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: Behind the scenes production photo of the space gun used to launch a manned projectile to the moon in Things to Come. (Instagram)
One of the most anticipated films of the 1930s was the British production of Things to Come. Loosely based on the 1933 science fiction novel by H.G. Wells,The Shape of Things to Come, the film was an extraordinarily ambitious and expensive production featuring a huge cast and elaborate sets, both full-scale and in miniature.
April 25, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
Critic John Mosher wasn’t quite sure what to make of Things to Come, seizing on the film’s promise to end the common cold.
CLEANING CREW…A businessman in Everytown in the 1940s, John Cabal (Raymond Massey) returns in the 1970s to find his city in ruin and governed by a warlord. As a member of a secret organization called “Wings Over the World” (comprised of the last surviving band of engineers and mechanics), Cabal orders his organization to send giant flying wings over Everytown and saturate the population with a “Gas of Peace.” Not only does the gas make the population tranquil, it also kills the warlord, played by Ralph Richardson (right). (midnightonly.com/instagram.com)
In a review for The Criterion Collection, Geoffrey O’Brien notes that the film’s shocking scenes of war were shown to an audience “in active denial, many of them, of the possibility of such things coming to pass in the near future.”
But an antiseptic city with a population made docile by a “Gas of Peace” didn’t appear to be something one would look forward to either. O’Brien points to Jorge Luis Borges’ remarks regarding Things to Come: “The heaven of Wells and Alexander Korda, like that of so many other eschatologists and set designers, is not much different than their hell, though even less charming.” Borges dismissed the notion that science and technology would be the rallying force against tyranny: “In 1936, the power of almost all tyrants arises from their control of technology.”
WAR AND PEACE…At left, bombers lay waste to Everytown in the 1940s, seemingly forecasting The Blitz of London in 1940-41; at right, decades later, “Wings Over the World” sends giant flying wings (right) over Everytown to saturate the population with a “Gas of Peace.” (Illinois.edu/facebook.com)UTOPIA?…After years of rebuilding, a new, underground Everytown emerges in 2036. The set (left) was designed by director William Cameron Menzies and Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Above, transportation included autogyros; both men and women wore futuristic togas, including John Cabal’s great-granddaughter Catherine Cabal (Pearl Argyle). Note the acrylic furniture, ubiquitous in the future scenes of the film. (midnightonly.com/facebook.com/YouTube)
O’Brien concludes: “There is no way any audience, in the 1930s or now, would be likely to accept Raymond Massey’s Oswald Cabal as an empathetic spokesperson for the human race. He is essentially the chairman of the board of a quasi-fascist ruling elite—and not so very far from the idea that Wells, at best ambivalent about democracy, in fact had in mind.”
In all fairness, I should note that Massey did not like his character’s “heavy-handed speeches” that lacked human emotion. He complained H.G. Wells prioritized cold scientific ideals over personal character depth. “For heart interest, Mr. Wells hands you an electric switch,” Massey stated.
WISHES SOMETIMES COME TRUE…In the movie, a little girl in the year 2036 receives a history lesson from her great grandfather (including a video of 1936 New York), and she expresses delight that people will “keep on inventing things and making life lovelier and lovelier.” The little girl was played by eight-year-old Anne McLaren. The great grandfather was played by Charles Carson (1885–1977). (midnightonly.com)DAME McLAREN…In real life that little girl, Anne McLaren (1927–2007), did make life better, becoming a leading figure in developmental biology and paving the way for other women in science. Her work also helped lead to the development of human invitrofertilization. Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren received many honors for her research and ethical contributions. (YouTube.com/Wikipedia)POW! TO THE MOON…At left, Catherine Cabal (Pearl Argyle) and fellow scientist Maurice Passworthy (Kenneth Villiers) prepare to fly around the moon, launched from a gigantic space gun (right). (theguardian.com/YouTube)
Interestingly, Raymond Massey (1896–1983) and most of the film’s cast would live to see an actual moon landing in just 33 years. Most of them would also be involved in some way in the Second World War, Massey being wounded as part of the Canadian regiment.
American writer and editor Al Graham (1905–1972), who contributed a number of poems and “Talk of the Town” pieces to The New Yorker in the Thirties and Forties, offered some thoughts regarding Things to Come. Here are excerpts of the first and last parts of his piece:
SLOW AND STEADY…Al Graham is perhaps best known for his 1930s humorous verse and children’s literature such as Timothy Turtle (1946) and The Rhymes of Squire O’Squirrel (1963). At right is a cover of the first edition of H.G. Wells’The Shape of Things to Come. (Wikipedia)
Incidentally, the British automaker Triumph used Wells’ title in a 1970s ad campaign for the TR-7…
(The Daily Drive)
While we are talking movies, Mosher also reviewed Frank Capra’sMr. Deeds Goes to Town. Films such as Mr. Deeds and It’s a Wonderful Life were Capra’s “love letters to an idealized America—a cinematic landscape of his own invention,” wrote social critic Morris Dickstein. Or as actor/director John Cassavetes once observed: “Maybe there really wasn’t an America, it was only Frank Capra.” Whatever it was, Mr. Deeds would win Capra his second Oscar for Best Director (he would win three in all, plus a fourth for a World War II documentary).
HAPPY ENDING…Mr. Deeds (Gary Cooper) finds love and salvation with Jean Arthur in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. (britannica.com)
* * *
Ah-Choo!
Those familiar with E.B. White’s writings are likely also familiar with his lifelong struggle with hay fever, or “catarrh” as it was also referred to in those days. White notably wrote about his condition in a 1938 New Yorker essay, “Daniel Webster, the Hay Fever, and Me.” He addresses the malady in his April 25, 1936 “Notes and Comment” column:
SNEEZING AND HONKING…Despite his allergies, E.B. White had a deep love for the countryside and nature. Although he grew up just outside New York City, he cultivated a love of rural life that was finally realized when he and wife Katharine bought a farm near Brooklin, Maine. Above is a 1974 photo (by Jill Krementz) of White at his Maine farm. (cornell.edu)
One of the more common and effective treatments for allergies in the Thirties was the benzedrine inhaler. The active ingredient was amphetamine. It was safe if inhaled, however some folks got the idea to crack open the inhaler and swallow the contents, which would induce a mind-altering effect (the amount of amphetamine in the inhaler was 250 milligrams, much greater than the five or ten milligrams in tablets prescribed for depression).
NOT SHIRLEY TEMPLE, however the marketers of the inhaler probably wanted consumers to make the connection. (mcgill.ca)
* * *
Before the Internet
What did some folks do in the evening before modern-day distractions? According to “The Talk of the Town,” at least one man and his family loved to gawk at the new Wrigley sign in Times Square.
CHEW ON THIS…The Wrigley sign spanned the block on Broadway from 44th Street to 45th Street. Designed by artist Dorothy Shepard, the display featured fish blowing bubbles and was lit by 29,608 lamps and 1,084 feet of neon tubing. It was so large that its electrical power usage was estimated to be equivalent to a small city of ten thousand people. (Wikipedia)
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From Our Advertisers
White Rock continued its series of brightly illustrated ads, this most likely the work of noted illustrator John Holmgren…
…Stage magazine continued to promote its star-studded content in full-page color ads…this one featured American stage and film actress Ina Claire…
Ina Claire, center, with Osgood Perkins and Doris Dudley in End of Summer.(jacksonupperco.com)
…ah, the pleasure of an after-dinner Lucky back in the day when you could still smoke indoors…
…another ad for Green Giant Niblets featuring a rich old toff who’s just over the moon about canned corn…
…these surreal Lyse Darcy ads for Guerlain really stood out in the magazine…
…speaking of standing out, who could resist the distraction of a tabloid, especially with the Gray Lady folded in one’s lap?…Alain illustrates…
…and per James Thurber, who was immune to the charms of a woman with a heart tattooed on her hip?…
…Charles Addams showed us a man with a built-in fishing advantage…
…Gregory d’Alessio gave us an understandable marital mix-up…
…Helen Hokinson offered a dose of “meh” in the hat department…
…Garrett Price showed us the consequences of Robert Moses’s transformation of Long Island from a rural area for the rich into a suburban landscape for the hoi polloi…
…and we close with Peter Arno, who wondered what’s the fun of drinking in the tropics when you can do the same thing in Queens?…
Above: Posters advertising The Country Doctor, a film featuring the Dionne Quintuplets as "The Wyatt Quintuplets." (Wikipedia/imdb.com)
The Dionne Quintuplets, famed as the first quintuplets known to have survived infancy, appeared in a motion picture before their second birthday—The Country Doctor—just one example of the many ways the girls were exploited by the province of Ontario, their doctor, their father, and the companies who used their images to sell everything from toys to toothpaste.
