Above: Postcard image of the "Avenue of Presidents" at the 1936 Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio. (youtube.com)
Before the days of mass communications, millions would flock to various world’s fairs and expositions to see the latest inventions, experience the boosterism of the host city, and seek out the thrills of a carnival ride or peep show.
September 26, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Along with the major world’s fairs such as Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, smaller cities also hosted expositions to “boom” their standing in the world—Omaha’s 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition attracted 2.6 million people, including President William McKinley, and three years later Buffalo’s 1901 Pan-American Exposition would draw eight million—McKinley was there, too, but his visit (and life) would be cut short by an assassin’s bullet.
In many cases these expositions commemorated anniversaries that marked the progress of a particular city or geographic area. Such was the case of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Exposition, which was created to commemorate the centennial of Cleveland’s incorporation as a city while giving a boost to a region hit hard by the Depression. The exposition was visited by The New Yorker’sEugene Kinkead, who was an editor and writer of the magazine’s “The Talk of the Town” section for many years. Here are brief excerpts from his visit:
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE…Clockwise from top left: Poster for the Great Lakes Exposition; the most popular attraction was Billy Rose’s Aquacade, a 5,000-seat theater-restaurant that featured diving and synchronized swimming (the Aquacade was also a hit at the 1939 New York Wold’s Fair); star attractions at the Aquacade were Olympic champion swimmers Eleanor Holm and Johnny Weissmuller, pictured here with Billy Rose; the “Streets of the World” showcased the cultures of more than forty different countries—it also featured the “French Casino,” a restaurant/nightclub that drew massive crowds to its “Girl Revues”—naturally, the scantily clad performances and nude can-can dancers created a major stir among more modest expo attendees. (chicagovintageposters.com/clevelandmemory.org)OTHER DIVERSIONS…Above: the can-can dancers who caused quite a stir at the French Casino, located in the “Streets of the World” section. Below: One of the blimps the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company featured at the exposition rises in the background of “Streets of the World.” Visitors could purchase tickets for three dollars (roughly $65 today) to take a scenic flight over downtown Cleveland, the exposition, and Lake Erie. (clevelandmemory.org)EXPO BY NIGHT…Clockwise, from top left: Postcard view of the main entrance to the Great Lakes Exposition, backlit by the “Aurora Borealis”—a spectacular light display created by powerful searchlights and colored beams; a tower sponsored by Cleveland’s famed Higbee’s Department Store; photograph of the main entrance at night. (clevelandmemory.org/clevelandhistorical.org)
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Relax, Joan
New Yorker regular Frank Sullivan found inspiration in a newspaper article featuring actress Joan Blondell lamenting the “surprised look” she thought was permanently fixed on her face. Sullivan suggested that Blondell “must live a pretty secluded life” not to notice a world “full of startled faces.” Alluding to the coming war in Europe, he suggested that in a year or two “everyone will probably look like ZaSu Pitts.”
PUT ON YOUR WAR FACE…Frank Sullivan reassured Joan Blondell (center) that soon everyone would wear the expression of actress ZaSu Pitts (left). (imdb.com/sspl.org)
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At the Movies
As previously noted, costume dramas were big in 1936, and critic John Mosher was less than enthusiastic about many of them, but he found Nine Days a Queen (Tudor Rose in the British release) a sensible affair, noting that “English studios manage to dress up their historical pageants with a care and a suggestion of authority…”
TEMPORARY CROWN…Nine Days a Queen (aka Tudor Rose) tells the story of Lady Jane Grey’s brief reign as the queen of England before she loses her head. Left: John Mills as Lord Guilford Dudley and Nova Pilbeam as Lady Jane Grey. At right, executioners seek forgiveness from Lady Jane ahead of their grisly task. Critic John Mosher liked the film, but Graham Greene (critic for The Spectator), wrote that he had “seldom listened to more inchoate rubbish…” (oldhollywooddiary via instagram.com)
Mosher found the musical comedy Sing, Baby, Sing a minor entertainment, and dismissed the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey as “nonsense.” Mosher was in the minority on that latter opinion: Godfrey was one of the most acclaimed comedies of 1936, nominated for six Oscars. In 1999 the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
PAIRING OFF…Alice Faye and Adolphe Menjou in Sing, Baby, Sing.Carole Lombard and William Powell in My Man Godfrey. Lombard and Powell were briefly married from 1931 to 1933, but remained close friends after their divorce. (eBay.com/pbs.org)
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From Our Advertisers
The inside front cover greeted readers with this romantic image from Richard Hudnut cosmetics…
…the makers of Lucky Strikes used a bit of romance themselves to inspire more women smokers…
…the folks at Birds Eye took out this advertisement to extol the virtues of frozen fish…
…an odd ad from Green Giant, using the image of an annoying little man to sell peas…one imagines the woman calling “Pa, git yer shotgun”…
…the Parc Vendome advertised its apartments as a great place to keep fit, everything from calisthenics to sun-lamp treatments…
…a couple of one-column ads from the back of the book…at left: founded in 1935, Cadaco was known for transforming real-world sports into table-top versions…on the right: John-Frederics was a partnership between hat designer “Mr John” Harberger and Frederic Hirst…John-Frederics hats were famous in Hollywood, including the green velvet bonnet worn by Vivien Leigh in 1939’s Gone with the Wind…
This 1938 edition of Cadaco’s Bas-Ket featured spring-loaded levers that propelled a ping-pong-like ball toward a basket. (etsy.com)
…Scribner’s magazine, a product of publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons, tried to head off declining circulation by hiring a new editor-in-chief, Harlan D. Logan, who sought to modernize the format to compete with contemporary lifestyle magazines…the publisher took out this cheeky full-page ad to draw attention to the “new” Scribner’s…
…founded in January 1887, the magazine saw its strongest sales when Teddy Roosevelt was a contributor from the 1890s to about 1910…despite Logan’s efforts, the magazine folded in May 1939…
The October 1936 issue of Scribner’s marked a change in editorship and design of the magazine. This cover was by American graphic designer Thomas Cleland. (vintage.es)
…archetypes like the pompous British Colonel and the haughty Duchess seemed to be everywhere in the 1930s, whether they were foils in screwball comedies or wealthy aristocrats laughably out-of-touch and obsessed with past glories (Peter Arno knew that trick well)…if you’ve followed these posts for awhile you know they are often seen in New Yorker advertising as well…
…which makes a nice segue to our cartoons, starting with Arno…
…the calendar section featured this illustration by William Auerbach-Levy for the mini bio of popular bandlander and pianist Eddy Duchin…
…Victor de Pauw opened up the magazine with this painterly illustration…
…some spot art from fashion illustrator Alice Chamalian…
…and Richard Taylor…
…caption-less entries from Alain…
…and Robert Day…
…Leonard Dove supplied a clarification for this sugar daddy…
…William Steig gave us various types of “woe”…
…George Price delivered a surprise at the Automat…
…Otto Soglow pondered the meaning of dreams…
…and we close with some scandalous fashion gossip, courtesy Helen Hokinson…
Above: The BBC offered a public demonstration of television at Waterloo Station, London, in 1936. (Colorized image via Facebook)
E.B. White was ever wary of new technology (except for aviation—he loved to fly), so television posed yet another thing to fear in the coming age of “omniscience.”
September 19, 1936 cover by William Cotton.
In addition to television, White noted two other “giant strides” in the world of science and publicity: a live radio broadcast featuring sounds from the Spanish Civil War, and the launch of a new magazine that would “consist almost entirely of pictures.”
ONE-EYED MONSTER…Clockwise, from top left: On Aug. 11, 1936, Philco Radio and Television demonstrated the transmitting end of a television with the help of camera operator R.E. Waggener and singer Betty McNellis—the sound and picture were projected seven miles to a receiving set; a close-up of a 1936 television camera; photo taken in 1936 during a “live broadcast” from America’s first television studio, NBC Studio 3H—from left, NBC President Lenox Lohr, RCA President David Sarnoff and Fair Committee head Grover Whalen sign a contract for an RCA pavilion at the upcoming 1939 World’s Fair; front and rear view of a 1936 television receiver. (eyesofageneration.com/facebook.com)
White also noted the upcoming launch of a new magazine, The Show-Book of the World,which was the working title of a publication that would become Life magazine. White did not like the idea of a magazine consisting mostly of pictures that graphically expose “once-private lives,” believing it would “do away with the last vestiges of privacy in America.”
MONUMENTAL…The photo on the first cover of Life magazine, Nov. 23, 1936, was shot by one of Life‘s original four photographers, Margaret Bourke-White, who covered the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, a Public Works Administration endeavor to build the largest earth dam in the world during the Great Depression. At right, a Bourke-White photo of Fort Peck workers enjoying some down time. (npr.org/life.com/worthpoint.com)
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Call for Johnny Roventini!
