Above: The Waldorf-Astoria's Starlight Roof, and a 1930s menu cover. (Facebook/Pinterest)
With summer approaching, the rooftop restaurants were in full swing, and Lois Long continued her exploration of favorite haunts, including one nightclub that drew many Manhattanites across the Hudson to the cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades.
June 1, 1935 Cover by Rea Irvin.
Ben Marden couldn’t wait for the official end of Prohibition when he opened his Riviera Night Club in Fort Lee in 1931. The frequent site of raids until the repeal of the 18th Amendment, the Riviera continued to be a place well known to Bergen County police thanks to clientele that included racketeers and other unsavory types. But to New Yorkers like Long, it was a break from the din of the city to the relative green of the Garden State. Long wrote:
The Riviera closed during the first years of World War II, but it reopened in 1945 after Bill Miller bought it from Marden and apparently cleaned it up. It then attracted the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Martha Rae, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Pearl Bailey until it closed in 1953. It was demolished the following year.
THEY HAD FOOD, TOO…Clockwise, from left, the1936 spring menu cover of Ben Marden’s Riviera featured an illustration of the original Riviera (ringed by nude showgirls), which burned to the ground on Thanksgiving night, 1936; the building that replaced it was called an architectural wonder with its retractable roof, rotating stage, and glass windows that slid down to the floor; Earl Carroll and his “Beauties” performed at the Riviera in 1935–they are pictured here at a train station in Los Angeles, 1934. (ebay.com/patch.com/lapl.org)
Long also stayed in town to visit the Waldorf-Astoria’s Starlight Roof.
WITH THE STARS, UNDER THE STARS…Clockwise, from left, cocktail menu from the Waldorf’s Starlight Roof, 1935; outdoor seating on the Starlight Roof Terrace; special menu for the Gala Opening Dinner and Supper Dance on the Starlight Roof, May 14, 1935. It was a favorite destination of Frank Sinatra, Cole Porter, Katharine Hepburn, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others. (Pinterest)
Long also mentioned the appearance of Ray Noble in the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room. This full-page ad appeared in the June 1 issue:
Other summer season attractions were advertised in numerous back-of-the-book, one-column advertisements:
…and at the bottom of page 64…
Wining and dining were also the topic of the profile, a two-parter penned by Margaret Case Harriman, who took a look at New York’s famed Colony Restaurant.
ORIGINAL TRIO…Al Frueh’s caricatures of the Colony’s owners/headwaiters Gene Cavallero and Ernest Cerutti, who flank chef Alfred Hartmann, who was also part owner until he sold his interest to the other two in 1927 and retired to a farm in France. Harriman wrote that Cavallero and Cerutti were “born headwaiters—suave, solicitous, infallible.”A PLACE TO BE SEEN…From the 1920s to the 1960s New York’s café society dined at the Colony. Rian James, in Dining In New York (1930) wrote “the Colony is the restaurant of the cosmopolite and the connoisseur; the rendezvous of the social register; the retreat of the Four Hundred.” Critic George Jean Nathan said the Colony was one of “civilization’s last strongholds in the department of cuisine.” Photo at left of the dining room around 1940; at right, co-owner Eugene Cavallero consults with a chef. (lostpastremembered.blogspot.com)
* * *
The Business of News
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White contemplated the meaning of a free press, noting that nearly all media was at the mercy of advertisers. That included The New Yorker, which owed allegiance “to the makers of toilet articles, cigarettes, whiskey, and foundation garments.”
* * *
Cat Lady
“The Talk of the Town” anticipated the arrival of French writer Colette (1873-1954) aboard the S.S. Normandie. This excerpt makes note of her high standing in society as well as her love of cats.
SHE ONCE OWNED AN OCELOT….Colette with her cats in an undated photo; at right, entering New York Harbor on the S.S. Normandie, 1935. (Pinterest)
* * *
Public Artists
“The Talk of the Town” noted the latest Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition…
LENDING THEIR TALENTS…New Yorker cartoonists who helped promote the Outdoor Art Exhibition in Washington Square included James Thurber, Otto Soglow, and William Steig.
* * *
Cutting Remarks
S.J. Perelman offered his thoughts on the decline of the tonsorial arts. In this excerpt, he sees his beloved Italian barber give way to a “knifelike individual in a surgical apron.” Excerpts:
IT’S A SCIENCE NOW, SIDNEY…S.J. Perelman worried about the displacement of Italian barbershops by cosmetologists in “surgical aprons,” such as the one modeled by Helena Rubinstein at right. (Pinterest)
* * *
Even Those Eyes Couldn’t Help
Film critic John Mosher was sad to report that disappointment was in store for moviegoers who enjoyed seeing Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage. Her latest flick, The Girl from 10th Avenue, featured Davis murmuring “gentle nothings of a vaguely noble monotony.”
GET ME OUT OF THIS PICTURE…Left, Bette Davis with Ian Hunter in the uninspired The Girl from 10th Avenue; at right, screen shot of Davis in 1934’s Of Human Bondage, the film that made Davis a star. (thefilmexperience.net)
Other items in the editorial section included a casual by Dorothy Parker’s husband Alan Campbell (titled “Loyalty at Pool-Wah-Met”), and Morris Markey examined the Christian Science movement inspired of Mary Baker Eddy, in “A Reporter at Large” piece titled “But Thinking Makes It So.”
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We begin with an advertising theme common through midcentury, namely, that you could smoke certain brands as much as you liked and still be a star athlete (as opposed to a wheezing husk of a human being)…
…not only did these cigarettes “steady your nerves” and preserve your “wind,” they also made for sweet, romantic moments…
…in between puffs you could also enjoy breathing in fumes from leaded gasoline…lead pollution increased by more than 625 times previous levels after leaded fuels were introduced in 1924…
…although they were being outlawed by New York Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia, an organ grinder nevertheless made an appearance in an Arrow Shirt ad that offered a lighthearted moment for all involved (except for the dude on ketamine)…
…when jeans were called “dungarees” they were reserved for gardening or fishing…at right you could land a pair of “Crazy Shoes” woven with “garish Mexican colours” for five-and-a-half bucks…
…the makers of White Rock kept it cool with this minimalist ad…
…luxury automaker Packard continued to hang on through the Depression by offering a downscale version…it appears their demographic was middle-aged men and women who still preferred the finer things even if they couldn’t afford them…
…now the property of Hearst, Otto Soglow’s Little King could still appear in The New Yorker via the advertising sections…
…and Soglow continued his contribution to the magazine’s cartoons with other multi-panel subjects…
…James Thurber kicked off the cartoonists with this tender spot…
…and contributed this cartoon…
…Alain found competition in the portrait trade…
…George Price was still afloat…
…Charles Addams was tied up with the sculptural arts…
…Denys Wortman shopped for DIY projects…
…Peter Arno found a sensitive side in one member of the NYPD…
…Mary Petty made some alterations…
…and we close with this terrific cartoon by Richard Decker…
Above: At left, Adolphe Cassandre's famed 1935 depiction of the S.S. Normandie; right, image from a 1935 promotional booklet published by the French Line.
When the S.S. Normandie entered service in 1935, she was the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a little over four days. The ship was so impressive that even the imperturbable Janet Flanner expressed enthusiasm over its launch.
