Above: E.B. White noted the sounds of late summer ranging from jackhammers (that sounded like cicadas) to the songs of katydids predicting an early frost. (pafa.org/Ellyn B/Flickr/nwf.org)
For roughly four decades E.B. White’s “Notes and Comment” set the tone for each issue of The New Yorker, offering observations on daily life that sometimes were compiled from his “disarranged notes.”
September 5, 1936 cover by Adolph K. Kronengold.
For the September 5 issue White offered brief comments on everything from the German military buildup to the romantic life of singer Bobby Arnst.
SHE WENT APE OVER TARZAN…Photo at left: Singer/dancer Bobbe Arnst shares a laugh with her first husband, Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller—apparently her second marriage to divorce attorney Robert Cavenaugh wasn’t so full of yuks; White also noted the cicada-like sounds of air drills tearing up old trolley car lines—at right is the 1936 painting “End of 14th Street Crosstown Line” by early New Yorker contributor Reginald Marsh. The urban realist Marsh juxtaposed workers tearing up tracks with picketers demonstrating against Ohrbach’s, which would not allow employees to unionize. (whosdatedwho.com/pafa.org)
White also cited Cosmopolitan magazine regarding “the age of accumulation” (twenty-five to thirty-five), and noted the average speed of rival ocean liners for “New Yorkers hastening to the Scottish moors for the grouse shooting…”
CONSUMER REPORT…White cited Cosmopolitan regarding “the age of accumulation,” and considered the average speeds of the world’s fastest ocean liners, France’s SS Normandie (top), and Great Britain’s RMS Queen Mary. (instagram.com/ucla.edu)
* * *
Sounds of Music
Paris correspondent Janet Flanner moved on from the Nazi Olympics in Berlin to the foothills of the Alps for the Salzburg Music Festival, where German dramatic soprano Lotte Lehmann and Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini made music together.
DRAMATIC DUO…Dramatic soprano Lotte Lehmann and conductor Arturo Toscanini were the big draw at the 1936 Salzburg Music Festival, which also featured the debut of the Trapp Family Singers, who were encouraged by Lehmann to enter the Salzburg Festival contest. (taminoautographs.com via stolpersteine-salzburg.at/en)
In August 1936 Lehmann discovered the Trapp Family Singers (made famous in 1965’s The Sound of Music). While approaching a villa available to let, Lehmann overheard the Trapp children singing in their garden. Due to her fame, Lehmann was able to persuade Captain Georg Von Trapp to allow his children to perform at Salzburg Festival.
Flanner also marveled at the Austria’s Grossglockner High Alpine Road—with the highest pass in Europe—and noted the bitter struggle between Nazis and Social Democrats that was dividing Austrians less than two years before the Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria.
GETTING HIGH…At left, the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse); at right, the Hohensalzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg) a large medieval fortress that is a prominent landmark in the city of Salzburg, Austria. Flanner noted that unbeknownst to gawking tourists, the fortress contained political prisoners. (Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
John Mosher found Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at the top of their game in the musical comedy Swing Time, but lamented the stodgy and laborious plot that burdened the non-dancing scenes.
BUSTING SOME MOVES are Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time. The film was the sixth of ten films starring Astaire and Rogers. (goldenageofcinemasite.wordpress.com)
Mosher also had a look at Girl’s Dormitory, which introduced audiences to the young French actress Simone Simon, and also checked out the latest Myrna Loy flick.
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM…Clockwise from top left: Set at a Swiss boarding school, Girl’s Dormitory is a story about a middle-aged school director (Herbert Marshall) who resists the attentions of a forty-something professor (Ruth Chatterton) and instead hooks up with a 19-year-old student (Simone Simon);1936 photo of Simon by George Hurrell—Simon is is perhaps best remembered for her role in the 1942 American horror film Cat People and its sequel; Claire Trevor, Warner Baxter, and Myrna Loy in To Mary—with Love; cover of Movie Parade, a book on movie history when the history of film was just three decades old. (imdb.com/facebook.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
The magazine opened with another enticing photo from Grace Line depicting an ocean cruise before the days of water slides, buffet lines and norovirus…
…some one-column selections from the back of the book, including an ad from the Camel Pen Company introducing an innovative fountain pen that contained a dry ink pellet—the user added water to dissolve the pellet into a year’s supply of ink…
…these days most of us use ball-point pens, and we are also so accustomed to automatic doors that they no longer seem “magic” as they did in the 1930s…
WONDERS NEVER CEASE…In 1931, Wilcox’s Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut featured the first automatic doors in America, invented by Stanley. (cbsnews.com)
…New York artist Sheila Raleigh employed the desert island trope to sell some beer for Jacob Ruppert…
…the inside back cover popped with this ad for the streamlined V-12 Lincoln Zephyr…
…the “Talk of the Town” occasionally featured these illustrated mini-bios, here highlighting Jesse Owens’ record-setting performance at the 1936 Olympics (illustration by William Cotton)…
…a couple of spots by George Shellhase…
…and Richard Taylor…
…Helen Hokinson gave us frenemies at a dog show…
…James Thurber looked out for cockroaches…
…Otto Soglow found a new use for a bass case…
…Soglow again, demonstrating the wonders of radio advertising…
…Alain showed us a man with a cagey cane…
…Peter Arno illustrated the trials of working with extras…
…Rea Irvin continued to chronicle achievements in industry (Peruna was a well-known patent medicine sold from the late-19th to mid-20th century—with its high alcohol content, Americans drank large amounts of Peruna during Prohibition)…
…a beat cop receives an unlikely confession, per Whitney Darrow Jr…
…and we close with Alan Dunn, in a forgettable situation…
Above: Washington Square North circa 1930. (nypap.org)
In the first decades of the 20th century very few buildings in New York City were considered sacred, especially during the building boom of the Twenties when large swaths of the old city were erased to make way for massive skyscrapers and more than 740,000 new housing units.
May 9, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
To keep anything historic from the wrecking ball required constant vigilance as well as political savvy. Such was the case at Washington Square, where in response to a 27-story building erected at 1 Fifth Avenue a campaign was organized to create height limits around the square itself. The land for 1 Fifth Avenue was leased by Sailors’ Snug Harbor—a foundation dedicated to assisting retired mariners and one of the largest owners of land in Greenwich Village. The threat to Washington Square became even greater in 1936 when the same foundation announced plans to demolish several of the structures facing the north side of Washington Square, known as “The Row.” In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B.White explained:
INTERLOPER…The Sailors’ Snug Harbor Foundation had already altered the scale of Washington Square with the erection of 1 Fifth Avenue (1926-27), seen to the right of the arch in the bottom photo (by Berenice Abbott, 1936); above left, facade of Sailors’ Snug Harbor Foundation building as it appears today (inset: the foundation’s monogram set within the spandrels of the arched windows); top right, looking west down Washington Square North, 1937. (daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/geographicguide.com)
Fortunately the demolition did not proceed, with Sailors’ Snug Harbor deciding to retain the character of “The Row”—numbers 1-13 Washington Square North. Not so fortunate were the adjacent Rhinelander Houses that were demolished in the mid-1940s, and “Genius Row” on Washington Square South, which was demolished in 1948 to make room for the NYU Law Center.
