Above: 1936 Vanderbilt Cup program cover and the winner of the race, Italy's Tazio Nuvolari. (Wikipedia)
When William K. Vanderbilt II founded the Vanderbilt Cup Race in 1904, Long Island’s Nassau County was mostly farmland, its North Shore dotted with the luxurious country estates of wealthy New Yorkers. The Vanderbilt Cup would help crack open the door to the eventual suburbanization of Long Island, now home to more than eight million people.
October 10, 1936 cover by Helen Hokinson.
The race was cancelled after just three years—a spectator was killed in 1906— but it was revived in 1908 with the opening of the Long Island Motor Parkway. That nine-mile (14.4 km) private toll road, combined with fourteen miles (22.5 km) of public dirt roads, served as the Vanderbilt Cup course until the race was suspended in 1916 with the U.S. entry into World War I. The race would not be revived until Oct. 12, 1936, when the new Roosevelt Raceway opened in Westbury, welcoming 50,000 spectators. New Yorker correspondent G.F.T. Ryall (aka “Speed”) looked forward to the big race:
EAT MY DUST…Top photo: Averaging sixty-five miles per hour (104.6 kph), with a top speed exceeding one hundred mph (161 kph), George Robertson’s 1906 Locomobile is shown rounding a turn in the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup race—the crowd, estimated at more than 250,000—often stood dangerously close to the action (a spectator was killed in the 1906 race); Below: The 1906 finish saw the first-ever use of a checkered flag to signal the winner of an automobile race. (hemmings.com)
The 1936 race was revived by William K’s nephew George Washington Vanderbilt III, NFL founder George Preston Marshall, and famed World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker. The three hundred-mile (482.8 km) race, featuring seventy-five laps on a twisting, four-mile (6.4. km) circuit, was won by Italy’s Tazio Nuvolari driving a twelve-cylinder Alfa Romeo. The best American driver, William Cummings, finished almost twenty-five minutes behind Nuvolari.
STEERING COMMITTEE…At left, 1936 Vanderbilt Cup winner Tazio Nuvolari and his mechanics prior to the race—his average speed was similar to the winner of the 1908 race due to the twisty, maze-like design of Roosevelt Raceway; at right, George Washington Vanderbilt III presents the winning trophy to Nuvolari. The massive sterling silver cup, crafted by Cartier, is now housed at the Museo Nicolis in Verona, Italy. (vanderbiltcupraces.com)
Ryall noted that the leading American driver was Louis Meyer, but Meyer would not compete due to a crash on a practice run. Also noted was the labor and materials involved in the construction of Roosevelt Raceway, where the winning average speed (65.998 mph or 106.2 km/h), was nearly the same as the 1908 race. This lack of speed was later mocked by spectators and the press, who criticized the many twisty hair-pin turns on the course.
LOTS OF CURVES, YOU BET…Army Air Forces aerial photograph of the new Roosevelt Raceway taken during the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup Race Oct. 12, 1936. Deluxe clubhouse seats were sold for $27.50, or about $700 today. The four-mile (6.4. km) layout featuring sixteen unbanked corners (many with tight hairpins), a layout that kept average speeds disappointingly low. (Wikipedia)
The revived race lasted only two years, both won by Europeans. Check out the website Vanderbilt Cup Racesfor more photos and information on the race. This final note by Ryall suggested that travelers use the Long Island Motor Parkway to get to the race—the very same road that was originally constructed for the 1908 race.
* * *
A Gentler Pastime
Noel F. Busch reported from the 1936 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, where the young British golfer Pamela Barton won her second major tournament of the year.
KING AND COUNTRY…Photo at left: Pamela Barton (right) defeated Maureen Orcutt (left) to win the 1936 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, becoming the youngest, at age nineteen, to win the U.S. and British women’s amateur titles in the same year—Barton was considered the best female golfer in the world in the late 1930s; photo at right: Barton takes part in training for the Volunteer Ambulance Service in England during WWII—sadly, the crash of a Royal Air Force Tiger Moth on November 13, 1943, claimed Barton’s life at age twenty-six. (USGA Archives)
* * *
At the Movies
Italian tenor Nino Martini took top billing in the second film produced by Mary Pickford and Jesse Lasky for United Artists, the musical comedy The Gay Desperado. Critic John Mosher gave a thumbs up to this spoof of the gangster genre.
LIGHT AND EASY…Top photo: Italian operatic tenor Nino Martini took top billing in The Gay Desperado, seen here with co-star Ida Lupino; below: the film’s other co-star, Leo Carrillo, performs in costume in front of (from left) Martini, producer Mary Pickford, director Rouben Mamoulian, Mexican Consular Ricardo G. Hill, and producer Jesse L. Lasky. (Citizen Screen via Facebook/just watch.com)
Not so light was Craig’s Wife, starring Rosalind Russell as a domineering woman who drives everyone from her life, including her husband. Mosher found some relief in the “toothsome” comedy Kelly the Second.
MOTHER MAY I?…Top photo: Rosalind Russell portrayed the domineering wife of Walter Craig (John Boles) in Craig’s Wife; Below: Patsy Kelly, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams and Charley Chase in Kelly the Second. (melanienovak.com/tcm.com)
* * *
Whining for Winesburg
Book critic Clifton Fadiman found himself “stymied” by Sherwood Anderson’s latest novel, Kit Brandon: A Portrait, in which the author seemed “to be asking himself questions about a dozen things at once.”
A LOT ON HIS MIND…Sherwood Anderson’sKit Brandon: A Portrait, would be his eighth novel. (neh.gov/abebooks.com)
* * *
The calendar pages continued to feature mini-bios of celebrities, this week theater producer and director Guthrie McClintic…
THEATER ROYALTY…Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic in the library of their home at 23 Beekman Place in Manhattan, 1933. (Wikipedia)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with this antediluvian image from Hiram Walker, which greeted readers on the inside front cover…the ad was part of series showcasing the consumption of Canadian Club around the world…
…National Distillers lined up their domestic and imported brands to promote a “perfect martini”…
…and we have more stylish lids from Stetson, which included a “new pork-pie” that was apparently popular among university students…
…and Hockanum Woolens continued its series celebrating the seasons in fashion…
…there were numerous ads in the issue touting the latest in modern furniture, including Bloomingdale’s…
…and B. Altman…
…The New York Sun hired cartoonist Fred Neher to tout the newspaper’s advertising reach…
…Neher (1903–2001) was best known for his long-running syndicated cartoon Life Is Like That, which ran from 1934 to 1977…he also published one cartoon in TheNew Yorker, Jan. 21, 1933…
Left, Fred Neher’s sole New Yorker cartoon (Jan. 21, 1933), and at right, an example of his long-running gag panel from 1936. (Thanks to Ink Spill for the always invaluable reference!)
…the inside back cover featured an appeal to motorists to make the switch to leaded gasoline (during the 20th century, leaded gasoline released millions of tons of toxic lead particles into the air, soil, and water, and even today persists throughout ecosystems, including human bloodstreams)…
…on a cheerier note, we have a bunch of cartoons, beginning with spots by Carl Rose…
…Victor de Pauw, Helen Moore Sewell, and Alice Chamalian…
…Richard Taylor began his series of “Ancient Favorites”…
…Barney Tobey gave us a 1930s version of “can you hear me now?”…
…Garrett Price recognized a face in the crowd…
…after a long absence, Isadore “Izzy” Klein returned to The New Yorker with this contribution (in 1935 Klein (1897–1986) resumed his work as an animator for major studios including Screen Gems and Disney)…
…Barbara Shermund got creative at a department store…
…Whitney Darrow Jr overheard some inside scoop at the theater…
…Alain offered up some timeless advice from the advertising world…
…Helen Hokinson’s “girls” steered clear of some political rhetoric…
…Ned Hilton had an urgent change order…
…and we close where we began, at the races, this time with Charles Addams…
Above: In his review of Tallulah Bankhead's performance in "Reflected Glory," Wolcott Gibbs noted that she was a force to be reckoned with: ..."she would pull any home in the world down around her ears in ten minutes, and after that perhaps eat the children." (newyorker.com/facebook.com)
Broadway’s fall season was still young when the Morosco Theatre staged Reflected Glory, featuring Tallulah Bankhead in a role that mimicked her famously flamboyant lifestyle.
October 3, 1936 cover by Robert Day.
The play, which ran for 127 performances, was not well-received by the critics, but audiences loved it, and especially those who, in the words of critic Wolcott Gibbs, “would be enchanted to spend the evening just watching (Bankhead) knit a sock.”
Bankhead (1902–1968) also appeared in films (she won a New York Film Critics Circle award in 1944 for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’sLifeboat), but she was mostly known for her stage acting and her wild lifestyle—drugs, alcohol, and lots of sex with both men and women; she was candid about her vices, including the claim she smoked 120 cigarettes a day.
ART IMITATES LIFE…Clockwise, from top left: Tallulah Bankhead in promotional photo for Reflected Glory; Bankhead played Muriel Flood, a flamboyant, self-absorbed actress who constantly dramatizes her own life both on and off stage; author and director George Kelly wrote Reflected Glory specifically for Bankhead; Broadway’s Morosco Theatre (demolished 1982). (cinemaclassico.com/jacksonupperco.com/Wikipedia)
Early in her career Bankhead, an Alabama native, moved into the Algonquin Hotel and quickly made her way into the orbit of the famed Algonquin Round Table—so, she was well-known to Gibbs, who noted in this excerpt that Bankhead’s only competition in Reflected Glory was William Brisbane, a man with a face “as mad and vacant as the moon.”
