Above: Left image, coloratura soprano Lily Pons with Henry Fonda in I Dream Too Much;at right, Kitty Carlisle and Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera. (rottentomatoes.com/IMDB)
The title of this post refers to two items below, which you’ll discover as we make our way through the December 7, 1935 issue of The New Yorker.
December 7, 1935 cover by Robert Day. A longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Day (1900-1985) contributed hundreds of cartoons as well as eight covers from 1931 to 1976.Robert Day (photo from This Week anthology via Ink Spill.)
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Our first night at the opera comes courtesy of RKO Pictures, which presented French-American coloratura soprano Lily Pons as the star of the musical rom-com I Dream Too Much. Critic John Mosher found the film enjoyable, singling out Pons for praise while chastising the screenwriters for interrupting the lively farce with some “social research.”
DREAM DATE…Clockwise, from top left: Henry Fonda in his third screen appearance as Lily Pons’ love interest in RKO’s I Dream Too Much; movie poster and publicity photo of Pons from the film; Lucille Ball (seen here with actress Esther Dale), appeared in a bit part as a gawky American teenage tourist in Paris (which was actually an RKO studio lot)…little did Ball know that one day she would own that RKO studio lot with husband Desi Arnaz as home to their Desilu Productions facility. (IMDB/Wikipedia/TCM)
Mosher also said farewell to Will Rogers in his final film, In Old Kentucky, which he found to be a “minor affair.” He also reviewed The Land of Promise, a film about Palestine that indicated to Mosher that “life there is highly successful for all present.”
THIS IS GOODBYE…Will Rogers in a scene with Dorothy Wilson in Rogers’ final film appearance, In Old Kentucky. (rotten tomatoes.com)ORIGIN STORY…According to the Israel Film Archive, Judah Leman’sThe Land of Promise “laid the cinematic groundwork for all subsequent Zionist propaganda films that would follow.” (IMDB)
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E.B. White keeps us on the cinema trail with some thoughts on the film, Mutiny on the Bounty, namely a certain historical inaccuracy:
AHEAD OF HIS TIME…E.B. White noted that Roger Byam (Franchot Tone) would have to wait seventy years to learn about germ theory. In addition, the trailer for Mutiny on the Bounty (above) incorrectly referred to Tone’s character as an ensign, when in fact Tone’s role was as a midshipman. (Wikipedia)
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They Had It First
The swastika was among the more popular designs incorporated into southwestern tribal art during the American tourist era (roughly 1890 to the 1930s). For the Navajo, the symbol represented humanity and life, and was used in healing rituals (it was also widely used by tribal peoples across Europe and Asia). Tourism promoters (called “hotel men” here) encouraged the symbol’s use until the 1930s, when it was increasingly associated with Germany’s Nazi Party. E.B. White explained:
TOURIST FAVORITE…Navajo blankets such as this example, made from 1864 to 1910, were popular with tourists. (Wichita State University)
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Lois Long’s fashion column continued to be dominated by exhaustive Christmas shopping lists, in this issue stretching from pages 58 to 97…here are the first and last paragraphs of the column…
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A Woolly Read
Perhaps your special someone was hoping for a thousand-page book under the tree; then look no further than The Woollcott Reader, a collection of stories, essays and other literary gems by New Yorker personality and former “Shouts and Murmurs” columnist Alexander Woollcott. In this excerpt, book critic Clifton Fadiman noted that a signed copy could be had for $7.50.
MY GIFT TO THE WORLD…Alexander Woollcott in 1939, as photographed by Carl Van Vechten, and the $3 brown cloth edition. (Wikipedia/Abebooks.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Colorful advertisements brightened the 149 pages of the Dec. 7 issue…we begin with this colorful array from Martex…
…the women’s specialty shop Jane Engel commissioned one of the best-known commercial photographers of the day, Ruzzie Green, to capture this glamorous image…
…Caron Paris offered up this cheerful bouquet…
…the makers of White Rock were enjoying the fruits of post-Prohibition days…
…the publishers of Stage magazine highlighted Beatrice Lillie’s Broadway revue, At Home Abroad…
…the Capitol Theatre took out this full-page advertisement to tout the opening of the latest Marx Brothers film…
…here is a close-up of the ad’s “testimonials”…
…and what awaited audiences…
(Wikipedia/thedissolve.com)
…the Lord & Thomas advertising firm imitated the New Yorker style in this full-page promotion…
…now who wouldn’t want a Philco “Radiobar” for the holidays?…
…found this one on 1stdibs.com…pretty cool…
…or you could get a little something for every one of your smoking friends (likely everyone)…
…and you could keep those holiday memories alive with a swell Kodak movie camera…
…Schrafft’s must have been something like an upscale Cracker Barrel…
…house ads from The New Yorker included this Otto Soglow-illustrated full pager…
…the magazine also touted books and poems by its contributors…
…and the Seventh New Yorker Album…
…more James Thurber here in this spot drawing for the “Books” section…
…and in this cartoon filled with holiday hijinks…
…Ilonka Karasz gave us a hockey goalie to open the calendar listings…
…George Price drew up this Depression-themed drawing at the bottom of the “Goings On” section…
…a great spot drawing by Aaron Sopher (1905–1972), who is perhaps best known for his depictions of everyday life in Baltimore…it was oddly placed amidst the “Christmas Gifts” section…
…according to Michael Maslin’sInk Spill, Sopher contributed just two cartoons to the magazine, in the issues of June 15, 1929, and December 6, 1930 (pictured below)…
…back to the Dec. 7 issue, and at the Velodrome with Robert Day…
…who also visited an ill-suited Santa…
…Helen Hokinson pondered gift ideas…
…Carl Rose illustrated an unspeakable act at a progressive school…
…Mary Petty gave us a straightforward diagnosis…
…Alain asked us to ponder the fate of one man…
…Whitney Darrow Jr eavesdropped on some child philosophy…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and a groom’s surprise at the altar…
Above: New Year’s Eve at the “El Morocco” Night Club at 154 E. 54th Street, New York, 1935. (Posted on Reddit)
Lois Long took her nightlife seriously, and when it didn’t live up to her standards—defined by the wild speakeasy nights she wrote about after joining The New Yorker in 1925 —she was crestfallen, to say the least.
November 16, 1935 cover by Leonard Dove. This is one of Dove’s fifty-seven New Yorker covers; he also contributed 717 cartoons to the magazine.Above: Leonard Dove’s self portrait, 1941; photo: 1947. Born 1906, Great Yarmouth, England. Died, Gramercy Hotel, New York City, 1972. (Thanks to Michael Maslin’s indispensable Ink Spill)
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When Long joined The New Yorker she was a 23-year-old Vassar graduate, and at age 34 she was not expecting to re-live those heady days; but nightlife in 1935 made her wonder where all the interesting people had gone. Instead of the smart and beautiful speakeasy set, she found people who couldn’t hold a conversation, who cared more about being mentioned in the newspapers by “Cholly Knickerbocker” (a pseudonym used by society columnists)—they simply lacked the “sparkle” she so craved. In this excerpt from her column, “Tables for Two,” she explained:
ALL SHOW, NO GO…Lois Long recalled the heady days of the original torch singer Helen Morgan, but her new club, The House of Morgan, offered up tired vaudeville instead of the singer herself. Above, images of the club from Christopher Connelly’sThe Helen Morgan Page. Top, center, detail of Morgan from the 1935 film Sweet Music. Next to Morgan is a photo of Long from the PBS documentary Prohibition. (helen-morgan.net/PBS.org)
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At the Movies
Our film critic John Mosher was in good spirits after taking in MGM’s Mutiny on the Bounty, and especially the inspired performance by Charles Laughton as the cruel, tyrannical Captain Bligh…
LET’S HAVE A STARING CONTEST…Clark Gable (left) portrayed Fletcher Christian, the Bounty’s executive officer, who disapproved of the cruel leadership of Captain Bligh, portrayed by Charles Laughton (right) in Mutiny on the Bounty. (theoscarbuzz.com)
…two other pictures reviewed by Mosher were less than inspired, but at least the George Raft/Joan Bennett gangster film, She Couldn’t Take It, offered a car chase, and the occasional surprise.