NOT SO FORTUNATE…The Rhinelander Houses at Washington Square North (top photo, from 1922) were demolished in 1951 to make way for an apartment house; photo below, the “Genius Row” on Washington Square South was demolished in 1948 to make room for the NYU Law Center. Occupants of Genius Row included writers Stephen Crane, O. Henry, and Willa Cather.(nypl.org/Village Preservation–GVSHP)
Beginning in the 1940s, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses would try many times to ram a highway through Washington Square Park, including a proposal in the early 1950s (below) that would bisect the park with a 48-foot-wide highway connecting Fifth Avenue to West Broadway.
PAVING PARADISE…Opposition was so great to Robert Moses’s Washington Square proposals that he finally abandoned plans for a highway through the park. (MTA Archives)
* * *
Farewell Artie
Legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957) transformed the New York Philharmonic into a world-class ensemble during his stint as music director from 1928 to 1936. Unfortunately, his stellar career with the Philharmonic ended rather ignominiously: When the Maestro turned to take a bow at the conclusion of his Carnegie Hall farewell concert, a young photographer exploded a flash bulb directly in his face, causing the great conductor to flee the stage. E.B. White was there to take it all in:
I SAW THE LIGHT…a photographer’s flash temporarily blinded legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini (top) following his farewell concert at Carnegie Hall. Below, a ticket stub from the historic evening. Five bucks seems like a bargain, but it is roughly equivalent to nearly $120 today. (wfimc.org/carnegiehall.org)
The New Yorker’s music critic Robert A. Simon also shared some thoughts on the evening, which included a scuffle between a “hatless fellow” and another fellow (also hatless) that followed the photographer incident:
PLEASE BEHAVE…A view from the Carnegie Hall stage in 1930. Following Arturo Toscanini’s farewell concert in 1936, a scuffle broke out in the lobby, the result of a row over the temporary blinding of the Maestro by a photographer’s flash bulb. (nypap.org)
* * *
Lah-Dee-Dy
“The Talk of the Town” looked into the fuss over the toy industry’s first practical “drink-and-wet” baby doll, Effanbee’s Dy-Dee doll. Marketed as “The Almost Human Doll”, the “Talk” correspondents (Helen and Charles Cooke) found a demonstration at Macy’s a bit too real (included with this excerpt is spot art by Abe Birnbaum).
UNCANNY…The Effanbee Doll Company marketed their “Almost Human” Dy-Dee doll as the first workable “drink-and-wet” baby doll. The doll was designed by German-born Bernard Lipfert (1886–1974), who sculpted dolls for prominent American toy manufacturers from the 1920s to the 1960s, including the famous Patsy and Shirley Temple dolls. (collectornet.net/Linda Lipfert White via catskilldolls.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Many film critics in the 1930s, including The New Yorker’sJohn Mosher, admired the Soviet film industry for its cinematic innovations and often brutal realism, even if deployed as propaganda. Such was the case with We Are From Kronstadt, which depicted heroic Red sailors defending the city of Petrograd from counterrevolutionary forces. “It’s a film to be respected,” Mosher wrote.
NO BLONDES, JUST BOMBSHELLS…Clockwise from top left: Russian poster for We Are From Kronstadt; actor Georgi Bushuyev; battle scene from the film; actress Raisa Yesipova. (Wikipedia/imdb.com)
Mosher also reviewed the lighter fare coming out of Hollywood, including two films featuring the actress Joan Bennett.
SEEING DOUBLE…Joan Bennett shared top billing in two new releases—with Cary Grant in Big Brown Eyes (left); and with Fred MacMurray in 13 Hours by Air (top right); Claudette Colbert was paired with Ronald Colman in Under Two Flags (below). (csfd.cz/imdb.com)WET AND COLD…Bette Davis and George Brent went through the motions in The Golden Arrow (left); at right, Rochelle Hudson and Alan Hale braved the wilds of Canada in The Country Beyond. Hale was the father of Alan Hale Jr., who was also a film actor but is best known today for playing the Skipper on TV’s Gilligan’s Island. (pinterest.com/20th Century Fox)
* * *
Swing Time
Ninety years ago America’s youth primarily listened to (and danced to) swing music and big band jazz. The New Yorker kept readers up to date on the latest hits.
RHYTHM SECTION…”The Ol’ Perfessor” Kay Kyser’s band (the “Kollege of Musical Knowledge”) kept the kids in rhythm in the 1930s; at right, Benny Goodman (left) and Gene Krupa both released records with some new “swings.” (jimramsburg.com/grampsblog.wordpress.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
The makers of Packard automobiles were big into the idea of continuity, emphasizing the quality and longevity of their product over gimmicky style changes…
…in the mid-1930s (and especially in 1936) Chrysler employed the comedic talents of Ed Wynn to sell its low-priced Plymouths…
…the makers of Fisher car bodies (a division of General Motors) continued their campaign of two-page ads pairing cute kids with their “Turret Top” safety feature…
…canned beer was a recent innovation in 1936, with New York breweries leading the way (Krueger Brewing Company was first, its canned beer officially debuting in January 1935)…
…the French Line enticed New Yorkers to see Paris in the springtime…
…Harper’s ran this ad on the top left corner of page 95 to promote Robert Benchley’sMy Ten Years in a Quandary…and How They Grew, illustrated by Benchley’s New Yorker colleague Gluyas Williams…
BENCHLEY IN A BIND…Robert Benchley and the cover of My Ten Years in a Quandary…and How They Grew. (ebay.com/ebooktakeaway.com)
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with Richard Taylor in the calendar section…
…and a nice bit of spot art by Christina Malman…
…Alan Dunn revealed a time tunnel under the Hudson…
…Rea Irvin drew up an odd sight along a garden path…
…this honeymoon was over before it even started, per Peter Arno…
…Alain showed us the troubled dreams of a jailbird…
…Charles Addams at his best, taking the daily horrors in stride…
…James Thurber gave us a Gish, but not of silent movie fame…
…Helen Hokinson illustrated a day at the radio station across pages 22-23…
…Hokinson again, weighing the competition between a sofa and table…
…and we close with Kemp Starrett, and a helpful husband…
Above: Eddie Cantor (left) consulting his "confidence book" in Strike Me Pink; at right, Dona Drake and the “Goldwyn Girls” performing “The Lady Dances." (cometoverhollywood.com)
You don’t hear much about him today, but in 1936 Eddie Cantor was a household name, an entertainer who seemed to do it all—comedian, actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter were just a few of his trades.