May 25, 1935 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
As Paris correspondent, Flanner was giving New Yorker readers a preview of Normandie‘s May 29 maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York City.
HER ENTOURAGE…The S.S. Normandie was welcomed into New York Harbor on June 3, 1935. (Wikipedia)IMAGINE THAT…An S.S. Normandie promotional poster from 1935 depicts the ocean liner making an unlikely entrance into Manhattan. The sleek ship measured 1,029 feet (313.6m) in length and carried nearly 2,000 passengers plus 1,345 crew. It was the first ocean liner to exceed 1,000 feet in length. (Museum of the City of New York–MCNY)
To give New Yorkers some idea of the liner’s size, Flanner noted that the Normandie would stretch from 43rd to 47th Street, and if stood on her stern, would stand nearly 180 feet above the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center.
FRENCH TOAST…Top, a crowd cheers the S.S. Normandie as it arrives at New York’s Pier 88 on June 3, 1935; below, the first class dining hall was 305 feet long, 46 feet wide and three decks high. (drivingfordeco.com/MCNY)IN, AND ON THE WATER…Passengers take a plunge in the Normandie’s swimming pool, which included a bar at the far end. (MCNY)EYE-POPPING…Colorized image of the first-class lounge. (Pinterest)BARGAIN…Accommodations for weren’t too bad, either, for the other classes. Here is the 3rd class salon. (drivingfordeco.com)TAKE YOUR PICK…Clockwise from top left, elevators decorated in sea shells; the rear of the Grand Salon; a first class suite; view of the swimming pool. An incredible scale model of the S.S. Normandie is displayed on the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked at Long Beach, CA. (MCNY)
World War II would cut short the Normandie’s life. Seized in New York and renamed USS Lafayette in 1942, she was being converted to a troopship when she caught fire, capsized onto the port side, and came to rest half submerged on the bottom of the Hudson at Pier 88, the same pier where she was welcomed in 1935. She was scrapped in 1946.
THE WAGES OF STUPIDITY…The Normandie after a fire brought her glory days to an end. (Reddit)
* * *
A Critic Is Born
It turns out that Wolcott Gibbs (1902–1958) cut his teeth as The New Yorker’s theatre critic while he was still in short pants. Gibbs recalled his five-year-old self in an essay that described his first experience with the theatre—a play based on the New York Herald’s popular comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, by Winsor McCay. In parallel with Gibbs’ childhood, the strip ran from 1905 to 1911.
As a child, Gibbs was wild about Little Nemo’s adventures, but the stage adaptation left the child disillusioned (and feeling “tricked and furious”). The New York Public Library’s Douglas Reside wrote (in 2015) that the producers, seeking to draw as wide an audience as possible, presented Little Nemo “as a bloated mixture of theatrical styles, including the minstrel show, pantomime, operetta, farce-comedy, vaudeville, revue, and ballet,” featuring three comedians “mostly superfluous to Nemo’s story.” The part of Nemo was played by a 25-year-old actor with dwarfism.
DREAMLAND…The Little Nemo strip from Dec. 17, 1905 depicted the boy’s dream of a visit to Santa’s magical city at the North Pole. (Wikipedia)THAT’S SHOWBIZ…As a boy, Wolcott Gibbs (left) was disillusioned by a 1907 theatre adaptation of his favorite comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland. The play was dominated by three comedians including Joseph Cawthorn, right, who burlesqued German linguistic and cultural mannerisms for comic effect. He played Dr. Pill, the quack doctor of Slumberland’s royal court. The “boy” in the bed portraying Nemo was 25-year-old “Master” Gabriel Weigel. (Wikipedia/New York Public Library)
* * *
Humorous Humors
Clarence Day, best known for his Life with Father stories, wrote humorously about his physical ailments and contributed a number of cartoons to The New Yorker that were accompanied by satirical poems. Day would be dead by December—after a bout with pneumonia—however, despite his ailments he would spend his last months arranging publication of his Life with Father book, which was published posthumously.
* * *
Frankie Got Hitched
Film critic John Mosher still wasn’t finding much to rave about at the cinema, getting more chuckles from the monster mash-up of Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein than he did from the Dolores Del Rio vehicle Caliente.
DATE NIGHT…Top, Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff let the sparks fly in The Bride of Frankenstein, while Dolores Del Rio danced and chatted her way through the unfunny musical comedy Caliente. (Wikipedia/TCM)
* * *
Other features in the May 25 issue included H. L. Mencken’s continuing exploration into the origins of American names…
…and The New Yorker published its first John Cheever story, “Brooklyn Rooming House.” Of Cheever’s 180 short stories, the magazine would publish 121 of them.
A NEW FACE…In spring 1935 The New Yorker bought two John Cheever stories, paying $90 for “The Brooklyn Rooming House” and $45 for “Buffalo.” Fiction editor Katharine White urged the purchase of the stories. Above, Walker Evan’s photo of Cheever, circa 1940s. (metmuseum.org)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We start with some one-column gems from the back of the book including the latest innovation in electric refrigerators…a shelf in the door!…apparently Crosley was the first to invent this “Shelvador”…the ad to the right is interesting in that it advertises honey-filled golf balls…in the early 20th century some golf balls did contain real honey…apparently it was chosen for its consistent viscosity (or maybe for a quick snack on the ninth hole)…
…and from General Tire, we have another ominous warning from Dad as the teens head out for another night of crooning, or whatever they are dressed for…
…last week Chrysler was offering its sedans for $745, and this week you could have one of their Plymouths for just 510 bucks…the message: you would be admired by your polo buddies for your smart, thrifty choice…
…where the above ad crammed every square inch with information, the folks at Pierce Arrow offered a restrained, minimal message (suggesting “we can afford to buy a full-page ad and leave much of it blank”)…another class signifier was the absence of a price tag (about $150k in today’s dollars)…but Chrysler-Plymouth would survive the Depression because it sold affordable cars, while Pierce Arrow was on its last legs…
…here’s a couple of Pierce Arrow owners toasting the return of the Manhattan…
…Moët & Chandon offered up this whimsical tableau from the youth of Bacchus…
…Ethel Merman popped through a curtain on the inside back cover to invite readers to subscribe to The Stage magazine…
…and Lucky Strike claimed the back cover with another stylish woman and a talking cigarette bent on mind control…
…the Ritz-Carlton announced the spring re-opening of its famed Japanese Garden…
The Japanese Garden in 1924. (clickamericana)
…and we kick off our cartoonists with this “Goings On” topper by D. Krán…
…followed by this visit to the zoo by Abe Birnbaum…
…James Thurber was up for some fashion criticism…
…Helen Hokinson found a surprise in a paint-by-numbers kit..
…Peter Arno was up for some late night nuptials…
…Gluyas Williams continued to examine club life…
...George Price was back in the air…
…Alan Dunn gave us some men on a mission…
…and we close with Charles Addams, and some dam trouble…
Above: H.L. Mencken at the Baltimore Sun, circa 1930. From April 1934 to September 1949, Mencken contributed more than fifty articles to The New Yorker.
The American journalist Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) was well-known as a biting satirist and cultural critic, but he was also a noted scholar of the English language and its various quirks.