STERILITY ISSUES…Top, Gary Cooper and Ann Harding needed a bit more life in Peter Ibbetson; at least Joan Bennett (bottom photo) found some action in She Couldn’t Take It. (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
Not all fashion advertisements in The New Yorker were aimed at the posh set…Macy’s offered some thrifty selections, including a French-inspired “Theatre Curtain Blouse” that could be opened in the back “so as to reveal your own lily-white vertebrae”…
…I am puzzled by the “Duchess” types that appeared in food and beverage ads in the back of the magazine…we’ve seen some angry duchesses in ads for tomato and pineapple juice, and here we have one who has stooped so low as to shell her own peas…
…a side note, the Duchess’s peas came in a can bearing the old Green Giant logo, a savage, bearskin-clad figure…he was redesigned by ad executive Leo Burnett in 1935 to become the friendlier “Jolly Green Giant”…
…the makers of Camels presented football coach Chick Meehan in cartoon form to extol the wonders of football and smoking to a young woman…Meehan coached football at Syracuse, NYU and Manhattan College…
…the football theme segues to our cartoon section, beginning with this spot art by James Thurber…
…Christina Malman’s spot drawings could now be found in every issue, and usually more than one…
…this one by Robert Day also caught my eye, maybe because I like chickens, and dogs too…
…Day again, on the streets of Manhattan…
…Barbara Shermund showed us a wolf in wolf’s clothing…
…Alan Dunn seemed to be channelling Barbara Shermund here…or maybe Dunn’s wife Mary Petty had some influence…
…William Crawford Galbraith eavesdropped on some wagering waiters…
…Carl Rose found an outlier at the modern Walker-Gordon Dairy Farm…
…The Rotolactor featured in Rose’s cartoon was a mostly automatic machine used for milking a large number of cows successively on a rotating platform…first used at the Walker-Gordon Laboratories and Dairy in Plainsboro, New Jersey (pictured below), the Rotolactor held fifty cows at a time, and hosted about 250,000 visitors annually…
(rawmilkinstitute.org)
…and we go from cows to cats, courtesy Helen Hokinson…
…and Charles Addams booked an unusual perp…
…on to the November 23 issue…
November 23, 1935 cover by Antonio Petruccelli. Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer, becoming a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover contests. This is one of four covers he produced for The New Yorker.Antonio Petruccelli. Here are samples of Petruccelli’s remarkable work.(Helicline Fine Art)
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Worth the Wait
The highly-anticipated circus-themed spectacle Jumbo finally opened at the Hippodrome. In his That’s Entertainment! blog, Jackson Upperco observes that Billy’s Rose’sJumbo was “more circus than musical comedy,” a production that “was largely an excuse for Mr. Rose to present a circus.” It was headlined by comedian Jimmy Durante and bandleader Paul Whiteman, with a score by Rodgers & Hart. Here are excerpts from a review by Wolcott Gibbs:
JUMB0-SIZED ENTERTAINMENT…Clockwise, from top left, Hippodrome billboard promoting Jumbo; built in 1905, the Hippodrome provided entertainment to thousands who couldn’t afford a Broadway ticket; a circus tent was erected inside the 5,300-seat theatre for the spectacle; Jumbo was one of the most expensive theatrical events of the first half of the 20th century. (Facebook/Library of Congress/Broadway Magazine/jacksonupperco.com)
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At the Movies
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel Crime and Punishment was adapted to film by both French and American producers in 1935, but critics including The New Yorker’sJohn Mosher mostly preferred the French version, titled Crime et châtiment.
DOUBLE FEATURE…American and French producers each turned out a film adaption of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Top photo, Marian Marsh as Sonya and Peter Lorre as Roderick Raskolnikov in Columbia’s Crime and Punishment; bottom photo, Madeleine Ozeray as Sonia and Pierre Blanchar as Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime et châtiment.(silverscreenmodes.com/SensCritique.com)
…Mosher reviewed another crime thriller, Mary Burns, Fugitive, but found some comic relief in two other films…
BAD CHOICE IN BOYFRIENDS was the theme of Mary Burns, Fugitive, starring (top left) Sylvia Sidney and Alan Baxter; top right, Joan Bennett and Ronald Colman in the romcom The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo; bottom, Fred Allen and Patsy Kelly provided some laughs in musical comedy Thanks a Million. (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
Readers of the Nov. 23 issue opened to this lovely image…
…which sharply contrasted with the clunky Plymouth ad on the opposite page…
…not so clunky was this colorful illustration promoting Cadillac’s economy model, the La Salle…
…the back cover was no surprise, with yet another glamorous cigarette ad…
…our cartoonists included Richard Decker, and a fashion faux pas to open a boxing match…
…George Price eavesdropped into some football strategy…
…Carl Rose spotted a canine unbeliever…
…Richard Taylor was back with his distinctive style…
…Al Frueh continued to illustrate the latest fare on Broadway…
…Otto Soglow crept in for a snooze…
…and we close with James Thurber, and some literary cosplay…
Above: Clockwise from top left—the Douglas DC-3 was introduced to airlines in 1935; Seaboard streamlined locomotive, c. 1930s; 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr; 1936 Pierce Arrow. (hushkit.net/Wikimedia/classicautomall.com)
As we’ve seen in previous issues, E.B. White often served as The New Yorker’s unofficial aviation correspondent; despite his sometimes anachronistic views on progress, he never missed a chance to hop aboard an airplane and marvel at the scene far below.
November 2, 1935 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
White’s enthusiasm, however, was tempered with doubts about air safety, including observations he made in an August 31, 1935 column following the deaths of Wiley Post and Will Rogers in an Alaska plane crash. Here is what he wrote then:
The aviation industry’s strong reaction to that “noisy little paragraph” apparently led to a number of subscription cancellations, prompting White to return to the topic in his Nov. 2 “Notes and Comment” column:
HE’D BEEN AROUND…E.B. White supported his comments on air safety by citing his many flying experiences, including soaring around the Empire State Building “on a blithe morning.” Pictured above is a New York Daily News plane flying over Manhattan in 1934. (NY Daily News)
White also turned to statistics for his defense, finding that per passenger mile, railroads were still the safest mode of transportation in the country.
HOP ABOARD…According to 1933 statistics shared by E.B. White, trains were the safest mode of transportation per passenger mile, followed by buses. Automobiles were the least safe, a fact that still holds true today. From left, Greyhound bus and driver, 1937; automobile wreck, 1930s; New York Central’s 20th Century Limited leaving Chicago’s LaSalle Street station in 1938. (Facebook/Reddit/Wikipedia)
With that, White still wasn’t done with the topic, turning to none other than Anne Morrow Lindbergh for her thoughts on flying, which she shared in her latest book, North to the Orient. White noted Lindbergh’s mixed feelings about flying, about getting to places quickly and missing familiar landmarks. He also suggested that someday airline passengers would use mountains and rivers as landmarks…(I still try to do that when I fly, but at 35,000 feet it is a challenge). Today most folks are content with plugging in their earbuds and tuning out completely.
NOT YOUR EVERYDAY OUTING…In July 1931 Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh embarked in their Lockheed Model 8 Sirius on an often treacherous 7,100-mile journey across Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Japan in an attempt to find a commercial route to Asia for Pan American Airways. Top photo, Charles (standing on pontoon) and Anne (in the cockpit) make final preparations before the flight; bottom photo, enthusiastic crowds greet the Lindberghs upon their arrival in Japan. The Siberia-to-Japan leg was the most dangerous due to heavy fog. (historynet.com)
E.B. White also announced the return to the city of former Mayor Jimmy Walker, who had fled to Europe in 1932 amid corruption charges. White noted that New York’s nightclubs were eager to welcome the fun-loving Walker back to town.
SECOND ACT…Still image from a 1935 British Pathé newsreel shows the triumphant return from Europe of former Mayor Jimmy Walker and his wife, Betty Compton. (YouTube)
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A Zephyr Blows In
The magazine’s “Motors” correspondent (pen name “Speed”) noted the dazzling display of 1936 models at the New York Automobile Show, singling out the Lincoln-Zephyr as the year’s biggest innovation.
DECO DREAMSCAPE…Streamlining was all the rage at the 1935 New York Automobile Show at Grand Central Palace. Upper right, a woman opens the hood of a streamlining pioneer, the Chrysler Airflow. (New York Daily News)LEADER OF THE PACK…The 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr had tongues wagging at the New York Automobile Show. (thehenryford.org)
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At the Movies
William Powell and Hollywood newcomer Rosalind Russell blessed film critic John Mosher with their spy caper, Rendezvous, while Pauline Lord got lost in the London fog with Basil Rathbone in A Feather in Her Hat.
A CAPER AND A WEEPER…At left, William Powell starred with Hollywood newcomer Rosalind Russell in Rendezvous; at right, Broadway stage actress Pauline Lord appeared opposite Basil Rathbone in A Feather in Her Hat. (1935)
Mosher also screened a French comedy, René Clair’s Le Dernier Milliardaire (The Last Billionaire), finding its slapstick approach to satire a bit dated.
DURABLE AND ADORABLE…Renée Saint-Cyr as Princess Isabelle in the French comedy Le Dernier Milliardaire (The Last Billionaire). Known for her chic comedies, Saint-Cyr (1904–2004) was a major French film star for seven decades. (Film Forum)
Finally, Mosher turned his critical eye toward a British sci-fi film, Transatlantic Tunnel. Looking forward to seeing a gee-whiz Jules Verne-type story, what Mosher found instead was a lot of sentimental “padding” and very little gee-whiz.