January 25, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajálov.
Critic John Mosher marveled at the energy Cantor (1892–1964) brought to his latest film, Strike Me Pink, in which Cantor played a mild-mannered manager of an amusement park infested with mobsters. The film was a “convulsion,” Mosher wrote, packed with action on “the grand scale” with occasional interludes by co-star Ethel Merman, who portrayed Cantor’s love interest.
FINDING HIS MOJO…top and below left, Eddie Cantor and Ethel Merman in Strike Me Pink. Bottom right, Cantor, Sally Eilers and Helen Lowell in a scene from the film. (Wikipedia/tcm.com/imdb.com)
Bette Davis wasn’t the only Hollywood celeb known for her peepers. After artist Frederick J. Garner published a big-eyed caricature of Cantor in 1933, those “Banjo Eyes” became Cantor’s trademark.
BANJO EYES…at left, Frederick J. Garner’s caricature of Cantor. After he published the drawing in 1933, other artists followed suit with their own interpretations of the “Banjo Eyes.” At right, movie poster for 1934’s Kid Millions. (npg.si.edu/laughterlog.com/imdb.com)
Cantor would pack a lot into his seventy-two years, a regular with the Ziegfeld Follies (he would repeat his routines in numerous films), he would also appear in other stage productions, on the radio, on television (hosting The Colgate Comedy Hour) and recording hit songs like “Makin’ Whoopee.” He wrote or co-wrote seven books, was the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, and a co-founder of the March of Dimes (Cantor came up with the name as well). He also appeared in numerous cartoons, and even wrote the Merrie Melodies/LooneyTunes theme song, “Merrily We Roll Along.”
DOWN AND OUT…Eddie Cantor was caricatured along with, from left, Al Jolson, Jack Benny and Bing Crosby in the 1950 Looney Toons short “What’s Up, Doc?” The scene depicts a low point in Bugs Bunny’s career when he spends the winter with fellow struggling actors in Central Park. (Warner Brothers)
In 1934 Cantor was depicted as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the only full-size balloon to represent a real person.
MY, WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE…Eddie Cantor looms over the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1934. (Ephemeral New York)
* * *
Fishing For Buyers
The Thirty-first annual Motor Boat Show was on at the Grand Central Palace, featuring everything from yachts to tiny sailboats. Excerpts from a report by a correspondent who wrote under the name “Bosun.”
FOR LANDLUBBERS TOO…The New York Motor Boat Show began in 1905 at Madison Square Garden before moving to the resplendent surroundings of the Grand Central Palace. Clockwise from top left, undated photo from the Grand Central Palace; advertisement in Yachting magazine; a 1935 Elco Cruisette. (offthehookyachts.com/antiqueboatamerica.com)
* * *
Cultured Congress
Hard to believe that ninety years ago the U.S. House of Representatives devoted considerable time and attention to a proposed bill for a “Department of Science, Art and Literature.” E.B. White covered the hearings in an extensive two-part report for “Onward & Upward With the Arts.” Here is a brief excerpt from part one.
ARTS FANATIC is how E.B. White characterized New York Congressman William I. Sirovich (1882–1939), who proposed the establishment of a Department of Science, Art and Literature. (findagrave.com)
* * *
A Really Big Show
“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to the Adelphi Theatre to see how preparations were going for opera-oratorio The Eternal Road. Conceived by journalist and playwright Meyer Weisgal to alert the public to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, it featured a score by Kurt Weill with libretto by Franz Werfel (translated into English by Ludwig Lewisohn).
Directed by Max Reinhardt on an imposing set designed by Norman Bel Geddes, The Eternal Road would take time to produce, finally premiering at the Manhattan Opera House on Jan. 7, 1937. It ran for 153 performances.
ON THE ROAD…Key figures in the production of The Eternal Road included, from left, director Max Reinhardt, composer Kurt Weill, and set designer Norman Bel Geddes (who here bears an uncanny resemblance to New Yorker founding editor Harold Ross). (weillproject.com)DRAMA QUEEN…Among the 245 actors in the production was Lotte Lenya, who portrayed Miriam. An acclaimed Austrian singer and actress, Lenya was also Kurt Weill’s ex-wife, and is probably best known today for her role as the sadistic Rosa Klebb in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love.MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS…At left, a sketch by Harry Horner of the The Eternal Road’s five-level set designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the Manhattan Opera House; at right, massive set piece from the production. (Kurt Weill Foundation kwf.org)
* * *
Location, Location, Location
“Talk” also looked at property values in the city, noting that the site occupied by the Hell Gate power plant was assessed at nearly $57 million (roughly $1.3 billion today). Excerpt:
PRIME REAL ESTATE…Artist’s rendering of the Hell Gate generating station, circa 1922. (T.E. Murray, Power Stations 1922)
* * *
A New, Improved Carmen
Music critic Robert Simon (writing for “Musical Events”) was delightfully surprised by the Met’s latest production of Carmen, and namely by the performance of Swedish mezzo-soprano Gertrud Pålson-Wettergren:
HUMOROUS AND HEROIC were just two for the adjectives Robert Simon used to describe an interpretation of Carmen by Swedish mezzo-soprano Gertrud Pålson-Wettergren (1897–1991). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in December 1935. (Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
We rejoin critic John Mosher for a look at the rest of the cinema lineup, beginning with King of Burlesque, which featured Alice Faye and “everything but the kitchen stove.”
FACES IN THE CROWD…Mosher found a film crowded with talents in King of Burlesque, including Fats Waller (performing “I’ve Got My Fingers Crossed”), Warner Baxter, and Alice Faye. (YouTube.com/IMDb.com)
Mosher found a “stimulating” gangster flick in Exclusive Story…
DRESSED TO THE NINES…Franchot Tone was clad in his usual Sunday best, here flanked by Madge Evans (left) and Louise Henry. (themovied.org)
…and a “trifling” horror movie, The Crime of Dr. Crespi…
I’M NOT DEAD YET…Evil Dr. Crespi (Erich Von Stroheim) gives fellow doctor Stephen Ross (John Bohn) a drug that induces a state of apparent death in The Crime of Doctor Crespi. (moma.org)
* * *
A Hot Hobby
St. Clair McKelway filed the second of a two-part profile on New York’s Chief Fire Marshal Thomas P. Brophy (1880-1962). McKelway wrote, “How to stop a fire is the fire chief’s problem; how it got started, that of the fire marshal, Thomas Brophy…Brophy’s specialty, however, is pyromaniacs— it is almost his hobby.” Hugo Gellert supplied the drawing.
