Carl Rose – Page 2 – A New Yorker State of Mind

It Can’t Happen Here

Above: Cover of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a fascist takeover of America, It Can't Happen Here. At right, 22,000 people attended a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. (Wikipedia/Reddit)

Ninety years ago Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here, a dystopian novel that responded to the rise of fascism in Europe as well as to American demagogues like Louisiana Senator Huey Long.

October 26, 1935 cover by Roger Duvoisin. Duvoisin (1900–1980) was a Swiss-born American writer and illustrator best known for children’s picture books. He illustrated 32 covers for *The New Yorker,* along with five cartoons. Duvoisin won the Caldecott Medal in 1948 (along with author **Alvin Tresselt**) for *White Snow, Bright Snow.*

In his 2016 New Yorker article, “Getting Close to Fascism with Sinclair Lewis’s ‘It Can’t Happen Here,'” journalist Alexander Nazaryan notes how Lewis was arguing for journalism and civic education as essential pillars of democracy. The title of Lewis’s book, Nazaryan observes, suggests that ‘It’ was something more subtle: “a collective apathy, born of ignorance, and a populace that can no longer make the kind of judgments that participatory democracy requires.”

Lewis’s novel also made book critic Clifton Fadiman sit up and take notice. Here are excerpts from the first part of his review:

HOME-GROWN…American fascism was represented by organizations such as the German American Bund, the Silver Legion of America, and radio host Charles Coughlin, who opposed the New Deal and promoted conspiracy theories and antisemitic views. Clockwise, from top left: Nearly a thousand uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands and carrying Nazi banners parade past a reviewing stand in New Jersey on July 18, 1937. The New Jersey division of the German-American Bund had opened the 100-acre Camp Nordland at Sussex Hills; **Huey Long** in 1935, the same year he was assassinated; Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. (AP/Wikipedia)

If you zoom in on the photo at bottom right, you can’t help but notice the woman in the black hat, who seems a little unsure about what she is doing, especially in front of a camera…the woman to her right appears to be hiding her face.

Here is more of Fadiman’s review (click to enlarge). It’s worth a read.

WE’VE BEEN WARNED…Published nearly seventy years apart, **Sinclair Lewis’s** *It Can’t Happen Here* (1935) and **Philip Roth’s** *The Plot Against America* (2004) both explored the dangers of fascism in the United States. (pulitzer.org/Wikipedia/Nancy Crampton via stanford.edu)

* * *

It Was Happening There

In her “Letter from Paris,” Janet Flanner was noting “increasing Fascist sentiment and sympathy” in her adopted city:

OVER THERE…The French Popular Party (*Parti populaire français,* PPF) was a French fascist and anti-semitic political party led by **Jacques Doriot** before and during World War II. Formed in June 1936, with an estimated 120,000 members by 1937, it is generally regarded as the most collaborationist party of France. (thefrenchhistorypodcast.com)

* * *

All Talk

Marion Sayle Taylor (1889–1942) was the popular host of a radio advice show, The Voice of Experience. Margaret Case Harriman (1901–1966) penned a two-part profile of Taylor titled “The Voice.” I’ve included the opening lines to Part One here:

IF ONLY SHE KNEW…**Margaret Case Harriman,** left, circa 1936, profiled **Marion Sayle Taylor** before his misdeeds were revealed. (Vogue Archive/eleanorbritton.blogspot.com/Oregon Encyclopedia)

After reading both parts of Harriman’s profile piece, it appears she wasn’t yet aware that Taylor was more than a radio personality; he was also dishonest, manipulative, and opportunistic, according to a biography by Dick and Judy Wagner featured in the Oregon Encyclopedia. For example, Harriman reported (likely from Taylor’s official bio) that Taylor’s first wife, Pauline, had died in childbirth, when in fact she was quite alive and suing him for divorce that same year. Taylor also divorced his second wife, Jessie, who sued him in 1936 after he deceived her about another woman. Not surprisingly, his radio image as a reliable marriage counselor was damaged irretrievably.

FALSE ADVERTISING…A streetcar, possibly in Newark, N.J., advertising a lecture by Taylor, circa 1931. In addition to hiding a previous prison record, Taylor also falsely reported that he had studied at several universities (he did not earn a Ph.D, as the redundant title claims in the above photo). It appears Taylor also kept much of the money he solicited for charitable causes. (Oregon Encyclopedia)

* * *

Selling Pooh

Commercial cross-marketing of children’s books with toys and other products had its origins in the late nineteenth century with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and in the first years of the 20th century Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series inspired everything from dishes and wallpaper to board games and dolls—in 1903 Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy.

Then came another character from British children’s literature, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. In January 1930, Stephen Slesinger (1901–1953) purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording, and other trade rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works from Milne (for $1,000, plus royalties), marketing a wide range of products. For the column “Onward & Upward With the Arts,” St. Clair McKelway paid a visit to Slesinger at the Park Avenue offices of Winnie-the-Pooh Association, Inc. Excerpts:

KEEP YER SHIRT ON…The Parker Brothers were the first to feature Winnie-the-Pooh in color for a 1932 board game. Stephan Slesinger added the iconic red t-shirt to Pooh for the game and a children’s record, a look that was later adopted by the Disney Corporation when it acquired the rights from Slesinger’s widow and daughter in 1961. (thedisneyclassics.com)

FUNNIES MAN…At left, **Stephan Slesinger** in an undated photo. Slesinger was a radio, television and film producer, and a curator of comic strip characters including *Alley Cop, Captain Easy, Buck Rogers* and Blondie, among others; at center, a record of “Winnie-the-Pooh Songs,” 1932; an ad for the *Red Ryder* BB gun—in 1938 Slesinger created the comic strip *Red Ryder along* with artist **Fred Harmon**. (alchetron/yesterdaysgallery.com/Port Isabel Press)

In another excerpt, McKelway gave us an idea of the scope of Slesinger’s Pooh empire:

* * *

At the Movies

Critic John Mosher found few thrills in the latest fare from Hollywood, offering his views of Admiral Richard Byrd’s Into Little America and the musical Metropolitan, featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett.

FOR THE BYRDS…At left, lobby card for *Into Little America;* at right, **Alice Brad**y and Lawrence Tibbett in Metropolitan. (eBay.uk/rottentomatoes.com)

With a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and direction by Howard Hawks, one would hope for some rough and tumble in a film about Gold Rush San Francisco. Instead, Mosher found the trappings of Barbary Coast rather mild. This was doubtless due in part to the Hays Code that curtailed the sex and violence portrayed in films of the 1920s and early 1930s.

