cinema – Page 5 – A New Yorker State of Mind

Keep Calm and Carry On

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Another Viewpoint

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

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

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

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Give Him More Mickey Mouse

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

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

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Odds and Ends

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

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

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From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…which brings us to our illustrators and cartoonists, beginning with this small woodcut on page 6 signed “Martin”…

…empathy gained some traction in this Robert Day cartoon…

…Alan Dunn demonstrated the effect of the Depression on the building trades…

…Leonard Dove found one enlistee not ready for basic training…

…Syd Hoff showed us all the right moves…

…Alain was up in the garret with an artist in need of some peace…

…Gluyas Williams took a glimpse backstage…

…William Crawford Galbraith was still exploring the world of sugar daddies and golddiggers…

…Barbara Shermund introduced a few giggles…

…and we close with another James Thurber classic…

Next Time: The Cowboy Philosopher…

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)

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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)

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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:

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From Our Advertisers

Step into a crowded mid-century elevator and you were bound to catch a whiff of the menthol-tinged scent of Aqua Velva, not objectionable if properly applied…

…speaking of menthol, the makers of Spud cigarettes were now competing with upstart menthol cigarette makers including Kool…this ad has all kinds of problems, including the suggestion that the occasional Spud not only inspires one’s nuptials, but also ensures marital bliss, as well as a lifetime of chain-smoking…

…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…

Something Frivolous

And what can be more frivolous than a Busby Berkeley musical, with scores of leggy showgirls tap-dancing in perfect rhythm, or dressed in identical white gowns while playing flying pianos. Make sense? No, and that was the whole point.

March 23, 1935 cover by Peter Arno. The color, contrast and composition are striking; it looks more like a cover from the 50s or 60s.

“In an era of breadlines, depression and wars, I tried to help people get away from all the misery…” Berkeley once remarked. “I wanted to make people happy, if only for an hour.” Gold Diggers of 1935 was Berkeley’s second “Gold Digger” picture (he choreographed or directed four; there were six in all, including one silent), and it was the first in which he served as sole director. Critic John Mosher didn’t know what to make of the film, likening it more to an earthquake than an entertainment.

SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT…**Busby Berkeley** (1895-1976) works with dancers (left) during the production of 1933’s *42nd Street*; right, at work on one of his lavish sets, circa 1930s. (IMDB)

The “harmless jingle” Mosher referred to, Harry Warren and Al Dubin’s “Lullaby of Broadway,” received an Oscar for Best Original Song (it also gave me an earworm for a week).

GOLDEN GIRLS…Clockwise, from top left, **Alice Brady** as the parsimonious Matilda Prentiss and Adolphe Menjou as the conniving Russian dance director Nicolai Nicoleff in *Gold Diggers of 1935*; a scene from the dancing pianos sequence; **Dick Powell** and Gloria Stuart as the film’s sweethearts. (Wikipedia/YouTube/IMDB)

Amid the frivolity, Mosher noted the juxtaposition of the jingly “Lullaby of Broadway” with the haunting, two-minute sequence of Wini Shaw singing “Lullaby” as her disembodied face emerges from the blackness toward the viewer.

The scene continues as the woman (Shaw) turns onto her back, her head slowly dissolving into the nighttime city…after a raucous, mass tap-dancing scene, she falls to her death, and the sequence is reversed, her face disappearing into the blackness. The blog Acidemic gives an interesting take on this part of the film, which is more reminiscent of a German avant-garde film than Berkeley’s usual fare…

…Mosher found the scene “terrifying.” Perhaps Shirley Temple helped calm his nerves with her precocious antics in The Little Colonel…

NO FLOATING HEADS HERE…**Shirley Temple** and **Bill Robinson** doing the famous staircase dance in *The Little Colonel* (1935). (TCM)

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Up In Smoke

In “Notes and Comment” E.B. White considered the possibility that cigarette smoking might be harmful to unborn babies, and wryly suggested that embryos could replace grandmothers as a new growth market for big tobacco:

…White referred to the advertisement below, which appeared in the Feb. 9, 1935 issue of The New Yorker:

…White also commented on his recent visit to Madison Square Garden’s winter skating carnival…

THE DOUBLE AXEL was still thirteen years in the future when Swedish skaters **Gillis Emanuel Grafström** (left) and Vivi-Anne Hultén delighted E.B. White at Madison Square Garden. Photos are from 1924 and 1932, respectively. (Wikipedia)

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Prescience of Mind

We have more from E.B. White, this time in a humorous piece titled “The Dove’s Nest,” in which White took a poke at the most influential newspaper editor in the country, Arthur Brisbane. A close friend of William Randolph Hearst, Brisbane essentially ran Hearst’s newspaper empire. The New Yorker often ridiculed Hearst’s (and Brisbane’s) jingoistic approach to the news that included giant headlines warning of war. Excerpts:

William A. Swanberg, author of the 1961 biography Citizen Hearst, described Brisbane as “a one-time socialist who had drifted pleasantly into the profit system…in some respects a vest-pocket Hearst–a personal enigma, a workhorse, a madman for circulation, a liberal who had grown conservative, an investor.”