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We begin with the inside front cover, and this colorful illustration of Fanny Brice by Abe Birnbaum for Stage magazine…
…the makers of budget automobiles such as Nash, Plymouth and Hudson were all on the same page when it came to marketing their automobiles, namely, that their products suggested luxury despite the bargain price…a “Motor Car by Hudson,” the ad proclaimed, is “worthy of its place in the New York style ensemble”…
…the makers of Pierce Arrow had a solid reputation as the Rolls-Royce of American automobiles, so they took the safety angle in this understated, hyperbole-free advertisement…(however, cheaper cars like Hudson would survive the Depression, Pierce-Arrow would not)…
…this Scotch whisky ad recalled the days when “rolled hose” could create a scandal, underscoring how things can mellow after ten years, including whisky…
…in this back cover advertisement, Vivian Dixon (apparently just eighteen years old) was the latest New York debutante to invite young women to join her in smoking Camels…
Vivian Dixon (1918-1974) circa 1940. You can read more about her here. (stoningtonboroughct.com)
…the Major continued his quest for fresh peas in this ad from the Minnesota Valley Canning Company (aka Green Giant)…
…on to our cartoonists, beginning with this spot drawing for the boat show by Constantin Alajálov…
…this spot by Abe Birnbaum broke up the text for James Thurber’s “Nine Needles” short story…
…Perry Barlow gave us a gentleman attempting to explain the subtleties of ice hockey…
…Barlow again, where seeing is not necessarily believing…
…James Thurber contributed a serenade, accompanied by dog…
…Peter Arno bid farewell to honeymooners destined for Niagara Falls and the Shredded Wheat factory…
…besides the falls, the Shredded Wheat factory was a big attraction in the early 20th century…
A 1905 postcard touting “One of the Wonders of Niagara.” (Niagara Falls Public Library)
…George Price illustrated the hazards of bargain shopping…
…and Price again, with a lucky streak in Atlantic City…
…Carl Rose continued to offer examples of rugged individualism…
…Charles Addams explored some exotic thrills…
…Mary Petty found nuance among youthful suitors…
…and Petty again, and the complexities of hat shopping…
…Alain paid a visit to the boat show…
…Ned Hilton drew up a mail-order mix-up…
…and we close with Alan Dunn, and a matter of the heart…
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’sEagle 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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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.
* * *
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)
* * *
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…
Above: Photo of the Hoboken Four as they appeared on the "Amateur Hour with Major Bowes" in 1935. At center is "Major" Edward Bowes, and at right is Frank Sinatra. The other three members of the Hoboken Four were Frank Tamburro, Patty Prince and Jimmy Petro. (knkx.org)
Nearly seventy years before American Idol appeared on our TV screens, a hugely successful and influential talent show filled the airwaves from NBC’s radio studios at Rockefeller Center.
January 4, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Millions tuned in each week to the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, which got its start in 1934 at radio station WHN before moving to NBC the following year. Created and hosted by “Major” Edward Bowes (1874–1946), Bowes would chat with contestants before listening to their performances, which could be cut short by the Major’s gong (see below). For his “A Reporter at Large” column, Morris Markey paid a visit to Bowes during evening auditions at the NBC studios. Excerpts:
THE GONG SHOW…At bottom right, Edward Bowes with the gong he used to abruptly end acts he deemed poor or inept—he abandoned the prop in 1936 after receiving thousands of letters from listeners who objected to the premature termination of acts (apparently the concept was a direct inspiration for Chuck Barris’s 1970s TV program, The Gong Show). At left, a July 1936 Women’s Home Companion advertisement from the show’s sponsor, Chase & Sanborn. The ads highlighted the rags-to-riches stories of the more successful contestants. (eBay.com/Wikipedia)
Markey ended his piece noting the reality of the many contestants who, unlike Frank Sinatra, would not go on to successful entertainment careers.
STARMAKER…Clockwise, from left: Major Edward Bowes and returning Amateur Hour performer Frank Sinatra in 1943; in 1935 eleven-year-old Maria Callas performed the Madama Butterfly aria “Un bel dì vedremo,” on the Amateur Hour; actor/baritone Robert Merrill performed on the show in 1936. (winnetoba.com/mariacallasestate.com/Wikipedia)
* * *
Fleeing the Limelight
In December 1935 Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh secretly boarded a ship in New York and headed to England, seeking to escape the media frenzy that followed their son’s kidnapping and the subsequent trial. Thanks to connections through Anne’s family, they were able to move into a secluded estate in the Kent countryside. In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White explained:
HIDEOUT…From 1936 to 1938 Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh lived in a secluded English estate called “Long Barn.” The estate in County Kent was owned by a friend of Anne’s family. (waverlyhs.weebly.com)NOT HIS FINEST HOUR…In July 1936 Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering (right) presented the Sword of Honor of the German Air Force to Charles Lindbergh during a visit to Berlin. Anne Morrow Lindbergh is to the far left. Goering would also present Lindbergh with a high-ranking Nazi-era civilian medal, the Service Cross of the German Eagle, during a 1938 visit. Anne presciently referred to the medal as “the albatross.” (Library of Congress)
According to White, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia cited lax police control of the media in the case of the fleeing Lindberghs. In turn, White attempted to explain the unique temperaments of Irish police officers.
GIVE US A BREAK…E.B. White noted the courage and wisdom of Irish cops, but also found their lassitude “almost theatrical.” Pictured above is Irish immigrant Patrick Leddy, who joined the NYPD in 1910 and remained on the force for more than thirty-five years. (Courtesy of Margaret Fitzpatrick Leddy via nyirishhistory.us)
A final note on the Lindberghs from Howard Brubaker, a snippet from his “Of All Things” column.