March 21, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
The Country Doctor was the first of three 20th Century Fox films featuring the toddlers as the “The Wyatt Quintuplets.” Actor Jean Hersholt played the country doctor (“Dr. John Luke”) in all three films, his character based on Allan Roy Dafoe, the Ontario obstetrician who successfully delivered the identical quints in 1934. It was a sign of the times that no one seemed too concerned about the children’s welfare—TheNew Yorker’s John Mosher was joined by his fellow critics in generally praising the film.
MARKETING MATERNITY…The Country Doctor was the first of three 20th Century Fox films featuring the Dionne Quintuplets. Clockwise, from top left: Slim Summerville, Jean Hersholt, and John Qualen in The Country Doctor; Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn with the quintuplets in 1934; a 1936 book based on the film; a 1937 ad for Karo Syrup, a major sponsor of the girls and Dr. Dafoe; an array of quintuplet-related toys included paper dolls and the much sought after Madame Alexander dolls. (Wikipedia/ebay.com/facebook.com/pbs.org)
The Dionne Quintuplets were used to endorse an array of products including Quaker Oats, Colgate toothpaste, Palmolive soap, and Lysol disinfectant. Dr. Dafoe became a wealthy man due to his association with the quintuplets, while the government of Ontario saw enormous tourism potential (the girls were made wards of the province ostensibly to protect them from exploitation). At the age of four months the quintuplets were moved from the farmhouse where they were born to a compound (“Quintland”) that featured an outdoor playground designed as a public observation area.
SURROUNDED BY RICHES…at left, Allen Roy DaFoe on a postcard with the Dionne Quintuplets; tourists consult sign for the next public showing of the “Quints.”(roadtripusa.com/facebook.com)CHA-CHING…Oliva Dionne, the quintuplets’ father, ran this souvenir and refreshment stand at Quintland, where the public flocked to view the girls playing. (montrealgazette.com)
The last surviving quintuplet, Annette, died on December 24, 2025, at the age of 91. Her sister Cécile died a few months earlier, also at age of 91.
John Mosher also reviewed Mae West’s latest film, Klondike Annie. Some critics regarded it as her finest film, despite heavy censorship and the outrage of “Decency people.”
GO WEST, WEST…Mae West portrayed a kept woman who murders her keeper in self-defense and escapes to Nome, Alaska in Klondike Annie. At left, West in a scene with Son Yong; at right, with Phillip Reed. (Pinterest)
* * *
St. Katharine
Robert Benchley found Katharine Cornell’s theatrical performance in Saint Joan to be “as fine as was expected.” An excerpt:
KNOWN QUANTITIES was how Robert Benchley described the talents of stage actress Katharine Cornell. At left, Cornell as Saint Joan; at right, Cornell (1893–1974) is perhaps best known in her role as Elizabeth Barrett in the 1931 Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. (Wikipedia)
* * *
It Begins…
On March 7, 1936, 22,000 German army troops crossed a bridge over the Rhine River and entered the Rhineland, breaking the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which mandated a demilitarized Rhineland to ensure French safety. Despite the violation, and the fact that the German army was still weak, France and Britain took no military action. E.B. White reported:
REOCCUPATION…On March 7, 1936, German Army troops crossed a bridge over the Rhine River and entered the Rhineland for the first time since the end of World War I. The lack of response from France and Great Britain no doubt emboldened Hitler to annex Austria and occupy Czechoslovakia in 1938. (iwm.org.uk)
Howard Brubaker, in his column “Of All Things,” also noted:
* * *
Some Pretty Things
“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to the Museum for the Arts of Decoration at the Cooper Union and found many treasures within, including a unique circular elevator.
BRIDGE TO THE PAST…The Cooper Union’s Museum for the Arts of Decoration held many treasures, including (at bottom) an Italian birdcage fashioned to resemble the Rialto Bridge; at top, rooms filled with examples from the decorative arts. (cooperhewitt.org)
The “Talk” visit included a ride up a circa 1850s elevator shaft designed by inventor Peter Cooper four years before safety elevators even existed. The design was based on Cooper’s belief that the circular shape was the most efficient.
ROUND AND SOUND…At left, entrance to Peter Cooper’s circa 1850s round elevator and the elevator’s shaft at the Cooper Union Foundation Building. The round shaft remains a central feature of the building today, now housing a modern round elevator designed in 1972. (Cooper Union Library)
* * *
Commie Cutlery
American non-fiction writer Carl Carmer published the first part of a two-part essay on the revolutionary Oneida Community, which Carmer dubbed “a materially successful communist experiment…”
This polyamorous Christian utopia disbanded before the end of the 19th century and reemerged as a joint-stock company, Oneida Community Limited, which focused on making silverware. This brief excerpt is from the first paragraph.
COHABITING COMRADES…Oneida commune members gather on the lawn in front of the Community Mansion House in in Madison County, New York, circa 1860s. Members of the community practiced free love, women and men had equal freedom in sexual expression and commitment, and children were raised communally. (collectorsweekly.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Yes, take a doctor’s advice, and put some leaded gas in your car, and into the air you breathe…
…R.J. Reynolds presented three women who exemplified the “society model” trend of the 1930s…well-known debs and socialites who provided an air of prestige to a brand…especially cigarettes…
…Lorillard Tobacco Company, on the other hand, stuck with pin-up artist George Petty to push their Old Golds…
…General Motors took out the middle spread to tout their low-priced luxury automobile, the La Salle…
…the convertible La Salle looked handsome, if not a bit brisk with the top down…
…American luxury carmaker Packard proudly displayed their twelve-cylinder luxury model, but reminded readers they could have a lesser model, the 120, for a price “in the $1,000 field”…
…a couple of one-column ads…Don Herold helped Hale’s move mattresses, while fashion columnist Alma Archer employed class anxiety to promote her new book, The Secrets of Smartness and the Art of Allure…
SMARTNESS AUTHORITY Alma Archer in 1937. Archer (1898–1988) wrote a widely read column for the New York Mirror that was syndicated in more than a thousand newspapers.
…if you have been following this blog, you’ll recall the ads with angry duchesses fuming over tomato juice and rich old men fondly recalling their countrified youth via canned corn niblets…well here is one robber baron who needed some niblets pronto to quiet his rage…maybe a snifter or two of brandy would have also helped…
…on to our cartoonists, James Thurber kicked things off on page two…
…the “Goings On” section concluded on page four with this drawing by Charles Addams…
…a couple more spot drawings from the issue by Christina Malman (left) and Richard Taylor…
…Al Frueh offered this interpretation of the players in End of Summer…
…and we have Thurber again, with a hard-to-miss distraction…
…William Steig continued to explore the varieties of “Holy Wedlock”…
…Leonard Dove gave us a golddigger stranded at sea…
…Gardner Rea put a captain of industry in a tight spot…
…Ned Hilton encountered a hairy challenge…
…Eli Garson demonstrated some remarkable foot dexterity…
…while Robert Day showed a lack of dexterity a construction site…
…Charles Addams revealed a materialist in the brotherhood…
…Peter Arno’s charwomen let a sleeping dog lie…
…and we close Garrett Price, and one perceptive lad…
Above, left, Janet Flanner regards the cover of the Sept. 13, 1931 issue of The New Yorker; at right, Adolf Hitler's chosen filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl at Nuremberg's "Shovel Day" parade, 1936. (Library of Congress/Sueddeutscher Verlag)
The February 29, 1936 issue stands out from pack not only for its cover—James Thurber’s first—but also for the magazine’s first in-depth look at a man who would spark the deadliest conflict in human history.
February 29, 1936 cover by James Thurber. This was the first of six covers Thurber contributed to The New Yorker. You can see all six covers at Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill, the go-to site for all things Thurber and so much more. UPDATE: Also check Maslin’s post regarding the repeat of this cover on Sept. 4, 2023. Fascinating read!
Before we jump in…Thurber’s close friend E.B. White noted another unusual fact about this issue…
…twenty-eight years later, and a dime extra (cover by Garrett Price)…
* * *
Inside the Feb. 29 issue, The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent Janet Flanner published the first part of a three-part profile on German dictator Adolf Hitler. In this first excerpt she described the Führer’s ascetic diet and personality (caricature by William Cotton).
NAZI NUM NUMS….Adolf Hitler with one of his official food tasters, Margot Woelk, during World War II. Woelk later claimed she was the sole survivor from a group of food tasters who were summarily executed by the Red Army after the fall of Berlin. (warfarehistorynetwork.com)
Flanner described Hitler’s relationships with influential women, particularly filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS…Adolf Hitler had influential admirers both in and outside of Germany, including, clockwise, from top left, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (in the white skirt described by Flanner) at the 1936 “Shovel Day” in Nuremburg; Winifred Wagner, daughter-in-law of composer Richard Wagner, in 1925; Hitler with Unity Mitford, one of six aristocratic Mitford sisters and a fanatical Nazi; Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl with another Mitford sister, Diana Mitford, at a 1934 Nuremberg rally. Diana as married to Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, and Hanfstaengl was the son of Katharina Wilhelmina Hanfstaengl, a prominent Munich art publisher who helped finance Hitler’s rise to power. (Sueddeutscher Verlag/Wikipedia/historyreader.com)
Flanner concluded the piece with a look at Hitler’s sexuality, which seemed non-existent, and drew an ominous conclusion about his personality type.