“The Talk of the Town” featured a brief profile of Johnny Roventini (aka Johnny Morris or Johnny the Bellboy), the famous “living trademark” for the Philip Morris tobacco company. Roventini (1910–1998), who represented the company for more than forty years, was working as a bellboy at the New Yorker Hotel in 1933 when he was discovered by an advertising agent. Excerpts:
THEY’RE SELLING YOU…In mid-century America the image of Johnny Roventini, known to the public as Johnny Morris or Johnny the Bellboy, seemed to be everywhere. Clockwise, from top left: Publicity photo, 1937; magazine ad, 1947; ad promoting the armed services, 1941; civil defense-themed ad, 1940s; cigarette match holder; promotional stand-up sign. (cats.ua.edu/standford.edu/worthpoint.com)
Roventini was probably best known for his Philip Morris promos on I Love Lucy. The new show was challenged to find a sponsor (due to the Cuban character played by Desi Arnaz) until Arnaz arranged a deal that made Philip Morris the exclusive sponsor of I Love Lucy from its premiere on October 15, 1951 through Christmas of 1954. Roventini gained unprecedented national TV exposure and became fast friends with Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Here is one more excerpt from “Talk” regarding the quiet life of Philip Morris’s “living trademark.”
I LOVE PHILIP MORRIS…Lucille Ball, Johnny Roventini and Desi Arnaz formed a lucrative trio for the tobacco company Philip Morris when I Love Lucy went on the air in 1951. Roventini was an occasional, social smoker, while Ball and Arnaz were heavy smokers (although Lucy preferred Chesterfields). (facebook.com/instagram.com)
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At the Movies
A Soviet film featuring exiled German communists proved to be a disappointment for critic John Mosher, but in retrospect the 1936 German-Soviet film The Struggle (aka Kämpfer or Der Kampf) reveals the strange and terrifying climate artists had to navigate in Stalin’s Russia.
Set in Germany after 1933, the film depicted the resistance of workers against the rise of the Nazi Party. One of the earliest films to depict Nazi terror and concentration camps, ironically many of those who worked on the film became victims of Joseph Stalin’s terror and the Gulag.
DEFIANCE…German actress Lotte Loebinger in a scene from the 1936 German-Soviet movie The Struggle (“Kämpfer”). Loebinger (1905-1995) managed to survive Stalin’s purges and had a long career on the stage in East Berlin following World War II. Loebinger’s lover, a German refugee physician with whom she bore a daughter, was not so fortunate, dying in a Soviet Gulag camp. (YouTube)
Shortly after The Struggle was completed, Stalin purged the community of exiled German communists living in Moscow, and the film was quickly banned by Soviet authorities. A large number of the film’s cast and crew were arrested, sent to the Gulag, or killed, including lead actor Bruno Schmidtsdorf, who was executed by firing squad near Moscow in 1938. Composer Hans Hauska, who wrote the film’s musical score, perished in a Soviet prison camp.
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Playing the Ponies
The calendar section continued its series of illustrated mini-bios, this week featuring Tommy Hitchcock, widely regarded as the greatest polo player in the history of the sport. A dashing figure in high society, Hitchcock (1900–1944) was also an aviator and decorated war hero. Illustration by William Cotton.
POLO PLAYING PILOT…Tommy Hitchcock flew as a volunteer pilot for the French Air Force in World War I, and was later instrumental in the development of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Hitchcock was killed in 1944 while piloting a P-51 on a test flight near Salisbury, England. (instagram.com)
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From Our Advertisers
A strange advertisement from Bergdorf, announcing the opening of a salon that featured a line of shoes inspired by the Chinese “bound foot”…
…if a bound foot wasn’t your thing, you could wiggle your toes in an elastic shoe fashioned from “Pleatex”…
…Wamsutta continued to promote its high thread-count sheets with these somewhat seductive advertisements…
…oddly composed advertisement for Saks Fifth Avenue by fashion illustrator Margaret Sommerfeld, who produced promotional artwork for Saks…
…Fred Astaire managed to hang on to his hat in this advertisement for “The Packard Hour” on NBC’s nationwide “Red Network”…the ad proclaimed “you’ll hear him sing and dance“…on the radio, that is…
…Scripps-Howard featured this image of the late Will Rogers to promote newspaper advertising…
…this back cover ad also featured a newspaper reader, enjoying a smoke while waiting for the train…
…best known for creating The Little King,Otto Soglow drew hundreds of cartoons and spot drawings for The New Yorker as well as for a variety of advertisers including Pepsi-Cola, Benson & Hedges cigarettes, and here, one from a series of ads he created for WOR radio…
…speaking of spots, here are two by Victor de Pauw…
…biographies of prolific New Yorker cover artist Arthur Getz give his start date at the magazine as 1938, but this might be one of his early spot drawings (although the signature style differs from Getz’s other works)…
…no mistaking this spot by Christina Malman…
…or this one by Richard Decker…
…Leonard Dove demonstrated some moves for a chorus line…
…and more wonderful Richard Taylor illustrations for Morris Bishop’s limericks…
…the well-heeled prepared to engage in a favorite sport, per Peter Arno…
…”Trans-Lux” theaters were conversions of storefronts and retail offices that seated smaller audiences than traditional theaters. Rather than feature films, the Trans-Lux theaters showed continuous 45-to-60-minute loops of newsreels (like The March of Time), short subjects, travelogues, and cartoons from 10 a.m. to midnight—people could come and go as they pleased. The theaters pioneered rear-screen projection, using a specialized, wide-angled lens placed just eight feet behind a translucent screen…
POP IN, POP OUT…The very first Trans-Lux cinema opened in 1931 at 58th and Madison as a unique venue that played newsreels and shorts. According to The New York Times, “by the late 1940s, the rise of television began to kill the newsreel format entirely. By 1949, Trans-Lux stopped expanding its boutique newsreel footprint and pivoted its existing houses toward showing standard feature-length films.” (Library of Congress)
…back to our cartoons, Carl Rose conjured up an unwelcome reminder…
…Charles Addams was up to his old tricks…
…Alain read the obvious from some tea leaves…
…Rea Irvin showed us some strategic thinking by military brass…
…Alan Dunn considered the mysteries of the sea…
…this guy should have suggested a comedy, per Barbara Shermund…
…Helen Hokinson continued to probe the delicate work of the dress shop…
…and we close with another by dear Helen, and the fear of too much thinking…
Above: E.B. White noted the sounds of late summer ranging from jackhammers (that sounded like cicadas) to the songs of katydids predicting an early frost. (pafa.org/Ellyn B/Flickr/nwf.org)
For roughly four decades E.B. White’s “Notes and Comment” set the tone for each issue of The New Yorker, offering observations on daily life that sometimes were compiled from his “disarranged notes.”
September 5, 1936 cover by Adolph K. Kronengold.
For the September 5 issue White offered brief comments on everything from the German military buildup to the romantic life of singer Bobby Arnst.
SHE WENT APE OVER TARZAN…Photo at left: Singer/dancer Bobbe Arnst shares a laugh with her first husband, Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller—apparently her second marriage to divorce attorney Robert Cavenaugh wasn’t so full of yuks; White also noted the cicada-like sounds of air drills tearing up old trolley car lines—at right is the 1936 painting “End of 14th Street Crosstown Line” by early New Yorker contributor Reginald Marsh. The urban realist Marsh juxtaposed workers tearing up tracks with picketers demonstrating against Ohrbach’s, which would not allow employees to unionize. (whosdatedwho.com/pafa.org)
White also cited Cosmopolitan magazine regarding “the age of accumulation” (twenty-five to thirty-five), and noted the average speed of rival ocean liners for “New Yorkers hastening to the Scottish moors for the grouse shooting…”
CONSUMER REPORT…White cited Cosmopolitan regarding “the age of accumulation,” and considered the average speeds of the world’s fastest ocean liners, France’s SS Normandie (top), and Great Britain’s RMS Queen Mary. (instagram.com/ucla.edu)
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Sounds of Music
Paris correspondent Janet Flanner moved on from the Nazi Olympics in Berlin to the foothills of the Alps for the Salzburg Music Festival, where German dramatic soprano Lotte Lehmann and Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini made music together.
DRAMATIC DUO…Dramatic soprano Lotte Lehmann and conductor Arturo Toscanini were the big draw at the 1936 Salzburg Music Festival, which also featured the debut of the Trapp Family Singers, who were encouraged by Lehmann to enter the Salzburg Festival contest. (taminoautographs.com via stolpersteine-salzburg.at/en)
In August 1936 Lehmann discovered the Trapp Family Singers (made famous in 1965’s The Sound of Music). While approaching a villa available to let, Lehmann overheard the Trapp children singing in their garden. Due to her fame, Lehmann was able to persuade Captain Georg Von Trapp to allow his children to perform at Salzburg Festival.
Flanner also marveled at the Austria’s Grossglockner High Alpine Road—with the highest pass in Europe—and noted the bitter struggle between Nazis and Social Democrats that was dividing Austrians less than two years before the Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria.
GETTING HIGH…At left, the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse); at right, the Hohensalzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg) a large medieval fortress that is a prominent landmark in the city of Salzburg, Austria. Flanner noted that unbeknownst to gawking tourists, the fortress contained political prisoners. (Wikipedia)
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At the Movies
John Mosher found Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at the top of their game in the musical comedy Swing Time, but lamented the stodgy and laborious plot that burdened the non-dancing scenes.
BUSTING SOME MOVES are Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time. The film was the sixth of ten films starring Astaire and Rogers. (goldenageofcinemasite.wordpress.com)
Mosher also had a look at Girl’s Dormitory, which introduced audiences to the young French actress Simone Simon, and also checked out the latest Myrna Loy flick.