TAKING A SPIN…**Miriam Hopkins** runs the roulette wheel as **Edward G. Robinson** looks on in *Barbary Coast.* A brief 2019 review in the *Harvard Film Archive* praised the film’s Gothic feel created by the “evocative portrayal of early San Francisco as a foggy labyrinth of rickety boardwalks and ominous, sky-high ship masts…” (harvardfimarchive.org)

One might think that a film featuring the destruction of Pompeii would have some thrills, however RKO’s The Last Days of Pompeii proved to be a “temperate affair” in Mosher’s eyes, “one of the great bores of the moment.” The Dick Powell/U.S. Navy vehicle Shipmates Forever didn’t prove to be any better.

HOT TIMES IN POMPEII?…**John Mosher** called *The Last Days of Pompeii* “one of the great bores of the moment,” including the “drearily enacted” eruption of Vesuvius in which “Paper temples fall and there is a bit of bustle, and that is all there is to that.” Mosher did single out **Basil Rathbone’s** performance as an urbane Pontius Pilate, “a Pontius Pilate with a Long Island manner.” (tcm.com)

GO GET ‘EM DICK…The U.S. Naval Academy provided the setting for the musical *Shipmates Forever,* featuring Dick Powell as a crooner who ultimately chooses the Navy over a singing career. (tcm.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with the inside front cover, where the folks at Fisher touted their innovative “Turret Top” design…Body by Fisher began as a separate company in 1908, specializing as an automobile coach builder…although acquired by General Motors in 1926, the Fisher brand was promoted until the 1980s…

…there were many fall and winter fashion ads in this issue, including this continuing series by Russeks promoting Rayon fabrics…and women smoking, no doubt considered a sign of sophistication…

…Guerlain perfume ads featured the unmistakable style of illustrator Lyse Darcy…

…the Heyward/Gershwin production of Porgy and Bess made a splash in this ad for Stage magazine…

…World Peaceways often used terrifying imagery to promote their anti-war messages…this ad was on the inside back cover…

…and as you closed the magazine, the back cover greeted you with this stylish appeal to smoke Luckies…

…on to our cartoonists, starting with Al Frueh in the Theatre section…

…and Frueh again, in this interesting arrangement…

…George Price was featured twice…

…with scenes of domestic life as only Price could render…

…and speaking of distinctive, no one did it quite like the great James Thurber…

…Robert Day gave us two Republicans looking in on the progress of the New Deal…

…Carl Rose bid farewell to a writer sick of his peace and quiet…

…Whitney Darrow Jr illustrated a literary exchange on a park bench…

…and I close with today’s New Yorker cover artist, Roger Duvoisin—here is his cover for White Snow, Bright Snow, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1948.

Next Time: Planes, Trains and Automobiles…

School Days

Above: First-grade pupils at the blackboard, circa 1943. (The New York Times)

Peering into the life of a Manhattan elementary school—as it was ninety years ago—offers a glimpse into the social mores of the 1930s.

October 5, 1935 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

Taking us back to those days was St. Clair McKelway (1905-1980), who beginning in 1933 served as a writer and editor for The New Yorker. Although not well-known today, McKelway was credited by William Shawn as one of a handful of people who “set the magazine on its course.”

For the “A Reporter at Large” column, McKelway toured PS 165 on the Upper West Side. In this first excerpt, McKelway sits in on a geography lesson:

AROUND THE WORLD IN TWENTY VOLUMES…The Grolier Society’s *The Book of Knowledge* was a well-known resource to students and teachers alike in the 1930s. Originally largely a reprint of the British *Children’s Encyclopædia* with U.S. revisions, it evolved over time into an entirely new entity. This particular volume is from 1919, part of a twenty-volume set. *(Randal Oulton via Wikipedia)*

In this next excerpt, a teacher and principal speak of the schoolchildren dispassionately, casually referring to one pupil’s IQ as “almost down to mental defective.”

PS PUPILS…Students participate in Elizabeth Irwin’s “Little Red Schoolhouse“ program at PS 61 in 1928; at right, a kindergarten painter at PS 23 in 1935. (NYC Municipal Archives/Fordham U)

In this final excerpt, McKelway looked in on the school’s “ungraded class” of sixteen boys, most from families who were “on relief.” Beginning in the third paragraph, note how the teacher speculates on the future of one of the students.

STILL STANDING, STILL SERVING…PS 165 Robert E. Simon school today. *(insideschools.org/Anna Duncan/Friends of PS 165)*

A final note: It is interesting to compare McKelway’s article with one written almost thirty years later by Richard Schickel for Commentary magazine (January 1964). Schickel also visited PS 165, his observations of the “special service” school sometimes echoing McKelway’s. Today PS 165 receives high marks from teachers and parents. Located a few blocks from Columbia University, the school teaches children of graduate students and professors as well as long-time neighborhood residents and newcomers.

* * *

Moving Days

In the fall of 1935 E.B. and Katharine White and their four-year-old son Joel moved from their Greenwich Village apartment on East 8th Street (reluctantly for E.B.) to Turtle Bay Gardens in the East 40s. At about the same time The New Yorker moved from its original headquarters on West 45th Street to its new digs at 25 West 43rd Street, where the magazine would settle in for more than fifty years.

HOME SWEET HOME…This New York townhouse (left) was the new home of **E.B. and Katharine White** in the fall of 1935 (their neighbor was **Katharine Hepburn**). At right, *The New Yorker* also moved to a new home at 25 West 43rd Street. The magazine would occupy several floors of the building for 56 years. (homes.com/Ink Spill)

* * *

A Good Bad Girl

Journalist Meyer Berger (1898-1959) was known for digging deep into his subjects, including a two-part New Yorker profile of Anna Lonergan, “Queen of the Irishtown Docks.” Her two husbands and a brother—notorious killers themselves—were murdered in gang wars along with dozens of others who were Lonergan’s friends and neighbors. She was often called to the morgue to identify murder victims, thus the “Profile” title “Lady in Crepe”—one who is in a constant state of mourning. Here are the opening paragraphs:

SHE WANTED TO BE A NUN…**Anna Lonergan**, as rendered by Reginald Marsh for the Profile.

