt:

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Not Long For Long

In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker noted that the “loose talk” of Huey Long, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana and prominent critic of the New Deal, could be squelched by a Senate vote. As it turned out, it wouldn’t be necessary; Long was felled by an assassin’s bullet four months later.

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Ode to Abode

E.B. White turned to verse to offer his thoughts on where one should live:

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Tough Guys

After a musical comedy, a Shakespeare adaptation (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and another comedy, James Cagney returned to familiar form with an exciting crime drama, G Men. Critic John Mosher was pleased that Cagney was back to tap-dancing with machine guns rather than showgirls.

CRIME PAYS…AT THE BOX OFFICE… **James Cagney** takes aim at his new role as a federal agent James “Brick” Davis in *G Men.* With the Hays Code in force, Warner Brothers made the film to counteract what many leaders claimed was a disturbing trend of glorifying criminals in gangster films. (Still from film)

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From Our Advertisers

According to General Motors’ Fischer division, good taste was in order whether you were choosing a spouse or an automobile…

…New Yorker ads continued to display bright colors to sell everything from cars to whiskey to sparkling water (with apparent health benefits)…

…the shadowy Dubonnet mascot was back, here making the claim (against the wisdom of the ages) that a lunchtime drink will clear your head for the afternoon ahead…

…no health claims here from Penn Maryland, just pure magic as depicted by Otto Soglow…

…and what goes better with whiskey than the Kentucky Derby…

…the 1935 Kentucky Derby was won by Omaha, a three-year-old Thoroughbred; he was the third horse to ever win the Triple Crown (Omaha was the son of Gallant Fox, the 1930 U.S. Triple Crown winner)…

…on the subject of Thoroughbreds, Camel offered up testimonials from top athletes in a variety of sports…they all agreed that the cigarettes “don’t get your wind”…so what did that mean?…according to R.J. Reynolds, “It means you can smoke Camels all you want”…

…Camels also calmed the nerves, and so apparently did Chesterfields…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with a spot by Charles Addams at the top of page 2…

…later in the issue James Thurber contributed this drawing to stretch across the bottom of page 62 (“On and Off the Avenue”)…

…Thurber again, with the life of the party…

…William Steig offered up a page-full of wits…

…plus one more on the preceding page…

…Gluyas Williams continued to follow the strange ways of club life in America…

…and we close with Alan Dunn, and service with a smile…

Next Time: What’s In a Name?…

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…

Terse Verse

Above: Holiday greeting card circa 1920 (left) and framed poetry (1916) from the P.F. Volland Company, which rejected E.B. White's attempt at a get-well card. (Newberry Library/Wikipedia)

A deep reading of The New Yorker’s back issues can lead a person down some interesting rabbit holes as well as to new insights. For instance, who knew that the greeting card business could lead to murder?

April 20, 1935 cover by **William Cotton.**

Writing for the occasional feature “Onward And Upward With The Arts,” E.B. White examined the hardboiled world of the “sentiment biz,” a world in which each year 42,000 eager writers elbowed their way into a few hundred positions, and even a smaller number made a decent living at it. To test his own mettle at the craft, White submitted a get-well message to the P. F. Volland Company.

A JOB TO DIE FOR…**Paul Frederick Volland** (1875-1919) founded his greeting card company in 1908, producing sheet music, children’s books, calendars, cookbooks, and framed poetry such as the example at left, from 1916. On May 5, 1919, Volland was shot and killed in his office by an elderly contributor, **Vera Trepagnier**, after a dispute about compensation over her miniature of George Washington. The company continued until 1959. (Wikipedia)

HACK RACKET…One of the more illustrious contributors to the Volland Company was J.P. McEvoy (1894-1958). Despite his generous salary, he hated working for Volland. His 1930 novel *Denny and the Dumb Cluck* satirized the greeting-card business and his experiences with Volland. In an author’s note, McEvoy wrote that “among other minor atrocities I have compiled 47,888 variations of Merry Christmas…” (Wikipedia/Pinterest)

The Volland Company employed scores of artists and writers including L. Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Held Jr, Ring Lardner, Robert Louis Stevenson, and J.P. McEvoy—a writer little known today, McEvoy was influential in the 1920s and 30s, writing everything from children’s tales (he likely inspired Raggedy Ann) to short stories, novels and comic strips, including the popular Dixie Dugan. He also wrote a hit Broadway play, and several of his stories were turned into movies, including W.C. Fields’ 1934 classic It’s a Gift.

White also offered some “tips” on sentiment writing, suggesting that one avoid rhyming words such as “smother” and “mother”…

…he also cautioned about the use of certain phrases, and concluded with a cheeky Easter poem of his own…

* * *

More Thoughts From E.B.W.