UNDERWATER…John Mosher looked forward to an undersea adventure, but instead got a lot of sentimental fluff in the British sci-fi film, Transatlantic Tunnel. Clockwise, from top left, movie poster for the American release; scene from the film depicting the tunnel entrance; the film showcased such futuristic conveniences as video phones (called “televisors”); a group of wealthy industrialists gather at the home of a Mr. Lloyd, a millionaire investor who used a motorized wheelchair. (Wikipedia/Reddit/cinemasojourns.com)
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No Thanks, Ernie
Clifton Fadiman had an armload of books to review, including an autobiography by Andre Gide (If I Die), novels by Mikhail Sholokhov (Seeds of Tomorrow) and Mari Sandoz (Old Jules), and an Ernest Hemingway tale about big game hunting (Green Hills of Africa) that Fadiman did not care for at all. Here are excerpts from a couple of the reviews:
RUGGED TYPES…At left, Ernest Hemingway poses with skulls of kudu and female of sable antelope in East Africa, 1934, part of his hunting trip described in Green Hills of Africa; at right, photo of Jules Sandoz from the frontispiece of Old Jules, a biography written by his daughter Mari Sandoz. (JFK Library/U of Nebraska)
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From Our Advertisers
With the National Automobile Show in full swing at the Grand Central Palace, the issue was jammed with ads for every type and price range…the Chrysler Corporation took out this full-page spot on the opening spread to promote one of the lowest priced cars on the market…
…Chrysler/DeSoto continued to tout its streamlined Airflow models…introduced in 1934, the Airflow was the first full-size American production car to use streamlining, and it featured a number of other innovations, but consumers just weren’t ready for something this radical…even with the streamlining toned down after its first year, only 55,000 units were produced during the model’s four-year run…
…on a side note, Chrysler has revived the Airflow nameplate for an electric car concept due to the marketplace in 2028…
…mentioned in Speed’s review of the Automobile Show, the Lincoln-Zephyr would find success with its aerodynamic design…
…most manufacturers were in on the streamlining trend, noticeable in the tilted grilles, low rooflines, and sweeping fenders…
…unlike the other car companies, Pierce Arrow did not produce an economy model to keep its luxury line afloat during the Depression…emphasizing its handmade quality, this American rival to Rolls-Royce went out of business by 1938…
…Goodyear got in on the Auto Show action promoting its tires for the “new and faster cars”…
…the folks at Campbell’s continued their ad series featuring upper-class women covertly serving canned soup to their society friends…in this ad, however, the hostess reveals her secret…
…there were no secrets to be found at Schrafft’s—its popularity increased during the Depression, when more than forty locations in the New York metro offered moderately priced “home-style” meals in an atmosphere that suggested upper-middle-class gentility…
…Long Island’s Lido Country Club tried to drum up some autumn business by promoting the “warm and lazy” sunshine of “Indian Summer”…
…the makers of King George IV Scotch used the face of Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley to lend some nightlife cachet to their product…here’s an odd little fact: his nephew, Glenn Billingsley, was married to Leave It to Beaver actress Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver on the TV series…
…this week the back cover belonged to R.J. Reynolds, with various aviators testifying to the calming effects of Camel cigarettes…the lead endorser in the ad, Frank Hawks, was famous for breaking aviation speed records until he perished in the crash of an experimental plane in 1938…
…Forstmann ads were a regular feature on the inside front cover during the fall/winter fashion season, rendered in a style made popular by illustrator Carl “Eric” Erickson…
…on to our cartoonists, we open the magazine with Maurice Freed…
…James Thurber was busy in this issue, writing a touching character sketch of a medicine show man he greatly admired (“Doc Marlowe”)…and contributing this spot art for “Goings On About Town”…
…he also turned in this terrific cartoon…
…Christina Malman livened up the Auto Show review with this spot art…
…Carl Rose also paid tribute to the annual event…
…Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein did a bit of home decorating…
…Robert Day was ready to call it a night…
…Helen Hokinson contributed two cartoons, shopping for a pet fish…
and taking in a Dolores Del Rio picture…
…no doubt Hokinson’s “girls” were commenting on the 1935 musical comedy In Caliente, featuring Mexican actress Dolores Del Rio (1904–1983)…Del Rio was the first Mexican actress to achieve mainstream success in Hollywood…
Dolores Del Rio in a scene from In Caliente. (Reddit)
…we continue with George Price, and a dedicated lumberjack…
…Ned Hilton discovered some honesty in the Men’s Department…
…William Steig took a look around on Election Day…
…Richard Decker took the pulse of the medical profession…
…and we close with another by Decker, where seeing is not believing…
Above: Cover of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a fascist takeover of America, It Can't Happen Here. At right, 22,000 people attended a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. (Wikipedia/Reddit)
Ninety years ago Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here, a dystopian novel that responded to the rise of fascism in Europe as well as to American demagogues like Louisiana Senator Huey Long.
October 26, 1935 cover by Roger Duvoisin. Duvoisin (1900–1980) was a Swiss-born American writer and illustrator best known for children’s picture books. He illustrated 32 covers for The New Yorker, along with five cartoons. Duvoisin won the Caldecott Medal in 1948 (along with author Alvin Tresselt) for White Snow, Bright Snow.
In his 2016 New Yorker article, “Getting Close to Fascism with Sinclair Lewis’s ‘It Can’t Happen Here,'” journalist Alexander Nazaryan notes how Lewis was arguing for journalism and civic education as essential pillars of democracy. The title of Lewis’s book, Nazaryan observes, suggests that ‘It’ was something more subtle: “a collective apathy, born of ignorance, and a populace that can no longer make the kind of judgments that participatory democracy requires.”
Lewis’s novel also made book critic Clifton Fadiman sit up and take notice. Here are excerpts from the first part of his review:
HOME-GROWN…American fascism was represented by organizations such as the German American Bund, the Silver Legion of America, and radio hostCharles Coughlin, who opposed the New Deal and promoted conspiracy theories and antisemitic views. Clockwise, from top left: Nearly a thousand uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands and carrying Nazi banners parade past a reviewing stand in New Jersey on July 18, 1937. The New Jersey division of the German-American Bund had opened the 100-acre Camp Nordland at Sussex Hills; Huey Long in 1935, the same year he was assassinated; Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. (AP/Wikipedia)
If you zoom in on the photo at bottom right, you can’t help but notice the woman in the black hat, who seems a little unsure about what she is doing, especially in front of a camera…the woman to her right appears to be hiding her face.
Here is more of Fadiman’s review (click to enlarge). It’s worth a read.
WE’VE BEEN WARNED…Published nearly seventy years apart, Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (1935) and Philip Roth’sThe Plot Against America (2004) both explored the dangers of fascism in the United States. (pulitzer.org/Wikipedia/Nancy Crampton via stanford.edu)
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It Was Happening There
In her “Letter from Paris,” Janet Flanner was noting “increasing Fascist sentiment and sympathy” in her adopted city:
OVER THERE…The French Popular Party (Parti populaire français, PPF) was a French fascist and anti-semitic political party led by Jacques Doriot before and during World War II. Formed in June 1936, with an estimated 120,000 members by 1937, it is generally regarded as the most collaborationist party of France. (thefrenchhistorypodcast.com)
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All Talk
Marion Sayle Taylor (1889–1942) was the popular host of a radio advice show, The Voice of Experience. Margaret Case Harriman (1901–1966) penned a two-part profile of Taylor titled “The Voice.” I’ve included the opening lines to Part One here:
IF ONLY SHE KNEW…Margaret Case Harriman, left, circa 1936, profiled Marion Sayle Taylor before his misdeeds were revealed. (Vogue Archive/eleanorbritton.blogspot.com/Oregon Encyclopedia)
After reading both parts of Harriman’s profile piece, it appears she wasn’t yet aware that Taylor was more than a radio personality; he was also dishonest, manipulative, and opportunistic, according to a biography by Dick and Judy Wagner featured in the Oregon Encyclopedia. For example, Harriman reported (likely from Taylor’s official bio) that Taylor’s first wife, Pauline, had died in childbirth, when in fact she was quite alive and suing him for divorce that same year. Taylor also divorced his second wife, Jessie, who sued him in 1936 after he deceived her about another woman. Not surprisingly, his radio image as a reliable marriage counselor was damaged irretrievably.
FALSE ADVERTISING…A streetcar, possibly in Newark, N.J., advertising a lecture by Taylor, circa 1931. In addition to hiding a previous prison record, Taylor also falsely reported that he had studied at several universities (he did not earn a Ph.D, as the redundant title claims in the above photo). It appears Taylor also kept much of the money he solicited for charitable causes. (Oregon Encyclopedia)
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Selling Pooh
Commercial cross-marketing of children’s books with toys and other products had its origins in the late nineteenth century with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and in the first years of the 20th century Beatrix Potter’sPeter Rabbit series inspired everything from dishes and wallpaper to board games and dolls—in 1903 Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy.
Then came another character from British children’s literature, A.A. Milne’sWinnie-the-Pooh. In January 1930, Stephen Slesinger (1901–1953) purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording, and other trade rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works from Milne (for $1,000, plus royalties), marketing a wide range of products. For the column “Onward & Upward With the Arts,” St. Clair McKelway paid a visit to Slesinger at the Park Avenue offices of Winnie-the-Pooh Association, Inc. Excerpts:
KEEP YER SHIRT ON…The Parker Brothers were the first to feature Winnie-the-Pooh in color for a 1932 board game. Stephan Slesinger added the iconic red t-shirt to Pooh for the game and a children’s record, a look that was later adopted by the Disney Corporation when it acquired the rights from Slesinger’s widow and daughter in 1961. (thedisneyclassics.com)FUNNIES MAN…At left, Stephan Slesinger in an undated photo. Slesinger was a radio, television and film producer, and a curator of comic strip characters including Alley Cop, Captain Easy, Buck Rogers and Blondie, among others; at center, a record of “Winnie-the-Pooh Songs,” 1932; an ad for the Red Ryder BB gun—in 1938 Slesinger created the comic strip Red Ryder along with artist Fred Harmon. (alchetron/yesterdaysgallery.com/Port Isabel Press)
In another excerpt, McKelway gave us an idea of the scope of Slesinger’s Pooh empire:
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At the Movies
Critic John Mosher found few thrills in the latest fare from Hollywood, offering his views of Admiral Richard Byrd’sInto Little America and the musical Metropolitan, featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett.
FOR THE BYRDS…At left, lobby card for Into Little America; at right, Alice Brady and Lawrence Tibbett in Metropolitan. (eBay.uk/rottentomatoes.com)
With a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and direction by Howard Hawks, one would hope for some rough and tumble in a film about Gold Rush San Francisco. Instead, Mosher found the trappings of Barbary Coast rather mild. This was doubtless due in part to the Hays Code that curtailed the sex and violence portrayed in films of the 1920s and early 1930s.
TAKING A SPIN…Miriam Hopkins runs the roulette wheel as Edward G. Robinson looks on in Barbary Coast. A brief 2019 review in the Harvard Film Archive praised the film’s Gothic feel created by the “evocative portrayal of early San Francisco as a foggy labyrinth of rickety boardwalks and ominous, sky-high ship masts…” (harvardfimarchive.org)
One might think that a film featuring the destruction of Pompeii would have some thrills, however RKO’s The Last Days of Pompeii proved to be a “temperate affair” in Mosher’s eyes, “one of the great bores of the moment.” The Dick Powell/U.S. Navy vehicle Shipmates Forever didn’t prove to be any better.