KILL OR BE KILLED…Members of the Irish “White Hand Gang” battled their Italian rivals (the Black Hand Gang) on the Brooklyn waterfront from the early 1900s to 1930. **Anna Lonergan’s** first husband William “Wild Bill” Lovett (top) was murdered in 1923; her brother Richard “Pegleg” Lonergan was gunned down in 1925. *(artofneed.com)*

* * *

At the Movies

Film critic John Mosher took on a couple of very different films—the lively Claudette Colbert comedy She Married Her Boss, and the “mournful, graceful” Iceland Fisherman featuring the 1890s French cabaret star Yvette Guilbert.

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE…**Melvyn Douglas** and Claudette Colbert in *She Married Her Boss.* (IMDB)

GRAND GRANDMOTHER...John Mosher found French actress and cabaret singer Yvette Guilbert (1865–1944) to be the main attraction as a Breton grandmother in 1934’s *Pêcheur d’Islande* (Iceland Fishermen). Guilbert was a favorite subject of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who made many portraits and caricatures of Guilbert, including the one at right from 1894. (musee-breton.finistere/National Portrait Gallery, London/Wikipedia)

Mosher also screened Soviet Russia through the Eyes of an American, which documented American engineer Charles Stuart’s travels through the Soviet Union. You can watch the entire film here.

NO FAMINE HERE…Children playing games were featured in *Soviet Russia through the Eyes of an American*, a travelogue that skipped all the bad parts of Stalinist Russia. (YouTube/Hoover Institution)

* * *

Some Housekeeping

Before we jump into the advertisements, I would feel remiss not to mention other writers in the issue, including poet Ogden Nash (“How Now, Sirrah, Oh, Anyhow”), James Thurber (“Smashup,” featuring henpecked husband Tommy Trinway); Frances Warfield (“Practical Nurse”); Theodore Pratt (“I Jes’ Goin'”); James Reid Parker (“The First Day”); Andree L. Eilert (“Words Across the Sea”) W.E. Farbstein (“Copycat”); and P. S. Le Poer Trench (“Parsons is Prepared”). Some of these contributors are long forgotten—Warfield often wrote about her deafness, but little to nothing can be found out about Eilert or Trench without considerable effort (Trench published twice in the New Yorker in 1935).

AMONG THE KNOWN…At left, **Ogden Nash** (1902-1971) is the most famous of this trio that includes **Theodore Pratt** (1901-1969), center, known as the “Literary Laureate of Florida”; and at right, **James Reid Parker** (1909-1984), who sidelined as a writer of captions for **Helen Hokinson.** Read more about Parker’s contributions to *The New Yorker* at **Michael Maslin’s** *New Yorker* treasure trove **Ink Spill.**

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Apparently business was booming at Forstmann Woolens, who continued to post these stylish ads in the opening pages of The New Yorker—note Midtown’s 1927-29 New York Central Building (now Helmsley Building) that served as a gateway to Grand Central…

…who knew that one could be so stylish while drinking a glass of tomato juice?…

…the Capehart Automatic Phonograph Company produced a radio-phonograph that could automatically flip records to play both sides—this particular model could play up to twenty records in succession…

QUITE THE GIZMO…Restoration of a Capehart 405E. These units were not cheap, selling for the equivalent of $30k or more today. (forum.antiquephono.org)

…Warner Brothers took out a full-page ad to announce the world premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream…the lavish, star-studded production featured, among others, James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, Dick Powell, Anita Louise and Mickey Rooney…

AN ACQUIRED TASTE...Anita Louise as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and **James Cagney** as Bottom, the Weaver, in the 1935 film production of Shakespeare’s *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*. The film failed at the box office with mixed reviews, however it won two Academy Awards—Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, and it was nominated for Best Picture. Today the film gets mostly good reviews. (www.academymuseum.org)

…Stage magazine also took out a full-page ad to trumpet its own star-studded lineup, including contributions by James Thurber, Peggy Bacon and Abe Birnbaum…

…Mrs. Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, nee Caryetta Davis Saunders (1899-1971), was the latest society maven to encourage women smokers to enjoy the unfiltered pleasures of Camel cigarettes…

…on to our cartoonists, George Price and Maurice Freed got things rolling with these spot drawings…

…Carl Rose mixed the old with the new on moving day…

…Barney Tobey showed us how the posh travelled to school…

…George Price again, here demonstrating the joys of moneyed eccentricity…

…Richard Decker explored the origins of art criticism…

…Mary Petty offered some durable fashion advice…

…and we close with Peter Arno, finding sudden inspiration in a Pink Lady cocktail…

Next Time: A Merry Menagerie…

Notes and Comment

Above: Among E.B. White's notable happenings in the fall of 1935 was a streamlined baby carriage for the toddler of tomorrow. (Pinterest)

Occasionally, E.B. White would allow his seemingly random thoughts to fill out his “Notes and Comment” column, observing in no particular order various happenings of the day.

Sept. 28, 1935 cover by **Antonio Petruccelli,** who began his career as a textile designer. In addition to four *New Yorker* covers, Petruccelli (1907-1994) illustrated twenty-four Fortune magazine covers as well as several covers for *House Beautiful, Collier’s, Life* and other magazines.

What he accomplished, however, was a collection of snapshots of life in Manhattan and abroad. Here is the first part of E.B. White’s “Notes and Comment” for Sept. 28…

PERENNIAL PROBLEM…**E.B. White** noted that more than 51,000 Americans died in car accidents in an 18-month span, a number that is oddly similar to today’s statistics (although the U.S. has more than double the population today). At left, photo by **Weegee** (aka Arthur Fellig) of a wrecked taxicab in New York City, circa 1930s; at right, a streamlined baby buggy, 1930s. (Instagram/Pinterest)

…White also noted a number of cultural events, from airmailed lobsters to a new slogan for the State of Maine…

HODGEPODGE…Clockwise, from top left, **Leo Reisman** brought the sound of music to the beautiful Central Park Casino ballroom (adjoining photo), which was designed by Joseph Urban; in 1927 **Clarence Chamberlain** became the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic and the first to carry a transatlantic passenger—in 1935 he accepted a contract from boxer/restauranteur Jack Dempsey to fly two-hundred Maine lobsters to NYC; safari film celebrities **Osa and Martin Johnson** bought a picnic basket at Abercrombie & Fitch; the state of Maine announced plans to add “Vacationland” to license plates—a slogan still in use today. (IMDB/centralpark.org/alchetron.com/ebay)

* * *

Class Acts

Lois Long continued to chronicle the nightlife scene in her “Tables For Two” column, observing the efforts of nightclub impresarios to promote their establishments as epitomes of sophistication.