MAD MATCH…Wolcott Gibbs noted that William Brisbane was Tallulah Bankhead’s only competition in Reflected Glory.(themovieb.org/npg.org.uk)
* * *
The Yankee Clipper
Baseball was mostly ignored in the early years of the New Yorker, but every now and then the magazine would feature a famous personality from the game, in this case Joe DiMaggio, who in 1936 would set a franchise record for rookies by hitting twenty-nine home runs (in just 138 games).
DIZZY AND JOE D…Yankees rookie Joe DiMaggio meets with Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean at the All-Star Game in Boston July 7, 1936. (AP Photo)
* * *
Right of the Right
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White took issue with a proposal by the New York Board of Aldermen to ban right-hand turns against a red light (the board ultimately approved the ban).
SEEING THE LIGHT…City officials examine new traffic lights on Fifth Avenue, 1933. (Golden Age Of Travel via facebook.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Based on a 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis, the William Wyler-directed Dodsworth was acclaimed by critics as one of the best films of the year. New Yorker critic John Mosher wholeheartedly agreed:
SHE SAID, HE SAID…At left, Ruth Chatterton and Walter Huston portrayed a couple in a declining marriage in Dodsworth; at right, retired auto magnate Sam Dodsworth (Huston) reconsiders the life he has made for himself. (torontofilmsociety.com/YouTube.com)COMPLICATIONS…While travelling on the RMS Queen Mary to England, the Dodsworths find romantic companions—at left, Sam finds a soulmate in Edith Cortright (Mary Astor), while Fran flirts with a younger Englishman, Captain Lockert, played by David Niven. It was Niven’s first sizable role—he was a lieutenant in the British Army before coming to Hollywood in 1935. (eBay.com/film-foundation.org)
Mosher also reviewed a mixed bag of films, including the “wicked comedy” La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) featuring French opera star Françoise Rosay as a mayor’s wife who cleverly thwarts potential troubles from visiting Spanish soldiers.
BAWDY FUN was how John Mosher described the schemes of a mayor’s wife in La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders)—clockwise, from left: Françoise Rosay (seated) organizes the village women to tame some visiting soldiers; Betty Grable and John Arledge in the crime drama Don’t Turn ’em Loose; La Croisière Jaune (Yellow Expedition) documented a 1931-32 French trans-Asian expedition organized by Citroën to promote its rugged Kégresse track vehicles; Jack Oakie, Bennie Bartlett and Fred MacMurray in The Texas Rangers. (mubi.com/imdb.com/radiofrance.fr/csfd.cz)
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From Our Advertisers
Fall advertising continued its uptick in the magazine, with many splashes of color including this carpet ad that greeted readers on the inside front cover…
…R.J. Reynolds continued to roll out endorsements from society mavens…here Anne C. Rockefeller stated that Camels gave her “a delightful sense of well-being”…
…more Colonel and Duchess archetypes turn up in this issue, on behalf of Ruppert beer…
…the Warwick Hotel (Philadelphia), and College Inn tomato juice “cocktail”…College Inn had softened the appearance of their Duchess…
…since she was last spotted in The New Yorker in 1935 (detail)…
…after a blazing hot summer, the brewers of Rheingold figured this image would still appeal to parched New Yorkers…
…a back of the book ad from Johnston & Murphy, quoting an unidentified author regarding some childhood wishes…
…John Held Jr. was one of the earliest contributors to The New Yorker—from 1925 to 1932 his woodcut-style cartoons and fanciful maps were frequent features…by 1936 Held had turned his talents to painting, book illustration, and the occasional advertisement, here on behalf of Macy’s…
…our illustrators and cartoonists for this issue include Christina Malman…
…a caricature by William Auerbach-Levy for the calendar section’s mini bio…
…another Richard Taylor–Morris Bishop collaboration…
…more historic moments from American Industry, with Rea Irvin…
…Alan Dunn had an M.C. Escher moment on the turnpike…
…Helen Hokinson made a big ask at the beauty parlor…
…Ned Hilton drew up a big man with a big complex…
…Leonard Dove offered a challenge and a unique perspective at the subway station…
….Barbara Shermund’s modern women thrilled to the sights of Manhattan…
…George Price turned this trio into a quartet…
…and we close with a terrific, terrifying moment at the World Series, courtesy Peter Arno…
Above: The BBC offered a public demonstration of television at Waterloo Station, London, in 1936. (Colorized image via Facebook)
E.B. White was ever wary of new technology (except for aviation—he loved to fly), so television posed yet another thing to fear in the coming age of “omniscience.”
September 19, 1936 cover by William Cotton.
In addition to television, White noted two other “giant strides” in the world of science and publicity: a live radio broadcast featuring sounds from the Spanish Civil War, and the launch of a new magazine that would “consist almost entirely of pictures.”
ONE-EYED MONSTER…Clockwise, from top left: On Aug. 11, 1936, Philco Radio and Television demonstrated the transmitting end of a television with the help of camera operator R.E. Waggener and singer Betty McNellis—the sound and picture were projected seven miles to a receiving set; a close-up of a 1936 television camera; photo taken in 1936 during a “live broadcast” from America’s first television studio, NBC Studio 3H—from left, NBC President Lenox Lohr, RCA President David Sarnoff and Fair Committee head Grover Whalen sign a contract for an RCA pavilion at the upcoming 1939 World’s Fair; front and rear view of a 1936 television receiver. (eyesofageneration.com/facebook.com)
White also noted the upcoming launch of a new magazine, The Show-Book of the World,which was the working title of a publication that would become Life magazine. White did not like the idea of a magazine consisting mostly of pictures that graphically expose “once-private lives,” believing it would “do away with the last vestiges of privacy in America.”
MONUMENTAL…The photo on the first cover of Life magazine, Nov. 23, 1936, was shot by one of Life‘s original four photographers, Margaret Bourke-White, who covered the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, a Public Works Administration endeavor to build the largest earth dam in the world during the Great Depression. At right, a Bourke-White photo of Fort Peck workers enjoying some down time. (npr.org/life.com/worthpoint.com)
* * *
Call for Johnny Roventini!
“The Talk of the Town” featured a brief profile of Johnny Roventini (aka Johnny Morris or Johnny the Bellboy), the famous “living trademark” for the Philip Morris tobacco company. Roventini (1910–1998), who represented the company for more than forty years, was working as a bellboy at the New Yorker Hotel in 1933 when he was discovered by an advertising agent. Excerpts:
THEY’RE SELLING YOU…In mid-century America the image of Johnny Roventini, known to the public as Johnny Morris or Johnny the Bellboy, seemed to be everywhere. Clockwise, from top left: Publicity photo, 1937; magazine ad, 1947; ad promoting the armed services, 1941; civil defense-themed ad, 1940s; cigarette match holder; promotional stand-up sign. (cats.ua.edu/standford.edu/worthpoint.com)
Roventini was probably best known for his Philip Morris promos on I Love Lucy. The new show was challenged to find a sponsor (due to the Cuban character played by Desi Arnaz) until Arnaz arranged a deal that made Philip Morris the exclusive sponsor of I Love Lucy from its premiere on October 15, 1951 through Christmas of 1954. Roventini gained unprecedented national TV exposure and became fast friends with Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Here is one more excerpt from “Talk” regarding the quiet life of Philip Morris’s “living trademark.”
I LOVE PHILIP MORRIS…Lucille Ball, Johnny Roventini and Desi Arnaz formed a lucrative trio for the tobacco company Philip Morris when I Love Lucy went on the air in 1951. Roventini was an occasional, social smoker, while Ball and Arnaz were heavy smokers (although Lucy preferred Chesterfields). (facebook.com/instagram.com)
* * *
At the Movies
A Soviet film featuring exiled German communists proved to be a disappointment for critic John Mosher, but in retrospect the 1936 German-Soviet film The Struggle (aka Kämpfer or Der Kampf) reveals the strange and terrifying climate artists had to navigate in Stalin’s Russia.
Set in Germany after 1933, the film depicted the resistance of workers against the rise of the Nazi Party. One of the earliest films to depict Nazi terror and concentration camps, ironically many of those who worked on the film became victims of Joseph Stalin’s terror and the Gulag.
DEFIANCE…German actress Lotte Loebinger in a scene from the 1936 German-Soviet movie The Struggle (“Kämpfer”). Loebinger (1905-1995) managed to survive Stalin’s purges and had a long career on the stage in East Berlin following World War II. Loebinger’s lover, a German refugee physician with whom she bore a daughter, was not so fortunate, dying in a Soviet Gulag camp. (YouTube)
Shortly after The Struggle was completed, Stalin purged the community of exiled German communists living in Moscow, and the film was quickly banned by Soviet authorities. A large number of the film’s cast and crew were arrested, sent to the Gulag, or killed, including lead actor Bruno Schmidtsdorf, who was executed by firing squad near Moscow in 1938. Composer Hans Hauska, who wrote the film’s musical score, perished in a Soviet prison camp.
* * *
Playing the Ponies
The calendar section continued its series of illustrated mini-bios, this week featuring Tommy Hitchcock, widely regarded as the greatest polo player in the history of the sport. A dashing figure in high society, Hitchcock (1900–1944) was also an aviator and decorated war hero. Illustration by William Cotton.