HOT TIMES IN POMPEII?…John Mosher called The Last Days of Pompeii “one of the great bores of the moment,” including the “drearily enacted” eruption of Vesuvius in which “Paper temples fall and there is a bit of bustle, and that is all there is to that.” Mosher did single out Basil Rathbone’s performance as an urbane Pontius Pilate, “a Pontius Pilate with a Long Island manner.” (tcm.com)GO GET ‘EM DICK…The U.S. Naval Academy provided the setting for the musical Shipmates Forever, featuring Dick Powell as a crooner who ultimately chooses the Navy over a singing career. (tcm.com)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with the inside front cover, where the folks at Fisher touted their innovative “Turret Top” design…Body by Fisher began as a separate company in 1908, specializing as an automobile coach builder…although acquired by General Motors in 1926, the Fisher brand was promoted until the 1980s…
…there were many fall and winter fashion ads in this issue, including this continuing series by Russeks promoting Rayon fabrics…and women smoking, no doubt considered a sign of sophistication…
…Guerlain perfume ads featured the unmistakable style of illustrator Lyse Darcy…
…the Heyward/Gershwin production of Porgy and Bess made a splash in this ad for Stage magazine…
…World Peaceways often used terrifying imagery to promote their anti-war messages…this ad was on the inside back cover…
…and as you closed the magazine, the back cover greeted you with this stylish appeal to smoke Luckies…
…on to our cartoonists, starting with Al Frueh in the Theatre section…
…and Frueh again, in this interesting arrangement…
…George Price was featured twice…
…with scenes of domestic life as only Price could render…
…and speaking of distinctive, no one did it quite like the great James Thurber…
…Robert Day gave us two Republicans looking in on the progress of the New Deal…
…Carl Rose bid farewell to a writer sick of his peace and quiet…
…Whitney Darrow Jr illustrated a literary exchange on a park bench…
…and I close with today’s New Yorker cover artist, Roger Duvoisin—here is his cover for White Snow, Bright Snow, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1948.
It has been a while since we’ve heard from art and design critic Lewis Mumford, who often cast a censorious eye at the rapidly changing world around him.
October 12, 1935 cover by William Steig. From 1930 until his death in 2003 at age 95, Steig contributed 121 covers and 1,676 drawings to The New Yorker.
In his column “The Sky Line,” Mumford cast an envious gaze north toward Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo, which he believed had greatly improved upon the recently rebuilt Central Park Zoo.
HE HAD OPINIONS…Lewis Mumford (1895-1990).
Brooklyn’s advantage, according to Mumford, was the superior design of Prospect Park, which offered a better location for a zoo than Central Park. We’ll let Mumford explain in these excerpts:
CURIOSITIES, MOSTLY…Clockwise, from top left: Animals were on display at Prospect Park as early as 1866, as seen in this photo of the “Deer Farm”; circa 1900 postcard of Prospect Park’s rather distressing “Menagerie,” which opened around 1890; the park’s Elephant House opened in 1908—modeled after the Hippo Palace at the Antwerp Zoo, the Elephant House also featured rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and tapirs; baby elephants (postcard circa 1940s) were a popular attraction until the zoo moved on to smaller creatures in the 1990s. (bklynlibrary.org/untappedcities.com/blog.wcs.org/nycgovparks.org)
LEWIS MUMFORD PRAISED the 1934 plan for the Prospect Park Zoo, designed by architect Aymar Embury II and approved by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. The zoo was built, in large part, through Civil Works Administration and Works Progress Administration labor and funding. (Brooklyn Public Library)
FLATBUSH FAUNA…Clockwise, from top left: Postcard image of Prospect Park Zoo circa 1935; zoo keeper sprays an elephant with a hose, circa 1940; an 1899 bronze sculpture depicting a mother lion nursing her cubs was created by French artist Victor Peter; seal pool, undated photo. (nycgovparks.org/Center for Brooklyn History/Facebook)
CARING OVER CAGES…Prospect Park Zoo today. The zoo closed in 1988 for five-year, $37 million renovation program that, except for the exteriors of the 1930s-era buildings, completely replaced the original zoo. With an emphasis on education and conservation, current exhibits house smaller species rather than elephants, tigers, and lions. (Prospect Park Alliance)
Mumford also looked at the latest developments at Rockefeller Center. As we’ve seen before, he favored smaller-scale developments that were organic and community-focused, and therefore was a strong critic of projects like Rockefeller Center. At its inception he called it a dehumanizing “megamachine,” a product of corporate greed, a “reckless, romantic chaos” that represented the capitalist jungle. Harsh words indeed, so it was something of a surprise to see his approval of the latest piece of the complex—the International Building at 630 Fifth Avenue:
SIMPLE AND CORRECT were the words Lewis Mumford used to describe the interior entrance to 630 Fifth Avenue. (Wikiwand/newyorkoffices.com)
* * *
Bad Benito
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White had some choice words for the murderous Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and for the newspaper columnist Arthur Brisbane, both unconcerned with the slaughter of “backward” Ethiopians by invading Italian forces:
White also noted the role played by The New Yorker in a new novel by William Farquhar Payson (1876–1939) titled Give Me Tomorrow. Apparently the novel credited the magazine’s unique humor for revealing the banality of an evangelist and delivering a young woman from his clutches…
THE NEW YORKER TO THE RESCUE…William Farquhar Payson deployed a copy of the magazine for a pivotal scene in his novel Give Me Tomorrow. (findagrave.com)
* * *
A Star Is Born
Stage and film director Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986) moved from Chicago to New York in 1931, where he worked as a stage designer for Earl Carroll’s Vanities and costume and set designer for the Ziegfeld Follies before becoming art director at Radio City Music Hall. He got his big break in 1935 when he directed, to critical acclaim, the Broadway musical At Home Abroad. “The Talk of Town” took notice of the rising star (excerpts):
AN EYE FOR DESIGN…Photographer Lusha Nelson photographed Vincente Minnelli at his desk with a miniature stage on Feb. 1, 1936. (James Grissom via threads.com)
* * *
A Safe Space
Lois Long had mixed feelings regarding the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, fearing that it was a tourist magnet but also desiring to take in its sumptuous floor shows. In the first excerpt, Long continued her comment on the heated competition she perceived among nightclub owners.
FEAR FACTOR…The entertainment lineup at Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room helped Lois Long overcome her fear of encountering tourists. Clockwise, from left, the Rainbow Room in 1934; Ramon and Renita lit up the dance floor (photo from Nov. 1935 Harper’s Bazaar); Ray Noble and his orchestra provided “all-around beauty”; and (inset) cabaret singer Frances Maddox offered her sophisticated warble to the glittering affair. (Rockefeller Center Archives/Pinterest/Shedd Institute)
* * *
An Untamed Shrew
Theatre critic Wolcott Gibbs had a good time watching Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne take on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew at the Guild Theatre, especially Lunt’s uproarious take on the play.
FUN WITH SHAKESPEARE…Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne matched wits in the Theatre Guild’s presentation of The Taming of the Shrew. (minnesotaplaylist.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Our film critic John Mosher didn’t have much to say about Here’s To Romance, which seemed contrived to introduce the Italian tenor Nino Martini (1905–1976) to a wider audience. To Mosher, the highlight of the film was the appearance of Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1861–1936), the Austrian-American operatic dramatic contralto, who appeared to be having a good time.
SINGER SANDWICH…Genevieve Tobin (center) stands between tenor Nino Martini and dramatic contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink in a scene from Here’s to Romance. (rottentomatoes.com)
Mosher reviewed two other films that were a bit more dismal: The Last Outpost was a war-themed melodrama starring Cary Grant and Claude Rains; O’Shaughnessy’s Boy featured Wallace Beery as a circus animal trainer who loses his arm as well as his family.
DUELING MUSTACHES…Cary Grant (left) sported a rare mustache in a role opposite Claude Rains in The Last Outpost. (mabumbe.com)A TOUGH ACT…Sara Haden played a skeptical aunt who sees a one-armed circus animal tamer (Wallace Beery) regain his son (Jackie Cooper) and the confidence he lost along with his wife in O’Shaughnessy’s Boy. (tcm.com)
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From Our Advertisers
I find these advertisements oddly appealing, because this kind of travel no longer exists. Today there is exactly one ocean liner left in the world—the Queen Mary 2; the cruise ships that rule the 21st century seas are essentially hotel/amusement parks stacked on top of a huge barges…water slides, Vegas-style entertainments, and all-you-can-stuff-into-your-face buffets…
…this curious ad on page 10 mimicked the look of a New Yorker short in the vein of Clarence Day…what it promoted was an around-the-world cruise that would take two-hundred (well-heeled) passengers to more than twenty destinations including Malaysia, Bali and Singapore…
Postcard image of the Franconia. (Pinterest)
…society women could be counted on to endorse all sorts of things from cigarettes to cold cream…here a “Mrs. Francis L. Robbins, Jr” (I couldn’t find her given name) endorses Cutex nail polish and lipstick…the ad noted that Mrs. Robbins “is a beautiful and popular member of Long Island and New York society”…
…the makers of Spud menthol cigarettes entered the realm of the surreal with a talking cigarette that encouraged chain smoking…
…the board game Monopoly had its origins in The Landlord’s Game, created in 1903 by an anti-monopolist named Lizzie Magie…over the years variants of the game were introduced until Parker Brothers bought the rights from Magie and another inventor and began mass-marketing the game in the fall of 1935…
…Peggy Lou Snyder was performing in vaudeville when she met the saxophone-playing bandleader Ozzie Nelson in 1932. Nelson hired her to sing with his band (under the name Harriet Hilliard) and then married her three years later…in 1944 the couple would launch a comedy series for radio, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which made a successful transition to television, appearing on ABC from 1952 to 1966…
…here we have some old-timers offering hunting advice and promoting octane-boosting Ethyl gasoline, which helped prevent engine knock…it also contained the highly toxic additive tetraethyllead, which could cause severe neurological damage, particularly in children…it was completely banned in the U.S. by 1996…
…on to our cartoonists, we start with this delightful spot art by Christina Malman that graced the bottom of the calendar and events page…
…Helen Hokinson appeared twice, first at the vet’s…
…and later shopping for the maid at a department store…
…George Price had a surprise in store for this mirror-gazer…
…Charles Addams took the top of page 29 to show us a proud papa in a maternity ward…
…Ned Hilton uncovered some history at the Singer Building…
…Mary Petty eavesdropped on a tactless toff…
…Leonard Dove showed us that being a sugar daddy wasn’t so sweet…
…and we close with William Steig, one of his “Small Fry” speaking up for the old man…
Above: First-grade pupils at the blackboard, circa 1943. (The New York Times)
Peering into the life of a Manhattan elementary school—as it was ninety years ago—offers a glimpse into the social mores of the 1930s.