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM…Clockwise from top left: Set at a Swiss boarding school, Girl’s Dormitory is a story about a middle-aged school director (Herbert Marshall) who resists the attentions of a forty-something professor (Ruth Chatterton) and instead hooks up with a 19-year-old student (Simone Simon);1936 photo of Simon by George Hurrell—Simon is is perhaps best remembered for her role in the 1942 American horror film Cat People and its sequel; Claire Trevor, Warner Baxter, and Myrna Loy in To Mary—with Love; cover of Movie Parade, a book on movie history when the history of film was just three decades old. (imdb.com/facebook.com)
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From Our Advertisers
The magazine opened with another enticing photo from Grace Line depicting an ocean cruise before the days of water slides, buffet lines and norovirus…
…some one-column selections from the back of the book, including an ad from the Camel Pen Company introducing an innovative fountain pen that contained a dry ink pellet—the user added water to dissolve the pellet into a year’s supply of ink…
…these days most of us use ball-point pens, and we are also so accustomed to automatic doors that they no longer seem “magic” as they did in the 1930s…
WONDERS NEVER CEASE…In 1931, Wilcox’s Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut featured the first automatic doors in America, invented by Stanley. (cbsnews.com)
…New York artist Sheila Raleigh employed the desert island trope to sell some beer for Jacob Ruppert…
…the inside back cover popped with this ad for the streamlined V-12 Lincoln Zephyr…
…the “Talk of the Town” occasionally featured these illustrated mini-bios, here highlighting Jesse Owens’ record-setting performance at the 1936 Olympics (illustration by William Cotton)…
…a couple of spots by George Shellhase…
…and Richard Taylor…
…Helen Hokinson gave us frenemies at a dog show…
…James Thurber looked out for cockroaches…
…Otto Soglow found a new use for a bass case…
…Soglow again, demonstrating the wonders of radio advertising…
…Alain showed us a man with a cagey cane…
…Peter Arno illustrated the trials of working with extras…
…Rea Irvin continued to chronicle achievements in industry (Peruna was a well-known patent medicine sold from the late-19th to mid-20th century—with its high alcohol content, Americans drank large amounts of Peruna during Prohibition)…
…a beat cop receives an unlikely confession, per Whitney Darrow Jr…
…and we close with Alan Dunn, in a forgettable situation…
Above: The building that housed Manhattan's Democratic Party, known as Tammany Hall, circa 1935, and James Joseph "Jimmy" Hines, perhaps Tammany's most powerful leader. (wpsu.org/facebook.com)
Tammany Hall was founded more than two hundred years ago as an independent social organization serving the needs of New York City’s immigrants and Irish Catholics in particular. After the 1854 mayoral election, however, Tammany grew into a powerful political force, and for nearly a century controlled both city and state elections and the power of patronage that came with them.
July 25, 1936 cover by William Crawford Galbraith.
It was no secret that political graft was rampant in the organization, but business leaders were happy to support Tammany’s corrupt practices as long as they served the bottom line. The same, it seems, also applied to politicians, law enforcement, and the courts, beneficiaries of political favors as well as outright bribes.
Few knew how to work Tammany’s levers better than James Joseph “Jimmy” Hines (1876–1957), who held absolute power over New York’s Eleventh District. Journalist Jack Alexander published Part One of a three-part profile on Hines for the July 25 issue. Excerpts:
SOBER REPORTING…Journalist Jack Alexander (1902–1975) was a reporter in St. Louis before joining New York’s Daily News in 1930. He later worked for The New Yorker and then moved to The Saturday Evening Post, where he became senior editor. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1941 article on Alcoholics Anonymous. (saturdayeveningpost.com)
Tammany was weakened when their scandal-plagued mayor, Jimmy Walker, was ousted in 1932 and eventually succeeded by reformist Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Hines, however, grew even more powerful as head of the U.S. Civil Service’s patronage system for Manhattan District employees. Ironically, Hines was appointed to the post by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who saw Tammany as a liability but owed Hines a favor—in 1932 Hines split from other Democratic machine bosses (who initially favored Al Smith) to back Roosevelt’s bid for the presidency.
One person who was not tainted by Hines’ influence was Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, who in 1936 was busy going after New York’s rackets and Hines in particular.
William Auerbach-Levy provided the illustration for Part One of the Hines profile:
In these excerpts, Alexander noted Hines’ “ace in the hole” (the White House) when Tammany Leader James J. Dooling tried to oust him.
I’M GONNA GET YA…Clockwise from top left: In 1936 reformers looked to Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey to fight New York’s entrenched rackets; Jimmy Hines (right) leaves the courthouse after a 1938 mistrial; Hines was accused of having close ties with mobsters Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano among others; Hines with his attorney, Martin Littleton, after leaving Tombs Prison on April 4, 1939—he was released on $35,000 bail pending an appeal for his conviction as a political fixer for the numbers racket. Hines would lose the appeal—convicted on thirteen counts of racketeering, he would be imprisoned at Sing Sing until 1944. (alchetron.com/facebook.com/Wikipedia)
Despite his misdeeds, Hines’ many admirers remained faithful to him until his death in 1957 at age 80. Many recalled his annual “June Walk” from the days before he went to prison. According to his New York Times obituary, the annual event in Central Park drew as many as twenty-five thousand women and children, who “listened to half a dozen brass bands, put on paper hats and gorged themselves on ice cream, hot dogs and pop furnished by Hines, who used to take part in the fun wearing the gay green bucket hat of the stage Irishman.” The obituary noted that when Hines left Sing Sing prison, a guard said, “Best of luck. Jimmy! Give my regards to the missus!”
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At the Movies
Critic John Mosher found the perfect distraction from the summer heat in the Mary Boland–Charlie Ruggles comedy Early to Bed:
SILLY SOMNAMBULIST…From left, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles and Colin Tapley in Early to Bed. (Pinterest)
Mosher also reviewed a Nero Wolfe mystery starring Edward Arnold, and a rather “slight” romance featuring an heiress with a penchant for speeding.
HOMEBODY…Rex Stout’s portly detective Nero Wolfe loved to solve crimes without venturing from the comforts of home. Clockwise, from top left; Edward Arnold (as Wolfe) with John Qualen, Lionel Stander, and Dennie Moore in Meet Nero Wolfe; eighteen-year-old Rita Hayworth (credited as Rita Cansino) appeared in several Nero Wolfe scenes as she continued to build her résumé at Columbia; an heiress with a lead foot runs afoul of a traffic cop (Randolph Scott) who eventually falls in love with her in “And Sudden Death; Frances Drake as the heiress in a scene with Tom Brown. (dancinglady39.wordpress.com/csfd.cz)
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Genteel Sport
The New Yorker featured a variety of sports in its early years, most of them elite pastimes except for hockey, college football and boxing. Save for the occasional mention of Babe Ruth’s antics (and his 1926 “Profile”) and a scattering of cartoons and spots, the game was conspicuously absent from the magazine during the Yankees’ “Murderers’ Row” years in the late 1920s and beyond. I’ve read that editor Harold Ross hated the game, but perhaps the real reason was explained by James Thurber in his “Talk of the Town” piece titled “Peanuts and Crackerjack” (September 22, 1928). Thurber described Yankees baseball as a mass spectacle for out-of-towners who were “a bit mad.” It wasn’t cool to be a Yankees fan if you counted yourself among Manhattan’s smart set.
G.O.A.T. HERD…Less than a month after James Thurber published “Peanuts and Crackerjack,” the New York Yankees would sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in The World Series. The 1928 Yankees set a major league record by having nine players on the team who would eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame. (Wikipedia)
Basketball was also missing from those early issues of The New Yorker, even though it had been played since the 1890s. So we turn to New Yorker cartoonist and author Michael Maslin (via his essential Ink Spill), who recently noted The New Yorker’svery first basketball-themed cartoon by Robert Day (Dec. 23, 1933). The post also features Abe Birnbaum’s terrific 1951 basketball-themed cover and a hilarious MAD magazine parody of Charles Addams.
The elite sports that dominated the back half of the magazine in those early years included golf, tennis, badminton, squash, yachting, rowing, horse hunts and horse racing, and polo (both indoor and out).
Lets look at a couple from the July 25 issue, beginning with these brief excerpts from the “Polo” column authored by “Backhander”—a generic pen name that referred to a rotating cast of polo correspondents including Robert F. Kelley, George F. T. Ryall and Tom O’Reilly (who covered indoor polo).
ELECTRIC HORSEMEN…At left, the Jaipur Polo team (shown here in England in 1933) won all the open tournaments between 1930 and 1938 in India and England. From left is Maharaja Swai Man Singh of Jaipur State and Rao Raja Hanut Singh, Rao Raja Abhey Singh and Colonel Prithvi Singh of Baria; at right, international polo star Laddie Sanford was the dynamic patron and captain of the famed Hurricanes, which won the U.S. Open in three different decades. (The Rajputs via Facebook/polo museum.org)
The “Yachts and Yachtsman” column was also signed by a pen name—”Bosun”—signifying any staff writer assigned to boat races or boat shows. In this case the writer was H. K. Rigg, who covered the start of the 1936 Larchmont Race Week, one of the most successful and heavily attended spectacles in the early history of yacht racing.