POLO PLAYING PILOT…Tommy Hitchcock flew as a volunteer pilot for the French Air Force in World War I, and was later instrumental in the development of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Hitchcock was killed in 1944 while piloting a P-51 on a test flight near Salisbury, England. (instagram.com)
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From Our Advertisers
A strange advertisement from Bergdorf, announcing the opening of a salon that featured a line of shoes inspired by the Chinese “bound foot”…
…if a bound foot wasn’t your thing, you could wiggle your toes in an elastic shoe fashioned from “Pleatex”…
…Wamsutta continued to promote its high thread-count sheets with these somewhat seductive advertisements…
…oddly composed advertisement for Saks Fifth Avenue by fashion illustrator Margaret Sommerfeld, who produced promotional artwork for Saks…
…Fred Astaire managed to hang on to his hat in this advertisement for “The Packard Hour” on NBC’s nationwide “Red Network”…the ad proclaimed “you’ll hear him sing and dance“…on the radio, that is…
…Scripps-Howard featured this image of the late Will Rogers to promote newspaper advertising…
…this back cover ad also featured a newspaper reader, enjoying a smoke while waiting for the train…
…best known for creating The Little King,Otto Soglow drew hundreds of cartoons and spot drawings for The New Yorker as well as for a variety of advertisers including Pepsi-Cola, Benson & Hedges cigarettes, and here, one from a series of ads he created for WOR radio…
…speaking of spots, here are two by Victor de Pauw…
…biographies of prolific New Yorker cover artist Arthur Getz give his start date at the magazine as 1938, but this might be one of his early spot drawings (although the signature style differs from Getz’s other works)…
…no mistaking this spot by Christina Malman…
…or this one by Richard Decker…
…Leonard Dove demonstrated some moves for a chorus line…
…and more wonderful Richard Taylor illustrations for Morris Bishop’s limericks…
…the well-heeled prepared to engage in a favorite sport, per Peter Arno…
…”Trans-Lux” theaters were conversions of storefronts and retail offices that seated smaller audiences than traditional theaters. Rather than feature films, the Trans-Lux theaters showed continuous 45-to-60-minute loops of newsreels (like The March of Time), short subjects, travelogues, and cartoons from 10 a.m. to midnight—people could come and go as they pleased. The theaters pioneered rear-screen projection, using a specialized, wide-angled lens placed just eight feet behind a translucent screen…
POP IN, POP OUT…The very first Trans-Lux cinema opened in 1931 at 58th and Madison as a unique venue that played newsreels and shorts. According to The New York Times, “by the late 1940s, the rise of television began to kill the newsreel format entirely. By 1949, Trans-Lux stopped expanding its boutique newsreel footprint and pivoted its existing houses toward showing standard feature-length films.” (Library of Congress)
…back to our cartoons, Carl Rose conjured up an unwelcome reminder…
…Charles Addams was up to his old tricks…
…Alain read the obvious from some tea leaves…
…Rea Irvin showed us some strategic thinking by military brass…
…Alan Dunn considered the mysteries of the sea…
…this guy should have suggested a comedy, per Barbara Shermund…
…Helen Hokinson continued to probe the delicate work of the dress shop…
…and we close with another by dear Helen, and the fear of too much thinking…
E.B. White grew up along the coast of Maine and had a lifelong love of sailing. He did not, however, have much regard for those who came to the water simply to bask in the sun.
September 12, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
White led off his column with some sharp words about the “sunburned man” who did not come by his tan honestly, like an athlete or explorer, but rather spent his weekends “frying” to cover his “bankrupt dreams.” White was also critical of “the weekend guest” who brought noise rather than tranquility to the seaside.
E.B. WHITE’S NIGHTMARE…At left, the West Bathhouse at Jones Beach is the backdrop for this circa 1930s image of New York beachgoers; at right, sunbathers play cards on Orchard Beach, known as the “Riviera of the Bronx,” circa 1930. (facebook.com/Patchogue-Medford Library)
Ever critical of innovation, E.B. White also lamented the rise of such “conveniences” as paper towels and powdered soap dispensers.
A FEW OF MY LEAST FAVORITE THINGS…Always wary of the newfangled, E.B. White preferred cloth over paper towels, bar soap over powdered; glass rather than Dixie Cups, and old-fashioned water coolers glittering with cracked ice. Clockwise, from top left: Ad for Scot paper towels, 1935; 1930s powdered soap dispenser; Dixie Cups, 1931; Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire take a break at an old-fashioned water cooler during filming of Broadway Melody of 1940; detail from an ad for a Frigidaire electric water cooler, 1936. (witness2fashion/urbanremainschicago.com/lafayette.edu/tcm.com)
One more item from “Notes,” this referring to theatrical producer and director Jed Harris, who was peeved when a nostalgic reference in his new comedy, Spring Dance, failed to elicit laughter from a first-night audience at the Empire Theatre. E.B. White sided with the audience, and wondered if playwrights in the “television theatre of 1950” would someday reference “Greta Garbo and the Sixth Avenue elevated.”
RELAX, JED…Learning that Broadway producer and director Jed Harris was upset about an audience’s lack of reaction to a nostalgic reference, E.B. White suggested that the director’s protest was a mere “squeak.” (History of Cinema via Facebook)
* * *
At the Movies
Gary Cooper finally showed off his gift for gab in Paramount’s drama The General Died at Dawn. Critic John Mosher called the film “lively,” and noted a “glimpse” of New Yorker short story writer John O’Hara in a cameo appearance.
TROUBLE IN CHINA…Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll portrayed lovers in war-torn China who seek to stop an arms shipment in The General Died at Dawn; at right, Cooper in a scene with Akin Tamiroff, who portrayed warlord General Yang. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone and written by Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets. (imdb.com/ebay.com)CAMEO…New Yorker short story writer and novelist John O’Hara played a minor role as a newspaper reporter in The General Died at Dawn. (John Fronza via Facebook and YouTube)
The title of MGM’s The Gorgeous Hussy suggested something racy, but as Mosher noted, it “unexpectedly turns out to be about Andrew Jackson.”
SEX SELLS…MGM played up Joan Crawford’s role as a “hussy” in this theatrical poster for The Gorgeous Hussy, but these were the days of the Hays Code and things wouldn’t get more racy than the scene at right, with Robert Taylor as Andrew Jackson and Crawford as the “hussy,” Peggy Eaton. (imdb.com/mubi.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
It was time to get that fall hat, and Stetson had three smart-looking lids for the man about town…
…and here’s a not-so-smart ad from the makers of Talon zippers…no doubt some of the wags on The New Yorker’s editorial side got a kick out of this…
…and this strange ad from Lord & Taylor…not sure what they were trying to convey with that peeled-back corner…
…Jane Engel founded a popular women’s and children’s apparel shop during the Great Depression (in 1930) with just $400 to her name. She grew the business from a single shop on Madison into a successful chain of more than thirty locations…
JEWEL BOX…The flagship Jane Engel Building at Madison and 79th was designed by Roy C. Morris in the Art Moderne style—the generous use of glass brick filled the interior with soft, diffused light. The shop closed in 1955 and was demolished two years later. (New York Public Library)
…the makers of the luxury brand Packard made sure Depression-strapped buyers could still afford one of their automobiles, which ranged in price from $795 to $3,420 (in 2026 equivalent to roughly $19,000 and $83,000, respectively)…no doubt The New Yorker’s bean counters appreciated the revenue from these five consecutive full-page color ads…
…bourbon distillers continued to compare the accomplishments of famous men to the quality of their tipple…
…as the folks at Hockanum Mills continued featuring fine woolens in upscale, seasonal settings…
…and the makers of leaded gasoline continued their series featuring homespun images juxtaposed with attendants gassing up cars in the background…at first I thought this was one image superimposed over another, but more likely the gas pump is a prop…also, an odd detail on the left where children appear to be feeding (or teasing) a baby bear restrained by a leash…
…we move on to our cartoonists, beginning with Richard Decker…
…also in the calendar section was this illustration by William Auerbach-Levy for the mini bio of Fred Perry (1909–1995), British tennis star who won ten Majors, including three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936…he was the first player to win a “Career Grand Slam” which he completed at the tender age of 26 in 1935…Perry was also the world champion ping-pong champion in 1929…
FRISKY FRED…Fred Perry was one of the leading bachelors of the 1930s and his off-court romances were reported in the world press—including one with actress Marlene Dietrich. Perry was also known for his popular line of sports attire. Above: Perry hugs the championship cup after his U.S. Open victory at Forest Hills, 1936. (Wikipedia)
…an assortment of spot drawings…clockwise, from top left, Arthur Getz, Victor de Pauw, and Barbara Shermund (arguably not a spot drawing, but not really a cartoon either)…
…no signature on this, but it appears to be the work of Perry Barlow, which always reminded me of another artist known for his rural types, Robert McCloskey…
…James Thurber illustrated a public display of disaffection…interesting use of perspective here…Thurber seems to violate all the rules yet the effect is masterful…
…speaking of effect, George Price in the subway…
…Peter Arno continued to explore a familiar theme…
…Carl Rose imagined the home life of a mermaid…
…Barney Tobey’s Miss America gave a plug to her sponsors…
…Alan Dunn gave us a view of a pre-preview…
…Dunn again, with a rare cartoon featuring a known personage…
…Barbara Shermund revealed a surprise at the teller window…
…Mary Petty got creative at the hat shop…
…and Petty again, as we close with her modern take on higher education…
Above: Nineteen-thirties dance class sponsored by Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy), a sub-organization of the German Labour Front that sought to fulfill the totalitarian ambitions of the Nazi regime by "forming a genuine national and performance-based community of all Germans," in other words, keep them busy and distracted from reality. (bundesarchiv.de)
Paris correspondent Janet Flanner visited Berlin to check on that city’s preparations for the 1936 Olympic Games, an event Nazi leaders saw as a prime opportunity for some big-time propaganda.