EXPENDABLE…Ernst Röhm with Adolf Hitler in 1933. Although Hitler knew Röhm was gay, he also valued Röhm’s leadership and organizational skills, that is until his presence proved a liability. Röhm was murdered by the SS in 1934 during the “Night of the Long Knives.” (Wikipedia)
As part of a centenary series, The New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz recently looked at Flanner’s profile of Hitler, noting that she was “neither an antifascist, like her friend Dorothy Parker, nor a Fascist, like her friend Ezra Pound; she was against crude bigotry, but she was not the world’s greatest philo-Semite.”
* * *
Lamour Amour
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White pointed out the challenges of expressing physical beauty over a non-visual medium like radio:
TELEGENIC…Hopefully E.B. White managed to see Dorothy Lamour on the “television waves… bumping along over the Alleghenies.” At left, publicity photo of Lamour from 1937; at right, Lamour appeared as a mystery guest on What’s My Line?, Feb. 20, 1955, seen here with host John Daly. In later years Lamour was a guest on a number of television shows, ranging from Marcus Welby, M.D. to Remington Steele. (Wikipedia/YouTube.com)
* * *
Shadow Plays
Morris Bishop (1893-1973), a noted scholar of the Middle Ages as well as a writer of light verse, offered up these lines after screening early silent films at the Museum of Modern Art. The screenings were curated by Iris Barry to showcase MoMA’s new film library and to advance the study of film as a serious art form.
TIME CAPSULES…The Museum of Modern Art was a pioneer in the study of film as a modern art form. Among the films screened at MoMA in 1936 (clockwise, from top left): famed stage actress Sarah Bernhardt as Queen Elizabeth in the Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth) with Lou Tellegen, 1912; Bernhardt in the film Camille (La Dame aux camélias) with André Calmettes, 1911; Theda Bara’s 1917 take on Camille, in a scene with Alan Roscoe; Gloria Swanson in Zaza, 1923. (Wikipedia/imdb.com/YouTube.com)
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A Reporter’s Chops
With so much attention given to James Thurber as a humorist, it is easy to forget that he was an experienced journalist, and that he could apply his considerable gifts as a writer to narrative non-fiction. For the Feb. 29 “A Reporter at Large” column, Thurber penned “Crime in the Cumberlands.”I can’t do it justice through excerpts, but I highly recommend giving it a read as a prime example of Thurber’s skills as a reporter.
SERIOUSLY SERIOUS WRITER…You can find both humorous and not-so-humorous crime stories (and drawings, of course) in 1991’s Thurber on Crime, edited by Robert Lopresti. “Crime in the Cumberlands” is included in the collection. (jamesthurber.org/barnesandnoble.com)
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At the Movies
Not so serious were the films being churned out by Hollywood, including the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers toe-tapper Follow the Fleet, set to an Irving Berlin score that featured the hit “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” Critic John Mosher was on board for the ride.
GOOD CLEAN FUN…Dance partners “Bake” Baker (Fred Astaire) and Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers) find love during shore leave in Follow the Fleet.(Toronto Film Society)
Bandleader Harry Richman, well known in the New York nightlife scene of the 1920s and 30s, showed his acting chops in The Music Goes ‘Round…
I CAN SING TOO…Rochelle Hudson and Harry Richman in The Music Goes ‘Round. (imdb.com)
…Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sydney, Henry Fonda and Fred Stone appeared in living color in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine–it was just the second full-length feature to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first to be shot outdoors in Technicolor…
LIFELIKE…Clockwise, from top left: Fred MacMurray; Sylvia Sydney; a Paramount movie poster; Henry Fonda and Fred Stone.(moviesalamark.com/imdb.com)
…the 1936 film Rhodes (aka Rhodes of Africa) featured the massive acting talents of Walter Huston and Peggy Ashcroft; not surprisingly, the subject matter of the film has not aged well…a 2015 review in The Guardianis headlined: “Rhodes of Africa: only slightly less offensive than the man himself”…
COLONIAL KLINK…Walter Huston and Peggy Ashcroft in Rhodes.(imdb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with a Stage magazine ad from the inside front cover, featuring an illustration by Alexander King…
…only new-money swells would be seen doing this…old money wouldn’t dare enter the kitchen, unless they needed to sack the cook…
…on the back cover of the Feb. 29 issue you would find this elegant woman taking a break from her vanity to enjoy a “toasted” Lucky…
…we join our cartoonists, starting with this spot by Richard Taylor…
…Garrett Price got stuck over the frozen falls…
…George Price drew up a sandwich board competition…
…Al Frueh continued to illuminate “The Theatre” section…
…James Thurber posed a loaded question…
…Denys Wortman got down to some debugging…
…Carl Rose offered up another example of rugged individualism…
…Charles Addams came down to earth…
…Alain illustrated a case of jury tampering…
…Helen Hokinson demonstrated the allure of a netted hat…
…and Hokinson again, doing some early spring cleaning…
…and Barbara Shermund explored the idyll of wanderlust…
…and before we go, here is the New Yorker cover—by Helen Hokinson, Sept. 12, 1931—that was the object of Janet Flanner’s attention…
Above: A mechanic (Chester Conklin) gets caught up in his work with the help of the Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) in Modern Times. (festival-entrevues.com)
The film Modern Times was Charlie Chaplin’s last performance as “The Tramp” (or, “The Little Tramp”), a character he created more than twenty years earlier to represent a simple person’s struggle to survive in the modern world. That struggle was no more apparent than in Modern Times, a film in which the Tramp faced the dehumanizing industrial age in all its kooky complexity.
A sweet Valentine’s Day-themed cover by William Steig, February 15, 1936.
The film is notable for being Chaplin’s first picture to feature sound, and the first in which Chaplin’s voice is heard—singing Léo Daniderff’s comical song “Je cherche après Titine” (although Chaplin replaced the lyrics with gibberish). Modern Times was nevertheless filmed as a silent, with synchronized sound effects and a small amount of dialogue. Critic John Mosher appreciated the movie as being “of the old era,” not anticipating that it would become one of cinema’s most iconic and beloved films.
JUST A COG IN THE MACHINE…Clockwise, from top left: Repetitive assembly line work drives the Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) to a nervous breakdown; the steel factory is an Orwellian world where the president (Allan Ernest Garcia) constantly monitors his workers—even in the bathroom where the Tramp is caught taking a break; the company tries out a new lunch efficiency machine on the Tramp, with mixed results; iconic image of the Tramp at work. (medium.com/YouTube.com)(thetwingeeks.com)
One of the film’s best stunts involved the blindfolded Tramp rollerskating on the fourth floor of an under-construction department store; Chaplin employed a matte painting, perfectly applied on a glass pane in front of a camera, to create the illusion of a sheer drop-off. Even as an illusion, Chaplin’s skating skills were remarkable.
HIGH ANXIETY…The blindfolded Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) skates precariously close to a sheer drop-off on the fourth floor of a department store while his companion, an orphan girl known as “The Gamin” (Paulette Goddard) puts on her skates, unaware of his peril. (YouTube.com)
The model below shows how the effect was achieved, filming next to a glass-mounted matte painting to create the illusion of a sheer drop off…
(reddit.com)
In his conclusion, Mosher found the film to be “secure in its rich, old-fashioned funniness.”
Chaplin gave a happy send-off to the Tramp, who at the end of earlier films walked down the road alone. Modern Times closed with the Tramp and the Gamin walking hand in hand, dreaming of a life together.
FOND FAREWALL…Paulette Goddard joined Charlie Chaplin on the road at the end of Modern Times. Goddard became Chaplin’s third wife in 1936. (the-cinematograph.com)THE TRAMP RETURNS…World premiere of Modern Times, Feb. 5, 1936, at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City. The film was one of the top-grossing films of 1936. (Wikipedia)
A final note: The website The Twin Geeks offers an excellent synopsis and analysis of Modern Times.
* * *
Bachelor King
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White wrote about the ascension to the British throne by Edward VIII following the death of his father, George V. In this excerpt, White considered a question raised by the Daily News regarding the king’s plans to marry (a question answered a few months later when Edward announced his plan to wed American divorcee Wallis Simpson, which led to a constitutional crisis and Edward’s subsequent abdication).