WHY GO HOME?…**Lois Long** noted the many reasons why New Yorkers might stay out into the wee hours. Clockwise, from top left: Gossip columnist **Walter Winchell** as photographed by Edward Steichen in 1930; nightclub impersario and former Village speakeasy king **Barney Gallant**; the exclusive confines of El Morocco; Romanian-born American crooner and actor **Georges Metaxa** made the society ladies swoon at the Stork Club; the Stork Club’s Cub Room in 1944 occupied by **Orson Welles** (left) among other notables; entrance to the club, 1930s. (CondeNast/boweryboyshistory.com/Pinterest/Wikipedia/NYPL)

* * *

From Rough to Refined

Alva Johnston profiled acclaimed film director W.S. Van Dyke (1889–1943), whom Johnston portrayed as a tough guy who slipped effortlessly from the rough and tumble world of Westerns to the sophisticated heights of high society films such as 1934’s The Thin Man.

LOW TO HIGH…**W.S. Van Dyke** moved from making Westerns to more sophisticated fare including 1934’s *The Thin Man.* (Facebook/Wikipedia)

* * *

Silly Mystification

Book reviewer Clifton Fadiman began his review of T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom by first clearing the air about the enigmatic writer and diplomat who had recently died in a motorcycle accident. “Wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly, he exhaled during his lifetime a vapor of silly mystification,” Fadiman wrote about Lawrence, who was known to embellish accounts of his adventures in the Arab world. Here is an excerpt of the review:

LITERARY COSPLAY…**T.E. Lawrence** (1888-1935) in an undated photo. Writing for the *New Criterion,* **David Fromkin** noted the importance of Lawrence’s prestige to the British Empire. “T. E…was of his time and ours. Of all the public figures of the twentieth century, across a wide range of interests, issues, and attitudes, he best expresses the century. ” (The New Criterion)

* * *

At the Movies

Critic John Mosher reviewed one of Will Rogers’ final films, Steamboat Round the Bend, released just weeks after Rogers’ death in an Alaska plane crash. Mosher found the film “satisfying.”

SOUTHERN CHARM was laid on thick in *Steamboat Round the Bend,* which featured **Anne Shirley** and **Will Rogers** in one of his final film roles (Rogers filmed In Old Kentucky before *Steamboat,* but In Old Kentucky wasn’t released until Nov. 22, 1935).

Mosher also took in another “revue” film, Broadway Melody of 1936, which served as a showcase of MGM’s star power.

THE MGM STABLE OF STARS showcased in *Broadway Melody of 1936* included, at top, the elegant **Eleanor Powell;** below, Powell (left) joins brother-sister dancing team Buddy and Vilma Ebsen in a down-home skit. Buddy Ebsen’s “carefully preserved homeliness” (quoting **John Mosher**) served him well 27 years later when he was cast as Jed Clampett in TV’s The Beverly Hillbillies. (IMDB)

Mosher also endured a “perfunctory” performance by Bette Davis in Special Agent, and a “mousy” Madeleine Renaud in Maria Chapdelaine.

PHONING IT IN…**Joe Sawyer, Bette Davis** and Ricardo Cortez in Special Agent. (IMDB)

NOT GAGA-WORTHY…Critic John Mosher thought French actress **Madeleine Renaud** (center) was too “mousy” to be cast against the rugged beauty of the Canadian frontier in 1934’s *Maria Chapdelaine*. Based on a romance novel written in 1913 by the French writer Louis Hémon, the film cast Renaud as a young woman enduring the hardships of rural Quebec while she is pursued by three suitors. An IMDB reviewer writes that this early **Julien Duvivier** film “is mostly of pictorial interest: the location shooting in Quebec is impressive, but the story is thin-to-nonexistent. Madeleine Renaud is cute but not magnetic enough to have three men going absolutely gaga over her.” (IMDB)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Forstmann Woolens kicks off our advertisements with this image of attenuated women posed in the autumnal landscape of Central Park…

…what is notable about this Arrow Shirts ad is the formal attire of father and son at a baseball game, not at all unusual in 1935…

…Seagram’s continued its aggressive campaign to promote its lineup of seven “masterpieces”…

…Coca-Cola also had a substantial war chest, marketing its product for home consumption, which still seemed to be somewhat novel…

…the back page ad went to the makers of Lucky Strike, pursuing that growing market of women smokers…

…Richard Decker drew up an ad for a more wholesome product…

…while Peter Arno put pen to paper to promote his “puzzle-cartoons” in the New York Post…

…which segues to our cartoon section, and Arno again with some office hijinks…

…Christina Malman’s wonderfully unique spot art was making regular appearances in the magazine’s pages…

…Perry Barlow served up some dinnertime etiquette…

…Carl Rose found order in the court…

…James Thurber continued to mesmerize…

…Helen Hokinson’s Ladies Club took a stand against fascism…

…Alan Dunn looked in on a polite perp…

…Mary Petty encountered a challenge in a dress shop…

…Gilbert Bundy revealed an odd duck among the fox hunters…

…and we close with Barbara Shermund, ready to curl up with a good (or bad) book…

Next Time: School Days…

The Din and Bustle

City life is a noisy life, especially in places like Manhattan, one of the most densely populated places in the world.

In his “Notes and Comment” column, E.B. White described the occasional “intestinal stoppage” of traffic outside The New Yorker’s offices at West 45th Street, an entire block “laden with undischarged vehicles, the pangs of congestion increasing till every horn is going—a united, delirious scream of hate, every decibel charged with a tiny drop of poison.”

ABOVE THE FRAY…**E.B. White** with his pet dachshund **Minnie** at the West 45th Street offices of *The New Yorker.* (New York Times)

AND DON’T CALL ME SHIRLEY…New York City’s Commissioner of Health, **Shirley Wynne** (right), created a Noise Abatement Commission in 1929. After eight months of research the Commission published *City Noise*, which included recommendations for a quieter city. (Wikipedia/trevianbooks.com)

The city began addressing the problem in 1929, when New York City’s Commissioner of Health, Shirley Wynne (1882-1942), created a Noise Abatement Commission, likely the first such commission in the U.S. The Commission cited the “mounting roar and crash of traffic, building, manufacture and sundry other noises which have accompanied the growth of the city.” After eight months of research the Commission published City Noise, which included recommendations for a quieter city.

URBAN CHORUS…A chart featured in City Noise depicted some of sources of noise in New York City.