August 1, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov with a wry twist on the upcoming Berlin Olympic games (note the strap along the left edge bearing some of flags of competing nations).
Flanner noted Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ charge to the German people, instructing them to show the world that the German Volk were “more charming than Parisians, more lively than the Romans, more worldly than the Londoners, and more efficient than the New Yorkers.”
EYE ON BERLIN…Janet Flanner, who wrote under the pen name Genêt, in 1940. (National Portrait Gallery)
There was an ambiguous quality to Flanner’s early writings about Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler in particular. As The New Yorker’sAndrew Marantz noted in “Takes” (Aug. 10, 2025) regarding Flanner’s 1936 profile of Hitler, “Instead of telling readers what they needed to know—that was what newspapers were for—she focused on what they might want to know…” Rather than taking sides, she reported in a cool and ironic tone. In her biography Genêt,Brenda Wineapple wrote that Flanner in her early writings “thought of herself as a high-class gossip columnist.”
Here are excerpts from the first part of Flanner’s “Berlin Letter.”
FASCIST FEVER DREAM…The Nazis spent large sums in preparation for the Olympic games, seeing them as the ultimate propaganda opportunity. Clockwise, from top left: Nazi officials show the extent of the Olympic village using a scale model in July 1936; a street scene with displays of the Olympic and swastika flags in Berlin, August 1936— the regime temporarily toned down public anti-Semitic displays and cleaned up the streets to impress international visitors; lively café scene on the Kurfürstendamm, known colloquially as the Ku’damm, in 1936. (Robert Hunt Library/Sueddeutscher Verlag Bilderdienst/tripadvisor.com)BEFORE IT ALL WENT DARK…In 1936 the Kurfürstendamm was a bustling Berlin boulevard, temporarily masking the oppressive Nazi regime with a veneer of normalcy for the 1936 Summer Olympics—shown at left is the Scharlachberg House at the corner of Kurfürstendamm/Uhlandstraße in Berlin, where the Maison de France stands today; at right, the Hindenburg flies over the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, August 1936. (Wikipedia/Encyclopædia Britannica)
In these excerpts, Flanner wrote that the arts were overseen by Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring (of all people). She also noted the absence from the opera (which she rated poor under Goebbels) of the world-renowned conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who was in seclusion “writing an opera,” but probably wanted to be out of the limelight due to his controversial decision to stay in the Reich rather than flee like other artists and musicians. Furtwängler detested Hitler, but believed his art would wither if he left his homeland.
HORROR SHOW…Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs at the opera in Berlin in 1936. Hitler often appeared in carefully staged public settings like this one and the one in the photo below. (archaeohistories.via Facebook.com)MUSICAL STRAIN…Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler acknowledges the audience following a 1935 performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra—visible in the left corner of the photo are Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Goebbels, among other Nazi leaders. (Archiv Berliner Philharmoniker)A closer look at the photo—a combination of hatred and fear in Furtwängler’s eyes? The first and second violinists don’t look too thrilled either.
In a related item, Howard Brubaker (in his “Of All Things” column), had this to say about Germany’s Olympics preparations.
* * *
A Friendly Shakedown
In Part Two of his profile on Tammany powerbroker Jimmy Hines, journalist Jack Alexander noted Hines’ unorthodox habit of soliciting contributions from his friends (illustration by Hugo Gellert). Excerpts:
* * *
At the Movies
“In the dreadful summer of 1932, [The New Yorker] paid me ten dollars for an anecdote. I was ripe for seduction…,” Russell Maloney once recalled. “[Then] I sent in an account of a situation that I thought would make a good Helen Hokinson picture…and got paid for that: seven dollars.”
Maloney (1910–1948) proceeded to send more ideas to The New Yorker, and enough were accepted that in 1935 he packed his bags and moved to Manhattan for a job at The New Yorker. In his ten years at the magazine he would contribute thousands of anecdotes to “The Talk of Town” as well as casuals, profiles, and countless cartoon captions. His interest in theater as well as celebrity gossip suited him well when he substituted for John Mosher as the magazine’s film critic.
So let’s see what Maloney—who would later call 1939’sThe Wizard of Oz a “stinkeroo,” had to say about the latest fare from Hollywood.
BUT THEY PAID ME THIS MUCH…Top: Russell Maloney wrote that both Bette Davis and Warren William seemed “embarrassed” to be appearing in Satan Met a Lady, which was a loose adaptation of Dashiell Hammet’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon—Maloney found Satan to be vastly inferior to the 1931 film The Maltese Falcon (below), which starred Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. In 1941 Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor would appear in yet another adaptation of the Hammet novel. (imdb.com/facebook.com/jbkaufman.com)
Maloney “enjoyed” The Return of Sophie Lang, with actors “baffling one another with the greatest suavity”…
IS THIS SUAVE ENOUGH FOR YOU?…Ray Milland and Gertrude Michael get close in The Return of Sophie Lang. (Pinterest.com)
…while Spendthrift, featuring actors speaking in various accents, was “perfectly dreadful.” Fortunately Suzy managed to lift the reviewer’s spirits, especially with the appearance of Jean Harlow.
A WINNER AND A WIENER…Top, Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, and George Davis in Suzy; bottom: Henry Fonda is flanked by Pat Paterson (left) and Mary Brian in Spendthrift. (tcm.com/eBay.com)
See this post from Michael Maslin’s Inkspill about Maloney’s contributions to The New Yorker. Also, check out this photo below that includes Maloney (standing next to James Thurber):
LITERARY CLUBHOUSE…Familiar New Yorker faces gathered for a cocktail party at the Hotel Algonquin to celebrate the success of Frank Case’s 1938 memoir, Tales Of a Wayward Inn. Seated, from left, are Fritz Foord, Wolcott Gibbs, Case and Dorothy Parker; standing, left to right, are Alan Campbell, St. Clair McKelway, Russell Maloney and James Thurber (untappedcities.com)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with this colorful inside front cover advertisement for Bacardi rum, illustrated by George de Zayas, the younger brother of Marius de Zayas. Born in Mexico, these talented brothers took different artistic paths—Marius became a prominent avant-garde artist who collaborated with Alfred Stieglitz and others in New York, while George focused on commercial art and popular media…
…this isn’t exactly avant-garde, but the makers of Four Roses added a modern twist to their usual traditional style…
…United Airlines offered overnight flights as well as “scenic” daylight flights from coast to coast (New York to San Francisco)…this flight typically took seventeen to nineteen hours, with refueling stops in Cleveland, Omaha, and Cheyenne/Salt Lake City…the planes were not pressurized, so they flew through the weather rather than above it…at least this plane (Boeing 247), according to the ad, had air-conditioning…
…for the more adventurous (and perhaps wealthier) traveler, you could hop aboard a Pan Am Clipper and head for Rio de Janeiro…in 1936, this flight from Miami to Rio took five days (flying in daylight only)…
…a one-way ticket to Rio would have cost close to $11,000 in today’s dollars, while the equivalent $9,000 would get you a one-way ticket to Europe on the Hindenburg…
…in the back of the book we find various food and cocktail diversions…
…and some one-column tennis-themed ads…”Johnson’s Tennis Gut” referred to the material used in the Thirties to string rackets…the strings were almost exclusively made from natural animal gut—commonly called “catgut,” though they were actually made from processed and twisted sheep intestines…
…Liggett & Myers claimed the back page to promote their Chesterfields to women smokers…one wonders if a racking cough interfered with her playing…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, we kick things off with spots by Adolph K. Kronengold…
…John Groth…
…Richard Taylor…
…Christina Malman…
…and Victor de Pauw…
…Carl Rose took us through a sculptor’s creative stages…
…Helen Hokinson pondered a recipe for the day’s catch…
…and she checked out some summer reading (Warwick Deeping was a British writer of historical romances as well as books that defended the lifestyles of the bourgeoisie)…
…this was F.E. Smith’s sole contribution to The New Yorker, and it’s pretty good…beyond that, I came up empty trying to find out more about the cartoonist…
…but we all know Leonard Dove (who contributed fifty-seven New Yorker covers and 717 cartoons)…here he’s keeping things quiet on the tennis court…
…and, of course, we have the great Charles Addams…
…we close with one of my favorite cartoonists, Barbara Shermund, keeping things light after the wedding…
Above: Rochelle Hudson and W.C. Fields in scene from Poppy. Fields reprised his vaudeville character Professor McGargle (from the hit 1923 stage revue of the same name), who learns about a million-dollar inheritance meant for a long-lost local heiress and concocts a plan to pass off his daughter, Poppy, as the true heiress. (Facebook.com)
Eighty years after his death W.C. Fields is still recognized as one of the America’s great comic geniuses. When he made a sound film version of his hit Broadway play, Poppy, in 1936, many thought it would be his last, since he suffered from a variety of ailments including a bad back and chronic lung congestion. Doubtless two quarts of liquor a day also had a few people wondering.
June 27, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
It would have been an appropriate, if premature ending to Field’s career, since it was the Poppy stage play that launched him into national stardom (along with the play’s first adaptation into film, the 1925 silent Sally of the Sawdust). The play and the silent film introduced audiences to the lovable snake oil salesman “Professor” Eustace McGargle, who returned in the 1936 film, “a slightly blurred affair” according to critic John Mosher.
