arts – A New Yorker State of Mind

The President’s Mystery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A Second Life

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

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

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

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A Sensitive Hamlet

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

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

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Safety Last

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

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

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Color My World

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

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

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From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…here’s a page from the 1936 Scale-Craft catalog…

…and an example of what you could build from a kit…

…and there’s no guessing the target audience for this brand of cigarettes…

…on to our cartoonists, Al Frueh was back with illustrations for the theater review section…

…Alain found nothing humorous about being a Good Humor man…

…a couple of spots by Abe Birnbaum (left) and unidentified at right (signature looks like PHRANK)…

…a stray arrow found its way into this cartoon by Charles Addams…

…Whitney Darrow Jr illustrated the childish side of politics…

…we zoom in for a close-up…

…Darrow again, making a new friends…

…Ned Hilton drew up an outfit that clashed with the salad course…

…James Thurber greeted a group of dour birds (interesting background with sporting scenes…one wonders why)…

…Otto Soglow gave us some shattered dreams…

…Alan Dunn visited the fiction section, no questions asked…

…and Dunn again…with an around the world adventure stuck in traffic…

…Fortune magazine probed the mysteries of middle class life, per Carl Rose…

…and we close with Helen Hokinson, and the unease of an approaching winter…

Next Time: Far-Fetched Faulkner…

National Treasure

Above: Detail of a mural by William Gropper, "Construction of a Dam," 1939, located in the U.S. Department of the Interior. (gsa.gov)

Sociologist and urban design critic Lewis Mumford was well known for his strong convictions regarding the development of cities, but he also applied those convictions—namely his ideas of organic balance—while writing “The Art Galleries” column for The New Yorker.

October 17, 1936 cover by William Steig.

Mumford (1895–1990) was neither a traditionalist nor a modernist, but rather a proponent of art and architecture that was human-scaled and that honestly reflected the times and places it which they were created. In his Oct. 17 column he cited Washington’s new Supreme Court Building as a prime example of sham architecture, and lamented a “certain staleness” in an exhibition of the U.S. Treasury’s Relief Art Project, which commissioned numerous murals and sculptures for installation in federal buildings. Excerpts:

SUPERANNUATED CLASSICISM was the term **Lewis Mumford** used to describe new buildings in Washington, D.C., and suggested (in jest) commissioning murals to cover their outside walls, including those of the new Supreme Court building, completed in 1935. According to the Federal Judiciary Center, the building was designed on a scale in keeping with the importance and dignity of the Court and the Judiciary as a coequal, independent branch of the United States Government, and as a symbol of “the national ideal of justice in the highest sphere of activity.” *(fjc.gov)*

Although Mumford noted the “hacks and mediocrities” of Treasury-sponsored art, he also noted the inclusion of a number of distinguished artists. The problem, it seemed to him, was not the artists but rather the outmoded, monumental murals they were commissioned to create.

MONUMENT MEN…Clockwise, from top: mural by **William Gropper,** *Construction of a Dam,* 1939, located in the Department of the Interior; mural created in 1937 by **Peppino Mangravite** for the U.S. Post Office in Hempstead, New York, depicting the arrival of British dirigible R.34 with the first air mail in 1919; **Ernest Fiene** painting from 1938 depicted a wildfire battle, one of a set of four Fiene oil-on-canvas murals at Interior. *(gsa.gov/livingnewdeal.org)*

Mumford concluded: “We need a type of painting that is flexible and renewable…capable of renewal every month, or as often as a Japanese changes a kakemono.”

THE ART OF IMPERMANANCE…**Lewis Mumford** wrote that public art should change as often as the Japanese change their *kakemono. (britannica.com)*

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Been There, Done That

E.B. White gave voice to New Yorker mascot Eustace Tilley in 1927 when Tilley bade farewell as the author of “The Talk of the Town.” White also checked in on Tilley in a 1932 “Notes and Comment” column, recounting how Tilley almost lost his silk top hat to the tax man. Tilley turns up again in this week’s “Notes,” this time appearing quite inebriated and refusing to attend a star-studded party at the Waldorf:

HO-HUM…Not even Benny Goodman and a bevy of Hollywood stars could distract **Eustace Tilley** from his drink and a tin of oysters. (bennygoodman.com)

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Stunt Pilots

I’m not sure which “Talk of the Town” writer went up on the airplane, but either Eugene Kinkead or Russell Maloney hopped aboard an American Airlines charter in a publicity stunt that involved flying a group of reporters above a ship (the S.S. Santa Paula) that was carrying two Hollywood stars—newlyweds Joan Blondell and Dick Powell.

AHOY THERE!…Newlyweds **Joan Blondell** and **Dick Powell** greet admirers as they arrive in New York aboard the S.S. *Santa Paula.* A *New Yorker* writer was flying somewhere overhead. *(godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com)*

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Gielgud’s Gig

After enormous success on the London stage, John Gielgud brought his Hamlet to Broadway’s Empire Theatre, where he was paired with Lillian Gish as Ophelia. Robert Benchley was there for the action. Excerpt:

ACTING ROYALTY…The queen of the silents met the king of the stage when **Lillian Gish** joined John Gielgud for Broadway’s production of *Hamlet* at the Empire Theatre. The play ran for 132 performances, a record at that time for a Shakespeare play on Broadway. *(James Grissom via facebook.com)*

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At the Movies

Some light fare at the cinema, with Shirley Temple cranking out her thirteenth starring role in Dimples, and Mary Carlisle teaming up with Lew Ayres for some shore leave hijinks in Lady Be Careful.

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD FILM VETERAN **Shirley Temple** and co-star **Frank Morgan** featured on a lobby card promoting Dimples; at right, **Mary Carlisle** and **Lew Ayres** in *Lady Be Careful. (eBay.com/facebook.com)*

A quick note about the actress, singer and dancer Mary Carlisle (featured above): Best known for her roles as a wholesome ingénue in 1930s musical-comedies, she was with us until just eight years ago. The last surviving WAMPAS Baby Star, Carlisle died at age 104 in 2018.

