Helen Hokinson – Page 4 – A New Yorker State of Mind

Something Frivolous

And what can be more frivolous than a Busby Berkeley musical, with scores of leggy showgirls tap-dancing in perfect rhythm, or dressed in identical white gowns while playing flying pianos. Make sense? No, and that was the whole point.

March 23, 1935 cover by Peter Arno. The color, contrast and composition are striking; it looks more like a cover from the 50s or 60s.

“In an era of breadlines, depression and wars, I tried to help people get away from all the misery…” Berkeley once remarked. “I wanted to make people happy, if only for an hour.” Gold Diggers of 1935 was Berkeley’s second “Gold Digger” picture (he choreographed or directed four; there were six in all, including one silent), and it was the first in which he served as sole director. Critic John Mosher didn’t know what to make of the film, likening it more to an earthquake than an entertainment.

SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT…**Busby Berkeley** (1895-1976) works with dancers (left) during the production of 1933’s *42nd Street*; right, at work on one of his lavish sets, circa 1930s. (IMDB)

The “harmless jingle” Mosher referred to, Harry Warren and Al Dubin’s “Lullaby of Broadway,” received an Oscar for Best Original Song (it also gave me an earworm for a week).

GOLDEN GIRLS…Clockwise, from top left, **Alice Brady** as the parsimonious Matilda Prentiss and Adolphe Menjou as the conniving Russian dance director Nicolai Nicoleff in *Gold Diggers of 1935*; a scene from the dancing pianos sequence; **Dick Powell** and Gloria Stuart as the film’s sweethearts. (Wikipedia/YouTube/IMDB)

Amid the frivolity, Mosher noted the juxtaposition of the jingly “Lullaby of Broadway” with the haunting, two-minute sequence of Wini Shaw singing “Lullaby” as her disembodied face emerges from the blackness toward the viewer.

The scene continues as the woman (Shaw) turns onto her back, her head slowly dissolving into the nighttime city…after a raucous, mass tap-dancing scene, she falls to her death, and the sequence is reversed, her face disappearing into the blackness. The blog Acidemic gives an interesting take on this part of the film, which is more reminiscent of a German avant-garde film than Berkeley’s usual fare…

…Mosher found the scene “terrifying.” Perhaps Shirley Temple helped calm his nerves with her precocious antics in The Little Colonel…

NO FLOATING HEADS HERE…**Shirley Temple** and **Bill Robinson** doing the famous staircase dance in *The Little Colonel* (1935). (TCM)

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Up In Smoke

In “Notes and Comment” E.B. White considered the possibility that cigarette smoking might be harmful to unborn babies, and wryly suggested that embryos could replace grandmothers as a new growth market for big tobacco:

…White referred to the advertisement below, which appeared in the Feb. 9, 1935 issue of The New Yorker:

…White also commented on his recent visit to Madison Square Garden’s winter skating carnival…

THE DOUBLE AXEL was still thirteen years in the future when Swedish skaters **Gillis Emanuel Grafström** (left) and Vivi-Anne Hultén delighted E.B. White at Madison Square Garden. Photos are from 1924 and 1932, respectively. (Wikipedia)

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Prescience of Mind

We have more from E.B. White, this time in a humorous piece titled “The Dove’s Nest,” in which White took a poke at the most influential newspaper editor in the country, Arthur Brisbane. A close friend of William Randolph Hearst, Brisbane essentially ran Hearst’s newspaper empire. The New Yorker often ridiculed Hearst’s (and Brisbane’s) jingoistic approach to the news that included giant headlines warning of war. Excerpts:

William A. Swanberg, author of the 1961 biography Citizen Hearst, described Brisbane as “a one-time socialist who had drifted pleasantly into the profit system…in some respects a vest-pocket Hearst–a personal enigma, a workhorse, a madman for circulation, a liberal who had grown conservative, an investor.”

DAMN THOSE TORPEDOES…**Arthur Brisbane** in 1933. His grandson, **Arthur S. Brisbane,** now retired, served as public editor of *The New York Times* from 2010 to 2012. (credo.library.umass.edu)

The New Yorker continued to take jabs at Brisbane in the following issue (March 30). Brisbane owned a large estate (including a horse farm) in New Jersey that he made available to New Deal work programs during the Depression. I suppose this Al Frueh cartoon was some kind of reference to that…

…also in the March 30 issue was this ad from World Peaceways, which raised alarms about possible war and bombs raining down from the sky…

…back to the March 23 issue, where we find the calming strains of a Brahms concerto at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Arturo Toscanini with some support from his son-in-law, Vladimir Horowitz…

MAY I CALL YOU DAD?…Not likely something said by young **Vladimir Horowitz,** left, to father-in-law **Arturo Toscanini**. (WQXR/Britannica)

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From Our Advertisers

Beginning in 1934 the makers of Old Gold cigarettes hired pin-up artist George Petty to create a series of ads featuring a homely, clueless sugar daddy and his leggy mistress…here he turns the tables, introducing a “Pudgy Wudgy” matron putting the moves on a handsome hosiery salesman…

…this Petty ad appeared in the Feb. 9, 1935 issue of The New Yorker…

…the makers of Camels continued their campaign of “distinguished women” who enjoyed their product…here we have a former debutante, Dorothy Paine, an “alert young member of New York’s inner circle.” Not much of a record of Dorothy, who married a man named Walter H. Sterling in 1935…apparently they moved to Phoenix and bought up property in the Southwest…

…the makers of General Tire offered this grim assessment of tire safety…the lad seems to be a mere investment of time…

…although prestige brands suffered mightily during the Depression, the folks at Packard were doubling down on the elite status of their automobile…

…we’ve seen the work of fashion illustrator Ruth Sigrid Grafstrom before in ads for Spud cigarettes…here she contributes some elegant lines to a spot for Bergdorf Goodman (is the woman on the right smoking a Spud?)…

…here’s the Duchess again, still blowing her top over College Inn tomato juice…just look at her clenched fists…that fop with a monocle looks like he just took a left hook to the chops…

…on to our illustrators, William Cotton created this caricature of Rexford Guy Tugwell for Russell Lord’s two-part profile…Tugwell and President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration, which relocated rural unemployed to “Greenbelt Cities” near urban job markets. Critics called him “Rex the Red” for his social engineering experiments, and after he was forced out of federal government, Tugwell was appointed in 1938 as the first director of the NYC Planning Commission. Naturally, he would butt heads with Robert Moses…