October 5, 1935 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Taking us back to those days was St. Clair McKelway (1905-1980), who beginning in 1933 served as a writer and editor for The New Yorker. Although not well-known today, McKelway was credited by William Shawn as one of a handful of people who “set the magazine on its course.”
St. Clair McKelway.(LA Times)
For the “A Reporter at Large” column, McKelway toured PS 165 on the Upper West Side. In this first excerpt, McKelway sits in on a geography lesson:
AROUND THE WORLD IN TWENTY VOLUMES…The Grolier Society’s The Book of Knowledge was a well-known resource to students and teachers alike in the 1930s. Originally largely a reprint of the British Children’s Encyclopædia with U.S. revisions, it evolved over time into an entirely new entity. This particular volume is from 1919, part of a twenty-volume set. (Randal Oulton via Wikipedia)
In this next excerpt, a teacher and principal speak of the schoolchildren dispassionately, casually referring to one pupil’s IQ as “almost down to mental defective.”
PS PUPILS…Students participate in Elizabeth Irwin’s “Little Red Schoolhouse“ program at PS 61 in 1928; at right, a kindergarten painter at PS 23 in 1935. (NYC Municipal Archives/Fordham U)
In this final excerpt, McKelway looked in on the school’s “ungraded class” of sixteen boys, most from families who were “on relief.” Beginning in the third paragraph, note how the teacher speculates on the future of one of the students.
STILL STANDING, STILL SERVING…PS 165 Robert E. Simon school today. (insideschools.org/Anna Duncan/Friends of PS 165)
A final note: It is interesting to compare McKelway’s article with one written almost thirty years later byRichard Schickel for Commentary magazine (January 1964). Schickel also visited PS 165, his observations of the “special service” school sometimes echoing McKelway’s. Today PS 165 receives high marks from teachers and parents. Located a few blocks from Columbia University, the school teaches children of graduate students and professors as well as long-time neighborhood residents and newcomers.
* * *
Moving Days
In the fall of 1935 E.B. and Katharine White and their four-year-old son Joel moved from their Greenwich Village apartment on East 8th Street (reluctantly for E.B.) to Turtle Bay Gardens in the East 40s. At about the same time The New Yorker moved from its original headquarters on West 45th Street to its new digs at 25 West 43rd Street, where the magazine would settle in for more than fifty years.
HOME SWEET HOME…This New York townhouse (left) was the new home of E.B. and Katharine White in the fall of 1935 (their neighbor was Katharine Hepburn). At right, The New Yorker also moved to a new home at 25 West 43rd Street. The magazine would occupy several floors of the building for 56 years. (homes.com/Ink Spill)
* * *
A Good Bad Girl
Journalist Meyer Berger (1898-1959) was known for digging deep into his subjects, including a two-part New Yorker profile of Anna Lonergan, “Queen of the Irishtown Docks.” Her two husbands and a brother—notorious killers themselves—were murdered in gang wars along with dozens of others who were Lonergan’s friends and neighbors. She was often called to the morgue to identify murder victims, thus the “Profile” title “Lady in Crepe”—one who is in a constant state of mourning. Here are the opening paragraphs:
SHE WANTED TO BE A NUN…Anna Lonergan, as rendered by Reginald Marsh for the Profile.KILL OR BE KILLED…Members of the Irish “White Hand Gang” battled their Italian rivals (the Black Hand Gang) on the Brooklyn waterfront from the early 1900s to 1930. Anna Lonergan’s first husband William “Wild Bill” Lovett (top) was murdered in 1923; her brother Richard “Pegleg” Lonergan was gunned down in 1925. (artofneed.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Film critic John Mosher took on a couple of very different films—the lively Claudette Colbert comedy She Married Her Boss, and the “mournful, graceful” Iceland Fisherman featuring the 1890s French cabaret star Yvette Guilbert.
BUSINESS AND PLEASURE…Melvyn Douglas and Claudette Colbert in She Married Her Boss. (IMDB)GRAND GRANDMOTHER...John Mosher found French actress and cabaret singer Yvette Guilbert (1865–1944) to be the main attraction as a Breton grandmother in 1934’s Pêcheur d’Islande (Iceland Fishermen). Guilbert was a favorite subject of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who made many portraits and caricatures of Guilbert, including the one at right from 1894. (musee-breton.finistere/National Portrait Gallery, London/Wikipedia)
Mosher also screened Soviet Russia through the Eyes of an American, which documented American engineer Charles Stuart’s travels through the Soviet Union. You can watch the entire film here.
NO FAMINE HERE…Children playing games were featured in Soviet Russia through the Eyes of an American, a travelogue that skipped all the bad parts of Stalinist Russia. (YouTube/Hoover Institution)
* * *
Some Housekeeping
Before we jump into the advertisements, I would feel remiss not to mention other writers in the issue, including poet Ogden Nash (“How Now, Sirrah, Oh, Anyhow”), James Thurber (“Smashup,” featuring henpecked husband Tommy Trinway); Frances Warfield (“Practical Nurse”); Theodore Pratt (“I Jes’ Goin'”); James Reid Parker (“The First Day”); Andree L. Eilert (“Words Across the Sea”) W.E. Farbstein (“Copycat”); and P. S. Le Poer Trench (“Parsons is Prepared”). Some of these contributors are long forgotten—Warfield often wrote about her deafness, but little to nothing can be found out about Eilert or Trench without considerable effort (Trench published twice in the New Yorker in 1935).
AMONG THE KNOWN…At left, Ogden Nash (1902-1971) is the most famous of this trio that includes Theodore Pratt (1901-1969), center, known as the “Literary Laureate of Florida”; and at right, James Reid Parker (1909-1984), who sidelined as a writer of captions for Helen Hokinson. Read more about Parker’s contributions to The New Yorker at Michael Maslin’sNew Yorker treasure trove Ink Spill.
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From Our Advertisers
Apparently business was booming at Forstmann Woolens, who continued to post these stylish ads in the opening pages of The New Yorker—note Midtown’s 1927-29 New York Central Building (now Helmsley Building) that served as a gateway to Grand Central…
…who knew that one could be so stylish while drinking a glass of tomato juice?…
…the Capehart Automatic Phonograph Company produced a radio-phonograph that could automatically flip records to play both sides—this particular model could play up to twenty records in succession…
QUITE THE GIZMO…Restoration of a Capehart 405E. These units were not cheap, selling for the equivalent of $30k or more today. (forum.antiquephono.org)
…Warner Brothers took out a full-page ad to announce the world premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream…the lavish, star-studded production featured, among others, James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, Dick Powell, Anita Louise and Mickey Rooney…
AN ACQUIRED TASTE...Anita Louise as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and James Cagney as Bottom, the Weaver, in the 1935 film production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The film failed at the box office with mixed reviews, however it won two Academy Awards—Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, and it was nominated for Best Picture. Today the film gets mostly good reviews. (www.academymuseum.org)
…Stage magazine also took out a full-page ad to trumpet its own star-studded lineup, including contributions by James Thurber, Peggy Bacon and Abe Birnbaum…
…Mrs. Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, nee Caryetta Davis Saunders (1899-1971), was the latest society maven to encourage women smokers to enjoy the unfiltered pleasures of Camel cigarettes…
…on to our cartoonists, George Price and Maurice Freed got things rolling with these spot drawings…
…Carl Rose mixed the old with the new on moving day…
…Barney Tobey showed us how the posh travelled to school…
…George Price again, here demonstrating the joys of moneyed eccentricity…
…Richard Decker explored the origins of art criticism…
…Mary Petty offered some durable fashion advice…
…and we close with Peter Arno, finding sudden inspiration in a Pink Lady cocktail…
Above: Will Rogers (with hat) visits with pilot Wiley Post near Fairbanks, Alaska, hours before their fatal crash on August 15, 1935. (okhistory.org)
It would be a challenge to find a place for a multi-talented, mega-star like Will Rogers in today’s over-saturated and segmented media landscape—he was a trick roper, vaudevillian, social commentator, comedian, journalist, author, and radio and film celebrity. His early fame on the vaudeville circuit, including the Ziegfeld Follies, would spark a film career in 1918 (he would appear in 71 films), and a 1922 town hall speech would lead to a nationally syndicated newspaper column. When radio became a nationwide phenomenon his voice could heard coast-to-coast. He was seemingly everywhere.
August 31, 1935 cover by Harry Brown. Brown illustrated eighteen covers for The New Yorker.