May 11, 1935, Mother’s Day cover by William Cotton.
One of those quirks was explored in Mencken’s essay, “The Advance of Nomenclatural Eugenics In the Republic,” for the column “Onward & Upward With The Arts.” Broadly defined, eugenics refers to the discredited belief that selective breeding could be used to improve the human race. Mencken used the term satirically to describe the anglicization of immigrant names, either to conform to English spellings or, in many cases, to avoid racial and ethnic discrimination. An excerpt:
A PERFECT PAIRING, for H. L. Mencken, was a beer and a cigar. Here he is accepting “his first public glass of post-Prohibition beer” at the Rennert Hotel in Baltimore on April 7, 1933. In 1924 Mencken wrote: “Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists.” (digitalmaryland.org)
Many Jewish immigrants also abandoned their surnames, seeking to blend in and avoid discrimination. Historian and author Kirsten Fermaglich (A Rosenberg by Any Other Name, 2016) found that persons with Jewish-sounding last names made up 65 percent of all name change requests in New York in the first quarter of the 20th century. Mencken observed:
MEET BERNARD, BETTY, ISSUR AND MARGARITA…Some more famous examples of name changes in the first half of the 20th century. From left, actors (and New Yorkers) Tony Curtis (Bernard Schwartz), Lauren Bacall (Betty Joan Perske), Kirk Douglas (Issur Danielovitch Demsky), and Rita Hayworth (Margarita Carmen Cansino). (Wikipedia)
* * *
Canada Dry
In his column, “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker noted the “well-merited spanking” FDR gave to military leaders who were talking about fortifying the border with Canada. Brubaker agreed with FDR’s action, observing how Canadians came to the aid of thirsty Americans during Prohibition.
* * *
Air France
Paris correspondent Janet Flanner considered the state of French aviation as well as signs of war preparation. She also noted the birthday of German dictator Adolf Hitler, the birth of French television, and the streamlined taxis that had suddenly appeared on the streets of Paris. Excerpts:
SOME ICE CREAM WITH YOUR SLICE OF HATE?…Clockwise, from top left, bakers carefully carry Adolf Hitler’s birthday cake in April 1935; the French, meanwhile, were ramping up war production including the manufacture of the M210 bomber; airplane factory workers fashion sheet metal in a factory in Châteauroux-Déols; streamlined Peugeot 401 taxis hit the Paris streets in 1935. (reddit.com/dassault-aviation.com/imcdc.org)
* * *
Vamps and Vampires
John Mosher offered mixed reviews of Hollywood’s latest fare, finding Marlene Dietrich’s latest vehicle “fun,” and the singing and dancing of husband/wife Al Jolson and RubyKeeler “uninspired,” a term he also applied to Bela Lugosi’s latest vampire flick.
TAKE YOUR PICK…Critic John Mosher sampled some very different films including, left, Marlene Dietrich and Lionel Atwill in The Devil Is a Woman; top, Ruby Keeler with her then-husband Al Jolson in Go Into Your Dance; and Bela Lugosi did his vampire schtick with the help of Carroll Borland (who played Dracula’s daughter) in Mark of the Vampire. (MoMA/Pinterest/Instagram)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We start off with a bang from Goodyear…tire blowouts were common in the 1930s as tire technology could not keep pace with the increasing speed of automobiles, nor the poor condition of many roads…
…after many weeks, the back cover went to something other than cigarette manufacturers…
…let’s take a look at some of the one-column ads from the back pages…many of them highlighted the various nighttime entertainments, from the rooftop of Hotel Pierre to the air-conditioned lounge at the Savoy-Plaza (plus that weird ad that suggested Corn Flakes as a nightcap)…
…interior designer Elsie de Wolfe rolled out “Iron with Tape” chairs, which might be the first example of what would become the ubiquitous webbed lawn chair…also advertised were apartments in the former Pulitzer mansion…
…the Pulitzer apartments were one happy outcome of the Great Depression, which foiled the plans of investors to demolish the house in 1934 and erect an apartment building…
The Pulitzer mansion still stands today, now divided into high-class coops. (daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com)
…here’s something new from the Jay Thorpe shop, “noted for unusual sportswear”…
…perhaps inspired by Hollywood…
Ruby Keeler in 1935’s Shipmates Forever. (Reddit)
…illustrator Lyse Darcy created many of these distinctive ads for Guerlain products from the 1930s through the 1950s…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with spot art from James Thurber…
…and Thurber again…
…and we have two from George Price…
…Otto Soglow continued with his multi-panel tricks…
…Howard Baer did some eavesdropping on the rails…
…while Barbara Shermund checked in on her modern women…
…Alan Dunn gave us a mother who took care of herself on Mother’s Day…
…Peter Arno found some kindly advice in the crowded city…
…Al Frueh put the “tennis” back into table tennis…
…and we close with Charles Addams, who had become a regular contributor but was still more than three years away from launching his “Addams Family” cartoons…
Above: King George V and Queen Mary posed for portraits by John St Helier Lander to commemorate the king’s Silver Jubilee in 1935. (Wikipedia)
The British Royal Family has never been my cup of tea, but its hard to deny their influence on world affairs, even if today it is mostly ceremonial. The king and queen were also figureheads back in 1935, however they could still claim to lead a vast empire, albeit one badly fraying at the seams.
May 4, 1935 cover by Ilonka Karasz.
Then as now, the power of the royals lay largely in their ability to boost the political and economic fortunes of their island nation. Such was observed by The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent Janet Flanner, who penned a two-part profile of Queen Mary (nee Mary of Teck or more formally Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India). Flanner wrote the profile of Queen Mary (1867-1953) in anticipation of the Silver Jubilee of her husband, King-Emperor George V (1865-1936). Excerpts:
A DEB AND A DUKE…In 1886 Mary was a an unmarried British princess who was not descended from Queen Victoria, so she was a suitable candidate for the royal family’s most eligible bachelor, Mary’s second cousin Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. In early December 1891 Albert Victor (left photo) proposed marriage to Mary, but he died six weeks later in the Russian flu pandemic. Less than two years later (July 1893) Albert Victor’s brother, Prince George, Duke of York, would wed Mary—at right, their wedding day photo. (Wikipedia)
Flanner noted that the King George V and Queen Mary were rated by British industrialists as the Empire’s “two best salesmen,” however it was Mary who proved the most influential whether she was buying a hat or a refrigerator. Excerpts:
SILVER AND GOLD…Top photo: to mark the king’s Silver Jubilee on May 6, 1935, King George V and Queen Mary greet their subjects from a balcony at Buckingham Palace with their grandchildren, (from left) Princess Margaret Rose, Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Princess Elizabeth, and Viscount Lascelles. Below, King George V, the Duke and Duchess of York, and Princess Elizabeth take a trip in the royal carriage, 1933. The Duke and Duchess would succeed the throne upon the death of King George in 1936 and the abdication of the Duke’s brother, Edward, that same year. (Reddit/Town & Country)
Naturally, not everyone in the kingdom was thrilled by the Silver Jubilee…
OPPOSING VIEWPOINT…The anti-monarchist cartoonist Desmond Rowney commemorated the Silver Jubilee with this cartoon in the Daily Worker. The public expense for the Silver Jubilee in the midst of a financial depression caused some controversy. (National Archives UK)
* * *
Corn-fed Canvasses
Critic Lewis Mumford, like many East Coast intellectuals, was allergic to the over-patriotic and the sentimental, so when it came to assessing the work of the regionalist painter Grant Wood (1891-1942), Mumford found himself perplexed but hopeful that Wood would one day “find himself” and produce “first rate” art.