THE PROFESSOR RETURNS…Clockwise, from top left: W.C. Fields and Carole Dempster in 1925’s Sally of the Sawdust, which was based on the stage play Poppy and was directed by D.W. Griffith; Fields as Professor Eustace McGargle and Rochelle Hudson as Poppy in 1936’s Poppy; Fields and Catherine Doucet, who portrayed Countess Maggi Tubbs DePuizzi.(filmforum.org/doctormacro.com/facebook.com)
The “blurred” performance by Fields (1880–1946), the result of his various ills, didn’t seem to affect most critics—the New York Times, for example, called the film “a glorious victory.” Remarkably, Fields would live another ten years and go on to star in such classics as 1940’s My Little Chickadee, (with Mae West), 1940’s The Bank Dick, and 1941’s Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.
HELLO FRIENDS…W.C. Fields chats with his close friend and Poppy director Eddie Sutherland, who was accompanied by writer Dorothy Parker during a visit to the set of Poppy. (Facebook.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “sad” picture about the tragic life of a Tyrolean sexton, Sins of Man, and the musical comedy Dancing Pirate, which he deemed even sadder because it was so terrible (Mosher walked out during the middle of the picture).
The origin of the music video? See reader comment at the end of the post.
FROM BELLS TO THE BOWERY…Jean Hersholt played a Tyrolian sexton with an American dream that goes awry in Sins of Man. (eBay.com)SEEING RED…Not even Technicolor could spare Dancing Pirate from John Mosher’s wrath. At left, Steffi Duna and Charles Collins in a dance scene; eighteen-year-old Rita Hayworth (right) appeared as an uncredited dancer in the film—here she poses in a publicity photo for 1936’s Human Cargos.(mediaplaynews.com/facebook.com)
* * *
All Aboard
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White described a trip on a Boston & Main streamliner that traveled along a branch line. Lacking a turning loop, the train had to run in reverse for half of the round trip.
TWO-WAY TICKET…The Boston & Main streamlined Flying Yankee (seen here in 1938) would run both forward and backward when traveling along a branch line that lacked a turning loop. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Furies Al Fresco
On June 17, 1936 Rockefeller Center opened the Promenade Café in the plaza surrounding the Prometheus Fountain (later that year a temporary ice skating rink took the spot, now a permanent, iconic feature of the plaza). Writing for “The Talk of the Town,” E.B. White commented on the breezy dining experience he shared with wife, Katharine Sergeant White. Excerpt:
FIRE AND ICE…Patrons enjoy dining with the god of fire in the plaza beneath 30 Rock, circa 1970. The plaza is converted to an ice skating rink in the winter. (eBay.com)
The magazine’s next issue (July 4) advertised dinner, dancing and thirty-five cent cocktails at the Promenade Café…
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From Our Advertisers
We open with a June Bride and hubby tanking up on some leaded gas before heading to Niagara Falls…
…opposite the Ethyl ad was this Simeon Braguin-illustrated spot for Bergdorf…
…the pacifists behind the World Peaceways ads pulled no punches when delivering their anti-war message…
…Budweiser continued its laborious series of ads that employed analogies and metaphors to promote its best-selling suds…
…recall the ad from the April 18 issue of The New Yorker, when the brewer used this disagreeable analogy to tout its “vacuum-cleansing” process…
…the Revere Copper and Brass company responded to the recent invention of canned beer with an invention of its own…the Tapster, an elegant nickel and brass pitcher with a built-in punch on the underside of the lid…just insert a can, push down on the lid, and pour…great for the yacht, or as a gift to some newlyweds…
The nickel-silver and brass “Tapster” is highly sought by collectors today. (americanhistory.si.edu)
…in contrast to Budweiser’s wordy ads (or to White Rock’s colorful ones), the folks at Hoffman advertised their products with just a few lines of black ink…
…Don Dickerman continued to promote his latest “Pirates Den” near Port Chester…note that among many other talents, Dickerman was also an artist…he illustrated the ads for all of his enterprises, including this one…
…John Hanrahan, publisher and editor of Stage theater magazine (and who also helped put The New Yorker on solid financial footing), set aside the August 1936 issue as a special edition, the “1911 Number,” a nostalgic, tongue-in-cheek look back to the founding of Stage’s predecessor, The Theatre Guild Magazine. The magazine marked its 25th anniversary by examining the striking differences between 1911 and 1936 in the world of theater as well as in fashion and cultural mores.
…here is the cover of that issue, featuring Billie Burke, a leading Broadway actress who would marry producer and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr in 1914…she is still known today for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz…
(eBay.com)
…and Dr. Seuss was still at it, finding new and clever ways to deploy the insecticide Flit…
…the New York radio station WOR employed Otto Soglow to drum up some business for their ad department…WOR began broadcasting in early 1922, and is one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the U.S. (the three–letter call sign is characteristic of stations dating from the 1920s)…
…Soglow gives us a nice segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, beginning with a Susan Willard Flint woodcut…
…Alan Dunn contributed this spot drawing…
…as did Richard Taylor…
…Perry Barlow offered some sketches from the summer convention scene…
…Helen Hokinson considered the value of fortune-teller…
…Alain illustrated what dreams are made of, at least for one man…
…and what are friends for? Gardner Rea had an idea…
…Barbara Shermund offered a challenge at a dress shop…
…and Shermund again, with an enterprising commuter…
…just the facts ma’am, with Peter Arno in the court of law…
…Robert Day presented a construction conundrum…
…Rea Irvin took a child’s perspective of the wild world…
Above: Rudolf Persson's rendering of the main entrance to the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, designed by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund. The exhibition was a landmark event that introduced Functionalism to Swedish architecture and design.(Svensk Form)
Architecture critic Lewis Mumford turned his exacting eye on exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art that looked to the future of building design. Of particular interest was an exhibit on those world expositions that have given us everything from theEiffel Tower (1889 Exposition Universelle) to the car-dominated landscape that inspired millions of Depression-weary visitors at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair.
June 20, 1936 cover by Adolph K. Kronengold. Kronengold (1900–1986) created twenty-three covers for the New Yorker from 1928 to 1947. Born and raised in New Orleans, he frequently used watercolors and often painted scenes honoring his hometown. The June 20 cover was Kronengold’s seventeenth for the magazine.
Mumford made passing mention to the museum’s exhibit on government housing (he noted it was below MoMA’s standard) and then turned his attention to a review of world’s fairs, examining how they have inspired both waves of architectural achievement and “counterfeits of civic grandeur…”
BREAK FROM THE PAST…Images from the covers of MoMA’s exhibition catalogs depict the 1934-35 Carl Mackley Houses in Philadelphia (top, from the government housing exhibit) and the 1930 Stockholm Exposition. (MoMA.org)STILL SERVING…the 1934-35 Carl Mackley Houses in Philadelphia have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. (Wikipedia)PONDERING what a modern exhibition should be, Lewis Mumford cited the granddaddy of them, the London Exhibition of 1851 (top), with its Crystal Palace, which he called “the first definitive monument of modern architecture,” as definitive and challenging as the Pavillon L’Esprit Nouveau (bottom), designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret for the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. (devonandexeterinstitution.org/Wikipedia)SHAM AESTHETIC…Mumford referred to buildings in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (left) as “laborious limestone counterfeits of civic grandeur,” while praising the 1893 and 1900 Paris expositions for design innovations including the Art Nouveau style—at right is Le Pavillon Bleu, a lavish restaurant once located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It was built by French architect René Dulong in collaboration with Belgian architect and designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. (getzen.com/messynessychic.com)
Looking ahead to the planned 1939 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows, Mumford believed the age of grand world expositions had passed, especially those that moved the needle on design innovation. Moreover, he observed that the lack of real drama or rational purpose would threaten bankruptcy to future fairs, a symptom especially acute in America: “…a hasty transfer of attention from the agents of production to the organs of reproduction; a bevy of naked hussies remind the spectator that there are other wonders in Nature besides the harnessing of Niagara Falls, or the five-millionth Ford car.”
POINTING TO THE FUTURE..Rosalie Fairbanks, a guide to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, points to the theme of the exposition—the Trylon and Perisphere—after the entire sheath of scaffolding was removed for the first time on February 22, 1939. (Associated Press)
Earth-movers were already at work sculpting the fair’s site from the swampland and ash heaps along the Flushing River when Mumford assembled a self-anointed advisory group in 1936. This group— the “Fair of the Future Committee”—urged the fair’s leaders to abandon superficial commercialism and instead demonstrate how technology could serve the public good and restore ecological balance in American communities. That did not come to pass; when the fair opened in 1939, Mumford wrote in his “Sky Line” column (titled “Genuine Bootleg”) that the committee’s “hopes and proposals for a major contribution to urban design were progressively defeated. Today their wreckage is strewed about the Fair, so thoroughly smashed and disfigured that their own fathers could scarcely identify the corpses.”
FUTURAMA was a popular exhibit and ride at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the General Motors pavilion, it proposed a sprawling car-based future that was the antitheses of Lewis Mumford’s vision of human-scaled, ecologically balanced development. (Wikipedia)
Mumford got one thing right. Although the 1939 fair attracted more than 45 million visitors, it lost a lot of money, recouping only 32 percent of its original cost.
* * *
Only a Memory
In “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White recalled the brief life of “America’s Little House” at 39th and Park in the Murray Hill neighborhood. The eight-room Georgian colonial was built in 1934 during the “Better Homes in America” campaign that promoted single-family home ownership as well as design innovations. The CBS radio network (which contributed $50,000 to the project) installed a studio in the house’s garage, from which it broadcast three national radio programs to a hundred stations across the country.
Open for about a year, the house was demolished in November 1935, its doors and interior furnishings sold to hostesses who had worked at the house. In its place William Van Alen—architect of the Chrysler Building—erected the all-steel “House of the Modern Age.”