Rogers (1879-1935) was also a big promoter of aviation, and he gave his audiences many entertaining accounts of his world travels. In the summer of 1935 he announced plans to join famed aviator Wiley Post (1898-1935) on a flight to Alaska and beyond. It appeared to be routine, making the trip’s tragic ending all the more poignant.
Although E.B. White often seemed stuck in the past—he preferred Model Ts and rattily omnibuses to more more modern conveyances—he was a flying enthusiast, never missing a chance to hop aboard an airplane and marvel at the scene far below. However, when tragedy struck, White would become circumspect. When Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne’s Fokker Trimotor crashed into a Kansas wheatfield, White expressed doubts about air safety and pondered “safer” alternatives such as autogiros (a kind of early helicopter that wasn’t so safe or practical). Such doubts returned in his “Notes and Comment” for August 31, 1935:
The fated aircraft, a Lockheed Orion, was heavily modified by Post into a floatplane; one wing was even salvaged from a wrecked Explorer (an older Lockheed model). The pontoon floats he attached were also designed for a larger aircraft, which made the nose-heavy Orion even more unwieldy.
BUILT FOR SPEED…A Lockheed Model 9 Orion parked at Boeing Field, Seattle, in May 1935. With 200-mph speed, the single-engine passenger aircraft (5 to 6 passengers) was faster than any American military aircraft of the time. It was Lockheed’s last aircraft to use wood construction in the frame, which was lightweight but not designed for longevity on major airlines. (James Borden Photography Collection)TIGHT QUARTERS….Interior view of a Lockheed Orion 9. No doubt much of the passenger space was loaded with gear for the trip to Alaska. (James Borden Photography Collection)
When Post and Rogers arrived in Juneau, local bush pilots doubtfully regarded the Orion and asked Rogers about the flight plan. “Wiley and I are like a couple of country boys in an old Ford—don’t know where we’re going and don’t care,” he said. They were actually headed to Point Barrow, and from there planned to hop over to Siberia.
After stopping in Fairbanks they set off for Point Barrow in bad weather. Lost in the murk, they landed short of their destination in the shallow waters of Walakpa Lagoon, fifteen or so miles southwest of Point Barrow. Post and Rogers then took off—despite warnings from locals about the conditions. But the weather wasn’t the worst problem: Post had a bad habit of taking to the air in an abrupt, steep climb, which likely caused the engine to stall. Powerless, the ungainly aircraft plunged into the lagoon and landed on its top. Post and Rogers were killed instantly.
JUST A COUPLE OF COUNTRY BOYS…Top photo, Will Rogers on the wing of the Lockheed floatplane belonging to famed aviation pioneer Wiley Post, hours before their fatal crash on August 15, 1935. Below photo, inverted wreckage of the float plane in Walakpa Lagoon. (Wikipedia/vintageaviationnews.com)
Rather than eulogize the fallen Rogers, “The Talk of Town” offered up an anecdote about his rise as a newspaper columnist, which was sparked by a backhanded endorsement speech:
A HUMAN FACE…Top left, Will Rogers backstage with the 1924 Ziegfeld Follies cast. At right, Rogers made his film debut in the now lost silent film Laughing Bill Hyde (1918) with co-star Anna Lehr. The magazine ad at right quoted producer Rex Beach, who called Rogers “the most human player who ever faced a camera.” (Will Rogers Memorial Museum/Wikipedia/IMDB)FINAL CURTAIN…Top photo, Will Rogers with co-star Anne Shirley in Steamboat Round the Bend. Rogers wrapped filming just before heading to Alaska. The film was released posthumously on September 6,1935. Bottom image is a detail from a full-page ad in the October 1935 issue of Picture Play Magazine. Oddly, the ad makes no mention of Rogers’ death, proclaiming that “Will blazes a new path in his screen career as he scores his greatest triumph!” (theretrorocket.blogspot.com/IMDB)
* * *
Putting it Mildly
In “Onward & Upward With the Arts,” H.L. Mencken continued to explore the quirks of American language, this time looking at the pervasive (and evasive) use of euphemisms by “professional uplifters.” Excerpts:
INTELLIGENCE TEST was suggested by “professional uplifters” as a polite replacement for giving someone “The Third Degree.” Image is from the 1941 noir thriller I Wake Up Screaming, starring Victor Mature, pictured here getting his “intelligence test.” (cinematography.com)
* * *
At the Movies
We join film critic John Mosher to take a look at the latest epic from Cecil B. DeMille,The Crusades, which to Mosher’s disappointment was a rather mild epic, with little to astonish. However, our critic did find something to admire in a more recent historical drama, Diamond Jim.
ANTISEPTIC EPIC?…Clockwise, from top left, movie poster for The Crusades offered up an image one typically does not associate with religious warfare, but you had to bring ’em in somehow; Henry Wilcoxon and Ian Keith in a scene from the film; co-stars Loretta Young as Berengaria of Navarre and Wilcoxon as Richard the Lionheart; the film also featured Joseph Schildkraut as Conrad of Montferrat and Katherine DeMille as Princess Alice of France (bottom left). A talented actress, Katherine reportedly landed the role as a Christmas gift from her adoptive father, Cecil B. DeMille. (cecilbdemille.com)HEY BIG SPENDER…At right, Edward Arnold in the title role (here with Eric Blore) in Diamond Jim. At left, Cesar Romero moves in on Diamond Jim’s love interest, portrayed by Jean Arthur. (Rotten Tomatoes/IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with this advertisement from Lord & Taylor, featuring the latest fall fashions for young women heading to college…notable here is the inclusion of Mickey Mouse in the illustration…the animated rodent was in vogue as much the latest fashions…
…John Hanrahan, whose advertising savvy helped guide The New Yorker through its lean early years, was publisher of the richly designed Stage magazine, promoted here on the inside front cover…
…soft drink giant Coca-Cola recalled its soda fountain origins in this ad that promoted its 6.5-ounce bottled product…
…on the inside back cover Goodyear continued its series of perilous ads illustrating the dangers of tire blowouts (but not the obvious hazard of children riding untethered in a rumble seat, where they doubtless inhaled all manner of noxious fumes)…
…the majority of back covers in 1935 featured tobacco companies…here we learn that Lucky Strikes were more than cigarette; they were your “best friend”…
…on to our cartoonists, we start with this “Profile” illustration by William Steig…the profile was a two-parter featuring a clever summons server…
…Adolph Dehn adorned the “Goings On” section with this illustration…
…unsigned, but I’m pretty sure this is H.O. Hofman…
…here we get a lift from Robert Day…
…Al Frueh conjured up a nightmare of leaping sheep…
…Helen Hokinson gave us some famous footwear…
…Hokinson again, with Romulus and Remus providing a convenient metaphor…
…Kemp Starrett was bogged down in the rules of a game…
…George Price discovered a budding talent…
…Richard Decker took to the back roads…(reminds me of a scene from The Long, Long Trailerwith Lucy and Desi)…
…James Thurber raised a glass to a dry do-gooder…
…Alan Dunn brought an unexpected windfall to Westchester…
…and to close we Dunn again, and a bit of flattery…
City life is a noisy life, especially in places like Manhattan, one of the most densely populated places in the world.
August 24, 1935 cover by Rea Irvin.
In his “Notes and Comment” column, E.B. White described the occasional “intestinal stoppage” of traffic outside The New Yorker’s offices at West 45th Street, an entire block “laden with undischarged vehicles, the pangs of congestion increasing till every horn is going—a united, delirious scream of hate, every decibel charged with a tiny drop of poison.”
ABOVE THE FRAY…E.B. White with his pet dachshund Minnie at the West 45th Street offices of The New Yorker. (New York Times)AND DON’T CALL ME SHIRLEY…New York City’s Commissioner of Health, Shirley Wynne (right), created a Noise Abatement Commission in 1929. After eight months of research the Commission published City Noise, which included recommendations for a quieter city. (Wikipedia/trevianbooks.com)
The city began addressing the problem in 1929, when New York City’s Commissioner of Health, Shirley Wynne (1882-1942), created a Noise Abatement Commission, likely the first such commission in the U.S. The Commission cited the “mounting roar and crash of traffic, building, manufacture and sundry other noises which have accompanied the growth of the city.” After eight months of research the Commission published City Noise, which included recommendations for a quieter city.
URBAN CHORUS…A chart featured in City Noise depicted some of sources of noise in New York City.PIPE DOWN!…Clockwise, from top left: The Noise Abatement Commission took to the streets with a municipal acoustics-measuring truck in 1930; cartoon in the New York Herald Tribune illustrated the challenge ahead; Commission officials conducting noise tests in Times Square, circa 1930; poster circa 1936 promoted Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s anti-noise drives. A 1936 noise code put sound restrictions on everything from radios to the “prolonged and unreasonable blowing of a horn.” A first offense cost $1; the second, if committed within the next year, $2. (hii-mag.com/Bloomberg.com/NYTimes.com)
Not one to leave a stone unturned, White also added this note about the noisy doors on Pullman train car toilets…
Here are the Otto Soglow spot drawings that accompanied the “Talk” piece:
Final note: A colorful exploration of sound can be found on the One Thousand Birds site,Hii Magazine.Check it out!