PIPE DOWN!…Clockwise, from top left: The Noise Abatement Commission took to the streets with a municipal acoustics-measuring truck in 1930; cartoon in the *New York Herald Tribune* illustrated the challenge ahead; Commission officials conducting noise tests in Times Square, circa 1930; poster circa 1936 promoted Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s anti-noise drives. A 1936 noise code put sound restrictions on everything from radios to the “prolonged and unreasonable blowing of a horn.” A first offense cost $1; the second, if committed within the next year, $2. (hii-mag.com/Bloomberg.com/NYTimes.com)

Not one to leave a stone unturned, White also added this note about the noisy doors on Pullman train car toilets…

Here are the Otto Soglow spot drawings that accompanied the “Talk” piece:

Final note: A colorful exploration of sound can be found on the One Thousand Birds site, Hii Magazine. Check it out!

* * *

Puff Pushers

Tobacco companies like Philip Morris have long been savvy in finding ways to expand their market, including taking their product directly to the consumer, as “The Talk of the Town” explained in this entry:

SMOKE FREE…Sample pack of Philip Morris cigarettes, circa 1930s. (Ebay)

* * *

A Rare Glimpse

Before Roger Angell started writing about baseball in 1962, there wasn’t a whole lot written about the sport in the pages of The New Yorker. In the magazine’s early years, the game was probably perceived as too low-brow, while other athletic pursuits such as golf, tennis, and polo were more in line with the desired or perceived readership. Early contributors such as Ring Lardner had also soured on the sport, thanks to the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 and the greed of team owners. So here is a rare look at baseball, and Yankee coach Joe McCarthy (1887-1978), in “The Talk of the Town.” Excerpts:

BRONX BOMBERS…**Coach Joe McCarthy** (center) with sluggers **Lou Gehrig**, left, and **Babe Ruth** during the 1932 World Series. The first manager to win pennants in both the National and American leagues, McCarthy’s teams would win a total nine league pennants and seven World Series championships. (CARLI Digital Collections)

* * *

Music Under the Stars

The monumental Lewisohn Stadium was a popular classical music venue on the City College of New York campus until its unfortunate demolition in 1973. According to BBC Music Magazine, “for nearly half a century, Lewisohn Stadium gave people from all walks of life the chance to hear performances by the likes of violinist Fritz Kreisler, soprano Leontyne Price and clarinettist Benny Goodman for as little as 25 cents admission. The New Yorker paid a visit during eighteenth season of the Stadium Concerts. Excerpts:

CLASSICAL MASSES…At left, cover of the 1935 Stadium Concerts Review; at right, **Andre Kostelanetz** conducts before a crowd of thousands at Lewisohn Stadium in 1939. The stadium was demolished in 1973 to make way for City College of New York’s North Academic Center. See The New York Philharmonic Archive for the complete digital version of the 1935 *Stadium Concerts Review*. (NY Philharmonic Archive/PressReader.com)

* * *

At the Movies

Film critic John Mosher continued to search in vain for a film he could endorse, but he came away empty-handed after screening a star-studded screen adaptation of Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild. Star power also fell short for Mosher in the screen version of Booth Tarkington’s Alice Adams.

SMALL TALK…The film adaption of **Booth Tarkington’s** *Alice Adams* seemed to have all of the right elements in place, including director **George Stevens** and stars **Katharine Hepburn** and Fred MacMurray (left), but critic John Mosher found it somewhat average. In a 1991 retrospective review, however, *The New Yorker’s* **Pauline Kael** deemed the romantic comedy “a classic” and stated that “Hepburn gives one of her two or three finest performances.” At right, the character of Alice Adams was first portrayed on the silver screen by **Florence Vidor** in a 1923 silent film. (Toronto Film Society/Wikipedia)

THE BIG CHILL…Clockwise, from top left, **Clark Gable** and **Loretta Young** brave the Yukon wilds (actually Washington State) in *The Call of the Wild*; **Jack Oakie** provided comic relief as Gable’s sidekick Shorty Hoolihan; Young watches the filming of a scene on location at Mt. Baker National Forest; Gable shoots a scene with the St. Bernard Buck. (IMDB/Wikimedia)

CLARK’S BEST FRIEND…Dog lover **Clark Gable** became very close with **Buck** during the filming of *The Call of the Wild*. Buck appeared in seven more films from 1935 to 1940, even receiving star billing as “Buck the Wonder Dog.” (Facebook/Pinterest)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Colorful ads returned to the August 24 issue, featuring familiar sponsors who could afford full-page, full-color spots, namely tobacco and liquor producers…Camel was back with their athletic theme, however they might have chosen someone other than Bill Tilden, who looked perfectly ancient…

…Old Gold returned with another George Petty-illustrated ad…

…Courvoisier cognac took the back page spot…

…Powers Reproduction showed off their color printing expertise…I wonder if that is a Lucky she is smoking…

…because I believe she is the same woman who appeared in this ad from the July 27 issue:

…back to August 24, where we were encouraged to enjoy a Johnny Walker highball to stave off the late summer heat…

…the distinctive crown of Hotel Windemere on the Upper West Side was an eye-catcher even in this one-column ad from the back of the book…photo at right from around the time it was completed, 1927…

…on to our cartoonists, an unexpected profile caricature by William Steig (this two-part profile featured process-server Harry Grossman)…

…interesting spot drawings by George Shellhase (top) and Leonard Dove (bottom right), and at left, two by Christina Malman…

…Malman (1912-1959) produced at least two-dozen covers for The New Yorker between 1937 and 1956, including this gem from 1941:

…some baby names have real meaning, according to Alan Dunn…

…Peter Arno offered caution about dancing with a prickly Colonel…

…Fritz Wilkinson answered one cat call high above the city…

…Franz Shubert met Busby Berkeley, via Carl Rose…

…George Price persisted in threading a needle…

…Robert Day gave us a pacifist of sorts in a game of tug-of-war…

…Burma Shave jingles seemed to be everywhere in the 1930s, per Alain…

…An example of replica Burma Shave signs along Route 66:

…some parenting tips came our way via Helen Hokinson…

…and Leonard Dove took us back to school…finally…

Next Time: Down to Earth…

Hays Hokum

Above: Will Hays (center, top) was the enforcer and Fr. Daniel A. Lord was the author of the Production Code that was rigidly enforced beginning in 1934. They and others were responding to the sex, violence and other forms of "immorality" in such films as 1932's "Scarface" (with Paul Muni, pictured at left) and 1931's "Blonde Crazy" with James Cagney and Joan Blondell. (Wikipedia/cinemasojourns.com)

With the Production Code fully enforced, New Yorker film critic John Mosher found even less to get excited about during his visits to Manhattan’s cinemas.