* * *
Italian Swashbuckler
The Italian fencer Aldo Naldi (1899-1965) won three gold medals and one silver at the 1920 Olympics before turning professional. According to West Coast Fencing, Aldo traveled Europe like a prizefighter, “competing in well-attended matches for cash purses…in a world of travel, glamour, drinking, womanizing, gambling and fencing, Aldo Nadi reigned supreme, going nearly eight years without a defeat.” “The Talk of the Town” was on hand for his American debut. Excerpts:
EN GARDE!…During the interwar years Aldo Nadi reigned supreme, going nearly eight years without a defeat. (dennishollingsworth.us)
“Talk” also examined the fuss being made over the Great Chalice of Antioch, which was on display at the Brooklyn Museum. Excerpts:
COULD IT BE?…Claimed to have been found in Antioch around 1900, this chalice’s plain silver bowl was ambitiously identified by some as the Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper. It is displayed with the Metropolitan Museum’s Byzantium collection. (metmuseum.org)
* * *
Year, Schmear
To mark the New Year, Arthur Guiterman offered up one his humorous poems…
…Guiterman (1871–1943) was an early contributor to The New Yorker—the magazine’s very first issue, Feb. 21, 1925, featured the first installment of Guiterman’s recurring “Lyrics from the Pekinese,” which ran through the first eleven issues.
MEOW…Arthur Guiterman’s “Lyrics from the Pekinese,” featured in the first issue of The New Yorker. At right, Guiterman in an undated photo. (Library of Congress)
* * *
Before He Was Spooky
Robert Benchley’s review of the stage began on a bright note with Victoria Regina, which starred Vincent Price as Prince Albert and Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria. Benchley praised the realism Price and Hayes lent to the production. Excerpts:
A MATCH MADE ON BROADWAY…The 24-year-old Vincent Price and the 35-year-old Helen Hayes portrayed Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in Victoria Regina, which ran for 203 performances at the Broadhurst Theatre. Robert Benchley thought their casting was ideal. (Pinterest)
Benchley also sat through George White’s latest Scandals revue, finding it similar to White’s older shows—beautiful showgirls, various singers and dancers, and assorted comedians—with Bert Lahr shining above it all.
IT SEEMED LIKE OLD TIMES to Robert Benchley as he took in the latest edition of George White’sScandals. Bert Lahr (left) was among the headliners for the 1936 revue, which ran for 110 performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre before taking to the road. (Wikipedia/Playbill.com)
* * *
At the Movies
John Mosher had a busy week at the movies, finding “considerable pleasure” in the screen adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’sAh Wilderness!…
MILLER TIME…The Miller family attends a commencement ceremony that helps kick off the action in Ah Wilderness! From left, Aline MacMahon, Mickey Rooney, Spring Byington, and Bonita Granville. (IMDB)
Mosher also looked at films featuring leading actresses of the day—Barbara Stanwyck in Annie Oakley, Bette Davis in Dangerous, and Claudette Colbert in The Bride Comes Home.
A TRIO OF TALENTS…Clockwise, from top left, Claudette Colbert had her hands full with Robert Young and Fred MacMurray in The Bride Comes Home; Barbara Stanwyck took aim in Annie Oakley; and Bette Davis portrayed a down-and-out actress with trouble on her mind in Dangerous. For her performance, Davis won the Academy Award for Best Actress. (laurasmiscmusings.blogspot.com/girlswithguns.org/vanguardofhollywood.com )
* * *
Gaming the Games
In her “Paris Letter,” Janet Flanner noted the preparations for the Fourth Olympic Winter games to be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
WINTER HAS ARRIVED…Adolf Hitler and his fellow Nazi thugs brought a certain chill to the 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Garmisch and Partenkirchen were separate communities until Hitlerforced them to merge in anticipation of the games. (arolsen-archives.org)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
From 1933 to 1939, Macy’s hosted a series of unique design exhibitions under the title “Forward House” that showcased contemporary furniture, decor, and architectural ideas…
…for reference, here is another “Forward House” advertisement from the February 1936 House & Garden magazine…
…the folks at Robbins Island Oysters employed the legend of Giacomo Casanova to market their tasty little rocks…apparently Casanova claimed that he consumed more than fifty oysters each morning to sustain his amorous adventures…
…with the holidays over, the number of ads decreased significantly, leaving readers with a mere sixty pages—less than the half the length of the fat pre-Christmas editions…the theme in the Jan. 4 issue was travel to warmer climes, these examples culled from several back of the book pages…
…the end of the holiday season did not stop tobacco companies from taking out lavish full-page advertisements targeting women smokers, this one gracing the back cover…note the implied medical endorsement at the bottom…
…we clear the air and move on to our cartoonists, beginning with spot drawings by D. Krán…
…and Christina Malman…
…one of Helen Hokinson’s girls sought an impromptu parking lesson…
…while another welcomed winter with her furry charges…
…Whitney Darrow Jr gave us a full-service information booth…
…Mary Petty illustrated a dowager with simple tastes…
…Gardner Rea was confounded at the hat check…
…Carl Rose offered up another example of rugged individualism…
…Alan Dunn served up a unique language challenge…
…Robert Day stood tall at a basketball game…
…William Crawford Galbraith was horsing around…
…Alain looked crosseyed at a store closing…
…and we close with Barbara Shermund, who sized up things at a hat shop…
Above: Left image, coloratura soprano Lily Pons with Henry Fonda in I Dream Too Much;at right, Kitty Carlisle and Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera. (rottentomatoes.com/IMDB)
The title of this post refers to two items below, which you’ll discover as we make our way through the December 7, 1935 issue of The New Yorker.
December 7, 1935 cover by Robert Day. A longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Day (1900-1985) contributed hundreds of cartoons as well as eight covers from 1931 to 1976.Robert Day (photo from This Week anthology via Ink Spill.)
*
Our first night at the opera comes courtesy of RKO Pictures, which presented French-American coloratura soprano Lily Pons as the star of the musical rom-com I Dream Too Much. Critic John Mosher found the film enjoyable, singling out Pons for praise while chastising the screenwriters for interrupting the lively farce with some “social research.”
DREAM DATE…Clockwise, from top left: Henry Fonda in his third screen appearance as Lily Pons’ love interest in RKO’s I Dream Too Much; movie poster and publicity photo of Pons from the film; Lucille Ball (seen here with actress Esther Dale), appeared in a bit part as a gawky American teenage tourist in Paris (which was actually an RKO studio lot)…little did Ball know that one day she would own that RKO studio lot with husband Desi Arnaz as home to their Desilu Productions facility. (IMDB/Wikipedia/TCM)
Mosher also said farewell to Will Rogers in his final film, In Old Kentucky, which he found to be a “minor affair.” He also reviewed The Land of Promise, a film about Palestine that indicated to Mosher that “life there is highly successful for all present.”