BUT I DON’T WANNA BE KING…The reluctant king Edward VIII would choose love over the crown when he abdicated the throne in December 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson (bottom left); E.B. White noted one woman’s suggestion that the king should marry actress Greta Garbo, since “Both have had a rough time at love.” (highland titles.com/George Eastman Museum)
* * *
By Any Other Name
“The Talk of Town” featured a profile of Arthur J. Burks, a prolific writer of pulp fiction who published everything from detective stories to science fiction under a half-dozen pseudonyms. A brief excerpt:
A CURIOUS MIND…Arthur J. Burks (1898–1974) and the cover of Astounding Stories, January 1932, which featured the first part of his two-part tale, “The Mind Master.” Burks produced around eight hundred stories for the pulps, twenty-nine of which appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. (findagrave.com/gutenberg.org)
* * *
A Day in the Life
From 1935 to 1962 Eleanor Roosevelt published a daily syndicated newspaper column titled “My Day”—through the column millions of Americans learned her views on politics, society, and events of the day as well as details about her private and public life. James Thurber couldn’t resist writing a parody—here’s an excerpt:
THE REAL DEAL…At left, sample of one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s syndicated “My Day” columns from 1938; photo of the First Lady from 1932. (arthurdaleheritage.org/Library of Congress)
* * *
At the Movies
Besides Modern Times, there were other movies of note that were given rather scant attention in Mosher’s column, including the film adaptation of The Petrified Forest starring Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Leslie Howard.
Robert E. Sherwood wrote the 1934 Broadway play of the same name, which was co-produced by Howard and featured both Howard and Bogart. When it was adapted to film, Howard insisted that Bogart appear in the movie, and it made Bogart a star (he remained grateful to Howard for the rest of his life).
DANGEROUS DINER…An odd mix of patrons at a gas station cafe are taken hostage by desparate criminals in The Petrified Forest. From left are Leslie Howard, Dick Foran, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Playwright Robert Sherwood based Bogart’s character, Duke Mantee, on the the real-life criminal John Dillinger, the FBI’s first “Public Enemy #1.” (moma.org)
Other cinema diversions included the musical Anything Goes, which included songs by Cole Porter; the comedy Soak the Rich, which featured a radical who falls in love with a rich man’s daughter; and a detective film, Muss ‘Em Up, with the usual movie gangsters.
TAKE YOUR PICK…Clockwise, from top left: Ida Lupino and Arthur Treacher in the musical Anything Goes; Bing Crosby (in disguise) and Ethel Merman in Anything Goes; John Howard, Mary Taylor and Walter Connolly in the comedy Soak the Rich; Preston Foster, Maxine Jennings and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams in the detective film Muss ‘Em Up. (imdb.com/torontofilmsociety.com/zeusdvds.com)
* * *
The Amazing Race
The New Yorker periodically featured “That Was New York,” which took a detailed look at significant events in the city’s history. In this installment, Donald Moffat recalled the 1908 New York to Paris automobile race, which commenced in Times Square on February 12 with six cars representing the U.S., France, Germany and Italy. It was an extraordinary event given that motorcars were a recent invention, and roads were nonexistent in many parts of the world. A brief excerpt:
ON YOUR MARK…Cars lined up in Times Square on Feb 12, 1908 for the start of what would become a 169-day race. American George Schuster was declared the winner when he arrived in Paris on July 30, 1908, after covering approximately 10,377 miles (16,700 km). (Library of Congress)
* * *
Miscellany
Another regular feature in the early New Yorker was coverage of the New York Rangers, a team founded in 1926 by Tex Rickard after he completed construction of the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden. The Rangers were one of the Original Six NHL teams before the 1967 expansion, the others being the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.
In this excerpt, the writer “K.B.” described the rough play against rival Detroit, which would win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1936 and 1937.
ZESTY…The excerpt above noted that the Rangers’ Phil Watson cuffed the Red Wings’ Syd Howe “with a zest richly appreciated by the balcony.” At left, team photo of the 1935-36 New York Rangers, with star and fight instigator Phil Watson identified with arrow; at right, Syd Howe won three Stanley Cups with Detroit, winning back-to-back in 1936 and 1937, and then again in 1943. (hockeygods.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
General Motors’ luxury car line offered three price points (and this lovely image) to weather the Depression years, ranging from the relatively affordable La Salle to the Cadillac Fleetwood…
…the Chrysler corporation took a different approach, deploying a very wordy full-page ad that referenced history (a Madame Curie analogy) and something called “Unseen Value” to move its line of autos…
…the makers of College Inn Tomato Juice Cocktail brought back the “Duchess” with this shocking scene at the opera…
…recall last summer when College Inn featured the Duchess in a series of ads that illustrated her increasing fury over plain tomato juice…one wonders what sort of sadistic torment she had in mind for her hostess, “the old WITCH”…
…on to our cartoonists, beginning with this spot by James Thurber…
…and Thurber again, with an unwanted call to solidarity…
…William Steig explored marital bliss…
…George Price gave us a Three Stooges moment…
…I do not have the identity of this cartoonist…I will keep looking, but would love suggestions in the meantime…*update*…thanks to Frank Wilhoit for identifying the cartoonist below as John Kreuttner, also confirmed through Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill…
…Charles Addams added some frills to an executive suite…
…Otto Soglow illustrated the hazards of sleepwalking…
…Alain revealed a challenge to the publishing industry…
…Peter Arno possibly craved some sauerkraut and corned beef…
…William Crawford Galbraith was in familiar sugar daddy territory…
…Whitney Darrow Jr gave a nod to some homey surrealism…
…Barbara Shermund offered some well-weathered advice…
…and we close with Garrett Price, and a visitor more suited to Charles Addams…
Above: The 1936 Ziegfeld Follies premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on January 30, 1936 and closed on May 9, 1936 after 115 performances. (Hulton Archive)
Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr died in 1932, but his famous theatrical revue lived on for years with revivals including one in 1936 that Robert Benchley praised for being better than the originals.
February 8, 1936 cover by Helen Hokinson, marking the opening of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. According to Michael Maslin’s always enlightening Ink Spill, the first dog-themed New Yorker cover was Feb. 8, 1930, by Theodore Haupt (below).
Now on with the show. Brought back to life by Ziegfeld’s widow Billie Burke and theatre operators Lee and J. J. Shubert,The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 was loaded with talent, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, choreography by George Balanchine, and sets and costumes by Vincente Minnelli. What really brought people in was the star of the show, Fannie Brice, who was supported by cast members Bob Hope, Eve Arden, Josephine Baker, and the Nicholas Brothers, among others. Benchley wrote:
FANNIE AND THE REST…Clockwise, from top left: Bob Hope and Eve Arden performed the popular tune “I Can’t Get Started With You”; Hope with Fannie Brice in the sketch “Baby Snooks Goes Hollywood”; Josephine Baker premiered “The Conga” at the Follies, and Harriet Hoctor performed her “Night Flight.” (gershwin.com/uneicone-josephinebaker.webador.fr/libraryofcongress,org)
This ad for the 1936 Follies prominently featured Benchley’s endorsement:
(uneicone-josephinebaker.webador.fr)
Billie Burke (1884–1970) authorized Follies revivals with the Shuberts in 1934, 1936 and 1943, with the Shubert family producing a final revival in 1957. In 1936 MGM also filmed a Ziegfeld biopic, The Great Ziegfeld (which won two Academy Awards), casting William Powell as Ziegfeld and Myrna Loy as Burke. Burke wanted to play herself in the film, but at age 51 she was deemed too old for the part.
ZIEGFELD MAGIC…Florenz Ziegfeld’s widow Billie Burke kept the Follies going after her husband’s death in 1932. She is best known today for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. (oscars.org/Wikipedia)
Fannie Brice (1891–1951) was the biggest star of the Follies and so dominated the show that when she became ill in May 1936 the production closed. Brice returned to the Winter Garden that September for 112 more performances.
Benchley also praised Call it a Day, a 1935 play by British writer Dodie Smith that ran for 194 performances at the Morosco Theatre. Benchley thought it was so good he saw it twice.