August 17, 1935 cover by **Julian de Miskey.** He contributed 62 covers to the magazine, as well as 82 cartoons from 1925 to 1962.

The Motion Picture Production Code—a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content—had been around for awhile, but it was mostly ignored until June 13, 1934, when an amendment to the Code required all films released to obtain a certificate of approval. Hoping to avoid government censorship and preferring self-regulation, studios adopted the Code.

The Code’s effects were felt in such films as The Farmer Takes a Wife, a romantic comedy about a Erie Canal boatman, portrayed by Henry Fonda, who dreams of becoming a farmer (a role reprised by Fonda from the Broadway production of the same name; it was Fonda’s first break in films). Mosher was pleased by Fonda’s performance, but found the film adaptation to be corny and phony, filled with “bastard” dialect and schmaltzy musical numbers. “It is the sort of thing which is okayed by Purity Leagues…” Mosher concluded.

SILVER SCREEN DEBUT…Boatman Dan Harrow (**Henry Fonda**) woos barge cook Molly Larkins (**Janet Gaynor**) in a scene from *A Farmer Takes a Wife.* While it was Fonda’s film debut, Gaynor was an established star known for playing sweet, wholesome characters. One of the few actresses who made a successful transition to sound movies in the late 1920s, Gaynor was the number-one draw at the box office in 1935. (IMDB)

STILL KEEPING IT CLEAN…The Code was still in force when *The Farmer Takes a Wife* was remade in 1953; however, nineteen years after the Code took effect there was a notable easing of restrictions, as can be seen in the generous display of Betty Grable’s famous gams (seen here with **Thelma Ritter**). (IMDB/Wikipedia)

To get a clearer idea of what the Code did to the pictures, compare the scene from 1934’s Tarzan and His Mate (left), which was released two months before the Code went into effect, and Tarzan Escapes (right), from 1936.

CLOTHED IN THE CODE…**Johnny Weissmuller** and Maureen O’Sullivan appeared together in six Tarzan films. In their second outing, 1934’s *Tarzan and His Mate,* O’Sullivan wore a skimpy halter-top and loincloth (left) and was shown sleeping and swimming in the nude. In their next film, 1936’s *Tarzan Escapes* (right); Jane is more chastely clad. (mikestakeonthemovies.com/rottentomatoes.com)

* * *

Noted and Notorious

In his weekly column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker offered wry observations on the passing scene, including this latest brief that described the rise and fall of a very unlikely quartet of celebrities.

DEMOGOGUES, DUTCH & DIMPLES…(Left to right) Support appeared to be on the wane for radio priest and demagogue Father Charles Coughlin and fellow-fascist Louisiana Sen. **Huey Long,** while stock was on the rise for mobster **Dutch Schultz,** who successfully swayed public opinion (while under indictment for tax evasion) by generously donating to various charities. **Shirley Temple** continued to charm audiences, her films ranking number-one at the box office in 1935 (as well as in 1936, 1937, and 1938). The year 1935 would also be the last for Long and Schultz–both would be assassinated. (Wikipedia)

* * *

Titlemania

Lacking the strictures of Old World caste systems, Americans have had an anxious relationship with class signifiers. In a land where trade schools become universities overnight and their faculty members refer to one another as “doctor,” there is much confusion and hand-wringing in the honorifics trade. H.L. Mencken examined the proliferation of titles in his country, freely handed out without regard to merit. Excerpts:

* * *

From Our Advertisers

The back of the book was where one could find advertisements for upscale urban living, including these two touting the advantages of the Hotel Pierre and The Barbizon…

…In a joint venture with a group of Wall Street financiers, the former busboy-turned restauranteur Charles Pierre opened the Hotel Pierre in 1930—not the most auspicious time to open a luxury hotel as markets continued to collapse…the Pierre went into bankruptcy in 1932 and was later purchased by oilman J. Paul Getty…the legendary Barbizon Hotel for Women, completed in 1927, was designed as a safe and respectable haven for women seeking to pursue careers in New York, especially in the arts, and would host numerous famous women through the 1970s…

At left, the Barbizon in 1927; right, the Hotel Pierre circa 1930. (loc.gov)

…like the tobacco companies, brewers targeted women as a growth market for a product mostly associated with men…

…the makers of juices, meanwhile, created comic strips to promote their products…College Inn still went negative with their ads—recall the violent outbursts of the Duchess…

…here a spiteful husband blames his wife’s choice of tomato juice for his lack of success with the boss…Libby’s, on the other hand, promoted their pineapple juice as a surefire cure for a young woman’s ennui…

…notable in these somewhat thin, late summer issues is the lack of full-color ads…this was on the back inside cover…

…Flit and Dr. Seuss continued to be a weekly presence…

…which brings us to our cartoonists, and a spot drawing by Constantin Alajalov…

…also a modest spot by Robert Day, keeping us cool with this polar bear…

…Alain offered a short course in art appreciation…

…George Price ran afoul of the fire code…

…Carl Rose ran his tracks across this two-page spread…

…William Steig gave us the small fry’s perspective on the world’s wonders…

…a rare appearance of baseball in the magazine, thanks to Robert Day...

…Richard Decker brought a modern world challenge to one filling station…

…A sailor’s return to bachelorhood required a new paint job, per Alan Dunn…

…and who else but Charles Addams would circle vultures over an amusement park?…

…and we close with Al Frueh, and a Union Club member not concerned with a dress code…

Next Time: The Din and Bustle…

A Double-Header

Heading into the dog days of summer we take a look at the last two issues of July 1935, both somewhat scant in editorial content but still offering up fascinating glimpses of Manhattan life ninety years ago.

July 20, 1935 cover by William Crawford Galbraith. He contributed seven covers and 151 cartoons to the magazine.

That includes the observations of theatre critic Wolcott Gibbs and film critic John Mosher, both escaping the summer heat to take in some very different forms of entertainment.

Gibbs found himself “fifty dizzy stories above Forty-second Street” in the Chanin Building’s auditorium, where he experienced New York’s take on Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol. Founded in Paris by Oscar Méténier in 1897, Grand Guignol featured realistic shows that enacted, in gory detail, the horrific existence of the disadvantaged and working classes. It seems audiences were drawn to the shows more out of prurient interest (or sadistic pleasure) than for any desire to help the underclasses.