FLANKING THE ICONIC painting American Gothic (1930) are Grant Wood’s Self Portrait (1932) and, at right, Arnold Comes of Age (1930). Lewis Mumford considered American Gothic to be Wood’s best work. (figgeartmuseum.org/whitney.org/sheldonartmuseum.org)
Mumford did not mince words, however, when it came to Wood’s contemporary landscapes, which he called “unmitigatedly bad…If that is what the vegetation of Iowa is like, the farmers ought to be able to sell their corn for chewing gum…”
BUBBLEGUM TREES…From 1919 to 1925, Grant Wood taught junior high art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The seasonal nature of teaching allowed Wood to take summer trips to Europe to study art, and his early work showed strong post-impressionist influences, including his impressionistic Vegetable Farm (top) from 1924; below, Mumford thought Grant’s later landscapes looked like they were made of cotton and sponge rubber, including Near Sundown, from 1933. (wikiart.org)HOPE AND NOPE…Mumford wrote that Wood’s more “hopeful” works included, top left, Death on Ridge Road and, top right, Adolescence. On the other hand, he found the portraiture in Dinner for Threshers (bottom) vacuous, suggesting “a color photograph of a model of Life in Iowa done for a historical museum.” (wikiart.org/figgeartmuseum.org)
* * *
Daring Young Man
“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to William Saroyan (1908–1981), an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer who would go on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940 and a 1943 Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. An excerpt:
HIGH WIRE ACT…The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories (1934) was the first collection of 26 short stories by William Saroyan (pictured here in 1940). The book became an immediate bestseller. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Not Long For Long
In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker noted that the “loose talk” of Huey Long, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana and prominent critic of the New Deal, could be squelched by a Senate vote. As it turned out, it wouldn’t be necessary; Long was felled by an assassin’s bullet four months later.
* * *
Ode to Abode
E.B. White turned to verse to offer his thoughts on where one should live:
* * *
Tough Guys
After a musical comedy, a Shakespeare adaptation (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and another comedy, James Cagney returned to familiar form with an exciting crime drama, G Men. Critic John Mosher was pleased that Cagney was back to tap-dancing with machine guns rather than showgirls.
CRIME PAYS…AT THE BOX OFFICE… James Cagney takes aim at his new role as a federal agent James “Brick” Davis in G Men. With the Hays Code in force, Warner Brothers made the film to counteract what many leaders claimed was a disturbing trend of glorifying criminals in gangster films. (Still from film)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
According to General Motors’ Fischer division, good taste was in order whether you were choosing a spouse or an automobile…
…New Yorker ads continued to display bright colors to sell everything from cars to whiskey to sparkling water (with apparent health benefits)…
…the shadowy Dubonnet mascot was back, here making the claim (against the wisdom of the ages) that a lunchtime drink will clear your head for the afternoon ahead…
…no health claims here from Penn Maryland, just pure magic as depicted by Otto Soglow…
…and what goes better with whiskey than the Kentucky Derby…
…the 1935 Kentucky Derby was won by Omaha, a three-year-old Thoroughbred; he was the third horse to ever win the Triple Crown (Omaha was the son of Gallant Fox, the 1930 U.S. Triple Crown winner)…
Omaha in 1935 (Wikipedia)
…on the subject of Thoroughbreds, Camel offered up testimonials from top athletes in a variety of sports…they all agreed that the cigarettes “don’t get your wind”…so what did that mean?…according to R.J. Reynolds, “It means you can smoke Camels all you want”…
…Camels also calmed the nerves, and so apparently did Chesterfields…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with a spot by Charles Addams at the top of page 2…
…later in the issue James Thurber contributed this drawing to stretch across the bottom of page 62 (“On and Off the Avenue”)…
…Thurber again, with the life of the party…
…William Steig offered up a page-full of wits…
…plus one more on the preceding page…
…Gluyas Williams continued to follow the strange ways of club life in America…
…and we close with Alan Dunn, and service with a smile…
Above: Detail from Spanish architect David Romero's computer-generated model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City, complete with an "aerotor" flying car.
To be sure, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a visionary, creating a uniquely American vernacular that influences architecture and design to this day. That might also true for his Broadacre City concept, which demonstrated how four square miles (10.3 km2) of countryside might be settled by 1,400 families. Wright unveiled this escape to the countryside in the middle of Manhattan.
April 27, 1930 cover by Reginald Marsh.
On April 15, 1935, the Industrial Arts Exposition opened at Rockefeller Center, and Wright (1867-1959) was front and center with his audacious proposal to resettle the entire population of the United States onto individual homesteads. Critic Lewis Mumford observed that Wright “carries the tradition of romantic isolation and reunion with the soil” by putting every American family on a minimum of five acres of land.
FLAT EARTH…Clockwise, from top left, cover of Rockefeller Center Weekly featuring the Industrial Arts Exposition—the model on the cover is identified as “Miss Typical Consumer”; detail from the magazine depicting a “streamlined farmstead” in Broadacre City; Frank Lloyd Wright examining the Broadacre City model, circa 1935; Wright students who crafted the 12×12-foot model, circa 1935. (digital.hagley.org/franklloydwright.org)
Wright first presented the idea of Broadacre City in his book The Disappearing City in 1932…
ROMANTIC ISOLATION…Broadacre City as depicted in Wright’s 1932 book The Disappearing City. (Wikipedia)
…note how the above drawing is reflected in one of Wright’s last designs, the Marin County Civic Center:
(visitmarin.org)
A detailed 12×12-foot scale model of Broadacre City—crafted by Wright’s student interns at Taliesin, was unveiled at the Industrial Arts Exposition:
GREEN ACRES…The 12×12-foot model (top images) crafted by student interns who worked for Wright at Taliesin is now housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); bottom right, Wright’s rendering of Broadacre City, and at left, detail from Spanish architect David Romero’s computer-generated model of Broadacre City (more images below). (MoMA/David Romero via Smithsonian)
For the most part Mumford reacted favorably to Wright’s vision, which is no surprise considering that Mumford derided the dehumanizing skyscrapers popping up all over his city (including Rockefeller Center).
Despite his patrician demeanor, Wright envisioned an egalitarian Broadacre City, with every family having access to cars, telephones and other appliances. Power would come from solar and electric energy, and any technological advances would be applied at a local level toward the common good.
VIRTUAL REALITY…In 2018 Spanish architect David Romero created computer-generated models to see what Wright’s unrealized structures might have looked like. At left, cars (based on Wright concepts) in Broadacre City, and an aerial view featuring a tower that bears a strong resemblance to Wright’s 1956 Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Modeling Broadacre took Romero more than eight months to complete—it contains more than one hundred detailed buildings, one hundred ships, two hundred “aerotors” (based on the autogyros of the day), 5,800 cars, and more than 250,000 trees. (David Romero via Smithsonian and openculture.com)
What Mumford (and perhaps Wright) didn’t fully anticipate was the urban sprawl such a vision would help inspire, the suburban and exurban landscape that would lead to a car-dominated world of congested, multi-lane highways and housing developments that continue to encroach on our woodlands and wetlands. And we didn’t get those groovy aerotors either.