ON YOUR MARK…Photo above depicts the start of the July 21, 1936 Larchmont Yacht Club Race. The 1936 event is remembered for its massive turnout—300 boats duelling through crowded waters. In the Aug. 1, 1936 issue of The New Yorker,H. K. Rigg wrote that a “sausage balloon” was needed just to see over the congested fleet. (Rosenfeld Collection via newyork32.org)
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From Our Advertisers
A couple of issues ago we looked at the Advertising Federation of America’s “truth in advertising campaign” (Better Living Through Fiction) that sought to forestall government regulation. On June 29, 1936, the AFA hosted more than a thousand ad executives in Boston, where the head of advertising at Scripps-Howard criticized competitive selling among papers (it hurt them in competition with other media). Newspaper ad executives were urged to work together as a profession, and that likely explains this lavish two-page spread in The New Yorker…
…as well as this full-page appeal from the Chicago Daily News…
…and this spot from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin…
…Dr. Seuss was still honing his style in ads for Flit insecticide…
…this White Rock ad featured the work of two artists…the prolific R. John Holmgren famously illustrated White Rock ads in the 1930s and 40s, often featuring the “tiny Colonel,” seen below regarding the original painting of Psyche at Nature’s Mirror by German artist Paul Thumann…the owners of White Rock bought the rights to the painting after seeing it at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and adopted Psyche as their trademark…Holmgren would incorporate a modernized version of Psyche in dozens of ads…
…on the inside front cover Seagram’s referenced the character of Thomas Jefferson as an apt metaphor for their product…
…and on the back cover the makers of Luckies kept it simple with this colorful appeal to the growing market for women smokers…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with another installment of “Limericks” by Morris Bishop featuring the unique style of cartoonist Richard Taylor…
…Alain helped open things up for the events calendar…
…as did Susan Willard Flint with her woodcuts…
…Ned Hilton offered a new wrinkle in a familiar game of skill…
…and Hilton again, preparing for take-off…
…Carl Rose used a double spread to illustrate a singles match…
…Alan Dunn illustrated a familiar problem of the electric age…
…and Dunn again with some realtor trickery…
…Helen Hokinson looked to an Eastern ascetic for some sage advice…
…and found one of her “girls” overdressed for an outing on the Thames…
…Rea Irvin celebrated the genius of American marketing…
…and we end with Peter Arno, and his unique view of matrimony…
Above: Political cartoon by Clifford Berryman depicting three supporters of the Neutrality Act, 1939; at right, Frank Sullivan at his favorite watering hole, the Worden Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. (nationalww2museum.org/digitalarchive.sspl.org)
In 1935 the American humorist Frank Sullivan introduced the “Cliche Expert” Mr. Arbuthnot to New Yorker readers, exploring a variety of bromides associated with everything from political campaigns to the legal system.
July 18, 1936 cover by Antonio Petruccelli.
For the July 18 issue Sullivan (1892–1976) called on Mr. Arbuthnot to explore the subject of war (Sullivan had some familiarity with the subject as a soldier in World War I). Below is the first of two excerpts from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War” (spot drawing by Susanne Suba):
A peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table, Sullivan wrote his first article for The New Yorker in 1925, and seven years later published his inaugural “Greetings, Friends!” Christmas poem (he would contribute forty-two of them, his last in 1974). He penned more than a dozen Mr. Arbuthnot stories from 1935 to 1952, and also introduced such characters as Aunt Sally Gallup, Martha Hepplethwaite, and the Forgotten Bach. An expert in comparative illusion, he is credited with this gem: “This is either a forgery or a damned clever original!”
Here is the second excerpt from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War”…
In a 1967 interview with The New York Times, Sullivan remarked that the war-divided country had lost its sense of humor. “But wars have never stopped humor,” he told Alden Whitman. Sullivan maintained that the world was more lighthearted in the 1920s and 30s, despite the horrors of World War I. “It was a time of beautiful nonsense,” he said.
SAGE OF SARATOGA was the nickname conferred upon Frank Sullivan, who preferred the simpler life in his hometown. Top left, the small clapboard house Sullivan shared with his sister in Saratoga Springs; at right, Sullivan reading the July 9, 1966 issue of The New Yorker; below, an Al Frueh illustration topped Sullivan’s annual “Greeting Friends!” message for the Dec. 26, 1936 issue. (algonquinroundtable.org/hillcountryobserver.com)
Here is the cover of the July 9, 1966 issue featured above; the painting is by Charles E Martin:
A final note: After his service in World War I, Sullivan moved to New York City and wrote for several newspapers including the New York World. After the World folded in 1931, Sullivan moved back to his hometown, Saratoga Springs, where he shared a small clapboard house with his older sister, Kate Sullivan. Of his preference for small town life, he wrote: “Once I visited New York for twenty years but I wouldn’t live there if you gave me Philadelphia. A small town is the place to live. I live in a small town 180 miles from New York and while I would not say it has New York beat by a mile I would put the distance at six furlongs.”
Called the “Ultimate Freelancer,” Sullivan wrote for The New Yorker for fifty years and also contributed to the New York Times sports section, the Saturday Evening Post, and Town & Country. His work is collected in more than a half-dozen books.
* * *
Hanging Around
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White noted the speed at which the Hindenburg made its Atlantic crossing, although the giant German airship had to hover over Lakehurst, N.J. for an extra hour to wait for customs officials to get out of bed. White also mentioned a “Dr. Eckener,” a reference to Zeppelin captain Hugo Eckener (see below), who was also manager of a German aircraft company that produced the ill-fated Hindenburg.
DOOMSDAY MACHINE…The Hindenburg flies above New York City in 1936—the airship made seventeen round trips across the Atlantic in 1936—its first and only full year of service—with ten trips to the United States. The Hindenburg would famously crash and burn while docking in Lakehurst, NJ on May 6, 1937. (zeppelin-museum.de)LOYAL TO AIRSHIPS, NOT GASBAGS…Airship innovator Hugo Eckener was apparently commanding the Hindenburg flight noted by E.B. White, but he was not on board when the giant airship crashed and burned the following May. A stickler for safety, Eckener was sidelined by the Nazi regime and replaced by Hitler loyalists. (Wikipedia)
White also commented on a recent evening at the movies “in the back country,” where a Clark Gable–Myrna Loy picture was playing in a makeshift theater outfitted with wooden benches.
RUSTIC RIVOLI…E.B. White found the silver screen a bit diluted in a “back country” theater, probably similar to the one pictured at left. He most likely took in the film Wife vs Secretary featuring Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. (facebook.com/MGM)
* * *
Komrade With Kamera
Humorist Leo C. Rosten contributed numerous short fiction stories to The New Yorker as well as several “A Reporter at Large” pieces between 1936 and 1939. He published “A Shot of Lenin’s Tomb” (classified as fiction) in the July 18 issue. Two brief excerpts:
THE SOUL OF WIT…Leo C. Rosten (1908–1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Fran Lebowitz once called Rosten “the Jewish James Thurber.” Above, Rosten circa 1940s and a foggy view of Lenin’s Tomb, undated. (forward.com/tass.com)
* * *
Crossing Over
Station wagons were first built in the 1910s as custom jobs—independent manufacturers would produce wooden bodies for the Model T chassis. These were considered “depot hacks” and commercial vehicles rather than family cars. But things changed in the 1930s as manufacturers saw their potential in the consumer market. Journalist George F.T. Ryall (pen name “Speed”), who wrote the “Motors” column for The New Yorker in the 1930s, looked in on the new automobiles that would foreshadow today’s crossovers.
IN THE FAMILY WAY…In the mid-1930s U.S. automakers began introducing a new kind of car—the station wagon. Pictured above are the 1936 Dodge Westchester Suburban (left) and the 1936 Chevrolet Carry-All Suburban. (Facebook.com/hemmings.com)
* * *
At the Movies
The 1929 play The Green Pastures, which portrayed Old Testament stories as seen through the eyes of a young Black child, was written by playwright Marc Connelly, one of founding members of the Algonquin Round Table. The play was based on Roark Bradford’s popular 1928 story collection Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun (strongly criticized over the years for its patronizing and demeaning portrayals of Black characters). Connelly, who won a Pulitzer for the play, also directed its screen adaptation, one of just six feature films in the Hollywood Studio era to feature an all-Black cast. Critic John Mosher gave the film, along two other releases, an unenthusiastic review.