AGELESS…Publicity photo of **Mary Carlisle**, circa 1930s. *(facebook.com)*

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Saving Face

Famed stage actress Blanche Yurka had some choice words for Frank Sullivan after she read his Sept. 26 humor piece, “Save Your Face, Miss Blondell”…

WHAT ABOUT ME?…**Blanche Yurka** (left) called out **Frank Sullivan** for his attentions to “movie cutie” **Joan Blondell**. Yurka (1887–1974) was an acclaimed actress known for her intense commitment to both stage and screen roles—she even learned to knit (center image) so that she could play the role of the vengeful Madame Defarge in the 1935 film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities. (tmdb.org/michaelbalter.substack.com/sspl.org)

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The latest mini-bio from the calendar section featured famed violinist Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler (1875–1962)…illustration is by Hugo Gellert…

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with this full-page advertisement for Heinz tomato juice, which featured a photo of a man who resembled playwright/actor Noël Coward…the person in the ad is not identified, but Coward was known for endorsing products from time to time, including Bulova watches and Rheingold beer…

…another ad illustrated by Margaret Sommerfeld, who produced promotional artwork for Saks…

…and another full page ad for Old Gold illustrated by pin-up artist George Petty…

…the Old Gold ad marks a departure from a long series of Petty-illustrated ads that were more in the pin-up style and featured a leering little man rather than a handsome masher:

…most cigarette ads still targeted the growing market of women smokers, including this line of smokes manufactured by Benson & Hedges…

…Ozzie Nelson was a famed bandleader until he reached even greater fame on his own radio series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, launched in 1944, and his television show by the same name, which ran from 1952 to 1966…

…if Ozzie Nelson wasn’t your thing, you could tap your toes to Paul Draper’s dancing ensemble or Shep Fields’ “Rippling Rhythm Orchestra” at the Hotel Pierre…

…some advertisers persisted in running wordy appeals for their products, including the execs at the Chrysler, who thought consumers could be swayed by the story of a nineteenth-century amateur chemist who accidentally refined coal tar and spawned a billion-dollar industry…

…the makers of the luxury brand Packard continued to stay afloat during the Depression by marketing lower-priced models like the Packard Six…

…lower-priced options were also featured in this ad from an organization called “Living American Art,” which offered “faithful” color collotype reproductions by modern artists, including New Yorker contributors Peggy Bacon and Reginald Marsh…

1936 lithograph of Peggy Bacon’s *The Nosegay,* featured in the ad above. *(posted on Facebook Marketplace)*

…and we have another striking Abe Birnbaum caricature (of stage actress Gertrude Lawrence) for Stage magazine…

…imagine entering this dining room while aboard a Grace Line Santa liner…not a waterslide or buffet line in sight (this was the same liner that Joan Blondell and Dick Powell took on their honeymoon from California to New York)…

…Otto Soglow continued illustrating ads for WOR radio…

…which segues to our cartoonists, beginning with a spot by Arthur Getz…

…a caption-less entry by Alain…

…Alain again, with a puzzling challenge…

…a horticultural mystery courtesy of Helen Hokinson…

…Charles Addams presented an ideal client to this fortune teller…

…Carl Rose got a little spooky…

…Gardner Rea served up an Olympian boast…

…Peter Arno drew up a doubtful doctor…

…Whitney Darrow Jr illustrated the power of motion pictures…

…George Price sampled the latest styles in ice bags…

…Barbara Shermund went shoe shopping…

…and we close with the first New Yorker cartoon by Douglas Borgstedt (1911–2001), and a good one at that!…

Next Time: The President’s Mystery…

Safari Under Glass

Above: A group of eight East African elephants greet visitors to the American Museum of Natural History's Akeley Hall of African Mammals, which opened in 1936. The elephants are surrounded by twenty-eight habitat dioramas. (amnh.org)

One can instantly call up a photo on an iPad of every known animal on the planet, so why are people still fascinated by dead, stuffed animals displayed in glass cases?

May 2, 1936 cover by **William Cotton.**

To be accurate, most animals on display at natural history museums are not “stuffed;” they are an art form or sorts, anatomical sculptures covered with skins, posed in meticulous re-creations of their natural environments.

Ninety years after it opened to the public, the American Museum of Natural History’s Akeley Hall of African Mammals—named for the father of modern taxidermy Carl Akeley— still dazzles museum-goers with incredibly detailed dioramas (twenty-eight in all) that depict a range of African ecosystems. Writing for “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Africa Brought to Town”), Morris Markey marveled at the lifelike displays of flora and fauna, “every twig and grain of sand the very essence of Africa…”

DEATH AND LIFE(LIKE)…Clockwise, from top left, procession of elephants in the American Museum of Natural History’s Akeley Hall; the downside of dioramas—elephants slain in 1911 that now comprise “The Rear Guard” (elephants in back) of AMNH’s procession of elephants; **Carl Akeley** models a taxidermied elephant circa 1921; Akeley reclining on a bull elephant he killed in 1910 on an AMNH expedition. (uconn.edu/public domain/amnh.org)

GETTING IT RIGHT…Clockwise from top left: **Carl Akeley** with his camera, circa 1920s—Akeley contributed hundreds of specimens and images of wildlife and plants to various American museums throughout the course of his career; **James L. Clark, William R. Leigh** and Richard Radatz relax during a 1926 African expedition to document the flora and fauna (through photos, sketches and paintings) for reference in creating true-to-life dioramas; unidentified expedition worker prepares plaster to make casts of collections (tree bark, leaves, rocks etc.). (amnh.org/uconn.org)

MARRIAGE OF SCIENCE AND ART…Clockwise from top left: **William R. Leigh** landscape study; expedition artists made paintings *en plein air* as well as from specimens brought back to their tents (below). At bottom left is **Carl Akeley’s** second wife, **Mary Lee Jobe Akeley** (1886–1966), a well-known explorer and naturalist. It was her first expedition to Africa and Carl’s last—he would die of dysentery before the expedition concluded—so Mary took charge of the expedition, and was later named Carl’s successor as adviser to the American Museum of Natural History. *(Leigh landscape courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery via jamesperrywilson.wordpress.com/still images taken from a short film of AMNH’s 1926 African Hall expedition, courtesy University of Connecticut)*

Markey visited with museum director Roy Chapman, who likened the dioramas to “glimpses of Africa as they might be seen from a train window…” Since this was 1936, no one seemed too concerned about the ethical implications of hunting and killing animals for museum displays. It should be noted that most animals we see in major natural history museums today were killed during early 20th-century expeditions such as Akeley’s; animals used in new displays are often obtained from zoos or sanctuaries after dying of natural causes.

OUT OF AFRICA…Still image of giraffes taken from a short film of AMNH’s 1926 African Hall expedition; the AMNH’s “Water Hole” diorama; “Greater Koodoo” diorama; **Clarence Rosenkranz** working on the “Giant Sable” diorama. (amnh.org/uconn.org)

There is an undeniable appeal to these artificial environments. Although our digital age offers all sorts of them, there are still kids who like to build dioramas in shoeboxes. And for those of us who grew up in 1960s and 70s, there was the thrill of opening a new three-pack of View-Master reels, each slide revealing a three-dimensional, self-contained world.

And so it is with museum dioramas. They offer a moment of wonder and calm to viewers. As the noisy world collapses around them, these displays—however artificial—might inspire in some a greater appreciation of these creatures and their fragile environments.

The AMNH has posted a video on the taxidermy process, if you are interested.

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At the Movies

One can imagine film critic John Mosher rubbing his eyes as he pondered the reasons why Hollywood insists on making overly long movies (also lamented by critics today). He also reviewed four new films, with little enthusiasm.