(Christoph Gielen, webcolby.edu)
* * *
Little House on the Avenue
E.B. White, in his “Notes and Comment,” also offered some observations on housing trends, noting the manufactured “Motohome” displayed at Wanamaker’s as well as “America’s Little House,” plopped down at the corner of 39th and Park Avenue.
SETTING A STANDARD…Above, the factory-manufactured Motohome (above) was touted as the solution to the nation’s housing shortage. The federal Better Homes in America organization built a model house (“America’s Little House,” below) at 39th and Park Avenue to illustrate how standardized components and methods could make home improvement easier. (Google Books/Johns Hopkins)
* * *
Horsing Around
Although known for their nonchalance, New Yorkers could still find some enthusiasm when the circus came to town. “The Talk of the Town” looked in on the star of the circus, Dorothy Herbert (1910-1994), a trick rider with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
WHOA NELLY…One of Dorothy Herbert’s signature moves was her layback on a rearing horse. Here she demonstrates the move in 1939. (equineink.com)HOT STUFF…Circus poster touts Herbert’s ride over flaming hurdles in the company of twelve riderless horses. (circushistory.org)
* * *
Don’t Call Him ‘Tiny’
He was known as “The Little Napoleon of Showmanship,” but there was nothing small about Billy Rose’s accomplishments as an impresario, theatrical showman, composer, lyricist and columnist. Here are excerpts from Alva Johnston’s profile:
JUMBO-SIZED ENTERTAINMENT…Clockwise, from top left, Billy Rose and his first wife, comedian-actress Fanny Brice; illustration of Rose for the profile; poster announcing Rose’s 1935 stage spectacle Jumbo at the Hippodrome; described as more circus than musical comedy, Jumbo was one of the most expensive theatrical events of the first half of the 20th century. (jacksonupperco.com)
* * *
On Guard
We shift gears and turn to more sobering events of the 1930s, namely the rise of fascism in Europe. In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker pondered the possibilities of fascism in his own country…
…meanwhile, Paris correspondent Janet Flanner was finding nothing funny about the uneasy calm among Parisians as war with Germany seemed likely.
C’EST LA VIE…Janet Flanner found Parisians resigned to whatever fate awaited them in 1935. (unjourdeplusaparis.com)
Flanner also remarked on Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). Flanner’s assessment of this “best recent European pageant” wryly underscored the horrors the film portends.
* * *
News From An Old Friend
Longtime readers may recall one of my earliest entries on Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938); the March 14, 1925 edition of The New Yorker (issue #4) found New Yorkers “agog” over her planned 1926 visit to the city. Her comings and goings were followed for a time (she also appeared in a Pond’s Cold Cream ad in the June 6, 1925 issue), but then she abruptly disappeared. Here she is again, courtesy of a glowing book review by Clifton Fadiman. An excerpt:
A PROGRESSIVE THINKER for her time, Marie of Romania was immensely popular in America. Born into the British royal family, she was the last queen of Romania from 1914 to 1927. At left, portrait from 1920; at right, during her 1926 visit to the States, Marie received a headdress from two American Indian tribes. They named her “Morning Star” and “Winyan Kipanpi Win”—“The Woman Who Was Waited For.” (Wikipedia/brilliantstarmagazine.org)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Although we’ve seen plenty of ads from prestige automakers such as Packard, it was clear that companies found their sweet spot in lower-priced models that still suggested “prestige”…here’s an example from Cadillac’s budget line LaSalle…
…for less than half the price of a LaSalle you could get behind the wheel of Hudson, its makers suggesting that prestige doesn’t preclude thrift…this ad seems to have been hastily produced–note the right side of ad, with just a slice of some toff squeezed next to the copy…
…this advertisement would only appeal to those who were among the tiny minority who could afford to fly…from 1924 to 1939 this early long-range airline served British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East…
…for reference, detail below of a Scylla-class airliner used by Imperial Airways…
…and what would the back cover be without a photo of a stylish woman having a smoke?…
…a few advertisers referenced the circus in town to drum up business…
…and we segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, and this circus-themed spot from an illustrator signed “Geoffrey”…
…a more familiar name is found at the bottom of page 4…namely Charles Addams…the milk order outside the tomb hints at things to come…
…Addams again, going from Bacchus to beige…
…George Price, and well, you know…
…Robert Day was aloft with a speculative builder…
…William Steig typecast his Small Fry…
…Leonard Dove made a sudden exit…
…Gilbert Bundy found one old boy unaffected by spring fever…
…Alain channeled Barbara Shermund to give us this gem…
…and we close with a typical day in James Thurber’s world…
Above: British architect Norman Foster's 2010 recreation of R. Buckminster Fuller's 1933 Dymaxion car. (Wikipedia)
Despite the limitations of 1930s technology, a few architects and designers were hell-bent on building a streamlined future that until then was mostly the stuff of movies and science fiction magazines.
May 5, 1934 cover by Rea Irvin.
One of them was R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), architect, designer, and futurist probably best known today as the inventor of the geodesic dome (think Disney’s Epcot Center). In the 1930s Fuller was all about a concept he called Dymaxion. Derived from the words dynamic, maximum, and tension, when applied to architecture and design it would supposedly deliver maximum gain from minimal energy input. The writer of the New Yorker article (pseud. “Speed”) was fascinated by the Dymaxion’s motorboat-type steering, no coincidence since Fuller intended to adapt his futuristic car for use on and under the water, as well as in the air.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME…Clockwise, from top left: Workers at a Bridgeport, Conn., plant creating the first of three Dymaxion cars; the Dymaxion at Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress exposition—the car was involved in a fatal accident at the fair; interior view of the Dymaxion; using the same engine and transmission as a Ford sedan (pictured), the Dymaxion offered three times the interior volume with half the fuel consumption and a 50 percent increase in top speed. (Buckminster Fuller Institute/Poet Architecture)THINKING WITHOUT THE BOX…In 1927 R. Buckminster Fuller (pictured) developed a Dymaxion House, a “Dwelling Machine” that would be the last word in self-sufficiency. Although the aluminum house was intended to be mass-produced, flat-packaged and shipped throughout the world, the design never made it to market (however its ideas influenced other architects); at right, a Fuller geodesic dome at Disney’s Epcot Center in Florida. (archdaily.com/Wikipedia)
The 1933 Century of Progress exposition in Chicago was supposed to be a major showcase for Fuller, but when professional driver Francis Turner was killed while demonstrating the first prototype of the Dymaxion, the car’s prospects dimmed considerably. According to an article by Stephanie d’Arc Taylor (cnn.com Oct. 30, 2019), during the demonstration a local politician tried to drive his own car close to the Dymaxion—to get a better look—and ended up crashing into the unwieldy prototype, which rolled over, killing the driver and injuring its passengers. “The politician’s car was removed from the fracas before police arrived, so the Dymaxion was blamed for the accident,” writes Taylor, who notes that the rear wheel–powered car, though unconventional, was not necessarily the problem. However, “the thing that made the Fuller death-mobile singularly deadly was the fact it was also steered by the rear wheel, making it hard to control and prone to all kinds of terrifying issues.”