…illustrator and painter Maurice Freed kicked off the calendar section…

…bookended on the bottom of page 4 by one of James Thurber’s most recognized drawings…

…Thurber again, and more woes between the sexes…

…we continue with our cartoonists by looking in on Barbara Shermund…

…George Price found a new wrinkle for his recurring floating man cartoon…

…Helen Hokinson graced page 19 with scenes from the opera…

…leaving an extra drawing stranded on page 18…

…Alain offered a new twist on the promotion of physical fitness…

…Gluyas Williams brought us to the stuffy confines of club life (the cartoon was originally featured vertically)…

…and we close with Richard Decker, and a lucky draw at the IRS…

Next Time: The Lighter Side of George Grosz…

Home Sweet Motohome

Morris Markey thought he was getting a glimpse of the future when he attended an exhibit of “machines to live in” at New York’s Grand Central Palace.

March 16, 1935 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

The Great Depression created a housing shortfall in the U.S. of nearly two million units, so many idled architects and builders turned to industrialized housing as a way to boost the building industry. In “A Reporter At Large,” Markey described his encounter with one type of “machine to live in”––the Motohome.

The idea of pre-fab living wasn’t exactly new in 1935, originating in the 1920s with the German Bauhaus school and with notables such as Swiss architect Le Corbusier.

NOT THRILLED WITH FRILLS…**Charles-Édouard Jeanneret** (1887-1965), better known as **Le Corbusier**, stated in 1923 that “a house is a living machine.” He believed the world had evolved beyond the need for decorative frills, and that homes and furnishings should reflect their functions. Top left, Corbu’s 1929 Villa Savoye in Poissy, France; at right, his 1947-52 Unité d’habitation de Marseille. (Fondation Le Corbusier/Architectural Digest/Le Corbusier World Heritage)

Markey correctly surmised that the American twist on Le Corbusier’s vision was largely driven by big corporations, and in the case of the Motohome, by General Electric.

GET YOUR MOTO RUNNING…Clockwise, from bottom left, New York’s Grand Central Palace; the Eggiman House in Madison, Wisconsin, a 1936 Motohome listed in the National Register of Historic Places; Long Island Motohome featured on a brochure; *Popular Mechanics* article on the Motohome. A common wall “core” was prefabricated with all kitchen and bath fixtures, as well as the HVAC system. (Wikipedia/makeitmidcentury.com/books.google.com)

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Strange and Wonderful

That is how E.B. White described the 3,664-seat 43rd and Broadway in 1926. After nine years White was still in awe of its palatial trappings. In his “Notes and Comment,” White offered some thoughts after an evening at the movies.

CINEMA GLORY DAYS…**E.B. White** visited the Paramount Theatre to take in **Charles Laughton’s** hit film, *Ruggles of Red Gap*. From left, **Zasu Pitts, Laughton, Charles Ruggles** and Maude Eburne in *Ruggles.* (nyc.gov/TCM)

PALACE FOR THE PICTURES…The Paramount Theatre’s Grande Hall featured a 75-foot-long ceiling mural by artist **Louis Grell** above the Italian marble-lined entrance. In 1966, after a run of the James Bond film *Thunderball,* the Paramount was closed for good and later gutted and turned into retail and office space. (Louis Grell Foundation)

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Bad Guys

Andrew Mellon’s tax fraud troubles were sandwiched between the woes of a fascist bromance in Howard Brubaker’s “Of All Things”…Mellon would soon be dead, Adolf Hitler would lie his way around the Brits, and Benito Mussolini would struggle to inspire Italian women to produce his “army of tots”…

NOT TONIGHT, WE HAVE A HEADACHE…Little wonder fascist dictator Benito Mussolini couldn’t inspire a baby boom. (Wikipedia)

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Zoom Zoom

In his “Motors” column, writer “Speed” looked in on Sir Malcolm Campbell (1885-1948), who was attempting to break the 300-mph mark at Daytona in his 2,500-horsepower Blue Bird.

BLUE STREAK…**Sir Malcolm Campbell’s** bid for a land speed record surpassing 300 mph began at Daytona Beach in March 1935 in his Campbell-Railton Blue Bird, powered by a 2,500 hp supercharged Rolls-Royce V-12. He managed to hit 276 mph (combined runs in each direction), but conditions at the beach (bottom photo) left him short of his goal. He found a smoother, longer run at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in September, where he would average 301.337 mph (484.955 km/h) in two passes to set the new record. (floridamemory.com/oldmachinepress.com)

ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH…**Sir Malcolm Campbell** MBE was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water several times. He was also one of the few land speed record holders of his era to die of natural causes. (Wikipedia)

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From Our Advertisers

For ninety bucks you could get this swell pajama suit and matching robe (plus headdress) at Henri Bendel, the perfect ensemble for having a leisurely smoke after a day facing the world…For more than 100 years, Henri Bendel’s flagship and only store was located at 10 West 57th Street…it closed in 2018…

…I doubt the woman in the Bendel ad would have been interested in clothes made with Acele…it was without question that the uppers only wore clothes derived from living things…

…this Anglophilic Peck & Peck ad is notable for its condescending reference to the “mountain folk” in Appalachia who “were born to loom”…

…while we are on the subject, check out this ad for Grace Cruises…this was a common theme in mid-century travel advertising, Westerners dressed in their Sunday best while having a gander at the colorful natives…

…who are just part of the scenery…

…all four of the automobile ads in this issue come from long-gone companies…the luxury carmaker Packard made beautiful, quality cars that outsold Cadillacs up until 1950, but competition from the Big Three (GM, Ford, Chrysler) plus Packard’s decision in 1954 to buy failing Studebaker led to Packard’s demise four years later…

…a more successful merger took place in 1954 between Nash…

…and Hudson, the two forming the new American Motors Corporation…

…contrary to this ad’s tagline, everything was actually going down for Hupmobile, which would go out of business in 1939…

…the makers of College Inn Tomato Juice Cocktail apparently thought an angry old “Duchess” would boost sales…she first appeared in the Feb. 23 issue…