LONG IN THE TOOTH?…Clockwise from top left: Critic **John Mosher** seemed to imply that seven-year-old **Shirley Temple** (seen here with **Buddy Ebsen** in *Captain January*) was getting too old to play the precocious little healer; **Douglas Fairbanks Jr.** and **Gordon Harker** in *The Amateur Gentleman*; **Janet Gaynor** and **Robert Taylor** made cute in *I Married a Doctor*; movie poster for *Lorenzino de ’Medici*, which Mosher felt was best suited to Italian audiences. (letterboxd.com)

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Getting Things Done

Journalist Hickman Powell filed the first part of a two-part profile of New York’s 45th Governor, Herbert Lehman (1878–1963). The first Jewish governor of New York, Lehman was a prominent liberal leader and a major philanthropist, known for implementing a “Little New Deal” that established a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and public housing.

HMMM…**William Cotton** was a terrific caricaturist, but he seemed to miss the mark with this illustration of Gov. **Herbert Lehman** for the “Profile.” (Wikipedia)

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From Our Advertisers

The May 2 issue was crammed with ads for women’s summer fashions, which were defined by longer, leaner silhouettes…

…and by the increasing popularity of practical sports and casual clothes…

…the makers of Cadillac motorcars continued to emphasize their lower-priced LaSalle models for Depression-squeezed consumers…

…no fashion models or health claims here, just the allure of cigarette smoke courtesy Liggett and Myers…

…the distillers of Old Taylor wanted you to associate their product with the timeless work of William Shakespeare…after all, who’s going to sue them over image rights?…

…on to our cartoonists…Miguel Covarrubias, whose work was featured in The New Yorker’s first issue and was frequent in those early days, lent his talents to the theatre review section with this rendering from On Your Toes…

…something else I forgot to mention in my last post, On Your Toes also marked George Balanchine’s debut as a Broadway choreographer…

ON HIS TOES…At left, **George Balanchine** in 1942; at right, **Tamara Geva** in 1936’s Broadway production of On Your Toes. Geva, an actress, ballet dancer, and choreographer, was Balanchine’s first wife (married 1921-1926). (Wikipedia/instagram)

…we are seeing a lot of Richard Taylor in the 1936 issues, especially in providing spot illustrations such as this one…

…Charles Addams deployed some sarcasm on the domestic front…

…and Addams again, commenting on the fierce rivalry between the privately owned Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and the municipal subway systems…

…and we have two by Helen Hokinson, having misgivings about a greenhouse variety…

…and finding a personal commitment to a can of soup…

…Garrett Price had this man doing some wishful thinking…

…William Steig used a two-page spread to illustrate a day at the drugstore…

…another drawing from the group, appearing on the left-hand page…

…keeping it in the family, we have one by Henry Anton Steig (William Steig’s brother)…according to Michael Maslin’s indispensable Ink Spill, Henry contributed nineteen drawings to The New Yorker from 1932 to 1936 under the name Henry Anton…this one was his final contribution…

…Whitney Darrow Jr drew up this over-enthusiastic maître d’…

…Barbara Shermund went apartment hunting…

…and we close with Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein, and a room with a view…

Next Time: Saving the Row…

A Profile in Paint

Above: Portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1935, by Alfred Stieglitz, gelatin silver print; at right, O'Keeffe's Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills, 1935. Oil on canvas. (National Gallery/Brooklyn Museum)

Over the seven decades of her career, Georgia O’Keeffe created works that did not necessarily follow the art movements of the 20th century. Critic Lewis Mumford referred to these works as “autobiographies in paint,” every painting “as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa.”

January 18, 1936 cover by Robert Day, illustrating the days before the invention of the Zamboni (in 1949).

O’Keeffe was married to art dealer and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who exhibited her works at his “An American Place” gallery at 53rd and Madison. The couple had a complex, open relationship (Stieglitz had a number of affairs) that proved painful to O’Keeffe, and in 1933 she was hospitalized for two months after experiencing a nervous breakdown; she did not paint again until the following year. Although Mumford did not directly reference this episode in O’Keeffe’s life, he did note that “Certain elements in O’Keeffe’s biography were plainly visible” in her paintings.

PAINED PAINTINGS…Clockwise, from top left, **Georgia O’Keeffe’s** *Eagle Claw and Bean Necklace,* 1934; *Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV,* 1930; *Purple Hills,* 1935. (MoMA/Phillips Collection/San Diego Museum of Art)

Mumford noted that O’Keeffe’s newer works revealed a “resurrection of spirit,” such as the painting of a ram’s skull, “with its horns acting like wings, lifted up against the gray, wind-swept clouds…”

GLOWING WITH POETRY AND TRUTH is how Lewis Mumford described **Georgia O’Keeffe’s** latest work. Clockwise, from top left: *Ram’s Head* suggested to Mumford “a resurgence of life and a resurrection of spirit” in the artist; other bright works included *Sunflower, New Mexico 1*, 1935; and *Hill,* 1935. (National Gallery/Cleveland Museum of Art/ Denver Art Museum)

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Lights Out

In the previous issue E.B. White noted that the Edison Company was threatening to cut off electric service to the magazine’s offices due to nonpayment. This “Notes and Comment” update cleared up the matter.

THE PRICE FOR POWER…Above, an aerial view from 1926 of New York Edison’s East River Power Station at 38th Street. In 1936 it was powered by coal, which burned pungently and created problems with soot throughout the area. (tudorcityconfidential.com)

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Revisiting a Pint-size Poet

“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to Nathalia Crane (1913–1998), who became famous after the 1924 publication of her first book of poetry, The Janitor’s Boy, at the age of ten. Excerpts:

PIXIE POET…**Nathalia Crane** published her first poems in *The New York Sun* when she was only nine years old, the paper unaware that she was a child. She later became a professor of English at San Diego State University. (gutenberg.org)

The fledgling Crane received a very different New Yorker reception in 1928, when Dorothy Parker took her to task for contributing to the collapse of grammar and civilization in general. Here’s an excerpt from Parker’s Jan. 7, 1928 “Reading & Writing” column:

GRUESOME was the word Dorothy Parker chose to describe chocolate-covered olives and bad poetry. At left, Parker in 1928. At right, a contents page from The Spirit of St. Louis, a collection of one hundred poems selected from thousands in a poetry contest celebrating Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. (literaryladiesguide.com/ebay.com)

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Order in the Court

Howard Brubaker commented on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the ongoing fight by Republicans to curtail FDR’s New Deal.

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Cinderella Stories

For his Jan. 4, 1936 “A Reporter at Large” column Morris Markey visited “Major Bowe’s Amateur Hour” at NBC’s Rockefeller Center radio studios. He was so impressed by the rags-to-riches stories that he shared a few in his Jan. 18 column, titled “The Crystal Slipper.” He warned readers that the stories were “sentimental,” but not in the vein of A Christmas Carol: “Tiny Tim, asking God to bless every one, regardless, was a pious little fraud,” Markey noted. Excerpts:

Markey shared the story of a garbage collector turned opera tenor, and a wealthy debutante who was encouraged to “stay off the stage” by “Major” Edward Bowes himself.