CHANGE OF SCENE…At left, America’s Little House on Park Avenue and 39th Street, replaced by William Van Alen’s prefabricated steel house (right), “The House of the Modern Age,” detail from a photo by Berenice Abbott. (Wikipedia/cornell.edu)
…in the following week’s issue of The New Yorker, June 27, a back of the book ad from the Modernage Furniture Corporation touted the opening of “The House of the Modern Age”…
* * *
Fan Fans
Staying on the domestic scene, here is an excerpt from Barbara Blake’s “About the House” column, where she updated readers on the latest in electric fans (air-conditioning in private homes was still a rarity).
ELECTRIC WIND…Barbara Blake highlighted the latest in electric fans including, clockwise from top left, the Airflow Safefan, which moved air with looped ribbons; the Samson Safeflex employed rubber blades as a safety feature; the noted designer Robert Heller produced these fan designs (1936 and 1937) modeled on airplane propellers. (worthpoint.com/ebay.com/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
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Billy’s Beef
In 1899 vaudevillian Billy Watson (aka Isaac Levie) formed his Beef Trust burlesque troupe of plus-sized women. Although his shows starred women in the 200-pound range, he also relied on slight-of-hand provided by the “Tights King” Morris Kohan, who apparently could produce tights that could make a person look either heavier or slimmer. “The Talk of the Town” explains in this excerpt:
WHERE’S THE BEEF?…Billy Watson’s burlesque troupe of plus-sized women—the Beef Trust— padded their profiles with the aid of specially designed tights. (Facebook.com)
* * *
Divine Dilemma
In Part Two of Father Divine’s profile, St. Clair McKelway and A.J. Liebling recounted the preacher’s 1931 arrest, prompted by ongoing complaints from the citizens of Sayville, New York about the traffic jams caused by Divine’s daily feasts as well as the noise generated by the faithful who would holler hallelujahs late into the evening. During one of these late night revivals police raided Divine’s property and fined each of the seventy-eight followers a few dollars apiece. Divine, however, insisted on a jury trial, which was held seven months later. The charge: Maintaining a public nuisance.
Jurors convicted Divine, with a request for leniency, but Justice Lewis Smith sentenced the preacher to a year in prison, calling him a “menace to society.” However, four days later the judge dropped dead of a heart attack, and Divine was freed. The notion that the judge’s death was divine retribution was naturally perpetuated by the media. A brief excerpt, with illustration by Abe Birnbaum.
GET OUT OF JAIL CARD…In 1931 Father Divine was arrested for maintaining a public nuisance. Following a jury trial and conviction, the presiding judge dropped dead, leading the preacher’s freedom a few days later. (facebook.com/nydailynews.com)
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At the Movies
The drama film Private Number was based on the 1915 play Common Clay, which had already been made as a silent in 1919 and as a sound film in 1930. The play had a somewhat scandalous theme for the time (a young servant is fired when she becomes pregnant by her employer’s son), but thanks to the Hays Code, the more scandalous parts of the earlier films were omitted in 1936’s Private Number, leaving the viewer with little except for some “old-fashioned hocus pocus,” according to critic John Mosher.
THE BUTLER DID IT…In Private Number,Basil Rathbone portrayed a tyrannical butler with a personal interest in one of his new maids (Loretta Young). She in turn secretly marries the scion of the family (Robert Taylor) and bears his child. Clockwise from top left: Poster for the film; Rathbone, Kane Richmond, and Young; Taylor, Young, and well-known canine actor Prince; rivals for a maid’s affection—Taylor and Rathbone. (Wikipedia/imdb.com/basilrathbone.net)
Thirty-nine-year-old Marion Davies appeared in one her final films, Hearts Divided, a musical based on the real-life marriage between American Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Although in real life Napoleon annulled the marriage, Hollywood gave the couple a happier ending.
THREE’S A CROWD…Napoleon (Claude Rains) comes between lovers Marion Davies and Dick Powell in Hearts Divided. The two also shared an off-screen romance behind the back of William Randolph Hearst, with whom Davies had a long-term relationship and to whom she believed she owed her career. (imdb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Illustrator R. John Holmgren drew up this non-partisan appeal for White Rock mineral water…
…Stage magazine touted its upcoming July issue, featuring the “Glamour Girls” of Hollywood…
…here is the cover of that July 1936 issue, illustrated by Sam Berman featuring caricatures of leading ladies including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Merle Oberon, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn…
(abebooks.com)
…longtime member of the New Yorker coterie and contributor Alexander Woollcott appeared in this full-page ad endorsing the work of the American Civil Liberties Union…
…from the 1920s to the 1940s the Powers Reproduction Corporation was a prominent, New York City photo-engraving firm that created high-quality color images for magazines and advertising agencies…
…these back of the book ads joined forces to promote the healing waters of Saratoga Springs and the Gideon Putnam hotel and spa…apparently the waters and other spa services treated everything from heart conditions to obesity…
…Dr. Seuss returned with another scenario for insecticide use…
…on the inside back cover, the distillers of Four Roses Whiskey conjured up a June bride as an apt metaphor for their blending techniques…
…while Lucky Strike reclaimed the back cover with an ad that promoted its low acid cigarettes, whatever that meant…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, we begin with Arnold Hall…
…and Robert Day…
…with other featured spots from John Groth…
…Richard Taylor…
…and Otto Soglow…
…James Thurber drew up an unusual development in the sheepfold…
…Barbara Shermund posed a challenge for a hair dresser…
…and Shermund again, revealing a tactic of the modern woman…
…Carl Rose commanded a two-page spread to tell his tale of sin and redemption…
…Ned Hilton needed a hand at the subway station…
…Mary Petty gave us a patient in need of a second opinion…
Above: Former Prohibition agents Isidor "Izzy" Einstein (right) and Moe W. Smith meet at a New York City bar in 1935. Known for their clever disguises and unorthodox tactics, from 1920 to 1925 the duo confiscated roughly five million bottles of illicit liquor and arrested 4,932 people. (Wikipedia)
Legendary Americans come from all walks of life—sports stars, movie actors, political and business leaders—and they also come from unlikely places; take for example a pushcart peddler and a cigar store owner who became national celebrities for their exploits during the first years of Prohibition.
June 6, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Prohibition agents Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (1880–1938) and Moe W. Smith (1887–1960) were known for their clever disguises, but the author of their “Where Are They Now?” profile was also in disguise—the piece was written by James Thurber under the pseudonym Jared L. Manley.
Einstein was 40-year-old pushcart peddler and postal clerk when he applied for a job as an enforcement agent at forty dollars a week. Although the 5-foot-5, 225 pound Einstein wasn’t the agency’s “type,” he convinced the feds that there was an advantage to not looking the part (the Austrian-born Einstein also spoke six languages). After landing the job, he asked if his friend, cigar store owner Moe Smith, could join him, since “he doesn’t look like an agent, either.” Some brief excerpts from part one of “Where Are They Now?”
TRICKSTERS…Clockwise, from top left: Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (right) and Moe W. Smith; the pair sported hundreds of disguises (Einstein on the left); Einstein’s badge and his bestselling 1932 book Prohibition Agent No 1; Daily News clipping from September 1920 showing results of a raid—Izzy and Moe are at right and left. (history.com/Library of Congress/Wikipedia/goodreads.com/nydailynews.com)
In her 2012 article for Smithsonianmagazine (“Prohibition’s Premier Hooch Hounds”), Abbott Kahler notes that the agents were victims of their own success. “Superiors grew to resent their headlines, and other agents complained that their productivity made their own records look bad…In November 1925, Izzy and Moe were among 35 agents to be dropped from the force.” Both men went on to successful careers as insurance salesmen. Want to know more? Read Kahler’s excellent account of the duo at the Smithsonian magazine’s website.
TRIBUTE ON THE TUBE…In 1985 Art Carney and Jackie Gleason starred in CBS’s made-for-television film, Izzy & Moe, which was loosely based on the exploits of Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith. (imdb.com)
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At the Movies
Two of the better films playing in Manhattan cinemas featured murders and matrons, the matrons played by Britain’s top female screen star, Madeleine Carroll, and America’s queen of screwball comedy, Jean Arthur. Critic John Mosher observed that their films were the only ones with any “life.”