…in the March 16 issue she appears to be psychotic, threatening, “I’ll teach her not to serve PLAIN tomato juice before dinner!” Will she break the glass on the table and lunge at her host (the old WITCH) with a glass shard?…Stay tuned…

…better to calm down and have a Guinness, which, by Jove, was affordable and good for you!…

…New Yorker cartoons are also good for you, and we begin with Al Frueh and this taxing illustration at the bottom of page 4…

…Frueh again, for the theater review section…in the center is Shirley Booth, known to Baby Boomers as the star of the old TV series Hazel (1961-66)…

…Booth was much more than a sitcom star, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting––an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards…

ACTING CHOPS…**Shirley Booth** (1898-1992) as Hazel in 1962; on the cover of the 1935 *Playbill* featuring *Three Men on a Horse.* (Wikipedia)

…we continue with Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein, and a term of endearment from someone well known to the police…

…William Steig took up two pages to give one opera patron the cold shoulder…

…Alan Dunn cautioned against car dealers perched on high hills…

…George Price examined the finer points of salesmanship…

…Helen Hokinson headed for the high seas…

…and we close with an all-time classic from James Thurber…

Next Time: Something Frivolous…

Snapshot of a Dog

Above: A bull terrier in the early 1900s. (Westminster Kennel Club)

For dog lovers, or really for anyone with a heart, James Thurber’s “Snapshot of a Dog” is a moving tribute to a childhood pet, a bull terrier named Rex.

“Snapshot of a Dog” was reprinted almost two decades later in Our Dogs, A Magazine For Dog Lovers, which featured cover stories of various celebrities and their dogs. I recall reading “Snapshot” as a child in an anthology belonging to my parents; it affected me deeply then and still does today. Grab your hankies—here are excerpts from the first and last sections of the story:

FAITHFUL FRIENDS…Clockwise, from left, **James Thurber** with his beloved Christabel; Thurber’s illustration of a childhood pet, a terrier named “Muggs” from the story “The Dog That Bit People” (1933); photograph of the real Muggs; dogs appear in many of Thurber’s cartoons as a stoic presence among maladjusted humans; Thurber at work on one of his dogs in an undated photo. (thurberhouse.org/ohiomemory.org/jamesthurber.org)

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Searching For the American Way

Ninety years ago E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) offered some thoughts on America’s system of government, and the country’s need for a song of hope…

…White also commented on a distasteful development at the old Round Table haunt, the Algonquin Hotel…

MAYBE USE THE BACK DOOR…Entrance to the Hotel Algonquin, early 1930s. (Hotel Algonquin)

…In her column “Tables for Two,” Lois Long took issue with folks who were yapping about couvert charges, and offered a simple solution…

…following Long’s “On and Off the Avenue” column were several restaurant reviews signed “S.H.”…here the writer visited the home of the Reuben sandwich…

KNOWN FOR ITS EPONYMOUS SANDWICH, Reuben’s also offered a Georgie Jessel (sturgeon and Swiss) and an Al Jolson (raw beef). (restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/tag/reubens)

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Getting Their Kicks

Professional football has been played in the UK since the 1870s, and by the early 20th century the sport drew massive crowds (the 1923 FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium drew an estimated 300,000). This excerpt from “London Letter” correspondent Samuel Jeake, Jr. (aka Conrad Aiken) offered a glimpse into the sport in 1935:

DOWN IN FRONT…Spectators in a crush at Highbury ground in London when a huge crowd turned up for the Arsenal versus Tottenham Hotspur match in January 1934. (Photo by A. Hudson/blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk)

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Endurance Test

Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) published a number of novellas as well as plays and stories during his short life, but he only published two novels before his death in 1938 (others would be published posthumously). Wolfe’s second novel, the autobiographical Of Time and the River, would be well received by New Yorker critic Clifton Fadiman. Here is an excerpt from Fadiman’s lengthy review:

KNOCKOUT…**Clifton Fadiman**, right, wrote that **Thomas Wolfe’s** energetic writing could leave one feeling “punch-drunk.” (biblio.com/Wikipedia)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with two pioneers in the cosmetics industry…Dorothy Gray salons set the springtime mood with this advertisement on the inside front cover…

…Dorothy Gray (1886-1968), a.k.a. Dorothy Cloudman, sold her business in 1927 to Lehn & Fink, a New York-based pharmaceutical company best known as the maker of Lysol. In 1929, the company opened a flagship salon and executive offices in the new Dorothy Gray Building at 683 Fifth Avenue…

Dorothy Gray Building at 683 Fifth Avenue (cosmeticsandskin.com)

…Richard Hudnut (1855-1928) began working in his father’s drug store in 1873, and in 1899 opened his own pharmacy on Broadway. Hudnut, who promoted his perfumes and cosmetics by distributing booklets detailing his preparations, sold his company in 1916 to William R. Warner, which eventually became Pfizer…

Hudnut is recognized as the first American to achieve international success in cosmetics manufacturing. Part of that success was Du Barry, a premium perfume he created in 1902. It was used to scent a variety of products.

At left, the narrow Hudnut Building at 693 Fifth Avenue, designed by Ely Jacques Kahn and Eliel Saarinen. The Elizabeth Arden salon was next door. At right, salon treatment room in the Hudnut building.(cosmeticsandskin.com)

…if salon treatments weren’t your thing, you could revive by taking a trip to sunny Southern California…just look what it did for the old Major…

…the makers of Camel cigarettes offered an even quicker and cheaper way to feel invigorated…

…the back cover continued to be dominated by tobacco companies targeting women smokers…this week Chesterfield got in on the act…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with James Thurber at the top of page 2 to kick off “Goings On About Town”…

…and Thurber again, with the ultimate party pooper…

…George Price graced the bottom of “Goings On” on page 4 with this whimsy…

…Helen Hokinson looked in on a children’s concert…

…there was another quarrel among lovers via Peter Arno…

…revolution was in the air at Alan Dunn’s cocktail party…

…George Price again, with two women who found a new perspective atop the Empire State Building…

…and we close with Syd Hoff, and an unexpected bundle of joy…

Next Time: Home Sweet Motohome…

Quite a Month

ABOVE: E.B. White presented us with a mixed bag of February happenings, from the comings and goings of Neily Vanderbilt to the Macon disaster and the economic power of Mickey Mouse.