CUT THE TRASH TALK…**Joseph Rogato** told the Amateur Hour audience that his job as a “garbage man” was no laughing matter, and went on to wow them with his singing voice. At left, a detail from an ad for Chase & Sanborn coffee, the show’s sponsors. At right, show founder and host “Major” **Edward Bowes** with the gong he used to abruptly end acts he deemed poor—he soon abandoned the practice after listeners objected. (eBay.com/Facebook)

Markey next told the story of Marguerite Ryan, the “Singing Housewife”…

FROM RELIEF TO RICHES…This Chase & Sanborn advertisement described **Marguerite Ryan’s** brush with fame and her deliverance from poverty thanks to her appearance on the Amateur Hour. (newspapers.com)

Finally, the story of Rhoda Chase, whom Bowes promoted as a “penniless orphan.” Born Anna Blanor, her stage name, Rhoda, was selected by a psychic, while her last name was inspired by sponsors Chase & Sanborn.

VELVET VOICE…At right, detail from a Chase & Sanborn ad that promoted **Rhoda Chase** as a “Penniless Orphan” who made the big time thanks to the Amateur Hour. At left, a 1944 newspaper ad for the Zombie Club in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Known as “The Blue Velvet Voice”, Chase was a radio, stage, nightclub and USO blues singer. (Wikimedia Commons/eBay)

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At the Movies

Film critic John Mosher found some bright spots at the movies, praising René Clair’s The Ghost Goes West but feeling sorry for Jean Harlow in her “thankless” role in Riffraff, a film about the tuna-fishing industry.

THE FRIENDLY GHOST…**Robert Donat** and **Patricia Hilliard** in the romantic comedy The Ghost Goes West. (IMDB)

FISH OUT OF WATER…**Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow,** and Joseph Calleia in *Riffraff,* a drama about a strike at a tuna fishery. “Just why a life of tuna-fishing should be chosen as background for Miss Harlow’s vehicle I can’t imagine, but there it is,” wrote critic John Mosher. (IMDB)

Mosher didn’t know what to make of Katharine Hepburn’s latest film, Sylvia Scarlett, in which she portrayed a con artist disguised as a boy hiding from the police. Despite its major star power and George Cukor as director, the film was a flop.

Mosher also reviewed Last of the Pagans (also about a labor dispute!) and The Private Life of Louis XIV (released in Germany in 1935 as Liselotte von der Pfalz).

SHE’S A MAN, MAN…Clockwise, from top left, **Katharine Hepburn** and Cary Grant in Sylvia Scarlett; **Lotus Long** and Mala in *Last of the Pagans;* **Renate Müller** in *The Private Life of Louis XIV* (*Liselotte von der Pfalz*). Müller would die in 1937 at age 31 under mysterious circumstances. Many believe the Nazis had her killed because she refused to appear in their propaganda films. (academymuseum.org/MGM/IMDB)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

General Motors promoted their Buick Eight in a two-page advertisement that called out Eustace Tilley and reprinted a Carl Rose cartoon from the Nov. 2, 1935 issue…

…here is the original cartoon…

…with the holidays a memory and the Depression still lingering, most of the automobile ads touted economy over luxury, however Chrysler claimed you could have both with this $760 model…

…by the looks of this guy, he probably added three fingers of vodka to his pineapple juice…

…as noted before, the folks at World Peaceways pulled no punches with their anti-war appeals…

…the makers of Lux were still rolling out Broadway stars to endorse their toilet soap…(Betty Lawford, #5, was an English film and stage actress and a cousin of actor Peter Lawford)…

…the inside back cover belonged to Stage magazine…the illustration, “Amateur Night at the Apollo,” is by Alexander King…

…the Grand Central Palace was hosting the thirty-first annual National Motor Boat Show, a rare back cover not taken by a tobacco company…

…a couple of ads from back of the book…at left, an Anglophilic appeal from Miami’s Roney Plaza Hotel, and, at right, pre-revolutionary days at the National Hotel in Havana (I had a drink there a few years ago during the Obama thaw…the lobby is beautiful, a classic from another era still hanging on thanks to Canadian and European tourists)…

…William Steig continued to illustrate these one-column ads from Pilgrim Rum…

…which segues to our cartoonists…on the bottom of page 3 was this one-column drawing by Peggy Bacon…

…Norwegian opera singer Kirsten Flagstad (1895–1962) was a famous Wagnerian soprano who made a triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1935…

**Kirsten Flagstad** circa 1940. (Wikipedia)

…we continue with Helen Hokinson soaking up some sun…

…Robert Day cracked the whip in the steno pool…

…originally published sideways, another look at club life by Gluyas Williams...

…James Thurber offered up a toast…

…Richard Taylor looked into an auction mystery…

…Barney Tobey gave us a friendly greeting on the slopes…

…Perry Barlow was lost in a department store…

…William Crawford Galbraith continued to probe the woes of sugar daddies…

…and we get the last word from Mary Petty…

Next Time: Strike Me Pink…

On Catfish Row

Above: Left image: Todd Duncan (Porgy) and Anne Brown (Bess), in the 1935 Broadway production of Porgy and Bess. Right image: John Bubbles (Sportin’ Life) and Brown. (Photos courtesy the Ira & Leonore Gershwin Trusts)

The 1935 Broadway production of Porgy and Bess is widely regarded as one of the most successful American operas of the twentieth century, but when it opened at the Alvin Theatre on Oct. 10, 1935, reviews were mixed, including the one penned by Wolcott Gibbs.

October 19, 1935 cover by **William Crawford Galbraith.** *The New York Times (Oct. 9, 1935)* made this observation about the rodeo at Madison Square Garden: “New York, which for several days has been vaguely aware of an impending rodeo because of a profusion of ten-gallon hats along Eighth Avenue and a sign in a beauty parlor, ‘Welcome, Cowgirls,’ will see the real thing this morning.”

Now you would think a work by composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by DuBose Heyward (author of the 1925 novel Porgy) and lyricist Ira Gershwin, would be a sure hit. Some critics did praise the production, which ran for 124 performances, but others criticized themes and characterizations of Black Americans that were created by white artists.

MIXED REVIEWS…The original Catfish Row set for *Porgy and Bess* as seen at Broadway’s Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre) in 1935. (Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library Digital Gallery)

This wasn’t the first time Porgy was adapted to the stage. It was originally produced in 1927 by Heyward and his wife, Dorothy, at the Guild Theatre in New York. The Heywards insisted on an African-American cast—an unusual decision at the time—and enlisted newcomer Rouben Mamoulian to direct. The play ran a total of fifty-five weeks.