DAMN THOSE TORPEDOES…**Arthur Brisbane** in 1933. His grandson, **Arthur S. Brisbane,** now retired, served as public editor of *The New York Times* from 2010 to 2012. (credo.library.umass.edu)

The New Yorker continued to take jabs at Brisbane in the following issue (March 30). Brisbane owned a large estate (including a horse farm) in New Jersey that he made available to New Deal work programs during the Depression. I suppose this Al Frueh cartoon was some kind of reference to that…

…also in the March 30 issue was this ad from World Peaceways, which raised alarms about possible war and bombs raining down from the sky…

…back to the March 23 issue, where we find the calming strains of a Brahms concerto at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Arturo Toscanini with some support from his son-in-law, Vladimir Horowitz…

MAY I CALL YOU DAD?…Not likely something said by young **Vladimir Horowitz,** left, to father-in-law **Arturo Toscanini**. (WQXR/Britannica)

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From Our Advertisers

Beginning in 1934 the makers of Old Gold cigarettes hired pin-up artist George Petty to create a series of ads featuring a homely, clueless sugar daddy and his leggy mistress…here he turns the tables, introducing a “Pudgy Wudgy” matron putting the moves on a handsome hosiery salesman…

…this Petty ad appeared in the Feb. 9, 1935 issue of The New Yorker…

…the makers of Camels continued their campaign of “distinguished women” who enjoyed their product…here we have a former debutante, Dorothy Paine, an “alert young member of New York’s inner circle.” Not much of a record of Dorothy, who married a man named Walter H. Sterling in 1935…apparently they moved to Phoenix and bought up property in the Southwest…

…the makers of General Tire offered this grim assessment of tire safety…the lad seems to be a mere investment of time…

…although prestige brands suffered mightily during the Depression, the folks at Packard were doubling down on the elite status of their automobile…

…we’ve seen the work of fashion illustrator Ruth Sigrid Grafstrom before in ads for Spud cigarettes…here she contributes some elegant lines to a spot for Bergdorf Goodman (is the woman on the right smoking a Spud?)…

…here’s the Duchess again, still blowing her top over College Inn tomato juice…just look at her clenched fists…that fop with a monocle looks like he just took a left hook to the chops…

…on to our illustrators, William Cotton created this caricature of Rexford Guy Tugwell for Russell Lord’s two-part profile…Tugwell and President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration, which relocated rural unemployed to “Greenbelt Cities” near urban job markets. Critics called him “Rex the Red” for his social engineering experiments, and after he was forced out of federal government, Tugwell was appointed in 1938 as the first director of the NYC Planning Commission. Naturally, he would butt heads with Robert Moses…

…illustrator and painter Maurice Freed kicked off the calendar section…

…bookended on the bottom of page 4 by one of James Thurber’s most recognized drawings…

…Thurber again, and more woes between the sexes…

…we continue with our cartoonists by looking in on Barbara Shermund…

…George Price found a new wrinkle for his recurring floating man cartoon…

…Helen Hokinson graced page 19 with scenes from the opera…

…leaving an extra drawing stranded on page 18…

…Alain offered a new twist on the promotion of physical fitness…

…Gluyas Williams brought us to the stuffy confines of club life (the cartoon was originally featured vertically)…

…and we close with Richard Decker, and a lucky draw at the IRS…

Next Time: The Lighter Side of George Grosz…

Home Sweet Motohome

Morris Markey thought he was getting a glimpse of the future when he attended an exhibit of “machines to live in” at New York’s Grand Central Palace.

March 16, 1935 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

The Great Depression created a housing shortfall in the U.S. of nearly two million units, so many idled architects and builders turned to industrialized housing as a way to boost the building industry. In “A Reporter At Large,” Markey described his encounter with one type of “machine to live in”––the Motohome.

The idea of pre-fab living wasn’t exactly new in 1935, originating in the 1920s with the German Bauhaus school and with notables such as Swiss architect Le Corbusier.

NOT THRILLED WITH FRILLS…**Charles-Édouard Jeanneret** (1887-1965), better known as **Le Corbusier**, stated in 1923 that “a house is a living machine.” He believed the world had evolved beyond the need for decorative frills, and that homes and furnishings should reflect their functions. Top left, Corbu’s 1929 Villa Savoye in Poissy, France; at right, his 1947-52 Unité d’habitation de Marseille. (Fondation Le Corbusier/Architectural Digest/Le Corbusier World Heritage)

Markey correctly surmised that the American twist on Le Corbusier’s vision was largely driven by big corporations, and in the case of the Motohome, by General Electric.

GET YOUR MOTO RUNNING…Clockwise, from bottom left, New York’s Grand Central Palace; the Eggiman House in Madison, Wisconsin, a 1936 Motohome listed in the National Register of Historic Places; Long Island Motohome featured on a brochure; *Popular Mechanics* article on the Motohome. A common wall “core” was prefabricated with all kitchen and bath fixtures, as well as the HVAC system. (Wikipedia/makeitmidcentury.com/books.google.com)

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Strange and Wonderful

That is how E.B. White described the 3,664-seat 43rd and Broadway in 1926. After nine years White was still in awe of its palatial trappings. In his “Notes and Comment,” White offered some thoughts after an evening at the movies.