The title for this entry comes from E.B. White’s “Notes and Comment” column, which kicked off the Feb. 23, 1935, issue with a quick rundown of February events.

February notably marked the end of the Bruno Hauptmann trial. Convicted of the abduction and murder of the infant son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Hauptmann would go to the electric chair on April 3, 1936. White also noted the return of Admiral Richard Byrd from his second Antarctic expedition, the demise of the U.S. Navy airship U.S.S. Macon, and the economic miracle of the Mickey Mouse watch.

FLYING AIRCRAFT CARRIER…The US Navy’s 785-foot rigid airship *USS Macon* could launch and retrieve up to five airplanes in mid-flight. Known as “parasitic fighters, the Sparrowhawks were hung from a rail system inside the airship. On Feb. 12, 1935 the *Macon* crashed in a storm off the coast Point Sur, California. Only two of the 66 crew were lost. Photos above, clockwise from top left, show the deployment of a Sparrowhawk; the USS *Macon* over New York City in 1933; crew pose for a photo in the dirigible’s hanger; photo from the wreckage discovered in 2006—the pre-1941 pattern U.S. roundel emblem still recognizable. Sky-hook also visible. (sanctuaries.noaa.gov/macon/Sunnyvale Historical Society)

TIME WAS RUNNING OUT for the Ingersoll Waterbury Company (now known as Timex) during the Great Depression. It was saved from bankruptcy, in part, by the introduction of the Mickey Mouse watch. (connecticuthistory.org)

White also made note of the comings and goings of Cornelius “Neily” Vanderbilt III (1873–1942), who was saying farewell to Fifth Avenue (although he would return to live out his life there), while New Yorkers were apparently saying farewell to the Park Avenue Tunnel (aka Murray Hill Tunnel). After more than 190 years it is still there, now serving a single lane of northbound traffic from 33rd to 40th Street.

TUNNEL VISION…Park Avenue Tunnel in 1890 (top) and in 2013 during a Voice Tunnel art installation. The nearly two-century old tunnel was made open to pedestrians for the first time in coordination with the annual Summer Streets event which began in 2013. (viewing.nyc/Wikipedia)

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Getting An Earful

Howard Brubaker, in his column “Of All Things,” made this observation of deepening repression taking place in Nazi Germany…

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Try Our Knockout Cheesecake

Lois Long continued her chronicle of New York night life, in this excerpt making note of the celebrity gawkers at Jack Dempsey’s tavern/restaurant near Madison Square Garden. Apparently Dempsey’s place was renown for its cheesecake…

PLEASED AS PUNCH…Heavyweight boxing champ **Jack Dempsey** opened his restaurant at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue in 1935 (bottom photo) before moving to Broadway’s Brill Building in 1937 (top). According to Ephemeral New York, “In the restaurant’s early years, Dempsey was known to hold court at a table, a legendary figure greeting customers and glad-handling guests.” (Ephemeral New York)

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From Our Advertisers

The refurbished Earl Carroll Theatre (7th Ave. and 50th St.) opened as the French Casino late in 1934. The art deco theatre’s first show was the Revue Folies Bergères, promoted here in this small ad on page 54 in the Feb. 23 issue…

…the menu’s cover suggests patrons weren’t there for the cheesecake (yes, there is a pun, but I’m not touching it)…

…another ad in the back pages touted the “Post-Depression Gaities” at the New Amsterdam Theatre with an impressive roster of stars including New Yorker notables Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott…

…following Prohibition, Seagram introduced two blended whiskies—5 Crown and 7 Crown. Seagram 5 Crown was discontinued in 1942, while Seagram 7 would go to become the first million case brand in U.S. history…

…this one-column ad caught my eye for the rendering of the stereotypic ill-tempered matron, here having a fit over tomato juice…

…coming from an old and influential New York family, it’s hard to believe Elizabeth West Post Van Rensselaer thought about Campbell’s soup when her daughter, Elizabeth, fell seriously ill…at any rate, something must have worked because her daughter lived until 2001…

…For a time “Chief Pontiac” served as a logo for the Pontiac line of automobiles, discontinued by GM in 2010…

…many automobile advertisements of this era emphasized safety, none more prominent than the “Body by Fisher” ads that frequently featured happy little children…oddly, no one had yet considered seat belts, car seats or other safety measures we now take for granted…

…the makers of Old Gold cigarettes (Lorillard) ran a series of ads featuring a sugar daddy and his leggy mistress…they were drawn by George Petty (1884–1975), famed for his “pin-up girls”…as an added bonus below the ad, you could renew your New Yorker subscription—two years for seven bucks…

…the makers of Camels kept it classy with their continuing series of society women enjoying their unfiltered “Turkish & Domestic” blend…

…the “young matron” in the ad, the Sydney, Australia-born Joan (Deery) Wetmore (1911-1989), was indeed “much-photographed,” and was a favorite of Vogue photographer Edward Steichen:

Detail from a Steichen photo of **Joan Wetmore,** taken in Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, 1934. (Condé Nast)

…on to our cartoonists, Al Frueh illustrated Humphrey Bogart as the coldblooded killer Duke Mantee in the 1935 play The Petrified Forest; the 1936 film adaptation would be Bogart’s breakout role in the movies…

…Helen Hokinson went shopping for drapes…

…George Price was all tied in knots…

…and still up in the air…

…Barbara Shermund dreamed of Venice…

…James Thurber gave us the life of the party…

…and we close with Leonard Dove, and some unexpected party life…

Next Time: The Mouse Roars, In Color…

A Decade of Delights

With this post (No. 413), we mark the tenth anniversary of The New Yorker. Since I began A New Yorker State of Mind in March 2015, I’ve attempted to give you at least a sense of what the magazine was like in those first years, as well as the historical events that often informed its editorial content as well as its famed cartoons. Those times also informed the advertisements; indeed, in some cases the ads give us a better idea of who was reading the magazine, as well as their changing tastes and buying power as we moved from the Roaring Twenties to the Depression, and from Prohibition into Repeal.

I have also chosen this time to go on hiatus, and hopefully resume this blog when The New Yorker celebrates its centennial next February (this site will remain active and available, and I will continue to monitor comments and messages). Let us hope that the editors use the original Rea Irvin cover for that occasion, and restore his masthead above “The Talk of the Town” section. Perhaps some enterprising soul could start a petition.