* * *
Puff Pushers
Tobacco companies like Philip Morris have long been savvy in finding ways to expand their market, including taking their product directly to the consumer, as “The Talk of the Town” explained in this entry:
SMOKE FREE…Sample pack of Philip Morris cigarettes, circa 1930s. (Ebay)
* * *
A Rare Glimpse
Before Roger Angell started writing about baseball in 1962, there wasn’t a whole lot written about the sport in the pages of The New Yorker. In the magazine’s early years, the game was probably perceived as too low-brow, while other athletic pursuits such as golf, tennis, and polo were more in line with the desired or perceived readership. Early contributors such as Ring Lardner had also soured on the sport, thanks to the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 and the greed of team owners. So here is a rare look at baseball, and Yankee coach Joe McCarthy (1887-1978), in “The Talk of the Town.” Excerpts:
BRONX BOMBERS…Coach Joe McCarthy (center) with sluggers Lou Gehrig, left, and Babe Ruth during the 1932 World Series. The first manager to win pennants in both the National and American leagues, McCarthy’s teams would win a total nine league pennants and seven World Series championships. (CARLI Digital Collections)
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Music Under the Stars
The monumental Lewisohn Stadium was a popular classical music venue on the City College of New York campus until its unfortunate demolition in 1973. According to BBC Music Magazine, “for nearly half a century, Lewisohn Stadium gave people from all walks of life the chance to hear performances by the likes of violinist Fritz Kreisler, soprano Leontyne Price and clarinettist Benny Goodman for as little as 25 cents admission. The New Yorker paid a visit during eighteenth season of the Stadium Concerts. Excerpts:
CLASSICAL MASSES…At left, cover of the 1935 Stadium Concerts Review; at right, Andre Kostelanetz conducts before a crowd of thousands at Lewisohn Stadium in 1939. The stadium was demolished in 1973 to make way for City College of New York’s North Academic Center. SeeThe New York Philharmonic Archive for the complete digital version of the 1935 Stadium Concerts Review. (NY Philharmonic Archive/PressReader.com)
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At the Movies
Film critic John Mosher continued to search in vain for a film he could endorse, but he came away empty-handed after screening a star-studded screen adaptation of Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild. Star power also fell short for Mosher in the screen version of Booth Tarkington’sAlice Adams.
SMALL TALK…The film adaption of Booth Tarkington’sAlice Adams seemed to have all of the right elements in place, including director George Stevens and stars Katharine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray (left), but critic John Mosher found it somewhat average. In a 1991 retrospective review, however, The New Yorker’sPauline Kael deemed the romantic comedy “a classic” and stated that “Hepburn gives one of her two or three finest performances.” At right, the character of Alice Adams was first portrayed on the silver screen by Florence Vidor in a 1923 silent film. (Toronto Film Society/Wikipedia)THE BIG CHILL…Clockwise, from top left, Clark Gable and Loretta Young brave the Yukon wilds (actually Washington State) in The Call of the Wild; Jack Oakie provided comic relief as Gable’s sidekick Shorty Hoolihan; Young watches the filming of a scene on location at Mt. Baker National Forest; Gable shoots a scene with the St. Bernard Buck. (IMDB/Wikimedia)CLARK’S BEST FRIEND…Dog lover Clark Gable became very close with Buck during the filming of The Call of the Wild. Buck appeared in seven more films from 1935 to 1940, even receiving star billing as “Buck the Wonder Dog.” (Facebook/Pinterest)
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From Our Advertisers
Colorful ads returned to the August 24 issue, featuring familiar sponsors who could afford full-page, full-color spots, namely tobacco and liquor producers…Camel was back with their athletic theme, however they might have chosen someone other than Bill Tilden, who looked perfectly ancient…
…Old Gold returned with another George Petty-illustrated ad…
…Courvoisier cognac took the back page spot…
…Powers Reproduction showed off their color printing expertise…I wonder if that is a Lucky she is smoking…
…because I believe she is the same woman who appeared in this ad from the July 27 issue:
…back to August 24, where we were encouraged to enjoy a Johnny Walker highball to stave off the late summer heat…
…the distinctive crown of Hotel Windemere on the Upper West Side was an eye-catcher even in this one-column ad from the back of the book…photo at right from around the time it was completed, 1927…
…on to our cartoonists, an unexpected profile caricature by William Steig (this two-part profile featured process-server Harry Grossman)…
…interesting spot drawings by George Shellhase (top) and Leonard Dove (bottom right), and at left, two by Christina Malman…
…Malman (1912-1959) produced at least two-dozen covers for The New Yorker between 1937 and 1956, including this gem from 1941:
…some baby names have real meaning, according to Alan Dunn…
…Peter Arno offered caution about dancing with a prickly Colonel…
…Fritz Wilkinson answered one cat call high above the city…
…Franz Shubert met Busby Berkeley, via Carl Rose…
…George Price persisted in threading a needle…
…Robert Day gave us a pacifist of sorts in a game of tug-of-war…
…Burma Shave jingles seemed to be everywhere in the 1930s, per Alain…
…An example of replica Burma Shave signs along Route 66:
(roadsideamerica.com)
…some parenting tips came our way via Helen Hokinson…
Above: Will Hays (center, top) was the enforcer and Fr. Daniel A. Lord was the author of the Production Code that was rigidly enforced beginning in 1934. They and others were responding to the sex, violence and other forms of "immorality" in such films as 1932's "Scarface" (with Paul Muni, pictured at left) and 1931's "Blonde Crazy" with James Cagney and Joan Blondell. (Wikipedia/cinemasojourns.com)
With the Production Code fully enforced, New Yorker film critic John Mosher found even less to get excited about during his visits to Manhattan’s cinemas.
August 17, 1935 cover by Julian de Miskey. He contributed 62 covers to the magazine, as well as 82 cartoons from 1925 to 1962.
The Motion Picture Production Code—a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content—had been around for awhile, but it was mostly ignored until June 13, 1934, when an amendment to the Code required all films released to obtain a certificate of approval. Hoping to avoid government censorship and preferring self-regulation, studios adopted the Code.
The Code’s effects were felt in such films as The Farmer Takes a Wife, a romantic comedy about a Erie Canal boatman, portrayed by Henry Fonda, who dreams of becoming a farmer (a role reprised by Fonda from the Broadway production of the same name; it was Fonda’s first break in films). Mosher was pleased by Fonda’s performance, but found the film adaptation to be corny and phony, filled with “bastard” dialect and schmaltzy musical numbers. “It is the sort of thing which is okayed by Purity Leagues…” Mosher concluded.
SILVER SCREEN DEBUT…Boatman Dan Harrow (Henry Fonda) woos barge cook Molly Larkins (Janet Gaynor) in a scene from A Farmer Takes a Wife. While it was Fonda’s film debut, Gaynor was an established star known for playing sweet, wholesome characters. One of the few actresses who made a successful transition to sound movies in the late 1920s, Gaynor was the number-one draw at the box office in 1935. (IMDB)STILL KEEPING IT CLEAN…The Code was still in force when The Farmer Takes a Wife was remade in 1953; however, nineteen years after the Code took effect there was a notable easing of restrictions, as can be seen in the generous display of Betty Grable’s famous gams (seen here with Thelma Ritter). (IMDB/Wikipedia)
To get a clearer idea of what the Code did to the pictures, compare the scene from 1934’s Tarzan and His Mate (left), which was released two months before the Code went into effect, and Tarzan Escapes (right), from 1936.
CLOTHED IN THE CODE…Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan appeared together in six Tarzan films. In their second outing, 1934’s Tarzan and His Mate, O’Sullivan wore a skimpy halter-top and loincloth (left) and was shown sleeping and swimming in the nude. In their next film, 1936’s Tarzan Escapes (right); Jane is more chastely clad. (mikestakeonthemovies.com/rottentomatoes.com)
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Noted and Notorious
In his weekly column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker offered wry observations on the passing scene, including this latest brief that described the rise and fall of a very unlikely quartet of celebrities.
DEMOGOGUES, DUTCH & DIMPLES…(Left to right) Support appeared to be on the wane for radio priest and demagogue Father Charles Coughlin and fellow-fascist Louisiana Sen. Huey Long, while stock was on the rise for mobster Dutch Schultz, who successfully swayed public opinion (while under indictment for tax evasion) by generously donating to various charities. Shirley Temple continued to charm audiences, her films ranking number-one at the box office in 1935 (as well as in 1936, 1937, and 1938). The year 1935 would also be the last for Long and Schultz–both would be assassinated. (Wikipedia)
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Titlemania
Lacking the strictures of Old World caste systems, Americans have had an anxious relationship with class signifiers. In a land where trade schools become universities overnight and their faculty members refer to one another as “doctor,” there is much confusion and hand-wringing in the honorifics trade. H.L. Mencken examined the proliferation of titles in his country, freely handed out without regard to merit. Excerpts:
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From Our Advertisers
The back of the book was where one could find advertisements for upscale urban living, including these two touting the advantages of the Hotel Pierre and The Barbizon…
…In a joint venture with a group of Wall Street financiers, the former busboy-turned restauranteur Charles Pierre opened the Hotel Pierre in 1930—not the most auspicious time to open a luxury hotel as markets continued to collapse…the Pierre went into bankruptcy in 1932 and was later purchased by oilman J. Paul Getty…the legendary Barbizon Hotel for Women, completed in 1927, was designed as a safe and respectable haven for women seeking to pursue careers in New York, especially in the arts, and would host numerous famous women through the 1970s…
At left, the Barbizon in 1927; right, the Hotel Pierre circa 1930. (loc.gov)
…like the tobacco companies, brewers targeted women as a growth market for a product mostly associated with men…
…the makers of juices, meanwhile, created comic strips to promote their products…College Inn still went negative with their ads—recall the violent outbursts of the Duchess…
…here a spiteful husband blames his wife’s choice of tomato juice for his lack of success with the boss…Libby’s, on the other hand, promoted their pineapple juice as a surefire cure for a young woman’s ennui…
…notable in these somewhat thin, late summer issues is the lack of full-color ads…this was on the back inside cover…
…Flit and Dr. Seuss continued to be a weekly presence…
…which brings us to our cartoonists, and a spot drawing by Constantin Alajalov…
…also a modest spot by Robert Day, keeping us cool with this polar bear…
…Alain offered a short course in art appreciation…
…George Price ran afoul of the fire code…
…Carl Rose ran his tracks across this two-page spread…
…William Steig gave us the small fry’s perspective on the world’s wonders…
…a rare appearance of baseball in the magazine, thanks to Robert Day...