TRADING GALLOWS FOR A GROOM…Top, Madeleine Carroll portrayed a “lady of privilege,” accused of murder, who falls in love with the prosecuting district attorney (George Brent) in The Case Against Mrs. Ames—Scotty Beckett played Carroll’s son; below, Jean Arthur and William Powell in the comedy-mystery The Ex-Mrs. Bradford.(imdb.com/mikestakeonthemovies.com)
Other films reviewed by Mosher were rated as “negligible” and “disappointing,” despite their talented casts…
TRAIN SPOTTING…Clockwise from top left: Esther Howard portrayed a “flirtatious dowager” who worked her charms on Jack Oakie (center) in Florida Special; Sally Eilers prepares to board the Florida Special with Dwight Frye and Claude Gillingwater; Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in Trouble for Two; Montgomery (left), Leonard Carey, and Frank Morgan in Trouble for Two. (pinterest.com/imdb.com)THE OLD PRINCESS IN DISGUISE TRICK…From left, Grace Moore, Eve Southern, and Franchot Tone in The King Steps Out. (IMDb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Last week Lois Long mentioned the return of famed Greenwich Village restaurateur and Sheridan Square funboy Don Dickerman. The June 6 issue featured two back-of-the-book ads placed by Dickerman that promoted his latest venture at Port Chester…this ad was on the bottom of page 75…
…and turning the page, you’d find this at the bottom of page 76…
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN…In 1916 Don Dickerman (1893–1981) opened a tearoom called the Pirate’s Cave at 133 Washington Place in Greenwich Village. The 6-foot-6 artist and entrepreneur was famous for his many themed establishments as well as for his eccentricities. Obsessed with pirate life, he dressed in full pirate gear in both public and private life. (facebook.com)
…Pacific Pottery was among firms in the 1930s marketing informal dinnerware featuring vibrant glazes and Art Deco streamline designs…
…you don’t hear much about the “June Bride” these days, but 1930s advertisers played up the tradition to sell everything from fashions to refrigerators…here the folks at Fisher made sure they connected their solid steel “Turret Top” to the safety of newlyweds…
…Stage magazine promoted its extensive coverage of “After-Dark” entertainments at home and abroad…
…the brewers of Pabst joined a handful of other beer companies promoting their product in newfangled cans…
…Dr. Seuss continued to find new gags to promote Flit insecticide…
…James Thurber kicked things off for the issue’s cartoonists…
…Charles Addams took in the sites along with some June brides at Niagara Falls (the barrel in the water reads “Just Married”)…
…W.P. Trent contributed this caption-less cartoon…
…Carl Rose continued to document the strange happenings of an election year…
…William Steig got superstitious…
…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” gave props to lemon meringue…
…and Hokinson again, and an unlikely claim at the salon…
…Alain presented an artist’s greatest challenge…
…Otto Soglow gave us an ideal sandwich board duo…
…Alan Dunn illustrated a “selfless” act…
…a moviegoer found a derivative moment at the cinema, per Whitney Darrow Jr…
…and we close with some idle chat, courtesy of Barbara Shermund…
Above: A group of eight East African elephants greet visitors to the American Museum of Natural History's Akeley Hall of African Mammals, which opened in 1936. The elephants are surrounded by twenty-eight habitat dioramas. (amnh.org)
One can instantly call up a photo on an iPad of every known animal on the planet, so why are people still fascinated by dead, stuffed animals displayed in glass cases?
May 2, 1936 cover by William Cotton.
To be accurate, most animals on display at natural history museums are not “stuffed;” they are an art form or sorts, anatomical sculptures covered with skins, posed in meticulous re-creations of their natural environments.
Ninety years after it opened to the public, the American Museum of Natural History’s Akeley Hall of African Mammals—named for the father of modern taxidermy Carl Akeley— still dazzles museum-goers with incredibly detailed dioramas (twenty-eight in all) that depict a range of African ecosystems. Writing for “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Africa Brought to Town”), Morris Markey marveled at the lifelike displays of flora and fauna, “every twig and grain of sand the very essence of Africa…”
DEATH AND LIFE(LIKE)…Clockwise, from top left, procession of elephants in the American Museum of Natural History’s Akeley Hall; the downside of dioramas—elephants slain in 1911 that now comprise “The Rear Guard” (elephants in back) of AMNH’s procession of elephants; Carl Akeley models a taxidermied elephant circa 1921; Akeley reclining on a bull elephant he killed in 1910 on an AMNH expedition. (uconn.edu/public domain/amnh.org)GETTING IT RIGHT…Clockwise from top left: Carl Akeley with his camera, circa 1920s—Akeley contributed hundreds of specimens and images of wildlife and plants to various American museums throughout the course of his career; James L. Clark, William R. Leigh and Richard Radatz relax during a 1926 African expedition to document the flora and fauna (through photos, sketches and paintings) for reference in creating true-to-life dioramas; unidentified expedition worker prepares plaster to make casts of collections (tree bark, leaves, rocks etc.). (amnh.org/uconn.org)MARRIAGE OF SCIENCE AND ART…Clockwise from top left: William R. Leigh landscape study; expedition artists made paintings en plein air as well as from specimens brought back to their tents (below). At bottom left is Carl Akeley’s second wife, Mary Lee Jobe Akeley (1886–1966), a well-known explorer and naturalist. It was her first expedition to Africa and Carl’s last—he would die of dysentery before the expedition concluded—so Mary took charge of the expedition, and was later named Carl’s successor as adviser to the American Museum of Natural History. (Leigh landscape courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery via jamesperrywilson.wordpress.com/still images taken from a short film of AMNH’s 1926 African Hall expedition, courtesy University of Connecticut)
Markey visited with museum director Roy Chapman, who likened the dioramas to “glimpses of Africa as they might be seen from a train window…” Since this was 1936, no one seemed too concerned about the ethical implications of hunting and killing animals for museum displays. It should be noted that most animals we see in major natural history museums today were killed during early 20th-century expeditions such as Akeley’s; animals used in new displays are often obtained from zoos or sanctuaries after dying of natural causes.
OUT OF AFRICA…Still image of giraffes taken from a short film of AMNH’s 1926 African Hall expedition; the AMNH’s “Water Hole” diorama; “Greater Koodoo” diorama; Clarence Rosenkranz working on the “Giant Sable” diorama. (amnh.org/uconn.org)
There is an undeniable appeal to these artificial environments. Although our digital age offers all sorts of them, there are still kids who like to build dioramas in shoeboxes. And for those of us who grew up in 1960s and 70s, there was the thrill of opening a new three-pack of View-Master reels, each slide revealing a three-dimensional, self-contained world.
And so it is with museum dioramas. They offer a moment of wonder and calm to viewers. As the noisy world collapses around them, these displays—however artificial—might inspire in some a greater appreciation of these creatures and their fragile environments.
One can imagine film critic John Mosher rubbing his eyes as he pondered the reasons why Hollywood insists on making overly long movies (also lamented by critics today). He also reviewed four new films, with little enthusiasm.
LONG IN THE TOOTH?…Clockwise from top left: Critic John Mosher seemed to imply that seven-year-old Shirley Temple (seen here with Buddy Ebsen in Captain January) was getting too old to play the precocious little healer; Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Gordon Harker in The Amateur Gentleman; Janet Gaynor and Robert Taylor made cute in I Married a Doctor; movie poster for Lorenzino de ’Medici, which Mosher felt was best suited to Italian audiences. (letterboxd.com)
* * *
Getting Things Done
Journalist Hickman Powell filed the first part of a two-part profile of New York’s 45th Governor, Herbert Lehman (1878–1963). The first Jewish governor of New York, Lehman was a prominent liberal leader and a major philanthropist, known for implementing a “Little New Deal” that established a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and public housing.
HMMM…William Cotton was a terrific caricaturist, but he seemed to miss the mark with this illustration of Gov. Herbert Lehman for the “Profile.” (Wikipedia)
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From Our Advertisers
The May 2 issue was crammed with ads for women’s summer fashions, which were defined by longer, leaner silhouettes…
…and by the increasing popularity of practical sports and casual clothes…
…the makers of Cadillac motorcars continued to emphasize their lower-priced LaSalle models for Depression-squeezed consumers…
…no fashion models or health claims here, just the allure of cigarette smoke courtesy Liggett and Myers…
…the distillers of Old Taylor wanted you to associate their product with the timeless work of William Shakespeare…after all, who’s going to sue them over image rights?…
…on to our cartoonists…Miguel Covarrubias, whose work was featured in The New Yorker’s first issue and was frequent in those early days, lent his talents to the theatre review section with this rendering from On Your Toes…
…something else I forgot to mention in my last post, On Your Toes also marked George Balanchine’s debut as a Broadway choreographer…
ON HIS TOES…At left, George Balanchine in 1942; at right, Tamara Geva in 1936’s Broadway production of On Your Toes. Geva, an actress, ballet dancer, and choreographer, was Balanchine’s first wife (married 1921-1926). (Wikipedia/instagram)
…we are seeing a lot of Richard Taylor in the 1936 issues, especially in providing spot illustrations such as this one…
…Charles Addams deployed some sarcasm on the domestic front…
…and Addams again, commenting on the fierce rivalry between the privately owned Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and the municipal subway systems…
…and we have two by Helen Hokinson, having misgivings about a greenhouse variety…
…and finding a personal commitment to a can of soup…
…Garrett Price had this man doing some wishful thinking…
…William Steig used a two-page spread to illustrate a day at the drugstore…
…another drawing from the group, appearing on the left-hand page…
…keeping it in the family, we have one byHenry Anton Steig (William Steig’s brother)…according to Michael Maslin’s indispensable Ink Spill, Henry contributed nineteen drawings to The New Yorker from 1932 to 1936 under the name Henry Anton…this one was his final contribution…
…Whitney Darrow Jr drew up this over-enthusiastic maître d’…
…Barbara Shermund went apartment hunting…
…and we close with Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein, and a room with a view…
Above: Detail from illustration depicting the Philippine Clipper arriving in Hong Kong to establish the first commercial air service between North America and the continent of Asia on October 23, 1936. (Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami)
We take to the air with the April 18, 1936 edition of The New Yorker, namely via the China Clipper, a Pan American flying boat that was preparing to begin regular passenger service from San Francisco to the Philippines and Hong Kong along with its two sister ships.
April 18, 1930 cover by Rea Irvin.
Writing for “A Reporter at Large” under the title “See You in Shanghai,” Morris Markey offered an enthusiastic preview of the China Clipper, a Martin M-130 flying boat that was initially tested on a Trans-Pacific mail route laid out by famed navigator Fred Noonan (who would disappear the following year in a fateful flight with Amelia Earhart). Although Markey anticipated a summer launch, the first commercial trans-Pacific airmail and passenger service from San Francisco to Manila actually took place in October 1936, when the Hawaii Clipper made the first scheduled transoceanic passenger flight to the Philippines. The Philippine Clipper inaugurated the first passenger service into Hong Kong that same month, but it was a public relations VIP flight rather than a revenue generating one.