ORIGIN STORY: *Porgy: A Play in Four Acts*, was a 1927 play by **Dorothy Heyward** and **DuBose Heyward**, adapted from the short novel by DuBose. (Wikiwand)

Gibbs preferred the original Porgy to the Gershwin–Heyward production, admitting that he simply did not care for “the operatic form of singing a story.”

continued…

TAKING THEIR BOWS…**George Gershwin** greets an audience after a performance of *Porgy and Bess.* Behind Gershwin are his brother, **Ira Gershwin** (left), and librettist and *Porgy* author **DuBose Heyward** (partially hidden, at right). (umich.edu)

The Moss Hart/Cole Porter musical comedy Jubilee! premiered at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre on Oct. 12, 1935, just two days after the Porgy and Bess premiere. Gibbs dubbed this show “heat-warming and beautiful.”

THE BEGUINE BEGINS…Inspired by the Silver Jubilee of Britain’s **George V,** the musical comedy Jubilee! told the story of a fictional royal family. The play featured such hit songs as “Begin the Beguine” and “Just One of Those Things,” which have become part of the American Songbook. (ovrtur.com)

ROYAL HIJINKS…At left, **June Knight** as Karen O’Kane and **Charles Walters** as Prince James in *Jubilee!*; at right, **Mary Roland** (the Queen) encounters “Mowgli” (**Mark Plant**) in Act I. (ovrtur.com)

Note: In the last issue (Oct. 12) we saw an ad for an around-the-world luxury cruise on the Franconia. Cole Porter and Moss Hart—with their families, friends, and assistants—sailed on a previous Franconia cruise, possibly in 1934, with the intention to write a new musical while on the trip. Apparently some of the songs and scenes in Jubilee! were inspired by their ports of call.

* * *

Steering Clear

“The Talk of the Town” commented on the “steer-wrestlers” that were featured at the Madison Square Garden rodeo. Since steer-wrestling was also called “bulldogging,” it caused considerable consternation among New York animal lovers.

A BIG HOWDY…Cowgirls From the Madison Square Garden Rodeo With Millicent Hearst, 1932. (texashistory.unt.edu)

* * *

Much Ado About FDR

The Conference on Port Development of the City of New York took issue with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s foreign trade policies, particularly his strict stance on neutrality, which the Conference believed was detrimental to foreign trade. This was likely related to the October 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia. E.B. White offered this satirical poem in reaction to the trade spat.

Howard Brubaker also chimed in on the trade issue, and on other unsettling developments in Europe:

* * *

Puppy Love

Critic and poet Cuthbert Wright (1892–1948) was moved to write poetry after visiting a dog cemetery that also welcomed animals of all stripes. Here are excerpts of the opening and closing lines:

PET PROJECT…**Cuthbert Wright** was moved to verse after his visit to a pet cemetery, possibly the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester. (Wikipedia/parenthetically.blogspot.com)

* * *

Man and Machine

Art and culture critic Lewis Mumford is back this week, this time taking a look at the work of French artist Fernand Léger (1881–1955), who created a form of cubism known as “tubism,” regarded today as a forerunner of the pop art movement of the mid-1950s and the 1960s.

It is no surprise that the humanist Mumford, who sought an “organic balance” in everyday design, found Léger’s machine-like works alienating and sterile, representing an “aesthetic poverty.”

TOTALLY TUBULAR…Clockwise, from top left, works of **Fernand Léger** cited by **Lewis Mumford**: *The City,* 1919; photo of Léger, circa 1930s; from the 1918–1923 series *Mechanical Elements*, 1920; *Composition in Blue,* 1920–27. (Philadelphia Museum of Art/The Met Collection/Art Institute of Chicago, Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection)

* * *

Disappointment in O’Hara

That is how Clifton Fadiman titled his “Books” column after reviewing John O’Hara’s latest novel, Butterfield 8.

O’Hara (1905–1970) wasn’t just any old scribbler. A prolific short-story writer, he has often been credited with helping to invent The New Yorker’s short story style. Praised by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, O’Hara cranked out two bestsellers before the age of thirty. One was the acclaimed Appointment in Samarra (which was praised by Fadiman). The other was BUtterfield 8, the novel Fadiman found disappointing (Hemingway, on the other hand, blurbed, “John O’Hara writes better all the time.”). Here are a couple of brief excerpts from Fadiman’s review:

Fadiman concluded his review with a note to the author: “Why not let Jean Harlow have it, Mr. O’Hara, and start a fresh page?”

Well, Harlow didn’t get it, but twenty-five years later Elizabeth Taylor would reluctantly take on the role of Gloria Wandrous, and win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

YOU AGAIN?…**Laurence Harvey** and **Elizabeth Taylor** played on and off lovers in 1960’s *Butterfield 8.* **John O’Hara** did not participate in writing the adaptation, and the film’s plot bore only a slight resemblance to his novel. However, after the film’s release more than one million paperback copies of the novel were sold. (aiptcomics.com)

* * *

At The Movies

We begin this section with an excerpt from “The Talk of the Town,” which covered the “International World Première” of the Warner Brother’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The film opened worldwide on October 9, 1935 in London, Sydney, Vienna and at New York’s Hollywood Theatre, where crowds turned out to get a glimpse of the stars.

RUBBERNECKERS…*A Midsummer Night’s Dream* premiere at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City on October 9, 1935. (britannica.com)

Film critic John Mosher praised Joe E. Brown’s performance as Flute, as well James Cagney’s portrayal of Bottom, and lauded the “magnificent group of clowns” that formed the remainder of The Players. Here are excerpts from his review (note I included the entirety of Otto Slogow’s delightful spot drawing):

THE LOVERS…Left to right: **Ross Alexander** (Demetrius), **Olivia de Havilland** (Hermia), **Dick Powell** (Lysander) and Jean Muir (Helena) meet cute and confused in *A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (TCM.COM)*

THE SEVEN STOOGES…Bottom (**James Cagney**) and his fellow Players prepare to perform a stage play about the death of Pyramus and Thisbe which turns into a farce. From left, in front, **Joe E. Brown** (Flute), **Cagney**, and **Otis Harlan** (Starveling); in the back are, from left, **Hugh Herbert** (Snout), **Arthur Treacher** (Epilogue) and **Dewey Robinson** (Snug) as The Players in *A Midsummer Night’s Dream.* **Frank McHugh** (Quince) can be seen behind the wall in back. (IMDB)

DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY…Fairie scene from *A Midsummer Night’s Dream.* (Facebook)

Mosher also reviewed the romantic comedy I Live My Life, which he found to be a satisfying satire on the lives of the rich.