Moving on to the tenth anniversary issue, we find E.B. White recalling the world of The New Yorker’s first days. Given the massive economic and societal shifts that occurred from 1925 to 1935, those first days seemed distant to White, who felt old, “not in years but events.”

DAYS OF YORE…**E.B. White** noted the many changes that had taken place during *The New Yorker’s* first ten years, including, clockwise from top left, the passing of 1920s notables such as **President Calvin Coolidge** and two very different theatre impresarios—**David Belasco** and Flo Ziegfeld; White also recalled the much-publicized 1925 wedding of **Abby Rockefeller** to **David Milton,** the throngs of women who took to smoking in public in the 1920s and the drinkers who took their activities behind closed doors; and one of the early magazine’s beloved contributors, **Ralph Barton,** who offered his whimsical take on the news in “The Graphic Section” as well as in other illustrated features. (Wikipedia/Wikitree/Ephemeral New York)

White also noted a new craze that had originated around the same time as the birth of The New Yorker…

TWO ACROSS…**Max Schuster** and Richard Simon of Simon & Schuster, with their first crossword book, 1924. (americanbusinesshistory.org)

White concluded with these parting words, tinged with world-weariness, writing “More seems likely to happen.” One wonders if he imagined The New Yorker at 100, which in our day is just around the corner. Like White, many us have grown weary of this angry world, where indeed more seems likely to happen. Let us hope it is for the best.

Now, some unfinished business. We need to look at the previous issue, Feb. 9, 1935, before we close out the decade.

Feb. 9, 1935 cover by **William Cotton.**

We stay on the lighter side, joining critic John Mosher at the local cinema to appreciate Leslie Howard’s dashing performance in The Scarlet Pimpernel…

WORKING OVERTIME…**Leslie Howard** and **Merle Oberon** in *The Scarlet Pimpernel.* Howard portrayed an aristocrat who leads a double life, publicly appearing as a dandy while secretly rescuing French nobles from Robespierre’s Reign of Terror. (PBS)

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From Our Advertisers

Cigarette manufacturers employed every angle from sex to health claims to move their product…not to be left out of any niche market, Chesterfield even went after the little old ladies…

…by contrast, the makers of Old Gold cigarettes featured a clueless sugar daddy and his leggy mistress in a series of ads drawn by famed pin-up artist George Petty…

…Otto Soglow would do well with advertisers during his career, promoting everything from whiskey to Pepsi and Shredded Wheat to department stores…in this case Bloomingdale’s…after William Randolph Hearst’s King Features Syndicate wrested The Little King away from The New Yorker in September 1934, this was the only way you would see the harmless potentate in the magazine…

…another New Yorker artist earning some ad dollars on the side was Constantin Alajalov, here adding a stylish flair for Coty…

…and then there’s James Thurber, who continued to contribute his talents on behalf of the Theatre Guild…

…and we move along to the Feb. 9 cartoons, with Thurber again…

…the issue also featured two by George Price…

…and Howard Baer supplied some life to this little party…

…now let’s return to the Feb. 15, 1935 issue…

…where John Mosher was back at the cinema, this time enjoying the story of a “beautiful stenographer”…

POPCORNY…**Fred MacMurray** and **Claudette Colbert** meet cute over popcorn in the romantic comedy *The Gilded Lily.* It was MacMurray’s second credited screen role, and it was the first of seven films in which Colbert and MacMurray would star together. (Wikipedia)

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More From Our Advertisers

In its bid for survival during the Depression, the luxury brand Packard introduced its first car under $1000, the 120. Sales more than tripled in 1935 and doubled again in 1936…

…meanwhile, Hudson was hanging in there with innovations such as the “Electric Hand”…it was not a true automatic transmission, but it did allow drivers to shift gears near the steering wheel…

…as demonstrated here…

…whatever you were driving, Goodyear claimed it would keep you the safest with their “Double Eagles”…

…I include this ad for Taylor Instruments because it features an illustration by Ervine Metzl, who would become known for his posters and postage stamp designs…

…Metzl’s design of a three-cent stamp commemorating the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with this Deco-inspired artwork by an unidentified illustrator…

…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” was going about her daily rounds…

…Garrett Price gave us a gatekeeper not quite up to his task…

…Gilbert Bundy was seeing stripes rather than stars…

…while James Thurber’s medium was getting in touch with an equine spirit…

…scientific inquiry knew no bounds in Robert Day’s world….

…and in the world of Alain (aka Daniel Brustlein), old habits died hard…

…and we close with Peter Arno, at his risqué best…

Thanks for reading The New Yorker State of Mind!

Legitimate Nonchalance

Above: W.C. Fields was a well-known juggler and vaudeville performer decades before he became even more famous in the movies of the 1930s.

William Claude Dukenfield was a vaudeville juggler who distinguished himself from other “tramp acts” by adding sarcastic asides to his routines. Internationally known for his juggling skills, by the turn of the century the man who billed himself as “The Eccentric Juggler” would become much better known by another name: W.C. Fields.

In the first of a three-part profile, Alva Johnston pondered the secret behind Fields’ genius, an “inborn nonchalance” that he considered “the rarest of gifts.” Johnston surmised that some of that genius derived from the volatile relationship Fields had with his father, and the street-smarts he gained as a runaway at age eleven. It is no surprise, however, that these childhood stories of hardship were significantly embellished by the great wit himself.

A STAR IS FORMED…Clockwise, from top left, **W.C. Fields** in his youth; Fields was an internationally known juggler, seen here in his vaudeville days in the early 1900s; Fields made his screen debut in 1915, seen here in his second film, *Pool Sharks* (1915); Fields with **Carol Dempster** in Sally of the Sawdust, a 1925 silent comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith. (Pinterest/YouTube)

Johnston also described Fields’ acting style and demeanor, noting that the actor’s asides were likely inspired by his mother, Kate Spangler Felton, who was known for her doorstep witticisms.