That history did not stop architect Norman Foster from building a replica of the Dymaxion in 2010. Foster worked with Fuller from 1971 to 1983, and considers Fuller a design hero.
GIVING IT ANOTHER GO…Architect Norman Foster with his 2010 recreation of the Dymaxion. To build a new Dymaxion, Foster sent a restorer to the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada (home of the only surviving Dymaxion, Car No. 2), and after thousands of photos and measurements Foster had the car recreated using only materials available in 1933: Foster’s Dymaxion consists of an ash frame sheathed in hand-beaten aluminum, mounted on the chassis of an old 1934 Ford Tudor Sedan. (CNN/The Guardian)
According to Taylor, Foster cleaved so closely to Fuller’s original designs that he refers to his creation as a fourth genuine Dymaxion—not a replica. “The car is such a beautiful object that I very much wanted to own it, to be able to touch as well as contemplate the reality for its delight in the same spirit as a sculpture,” said Foster. “Everything in (the car) was either made in 1934, or recreated using techniques and materials that Bucky would have had access to in that period.”
* * *
Meanwhile, At The Tracks…
If Fuller’s attempt at the streamlined future was a bit of bust, the Burlington railroad was making a splash with its gleaming new Zephyr. E.B. White reported:
ZOOM ZOOM…The Burlington Zephyr set a speed record for travel between Denver and Chicago when it made a 1,015.4-mile (1,633 km) non-stop “Dawn-to-Dusk” dash in 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of almost 78 mph (124 km/h). In one section of the run it reached a speed of 112.5 mph. Following a promotional tour that included New York, it was placed in regular service between Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, on November 11, 1934. Other routes would be added later in the Midwest and West. (BNSF)
…we continue with E.B. White, here with some observations regarding Mother’s Day and bank robber/murderer John Dillinger, who had escaped from prison in March 1934 and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List…
I REMEMBER MAMA…John Dillinger posed with Lake County prosecutor Robert Estill, left, in the jail at Crown Point, Ind. while he awaited his trial for murder in January 1934. Dillinger would escape from the jail in March and would be on the lam until July, when FBI agents would gun him down outside a Chicago movie theatre. (NY Daily News)
…and a last word from White, about an important change at Radio City:
* * *
Voice In The Wilderness
A combination of newsreel footage, documentary, and reenactment, Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr’sHitler’s Reign of Terror played to capacity crowds for two weeks in New York City, despite the refusal of the state’s censor to license the film. Disinherited by his parents when he became a newspaper publisher, Vanderbilt was a determined journalist, covertly filming scenes in Nazi Germany and even briefly encountering Adolf Hitler outside the Reichstag, where Vanderbilt yelled to Der Führer, “And what about the Jews, Your Excellency?” (Hitler ignored the question and referred Vanderbilt to one of his lackeys). Unfortunately, Vanderbilt wasn’t much of a filmmaker, and although he warned Americans about the emerging threat in Germany, few took the film, or his warning, seriously, including John Mosher:
UNHEEDED…Audiences flocked to see Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr’sHitler’s Reign of Terror, but critics dismissed the rather amateurish film—Film Daily scoffed at the film’s prediction that Hitler’s Germany was a future threat to world peace; at right, in the film Vanderbilt confronted “Hitler” in a recreation. (TMDB/Library of Congress)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
It wouldn’t seat eleven people like a Dymaxion, but a Body by Fisher (coach builder to General Motors) certainly impressed this young woman…but better check with the hubby just in case…
…in this next ad, we find what looks like the same woman, perhaps celebrating her decision with a nice smoke…
…this spot seems out of place in the New Yorker, like it snuck over from Better Homes & Gardens...
…on to our cartoons…with James Thurber’s war of the sexes over, life returned to normal…
…and both sides shared in the gloom of a rainy afternoon…
…by contrast, Perry Barlow brightened things up with this life of the party…
…but a good time doesn’t always translate over the airwaves, per George Price…
…Alain illustrated the consequences of losing one’s nest egg…
…Peter Arno didn’t leave any room for dessert…
…and Charles Addams returned, a macabre cast of characters still percolating in his brain…
…on to May 12, 1934…
May 12, 1934 cover by Leonard Dove.
…and back to the movies, this time critic John Mosher found more cheery fare in 20th Century, a pre-Code screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. Battling alcohol abuse since age 14, Barrymore nevertheless managed to display his rare genius as a comedian and turned in what is considered to be his last great film performance.
GETTING HER KICKS…Top, Carole Lombard delivers a swift one to John Barrymore in the screwball comedy 20th Century. Below, director Howard Hawks with the cast. (greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com)
* * *
Playing the Ponies
Horse racing correspondent George F. T. Ryall (pseud. “Audax Minor”) considered a losing wager at the Kentucky Derby in his column, “The Race Track.”
A HORSE OF COURSE…Jockey Mack Garner rode Cavalcade to victory at the 1934 Kentucky Derby. (Appanoose County Historical Society)
* * *
More From Our Advertisers
We begin with Camel cigarette endorsers Alice and Mary Byrd, residents of Virginia’s famous Brandon plantation and cousins of Virginia Senator and Governor Harry F. Byrd, known for his fights against the New Deal and his “massive resistance” to federally mandated school desegregation...
…also to the manor born, Whitney Bourne, a New York deb who would go on to a brief stage and film career that would end when she married her first husband (diplomat Stanton Griffis) in 1939…
AN EYE FOR STYLE…Whitney Bourne in a scene with Solly Ward in 1937’s Flight From Glory. Named in 1933 as one of America’s best dressed women, Bourne was a noted New York socialite, skier, golfer and tennis player as well as an occasional actress.
…we move along from the effervescent Whitney Bourne to the sparkling waters of Perrier…
…Gardner Rea followed other New Yorker cartoonists by illustrating an ad for Heinz…
…which brings is to more cartoons, where according to Richard Decker, the move to streamlined trains wasn’t welcomed by everyone…
…Carl Rose illustrated this two-page spread with an imagined right-wing response to the recent left-wing May Day parades…
…William Steig eavesdropped onto a saucy little conversation…
…Barbara Shermund continued her explorations into the trials of the modern woman…
…James Thurber was back to his old tricks…
…and we conclude our cartoons with Eli Garson, and a new perspective…
Before I close, a bit of housekeeping. The first issues in 1925 sometimes ended “The Talk of the Town” with…
…but on May 23, 1925, “Talk” signed off with —The New Yorkers. That continued until the March 31, 1934 issue (below), the last time the New Yorker signed off “The Talk of the Town” with —The New Yorkers:
It’s hard to fathom that a woman wearing trousers used to cause such a stir, but for international film star Marlene Dietrich it was an opportunity for the publicity that invariably came with defying the norms of fashion and sexuality in 1930s.