…Richard Decker brought a modern world challenge to one filling station…
…A sailor’s return to bachelorhood required a new paint job, per Alan Dunn…
…and who else but Charles Addams would circle vultures over an amusement park?…
…and we close with Al Frueh, and a Union Club member not concerned with a dress code…
The 1935 film She was one of those old movies you’d see on television during the 1970s when there were only three or four channels (plus UHF) and local stations would tap into the “B” movie vault to fill airtime. One of those films was She.
August 3, 1935 cover by Helen Hokinson.
Film critic John Mosher felt a bit sorry for Helen Gahagan, who portrayed “She Who Must Be Obeyed” (aka “She”)—an immortal who ruled an exotic, lost civilization near the Arctic Circle. The challenge for Gahagan was to seem imperious before her co-stars Randolph Scott and Helen Mack, who seemed more suited to the high school hijinks of an Andy Hardy picture. The film was a pretty standard adventure tale, in the mold of producer Marian C. Cooper’s 1933 King Kong, with two explorers falling in love during a perilous journey.
ARCHETYPE…At left, Helen Gahagan as “She” (Who Must Be Obeyed). Her costume possibly inspired the Evil Queen in Disney’s 1937 animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At right, lobby card that promoted the film. (Scifist.net/Reddit)WHEN YOU PLAY WITH FIRE…She Who Must Be Obeyed (Helen Gahagan), believing that the explorer Leo Vincey (Randolph Scott) was a reincarnation of his ancestor (whom she loved), and jealous of his girlfriend Tanya (Helen Mack), invites Leo to join her in the eternal flame. Unfortunately, her re-entry into the flame that gave her immortality turned her into a dying, withered crone. (The Nitrate Diva/Scifist.net)
The 1887 H. Rider Haggard novel, She, inspired eponymous silent films in 1908, 1911, 1916, 1917, and 1925. The 1935 film reviewed here received tepid reviews and lost money on its first release, however in a 1949 re-release it fared much better. She was re-made in 1965 with Ursula Andress in the lead role, and again in 1984 in a post-apocalyptic film that had virtually nothing to do with Haggard’s novel.
SHE THROUGH THE YEARS…Clockwise, from top left, “She” (Marguerite Snow) offers a dagger to Leo Vincey (James Cruze) in a 1911 two-reel (24 min.) adaptation; Valeska Suratt as “She” in the 1917 film (now lost); Betty Blythe took the title role in the 1925 production, considered to be the most faithful to the 1887 H. Rider Haggard novel; Sandahl Bergman appeared dressed for a Jazzercise video in the 1984 post-apocalyptic She; and finally, Ursula Andress and John Richardson in the 1965 CinemaScope production of She. (Wikipedia / digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu / cultcelebrities.com / Reddit)
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Colonial Ambitions
With most of Africa carved up by other European powers (Britain, France, Belgium etc.) in the 19th century, Italy set its sights on Ethiopia, which by the end of the 19th century was the only independent country left on the continent. Ethiopia fought off Italy’s first attempt at conquest in the Battle of Adwa (1896), but with the rise of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Italy paid a return visit, this time with heavy artillery and airstrikes that included chemical weapons. E.B. White tried to make sense of this latest invasion in his opening comments.
THOSE GUYS AGAIN…Italy invaded Ethiopia on October 3, 1935, a significant act of aggression in the lead up to World War II. Despite facing a technologically superior Italian army (top) equipped with modern weapons, including tanks, aircraft, and chemical weapons, the Ethiopian forces (bottom photo) mounted a strong resistance. (Wikipedia)
In his weekly column, Howard Brubaker mused on the Italian aggressions and other rumblings of the coming European war.
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Author, Author
The writer Willa Cather was a favorite of New Yorker critics, including Clifton Fadiman, however her latest novel was a bit too mild for his tastes.
HERE’S LUCY…Clifton Fadiman confessed he was “mortified” to admit that he found Willa Cather’s latest novel a bit too gentle. At right, portrait of Cather on her birthday, December 7, 1936. (willacather.org)
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From Our Advertisers
We begin with more fearmongering from the folks at Goodyear, who offered weekly reminders of the perils of not choosing their all-weather tires…
…the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company conjured up this “naughty maiden” to encourage even timid souls to take up the habit…
…on the other hand, the makers of the upstart KOOL brand kept it simple with their chain-smoking penguin, who was grabbing ever more market share from rival menthol pusher SPUD…
…ads in the back of the book offered up even less sophisticated products, such as Crown Smelling Salts…
…while Dr. Seuss and Norman Z. McLeod continued to make a living with their distinctive illustrations…
…at the very back of the magazine, this tiny ad from Knopf promoted Clarence Day’sLife With Father, published just months before Day’s death on Dec. 28…
…which brings us to our cartoonists…Constantin Alajalov kicked us off with this happy number…
…James Thurber found steamy goings on in the parlor…
…Charles Addams came down to earth with this pair…
…George Price showed us the rough and tumble of news reporting…
…Mary Petty contributed this sumptuous drawing of a croquet match…
…Helen Hokinson was in a transcendental mood…
…and Ned Hilton had a big surprise for one garage tinkerer…
…on to August 10 and a rich summer scene by Arnold Hall:
August 10, 1935 cover by Arnold Hall.
“The Talk of the Town” checked the lunch crowd at Mary Elizabeth’s Tea Room, where some preferred to drink their lunch.
TEA AND SWEETS (and cocktails) were among the offerings at Mary Elizabeth’s Tea Room at 36th and Fifth, seen here circa 1912. (Photo by Karl Struss via Facebook)
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Comic Relief
Film critic John Mosher offered an appreciation of W.C. Fields, noting that civilization needed films like Man on the Flying Trapeze during those hard years. Mosher also found some worthy distractions in the Jean Harlow vehicle China Seas, but was prepared to consign Spencer Tracey’s latest offering to the “lower circles of cinema hell.”
ANSWERING HIS NATION’S CALL…W.C. Fields brought joy to millions during the Depression in movies such as Man on the Flying Trapeze. Above, from left, Kathleen Howard, Fields, and Mary Brian. (IMDB/Rotten Tomatoes)SHORE LEAVE…At left, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, and Clark Gable on the set of China Seas; top right, Hattie McDaniel with Harlow in a scene from the film; below, Gable, Rosalind Russell, and C. Aubrey Smith with Harlow in China Seas. (musingsofaclassicfilmaddict.wordpress.com / Pinterest)FRESH FACE…Cinema newcomer Rita Hayworth was credited as Rita Cansino (she was born Margarita Carmen Cansino) in Dante’s Inferno. Here she is flanked by Spencer Tracy and Gary Leon. Dante’s Inferno was Spencer Tracy’s final film for 20th Century Fox. It was at MGM where his career really took off. (IMDB)
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All Wet
In his London Letter, Conrad Aiken (pen name Samuel Jeake Jr) examined the priggish ways of England’s seaside resorts.
SITE OF SCANDAL…Bathing huts at Bognor Regis, circa 1921. (bognorregistrails.co.uk)
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Beware the Bachelor
In her “Tables for Two” column, Lois Long examined some of the city’s seasonal escapes for “summer bachelors.”
GHOSTS OF THE PAST…Lois Long recommended the air-conditioned lounges of the Madison Square Hotel and the Savoy Plaza (center) or the cooling breezes of the Biltmore roof (right), which featured music by Morton Downey. Sadly, all three of these beautiful buildings have been demolished. (geographicguide.com/Wikipedia)
Other more casual venues recommended by Long included Nick’s Merry-Go-Round…
…a menu from Nick’s dated 1937…
(nypl.org)
…and its cryptic back cover…
From Our Advertisers
…speaking of the Biltmore and Morton Downey, we kick off our advertising section…
…the ad on the left announced the private residences at the Waldorf-Astoria…
Clockwise, from top left, the Waldorf Astoria circa 1930; the Waldorf’s Starlight Roof in the 1930s; after eight years and billions in restorations and renovations, the hotel has seen many changes including the transformation of the Starlight Roof into a swimming pool. Decades of grime were also cleaned from the building’s exterior. (mcny.org/loc.gov/som.com)
…another ad from the makers of Lincoln suggesting that the market for their luxury auto wasn’t confined to citified execs…
…the Camel folks introduced us to their latest society shill…
…I didn’t find much about Beatrice Barclay Elphinstone (1916-1977), described in the Camel ad as a “charming representative of New York’s discriminating younger set”…she did make the Times‘ Dec. 10, 1937 society wedding announcements, however…
…Dr. Seuss was back with another twist on Flit insecticide…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, a nice charcoal by Hugo Gellert for a profile titled “Yankee Horse Trader,” written by Arthur C. Bartlett…the harness horse racing legend Walter Cox (1868-1941) was known in New England as “the king of the half-milers”…
…James Thurber contributed this cat and dog face-off to the opening pages…
…Helen Hokinson offered her perspectives on the summer dog show across pages 16-17…
…and for a closer look…
…Gluyas Williams went back to nature in his “Club Life” series…
…Leonard Dove introduced us to an undaunted salesman…
…in the world of George Price, crime didn’t pay…
…Barbara Shermund gave us a rare glimpse into the secret lives of men…
…patronizing words were unwelcome at this chess match, per William Steig…
…Denys Wortman took us on a family outing…
…and we close with Alain, and a mother of multiples…except words…
A New Yorker State of Mind 