CINEMA GLORY DAYS…**E.B. White** visited the Paramount Theatre to take in **Charles Laughton’s** hit film, *Ruggles of Red Gap*. From left, **Zasu Pitts, Laughton, Charles Ruggles** and Maude Eburne in *Ruggles.* (nyc.gov/TCM)

PALACE FOR THE PICTURES…The Paramount Theatre’s Grande Hall featured a 75-foot-long ceiling mural by artist **Louis Grell** above the Italian marble-lined entrance. In 1966, after a run of the James Bond film *Thunderball,* the Paramount was closed for good and later gutted and turned into retail and office space. (Louis Grell Foundation)

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Bad Guys

Andrew Mellon’s tax fraud troubles were sandwiched between the woes of a fascist bromance in Howard Brubaker’s “Of All Things”…Mellon would soon be dead, Adolf Hitler would lie his way around the Brits, and Benito Mussolini would struggle to inspire Italian women to produce his “army of tots”…

NOT TONIGHT, WE HAVE A HEADACHE…Little wonder fascist dictator Benito Mussolini couldn’t inspire a baby boom. (Wikipedia)

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Zoom Zoom

In his “Motors” column, writer “Speed” looked in on Sir Malcolm Campbell (1885-1948), who was attempting to break the 300-mph mark at Daytona in his 2,500-horsepower Blue Bird.

BLUE STREAK…**Sir Malcolm Campbell’s** bid for a land speed record surpassing 300 mph began at Daytona Beach in March 1935 in his Campbell-Railton Blue Bird, powered by a 2,500 hp supercharged Rolls-Royce V-12. He managed to hit 276 mph (combined runs in each direction), but conditions at the beach (bottom photo) left him short of his goal. He found a smoother, longer run at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in September, where he would average 301.337 mph (484.955 km/h) in two passes to set the new record. (floridamemory.com/oldmachinepress.com)

ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH…**Sir Malcolm Campbell** MBE was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water several times. He was also one of the few land speed record holders of his era to die of natural causes. (Wikipedia)

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From Our Advertisers

For ninety bucks you could get this swell pajama suit and matching robe (plus headdress) at Henri Bendel, the perfect ensemble for having a leisurely smoke after a day facing the world…For more than 100 years, Henri Bendel’s flagship and only store was located at 10 West 57th Street…it closed in 2018…

…I doubt the woman in the Bendel ad would have been interested in clothes made with Acele…it was without question that the uppers only wore clothes derived from living things…

…this Anglophilic Peck & Peck ad is notable for its condescending reference to the “mountain folk” in Appalachia who “were born to loom”…

…while we are on the subject, check out this ad for Grace Cruises…this was a common theme in mid-century travel advertising, Westerners dressed in their Sunday best while having a gander at the colorful natives…

…who are just part of the scenery…

…all four of the automobile ads in this issue come from long-gone companies…the luxury carmaker Packard made beautiful, quality cars that outsold Cadillacs up until 1950, but competition from the Big Three (GM, Ford, Chrysler) plus Packard’s decision in 1954 to buy failing Studebaker led to Packard’s demise four years later…

…a more successful merger took place in 1954 between Nash…

…and Hudson, the two forming the new American Motors Corporation…

…contrary to this ad’s tagline, everything was actually going down for Hupmobile, which would go out of business in 1939…

…the makers of College Inn Tomato Juice Cocktail apparently thought an angry old “Duchess” would boost sales…she first appeared in the Feb. 23 issue…

…in the March 16 issue she appears to be psychotic, threatening, “I’ll teach her not to serve PLAIN tomato juice before dinner!” Will she break the glass on the table and lunge at her host (the old WITCH) with a glass shard?…Stay tuned…

…better to calm down and have a Guinness, which, by Jove, was affordable and good for you!…

…New Yorker cartoons are also good for you, and we begin with Al Frueh and this taxing illustration at the bottom of page 4…

…Frueh again, for the theater review section…in the center is Shirley Booth, known to Baby Boomers as the star of the old TV series Hazel (1961-66)…

…Booth was much more than a sitcom star, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting––an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards…

ACTING CHOPS…**Shirley Booth** (1898-1992) as Hazel in 1962; on the cover of the 1935 *Playbill* featuring *Three Men on a Horse.* (Wikipedia)

…we continue with Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein, and a term of endearment from someone well known to the police…

…William Steig took up two pages to give one opera patron the cold shoulder…

…Alan Dunn cautioned against car dealers perched on high hills…

…George Price examined the finer points of salesmanship…

…Helen Hokinson headed for the high seas…

…and we close with an all-time classic from James Thurber…

Next Time: Something Frivolous…

The Mouse That Roared, In Color

John Chapin Mosher was the first regularly assigned film critic for The New Yorker, writing reviews for the magazine from 1928 to 1942. He was also a fan of Disney animated shorts, and one particular mouse.

Mosher, who also contributed short stories to the magazine, displayed a lively, witty style in his reviews, and in the early years of Walt Disney animation he was quite partial to Mickey Mouse, who from his sound debut in 1928’s Steamboat Willie had quickly grown into an international star—when the cartoon mouse first appeared in color in The Band Concert, it was a sensation. Mosher’s other review was not so enthusiastic, even though Sweet Music featured another major star of the 1930s, Rudy Vallée.