White occasionally led off his column with observations on the passing scene, in this case springtime happenings in the city and beyond…

SIGNS OF SPRING…**E.B. White** looked around for signs of spring and found, among other things, the bicycle drills of the League of American Wheelmen (top left, professional bike racer Vincent Seifred rode for the the Empire City Wheelmen in the 1930s); top right, tiny spring peepers were for sale as pets at Macy’s; the Fifth Avenue Coach Company switched sponsors, from Marlboro to Gulden’s; White noted freshets (spring meltwater) in the hills—image is from New York’s Finger Lakes. (crca.net/paherps.com/aldenjewell-flickr.com/nygeo.org)

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Star Struck

“The Talk of Town” anticipated the completion of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. When it opened in October 1935, it was only the fourth planetarium in the United States. Excerpts:

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND…When the Hayden Planetarium opened in October 1935, it was only the fourth planetarium in the United States. In its first year the planetarium drew more than half a million visitors. Clockwise, from top left, the exterior of the planetarium; inside the 75-foot dome; the Zeiss projector; Copernican Room demonstrated movements in the solar system with model planets following tracks in the ceiling; prize-winning poster from a contest in which more than 3,500 high school students were invited to compete for a chance to have their poster exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History. (© AMNH Library)

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Broadway Slugfest

The profile by Meyer Berger looked at the life of a “chiseller,” that is, someone who lived day to day by skimming off the labors of others. Today it is mostly done digitally, but in 1935 the mechanical world could be manipulated by a handful of slugs. Excerpts:

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with an elegant evening, the men in white tie, the women in their finest gowns, all preparing to partake of some canned soup…

…there were many ads with Easter themes to move the merch…

…here’s a detail from an Easter-themed ad for neckties, a retired Colonel, presumably, proudly strutting in the Easter Parade with his crop and monocle as he elbows aside his chauffeur and granddaughter…

…the Duchess returns, and she’s still pissed about her tomato juice…I wish I could have entered this contest…

…the Dubonnet mascot, Dubo-Dubon-Dubonnet, made a startling appearance in this ad…the creation of French graphic designer Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Paul Rand took over the drawing of Dubonnet Man when the liquor came to the United States…

…Old Gold continued its campaign (illustrated by pin-up artist George Petty) featuring a homely, clueless sugar daddy…

…while Camel turned out another group of “sports champions” who testified to the energizing effects of cigarettes…

…another grim message from General Tire…this time featuring dear old dad, contemplating a different fate for his wife and children…

…recall the General ad from March 23…

…General Motors was touting its lineup of 1935 models at the Hotel Astor…

…Chrysler was known as an innovator, introducing radical designs like the Airflow, but consumers weren’t ready for the ultra-streamlined model, even if it did ride so smoothly that one could apparently lose consciousness…

…if a car trip was not your thing, you could fly across America, with a few stops…

…and we fly into our cartoons, where we keep up to date with Otto Soglow…

…George Price was still up in the air with this fellow…

…Gluyas Williams continued to look at club life with this cartoon which originally ran sideways on page 21…

…compliments to the cook, from Syd Hoff…

…Walter Lippmann put the scare in this James Thurber subject…

…and we end with Barbara Shermund, and one young woman who won’t be visiting the new planetarium…

Next Time: A Tour of Broadacre City…

The Cowboy Philosopher

William Penn Adair Rogers, aka Will Rogers (1879–1935), was a man of many talents. Today he is mostly referred to as a humorist, but he was also an actor, a social and political commentator, a trick roper and a vaudeville performer. To Americans he was a national icon.

April 13, 1935 cover by **Barney Tobey.**

Rogers was also internationally famous, having traveled around the world three times and appearing in 71 films (50 of those silent). He also wrote more than 4,000 newspaper columns—nationally syndicated by The New York Times—that reached 40 million readers, and there were also magazine articles, radio broadcasts and personal appearances. He seemed to be everywhere.

ROPING THEM IN…In 1902, **Will Rogers** joined Texas Jack’s Wild West Show & Circus in South Africa as the “Cherokee Kid”—he was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory that is now part of Oklahoma. By 1910, he had created a sensational vaudeville act by mixing trick roping with witty monologues. Clockwise, from top left, Rogers in a publicity photo from 1916, the year he joined the Ziegfeld Follies; on stage with the Follies in 1924; poster from his circus days; backstage with the 1924 Follies cast. (National Portrait Gallery)

MULTIMEDIA MULTI-TALENT…Left, Rogers catches a few moments to write one of his 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns; from 1929 to 1935 he used the exciting new medium of radio to broadcast his newspaper pieces. His weekly Sunday evening show, *The Gulf Headliners*, sponsored by Gulf Oil, ranked among the top radio programs in the country. (National Portrait Gallery)

When John Mosher reviewed Rogers’ latest film, Life Begins At Forty, he found it to be one of Rogers’ best. It would also prove to be one of his last. On August 15, 1935, a small airplane carrying Rogers and aviator Wiley Post would crash on takeoff near Point Barrow, Alaska, claiming the lives of both men. Rogers would appear in three more films in 1935, the last two posthumously.