MATCHING WITS…Bored socialite Kay Bentley (**Joan Crawford**) has a tempestuous romance with idealistic archaeologist Terry O’Neill (**Brian Aherne**) in *I Live My Life.* (IMDB)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Readers ninety years ago opened the Oct. 19 issue to this two-page spread featuring the latest in fall/winter fashions…the ad on the right from Bergdorf Goodman featured stage and screen actress Gladys George donning a full-length silver fox fur…

…George (1904–1954) was appearing at Henry Miller’s Theatre in the play Personal Appearance…she was featured in this testimonial ad for Schrafft’s in the theatre’s Playbill…

…the folks at Packard took out this colorful two-page spread to promote their more affordable model, the 120…the move to more affordable models helped the luxury carmaker weather the lean years of the Depression…

…there is a strange quality to these Arrow Shirt advertisements…what are the they looking at?…apparently something amusing as the man applies mustard to a hotdog, but it isn’t the vendor, who looks down at his cart…

…R.J. Reynolds continued its Camel campaign featuring accomplished athletes who got a “lift” from smoking…the ad also included a couple of regular folks at the bottom, who claimed the cigarettes were so mild “You can smoke all you want”…

…Old Gold continued to enlist the talents of George Petty to illustrate their full-page ads…

…here’s a couple of back of the book ads touting Irish whisky and Ken-L-Ration dog food…note how the Scottish terriers speak in “dialect”…Ken-L-Ration was a leading dog food brand in the 1930s, thanks to their use of horse meat rather than “waste meat”…

…on to our cartoonists, we start with Al Frueh enhancing the “Theatre” page…

…James Thurber showed us a man at odds with the times…

…Barbara Shermund kept us up to date on the modern woman…

…Whitney Darrow Jr offered a challenge to Helena Rubinstein (note the woman on the right—she could have been drawn by Helen Hokinson)…

…Gluyas Williams checked in on the lively proceedings of a book club…

…Helen Hokinson went looking for a good winter read…

…Gilbert Bundy offered an alarming scenario on the top of p. 31…

…and we close with Peter Arno, and an eye-raising encounter…

New Time: It Can’t Happen Here…

Looking For Mister Wrong

Widely acknowledged as a classic, The 39 Steps further solidified British director Alfred Hitchcock’s image as a master of suspense with American film audiences.

September 14, 1935 cover by **Helen Hokinson.** Over a twenty-year span, she contributed 68 covers and more than 1,800 cartoons to *The* *New Yorker.*

A successful follow up to 1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps was conceived and cast by the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation as a vehicle to establish British films in America. The film also featured one of Hitchcock’s favorite plot devices—an innocent man forced to go on the run—seen in such notable films as 1942’s Saboteur and 1959’s North by Northwest. New Yorker film critic John Mosher was among the film’s many admirers:

WE’LL TAKE THE STAIRS…Clockwise, from top left, poster for *The 39 Steps*; **Alfred Hitchcock** (second from right) directing the handcuffed **Madeleine Carroll** (as Pamela) and Robert Donat (as Richard Hannay) on the first day of filming; Hannay evades police on the heath; Pamela and Richard make the best of their predicament as handcuffed escapees. (Wikipedia/jimcarrollsblog.com/criterion.com)

* * *

Pop-Up Stores

“The Talk of the Town” had a look at the “madhouse” on Nassau Street that daily erupted from noon to 2 p.m. as peddlers took over the street to hawk their wares.

IF WE DON’T HAVE IT, YOU DON’T NEED IT…Hester Street peddlers in 1936. Photo by **Berenice Abbott.** (boweryboyshistory.com)

* * *

Art of the Artless

James Thurber dissected the workings of a “bad play,” examining varied techniques and familiar tropes. Excerpts:

…below is the complete illustration for Fig. 4, which got cut off in the excerpt above…Thurber depicted “the elderly lady who is a good sport, a hard drinker, and an authority on sex.”

* * *

The Petulant Painter

Known for a primitive style that included bizarre scenes of frolicking (or floating) voluptuous nudes, the painter Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864–1941) had a style all his own, and had no trouble telling anyone that his work was better than anything hanging in the finest museums (which would not consider him at all until after his death). In 1931 he began calling himself “Mahatma,” hence the title of this profile by Milton MacKaye (illustration by Hugo Gellert). Some brief excerpts:

IRASCIBLE RASCAL…Clockwise, from top left, **Louis Michel Eilshemius** in 1913; *Standing and Reclining Nymphs* (1908), *Self-portrait* (1915); *Nymphs Sleeping* (1920). Known for his numerous and vitriolic letters to newspaper editors, his letterheads would proclaim such accomplishments as “Educator, Ex-actor, Amateur All-around Doctor, Mesmerist-Prophet and Mystic, Reader of Hands and Faces, Linguist of 5 languages, Spirit-Painter Supreme.” He also claimed to be a world-class athlete and marksman as well as a musician who rivaled Chopin. (Wikipedia/Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery)

Eilshemius regularly visited art galleries, loudly condemning the works on display. No wonder museums would not consider his odd paintings, which were probably best received by the French, including the artists Henri Matisse and Marcel Duchamp; the latter invited Eilshemius to exhibit with him in Paris in 1917.

Eilshemius’ mental stability had deteriorated substantially by the time MacKaye wrote the profile, which concluded with this sad, final accounting of the man’s life.

Eilshemius would die in the psychopathic ward of Bellevue Hospital in 1941. In the years since, his work has gained a wide audience and can be found in such collections as the Smithsonian, The Phillips Collection, MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

SINGULAR VISION…**Louis Michel Eilshemius**, *Afternoon Wind*, 1899. (MoMA)

* * *

In Good Company

In her “Letter From Paris,” Janet Flanner noted that even the French honored the memory of Will Rogers, who had died in a plane crash with aviator Wiley Post on Aug. 15, 1935.

NOTED AND NOTABLE…As an example of **Will Rogers’** worldwide fame, **Janet Flanner** noted that the Paris entertainment newspaper *Comœdia* published Rogers’ obituary next to that of famed neoimpressionist painter **Paul Signac.** The other obituary remembered the renowned Swiss soprano **Lucienne Bréval.** *(gallica.bnf.fr via onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu)*

* * *

At the Movies

Coming down from The 39 Steps, John Mosher also sampled some of latest comedies gracing the silver screen…

…Mosher didn’t understand why Marion Davies, nearing the end of her film career, even bothered to appear in the romantic comedy Page Miss Glory (although she was also the producer), in which she portrayed a country girl who stumbles into fame while working as a chambermaid in a luxury hotel…

JUST LIKE CINDERELLA…**Marion Davies** and Pat O’Brien in *Page Miss Glory.* (IMDB)

…Two For Tonight featured a lot of fine crooning from Bing Crosby, and some hijinks, but fizzled out in the end…

Bing Crosby (right) takes aim in *Two For Tonight.* (IMDB)

…of the three comedies, Mosher found The Gay Deception to be the most winning. Directed by William Wyler, the film featured a sweepstakes winner pretending to be a rich lady (Frances Dee) who encounters a prince masquerading as a bellboy (Francis Lederer)…hilarity ensued…

THE WYLER TOUCH…**William Wyler’s** *The Gay Deception*, starring **Francis Lederer** (left) and Frances Dee, anticipated Wyler’s 1953 *Roman Holiday*, also a tale about a royal wanting to be a normal person. (letterboxd.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We welcome fall with the latest fashion from Forstmann Woolens…

…and here is where those wool dresses were spun…

Image from the National Archives depicts the spinning room at Forstmann & Huffman in Passaic, N.J., 1918. The Passaic plant closed in 1958. (Historical Society of Garfield, NJ)