The 73rd short film in Disney’s Mickey Mouse series, The Band Concert was acclaimed by no less than conductor Arturo Toscanini, who saw it six times. Esquire’s culture critic Gilbert Seldes wrote that “[none of] dozens of works produced in America at the same time in all the other arts can stand comparison with this one.”

BEDAZZLED…Along with *New Yorker* film critic **John Mosher**, both the great Italian conductor **Arturo Toscanini** and culture critic **Gilbert Seldes** praised Mickey Mouse’s debut in color. Even later critics revered the nine-and-a-half minute short. In 1984 **Leonard Maltin** said that The Band Concert is “one of the best cartoons ever made anywhere… There are nuances of expression in Mickey’s character throughout this film that had seldom been explored in earlier shorts…” (Wikipedia/YouTube)

PASSING THE TORCH…Bandleader **Rudy Vallée** and famed torch singer **Helen Morgan** in *Sweet Music.* Years of heavy drinking had taken a toll on Morgan by this time; she appeared for a “scant moment” in the film, and would leave movies altogether in 1936. (cinemasojourns.com)

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Rudy Was Here, Too

Rudy Vallée was among the celebrities gathered at Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant, a placed visited in the previous issue by Lois Long. This time Russell Maloney and Charles Cook took a look inside for “The Talk of the Town”…

JACK DEMPSEY LOOMS over his restaurant at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue in this odd postcard image (top), where the backdrop of the city has been replaced with an open sky (**Terry Gilliam’s** *Monty Python* animation comes to mind). The restaurant would relocate to 1619 Broadway in 1937-38. (Courtesy eBay)

* * *

Keeping It to Themselves

New Yorkers typically don’t boast about their city because they often consider it a natural part of their lives and identity. Indeed, overt displays of civic boosterism are found to be embarrassing, if not distasteful. E.B. White, in his “Notes and Comment,” explained:

BEING NUMBER TWO, WE TRY HARDER…Although not mentioned in White’s note, *The New Yorker* enjoyed taking shots at boosterism, and especially the Chicago Tribune and its publisher, **Robert R. McCormick,** a leading booster of the Second City. (Michigan State University)

White observed, however, that New Yorkers weren’t so thrilled about the cost of living in their fair city…

* * *

Those Excitable French

In her “Letter from Paris,” Janet Flanner recalled the previous year’s “Bloody Sixth” riot that resulted in the police fatally shooting seventeen people. She noted that things were more peaceful on the riot’s anniversary.

AN UGLY TURN…On Feb.6, 1934, thousands of extreme right-wing activists and war veterans gathered in Paris to protest against the alleged corruption of the left-wing government. When protests turned violent, police responded by fatally shooting seventeen people, only nine of whom were far-right protesters. (Wikipedia/wienerholocaustlibrary.org)

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From Our Advertisers

Auburn made some of America’s most beautiful and technologically advanced automobiles, but the Depression was too much for luxury brands like Auburn, which would sadly fold in 1937…

…while luxury brands struggled, Americans turned to less expensive cars that touted safety and economy…in the 1930’s safety meant strong body construction, although this didn’t address the problem of unharnessed riders rattling around inside the “TurretTop” shell, or being launched through the windshield…

…the bargain brand Plymouth, however, employed snob appeal, and safety, to move their “Floating Ride” autos…

…Feel classy driving that Plymouth? Well apparently beer drinking is classy too…just ask this chap, who is apparently toasting a successful fox hunt…

…Speaking of class, the folks at Essex House played on class anxieties to fill their rooms at Central Park South…

…a common theme in upscale fashion ads was aviation; that is, the suggestion that the smart set took to the air when they traveled–they were the only ones who could afford it…

…in stark contrast is this ad from the pacifist/antiwar organization World Peaceways…their bold and unflinching ads described soldiers as pawns in the corrupt games of the rich and powerful…

…Radio City Music Hall was originally opened in December 1932 as a live performance venue, but the cavernous hall wasn’t particularly suited to theatrical performances, and just two weeks after opening, managers announced that the theatre would switch to showing feature films. This modest one-column ad tried to stir up interest in a comedy featuring none other than Edward G. Robinson, who was known for his tough guy, gangster roles…

CRACKING SMILES INSTEAD OF HEADS…**Jean Arthur** and **Edward G. Robinson** in *The Whole Town’s Talking.* (postmodernpelican.com)

…beautifully photographed, stylish women smoking cigarettes were common in 1930s advertising as tobacco companies continued to tap the growth potential of this demographic…

…this next spot employs of the talents of Otto Soglow to promote blended Penn Maryland whiskey…

…which segues to our cartoonists, and Soglow again…his popular Little King stopped running in The New Yorker when it was acquired by Hearst in 1934, but Soglow simply created other King-like characters to run the gags…

…”Profiles” featured socialist cartoonist Art Young, with an illustration by Al Frueh…

…James Thurber contributed this illustration/cartoon at bottom of page 12 in “The Talk of the Town” section…not sure what this means…fear of being attacked by giant Puritan women?…

…Jaro Fabry contributed only one cartoon to The New Yorker…the meaning is lost on me…

…I was also baffled by this Gilbert Bundy cartoon, until I consulted this excerpt from a Paris Review article (“Trading Places” by Sadie Stein 3/19/14): Time was, the passing on of compliments was so ritualized a part of life that the practice had a name: trade-last. Merriam-Webster’s defines it as “a complimentary remark by a third person that a hearer offers to repeat to the person complimented if he or she will first report a compliment made about the hearer,” and dates the first recorded use of the term to 1891…