July 22, 1933 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
In May 1933 Dietrich was headed to Paris on a steamer, relaxing on the deck in a white pantsuit. Prior to her arrival, the Paris chief of police announced she would be arrested if she showed up in pants. However when Dietrich arrived at the Gare Saint Lazare wearing a man’s suit and overcoat, she stepped off the train, grabbed the chief of police by his arm, and walked him off the platform.
The New Yorker’sJanet Flanner reported on Dietrich’s comings and goings in her regular column “Letter From Paris”…
TAKING PARIS BY STORM…Clockwise, from top left: Marlene Dietrich in Paris, 1933, accompanied by her husband, Rudolf Sieber; Dietrich on the SS Europa, Cherbourg, France, May 1933; Dietrich arriving at the Gare Saint Lazare station, May 20, 1933 (this photo is often paired with an erroneous caption claiming that Dietrich is being arrested by French authorities. On the contrary, she owned them the moment she stepped onto the platform); Dietrich signing autographs in Paris, 1933. (bygonely.com/Smithsonian/Twitter/Pinterest)
* * *
Bullish On Office Space
Despite the Depression, millions of square feet of office space were being added to the massive Rockefeller Center complex, including the Palazzo d’Italia at 626 Fifth Avenue. “The Talk of the Town” reported:
THE BIG SHORT…Attached to the International Building at its northwest corner, the Palazzo d’Italia was originally planned as a nine-story building, a fact that impressed the fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini because it beat the six-story height of the French and British Buildings. In the end Benito only got six as well. (Wikipedia/Pinterest)
* * *
Urban Jungle
Astoria Studios in Queens was built in 1920 for Famous Players-Lasky and is still home to New York City’s only studio backlot. In 1933 it served as a tropical setting for The Emperor Jones, featuring Paul Robeson in the title role. “The Talk of the Town” looked in on the movie’s faux jungle:
35TH STREET JUNGLE…Paul Robeson in a scene from The Emperor Jones. (flickr.com)
Loosely based on a Eugene O’Neill play and financed with private money, the film was made outside of the Hollywood studio system and distributed by United Artists.
EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES…Brutus Jones (Robeson) schemes with colonial trader Smithers (Dudley Digges) on his plan to become emperor in The Emperor Jones. (moma.org)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Yes, it’s advertising so we don’t expect it to be realistic, but I can guarantee no one is going to look like that after a ride to the beach in a rumble seat…also the woman behind the car is either floating or has exceedingly long legs…
…Hupmobile enlisted humorist Irvin S. Cobb to help boost its sagging sales…
Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) wrote for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and was once the highest paid staff reporter in the United States. (carnegiecenterlex.org)
…with the return of legal beer the makers of Budweiser struck a patriotic note in promoting their “King of Bottled Beer” to thirsty New Yorkers…
…the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon claimed the title of “Best of the Better Beers” with this ad featuring a woman who appeared on the verge of going overboard…
…if beer wasn’t your thing, you could try your hand at mixing a “30-Second Highball” per this Prohibition-themed ad…
…delving into the back pages one finds all sorts of curiosities, including this mail-order “charm school” operated by Margery Wilson…
…Wilson (1896–1986) acted in numerous silent pictures (including the 1916 D. W. Griffith epic Intolerance) and in the early 1920s was a writer, director and producer…
Margery Wilson in Eye of the Night (1916). She was among pioneering women filmmakers of the 1920s. (columbia.edu))
…it must have been a hot summer in New York with the abundance of air-conditioner ads…here’s one from Frigidaire for a unit that despite its size (and enormous cost) could cool only one room…
…this next air-conditioner ad from G-E seems poorly conceived…you would think an air-conditioned office would make the boss and his secretary a bit happier than they appear here…maybe they just got the bill from General Electric…
…we begin our cartoons with another pair of sourpusses, courtesy Mary Petty…
…George Price offered up this bit of art for the opening pages…
…William Steig headed to the country to escape summer in the city…
…William Crawford Galbraith’s bathers kept cool by examining the flotsam from distant shores…
…Charles Addams explored various themes before he launched his “Addams Family” in 1938…
…and we move on to July 29 with a terrific cover by Barbara Shermund…
July 29, 1933 cover by Barbara Shermund.
…in this issue Geoffrey T. Hellman penned a profile of Egyptologist Herbert E. Winlock, who made key discoveries about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and served as director of the Metropolitan Museum from 1932 to 1939, where he was employed his entire career. Excerpt:
CAN YOU DIG IT…Early 1920s photo of the Metropolitan Museum’s Theban expedition team. Herbert E. Winlock is in the back row, second from left. His wife, Helen Chandler Winlock, is in the front row, far right. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
* * *
Chilling With U.S. Grant
In those days before air-conditioning was widely available or used, “The Talk of the Town” dispatched an investigator to sample indoor temperatures at various public places, finding the coolest spot at Grant’s Tomb:
WHERE THE COOL PEOPLE HANG OUT…Clockwise, from top left: The tomb of Per-neb at the Metropolitan Museum registered a cozy 80 degrees, while in the same museum it was a balmy 84 by Emanuel Leutze’s famed painting Washington Crossing the Delaware; the New York Aquarium in Battery Park was a bit cooler at 79 (pictured is the Sea Lion Pool); while Grant’s Tomb was downright chilly at 70. (Met Museum/Wildlife Conservation Society/grantstomb.org)
* * *
Node of Gold
Apparently the famed crooner Bing Crosby had a minor node on one of his vocal cords, and when he consulted a specialist he was advised against removing it, lest he alter his voice in a way that would affect his career. Indeed, the node seemed to add an “appealing timbre” to his signature sound, so Crosby had his voice insured by Lloyd’s of London for $100,000 with a proviso that the node could not be removed. Howard Brubaker made this observation in “Of All Things”…
LUMP IN HIS THROAT…Bing Crosby with Marion Davies in the 1933 film Going Hollywood. (IMDB)
…Brubaker also shared this prescient observation from American astronomer Vesto Slipher…
…Slipher (1875–1969) would live long enough to confirm his statement…the first full-disk “true color” picture of the Earth was captured by a U.S. Department of Defense satellite in September 1967:
(USAF/Johns Hopkins University)
* * *
More From Our Advertisers
This ad was on the inside front cover of the July 29 issue, a rather jarring image following that lovely Barbara Shermund cover…
…the hugely popular P.G. Wodehouse was back with more silly antics from the British upper classes…
…while some New Yorkers could take a break from their reading and hit the dance floor atop the Waldorf-Astoria…
…and tango to the stylings of bandleader Xavier Cugat…
Xavier Cugat and band atop the Waldorf-Astoria. (cntraveler.com)
…this ad for the French Line, illustrated by Ruth Sigrid Grafstrom, offered a precious scene of a page-boy lighting a woman’s cigarette, a sight unimaginable today…
…and we close with a cartoon by Gardner Rea, doggone it…
There were a number of people Dorothy Parker couldn’t abide. That included gifted writers who not only eschewed serious literature, but who instead chose to crank out a lot of mass-market trash.
March 18, 1933 cover by William Steig.