…the makers of leaded gasoline continued to promote their product in full-color spots…

…General Tire (like competitor Goodyear) played up the safety theme and potential perils to loved ones to tout their “blow-out proof” tires…

…like many advertisers in The New Yorker, United Air Lines appealed to the affluent, hoping some of them would take to the air, since only they could afford it…

…for reference…

COZY…Interior of the Boeing 247. (Wikimedia Commons)

…Abe Birnbaum, who contributed nearly 200 covers to the New Yorker, offered this rendition of Mickey Mouse to Stage magazine…

…heading to the back of the book we find the latest in entertainment at the Plaza…

…James Thurber contributed the drawing at left (rendered in negative) on behalf of Libby’s tomato juice on page 75, and page 80 featured the spare, modern lines of a Cinzano ad…

…our cartoonists include Richard Decker, on the set with a missing extra…

…Charles Addams offered a new twist on the Sunday sermon…

…Peter Arno found an epic struggle in the shoe department…

…Robert Day offered this energy-saving tip…

…and we close with Helen Hokinson, and a lively game of charades…

Next Time: All Dogs Go to Heaven…

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)

* * *

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.”

* * *

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)

* * *

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.**

* * *

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)

* * *

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.”

* * *

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…

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:

* * *

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.

* * *

Ode to Abode

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

* * *

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?…

The Lighter Side of George Grosz

Above: Landscape in Bayside, 1935, by George Grosz (Phillips Collection)

Knowing that the Nazis would not look kindly on his art, George Grosz took a job teaching drawing in New York in 1932, and by 1933 he had become a permanent resident of the city.

March 30, 1935 cover by **Garrett Price** celebrated the traditional “Bock” beer of spring.

Grosz (1893–1959) was overwhelmed by the size and pace of his adopted city, and for the most part he left behind his bitter caricatures and paintings of Berlin’s Weimar years and turned to other subjects, including landscapes and New York’s urban life. Critic Lewis Mumford took in a show of Grosz’s new water colors at An American Place, a small gallery run by photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz.

THE NEW OBJECTIVITY…**George Grosz** (left, circa 1921), was not alone in his harsh depictions of war and of German society during the Weimar Republic. Other key figures in the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movement included **Max Beckmann** and **Otto Dix** (right, circa 1929). Dix’s oil on canvas *War Cripples (Kriegskrüppel),* 1920, which is pictured above, was exhibited at the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920. Only black and white images exist of the painting, which is believed to have been destroyed by Nazis who condemned it as degenerate art. (Wikimedia Commons/CUNY)

OH THE HUMANITY…Three selections from the “Ecco Homo” series by George Grosz. From left, *Gruß aus Sachsen (Greetings from Saxony)* 1920; *Nachts, (At Night)* 1919; and *Schwere Zeiten (Hard Times)* 1919. Grosz took a dim view of the corruption and moral decline he found in Weimar Berlin. (MoMA)

SEEING RED…Detail from **George Grosz’s** *Metropolis,* Oil on Canvas, 1916-1917. A blood-like shade of red could be seen in many of the artist’s paintings during World War I and the Weimar Republic. In this painting and in others, death is omnipresent. (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid)

A SOFTER SIDE could be found in **George Grosz’s** later watercolors, although he hadn’t entirely lost his sense of the satirical, or his taste for red paint. From left, *Street in Harlem,* circa mid-1930s; *Ehepaar* (A Married Couple), 1930; *Central Park at Night*, 1936. (Phillips Collection/Tate Gallery/Art Institute Chicago)

* * *

Not the Bee’s Knees

For all the progressive thinking that was on display in the early New Yorker, we also reminded that it was also a creature of its time in 1935. Here are excerpts from a lengthy “Talk of the Town” entry that described the sad winnowing process of Broadway revue producer Earl Carroll…

JUDGEMENT DAY…Here is a screenshot from a short film featuring the 1935 audition described in the “Talk” segment. At left is Earl Carroll. You can watch the film **here.** (YouTube)

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Too Little For Too Much

Film critic John Mosher gave Alfred Hitchcock’s 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much just five lines in his review. He described it as “one of those preposterous adventure stories which Englishmen are always writing…” The film, however, was an international success, and it would define the rest of Hitchcock’s career as a director of thrillers with a unique sense of humor.

A HAPPY, CAREFREE HOUR is how critic John Mosher described his experience watching 1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. Clockwise, from top right, director **Alfred Hitchcock** with the film’s German star, **Peter Lorre**, who learned his part phonetically; Lorre and **Cicely Oates**; **Edna Best** did her best at playing a grieving mother. The film was remade by Paramount in 1956, starring James Stewart and **Doris Day.** (Wikipedia/aurorasginjoint.com/IMDB)

* * *

Dizzy Nor Dazzled

In 1935 Lois Long had been divorced from cartoonist Peter Arno for about four years, and she was the mother of six-year-old daughter from that marriage. That didn’t keep her from sampling the city’s night life, but the days of speakeasies and drinking sessions that lasted into the wee hours were over for the 34-year-old Long. For her “Tables for Two” column she took the elevator up to the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza to take in the entertainment at the Rainbow Room…as well as the pedestrian crowd…

WHAT A WHIRL…Above, diners watch a performance by ballroom dancers **Lydia and Joresco** in the then newly opened Rainbow Room in 1934. **Lois Long** enjoyed the Rainbow Room in its 1930s heyday, but she missed her old speakeasy crowd, noting that the Rainbow Room’s customers weren’t “dizzy enough” to suit her tastes. (Rockefeller Center Archives)

…her speakeasy days were over, but it appears Long still enjoyed a bit of indulgence…here is how she concluded her column:

* * *

From Our Advertisers

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…Luckies, on the other hand, continued to appeal to the modern woman, and what impressionable young woman wouldn’t be inclined to pick up the habit to complete her ensemble?…

…the makers of College Inn tomato juice gave their raving Duchess the week off, but we get another old sourpuss in the form of a “Dowager” who demands that her servant remove a glass of what very well could have been tomato juice…enter the old bat’s niece, Dorothea, who suggests that the cook, Clementina, serve some Libby’s pineapple juice instead, probably spiked with vodka given the Dowager’s sudden change of demeanor…

…Essex House continued their class-ridden ad campaign, this time with some stuff-shirt dreading his world cruise

…carmakers continued to emphasize economy and price to move their latest models, including the 1935 Nash with “Aeroform Design”…

…last week I noted that Packard was doubling down on promoting the elite status of its premium automobile; however, the carmaker did introduce a “120” that cost a fraction of its luxury models and helped the company’s bottom line…

…Packard’s competition was Lincoln and Cadillac, among other luxury brands, but Pierce Arrow represented the pinnacle of luxury and craftsmanship, the American equivalent of Rolls Royce…unlike the other luxury brands, Pierce Arrow did not offer a lower-priced car, and the company folded it 1938…