NINETEEN THIRTY-FIVE WAS A GOOD YEAR for W.C. Fields, who starred in *It’s a Gift* (right), released the previous December, and in the 1935 screen adaptation of **Charles Dickens’s** *David Copperfield*, as the character Wilkins Micawber. (MGM/IMDB)

* * *

Macabre Diversions

In the days before television and the internet, folks got their dose of the sensational and macabre from the tabloids, or, on occasion, in real life. Before crime or accident scene investigations became more sophisticated, it was not uncommon for crowds to mob grisly death scenes, including the car containing the bullet-riddled bodies of notorious bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Their Ford automobile, pocked with 112 bullet holes, became a popular traveling attraction at fairs, amusement parks, and, in February 1935, at a car dealer’s showroom in Missouri. E.B. White explained:

BEFORE THE INTERNET, folks got their ghoulish thrills by rubbernecking at famous crime scenes. At left, a crowd gathers around the bullet-riddled car belonging to Bonnie and Clyde. According to one account, at the scene of the police ambush on Louisiana State Highway 154, nearly everyone collected souvenirs including shell casings and bloody pieces of clothing from Bonnie and Clyde. One man even tried to collect Clyde’s left ear with a pocket knife; at right, unidentified man standing next to the “death car.” (KXAN/unt.edu)

* * *

Saar Kraut

Janet Flanner mused on the recent plebiscite in the Saarland, which following World War I was seized from Germany and placed under the governance of a League of Nations commission. Much to the dismay of the French, the majority German population voted to return the Saar region to Germany, and its Nazi leadership.

* * *

Over the Rainbow

In a previous column, Lois Long took aim at the Rockefeller Center’s new Rainbow Room, dismissing it as a tourist trap filled with interminable strains of organ music. In her latest column, Long retracted some of that vitriol, finding the entertainment (and, one supposes, the food) more to her liking.

THE ‘INCORRIGIBLE’ **Beatrice Lillie** (left) delighted Lois Long and audiences in the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center; at right, ballroom dancers **Lydia** and **Joresco** take to the floor in the then newly opened Rainbow Room, 1934. (Pinterest/#rainbowroomnyc)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

As Lois Long mentioned in “Tables for Two,” British actress and singer Beatrice Lillie was appearing at in the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center; according to the ad below, also featured were ballroom dancers Lydia and Joresco and bandleader Jolly Corburn…

…at first I though this was Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne shilling for Luckies, but the resemblance isn’t quite there, plus I’m not aware of the Broadway legends ever endorsing any product, let alone cigarettes…

…the folks at Hormel continued to feature notable Frenchmen who were known to enjoy French onion soup, although this particular image doesn’t do much for one’s appetite…

…the Bermuda Trade Development Board continued to feature colorful ads that enticed New Yorkers away from the late winter blahs…

…this ad for Schaefer is a bit odd…I guess the artist wanted to suggest a handbill, and therefore tilted the image it at an angle, unsuccessfully, one might add…

…The Theatre Guild once again called upon the talents of James Thurber to advertise their latest production…

…which segues into our cartoons, with Thurber once more…

…Al Frueh did his part to promote the stage with this illustration for the theatre section…

…Otto Soglow offered his spin on pairs figure skating…

…Gardner Rea explored the world of art appreciation…

…Helen Hokinson aptly supplied this cartoon for Lois Long’s fashion column…

…Whitney Darrow Jr. showed us the consequences of classified advertising…

…Barbara Shermund clued us in on the latest gossip…

…and we close with Peter Arno, and one butcher’s cold greeting…

Next Time: A Decade of Delights…

It’s a Gift

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

By Another Name

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

* * *

Hot Rods

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

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

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

* * *

From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Time: Everything’s Jake…

Farewell to 1934

Above: Ringing in the New Year at Times Square, 1934.

We bid adieu to 1934 with some odds and ends, beginning with E.B. White’s observations for the upcoming year, which if anyone had noticed the uptick in Ascot tie purchases, just might be a bit rosier than previous years of the decade.

Dec. 29, 1934 cover by **S. Liam Dunn.**

White was also hopeful for a new year with a less dreadful press, particularly the pandering type promulgated by William Randolph Hearst.

GOOD RIDDANCE…**E.B. White** wryly noted the positive signs heading into 1935. While actresses **Billie Seward** and Lucille Ball rang in the New Year, **Erroll Flynn** was sporting an ascot tie and **Henry Ford** was proclaiming that the Depression was over. (Pinterest)

* * *

Dr. Peeper

“The Talk of the Town” noted that Dr. Allan Dafoe, the country doctor who gained fame for delivering the Dionne Quintuplets, expressed a desire to see Sally Rand perform her bubble dance during his visit to Gotham. “Talk” also looked in on the some of the technical aspects of the burlesque dancer’s signature act:

DON’T BURST MY BUBBLE…**Dr. Allan Dafoe** of Dionne Quintuplet fame looked forward to taking in the sights of New York, including **Sally Rand’s** famed bubble dance. (Image from the 1936 book *The Country Doctor*/Sally Rand via stuffnobodycaresabout.com)

* * *

Leading Ladies

Film Critic John Mosher noted the continued rise of two leading female stars, twenty-seven-year-old Katharine Hepburn and six-year-old Shirley Temple. Mosher recalled Hepburn’s recent performance in Little Women, and proclaimed that she “succeeds again” in The Little Minister.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS...Katharine Hepburn and **John Beal** in The Little Minister. Hepburn portrayed Babbie, a member of the nobility who disguises herself as a gypsy to protect villagers from a tyrannical lord. In the process she falls in love with the good Rev. Gavin Dishart (Beal). (IMDB)

Although Mosher admitted he was a “disagreeable adult” who doesn’t enjoy seeing children on the screen “more than necessary,” he acknowledged Shirley Temple’s talents as well as those of child actor Jane Withers in Bright Eyes.