HEAVEN CAN WAIT…Clockwise from top: Oscar Polk (left) as the Angel Gabriel with “De Lawd” (Rex Ingram) in The Green Pastures—the film was a commercial success despite criticisms about its racial stereotyping; Robert Young, Gene Raymond and Barbara Stanwyck in The Bride Walks Out; Dorothy Gish and Charles Laughton in Wanted Men, originally released as the 1930 British crime film Wolves. (cinemafaith.com/imdb.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We set off down a long road with a tankful of leaded petrol…
…from the back of the book, select living arrangements from the upscale to the budget conscious…
…this ad from Bell Telephone anticipated the Sherman Brothers 1964 earworm that still accompanies a popular Disney attraction…
…the back inside cover offered a colorful splash of sex and humor (and a bit of phonetics) to promote Siboney Rum…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with some heavy lifting from Garrett Price…
…Richard Taylor sketched up these merry illustrations for a Morris Bishop ditty…
…Alain engaged in some market research…
…and channelled a bit of Barbara Shermund humor…
…Dorothy McKay explored the sad world of phonies and cheapskates…
…Alan Dunn gave us a dutiful doorman…
…and Dunn again, contemplating a hefty tome…
…Helen Hokinson continued her exploration of department store drama…
…as well as the world of foreign affairs…
…Syd Hoff sounded the alarm on some burning cutlets…
…and we close with the master of dark humor, Charles Addams…
Above: Introduced by the American Tobacco Company in 1917, the iconic slogan "It's Toasted" became the cornerstone of Lucky Strike marketing in the 1930s. The company claimed their heat-curing method (as opposed to sun-drying) removed tobacco's "corrosive acids." This 1933 Lucky Strike advertisement was illustrated by Hayden Hayden. (wash.edu)
In May 1936 the Advertising Federation of America (AFA) celebrated the 25th anniversary of its “truth in advertising” movement, highlighting the work of vigilance committees that encouraged advertisers to avoid government intervention through self-regulation. As one can imagine, such voluntary efforts were largely ignored.
July 11, 1936 cover by William Steig.
The celebration was short-lived, for later that year the Food and Drug Administration’s Ruth Lamb, published American Chamber of Horrors: The Truth About Food and Drugs. Lamb, who was head of public relations for the FDA, based her publication on a FDA traveling exhibit that exposed dangerous, poisonous, and deceptively marketed cosmetics, foods, medicine, and medical treatments. Lamb played an important role in advising Congress on new regulations that culminated in the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938, which expanded the Federal Trade Commission’s unfair competition mandate to include consumer protections from “unfair or deceptive acts or practice.” That same year, Congress also passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, requiring pre-market safety testing and prohibiting false therapeutic claims.
BLISTERS INSTEAD OF BEAUTY…In 1933 the makers of Lash Lure mascara promised women a permanently made-up look using aniline dye on eyelashes. Tragically, Lash Lure contained p-phenylenediamine, which caused horrific blisters, abscesses and ulcers on the face, eyelids and eyes of Lash Lure users. It even led to blindness in some women. (livingnewdeal.org)
Apparently Lamb hadn’t yet published her American Chamber of Horrors when E.B. White filed his July 11 “Notes and Comment.” He did, however, pen this satirical take on the AFA’s sanctimonious commitment to the “truth.”
…Otto Soglow provided this apt illustration along the bottom of White’s “Notes” column…
HORROR SHOW…The FDA’s Ruth Lamb displays some of the worthless and harmful products in her “Chamber of Horrors.” Lamb was instrumental in advising Congress on new drug and food legislation. (Wikipedia)BUYER BEWARE…Clockwise, from top left: In the 1930s Othine promised to remove brown spots and lighten skin; the active ingredient was mercury; Bred-Spred was a line of beautifully colored “jellies” that did not contain the industry standard of 50 percent fruit/juice to qualify as jelly. Indeed, they had no fruit or juice at all—just artificial colors and flavors, and in the case of the “strawberry flavor” pictured above, a few hayseeds were added to simulate strawberry seeds; a circa 1930 ad claiming substantial weight loss simply by listening to a record. (fda.gov/brandingstrategyinsider.com)
Quackery was not confined to the smaller companies. Big Tobacco made outlandish claims regarding the health benefits of smoking…
BIG MONEY from tobacco companies financed these splashy ads from the 1930s, including, from left, Lucky Strike’s weight-loss claims; Philip Morris asserted they used a different type of moistening agent that also prevented throat irritation—these ads were aimed at easing smoker anxiety about deep inhaling; R.J. Reynolds claimed their Camels did everything from aiding digestion to easing one’s nerves. Many of the ads featured famous athletes claiming they could smoke all they wanted and still perform at their peak. (Stanford.edu)
* * *
A Quiet Place
E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) revealed a hallowed spot in the city where he could gather his thoughts on hot summer mornings…
REFUGE FROM THE HEAT AND DIN…This apartment building’s courtyard at 277 Park Avenue offered E.B. White a place to ponder on a summer day. Built in 1905 and designed by McKim, Mead and White, the apartments were demolished in 1964 and replaced with a glass tower. (mcny.org)
* * *
On Your Mark
“The Talk of the Town” visited the new Randalls Island Stadium (later renamed Downing Stadium). Built with WPA funding, the stadium hosted the Men’s Olympic Track and Field Trials where Jesse Owens qualified for the Berlin Summer Games.
READY TO RUN…Aerial photo of the new Randalls Island Stadium taken on July 10, 1936, the day before the Olympic trials; at right, Jesse Owens at the stadium’s Olympic tryouts—Owens dominated the competition by winning the 100-yard dash, the 220-yard run, and the broad jump. He would go on to win four gold medals at the Berlin Games. (Associated Press/randallsisland.org)
* * *
Ach Du Lieber
In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker offered his thoughts on the state of higher education in Nazi Germany:
* * *
Haggard and Debonair
Margaret Case Harriman profiled talent agent and theatrical producer Leland Hayward (1902–1971), a kid from Nebraska City, Nebraska who would become a renowned playboy (married five times) and agent to scores of Hollywood actors. He would also produce the original Broadway stage productions of South Pacific and The Sound of Music. Excerpts:
ALL SMILES…at left, Katharine Hepburn with agent/boyfriend Leland Hayward arriving at director George Cukor’s home, circa 1936; Hayward with wife number three Margaret Sullivan, circa 1940. (instagram.com/alchetron)
* * *
Juvie Justice
For the column “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Gamins”), Morris Markey looked in on the workings of the Children’s Court on East Twenty-second Street. Beginning with the sixth paragraph is an example of how teen pregnancies were addressed in New York ninety years ago. Excerpts:
Markey examined the possible outcomes of unwed mothers and fathers, and concluded that the Children’s Court was a realistic and kindly way to deal with these issues as well as a range of juvenile offenses. History seems to be on Markey’s side; for its time, the Children’s Court offered a progressive approach that kept minors from the horrors of the prison system.
STILL STANDING…The Children’s Court building on East Twenty-second Street was visited by Morris Markey for his column. Today it serves as Newman Hall for CUNY’s Baruch College. (J.C. Rice via nypost.com)JUST SOME KIDS HANGING OUT…Arnold Eagle’s Federal Art Project photo, “Boys Climbing the Fire Escape of a Deserted Building,” 1935. (mcny.org)
* * *
Some Lawn Tennis
American journalist and sports radio personality Cedric E. Adams (known as “Ced,” hence the initials below) occasionally provided tennis commentary for The New Yorker. Here he takes in Wimbledon, where he found the men’s matches dull and the women’s memorable.
THREE’S A CHARM…In 1936 Fred Perry won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon for the third year in a row, while Helen Jacobs’ “cool tactics” helped her capture the women’s title. (facebook.com/findagrave.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) was a rising star of the London stage when he moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Not making the breakthrough he had hoped for, he returned to London for stage and film work, including the 1935 film Moscow Nights, which was released in the U.S. in 1936 as I Stand Condemned. Critic John Mosher still wasn’t wowed by Olivier, but found the film better than average.
SPIES LIKE US…Laurence Olivier and Penelope Dudley-Ward in I Stand Condemned. Directed by Anthony Asquith, the film concerned a wounded officer who falls in love with his nurse. (rotten tomatoes.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “minor melodrama,” Forgotten Faces.
A GAMBLER AND A STRIPPER were portrayed by Herbert Marshall and Gertrude Michael in Forgotten Faces. (mubi.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Illustrator Jon Whitcomb sketched up this happy scene to promote this “Smart French Drink”…
…as noted in our lead story, cigarette manufacturers made all sorts of health claims connected to heavy smoking…
…now this was the way to travel…sadly the U.S. has largely abandoned reliable rail service…
…from the back of the book, enticements to escape the city into the countryside…
…another Dr. Seuss Flit ad, anticipating his 1954 bestseller Horton Hears a Who…
…on to our spots, we start with a summer stock-themed woodcut by Susan Willard Flint…
…escaping the heat with Christina Malman…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with caption-less entries by Constantin Alajalov…
…Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein…
…George Price…
…and Otto Soglow…
…Alan Dunn gave us a man seeking order in chaos…
…and Helen Hokinson gave us a woman turning chaos into order…
…another from Hokinson, anticipating a scene from The Music Man…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and a surprise announcement…
Above: Rochelle Hudson and W.C. Fields in scene from Poppy. Fields reprised his vaudeville character Professor McGargle (from the hit 1923 stage revue of the same name), who learns about a million-dollar inheritance meant for a long-lost local heiress and concocts a plan to pass off his daughter, Poppy, as the true heiress. (Facebook.com)
Eighty years after his death W.C. Fields is still recognized as one of the America’s great comic geniuses. When he made a sound film version of his hit Broadway play, Poppy, in 1936, many thought it would be his last, since he suffered from a variety of ailments including a bad back and chronic lung congestion. Doubtless two quarts of liquor a day also had a few people wondering.
June 27, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
It would have been an appropriate, if premature ending to Field’s career, since it was the Poppy stage play that launched him into national stardom (along with the play’s first adaptation into film, the 1925 silent Sally of the Sawdust). The play and the silent film introduced audiences to the lovable snake oil salesman “Professor” Eustace McGargle, who returned in the 1936 film, “a slightly blurred affair” according to critic John Mosher.