Here are excerpts from Markey’s report:
TAKING WING…Clockwise, from top left, carrying nearly 111,000 letters, the China Clipper passes over the San Francisco waterfront on its first airmail flight to Manila in November 1935; trading card from a pack of Player’s cigarettes; cutaway view of the Martin M-130 flying boat dubbed the China Clipper.(Wikipedia/frommers.com/Smithsonian)
Here is the flight schedule for the China Clipper’s first airmail flight to Manila in November 1935:
(messynessychic.com)
Today’s commercial aircraft squeeze passengers into about six square feet. Compare that to a Pan Am Clipper, which allotted twenty-two square feet per each passenger. They lounged on easy chairs and couches, enjoyed six-course meals served on fine china, and could even take a hot shower if so desired. Markey again:
THE ONLY WAY TO FLY if you had the means. The Clippers were divided into spacious cabins, with couches rather than airplane seats. The passenger compartments would transform at night into deluxe sleeper cabins. There was a dining salon, dressing rooms, and separate bathrooms for men and women. (messynessychic.com/Wikipedia/clipperflyingboats.com)
Talk about legroom…
(everythingpanam.com)
Writing for Messy Nessy,Luke Spencer notes this experience was only available to a select few: “…a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong would set you back $760 in 1939 (more than $13,000 today). But despite being largely reserved for the rich and famous, the seaplanes are so evocative of the bygone era, that today, it’s hard to imagine a vintage travel poster without a Flying Clipper in it, soaring above a distant island.” Indeed, the long-gone Clipper ships live on in popular vintage travel posters such as the one below depicting Pan Am’s most advanced, largest and last flying boat, the Boeing 314. The circa 1939 illustration is by George Lawler:
(panam.org)
* * *
Don’t Step On Them
Suede shoes (aka Bucks, Reverse Calfskin) caught the attention of E.B. White, who thought this “new kind of men’s shoe” resembled a wire-haired dachshund. Suede shoes (blue ones would come later) were introduced as a preppy alternative to heavy lace-up shoes in the 1930s. They were favored (and made popular) by fashion trendsetter Edward, Duke of Windsor, who briefly reigned as British king in 1936 before abdicating the throne.
GOING CASUAL…Suede shoes offered a less formal option to men who still wanted to look stylish about town or at the club. At left is an ad from the 1940s, and at right is a one-column ad from the April 18, 1936 issue of The New Yorker. One wonders if E.B. White noticed it. (chronicallyvintage.com)
* * *
Cowboys and Elephants
The “Talk of the Town” noted the latest attractions the Ringling Brothers were bringing to Madison Square Garden, including B-grade Western film actor ColonelTim McCoy and a trio of elephants who played a rudimentary form of baseball.
NICE DUDS…American actor and military officer Colonel Tim McCoy (1891–1978) was a popular cowboy film star; he was even honored with his picture on a Wheaties box. (Wikipedia/nypl.org)
The tallest person ever recorded, Robert Wadlow (1918–1940), became a celebrity after his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus, appearing at Madison Square Garden in the center ring, and never in the sideshow.
ON DISPLAY…The 8 foot, 11.1 inch Robert Wadlow shares a moment with Harry Earles (aka Harry Doll) behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1936. During his appearance, Wadlow dressed in his everyday clothes and refused the circus’s request that he wear a top hat and tails. (reddit.com)
In addition to Col. McCoy, the circus also featured the daring high wire act of the famous Wallenda family:
IT’S A LIVING…The Wallendas performing at Madison Square Garden in 1934. (facebook.com)
* * *
Sage Advice
Dorothea Brande (1892–1948) was the author of two popular advice books: Becoming a Writer (1934) remains in print today, and her motivational Wake Up and Live (1936) sold more than a million copies and inspired an eponymous 1937 Hollywood movie.
As we’ve seen before, James Thurber relished the opportunity to satirize the writers of motivational books, and Brande’s Wake Up and Live proved to be irresistible. Here are some choice excerpts:
IDEAL FOR AN AIRPORT READ if such a thing would have existed in 1936. Above, Dorothea Brande circa 1937 and her 1936 bestseller, Wake Up and Live, which sold more than a million copies and inspired a Hollywood movie. (Wikipedia/matthewsbookshop.com)
* * *
Legacy Lines
In 1936 Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) was more widely read than any American poet, but his popularity didn’t diminish the respect he received from literary critics. So no wonder The New Yorker gave him a two-page spread to publish his “Notes To Be Left In A Cornerstone.” It’s too large to reproduce here, but this is how it looked in the magazine (with great spot art by Hugo Gellert)…
A closer look at Gellert’s illustration…
…and here are the last two stanzas of the poem:
* * *
Ray Gets Rough
Ray Bolger’s long career included everything from dancing in vaudeville shows and acting on Broadway to appearing in his own television sitcom and in a 1981 Dr. Pepper commercial (dancing, of course). He is best remembered as the lovable, loose-limbed Scarecrow in 1939’s Wizard of Oz. So it was a surprise to learn that the Tony-winning actor could also play a tough guy, a turn that delighted critic Wolcott Gibbs, who penned this review of the Rodgers and Hart comedy musical On Your Toes:
I CAN SCARE MORE THAN CROWS…Ray Bolger (left) gets rough with a thug as Tamara Geva looks on in the musical comedy On Your Toes. (rodgersandhammerstein.com)
* * *
Bio Myopic
Biopics reached a height of popularity in the Thirties, with dozens of these pictures featuring major stars including Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and Rembrandt (1936), Barbara Stanwyck in Annie Oakley (1935), Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933), and Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934). Paul Muni, the king of biopics, appeared in at least a half-dozen including The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936). The year 1936 also brought us The Great Ziegfeld, starring William Powell as Flo Ziegfeld, Myrna Loy as his wife, Billie Burke, and Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld’s first wife, Anna Held. Critic JohnMosher takes it from here:
DOUBLE TAKE..Ziegfeld Follies star Will Rogers was originally intended to appear in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld, but died in a plane crash in August 1935 before filming began. A.A. Trimble (pictured at left), was a map salesman by trade, but was also known to perform impersonations of Rogers at events like Rotarian lunches. Critic John Mosher was shocked by Trimble’s uncanny impersonation of Rogers in the film, which also featured Ziegfeld headliner Fanny Brice (right), the real one. (facebook.com/amazon.com)OSCAR-WORTHY…William Powell and Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Dance Direction, and Best Actress, which went to Rainer. (tcm.com)
A note on Luise Rainer (1910–2014): The Austrian-American Rainer was the first person to win two Academy Awards in a row. The first was for her role as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld, and the second was for her role as a Chinese farm wife in 1937’s The Good Earth.
TIME WAS ON HER SIDE…Luise Rainer in 1936. (Wikipedia)
At the time of her death in 2014, thirteen days shy of her 105th birthday, Rainer was the longest-lived Oscar recipient, and the longest-lived female star from Classic Hollywood.
Mosher also reviewed Desire, a romantic crime drama that reunited the stars of the 1930 pre-code film Morocco, Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper.
REKINDLING THOSE SPARKS…Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper reunite in Desire. (video librarian.com)HMMM…Desire also featured character actor William Frawley (seen here with Cooper), who would go on to greater fame in television, playing Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. (facebook.com)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with the inside front cover, where the makers of leaded gasoline appealed to homespun sensibilities with an odd juxtaposition…
…oil companies and other auto-related industries were big advertisers in The New Yorker, including the United States Rubber Company…
…which ran this back cover ad in the very first issue of the magazine, Feb. 21, 1925…
…another advertiser with deep pockets was big tobacco…R.J. Reynolds continued to make the ridiculous claim that their Camel cigarettes aided digestion…
…the makers of Old Gold stuck with sex to sell their smokes, featuring illustrations by pin-up artist George Petty…
…Hiram Walker boasted the availability of their Canadian Club whiskey in “87 lands”…
…at first glance I thought this was a soap advertisement…one doubts this analogy prompted more people to pick up a case of Bud…
…the makers of College Inn Tomato Juice Cocktail continued to employ the social faux pas to sell their product…note the outraged duchess making an appearance on the right…
…Heineken established its U.S. presence in 1933, becoming the first imported beer legally sold after the end of Prohibition…
…Amer Picon called on the talents of illustrator Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) to create this stylish advertisement…
Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) was known primarily for his illustrations of glamorous young women, including his signature “Whitcomb Girl.” Born and raised in the Midwest, Whitcomb moved to New York City in 1934, joining with Al Cooper to found the Cooper Studio. At left, Whitcomb circa 1940s; at right, his illustration for the cover of Colliers, Aug. 23, 1941. (illustrationhistory.org)
…on to our cartoonists, we have a spot illustration by Richard Taylor to kick off the issue…
…Leonard Dove gave us a frustrated sugar daddy…
…Alain illustrated the perils of social realism…
…Whitney Darrow Jr’s butler made himself right at home…
…Ned Hilton’s harpist found a way to adapt to her surroundings…
…Robert Day required a layout adjustment for his human cannonball…
…Mary Petty took an unusual request at the soda fountain…
…Peter Arno diagnosed an incurable eye condition…
…Otto Soglow offered up a surprise at the automat…
…Helen Hokinson went apartment hunting…
…and we close with Barbara Shermund, and a big ask…