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART…**Wolcott Gibbs** recommended the Grand-Guignol only for those who “admire a frank, uncomplicated approach to the slaughterhouse and the operating table.” (Image: Wikipedia)

PRETTY HORRORS…Clockwise from top left, the original Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, in the Pigalle district of Paris–it operated from 1897 until 1962, specializing in horror theatre; a poster from one of its productions; New York’s Chanin building, circa 1930s; the Chanin’s auditorium “fifty dizzy stories above 42nd Street”; fake blood applied to an actress’ neck before a scene from *The Hussy*; **Wolcott Gibbs** described a madhouse scene from **André de Lorde’s** *The Old Women,* which depicted the fury of ancient inmates performing “optical surgery” on a young woman. (*thegrandguignol.com/Wikipedia/NYPL/props.eric-hart.com)*

* * *

Popeye to the Rescue

With the Hays Code in effect you wouldn’t see anything like the Grand-Guignol on the silver screen. Indeed, with the exception of a Popeye cartoon, critic John Mosher found little to get excited about at the movies. He did, however, enjoy the air conditioning that offered a break from the hot city streets.

THEY ALL COULD HAVE USED SOME SPINACH…Clockwise, from top left, **Popeye** and **Bluto** strike an unlikely partnership in *Dizzy Divers;* **Bette Davis** and George Brent in *Front Page Woman;* **Will Rogers** and Billie Burke in *Doubting Thomas;* **James Blakeley** and **Ida Lupino** in *Paris in Spring.* (brothersink.com / rottentomatoes.com / cometoverhollywood.com / classiccartooncorner.substack.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Just a few ads from this issue, first, a jolly appeal from one of the magazine’s newer advertisers, the makers of the French apertif Dubonnet…

…by contrast, this quaint slice of Americana from Nash…

…and a shot of pesticide from Dr. Seuss…

…our cartoonists include Constantin Alajalov, contributing this bit of spot art to the opening pages…

…Barbara Shermund explored the world of hypnotic suggestion…

…Peter Arno prepared to address the nation…

…William Steig checked the weather forecast…

…Helen Hokinson’s girls questioned the burden of a lei…

…Carl Rose found himself on opposite sides of the page in this unusual layout…

…Richard Decker joined the crowd in a lighthouse rendering…

…Ned Hilton reminds us that it was unusual for women to wear trousers ninety years ago…

…Mary Petty examined the complications of marital discord…

…and Charles Addams shone a blue light on a YMCA lecture…

…on to July 27, 1935, with a terrific summertime cover by William Steig…

July 27, 1935 cover by **William Steig,** one of his 117 covers for the magazine.

E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) was ahead of his time in suggesting that the city needed to build “bicycle paths paralleling motor highways” and invest in more pedestrian pathways.

NEW YORK’S FINEST…**Doris Kopsky,** who trained in Central Park, won the first Amateur Bicycle League of America Women’s Championship in 1937. Bicycle races were a big draw in the 1930s. (crca.net)

* * *

Breaking News

“The Talk of the Town” checked in on the New York Times’ “electric bulletin,” commonly known as “The Zipper.” Excerpt:

* * *

Dog Knots

“Talk” also took a look backstage at the Winter Garden, where burlesque performers shared the stage with a contortionist dog called “Red Dust.” Excerpt:

WOOF…Famed animal trainer **Robert “Bob” Williams** with one of his pupils. The dog in the photo is misidentified as Red Dust (he was actually a Malemute/chow mix).

* * *

Suddenly Famous

Charles Butterworth (1896-1946) earned a law degree from Notre Dame before becoming a newspaper reporter. But his life would take on a new twist in 1926 when he delivered his comical “Rotary Club Talk” at J.P. McEvoy’s Americana revue in 1926. Hollywood would come calling in the 1930s, and his doleful-looking, deadpan characters would become familiar to movie audiences through a string of films in the thirties and forties. Alva Johnston profiled Butterworth in the July 27 issue. Here are brief excerpts:

**Charles Butterworth** (left) and Jimmy Durante in *Student Tour* (1934). A bit of trivia: Butterworth’s distinctive voice was the inspiration for the Cap’n Crunch commercials voiced by **Daws Butler** beginning in the early 1960s. Butterworth’s life was cut short in 1946 when he crashed his imported roadster into a lamppost on Sunset Boulevard. (Detail from film still via IMDB)

* * *

Noisy Neighborhood

The “Vienna Letter” (written by “F.S.”–possibly Frank Sullivan) noted the rumblings of fascism in a grand old European city known for its many cultural delights as well as its many factions that included Nazis, Socialists and Communists (and no doubt a few Royalists). An excerpt:

CALM BEFORE THE STORM…Vienna in 1935, less than three years before the Anschluss, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. (meisterdrucke.us)

* * *

Ex Machina

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) penned this poem for The New Yorker that is somewhat appropriate to our own age and our fears of the rise of A.I. In “Nightmare Number Three,” Benét described a dystopian world where machines have revolted against humans.

BOTH CLASSY AND FOLKSY is how some today describe **Stephen Vincent Benét**, who in 1928 wrote a book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, *John Brown’s Body,* for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He was also know for such short stories as *The Devil and Daniel Webster,* published in 1936. (mypoeticside.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with more extraordinary claims from R.J. Reynolds, who convinced a lot of folks that drawing smoke into your lungs actually improved your athletic stamina…

…the makers of Lucky Strike, on the other hand, stuck with images of nature and romance to suggest the joys of inhaling tar and nicotine…

…General Tire took a cue from Goodyear, suggesting that an investment in their “Blowout-Proof Tires” was an investment in the very lives of a person’s loved ones (even though they apparently drove to the beach without seatbelts or even a windshield)…

…another colorful advertisement from the makers of White Rock, who wisely tied their product to ardent spirits as liquor consumption continued to rebound from Prohibition…

…I toss this in for the lovely rendering on behalf of Saks…it looks like the work of illustrator Carl “Eric” Erickson, but he had many imitators…

…we do, however, know the identity of this artist, and his drawings on behalf of the pesticide Flit, which apparently in those days of innocence was thought appropriate for use around infants…

…great spot drawing in the opening pages…I should know the signature but it escapes me at the moment…

…James Thurber quoted Blaise Pascal for this tender moment ( “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing”)…

…Peter Arno illustrated the horrors of finding one’s grandmother out of context…

…Helen Hokinson’s girls employed a malaprop to besmirch the good name of an innocent mountain…