THE PROFESSOR RETURNS…Clockwise, from top left: W.C. Fields and Carole Dempster in 1925’s Sally of the Sawdust, which was based on the stage play Poppy and was directed by D.W. Griffith; Fields as Professor Eustace McGargle and Rochelle Hudson as Poppy in 1936’s Poppy; Fields and Catherine Doucet, who portrayed Countess Maggi Tubbs DePuizzi.(filmforum.org/doctormacro.com/facebook.com)
The “blurred” performance by Fields (1880–1946), the result of his various ills, didn’t seem to affect most critics—the New York Times, for example, called the film “a glorious victory.” Remarkably, Fields would live another ten years and go on to star in such classics as 1940’s My Little Chickadee, (with Mae West), 1940’s The Bank Dick, and 1941’s Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.
HELLO FRIENDS…W.C. Fields chats with his close friend and Poppy director Eddie Sutherland, who was accompanied by writer Dorothy Parker during a visit to the set of Poppy. (Facebook.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “sad” picture about the tragic life of a Tyrolean sexton, Sins of Man, and the musical comedy Dancing Pirate, which he deemed even sadder because it was so terrible (Mosher walked out during the middle of the picture).
The origin of the music video? See reader comment at the end of the post.
FROM BELLS TO THE BOWERY…Jean Hersholt played a Tyrolian sexton with an American dream that goes awry in Sins of Man. (eBay.com)SEEING RED…Not even Technicolor could spare Dancing Pirate from John Mosher’s wrath. At left, Steffi Duna and Charles Collins in a dance scene; eighteen-year-old Rita Hayworth (right) appeared as an uncredited dancer in the film—here she poses in a publicity photo for 1936’s Human Cargos.(mediaplaynews.com/facebook.com)
* * *
All Aboard
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White described a trip on a Boston & Main streamliner that traveled along a branch line. Lacking a turning loop, the train had to run in reverse for half of the round trip.
TWO-WAY TICKET…The Boston & Main streamlined Flying Yankee (seen here in 1938) would run both forward and backward when traveling along a branch line that lacked a turning loop. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Furies Al Fresco
On June 17, 1936 Rockefeller Center opened the Promenade Café in the plaza surrounding the Prometheus Fountain (later that year a temporary ice skating rink took the spot, now a permanent, iconic feature of the plaza). Writing for “The Talk of the Town,” E.B. White commented on the breezy dining experience he shared with wife, Katharine Sergeant White. Excerpt:
FIRE AND ICE…Patrons enjoy dining with the god of fire in the plaza beneath 30 Rock, circa 1970. The plaza is converted to an ice skating rink in the winter. (eBay.com)
The magazine’s next issue (July 4) advertised dinner, dancing and thirty-five cent cocktails at the Promenade Café…
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We open with a June Bride and hubby tanking up on some leaded gas before heading to Niagara Falls…
…opposite the Ethyl ad was this Simeon Braguin-illustrated spot for Bergdorf…
…the pacifists behind the World Peaceways ads pulled no punches when delivering their anti-war message…
…Budweiser continued its laborious series of ads that employed analogies and metaphors to promote its best-selling suds…
…recall the ad from the April 18 issue of The New Yorker, when the brewer used this disagreeable analogy to tout its “vacuum-cleansing” process…
…the Revere Copper and Brass company responded to the recent invention of canned beer with an invention of its own…the Tapster, an elegant nickel and brass pitcher with a built-in punch on the underside of the lid…just insert a can, push down on the lid, and pour…great for the yacht, or as a gift to some newlyweds…
The nickel-silver and brass “Tapster” is highly sought by collectors today. (americanhistory.si.edu)
…in contrast to Budweiser’s wordy ads (or to White Rock’s colorful ones), the folks at Hoffman advertised their products with just a few lines of black ink…
…Don Dickerman continued to promote his latest “Pirates Den” near Port Chester…note that among many other talents, Dickerman was also an artist…he illustrated the ads for all of his enterprises, including this one…
…John Hanrahan, publisher and editor of Stage theater magazine (and who also helped put The New Yorker on solid financial footing), set aside the August 1936 issue as a special edition, the “1911 Number,” a nostalgic, tongue-in-cheek look back to the founding of Stage’s predecessor, The Theatre Guild Magazine. The magazine marked its 25th anniversary by examining the striking differences between 1911 and 1936 in the world of theater as well as in fashion and cultural mores.
…here is the cover of that issue, featuring Billie Burke, a leading Broadway actress who would marry producer and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr in 1914…she is still known today for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz…
(eBay.com)
…and Dr. Seuss was still at it, finding new and clever ways to deploy the insecticide Flit…
…the New York radio station WOR employed Otto Soglow to drum up some business for their ad department…WOR began broadcasting in early 1922, and is one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the U.S. (the three–letter call sign is characteristic of stations dating from the 1920s)…
…Soglow gives us a nice segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, beginning with a Susan Willard Flint woodcut…
…Alan Dunn contributed this spot drawing…
…as did Richard Taylor…
…Perry Barlow offered some sketches from the summer convention scene…
…Helen Hokinson considered the value of fortune-teller…
…Alain illustrated what dreams are made of, at least for one man…
…and what are friends for? Gardner Rea had an idea…
…Barbara Shermund offered a challenge at a dress shop…
…and Shermund again, with an enterprising commuter…
…just the facts ma’am, with Peter Arno in the court of law…
…Robert Day presented a construction conundrum…
…Rea Irvin took a child’s perspective of the wild world…
Above: Father Divine points to a Crum Elbow Estate sign (in Highland, NY) in July 1938. His followers purchased the 500-acre spread from anti-New Dealer Howland Spencer...the property was located directly across the Hudson from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Hyde Park family home. That same summer Father Divine would also buy a fifty-room double dwelling in New York City. These and other locations served as integrated "heavens" for his followers. (Wikimedia Commons)
America has long been fertile ground for various religious denominations, sects and cults. Although the U.S. Religion Census has cataloged more than 370 distinct religious groups and bodies in the U.S., there are tens of thousands of independents scattered across the country.
June 13, 1936 cover by Leonard Dove.
Some of these remain small, while others grow into megachurches often organized around a charismatic leader. Such was the case with Father Divine (1876–1965), aka Reverend Major Jealous Divine, aka George Baker.
His life as George Baker of Valdosta, Georgia came to an end in 1907 when he became known as “the Messenger.” He parted ways with the Baptist church, declared himself a god, and was asked to leave Georgia after his 1914 arrest for lunacy. He led his followers to Brooklyn and later to a commune in Sayville, New York (Long Island), where he founded the International Peace Mission movement and came to be known as Father Divine. By the early 1930s his small and predominantly black congregation had grown into a multiracial and international church.
So intriguing was his story that The New Yorker published a lengthy, three-part profile written by St. Clair McKelway and A.J. Liebling. Here are excerpts from Part One (illustration by William Cotton):
A DEFT DUO…A.J. Liebling (left) and St. Clair McKelway, both acclaimed journalists, co-authored the three-part profile of Father Divine. Liebling (1904–1963) was closely associated with The New Yorker, joining the magazine in 1935 (he was also a well-known gastronome); McKelway (1905–1980) served as The New Yorker’s managing editor for journalistic contributions from 1936 to 1939 and wrote for the magazine for forty-seven years. (Wikipedia/sfgate.com)DIVINE’S PATH…Clockwise, from top left: After relocating to Brooklyn in 1914, Father Divine married his first wife, Peninniah—they are shown here admiring his portrait; Father Divine led large gatherings centered on food—here he entertains guests at a summer retreat in upstate New York in 1938; following the death of Peninniah, the 70-year-old Father Divine married 21-year-old Edna Ritchings in 1946—she took the name “Mother Divine, with Father Divine claiming she was the reincarnation of Penninah; in 1953 Father Divine was given a hilltop estate (“Woodmont”) in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, by follower John Devoute. The estate is the center of the International Peace Mission movement, a shrine to Father Divine’s life, and a meeting place for the few remaining followers. (thecityroot.com/Newark Public Library/hsmcpa.org/Wikipedia)
How did Father Divine come to believe he was a god? This excerpt offers some insights into his early development:
One of the perils of this kind of thinking is that it can lead to the formation of dangerous cults. Jim Jones, the notorious leader of the Peoples Temple, heavily modeled his early church activities and authoritarian structure on Father Divine’s example. Jones even attempted to take over the International Peace Mission after Father Divine’s death—in 1971 he tried to convert the Peace Mission’s followers, claiming he was the reincarnated Father Divine. His takeover attempt was thwarted by Mother Divine, who went to the media and publicly denounced Jones and the Peoples Temple. In 1974 Jones and his followers would relocate to a Guyana commune he called Jonestown. Four years later Jones would lead the mass murder-suicide of 909 Jonestown inhabitants.