THIS IS GOODBYE…Will Rogers in a scene with Dorothy Wilson in Rogers’ final film appearance, In Old Kentucky. (rotten tomatoes.com)ORIGIN STORY…According to the Israel Film Archive, Judah Leman’sThe Land of Promise “laid the cinematic groundwork for all subsequent Zionist propaganda films that would follow.” (IMDB)
* * *
E.B. White keeps us on the cinema trail with some thoughts on the film, Mutiny on the Bounty, namely a certain historical inaccuracy:
AHEAD OF HIS TIME…E.B. White noted that Roger Byam (Franchot Tone) would have to wait seventy years to learn about germ theory. In addition, the trailer for Mutiny on the Bounty (above) incorrectly referred to Tone’s character as an ensign, when in fact Tone’s role was as a midshipman. (Wikipedia)
* * *
They Had It First
The swastika was among the more popular designs incorporated into southwestern tribal art during the American tourist era (roughly 1890 to the 1930s). For the Navajo, the symbol represented humanity and life, and was used in healing rituals (it was also widely used by tribal peoples across Europe and Asia). Tourism promoters (called “hotel men” here) encouraged the symbol’s use until the 1930s, when it was increasingly associated with Germany’s Nazi Party. E.B. White explained:
TOURIST FAVORITE…Navajo blankets such as this example, made from 1864 to 1910, were popular with tourists. (Wichita State University)
* * *
Lois Long’s fashion column continued to be dominated by exhaustive Christmas shopping lists, in this issue stretching from pages 58 to 97…here are the first and last paragraphs of the column…
* * *
A Woolly Read
Perhaps your special someone was hoping for a thousand-page book under the tree; then look no further than The Woollcott Reader, a collection of stories, essays and other literary gems by New Yorker personality and former “Shouts and Murmurs” columnist Alexander Woollcott. In this excerpt, book critic Clifton Fadiman noted that a signed copy could be had for $7.50.
MY GIFT TO THE WORLD…Alexander Woollcott in 1939, as photographed by Carl Van Vechten, and the $3 brown cloth edition. (Wikipedia/Abebooks.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Colorful advertisements brightened the 149 pages of the Dec. 7 issue…we begin with this colorful array from Martex…
…the women’s specialty shop Jane Engel commissioned one of the best-known commercial photographers of the day, Ruzzie Green, to capture this glamorous image…
…Caron Paris offered up this cheerful bouquet…
…the makers of White Rock were enjoying the fruits of post-Prohibition days…
…the publishers of Stage magazine highlighted Beatrice Lillie’s Broadway revue, At Home Abroad…
…the Capitol Theatre took out this full-page advertisement to tout the opening of the latest Marx Brothers film…
…here is a close-up of the ad’s “testimonials”…
…and what awaited audiences…
(Wikipedia/thedissolve.com)
…the Lord & Thomas advertising firm imitated the New Yorker style in this full-page promotion…
…now who wouldn’t want a Philco “Radiobar” for the holidays?…
…found this one on 1stdibs.com…pretty cool…
…or you could get a little something for every one of your smoking friends (likely everyone)…
…and you could keep those holiday memories alive with a swell Kodak movie camera…
…Schrafft’s must have been something like an upscale Cracker Barrel…
…house ads from The New Yorker included this Otto Soglow-illustrated full pager…
…the magazine also touted books and poems by its contributors…
…and the Seventh New Yorker Album…
…more James Thurber here in this spot drawing for the “Books” section…
…and in this cartoon filled with holiday hijinks…
…Ilonka Karasz gave us a hockey goalie to open the calendar listings…
…George Price drew up this Depression-themed drawing at the bottom of the “Goings On” section…
…a great spot drawing by Aaron Sopher (1905–1972), who is perhaps best known for his depictions of everyday life in Baltimore…it was oddly placed amidst the “Christmas Gifts” section…
…according to Michael Maslin’sInk Spill, Sopher contributed just two cartoons to the magazine, in the issues of June 15, 1929, and December 6, 1930 (pictured below)…
…back to the Dec. 7 issue, and at the Velodrome with Robert Day…
…who also visited an ill-suited Santa…
…Helen Hokinson pondered gift ideas…
…Carl Rose illustrated an unspeakable act at a progressive school…
…Mary Petty gave us a straightforward diagnosis…
…Alain asked us to ponder the fate of one man…
…Whitney Darrow Jr eavesdropped on some child philosophy…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and a groom’s surprise at the altar…
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…
(playbill.com)
…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…
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…
(YouTube)
…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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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…
Otto Klemperer rehearsing at the Hollywood Bowl in September 1937. (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
The 20th century was an age of big personalities in classical music, among them Otto Klemperer (1885-1973), a German-born protégé of the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler. Klemperer was already an established conductor in opera houses around Germany when the rise of the Nazis prompted the maestro to emigrate with his family in 1933. He was soon appointed chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Oct. 13, 1934 cover by Rea Irvin.
Klemperer also guest conducted a number of orchestras in the U.S., including the New York Philharmonic, where his larger than life presence caught the attention of “The Talk of the Town.” Excerpts:
MAESTRO…Top left, Otto Klemperer with Czech composer Leoš Janáček in 1927; at right, with Austrian-American classical pianist and composer Artur Schnabel in 1933; bottom photo, with wife Johanna Geisler, son Werner and daughter Lotte in Los Angeles, 1936. (operaplus.cz/Otto Klemperer Film Foundation/ottoklemperer.nl)
Lauded internationally as a great orchestral commander, in 1939 Klemperer would begin experiencing balance issues. After a tumor the size of a small orange was removed from his brain, he would be left partially paralyzed on his right side; bouts of depression and a manic phase would later land him in a mental hospital. However, by 1946 he would recover his health enough to return to conducting in a career that would last until 1971.
The conductor’s daughter, Lotte Klemperer (1923–2003), would serve as her father’s secretary, negotiator and administrator until his death in 1973. Otto’s son, Werner Klemperer (1920–2000), would become a stage, screen and television actor, most notably portraying Colonel Klink in the 1960s comedy Hogan’s Heroes. Although the role would garner Werner two Emmys, his father never fully understood the series or even the concept of a sitcom. Reluctant to pursue a musical career while his father was alive, Werner would later join the Metropolitan Opera Company in the 1970s, appear in Broadway musicals, and serve as a narrator with a number of American symphony orchestras.
TO THEM HE WAS DAD…At left, daughter Lotte Klemperer with her famous father in 1954. She would serve as his caretaker and business partner after her mother’s death in 1956. At right, son Werner Klemperer acted on Broadway and in films before taking on the role of the bumbling Colonel Klink in the 1960s comedy Hogan’s Heroes, which garnered the actor two Emmys. Although Werner Klemperer was musically inclined, he avoided work in music until the death of his father in 1973. (Otto Klemperer Film Foundation/CBS)
* * *
Vanished in the Haze
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White lamented what appeared to be the transformation of the familiar night club; high above Manhattan in the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, the comforting haze of “cigarette smoke, talc, waiter’s venom” had been displaced by air conditioning, and to add to the horror, an organ had been installed that tinged the fox trot “with an odd piety.”