BRIGHT EYES, BRIGHT STARS…**Jane Withers, Shirley Temple,** and Terry in *Bright Eyes.* (IMDB)

* * *

That Youthful Feeling

Given that William Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers en the play was revived by actress Katharine Cornell and her director husband Guthrie McClintic, who took the play on a seven-month nationwide tour before it was revised and opened on Broadway in December 1934. Critics dubbed the 41-year-old Cornell “the greatest Juliet of her time,” and it seems Robert Benchley heartily agreed in this excerpt from his stage review:

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER…The 41-year-old **Katharine Cornell** and 42-year-old **Basil Rathbone** in a promotional photo for *Romeo and Juliet*. Cornell was the first performer to receive the Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award, which became the oldest and most exclusive theatrical honor in North America. (Vandamm photo, Museum of the City of New York)

* * *

The New Yorkiest Place

In 1930 gossip columnist Walter Winchell called the new Stork Club “New York’s New Yorkiest place on W. 58th,” and when it relocated to 3 East 53rd Street in 1934 it further defined itself as the ultimate New York night club. In her “Tables for Two” column, Lois Long found the new location much to her liking. An excerpt:

THE STORK DELIVERS…The Stork Club truly became the New Yorkiest nightclub when it relocated to 3 East 53rd Street in 1934. Clockwise, from top left: the club entrance in the 1930s; **Cary Grant** was one of the many celebrities who favored the nightclub, circa 1935; a 1930’s club menu; **Lita Grey**, the former teen bride of actor **Charlie Chaplin**, was a featured singer at the club during Lois Long’s visit. (Gibbes Museum of Art/Pinterest/vintagemenuart.com/IMDB)

* * *

So Long?

Clarence Day, best known for his Life with Father stories, also contributed a number of cartoons to the magazine, accompanied by satirical poems and humorous shorts. Day would die at the tender age of 61—after a bout with pneumonia—in December 1935, about a year after this cartoon was published in The New Yorker. I assume he was signing off from the magazine in order to arrange publication of his Life with Father book, which was published shortly after his death.

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Sunny California beckoned those who had the means and leisure to head to warmer climes during the New York winter…

…for those who stayed behind, they could wrap themselves in a chic winter coat such as this one sported by Camel endorser Mrs. Langdon Post (Janet Kirby)…

…another colorful ad with a not-so-colorful message from World Peaceways, a 1930s anti-war organization that characterized soldiers (and future soldiers, seen here) as pawns in the corrupt games of the rich and powerful…

…the distributors of French champagne rang in the New Year by suggesting that Doyen was worth your very last cent…

…we kick off our cartoons by welcoming the New Year with George Price…

…Robert Day contributed a spot drawing that offered a new twist to ice hockey…

…I should know this artist, but it escapes me for the moment…nevertheless, a great illustration to stretch across the bottom of an opening page…

…a closeup of the signature…

…another from George Price, still up in the air in the final issue of 1934…

…Garner Rea introduced us to the life of the party…

…”Miss Otis Regrets” is a 1934 Cole Porter song about the lynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover. Porter wrote the song as a parody of a sad cowboy song he heard on the radio. The song was further workshopped for fun at “smart set” cocktail parties…on to our next cartoon, and a moment of keen insight from James Thurber…

…Garrett Price went on the town with some students of anatomy…

…and we say Happy New Year with the help of Helen Hokinson…

Next Time: Easy Riders…

The Age of Giants

Otto Klemperer rehearsing at the Hollywood Bowl in September 1937. (Los Angeles Philharmonic)

The 20th century was an age of big personalities in classical music, among them Otto Klemperer (1885-1973), a German-born protégé of the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler. Klemperer was already an established conductor in opera houses around Germany when the rise of the Nazis prompted the maestro to emigrate with his family in 1933. He was soon appointed chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Klemperer also guest conducted a number of orchestras in the U.S., including the New York Philharmonic, where his larger than life presence caught the attention of “The Talk of the Town.” Excerpts:

MAESTRO…Top left, **Otto Klemperer** with Czech composer **Leoš Janáček** in 1927; at right, with Austrian-American classical pianist and composer Artur Schnabel in 1933; bottom photo, with wife **Johanna Geisler,** son **Werner** and daughter Lotte in Los Angeles, 1936. (operaplus.cz/Otto Klemperer Film Foundation/ottoklemperer.nl)

Lauded internationally as a great orchestral commander, in 1939 Klemperer would begin experiencing balance issues. After a tumor the size of a small orange was removed from his brain, he would be left partially paralyzed on his right side; bouts of depression and a manic phase would later land him in a mental hospital. However, by 1946 he would recover his health enough to return to conducting in a career that would last until 1971.

The conductor’s daughter, Lotte Klemperer (1923–2003), would serve as her father’s secretary, negotiator and administrator until his death in 1973. Otto’s son, Werner Klemperer (1920–2000), would become a stage, screen and television actor, most notably portraying Colonel Klink in the 1960s comedy Hogan’s Heroes. Although the role would garner Werner two Emmys, his father never fully understood the series or even the concept of a sitcom. Reluctant to pursue a musical career while his father was alive, Werner would later join the Metropolitan Opera Company in the 1970s, appear in Broadway musicals, and serve as a narrator with a number of American symphony orchestras.

TO THEM HE WAS DAD…At left, daughter **Lotte Klemperer** with her famous father in 1954. She would serve as his caretaker and business partner after her mother’s death in 1956. At right, son **Werner Klemperer** acted on Broadway and in films before taking on the role of the bumbling Colonel Klink in the 1960s comedy *Hogan’s Heroes,* which garnered the actor two Emmys. Although Werner Klemperer was musically inclined, he avoided work in music until the death of his father in 1973. (Otto Klemperer Film Foundation/CBS)

* * *

Vanished in the Haze

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White lamented what appeared to be the transformation of the familiar night club; high above Manhattan in the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, the comforting haze of “cigarette smoke, talc, waiter’s venom” had been displaced by air conditioning, and to add to the horror, an organ had been installed that tinged the fox trot “with an odd piety.”

NOWHERE TO HIDE…**E.B. White** found the lack of haze in the new Rainbow Room disconcerting, not to mention the addition of a Wurlitzer organ, its wonders demonstrated here by organist **Ray Bohr** in 1934. (Library of Congress/nycago.org)

* * *

There Oughta Be a Law

While E.B. White was mourning the demise of the smoky nightclub, art and design critic Lewis Mumford continued his tirade against the pretentious and mediocre buildings that were popping up all over the city, including the new Federal Court Building on Centre Street that was, in Mumford’s words, a supreme example of bad design and fake grandeur.