AT ODDS…Jim Jones (left, circa 1970) attempted to take over the International Peace Mission after Father Divine’s death, but was publicly denounced by Mother Divine. At right, Mother Divine giving her first interview following the death of Father Divine in 1965. (Wikipedia/temple.edu)
* * *
At the Movies
The media has always thrived on crime stories, feeding the public’s insatiable desire to be tantalized; once sated, they often demand swift justice. Take the heavily publicized 1933 case of two San Jose, California men who were accused of kidnapping and murdering a department store heir. Rather than wait for justice to be served, an angry mob broke into the jail and lynched the accused. Fascinated by the story, MGM screenwriter Norman Krasna pitched it as a potential film.
That film would become Fury, German director Fritz Lang’s first American project. Prior to fleeing the Third Reich in 1933, Lang was perhaps best known to Americans for his pioneering 1927 silent sci-fi film Metropolis and the 1931 thriller M. Lang sought to demonstrate how a decent and civilized man could become filled with vengeance and hate. Although critic John Mosher could see how the film had been tampered with by studio execs (and the Hays Code), he was nevertheless impressed by Lang’s direction and by the performances of lead actors Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy.
WRONG TURN…Clockwise, from top left: In Fury,Spencer Tracy played gas station owner Joe Wilson, who drives west to reunite with his fiancée—the dog seated to his right is Terry, the same Cairn Terrier who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz; while camping outside a small town, Joe is arrested by a creepy local deputy (Walter Brennan) on suspicion of kidnapping a child; a mob forms and tries to burn Joe in his cell; in the confusion of the fire he escapes and seeks vengeance on the mob, but in the end finds peace with his fiancée (Sylvia Sidney). (imdb.com)
Peter Lorre, who was famously directed by Fritz Lang in the 1931 German thriller M, was starring in Alfred Hitchcock’sSecret Agent, which also featured John Gielgud (already famous as a London stage performer), Madeline Carroll, and Robert Young.
SECRETS AND LIES…Clockwise from top left: Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, Madeline Carroll, and Robert Young in Secret Agent; Carroll with Young, who played a German mole; Carroll, Gielgud and Lorre amid the wreckage of a train; Lorre in a scene with Lilli Palmer. (imdb.com)
Mosher briefly mentioned a new Fred MacMurray/Carole Lombard comedy–mystery, and the return of two silent movie stars.
CHOOSE YOUR PARTNER…The second of four films Fred MacMurray made with Carole Lombard between 1935 and 1937, The Princess Comes Across featured Lombard doing a clever take-off on Greta Garbo; silent-film veterans Harry Carey and Hoot Gibson stood for the ideals of the Old West in a culture clash with scientific crime-fighting in The Last Outlaw. The film was a remake of a 1919 silent film originally written and directed by John Ford.(imdb.com/csfd.cz)
* * *
Beer Bottle Battle
E.B. White (in his “Notes and Comment”) seized on the battle between bottle and can manufacturers as an apt metaphor for the jousting of Republicans and Democrats ahead of the November elections.
FOAMING AT THE MOUTH…Competing ads from Collier’s magazine circa 1935-36 illustrate the battle between can and bottle manufacturers. Ninety years later, beer drinkers still debate the merits of glass over cans. (boakandbailey.com/ebay.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
In 1936 whisky was still firmly in bottle form, and the makers of Canadian Club—through a series of ads—wanted to let us know you could enjoy their tipple almost anywhere in the world…
…this woman poses an interesting question, considering the fellas are riding atop a dusty stagecoach in the Arizona heat—in formal attire no less…
…over the years we’ve seen a lot of Adolph Teidler’s work for the Bermuda Board of Trade…Teidler (1886–1981) was also well known for his Saturday Evening Post covers…
…here’s an example of Teidler’s work for the Bermuda Board of Trade from the Feb. 22, 1936 issue of The New Yorker…
…the Zenith Radio Corporation touted their modern, streamlined “Zephyr” radio by industrial designer Robert Davol Budlong…
A restored Zenith 10-S-147 Zephyr chairside radio. (Pete Johnson–Zenith Radios Enthusiasts and Collectors via Facebook.com)
…Frank Quail Jr was a prominent automotive illustrator active from the 1920s through the 1930s. He was well-known for his work with luxury automobile brands such as Cadillac, LaSalle and Packard…here he conjures up a breezy seaside image for Cadillac’s more affordable LaSalle model (most of these ads were two-page spreads, with promo copy on the right-hand page)…
…and more Dr. Seuss on behalf of Flit insecticide…
…we begin the cartoon section with some spot art…here are two by Arnold Hall…
…and one from Richard Taylor…
…Alain referenced the upcoming heavyweight bout at Yankee Stadium between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis…their two fights in 1936 and 1938 were international sensations…
…more glimpses of “Holy Wedlock” from William Steig…
…a bit of trouble in Yonkers, per Carl Rose…
…George Price brought out the fire brigade for the Crêpes Suzette…
…Peter Arno drew up a colonel with a communication issue…
…William Crawford Galbraith celebrated the June bride…
…two by Mary Petty, at the dress shop…
and at the in-laws…
…Petty’s husband Alan Dunn feted the Class of ’36 (and ’06)…
…Perry Barlow illustrated a scoutmaster’s leadership skills…
Above: Former Prohibition agents Isidor "Izzy" Einstein (right) and Moe W. Smith meet at a New York City bar in 1935. Known for their clever disguises and unorthodox tactics, from 1920 to 1925 the duo confiscated roughly five million bottles of illicit liquor and arrested 4,932 people. (Wikipedia)
Legendary Americans come from all walks of life—sports stars, movie actors, political and business leaders—and they also come from unlikely places; take for example a pushcart peddler and a cigar store owner who became national celebrities for their exploits during the first years of Prohibition.
June 6, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Prohibition agents Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (1880–1938) and Moe W. Smith (1887–1960) were known for their clever disguises, but the author of their “Where Are They Now?” profile was also in disguise—the piece was written by James Thurber under the pseudonym Jared L. Manley.
Einstein was 40-year-old pushcart peddler and postal clerk when he applied for a job as an enforcement agent at forty dollars a week. Although the 5-foot-5, 225 pound Einstein wasn’t the agency’s “type,” he convinced the feds that there was an advantage to not looking the part (the Austrian-born Einstein also spoke six languages). After landing the job, he asked if his friend, cigar store owner Moe Smith, could join him, since “he doesn’t look like an agent, either.” Some brief excerpts from part one of “Where Are They Now?”
TRICKSTERS…Clockwise, from top left: Isidor “Izzy” Einstein (right) and Moe W. Smith; the pair sported hundreds of disguises (Einstein on the left); Einstein’s badge and his bestselling 1932 book Prohibition Agent No 1; Daily News clipping from September 1920 showing results of a raid—Izzy and Moe are at right and left. (history.com/Library of Congress/Wikipedia/goodreads.com/nydailynews.com)
In her 2012 article for Smithsonianmagazine (“Prohibition’s Premier Hooch Hounds”), Abbott Kahler notes that the agents were victims of their own success. “Superiors grew to resent their headlines, and other agents complained that their productivity made their own records look bad…In November 1925, Izzy and Moe were among 35 agents to be dropped from the force.” Both men went on to successful careers as insurance salesmen. Want to know more? Read Kahler’s excellent account of the duo at the Smithsonian magazine’s website.
TRIBUTE ON THE TUBE…In 1985 Art Carney and Jackie Gleason starred in CBS’s made-for-television film, Izzy & Moe, which was loosely based on the exploits of Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith. (imdb.com)
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At the Movies
Two of the better films playing in Manhattan cinemas featured murders and matrons, the matrons played by Britain’s top female screen star, Madeleine Carroll, and America’s queen of screwball comedy, Jean Arthur. Critic John Mosher observed that their films were the only ones with any “life.”
TRADING GALLOWS FOR A GROOM…Top, Madeleine Carroll portrayed a “lady of privilege,” accused of murder, who falls in love with the prosecuting district attorney (George Brent) in The Case Against Mrs. Ames—Scotty Beckett played Carroll’s son; below, Jean Arthur and William Powell in the comedy-mystery The Ex-Mrs. Bradford.(imdb.com/mikestakeonthemovies.com)
Other films reviewed by Mosher were rated as “negligible” and “disappointing,” despite their talented casts…
TRAIN SPOTTING…Clockwise from top left: Esther Howard portrayed a “flirtatious dowager” who worked her charms on Jack Oakie (center) in Florida Special; Sally Eilers prepares to board the Florida Special with Dwight Frye and Claude Gillingwater; Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in Trouble for Two; Montgomery (left), Leonard Carey, and Frank Morgan in Trouble for Two. (pinterest.com/imdb.com)THE OLD PRINCESS IN DISGUISE TRICK…From left, Grace Moore, Eve Southern, and Franchot Tone in The King Steps Out. (IMDb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Last week Lois Long mentioned the return of famed Greenwich Village restaurateur and Sheridan Square funboy Don Dickerman. The June 6 issue featured two back-of-the-book ads placed by Dickerman that promoted his latest venture at Port Chester…this ad was on the bottom of page 75…
…and turning the page, you’d find this at the bottom of page 76…
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN…In 1916 Don Dickerman (1893–1981) opened a tearoom called the Pirate’s Cave at 133 Washington Place in Greenwich Village. The 6-foot-6 artist and entrepreneur was famous for his many themed establishments as well as for his eccentricities. Obsessed with pirate life, he dressed in full pirate gear in both public and private life. (facebook.com)
…Pacific Pottery was among firms in the 1930s marketing informal dinnerware featuring vibrant glazes and Art Deco streamline designs…
…you don’t hear much about the “June Bride” these days, but 1930s advertisers played up the tradition to sell everything from fashions to refrigerators…here the folks at Fisher made sure they connected their solid steel “Turret Top” to the safety of newlyweds…
…Stage magazine promoted its extensive coverage of “After-Dark” entertainments at home and abroad…
…the brewers of Pabst joined a handful of other beer companies promoting their product in newfangled cans…
…Dr. Seuss continued to find new gags to promote Flit insecticide…
…James Thurber kicked things off for the issue’s cartoonists…
…Charles Addams took in the sites along with some June brides at Niagara Falls (the barrel in the water reads “Just Married”)…
…W.P. Trent contributed this caption-less cartoon…
…Carl Rose continued to document the strange happenings of an election year…
…William Steig got superstitious…
…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” gave props to lemon meringue…
…and Hokinson again, and an unlikely claim at the salon…
…Alain presented an artist’s greatest challenge…
…Otto Soglow gave us an ideal sandwich board duo…
…Alan Dunn illustrated a “selfless” act…
…a moviegoer found a derivative moment at the cinema, per Whitney Darrow Jr…
…and we close with some idle chat, courtesy of Barbara Shermund…
Above: The RMS Queen Mary arriving at New York harbor accompanied by a flotilla of escorts on June 1, 1936. (liverpool.ac.uk)
The RMS Queen Mary was launched in the age of superliners that included the SS Bremen, the SS Île de France and the SS Normandie. These and other liners competed for the Blue Riband, an unofficial honor bestowed on Atlantic Ocean liners achieving the highest average speed. These ships also vied for the distinction of being the most luxurious.