NOWHERE TO HIDE…E.B. White found the lack of haze in the new Rainbow Room disconcerting, not to mention the addition of a Wurlitzer organ, its wonders demonstrated here by organist Ray Bohr in 1934. (Library of Congress/nycago.org)
* * *
There Oughta Be a Law
While E.B. White was mourning the demise of the smoky nightclub, art and design critic Lewis Mumford continued his tirade against the pretentious and mediocre buildings that were popping up all over the city, including the new Federal Court Building on Centre Street that was, in Mumford’s words, a supreme example of bad design and fake grandeur.
A CRIMINAL CASE…Cass Gilbert’s Federal Courthouse building (United States courthouse) was completed in 1936, two years after Gilbert’s death. In 2001 it was designated as the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. Critic Lewis Mumford called the design, which combined “two unlovely and unrelated forms”…”nothing short of a major crime.” (Wurts Brothers Photography Collection, National Building Museum)
* * *
Crime of the Century
That is what the press called the kidnap and murder of the infant son of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow. In September 1934 a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for the crime, and a trial date was set for the following January. In his “A Reporter at Large” column, Morris Markey examined the ransom money trail that led to Hauptmann’s ultimate arrest. Excerpts:
DON’T SAY “CHEESE”…Bruno Hauptmann sits for a mug shot following his arrest for the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
* * *
Should Have Stayed Lost
A film version of Willa Cather’s 1923 novel A Lost Lady was first made as a silent by Warner Brothers in 1924 (the film itself is lost) but in 1934 Warner had another go at the novel with a sound version starring starring Barbara Stanwyck, who was emerging as a major star. But Stanwyck’s talents could not overcome a script that critic John Mosher described as bleak, blank nonsense. Cather was so dismayed by the film that she refused to permit another adaptation of any of her novels during her lifetime.
LOST IN TRANSLATION…Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Cortez in A Lost Lady (1934). (IMDB)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We kick off our sponsors with this two-page center spread from Hiram Walker & Sons, who introduced their new line of playing card-inspired whiskies…
…the New Yorker’s Janet Flanner wrote in 1938 that Elsie de Wolfe invented interior design as a profession, so who was to argue with de Wolfe’s suggestion that the leisure class should linger in bed with the aid of a Wamsutta bed-rest…the small print beneath the logo indicated that the bed-rest was “hair-filled,” which I assume was horse hair, still used today in some luxury brands…
…if de Wolfe was queen of interior designers, then Hattie Carnegie was the “First Lady of Fashion,” or so this ad claimed…
…here are images of the two titans of fashion and good taste…
TASTEMAKERS…At left, Hattie Carnegie aka Henrietta Kanengeiser (1880-1956), and Elsie de Wolfe, aka Lady Mendl (1859–1950). (americacomesalive.com/bureauofinteriors.com)
…and speaking of fashion, here is a llama cloth coat from B. Altman, trimmed in silver raccoon, suitable for Yale football games…based on inflation, that coat today would set you back at least $2,000…
…this condescending ad offered merchants a way to reach the “hitherto strange and aloof women of New York” through daytime advertising…
…Plymouth enlisted the talents of Alan Dunn to tout their car’s ride and durability…
…and on to our cartoonists, another from Dunn, a bit of spot art featuring a not so subtle commentary on Lawrence Lee Bazley Angas’s book The Coming American Boom…
…and some spot art from Isadore Klein…
…Miguel Covarrubias contributed to the theater review section…
…James Thurber entertained a house guest…
…George Price was still up in the air…
…Helen Hokinson took a spin with a celebrity look-alike…
…and Barbara Shermund offered another glimpse into the life of a modern woman…
…on to Oct. 20, 1934…
Oct. 20, 1934 cover by Helen Hokinson.
…in which E.B. White offered up a new lament, namely the pervasiveness of nostalgia and sentiment in contemporary literature…
HARKING BACK TO THOSE DAYS OF YORE…E.B. White simply had no stomach for the nostalgic stylings of Mary Ellen Chase (left) or Henry Seidel Canby, seen here on the cover of the May 19, 1924 issue of Time. (U of Maine/Time Inc)
* * *
Fifty Years Young
“The Talk of the Town” marked the Dakota’s 50th year at Central Park West, and made note of its loyal and prominent clientele…back in the day it served as a residence for actors such as Lillian Gish, Boris Karloff, and Teresa Wright, and in later years such luminaries as Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Rudolf Nureyev, and, of course, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
THE STORIES IT COULD TELL…At left, the facade and main entrance of the Dakota in the 1960s; at right, inside the main entrance. (Pinterest/Wikipedia)
* * *
More From Our Advertisers
The Matson-Oceanic Line offered a “millionaire’s idea of a vacation” at an affordable price, and offered this sumptuous image as proof…
…E.B. White wasn’t crazy about the smokeless dazzle of the Rainbow Room, but it proved to be popular among the city’s elite…
…in case one was concerned about the provenance of one’s mink coat, Saks posted this helpful ad. Their high-end, natural-skin minks were priced at $8,000 (roughly $180,000 today); there was, however, a caveat regarding the cheaper models…
…Bergdorf Goodman offered up another ad featuring an impossibly attenuated model posed with a cigarette, her defiant gaze suggesting her modernity and individualism…
…Plymouth went back to the stable of New Yorker cartoonists, this time featuring the adventures of Helen Hokinson’s “girls”…
…and we segue to the rest of our cartoonists, including this spot by Constantin Alajalov…
…and this by George Price…
…who also gave us another update on the trials and tribulations of his floating man…
… James Thurber occasionally ignored scale in rendering his characters, which didn’t really matter in his strange world…
…Jack Markow had some bad news for two sign painters (the caption size is increased for readability)…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and the winner of most original Halloween costume…
…and before I go…this is being posted on Halloween, 2023, so here are a few images from 1934 to get you in the spirit, including a Saturday Evening Post cover, a 1934 party ideas magazine, and a page from Popular Mechanics featuring a smoking robot costume you could make yourself…in the 1930s, Popular Mechanics often featured Halloween party ideas that were downright lethal, usually involving electric shocks, pistols loaded with blanks, that sort of thing.
Sigmund Gottfried Spaeth (1885–1965) sought to popularize classical music and improve the musical tastes of the masses by meeting the public wherever he could find them, from vaudeville halls to national radio broadcasts.
September 1, 1934 cover by William Steig.