…Kemp Starrett offered up a uniquely honest sales pitch…

…Alan Dunn advised against eating your vegetables…

…Leonard Dove, and where old-timey music met an old-timey feud…

…and we close with William Crawford Galbraith, and a bartender trying to class up his joint…

Next Time: Snapshot of a Dog…

A Decade of Delights

With this post (No. 413), we mark the tenth anniversary of The New Yorker. Since I began A New Yorker State of Mind in March 2015, I’ve attempted to give you at least a sense of what the magazine was like in those first years, as well as the historical events that often informed its editorial content as well as its famed cartoons. Those times also informed the advertisements; indeed, in some cases the ads give us a better idea of who was reading the magazine, as well as their changing tastes and buying power as we moved from the Roaring Twenties to the Depression, and from Prohibition into Repeal.

I have also chosen this time to go on hiatus, and hopefully resume this blog when The New Yorker celebrates its centennial next February (this site will remain active and available, and I will continue to monitor comments and messages). Let us hope that the editors use the original Rea Irvin cover for that occasion, and restore his masthead above “The Talk of the Town” section. Perhaps some enterprising soul could start a petition.

Moving on to the tenth anniversary issue, we find E.B. White recalling the world of The New Yorker’s first days. Given the massive economic and societal shifts that occurred from 1925 to 1935, those first days seemed distant to White, who felt old, “not in years but events.”

DAYS OF YORE…**E.B. White** noted the many changes that had taken place during *The New Yorker’s* first ten years, including, clockwise from top left, the passing of 1920s notables such as **President Calvin Coolidge** and two very different theatre impresarios—**David Belasco** and Flo Ziegfeld; White also recalled the much-publicized 1925 wedding of **Abby Rockefeller** to **David Milton,** the throngs of women who took to smoking in public in the 1920s and the drinkers who took their activities behind closed doors; and one of the early magazine’s beloved contributors, **Ralph Barton,** who offered his whimsical take on the news in “The Graphic Section” as well as in other illustrated features. (Wikipedia/Wikitree/Ephemeral New York)

White also noted a new craze that had originated around the same time as the birth of The New Yorker…

TWO ACROSS…**Max Schuster** and Richard Simon of Simon & Schuster, with their first crossword book, 1924. (americanbusinesshistory.org)

White concluded with these parting words, tinged with world-weariness, writing “More seems likely to happen.” One wonders if he imagined The New Yorker at 100, which in our day is just around the corner. Like White, many us have grown weary of this angry world, where indeed more seems likely to happen. Let us hope it is for the best.

Now, some unfinished business. We need to look at the previous issue, Feb. 9, 1935, before we close out the decade.

Feb. 9, 1935 cover by **William Cotton.**

We stay on the lighter side, joining critic John Mosher at the local cinema to appreciate Leslie Howard’s dashing performance in The Scarlet Pimpernel…

WORKING OVERTIME…**Leslie Howard** and **Merle Oberon** in *The Scarlet Pimpernel.* Howard portrayed an aristocrat who leads a double life, publicly appearing as a dandy while secretly rescuing French nobles from Robespierre’s Reign of Terror. (PBS)

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From Our Advertisers

Cigarette manufacturers employed every angle from sex to health claims to move their product…not to be left out of any niche market, Chesterfield even went after the little old ladies…

…by contrast, the makers of Old Gold cigarettes featured a clueless sugar daddy and his leggy mistress in a series of ads drawn by famed pin-up artist George Petty…

…Otto Soglow would do well with advertisers during his career, promoting everything from whiskey to Pepsi and Shredded Wheat to department stores…in this case Bloomingdale’s…after William Randolph Hearst’s King Features Syndicate wrested The Little King away from The New Yorker in September 1934, this was the only way you would see the harmless potentate in the magazine…

…another New Yorker artist earning some ad dollars on the side was Constantin Alajalov, here adding a stylish flair for Coty…

…and then there’s James Thurber, who continued to contribute his talents on behalf of the Theatre Guild…

…and we move along to the Feb. 9 cartoons, with Thurber again…

…the issue also featured two by George Price…

…and Howard Baer supplied some life to this little party…

…now let’s return to the Feb. 15, 1935 issue…

…where John Mosher was back at the cinema, this time enjoying the story of a “beautiful stenographer”…

POPCORNY…**Fred MacMurray** and **Claudette Colbert** meet cute over popcorn in the romantic comedy *The Gilded Lily.* It was MacMurray’s second credited screen role, and it was the first of seven films in which Colbert and MacMurray would star together. (Wikipedia)

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More From Our Advertisers

In its bid for survival during the Depression, the luxury brand Packard introduced its first car under $1000, the 120. Sales more than tripled in 1935 and doubled again in 1936…

…meanwhile, Hudson was hanging in there with innovations such as the “Electric Hand”…it was not a true automatic transmission, but it did allow drivers to shift gears near the steering wheel…

…as demonstrated here…

…whatever you were driving, Goodyear claimed it would keep you the safest with their “Double Eagles”…

…I include this ad for Taylor Instruments because it features an illustration by Ervine Metzl, who would become known for his posters and postage stamp designs…

…Metzl’s design of a three-cent stamp commemorating the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with this Deco-inspired artwork by an unidentified illustrator…

…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” was going about her daily rounds…

…Garrett Price gave us a gatekeeper not quite up to his task…

…Gilbert Bundy was seeing stripes rather than stars…

…while James Thurber’s medium was getting in touch with an equine spirit…

…scientific inquiry knew no bounds in Robert Day’s world….