SPRING FEVER drove the action in Dodie Smith’s (right) hit comedy Call it a Day. The play chronicles a single spring day in the lives of the Hilton family, during which each member encounters unexpected romantic temptations and complications. Gladys Cooper, left, starred as Dorothy Hilton. The play was adapted to a Hollywood film in 1937. (vocal.media/Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
We go from the stage to the screen, where John Mosher took in Rose Marie, a musical comedy based on a popular 1924 Broadway play. The film “repolished” the old play and used it as a framework for a series of duets between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
MELODIOUS MOUNTIE…Lobby card for Rose Marie, a musical romcom about a singing Mountie and a world-renowned prima donna, joined in love by a haunting “Indian mating call.” (Wikipedia)
Mosher reviewed three other films that could have used some of Rose Marie’s cheer:
CHEERLESS FARE…Clockwise, from top: Gloria Stuart, Freddie Bartholomew, and Michael Whalen in Professional Soldier; James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Ray Milland in Next Time We Love; Helen Vinson and Conrad Veidt in King of the Damned. (Wikipedia/imdb.com/letterboxd.com/silversirens.co.uk)
* * *
Miscellany
I strive to keep these posts at a readable length, and (hopefully) lively and enjoyable to read, which means that I cannot include absolutely everything that appears in each issue. For example, there are a number of regular features from the sports world—ranging from major attractions like hockey and college football (no coverage yet of baseball—which for some reason Harold Ross hated—or basketball) to more niche pursuits, such as squash (below) or indoor polo. From time to time I will include these under “Miscellany” as a way to give readers a more complete picture, and to assuage my fear that I am leaving something important out. Here is a very brief snippet of a regular feature, “Court Games,” by staff writer Geoffrey T. Hellman.
RACKETEERS…At left, Beekman Pool of the Harvard Club was the 1936 singles champion of the Metropolitan Squash Racquets Association; at right, Edwin Bigelow of the U.S. Squash Racquets Association presents the National Trophy to Germain Glidden. To the far right is runner-up Andrew Ingraham, who looks a bit miffed about getting a plate rather than a trophy cup. (thecarycollection.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Let’s start with the inside front cover…advertisements from Dorothy Gray salons were all about the restoration of youth in older women…apparently the treatments were so successful that “Mrs. M” was a bigger attraction at a Ritz-Carlton debutante party than her society-bound daughter…note the young gents at right checking out mom, and not the deb…
…opposite Dorothy Gray was this elegant appeal from Bergdorf Goodman…ads aimed at more refined tastes almost always featured these attenuated figures (whether they were people or luxury automobiles)…I guess I would hold onto something too with stilts like those…
…here’s a Steinway grand for less than a grand…$885 in 1936 is roughly equivalent to $20,000 or so today, but that’s still a bargain—Steinway grand pianos currently start at around $85,000…
…speaking of bargains, you could own “The Most Beautiful Thing on Wheels” (according to this ad) for a mere $615…
…and for an extra twenty-five bucks you could own a durable Dodge like the one endorsed by Roy Chapman Andrews (1884–1960), a globetrotting explorer who discovered fossilized dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert in the 1920s…
THE REAL INDY…Roy Chapman Andrews gained national fame as an explorer for New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The discovery of a nest of complete dinosaur eggs in Mongolia in 1923 (above) provided the first proof that the critters hatched out of eggs. Named AMNH’s director in 1934, Andrews is thought to be an inspiration for the film hero Indiana Jones. (amnh.org/roychapmanandrewssociety.org)
…the folks at Chrysler were doing everything they could to get people interested in buying their Airflows—despite its technological advances, the car’s streamlined design (toned down in later models) was just too radical for mass market tastes…note how the ad draws attention to the work of “Artist Floyd Davis”…
…here’s a photo of Floyd Davis…
CHEERS…Illustrator Floyd Davis (1896–1966) poses in an ad for Lord Calvert whiskey, 1946. In 1943 Life magazine called him the “#1 Illustrator in America.” (Wikipedia)
…the Fisher company, makers of car bodies for General Motors, liked to emphasize the safety of their “Turret Top,” although it didn’t seem to occur to anyone that a child dangling from a car window was problematic…
…actress Lupe Vélez made the unlikely claim that flying on a 1930s airliner was “as comfortable as a private yacht”…
…ads for White Rock were among the more colorful found in the early New Yorker…
…on the back cover, Liggett & Myers tobacco company shifted gears from elegant to homespun with an ad that emphasized the high quality of Turkish leaf tobacco…
…the folks at Coty hired two New Yorker contributors, poet Arthur Guiterman and illustrator Constantin Alajalov, to promote their line of lipsticks…
…which brings us to the cartoonists, beginning with Al Frueh…
…Richard Taylor opened things up in “Goings On”…
…and George Price added this bit of action to the calendar section…
…Abe Birnbaum contributed this delightful spot drawing…
…the Westminster dog show was the talk of the town, and at Grand Central, per Perry Barlow…
…Robert Day had a fight on his hands…
…Helen Hokinson’s “girls” were out to snub the sanitation department…
…Rea Irvin drew up the literal downfall of one business…
…Eli Garson had us seeing spots…
…Charles Addams found the Pied Piper in a Salvation Army band…
…Alan Dunn gave new meaning to “taking a detour”…
…Barbara Shermund illustrated one of the perils of cocktail parties…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and the sinister world of taxi dancers…
Above: Beginning in 1934, the President’s Birthday Balls became annual fundraisers for polio research. The Waldorf-Astoria's 1936 event (left) featured dance bands, celebrities, and formal dress. At right, a 1934 "Toga Party" birthday with FDR's Cuff Link Gang, Washington D.C. (fdrlibrary.org)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday was a cause for annual celebration throughout the country, where cities and towns both large and small used the occasion to raise money for polio research.
February 1, 1936 cover by Roger Duvoisin.
The Jan. 30, 1936 President’s Birthday Ball marked FDR’s 54th year, featuring celebrities, dances, and a national radio address. The Waldorf-Astoria hosted an event, as did the Central Park Casino, where E.B. White found the one-hundred-dollar price tag and the dress code a bit too rich for his tastes, but not too rich for Lucy Cotton Thomas Magraw, a Manhattan social climber who represented the “Spirit of Golden Prosperity” at the Casino event.
LIKE MOTHS TO FLAME…At left, debutantes mark FDR’s birthday fundraiser at the Waldorf-Astoria in the 1930s; at right, Lucy Cotton Thomas Magraw (1891–1948) was a chorus girl from Houston who appeared in several silent films, but was best known as a Manhattan social climber and for her marriages to a series of prominent men. (wwd.com/davidkfrasier.com)
FDR himself was diagnosed with polio in 1921, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. To counter the effects of the disease, Roosevelt explored the potential benefits of hydrotherapy, establishing a rehabilitation center at Warm Springs, Georgia. Proceeds from the charity balls went to Warm Springs until Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938. Funds raised by the foundation supported the development of a vaccine by the 1950s.
A NIGHT OF MERRIMENT…Celebrations in CCC camps in honor of FDR’s birthday became annual events, such as the one at left (illustrated by Marshall Davis) that depicted various happenings at the 1936 President’s Birthday Dance in Biloxi, Mississippi; at right, actress Jean Harlow cutting FDR’s birthday cake at the Eastbay Birthday Ball in Oakland, CA, in 1934. (newdealstories.com/facebook.com)
“The Talk of the Town” noted the role of Carl M. Byoir, a pioneering publicist, in creating the buzz around the yearly birthday balls.
CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?…Clockwise, from top left, Carl Byoir created and organized one of the world’s largest public relations firms in 1930, and was a force behind making the FDR Birthday Balls a major national event; Eleanor Roosevelt cuts the cake at a Birthday Ball, Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 1936; Margaret Lehand, personal secretary to President Roosevelt, holds up one of the 30,000 dimes received on the morning of Jan. 28, 1938 for FDR’s National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which would later become the March of Dimes. (Wikipedia)COIN FOR A CAUSE…As we saw in the previous post, it was comedian Eddie Cantor who coined the phrase “March of Dimes” for the annual fundraiser for polio research. The phrase later became the official name of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. (Facebook)
The Roosevelt Dime went into circulation in 1946, commemorating FDR’s role in inspiring the March of Dimes.
* * *
Rap on Scrap
Poet and author Phyllis McGinley apparently had her fill of social occasions that included interminable, tedious viewings of the hosts’ scrapbooks, photo albums, and various tchotchkes.
SPARE ME YOUR VACATION SLIDES…Phyllis McKinley would have hated Facebook. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Wise Guy
Henry F. Pringle published the first part of a three-part profile on Elihu Root, making much of the fact that Root (1845–1937) was still kicking at ninety after a lifetime of public service including two stints as Secretary of War and serving as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt. Unofficially, he advised a number of presidents and other leaders on foreign and domestic issues, giving him the imprimatur of a political “wise man.” A brief excerpt (with caricature by William Cotton):
WAR BUDDIES…U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root (right) and his successor, William Howard Taft, c. 1904. Taft was elected U.S. President in 1908, and in 1912 Root would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Devastating Irony
According to critic Robert Benchley, the adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome to the stage required a precise hand, and apparently director Max Gordon delivered when it opened at the National Theatre. Excerpt:
EDITH WHARTON WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD, according to Robert Benchley, of the stage adaptation of Ethan Frome. The cast, from left, included Pauline Lord, Raymond Massey, and Ruth Gordon. Benchley would have been well acquainted with Gordon, who was a familiar face at the Algonquin Round Table. (Facebook)
Benchley praised the performances of the principal actors Pauline Lord, Raymond Massey, and Ruth Gordon.