Parker was well acquainted with Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer (1902–1959), and for a time she even associated with the Fortean Society, which Thayer founded in 1931. Inspired by writer Charles Fort, the Forteans promoted the use of scientific methods to evaluate unexplained phenomena such as UFOs, spontaneous human combustion, and other oddities. Parker and fellow New Yorker writers Ben Hecht and Alexander Woollcott were among founding members, doubtless drawn to Fort’s reputation as a skeptic; however one famous skeptic, journalist H.L. Mencken, called Fort’s ideas “Bohemian mush.” It’s hard to say how long Parker stayed connected to the Society, but by 1933 she was fed up with Thayer’s novels, including his latest, An American Girl, which she found to be “the gaudiest flower of pretentiousness.” Here is an excerpt from Parker’s sometime column, “Reading and Writing,” subtitled Not Even Funny…
TIFF WITH TIFFANY…At left, Tiffany Thayer aboard a cruise ship with an unidentified woman, most likely his first wife, a dancer named Tanagra, early 1930s; at right, Dorothy Parker and a first edition of the offending volume. In her review, Parker observed that Taylor “is beyond question a writer of power; and his power lies in his ability to make sex so thoroughly, graphically, and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing.” (IMDB/Worthpoint)
Although Thayer founded a society based on scientific reason, his pulp novels were filled with fantasy and prurient imagery. F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed that “curious children nosed at the slime of Mr. Tiffany Thayer in the drug-store libraries.”
BELIED LETTRES…Clockwise from top left, Thayer’s 1931 novel Call Her Savage was made into a 1932 film starring Clara Bow, here featured on the book’s dustcover; the same novel repackaged in 1952 for the pulp trade; a 1943 edition of Thayer’s One-Man Show, and a 1951 Avon reprint that toned down the nudity but upped the creep factor. (facebook.com/biblio.com)
…and speaking of creep factor, check out Avon’s 1950 re-issue of Thayer’s 1937 novel The Old Goat, illustration attributed to Edgar Lyle Justis…
(biblio.com)
Artists like Justis must have had a ball doing these illustrations, creating images to lure the unsuspecting into purchasing these old titles. Note how the coked-up old man sports not-so-subtle devil horns.
* * *
They Called It a Holiday
E.B. White, James Thurber (see below) and others in the March 18 issue commented on the national banking “holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in an effort to stabilize America’s banking system and rebuild public confidence. This led to the Glass-Steagall Act, signed three months later by FDR. Some observations in “Notes and Comment” by E.B. White, with the usual great spot illustrations by Otto Soglow…
SAY CHEESE!…President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Glass-Steagall Act on June 16, 1933, effectively separating commercial banking from investment banking and creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), among other things. (Associated Press)
…meanwhile, Germany’s new chancellor, Adolf Hitler, was busy abolishing civil liberties while pretending to be distressed by the behavior of his brownshirt thugs…an excerpt from Howard Brubaker’s “Of All Things”…
* * *
A Familiar Ring
For the second week in a row Ring Lardner lent his wit to The New Yorker’s “Over the Waves,” column, which typically reviewed the latest news and entertainment beamed from the radio tower atop the Empire State Building. Lardner, however, was in California, lamenting the challenges of the time lag. An excerpt:
AND NO WI-FI, EITHER…Ring Lardner (center) detailed the frustrations of listening to New York-based radio entertainers like Eddie Cantor (left) and Rudy Vallée during his stay in California. (Pinterest/The Classic Archives/The New York Times)
* * *
Dance Away Those Blues
The pre-Code musical 42nd Street received a brief, albeit mostly positive review from critic John Mosher, who along with the producers of the film knew Depression-weary Americans needed such distractions. Nearly 90 years later (April 10, 2020), another New Yorker film critic, Richard Brody, suggested 42nd Street as one of the best films to stream during the Covid-19 pandemic: “Modern musicals start here, and Busby Berkeley’s genius bursts into full flower,” he wrote.
DANCE ‘TIL YOU DROP…Under pressure to produce a hit after losing his lead dancer (Bebe Daniels) to a broken ankle, Broadway musical director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter, center) mercilessly rehearses her replacement, Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler, in her film debut) before the premiere, vowing “I’ll either have a live leading lady or a dead chorus girl.” Looking on (to the right of Baxter) is Ginger Rogers, who portrayed “Anytime Annie.” (tcm.com)A LEG UP ON HIS CAREER…42nd Street was a breakthrough film for choreographer Busby Berkeley, who would direct and choreograph a long string of musicals until the 1960s. The film is now considered a classic, preserved in the United States National Film Registry. (IMDB)
…and for trivia buffs, during an opening scene Bebe Daniels is shown reading the February 20, 1932 (anniversary) issue of The New Yorker…
* * *
From Our Advertisers
A convertible LaSalle (a downscale Cadillac brand) looks like a great way to enjoy a drive along the beach…let’s hope it has enough acceleration to outrun the tsunami apparently heading its way…
…Walter Chrysler continued to dig into his deep pockets for two-page color spreads, including this one that placed his humble DeSoto in St. Moritz, of all places…
…not to be outdone, the folks at Nash found another exotic locale for their budget-priced sedan…Chicago, that is, at the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition…and for an extra touch of class, we have what appears to be a chauffeur attending to this modest motorcar…
…America’s top luxury car maker, Pierce Arrow — a regular advertiser in The New Yorker — decided a quarter-page ad was sufficient to keep their name before the eyes of the well-heeled…at right, an ad from another back page featured cartoonist Don Herold shilling for the makers of imitation liquor flavors…according to the ad, one bottle, obtainable from your druggist, “flavors a gallon” of whatever forsaken hootch you are consuming…
…the folks at Log Cabin relied on the talents of another New Yorker cartoonist, John Held Jr., to make both their product and a signature cocktail a more palatable experience…
…I have to hand it to the folks at Heinz for signing off on an advertisement only a vampire would find appealing…
…the purveyors of Marie Earle beauty products rolled out this modern ad to promote their “Essential Cream”…
…while staid Brooks Brothers remained true to form — no flashy colors or advertising jargon — just straight talk about price increases….
…and then there’s the upmarket Fortnum & Mason, appealing to America’s Anglophiles with one of their famed wicker hampers filled with various goodies selected for “charming and greedy people”…
….for several years R.J. Reynolds employed the services of Carl “Eric” Erickson (1891–1958) to illustrate a series of ads featuring classy, disinterested, continental types smoking their Camel brand cigarettes…despite their less-than-exotic name, the makers of Spud menthol cigarettes hired Ruth Sigrid Grafstrom (1905–1986) to create their own smart set of smokers…
…ads that bore a striking resemblance to Erickson’s Camel work (this example from 1931)…
…and for your consideration, works from 1933 by Carl Erickson and Ruth Sigrid Grafstrom…both were noted fashion illustrators…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with Charles Addams, who’d just published his first New Yorker cartoon the previous month, in the Feb. 4, 1933 issue…
…that first cartoon was simply signed “Addams”…here he used the familiar “Chas Addams”…a close-up of the signature…
…we continue with a great caricature by Al Frueh to accompany a profile of Rudolf Kommer (as told by Alexander Woollcott)…
…a delightful full page of bank holiday-themed cartoons by James Thurber…
…Richard Decker offered up a tall tale…
…and we close with Peter Arno, who served up one of his clueless cuckolds…
A New Yorker State of Mind 