May 30, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin, celebrating the arrival of the June bride.
The Queen Mary was a top contender for both honors when she departed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on May 27, 1936. London correspondent Samuel Jeake, Jr (aka American poet and novelist Conrad Aiken) paid a visit to the liner just days before her first Atlantic crossing. Excerpts:
BOAT AFLOAT…Clockwise, from top left, a Bentley automobile is brought aboard the Queen Mary before her maiden voyage; the liner departs from Southampton, May 27, 1936; first-class passengers dining during that first crossing; the Queen Mary arriving at the newly built Pier 90 in New York Harbor, June 1, 1936. The Queen Mary and the SS Normandie were speedy competitors for the Blue Riband in the 1930s. (RMS Queen Mary via Facebook/NYC Municipal Archives)SEEING STARS…Celebrities on the maiden voyage included John F. Kennedy and his father, Joseph P. Kennedy (top left), as well as actress Joan Crawford (right). Bob Hope, Mae West, and Noël Coward were also spotted aboard the maiden voyage.Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Dolores Del Rio (bottom left) were photographed on the liner’s second departure from Southhampton. (cruiselinehistory.com/RMS Queen Mary via Facebook)HOME AWAY FROM HOME…First-class accommodations on the Queen Mary included, clockwise from top left, the Main Lounge; the Queen Mary Suite; swimming pool; and Observation Bar. (RMS Queen Mary via Facebook)NOT BAD…Conrad Aiken called the liner’s second-class (Tourist class) sections “one of the best travel bargains in the world.” Photos at left show lounge areas, while at right is the ship’s Shopping Centre, open to all passengers. (RMS Queen Mary via Facebook)OUT TO PASTURE…The majority of the great superliners were either destroyed during World War II or scrapped after their service. However the RMS Queen Mary, after her retirement in 1967, was permanently moored at Long Beach, California as a hotel, museum, and convention space. During her years of service she crossed the Atlantic 1,001 times, carrying more than two million passengers. From 1939 to 1946 the liner also served the war effort, transporting more than 800,000 troops. (visitlongbeach.com)
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Green Acres
It’s hard to believe that at one time Greenwich Village was home to trash-filled back yards and deteriorating tenements. Beginning in the 1920s, residents transformed these back yards into communal green oases. “The Talk of the Town” visited three that had “more or less grown together.” Spot art by Christina Malman. Excerpts:
URBAN OASIS…Undated photo shows the interior courtyard garden shared by twenty-one row houses of the Macdougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District in Greenwich Village. (nytimes.com)
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Art for the People
Geoffrey Hellman penned a profile of social realist artist George Biddle (1885– 1973), who played a major role in establishing the WPA’s Federal Art Project and who created murals for government buildings in the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico. Excerpt:
SERVING THE PUBLIC GOOD…George Biddle at work on a fresco titled Society Freed through Justice, located in the fifth floor lobby of the Attorney General’s office in the Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C. (Wikipedia)AMERICAN IDEAL…Detail from Biddle’s fresco painting Society Freed Through Justice. (Library of Congress)
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The Shoe Fits
Architecture critic Lewis Mumford was unimpressed with latest designs in commercial shops, however for “some mysterious reason” he was quite taken with various shoe stores in Midtown. Excerpts:
BRIGHT SPOTS…Lewis Mumford lauded the shoe company Thom McAn (top left) for its pioneering designs. Other notables included I. Miller & Sons (top right) on Fifth Avenue, and below, Florsheim Shoe on West 37th. (clickamericana.com)
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A Pirate Sets Sail
In her “Tables for Two” column, Lois Long noted a few of the summertime getaways near the city including the Westchester Embassy Club. She also mentioned the re-emergence of Don Dickerman, famed for his series of gaudy themed restaurants in the West Village from the late 1910s to 1930. Among those was his famed Pirate’s Den, which was destroyed in a 1929 fire. With the stock market crash Dickerman (1893-1981) was forced to sell the location, and he declared bankruptcy in 1932. However by 1936 he was on his way back, opening a pirate-themed enterprise near Port Chester:
SUMMER DIVERSIONS…At top is a postcard image of the Westchester Embassy Club; below, Don Dickerman at his Los Angeles Pirates’ Den with his fifth wife, Thelma Mills Wunder (he had at least seven known wives). Originally a fixture of Greenwich Village, Dickerman emerged from his 1932 bankruptcy to open themed restaurants in Miami, Miami Beach, Port Chester, NY , Washington DC, and Hollywood. Bottom right, a matchbook cover from Dickerman’s revived Pirate’s Den at Port Chester, which was mentioned by Lois Long. (facebook.com/restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/ebay.com)
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At the Movies
Under the strict moral guidelines of the Hays Code, gangster films of the Pre-Code era gave way to milder fare, much to the chagrin of film critic John Mosher.
KINDER, GENTLER GANGSTERS…Clockwise from top left, poster for Bullets or Ballots gave Edward G. Robinson top billing with Joan Blondell also prominently featured—Humphrey Bogart was a relative newcomer in the movies, seen here in a scene with Robinson in Bullets or Ballots; Robert Young and Betty Furness in The 3 Wise Guys; James Cagney and Loretta Young in the pre-Code film Taxi, which was released in 1932 but reissued in 1936 (SEE BELOW) to capitalize on Cagney’s new superstar status. The film also featured the famously misquoted line: “Come out and take it, you dirty yellow-bellied rat.” (imdb.com/tcm.com)
In the following week’s issue (June 6), Mosher noted that he’d forgotten about his previous review of the Cagney film Taxi in 1932:
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From Our Advertisers
Appropriately buried in the back pages of The New Yorker was this tiny ad promoting Don Dickerman’s new Pirates’ Den at Port Chester, referenced above in Lois Long’s “Tables for Two” column…
…the Cunard White Star Line took out this two-page spread to announce the launch of the Queen Mary…
…illustrators with European roots brought modern touches to fashion advertisements…the Ukrainian-born Simeon Braguin (1907–1997), who created the ad below for Bergdorf Goodman, emerged in the 1930s as a prominent fashion illustrator, ultimately becoming the Creative Director for Vogue…during that time (1940s) he supported the work of an unknown artist, Andy Warhol…
…the artist behind this next fashion illustration was the prominent French-Hungarian costume designer and illustrator Marcel Vertès (1895–1961)…
…the prolific illustrator R. John Holmgren (1897- 1963) worked for dozens of publications, and was well known for his White Rock ads in the 1930s and 40s…
…the folks at R.J. Reynolds were still pushing their digestion claims along with their cigarettes…here they demonstrated the appeal of Camels to both the working class and the classy…
…Brown & Williamson introduced a new cigarette to the market…Viceroy was the first brand to feature a cork-tipped filter…
…Liggett & Myers continued to run their somewhat old-fashioned ads with softly lit, romantic settings…illustrator McClelland Barclay (1891–1943) created this look to promote the company’s Chesterfield brand…
…Barclay’s work recalled similar imagery used in a controversial 1926 ad for Chesterfield that sought to break the taboo placed on women smokers…
…not so controversial was Susan Willard Flint, who opened the magazine along with…
…Otto Soglow…
…and Richard Taylor…
…we turn to the cartoons starting with Whitney Darrow Jr and a canoodling couple…
…Charles Addams found some formidable bowling opponents…
…and Addams again at the races…
…Alain showed us the harder edges of marital bliss…
…while William Steig was all sweetness and light…
…Peter Arno showed us some political intrigue…
…Alan Dunn offered a new twist in hat fashions…
…and we close with Denys Wortman, and a very posh lion…