…and in the world of Alain (aka Daniel Brustlein), old habits died hard…

…and we close with Peter Arno, at his risqué best…

Thanks for reading The New Yorker State of Mind!

Legitimate Nonchalance

Above: W.C. Fields was a well-known juggler and vaudeville performer decades before he became even more famous in the movies of the 1930s.

William Claude Dukenfield was a vaudeville juggler who distinguished himself from other “tramp acts” by adding sarcastic asides to his routines. Internationally known for his juggling skills, by the turn of the century the man who billed himself as “The Eccentric Juggler” would become much better known by another name: W.C. Fields.

In the first of a three-part profile, Alva Johnston pondered the secret behind Fields’ genius, an “inborn nonchalance” that he considered “the rarest of gifts.” Johnston surmised that some of that genius derived from the volatile relationship Fields had with his father, and the street-smarts he gained as a runaway at age eleven. It is no surprise, however, that these childhood stories of hardship were significantly embellished by the great wit himself.

A STAR IS FORMED…Clockwise, from top left, **W.C. Fields** in his youth; Fields was an internationally known juggler, seen here in his vaudeville days in the early 1900s; Fields made his screen debut in 1915, seen here in his second film, *Pool Sharks* (1915); Fields with **Carol Dempster** in Sally of the Sawdust, a 1925 silent comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith. (Pinterest/YouTube)

Johnston also described Fields’ acting style and demeanor, noting that the actor’s asides were likely inspired by his mother, Kate Spangler Felton, who was known for her doorstep witticisms.

NINETEEN THIRTY-FIVE WAS A GOOD YEAR for W.C. Fields, who starred in *It’s a Gift* (right), released the previous December, and in the 1935 screen adaptation of **Charles Dickens’s** *David Copperfield*, as the character Wilkins Micawber. (MGM/IMDB)

* * *

Macabre Diversions

In the days before television and the internet, folks got their dose of the sensational and macabre from the tabloids, or, on occasion, in real life. Before crime or accident scene investigations became more sophisticated, it was not uncommon for crowds to mob grisly death scenes, including the car containing the bullet-riddled bodies of notorious bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Their Ford automobile, pocked with 112 bullet holes, became a popular traveling attraction at fairs, amusement parks, and, in February 1935, at a car dealer’s showroom in Missouri. E.B. White explained:

BEFORE THE INTERNET, folks got their ghoulish thrills by rubbernecking at famous crime scenes. At left, a crowd gathers around the bullet-riddled car belonging to Bonnie and Clyde. According to one account, at the scene of the police ambush on Louisiana State Highway 154, nearly everyone collected souvenirs including shell casings and bloody pieces of clothing from Bonnie and Clyde. One man even tried to collect Clyde’s left ear with a pocket knife; at right, unidentified man standing next to the “death car.” (KXAN/unt.edu)

* * *

Saar Kraut

Janet Flanner mused on the recent plebiscite in the Saarland, which following World War I was seized from Germany and placed under the governance of a League of Nations commission. Much to the dismay of the French, the majority German population voted to return the Saar region to Germany, and its Nazi leadership.

* * *

Over the Rainbow

In a previous column, Lois Long took aim at the Rockefeller Center’s new Rainbow Room, dismissing it as a tourist trap filled with interminable strains of organ music. In her latest column, Long retracted some of that vitriol, finding the entertainment (and, one supposes, the food) more to her liking.

THE ‘INCORRIGIBLE’ **Beatrice Lillie** (left) delighted Lois Long and audiences in the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center; at right, ballroom dancers **Lydia** and **Joresco** take to the floor in the then newly opened Rainbow Room, 1934. (Pinterest/#rainbowroomnyc)

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From Our Advertisers

As Lois Long mentioned in “Tables for Two,” British actress and singer Beatrice Lillie was appearing at in the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center; according to the ad below, also featured were ballroom dancers Lydia and Joresco and bandleader Jolly Corburn…

…at first I though this was Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne shilling for Luckies, but the resemblance isn’t quite there, plus I’m not aware of the Broadway legends ever endorsing any product, let alone cigarettes…

…the folks at Hormel continued to feature notable Frenchmen who were known to enjoy French onion soup, although this particular image doesn’t do much for one’s appetite…

…the Bermuda Trade Development Board continued to feature colorful ads that enticed New Yorkers away from the late winter blahs…

…this ad for Schaefer is a bit odd…I guess the artist wanted to suggest a handbill, and therefore tilted the image it at an angle, unsuccessfully, one might add…

…The Theatre Guild once again called upon the talents of James Thurber to advertise their latest production…

…which segues into our cartoons, with Thurber once more…

…Al Frueh did his part to promote the stage with this illustration for the theatre section…

…Otto Soglow offered his spin on pairs figure skating…

…Gardner Rea explored the world of art appreciation…

…Helen Hokinson aptly supplied this cartoon for Lois Long’s fashion column…

…Whitney Darrow Jr. showed us the consequences of classified advertising…

…Barbara Shermund clued us in on the latest gossip…

…and we close with Peter Arno, and one butcher’s cold greeting…

Next Time: A Decade of Delights…

It’s a Gift

Above: Charles Sellen as Mr. Muckle and W.C. Fields as shopkeeper Harold Bissonette in the 1934 film It's a Gift.