…Richard Decker discovered the missing link(s) with two archeologists…

…Alan Dunn narrowly averted a surprise greeting…

…George Price added a new twist to a billiards match…

…Price again, at the corner newstand…

…Al Frueh bit off more than he could chew…

…and we close with Barbara Shermund, and a prattling mooch…

Next Time: La Marseillaise…

The Cowboy Philosopher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

Not Toying Around

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

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

* * *

Literary Spirits

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

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

* * *

Proto Feminist

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

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

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

* * *

From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…Held provides a segue to our illustrators and cartoonists, beginning with a sampling of spot art from the April 13 issue…

…James Thurber got things going on page 2…

…and also contributed this observation of the hypnotic arts…

…Otto Soglow did some careful surveying (this originally appeared across two pages)…

…Alain looked in on some Vatican gossip…

…Richard Decker pitched a Shirley Temple murder caper…

…Carl Rose gave us a sweet send-off…

…and we close out with a big bang, courtesy of Alan Dunn…

Next Time: Terse Verse…

It’s a Gift

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

By Another Name

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

* * *

Hot Rods

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

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

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

* * *

From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Time: Everything’s Jake…

Music in the Air

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

Alms for the Poor

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

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

* * *

Oh Baby

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

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

* * *

In the Year 2400

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

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

* * *

What’s It All About, Alfie?

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

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

* * *

From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

…we move on to our cartoonists…all of the spot illustrations in the issue were holiday-themed, and here are a few choice examples…

…Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein introduced a bit of color to a monastery’s dining hall…

…James Thurber continued to explore the dynamics between the sexes…

…Barbara Shermund did a bit of dreaming with her modern women…

…Carl Rose gave us Christmas cheer, with some reservations…

…and lastly, Perry Barlow with something for the holiday procrastinator…

Next Time: Farewell to 1934…

Al’s Menagerie

Above: The Dec. 2, 1934 opening of the reconstructed Central Park Menagerie drew such luminaries as Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, pictured at left with his family, and, at right, former New York Governor Al Smith, who was designated honorary zookeeper. Smith, who, lived across from the zoo at 820 Fifth Avenue, poses with two donkeys at the Menagerie in 1940. (New York Parks Archive)

The Central Park Zoo was not part of the original Olmstead-Vaux plan for the park, but beginning in 1859 it evolved spontaneously as a menagerie located near the Arsenal; its odd collection of animals included exotic pets donated as gifts, and other random creatures including a bear, a monkey, a peacock and some goldfish.

The menagerie accepted animals of all kinds, even sick ones, and by the 1920s the quality of the animals as well as the hodgepodge of buildings had degraded significantly (the lion house had to be guarded to prevent the animals from escaping their rotting quarters). In early 1934 Parks Commissioner Robert Moses addressed the adverse conditions in the menagerie, putting a redesign on a fast track and insisting that only healthy animals, in more humane settings, would be displayed.

DUMBOS…According to a 1911 Department of Parks Annual Report, the menagerie at Central Park submitted animals to questionable treatment, as suggested by this photo of a trainer and a dog perched on top of an elephant. (nycgovparks.org)

Built of brick and limestone, the new zoo was designed in just sixteen days by an in-house team led by architect Aymar Embury II. Construction on the roughly six-acre zoo took just eight months, employing federally financed Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor.

MOSES PARTS THE RED TAPE…**Robert Moses** wasted no time after his appointment as parks commissioner (in January 1934) to get rolling on the menagerie makeover—it took just eight months to complete the new zoo. Clockwise, from top left, invitation to the opening celebration of the Central Park Menagerie—12,000 invited guests attended the opening, while another 25,000 lined Fifth Avenue hoping to be admitted; the popular sea lion pool was a central attraction on opening day (it is one of several elements from the 1934 zoo that still exists); conditions had improved for elephants and other animals, but they were still far from ideal; aerial view of the zoo as it neared completion on Oct. 9, 1934. (nycma.lunaimaging.com/digitalcollections.nypl.org)

Much ado was made of Al Smith’s appointment as “Honorary Night Superintendent”—in these clips from the Dec. 3 New York Times, Smith gave a brief “lecture” about the zoo’s bison, to which he offered a slice of bread…

(Excerpts from The New York Times via the *TimesMachine*)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

R.J. Reynolds continued to roll out its list of distinguished women who preferred their Camel cigarettes: “Mrs. Allston Boyer” nee Charlotte Young was a model with the John Robert Powers agency who was married to resorts planner Allston Boyer from 1934 to 1939. Young (1914–2012) would later marry New York Times Moscow correspondent Harrison Salisbury, and the two would embark on lengthy journeys throughout Asia, including a grueling 7,000-mile journey retracing the route of The Long March that Charlotte recounted in one of her seven travel books. Whether she continued her Camel habit is unknown, but she did live 98 years…

…a house ad from The New Yorker celebrated the holiday season with special Christmas rates (and Julian de Miskey embellishments)…

…Rea Irvin continued to have fun with the federal government’s new food and drug labeling standards…

…while Richard Decker had these two castaways contemplating a simpler form of government…

…and James Thurber continued to stir up trouble among the sexes…

…on to Dec. 8, 1934…

…which featured (on page 135) a handwritten letter from Kewpie Doll inventor Rose O’Neill, who commented on her recent New Yorker profile…

…here is an excerpt from the Nov. 24 profile referenced by O’Neill:

…and on to our advertisements from the Dec. 8 issue, including another Julian de Miskey-illustrated house ad…

…the clever folks at Heinz enlisted the talents of Carl Rose for a play on his famous Dec. 8, 1928 New Yorker cartoon…

…a closer look at the illustration (note the mother’s softer, more conservative appearance, five years removed from her flapper days; the child hasn’t changed a bit, except now we can see her face)…

…and the 1928 original, with caption by E.B. White…

…Peter Arno also popped up in the advertising section on behalf of Libby’s…

…the magazine grew thicker with many Christmas-themed ads, including this one from Johnnie Walker…

…Marlboro continued to take out these modest, back-page ads aimed at tobacco’s growth market—women smokers…

…the makers of Spud menthol cigarettes continued their campaign to encourage chain-smoking with this rather depressing image…

…while Spud’s new competitor in menthol cigs, KOOL, kept things simple with their smoking penguin mascot and valuable coupons for keen merchandise…

…the Citizens Family Welfare Committee offered this reminder that the Depression was still very much a challenge for 20,000 New York families…

…on to our cartoonists, beginning with Alan Dunn’s rather dim view of Robert Moses’s generously funded parks department…

…George Price gave us the latest update on his floating man, who had been up in the air since the Sept. 22 issue…

…Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein marked the season with dueling Santas from Macy’s and Gimbel’s…

…and we end with James Thurber, and some reverse psychology…

Next Time: An Industrial Classicist…