IN FINE FORM…Pauline Lord, Raymond Massey, and Ruth Gordon in a publicity still for Ethan Frome. (witness2fashion.com)
* * *
At the Movies
We take to the air with Howard Hawks’ Ceiling Zero, which featured an odd mix of screwball dialogue and nerve-wracking flight scenes. Critic John Mosher found the film to be well done, even though most of its action took place on the ground.
GROUNDED…Shot a shoestring budget, Warner Brothers’ Ceiling Zero, directed by Howard Hawks, staged most of the action at an airline’s headquarters rather than up in the air. From left are Pat O’Brien, James Cagney, and June Travis. (Harvard Film Archive)
Mosher was also happy to welcome Myrna Loy back to the silver screen in the “agreeable” Whipsaw.
HUSTLE AND BUSTLE…Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy starred in action-packed crime drama Whipsaw. (Letterboxd.com)
Mosher was at a loss to explain the popularity of comedian Joe Penner, whose presence in the film Collegiate inspired impatient “mobs” to crash the windows and doors of the Paramount Theatre.
INCONSEQUENTIAL was the word John Mosher used to describe Collegiate. Clockwise, from top left, Frances Langford and Jack Oakie in a scene from Collegiate—Oakie played a man who inherits an all-girls school from his aunt; Betty Grable with Joe Penner; Grable shows off her school spirit and her famous legs in a publicity photo. (rottentomatoes.com/imdb.com)
About Joe Penner (1904–1941): Broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod sums up Penner’s popularity as “the ultimate Depression-era zany.” Mostly forgotten today, Penner was a national craze in the mid-1930s. “There is no deep social meaning in his comedy, no shades of subtlety,” writes McLeod, “just utter slapstick foolishness, delivered in an endearingly simpering style that’s the closest thing the 1930s had to Pee-wee Herman.”
WANNA BUY A DUCK? was Joe Penner’s catchphrase. Born József Pintér in what is now Serbia, he is shown here with his ubiquitous duck, Goo Goo. According to historian Elizabeth McLeod, Penner was doomed to an early decline by the sheer repetitiveness of his format. He died in his sleep, of a heart attack, at age 36. (imdb.com)
* * *
Something Completely Different
We go from Joe Penner to George Santayana, who finished the six-hundred-page The Last Puritan after laboring on the novel for fifteen years. A brief excerpt from a Clifton Fadiman review:
WHEN WRITERS MADE THE COVER…George Santayana on the cover of Time, Feb. 3, 1936. (Time.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
The folks at Hormel continued their ad series pairing Hormel French Style onion soup with notable historic figures…apparently Mary, Queen of Scots was honored with some onion soup when she married the Dauphin in 1558…nearly three decades later she would lose her head under the reign of Elizabeth I…
…the opening spread of the magazine sometimes offered odd juxtapositions…
…and what was this obsession with peas?…last week (and previous weeks) the makers of Green Giant canned foods featured a “Major” obsessed with fresh peas…
…in this issue, the folks at Birds Eye presented frozen peas as a fresher alternative to canned…the ad featured their own version of a “Major,” here sharing the wonderful news about frozen peas with his cronies…
…Capitol Theatre predicted that their latest feature, Rose Marie, would be even better than Naughty Marietta…
…and apparently it was…
WHEN I’M CALLING YOOOOUUUU…The Capitol Theatre’s prediction came true—Rose Marie was a big hit, as was the duet “Indian Love Call” (it remained a signature song for both actors); at left, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in Rose Marie; at right, Eddy and MacDonald in 1935’s Naughty Marietta. “America’s Singing Sweethearts” made eight films together. (MGM)
…only forty hours to paradise, claimed this ad on the inside back cover…
…and on the back cover, readers were greeted by a smug, almost withering look—a fashionable woman striking a pose, one that was doubtless imitated by many in the smart set who would soon realize they were hopelessly addicted to nicotine…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with Al Frueh and his topless tribute to George White’sScandals…
…Gregory d’Alessio drew up this trio—endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph—for the opening pages…
…here’s a spot by Robert Day, dreaming of warmer climes…
…we join Charles Addams at the Louvre…
…and on a desert island…
…a rather strange entry by Alice Harvey, with the longest caption I’ve come across so far…
…we join William Steig’s “Small Fry” during a school day, beginning on page 24…
…and continuing onto page 25…
…here is how it originally appeared…
…In 1935, Saks Fifth Avenue installed an indoor ski slope on the men’s floor of its New York City flagship store, here illustrated by Perry Barlow…
IT WAS A THING…Ski slope inside Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, 1935. (CNN.com)
…department stores such as Macy’s often featured model homes in their household departments…Alan Dunn added a bit of color, or rather, soot, to this one…
…Helen Hokinson looked for answers at a book shop…
and Hokinson again, doing a bit of home decorating…
…it appears Morton was displaying a copy of Constantin Brancusi’s Princess X…
(sheldonartmuseum.org)
…Barbara Shermund engaged in some light banter at a cocktail party…
…and we close with a surprise visit from William Crawford Galbraith…
Above: Eddie Cantor (left) consulting his "confidence book" in Strike Me Pink; at right, Dona Drake and the “Goldwyn Girls” performing “The Lady Dances." (cometoverhollywood.com)
You don’t hear much about him today, but in 1936 Eddie Cantor was a household name, an entertainer who seemed to do it all—comedian, actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter were just a few of his trades.
January 25, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajálov.
Critic John Mosher marveled at the energy Cantor (1892–1964) brought to his latest film, Strike Me Pink, in which Cantor played a mild-mannered manager of an amusement park infested with mobsters. The film was a “convulsion,” Mosher wrote, packed with action on “the grand scale” with occasional interludes by co-star Ethel Merman, who portrayed Cantor’s love interest.
FINDING HIS MOJO…top and below left, Eddie Cantor and Ethel Merman in Strike Me Pink. Bottom right, Cantor, Sally Eilers and Helen Lowell in a scene from the film. (Wikipedia/tcm.com/imdb.com)
Bette Davis wasn’t the only Hollywood celeb known for her peepers. After artist Frederick J. Garner published a big-eyed caricature of Cantor in 1933, those “Banjo Eyes” became Cantor’s trademark.
BANJO EYES…at left, Frederick J. Garner’s caricature of Cantor. After he published the drawing in 1933, other artists followed suit with their own interpretations of the “Banjo Eyes.” At right, movie poster for 1934’s Kid Millions. (npg.si.edu/laughterlog.com/imdb.com)
Cantor would pack a lot into his seventy-two years, a regular with the Ziegfeld Follies (he would repeat his routines in numerous films), he would also appear in other stage productions, on the radio, on television (hosting The Colgate Comedy Hour) and recording hit songs like “Makin’ Whoopee.” He wrote or co-wrote seven books, was the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, and a co-founder of the March of Dimes (Cantor came up with the name as well). He also appeared in numerous cartoons, and even wrote the Merrie Melodies/LooneyTunes theme song, “Merrily We Roll Along.”
DOWN AND OUT…Eddie Cantor was caricatured along with, from left, Al Jolson, Jack Benny and Bing Crosby in the 1950 Looney Toons short “What’s Up, Doc?” The scene depicts a low point in Bugs Bunny’s career when he spends the winter with fellow struggling actors in Central Park. (Warner Brothers)
In 1934 Cantor was depicted as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the only full-size balloon to represent a real person.
MY, WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE…Eddie Cantor looms over the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1934. (Ephemeral New York)
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Fishing For Buyers
The Thirty-first annual Motor Boat Show was on at the Grand Central Palace, featuring everything from yachts to tiny sailboats. Excerpts from a report by a correspondent who wrote under the name “Bosun.”
FOR LANDLUBBERS TOO…The New York Motor Boat Show began in 1905 at Madison Square Garden before moving to the resplendent surroundings of the Grand Central Palace. Clockwise from top left, undated photo from the Grand Central Palace; advertisement in Yachting magazine; a 1935 Elco Cruisette. (offthehookyachts.com/antiqueboatamerica.com)
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Cultured Congress
Hard to believe that ninety years ago the U.S. House of Representatives devoted considerable time and attention to a proposed bill for a “Department of Science, Art and Literature.” E.B. White covered the hearings in an extensive two-part report for “Onward & Upward With the Arts.” Here is a brief excerpt from part one.
ARTS FANATIC is how E.B. White characterized New York Congressman William I. Sirovich (1882–1939), who proposed the establishment of a Department of Science, Art and Literature. (findagrave.com)
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A Really Big Show
“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to the Adelphi Theatre to see how preparations were going for opera-oratorio The Eternal Road. Conceived by journalist and playwright Meyer Weisgal to alert the public to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, it featured a score by Kurt Weill with libretto by Franz Werfel (translated into English by Ludwig Lewisohn).