Rea Irvin featured the New York Auto Show on the cover of Jan. 12, 1935 issue—the extravaganza of cars at the Grand Central Palace was one place New Yorkers could go to chase away the winter blues. The other was at one of the city’s RKO theatres, where a classic W.C. Fields comedy was gracing the silver screen.

It’s a Gift was a showcase of Fields’ vaudevillian talents, tied together in a story about grocer Harold Bissonette (Fields) whose various tribulations included a pompous wife (who insisted on pronouncing the surname “biss-on-ay”), bratty children, and challenging customers (the hilarious Charles Sellen as Mr. Muckle). Writing for BFI Film Classics, Simon Louvish calls the film a chronicle of the “many titanic struggles between Harold Bissonnette and the universe. There will be battle of wills between father and daughter, between male and female, between man and a variety of uncontrollable objects.” Here is John Mosher’s review for The New Yorker.

HAROLD VS. THE WORLD…Clockwise, from top left, **W.C. Fields** as grocer Harold Bissonette; Fields with **Kathleen Howard** as wife Amelia Bissonette; Bissonette is relegated to the back porch in search of some rest; **Charles Sellon** as one of Bissonette’s more challenging customers, Mr. Muckle. (IMDB/TCM/filmfanatic.org/YouTube)

BABY BLUES…Two-year old Baby LeRoy (**Ronald Le Roy Overacker)** played the annoying foil to **W.C. Fields** in three films, including It’s a Gift (left, with Fields and **Tammany Young**). **James** **Curtis’s** *W.C. Fields: A Biography* (2003) quotes director **Norman McLeod:** “[Fields] used to swear at the baby so much in front of the camera that I sometimes had to cut off the ends of the scenes in which they appeared.” Fields’ popular persona was a man who hated dogs and kids, but a studio photo taken during the filming of *It’s a Gift* (right) seems to show another side. Perhaps. (Pinterest/citizenscreen.com)

* * *

By Another Name

E.B. White led off his column with a note about Persia, which had officially changed its name to Iran. To mark the new year, Reza Shah had officially asked foreign delegates to use the new term, which referred to the native name of the people who inhabited the region.

* * *

Hot Rods

The New Yorker was back at the auto show, where correspondent “Speed” noted the appeal of the Auburn Speedster to a college-age crowd. The $2,500 price tag (equivalent to about $55k today) was apparently within reach for some of the lads at Columbia and other Ivies. Speed also admired the limousine version of the Chrysler Airflow, but the real car of his desires was a bottle-shaped milk truck.

INSTANT CLASSIC…*The New Yorker* predicted that the Auburn Speedster 851, which came to be known as the “Hollywood Car,” would be popular among lads on college campuses. Despite its technical advancement (it could do 100 mph) and beautiful lines, it would prove to be Auburn’s final production model. (Wikipedia)

RARITIES…Clockwise, from top left: Boattail version of the Auburn Speedster 851, of which only 143 were built; REO milk bottle truck, circa 1930; 1935 Chrysler CW Airflow Limousine—only fifteen of these massive cars were built. (Wikipedia/Pinterest/Donald Pittenger@carstylecritic.blogspot.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

The proprietors of Essex House tapped into the popularity of the Auto Show to market their economical, yet deluxe accommodations…

…the anti-war group World Peaceways continued its ad campaign with this image of the “most powerful man in America,” that is, the average citizen who should not be tricked into “the absurd business of war”…

…United Airlines used the endorsement of journalist and radio commentator Edwin C. Hill to tout the safety and comfort of its airliners…

…at the time, United’s flagship airplane was the Boeing 247…

Interior and exterior of the Boeing 247. (Library of Congress/Wikipedia)

…”Mrs. William LaVarre” (Alice Lucille Elliott) was the latest adventurous soul to endorse the energizing effects of Camel cigarettes…

…it was no coincidence that the Camel and Chesterfield ads both featured women, the tobacco companies’ biggest growth market in the 1930s…

…on to our cartoons, we go bowling in this spot by George Shellhase…

…a doctor’s bedside manner, in James Thurber’s world of the battling sexes…

…two of Helen Hokinson’s “Girls” were left breathless by the exploits of Elias Burton Holmes, an American photographer and filmmaker who apparently coined the term “travelogue”…

…for this next cartoon by Robert Day, a snippet from the Auto Show will shed some light…

…and we close with Carl Rose, and some hijinks among the statuary…

Next Time: Everything’s Jake…

Farewell to 1934

Above: Ringing in the New Year at Times Square, 1934.

We bid adieu to 1934 with some odds and ends, beginning with E.B. White’s observations for the upcoming year, which if anyone had noticed the uptick in Ascot tie purchases, just might be a bit rosier than previous years of the decade.