Born in a line of three generations of Lutheran clergymen, Spaeth chose a different path and became a musicologist who sought to de-mystify classical music, often demonstrating how popular melodies had origins in earlier music. He also had strong opinions about lyrics in popular music, demonstrating his distaste for “the lyric school of self-pity” in this “Onward and Upward” column. Excerpts:
BRINGING MUSIC AND LIGHT…Sigmund Spaeth found much to dislike in the world of popular music, but he was never stuffy in his approach to music appreciation. At right, Spaeth appeared in vaudeville-style shows (and for many years on the radio) as “The Tune Detective,” wearing a deerstalker cap, cape, and checked tweeds in imitation of Sherlock Holmes. He hoped to demonstrate to a wide audience that all music was essentially based on a set of simple principles. (sinfonia.org/wnyc.org)HAVE NO FEAR…Spaeth wrote a popular syndicated newspaper column, “Music for Everybody,” and contributed articles to many periodicals during his career. With his first book in 1925, The Common Sense of Music, and others that followed, Spaeth sought to de-mystify music for a general audience. (Wikimedia Commons)OH LIGHTEN UP…Spaeth detected a cynical note in Bing Crosby’s (left) sob song, “I Cried for You,” and noted Irving Berlin’s latest contribution to the “sob symposium,” “I Never Had a Chance.” (Wikipedia/digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/britannica.com)
Spaeth noted that not all sad songs were dripping in artificial self-pity, citing Helen Morgan’s “Why Was I Born?” as an example of a song modeled on “the legitimate blues,” marked by “a sincerity of expression in everyday language”…
RIGHT AND WRONG…Spaeth acknowledged the “sincerity of expression” in Helen Morgan’s (left) torch songs, while at the other extreme he suggested that the authors of “Was That the Human Thing to Do?” (Sammy Fain and Joe Young) be boiled alive in their own tears. The song was popularized by The Boswell Sisters, a beloved New Orleans trio in the early 1930s. (findagrave.com/amazon.com/genius.com)
* * *
Off to the Races
In his column, “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker commented on the apparent competition and contrast between Alexander Woollcott’s book, While Rome Burns, and another with a rosier title, The Coming of the American Boom. It appears Woollcott’s book won out, at least in the long run, as I can find no trace of the Boom book, or its author.*
* One of our kind readers has identified the author: “The Coming American Boom” was written by Lawrence Lee Bazley Angas and published by Simon and Schuster in 1934. In 1939, Time noted that “Major Lawrence Lee Bazley (‘Boom’) Angas is a pink & white Britisher with a reputation for making daring predictions which have sometimes come true…. He won his nickname with a much-publicized booklet, The Coming American Boom, which heralded his arrival in the U.S. in 1934.”
Speaking of rosy outlooks, E.B. White offered some parting thoughts on Chicago’s World’s Fair, called “A Century of Progress.” Rather than focus on the grandiose exhibits, White wryly noted other signs of progress at the fair, as recounted from a letter he received from his nephew.
The Chicago World’s Fair featured all sorts of modern wonders “dedicated to the ideal of scientific advance”…
…but as with any World’s Fair, it also catered to the baser interests of the masses, with attractions such as Robert Ripley’sBelieve It Or Not “Odditorium,” which was essentially a P.T. Barnum-style freak show…
…Ripley’s syndicated newspaper feature included these Odditorium attractions…
…White made light of exhibitions displaying such signs of progress as how to brush your teeth, and more examples of human freakdom…
…White’s nephew wrote of a man who could pull a wagon (containing his wife) with his eyelids, an apparently arthritic fellow who was “turning to stone,” and a man who could support heavy weights with his pierced breasts…
(all images courtesy postcardy.blogspot.com)
* * *
Letter From Paris
Paris correspondent Janet Flanner wrote that August 1934 was a “month of memories” as it marked the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, which we now call World War I. Flanner wrote about a new attitude that had arisen in those two decades, “a new attitude not only toward the last war but toward the next (which, ironically enough, seems increasingly inevitable to France since the death of the enemy warrior, von Hindenburg).” She continued with these observations made by French journalist and historian Emmanuel Berl (1892–1976), who wrote that as a result of the Great War, the youth in both France and Germany held few heroic illusions about war, seeing it not as a sacrifice but rather “as a means of being annihilated.”
SO MUCH FOR THE HEROICS…A refugee family returning to Amiens, France, looking at the ruins of a house on Sept. 17, 1918. Top right, Janet Flanner in 1940; below, Emmanuel Berl. (iwm.org.uk/Flanner photo copyright Estate of George Platt Lynes/Berl photo courtesy Joël Chirol)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Clothing company Rogers Peet used the threat of humiliation to encourage young men to stock up on “authentic university fashions” before returning to campus…
…the Wanamaker department store took a different approach, offering up new styles with a heavy English accent (I say, didn’t we play tennis once at the Hon. Toppy Crew’s?)…
…the makers of Goodyear tires offered up this disturbing image to boost sales…
…this ad told us that “Mrs. Henry Field” collected fine art, loved to go to parties, and “always smoked Camel cigarettes”…I am unaware of the fate of Mrs. Henry Field, married to the grandnephew of Marshall Field, but this unseemly image suggests she was replaced by a wax figure before the photo was taken…
…on to our cartoons, we begin with spot illustrations from (clockwise, from top) Victor De Pauw, Abe Birnbaum, and an unidentified illustrator who offered this suggestion for beating the late summer heat…
…we move along to Alan Dunn and a record-seeking pooch…
…Peter Arno with a very Arno-esque take on the stranded island trope…
…James Thurber gave us a man who was done making decisions…
…Richard Decker offered up this living history demonstration…
…George Price gave us two tropes for the price of one…
…Barbara Shermund gave us another glimpse into the lives of modern women…
…Rea Irvin continued his exploration of Manhattan’s fauna…
…our next cartoon is by Henry Steig, who used the pseudonym Henry Anton to avoid being confused with his brother, William Steig (featured on this issue’s cover)…unlike his brother, Henry was also a jazz musician, a sculptor and painter, a photographer, and a novelist…that is before he became a noted jeweler…
…Henry Steig’s jewelry shop at 590 Lexington Avenue can be glimpsed in the background of the famous subway vent scene from 1955’s The Seven Year Itch featuring Marilyn Monroe…
…and we close with Otto Soglow, and the last appearance his “Little King” in The New Yorker...William Randolph Hearst had lured Soglow away for his King Features Syndicate, debuting The Little King in his newspapers on September 9, 1934, where it would run until Soglow’s death in 1975…Soglow, however, would continue contributing cartoons of other themes to The New Yorker until 1974…