…speaking of luxury cars, if you owned a Lincoln, this little ad tucked into the top corner of page 55 showed you were to go to get a tune-up…

…the publishers at Street & Smith announced the launch of a new fashion magazine, Mademoiselle, a seemingly daring move in Depression America…the cover featured an illustration by Melisse (aka Mildred Oppenheim Melisse)…the magazine was later acquired by Condé Nast, and folded in November 2001…

**Mildred Oppenheim Melisse’s** cover for the debut issue of *Mademoiselle,* April 1935. Melisse also supplied the cover art for the May and June issues that year. (Pinterest)

…Otto Soglow was on his way to becoming a wealthy man thanks to his “Little King” cartoon…William Randolph Hearst lured Soglow and the cartoon away from The New Yorker in 1934, so the only way the wee potentate could appear in the magazine was in an ad, like this one for Bloomingdale’s…

…Soglow continued to contribute to The New Yorker, and we kick off our cartoons with an April Fool’s joke…

…for the second week in a row Maurice Freed supplied the opening spot art for “Goings On About Town”…

…Helen Hokinson was on the hunt for some predatory fish…

…James Thurber looked in on the nudist fad that emerged in the 1930s…

…and we close with George Price, an some alarming bedside manners…

Next Time: Keep Calm and Carry On…

Music in the Air

Above: The Cat and the Fiddle (Pete Gordon) and Mickey Mouse (a monkey in a very creepy costume) were featured in 1934's Babes In Toyland.

We close out the old year and ring in the new with a bit of song and dance from three musicals that entertained New Yorkers in the waning days of 1934.

The work of composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II were prominent in two of those films, adapted from successful Broadway productions—the romantic comedy Music in the Air and the sentimental Sweet Adeline. Success on the stage did not necessarily translate to the screen in either case, according to critic John Mosher.

SOUR NOTES…The famed silent movie star **Gloria Swanson** showed off her singing chops in *Music in the Air,* but it wasn’t enough to save the film from becoming a box office failure. The film centered on the stormy relationship between opera star Frieda Hotzfelt (Swanson) and librettist Bruno Mahler (**John Boles**, pictured). (TCM)

TALL ORDER…For those who recalled **Helen Morgan’s** tragedy-tinged Broadway performance as Addie in *Sweet Adeline*, **Irene Dunn’s** more comical take, although delivered with authority, could not hold up the pallid performances of her co-stars, including **Donald Woods**, right. (TCM)

And there was Babes in Toyland, a Hal Roach film headlined by the comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The film was well received by critics, including Mosher, who wrote that Babes in Toyland “was far more successful than [1933’s] Alice in Wonderland, and the children will probably be far less bored by it than they generally are by those films designed especially for them.” However, similar to Alice the costumes seem creepily crude, such as the weird rubber pig costumes and the almost terrifying Mickey Mouse, portrayed by a hapless monkey dressed to resemble the big-eared icon. It was apparently the first and last time Walt Disney allowed the Mickey Mouse character to be portrayed outside of a Disney film. No wonder.

Clockwise, from top left, **Stan Laurel** and **Oliver Hardy** with **Felix Knight** (Tom-Tom) and **Charlotte Henry** (Bo-Peep); the *Three Little Pigs* with the villain Silas Barnaby, portrayed by **Henry Brandon**; a very creepy Mickey Mouse (a monkey in costume); and Laurel and Hardy with The Cat and the Fiddle (**Pete Gordon**). (eofftvreview.wordpress.com/psychotronicaredux.wordpress.com/YouTube/MUBI)

* * *

Alms for the Poor

Woolworth store heiress Barbara Hutton was one of the richest women in the world in the 1930s, and her lavish lifestyle in the midst of Depression attracted the attention, and the ire, of newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan. In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White made this observation:

COUGH IT UP, LADY…**Ed Sullivan,** who in 1934 was a well-known *Daily News* show business columnist, thought Woolworth dime store heiress **Barbara Hutton** should show more concern for the needy. Known for her lavish spending during the Great Depression, in 1934 Hutton was married to a self-styled Georgian prince named **Alexis Mdivani—**Mdivani would be the first of Hutton’s seven husbands. Sullivan would go on to greater fame on television with the Ed Sullivan Show. (clickamericana.com/npg.org.uk)

* * *

Oh Baby

Most of us know something about the weird and somewhat tragic tale of the Dionne quintuplets, raised from infancy before the public gaze and exploited to sell everything from dolls and books to soap and toothpaste. When E.B. White made this brief mention in his “Notes and Comment,” the story of the quintuplets was still a jolly one, and their delivering physician, Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe had gone from being a country doctor to one of North America’s most trusted medical authorities. Dafoe would become the childrens’ guardian and impresario, and make a fortune marketing their story and images.

QUINTUPLE YOUR MONEY…After he delivered the Dionee quintuplets, **Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe** went from being a country doctor to one of North America’s most trusted medical authorities. That later translated into big profits from companies eager to cash in on the quint’s popularity, as these 1937 ads attest. (Pinterest)

* * *

In the Year 2400

“The Talk of the Town” examined the “Buck Rogers” craze, fed by a cartoon strip, a radio show, and an array of toys.

YESTERDAY’S TOMORROW…A Buck Rogers “pop-up” book was just one of the many formats that could be consumed by avid followers of the early sci-fi hero. Also pictured are a themed pocket watch and the “must have” sci-fi toy of 1934, Buck’s XZ-31 Rocket Pistol. (Pinterest/Bullock Museum)

* * *

What’s It All About, Alfie?

Art and architecture critic Lewis Mumford offered praise for Alfred Stieglitz’s latest exhibition at the photographer’s gallery, An American Place. Mumford noted Stieglitz’s “astringent quality” that rose above the philistine tastes and “stupidities” of American life.

LIFE AND WORK INTERTWINED…Clockwise, from top left: **Alfred Stieglitz’s** famed 1930 image of Grand Central Terminal; one of the photographer’s many images of clouds under the title *Equivalent*, 1930; image taken from Stieglitz’s studio/gallery window titled *From My Window at An American Place, North*, 1931; *Dorothy Norman*, circa 1931; *Georgia O’Keeffe*, 1933. Stieglitz, who was married to **Georgia O’Keeffe**, became **Dorothy Norman’s** mentor and lover in the late 1920s. (National Gallery of Art/Art Institute of Chicago)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

The back cover of The New Yorker was coveted by tobacco companies, the makers of Camels and Lucky Strikes (seen here) both featuring sumptuous photos of stylish women using their product, women being a key growth market for the companies…

…same for the brewers, who also sought out female consumers to bolster sales of their brands…

…Ponds continued to roll out the seeming legions of socialites and lower-tier royalty to sell their jars of cold cream…

…the magazine’s ads were often directed at middlebrow class anxieties, as we see here…

…by constrast, this ad from Bonwit Teller (graced by fashion illustrator W. Mury) took us out of the stuffy parlor and onto the beckoning beaches of the Caribbean…