THAT’S LIFE…**Will Rogers** with **Richard Cromwell** and Rochelle Hudson in *Life Begins at 40*. Rogers’ film took its title from a 1932 self-help book by Walter B. Pitkin. Pitkin maintained that keeping a positive attitude toward life could give a person many fulfilling years after age 40. By the time of his death in 1935, the 55-year-old Rogers was Hollywood’s highest paid actor. (Wikipedia/IMDB)

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Not Toying Around

“The Talk of the Town” looked in on the serious business of toymakers, with 1935 being the year of streamlined tricycles, Buck Rogers disintegrator pistols, and, of course, Shirley Temple dolls.

RIVALED ONLY BY MICKEY MOUSE, **Shirley Temple** was the most popular celebrity to endorse merchandise for children and adults, including the “one and only” Shirley Temple Doll (left, ad from 1935); the Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol (top) was produced in 1935 by Daisy, and was available in both copper and nickel finishes–it was also offered as a premium from Cream of Wheat cereal; at bottom, the American National Streamline Velocipede Tricycle (1935), just one example of the hundreds of products receiving the streamlining treatment in the 1930s. (flickr/airandspace.si.edu/onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk)

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Literary Spirits

E.B. White welcomed the return of literary tea party, which thanks to the repeal of the 18th Amendment had been re-dubbed the “literary cocktail party.” He shared his thoughts in “Notes and Comment”…

AMUSING MUSES…Actress, writer and socialite **Peggy Hopkins Joyce** hosted literary “teas” in the 1920s, while former *Cosmopolitan* editor **Ray Long** inspired a book on adventures in the South Seas shortly before his death; from left, Joyce in 1923; photogravure of Long, 1925. (Wikipedia/photogravure.com)

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Proto Feminist

Emily Hahn was one of the more lively figures in The New Yorker’s stable of journalists and writers, leading an adventurous life that included a hike across Central Africa in the 1930s and getting into all kinds of trouble during the Japanese invasion of China. According to Roger Angell, Hahn was, “in truth, something rare: a woman deeply, almost domestically, at home in the world. Driven by curiosity and energy, she went there and did that, and then wrote about it without fuss.” It is no surprise that Hahn’s latest novel, Affair, didn’t shy away from topics like abortion. According to reviewer Clifton Fadiman, the novel’s “anonymous grayness” exposed the banality of love in the twentieth century.

If Hollywood is looking for a new biopic, Hahn would make a fascinating subject (Kristen Stewart would be perfect for the part). According to IMDB, there is an “Untitled Emily ‘Mickey’ Hahn Project”—a TV series—that has been in development since 2022, but so far nothing has come of it.

DOWN ON LOVE?…**Emily Hahn’s** 1935 novel Affair exposed the banality of love in the twentieth century. (abebooks.com/susanbkason.com)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with this advertisement from Goodyear, featuring what appears to be a father teaching his daughter how to drive, or in this case, fly, just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…

…and we stay airborne with the makers of the streamlined Nash, who claimed their automobile had “flying power”…

…and we return to earth with Cadillac’s budget model, the LaSalle, which featured “flashing performance”…

…by contrast, Pierce Arrow took a minimalist approach, gimmicks and splashy colors being reserved for the lower orders…

…one of the world’s most iconic ocean liners took to the sea with much fanfare in 1935. The SS Normandie was the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; it remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built…

…if you happened to smoke Webster cigars, it could have been a sign that you were favored by the heavens…

…the “20-year rule” in fashion suggests that trends have a tendency to re-emerge every two decades, and that seems to be the case here…

…this next ad tells us everything we need to know about the Stetson wearer: he is a wealthy country gentleman who values tradition but who is also a man of the future…from the 1920s to midcentury the autogyro was thought to be the answer to the long-dreamed of flying car…

…whoever coined the term “night cap” probably wasn’t thinking about cold cereal…

…although Harold Ross’s old high school friend, John Held Jr., contributed many woodcut-style cartoons and faux maps to The New Yorker from 1925 to 1932, Held was more famous for his shingle-bobbed flappers and their slick-haired boyfriends in puffy pants, a style more apparent in this ad for Peychaud’s Bitters (the original was a one-column ad, split here for clarity)…