Dec. 29, 1934 cover by **S. Liam Dunn.**

White was also hopeful for a new year with a less dreadful press, particularly the pandering type promulgated by William Randolph Hearst.

GOOD RIDDANCE…**E.B. White** wryly noted the positive signs heading into 1935. While actresses **Billie Seward** and Lucille Ball rang in the New Year, **Erroll Flynn** was sporting an ascot tie and **Henry Ford** was proclaiming that the Depression was over. (Pinterest)

* * *

Dr. Peeper

“The Talk of the Town” noted that Dr. Allan Dafoe, the country doctor who gained fame for delivering the Dionne Quintuplets, expressed a desire to see Sally Rand perform her bubble dance during his visit to Gotham. “Talk” also looked in on the some of the technical aspects of the burlesque dancer’s signature act:

DON’T BURST MY BUBBLE…**Dr. Allan Dafoe** of Dionne Quintuplet fame looked forward to taking in the sights of New York, including **Sally Rand’s** famed bubble dance. (Image from the 1936 book *The Country Doctor*/Sally Rand via stuffnobodycaresabout.com)

* * *

Leading Ladies

Film Critic John Mosher noted the continued rise of two leading female stars, twenty-seven-year-old Katharine Hepburn and six-year-old Shirley Temple. Mosher recalled Hepburn’s recent performance in Little Women, and proclaimed that she “succeeds again” in The Little Minister.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS...Katharine Hepburn and **John Beal** in The Little Minister. Hepburn portrayed Babbie, a member of the nobility who disguises herself as a gypsy to protect villagers from a tyrannical lord. In the process she falls in love with the good Rev. Gavin Dishart (Beal). (IMDB)

Although Mosher admitted he was a “disagreeable adult” who doesn’t enjoy seeing children on the screen “more than necessary,” he acknowledged Shirley Temple’s talents as well as those of child actor Jane Withers in Bright Eyes.

BRIGHT EYES, BRIGHT STARS…**Jane Withers, Shirley Temple,** and Terry in *Bright Eyes.* (IMDB)

* * *

That Youthful Feeling

Given that William Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers en the play was revived by actress Katharine Cornell and her director husband Guthrie McClintic, who took the play on a seven-month nationwide tour before it was revised and opened on Broadway in December 1934. Critics dubbed the 41-year-old Cornell “the greatest Juliet of her time,” and it seems Robert Benchley heartily agreed in this excerpt from his stage review:

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER…The 41-year-old **Katharine Cornell** and 42-year-old **Basil Rathbone** in a promotional photo for *Romeo and Juliet*. Cornell was the first performer to receive the Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award, which became the oldest and most exclusive theatrical honor in North America. (Vandamm photo, Museum of the City of New York)

* * *

The New Yorkiest Place

In 1930 gossip columnist Walter Winchell called the new Stork Club “New York’s New Yorkiest place on W. 58th,” and when it relocated to 3 East 53rd Street in 1934 it further defined itself as the ultimate New York night club. In her “Tables for Two” column, Lois Long found the new location much to her liking. An excerpt:

THE STORK DELIVERS…The Stork Club truly became the New Yorkiest nightclub when it relocated to 3 East 53rd Street in 1934. Clockwise, from top left: the club entrance in the 1930s; **Cary Grant** was one of the many celebrities who favored the nightclub, circa 1935; a 1930’s club menu; **Lita Grey**, the former teen bride of actor **Charlie Chaplin**, was a featured singer at the club during Lois Long’s visit. (Gibbes Museum of Art/Pinterest/vintagemenuart.com/IMDB)

* * *

So Long?

Clarence Day, best known for his Life with Father stories, also contributed a number of cartoons to the magazine, accompanied by satirical poems and humorous shorts. Day would die at the tender age of 61—after a bout with pneumonia—in December 1935, about a year after this cartoon was published in The New Yorker. I assume he was signing off from the magazine in order to arrange publication of his Life with Father book, which was published shortly after his death.

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Sunny California beckoned those who had the means and leisure to head to warmer climes during the New York winter…

…for those who stayed behind, they could wrap themselves in a chic winter coat such as this one sported by Camel endorser Mrs. Langdon Post (Janet Kirby)…

…another colorful ad with a not-so-colorful message from World Peaceways, a 1930s anti-war organization that characterized soldiers (and future soldiers, seen here) as pawns in the corrupt games of the rich and powerful…

…the distributors of French champagne rang in the New Year by suggesting that Doyen was worth your very last cent…

…we kick off our cartoons by welcoming the New Year with George Price…

…Robert Day contributed a spot drawing that offered a new twist to ice hockey…

…I should know this artist, but it escapes me for the moment…nevertheless, a great illustration to stretch across the bottom of an opening page…

…a closeup of the signature…

…another from George Price, still up in the air in the final issue of 1934…

…Garner Rea introduced us to the life of the party…

…”Miss Otis Regrets” is a 1934 Cole Porter song about the lynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover. Porter wrote the song as a parody of a sad cowboy song he heard on the radio. The song was further workshopped for fun at “smart set” cocktail parties…on to our next cartoon, and a moment of keen insight from James Thurber…

…Garrett Price went on the town with some students of anatomy…

…and we say Happy New Year with the help of Helen Hokinson…

Next Time: Easy Riders…

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)

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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)

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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…