Directed by Max Reinhardt on an imposing set designed by Norman Bel Geddes, The Eternal Road would take time to produce, finally premiering at the Manhattan Opera House on Jan. 7, 1937. It ran for 153 performances.
ON THE ROAD…Key figures in the production of The Eternal Road included, from left, director Max Reinhardt, composer Kurt Weill, and set designer Norman Bel Geddes (who here bears an uncanny resemblance to New Yorker founding editor Harold Ross). (weillproject.com)DRAMA QUEEN…Among the 245 actors in the production was Lotte Lenya, who portrayed Miriam. An acclaimed Austrian singer and actress, Lenya was also Kurt Weill’s ex-wife, and is probably best known today for her role as the sadistic Rosa Klebb in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love.MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS…At left, a sketch by Harry Horner of the The Eternal Road’s five-level set designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the Manhattan Opera House; at right, massive set piece from the production. (Kurt Weill Foundation kwf.org)
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Location, Location, Location
“Talk” also looked at property values in the city, noting that the site occupied by the Hell Gate power plant was assessed at nearly $57 million (roughly $1.3 billion today). Excerpt:
PRIME REAL ESTATE…Artist’s rendering of the Hell Gate generating station, circa 1922. (T.E. Murray, Power Stations 1922)
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A New, Improved Carmen
Music critic Robert Simon (writing for “Musical Events”) was delightfully surprised by the Met’s latest production of Carmen, and namely by the performance of Swedish mezzo-soprano Gertrud Pålson-Wettergren:
HUMOROUS AND HEROIC were just two for the adjectives Robert Simon used to describe an interpretation of Carmen by Swedish mezzo-soprano Gertrud Pålson-Wettergren (1897–1991). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in December 1935. (Wikipedia)
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At the Movies
We rejoin critic John Mosher for a look at the rest of the cinema lineup, beginning with King of Burlesque, which featured Alice Faye and “everything but the kitchen stove.”
FACES IN THE CROWD…Mosher found a film crowded with talents in King of Burlesque, including Fats Waller (performing “I’ve Got My Fingers Crossed”), Warner Baxter, and Alice Faye. (YouTube.com/IMDb.com)
Mosher found a “stimulating” gangster flick in Exclusive Story…
DRESSED TO THE NINES…Franchot Tone was clad in his usual Sunday best, here flanked by Madge Evans (left) and Louise Henry. (themovied.org)
…and a “trifling” horror movie, The Crime of Dr. Crespi…
I’M NOT DEAD YET…Evil Dr. Crespi (Erich Von Stroheim) gives fellow doctor Stephen Ross (John Bohn) a drug that induces a state of apparent death in The Crime of Doctor Crespi. (moma.org)
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A Hot Hobby
St. Clair McKelway filed the second of a two-part profile on New York’s Chief Fire Marshal Thomas P. Brophy (1880-1962). McKelway wrote, “How to stop a fire is the fire chief’s problem; how it got started, that of the fire marshal, Thomas Brophy…Brophy’s specialty, however, is pyromaniacs— it is almost his hobby.” Hugo Gellert supplied the drawing.
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with the inside front cover, and this colorful illustration of Fanny Brice by Abe Birnbaum for Stage magazine…
…the makers of budget automobiles such as Nash, Plymouth and Hudson were all on the same page when it came to marketing their automobiles, namely, that their products suggested luxury despite the bargain price…a “Motor Car by Hudson,” the ad proclaimed, is “worthy of its place in the New York style ensemble”…
…the makers of Pierce Arrow had a solid reputation as the Rolls-Royce of American automobiles, so they took the safety angle in this understated, hyperbole-free advertisement…(however, cheaper cars like Hudson would survive the Depression, Pierce-Arrow would not)…
…this Scotch whisky ad recalled the days when “rolled hose” could create a scandal, underscoring how things can mellow after ten years, including whisky…
…in this back cover advertisement, Vivian Dixon (apparently just eighteen years old) was the latest New York debutante to invite young women to join her in smoking Camels…
Vivian Dixon (1918-1974) circa 1940. You can read more about her here. (stoningtonboroughct.com)
…the Major continued his quest for fresh peas in this ad from the Minnesota Valley Canning Company (aka Green Giant)…
…on to our cartoonists, beginning with this spot drawing for the boat show by Constantin Alajálov…
…this spot by Abe Birnbaum broke up the text for James Thurber’s “Nine Needles” short story…
…Perry Barlow gave us a gentleman attempting to explain the subtleties of ice hockey…
…Barlow again, where seeing is not necessarily believing…
…James Thurber contributed a serenade, accompanied by dog…
…Peter Arno bid farewell to honeymooners destined for Niagara Falls and the Shredded Wheat factory…
…besides the falls, the Shredded Wheat factory was a big attraction in the early 20th century…
A 1905 postcard touting “One of the Wonders of Niagara.” (Niagara Falls Public Library)
…George Price illustrated the hazards of bargain shopping…
…and Price again, with a lucky streak in Atlantic City…
…Carl Rose continued to offer examples of rugged individualism…
…Charles Addams explored some exotic thrills…
…Mary Petty found nuance among youthful suitors…
…and Petty again, and the complexities of hat shopping…
…Alain paid a visit to the boat show…
…Ned Hilton drew up a mail-order mix-up…
…and we close with Alan Dunn, and a matter of the heart…
Above: Mary Pickford (right, from 1916) spoke out against salacious content in films, such as this scene from 1930's Madam Satan. (Wikipedia/mainemedia.edu)
James Thurber seemed to enjoy teasing silent film legend Mary Pickford in her new career as social commentator and author of spiritual articles and books. Having retired from acting in 1933, Pickford was also using her powerful position as a co-founder of United Artists to focus on the moral direction of the film industry.
December 21, 1935 cover by Ilonka Karasz.
Back in the Sept. 21 issue of The New Yorker, Thurber took a humorous poke at Pickford’s Liberty magazine article on the afterlife, and found more fodder after Pickford, in an interview with the World-Telegram, criticized “salacious” films. “Be a guardian, not an usher, at the portal of your thought,” she advised. Thurber took the bait. Excerpts:
KEEPING IT CLEAN…From left, producer Samuel Goldwyn, actors Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. pose behind Mary Pickford at a United Artists board meeting in Los Angeles, July 9, 1935. (AP)
Thurber took particular pleasure in Pickford’s comments regarding the control of one’s dirty thoughts:
PICKFORD’S UNITED ARTISTS produced some memorable, non-salacious films in 1936, including Charlie Chaplin’sModern Times, and the acclaimed Dodsworth starring Ruth Chatterton and Walter Huston as Fran and Sam Dodsworth. (Wikipedia)
Pickford had a strong ally in the Hays Code, a set of self-imposed censorship guidelines that would keep mainstream studio films relatively free of salacious content for the next thirty years.
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A White Christmas
E.B. White offered holiday greetings to everyone from drinkers of blended whiskey to the makers of red tape (plus a plug for New Yorker subscriptions)…
CHEERS AND JEERS…E.B. White sent holiday greetings to the men who were changing the Normandie’s massive propellers (from three- to four-blade), and probably wanted to give a lump of coal to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for “foolishly” banning organ grinders from city streets. (ships nostalgia.com/ephemeralnewyork)
…and concluded with these words…
…Otto Soglow added this bit of spot art to the bottom of White’s “Notes and Comment”…
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A Holiday Tradition
Page 21 featured Frank Sullivan’s annual Christmas poem (he wrote forty-two of them from 1932 to 1974)…
…which continued on page 22…
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Lost In Paradise
Robert Benchley did the honors as theatre critic for the Dec. 21 issue, enjoying an evening at Longacre Theatre with the richly endowed characters featured in Clifford Odets’Paradise Lost.
GREAT PLAY, WHATEVER IT MEANS…Robert Benchley thoroughly enjoyed Clifford Odets’ gallery of characters in Paradise Lost. Top, Odets circa 1930s; below, photo from the 1935-36 production at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre. (mcny.org)
Apparently the rest of the Broadway fare was not so great, as Benchley fled Cort’s Theatre (it featured This Our House, which closed after just two performances) to catch A Night at the Opera with the Marx Brothers.
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At the Movies
Benchley wasn’t the only one enjoying a night at the movies. Critic John Mosher found favor with German actor Emil Jannings’ latest flick, The Making of a King (Der alte und der junge König), calling the film “a sensible picture of the old bully,” namely the father of Frederick the Great.
LIGHTEN UP, FRED…Heinrich Marlow (left) and Emil Jannings in a scene from The Making of a King. The film depicted the turbulent relationship between Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I and his son, Crown Prince Friedrich. (IMDB)
Mosher found bright moments in Ginger Rogers’ latest film, but would have preferred another pairing with her fellow hoofer, Fred Astaire.
BETTER WITH FRED thought John Mosher of Ginger Rogers’s brave turn as an actress fleeing from her admiring fans in 1935’s In Person. Rogers donned eyeglasses, a wig, and fake teeth (inset) to portray the actress in hiding. She is pictured here in a scene with co-star George Brent. (IMDB)
Mosher was stimulated by The Great Impersonation, however, the “cordial” films about small town life and happy radio folk left him less than enthused.
MORE SPIES, PLEASE…John Mosher didn’t get too excited over the standard fare offered in the films Millions in the Air and Your Uncle Dudley, however he found the performances of Edmund Lowe and Wera Engels (bottom right) in the spy caper The Great Impersonation to be most stimulating. (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
After touring France in the late 1870s, a New York drugstore owner named Richard Hudnut returned to the States determined to introduce French-style perfumes and cosmetics to American women. He soon transformed his drugstore into an elegant showroom, and in time became the first American to achieve international success in cosmetics…
…advertisements for Christmas gifts mostly dropped out of the magazine, and the back of the book was filled with spots touting various New Year’s Eve entertainments…
…in this ad from the Minnesota Valley Canning Company (renamed Green Giant in 1950), a robber baron’s humble roots, and his checkbook, are triggered by a can of corn…
…thanks to the makers of Luckies, Jolly Old St. Nick was dropping more than soot down your chimney on Christmas Eve…
…we kick off our cartoons with this spot illustration by Abe Birnbaum…
...Richard Decker gave us this caption-less appeal to the masses…
Above: New Year’s Eve at the “El Morocco” Night Club at 154 E. 54th Street, New York, 1935. (Posted on Reddit)
Lois Long took her nightlife seriously, and when it didn’t live up to her standards—defined by the wild speakeasy nights she wrote about after joining The New Yorker in 1925 —she was crestfallen, to say the least.
November 16, 1935 cover by Leonard Dove. This is one of Dove’s fifty-seven New Yorker covers; he also contributed 717 cartoons to the magazine.Above: Leonard Dove’s self portrait, 1941; photo: 1947. Born 1906, Great Yarmouth, England. Died, Gramercy Hotel, New York City, 1972. (Thanks to Michael Maslin’s indispensable Ink Spill)
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When Long joined The New Yorker she was a 23-year-old Vassar graduate, and at age 34 she was not expecting to re-live those heady days; but nightlife in 1935 made her wonder where all the interesting people had gone. Instead of the smart and beautiful speakeasy set, she found people who couldn’t hold a conversation, who cared more about being mentioned in the newspapers by “Cholly Knickerbocker” (a pseudonym used by society columnists)—they simply lacked the “sparkle” she so craved. In this excerpt from her column, “Tables for Two,” she explained:
ALL SHOW, NO GO…Lois Long recalled the heady days of the original torch singer Helen Morgan, but her new club, The House of Morgan, offered up tired vaudeville instead of the singer herself. Above, images of the club from Christopher Connelly’sThe Helen Morgan Page. Top, center, detail of Morgan from the 1935 film Sweet Music. Next to Morgan is a photo of Long from the PBS documentary Prohibition. (helen-morgan.net/PBS.org)
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At the Movies
Our film critic John Mosher was in good spirits after taking in MGM’s Mutiny on the Bounty, and especially the inspired performance by Charles Laughton as the cruel, tyrannical Captain Bligh…
LET’S HAVE A STARING CONTEST…Clark Gable (left) portrayed Fletcher Christian, the Bounty’s executive officer, who disapproved of the cruel leadership of Captain Bligh, portrayed by Charles Laughton (right) in Mutiny on the Bounty. (theoscarbuzz.com)
…two other pictures reviewed by Mosher were less than inspired, but at least the George Raft/Joan Bennett gangster film, She Couldn’t Take It, offered a car chase, and the occasional surprise.
STERILITY ISSUES…Top, Gary Cooper and Ann Harding needed a bit more life in Peter Ibbetson; at least Joan Bennett (bottom photo) found some action in She Couldn’t Take It. (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
Not all fashion advertisements in The New Yorker were aimed at the posh set…Macy’s offered some thrifty selections, including a French-inspired “Theatre Curtain Blouse” that could be opened in the back “so as to reveal your own lily-white vertebrae”…
…I am puzzled by the “Duchess” types that appeared in food and beverage ads in the back of the magazine…we’ve seen some angry duchesses in ads for tomato and pineapple juice, and here we have one who has stooped so low as to shell her own peas…
…a side note, the Duchess’s peas came in a can bearing the old Green Giant logo, a savage, bearskin-clad figure…he was redesigned by ad executive Leo Burnett in 1935 to become the friendlier “Jolly Green Giant”…
…the makers of Camels presented football coach Chick Meehan in cartoon form to extol the wonders of football and smoking to a young woman…Meehan coached football at Syracuse, NYU and Manhattan College…
…the football theme segues to our cartoon section, beginning with this spot art by James Thurber…
…Christina Malman’s spot drawings could now be found in every issue, and usually more than one…
…this one by Robert Day also caught my eye, maybe because I like chickens, and dogs too…
…Day again, on the streets of Manhattan…
…Barbara Shermund showed us a wolf in wolf’s clothing…
…Alan Dunn seemed to be channelling Barbara Shermund here…or maybe Dunn’s wife Mary Petty had some influence…
…William Crawford Galbraith eavesdropped on some wagering waiters…
…Carl Rose found an outlier at the modern Walker-Gordon Dairy Farm…
…The Rotolactor featured in Rose’s cartoon was a mostly automatic machine used for milking a large number of cows successively on a rotating platform…first used at the Walker-Gordon Laboratories and Dairy in Plainsboro, New Jersey (pictured below), the Rotolactor held fifty cows at a time, and hosted about 250,000 visitors annually…
(rawmilkinstitute.org)
…and we go from cows to cats, courtesy Helen Hokinson…
…and Charles Addams booked an unusual perp…
…on to the November 23 issue…
November 23, 1935 cover by Antonio Petruccelli. Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer, becoming a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover contests. This is one of four covers he produced for The New Yorker.Antonio Petruccelli. Here are samples of Petruccelli’s remarkable work.(Helicline Fine Art)
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Worth the Wait
The highly-anticipated circus-themed spectacle Jumbo finally opened at the Hippodrome. In his That’s Entertainment! blog, Jackson Upperco observes that Billy’s Rose’sJumbo was “more circus than musical comedy,” a production that “was largely an excuse for Mr. Rose to present a circus.” It was headlined by comedian Jimmy Durante and bandleader Paul Whiteman, with a score by Rodgers & Hart. Here are excerpts from a review by Wolcott Gibbs:
JUMB0-SIZED ENTERTAINMENT…Clockwise, from top left, Hippodrome billboard promoting Jumbo; built in 1905, the Hippodrome provided entertainment to thousands who couldn’t afford a Broadway ticket; a circus tent was erected inside the 5,300-seat theatre for the spectacle; Jumbo was one of the most expensive theatrical events of the first half of the 20th century. (Facebook/Library of Congress/Broadway Magazine/jacksonupperco.com)
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At the Movies
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel Crime and Punishment was adapted to film by both French and American producers in 1935, but critics including The New Yorker’sJohn Mosher mostly preferred the French version, titled Crime et châtiment.
DOUBLE FEATURE…American and French producers each turned out a film adaption of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Top photo, Marian Marsh as Sonya and Peter Lorre as Roderick Raskolnikov in Columbia’s Crime and Punishment; bottom photo, Madeleine Ozeray as Sonia and Pierre Blanchar as Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime et châtiment.(silverscreenmodes.com/SensCritique.com)
…Mosher reviewed another crime thriller, Mary Burns, Fugitive, but found some comic relief in two other films…
BAD CHOICE IN BOYFRIENDS was the theme of Mary Burns, Fugitive, starring (top left) Sylvia Sidney and Alan Baxter; top right, Joan Bennett and Ronald Colman in the romcom The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo; bottom, Fred Allen and Patsy Kelly provided some laughs in musical comedy Thanks a Million. (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
Readers of the Nov. 23 issue opened to this lovely image…
…which sharply contrasted with the clunky Plymouth ad on the opposite page…
…not so clunky was this colorful illustration promoting Cadillac’s economy model, the La Salle…
…the back cover was no surprise, with yet another glamorous cigarette ad…
…our cartoonists included Richard Decker, and a fashion faux pas to open a boxing match…
…George Price eavesdropped into some football strategy…
…Carl Rose spotted a canine unbeliever…
…Richard Taylor was back with his distinctive style…
…Al Frueh continued to illustrate the latest fare on Broadway…
…Otto Soglow crept in for a snooze…
…and we close with James Thurber, and some literary cosplay…
A New Yorker State of Mind 