Cass Gilbert's The Federal Courthouse building (United States courthouse) in 1936 (the year of its completion). Located at 40 Centre Street (Foley Square), Manhattan, New York City. In 2001, it was designated as the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse.Source: Wurts Brothers Photography Collection at the National Building Museum. — A CRIMINAL CASE…**Cass Gilbert’s** Federal Courthouse building (United States courthouse) was completed in 1936, two years after Gilbert’s death. In 2001 it was designated as the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. Critic **Lewis Mumford** called the design, which combined “two unlovely and unrelated forms”…”nothing short of a major crime.” (Wurts Brothers Photography Collection, National Building Museum)

* * *

Crime of the Century

That is what the press called the kidnap and murder of the infant son of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow. In September 1934 a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for the crime, and a trial date was set for the following January. In his “A Reporter at Large” column, Morris Markey examined the ransom money trail that led to Hauptmann’s ultimate arrest. Excerpts:

DON’T SAY “CHEESE”…**Bruno Hauptmann** sits for a mug shot following his arrest for the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of **Charles Lindbergh** and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)

* * *

Should Have Stayed Lost

A film version of Willa Cather’s 1923 novel A Lost Lady was first made as a silent by Warner Brothers in 1924 (the film itself is lost) but in 1934 Warner had another go at the novel with a sound version starring starring Barbara Stanwyck, who was emerging as a major star. But Stanwyck’s talents could not overcome a script that critic John Mosher described as bleak, blank nonsense. Cather was so dismayed by the film that she refused to permit another adaptation of any of her novels during her lifetime.

LOST IN TRANSLATION…**Barbara Stanwyck** and **Ricardo Cortez** in *A Lost Lady* (1934). (IMDB)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We kick off our sponsors with this two-page center spread from Hiram Walker & Sons, who introduced their new line of playing card-inspired whiskies…

…the New Yorker’s Janet Flanner wrote in 1938 that Elsie de Wolfe invented interior design as a profession, so who was to argue with de Wolfe’s suggestion that the leisure class should linger in bed with the aid of a Wamsutta bed-rest…the small print beneath the logo indicated that the bed-rest was “hair-filled,” which I assume was horse hair, still used today in some luxury brands…

…if de Wolfe was queen of interior designers, then Hattie Carnegie was the “First Lady of Fashion,” or so this ad claimed…

…here are images of the two titans of fashion and good taste…

TASTEMAKERS…At left, **Hattie Carnegie** aka Henrietta Kanengeiser (1880-1956), and **Elsie de Wolfe**, aka Lady Mendl (1859–1950). (americacomesalive.com/bureauofinteriors.com)

…and speaking of fashion, here is a llama cloth coat from B. Altman, trimmed in silver raccoon, suitable for Yale football games…based on inflation, that coat today would set you back at least $2,000…

…this condescending ad offered merchants a way to reach the “hitherto strange and aloof women of New York” through daytime advertising…

…Plymouth enlisted the talents of Alan Dunn to tout their car’s ride and durability…

…and on to our cartoonists, another from Dunn, a bit of spot art featuring a not so subtle commentary on Lawrence Lee Bazley Angas’s book The Coming American Boom…

…and some spot art from Isadore Klein…

…Miguel Covarrubias contributed to the theater review section…

…James Thurber entertained a house guest…

…George Price was still up in the air…

…Helen Hokinson took a spin with a celebrity look-alike…

…and Barbara Shermund offered another glimpse into the life of a modern woman…

…on to Oct. 20, 1934…

Oct. 20, 1934 cover by **Helen Hokinson.**

…in which E.B. White offered up a new lament, namely the pervasiveness of nostalgia and sentiment in contemporary literature…

HARKING BACK TO THOSE DAYS OF YORE…**E.B. White** simply had no stomach for the nostalgic stylings of Mary Ellen Chase (left) or **Henry Seidel Canby**, seen here on the cover of the May 19, 1924 issue of *Time.* (U of Maine/Time Inc)

* * *

Fifty Years Young

“The Talk of the Town” marked the Dakota’s 50th year at Central Park West, and made note of its loyal and prominent clientele…back in the day it served as a residence for actors such as Lillian Gish, Boris Karloff, and Teresa Wright, and in later years such luminaries as Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Rudolf Nureyev, and, of course, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

THE STORIES IT COULD TELL…At left, the facade and main entrance of the Dakota in the 1960s; at right, inside the main entrance. (Pinterest/Wikipedia)

* * *

More From Our Advertisers

The Matson-Oceanic Line offered a “millionaire’s idea of a vacation” at an affordable price, and offered this sumptuous image as proof…

…E.B. White wasn’t crazy about the smokeless dazzle of the Rainbow Room, but it proved to be popular among the city’s elite…

…in case one was concerned about the provenance of one’s mink coat, Saks posted this helpful ad. Their high-end, natural-skin minks were priced at $8,000 (roughly $180,000 today); there was, however, a caveat regarding the cheaper models…

…Bergdorf Goodman offered up another ad featuring an impossibly attenuated model posed with a cigarette, her defiant gaze suggesting her modernity and individualism…

…Plymouth went back to the stable of New Yorker cartoonists, this time featuring the adventures of Helen Hokinson’s “girls”…

…and we segue to the rest of our cartoonists, including this spot by Constantin Alajalov…

…and this by George Price…

…who also gave us another update on the trials and tribulations of his floating man…

… James Thurber occasionally ignored scale in rendering his characters, which didn’t really matter in his strange world…

…Jack Markow had some bad news for two sign painters (the caption size is increased for readability)…

…and we close with Peter Arno, and the winner of most original Halloween costume…

…and before I go…this is being posted on Halloween, 2023, so here are a few images from 1934 to get you in the spirit, including a Saturday Evening Post cover, a 1934 party ideas magazine, and a page from Popular Mechanics featuring a smoking robot costume you could make yourself…in the 1930s, Popular Mechanics often featured Halloween party ideas that were downright lethal, usually involving electric shocks, pistols loaded with blanks, that sort of thing.

Happy Halloween!

Next Time: House & Home…

Lunch at the Dog Wagon

If you think today’s food trailers are the result of some hipster craze, consider that their origins go back more than a century; by 1934 Manhattan was home to 300 of the country’s 5,000 “lunch wagons,” which were commonly called “dog wagons.”

September 8, 1934 cover by Ilonka Karasz.

Some of Manhattan’s dog wagons belied the moniker, however, resembling the sleek roadside diners over which many today wax nostalgic. Jerry O’Mahony Diner Company of Elizabeth, New Jersey, produced more of these dining cars than any other concern—2,000 of them between 1917 and 1952 (only about twenty remain today). “The Talk of the Town” had this to say about the dog wagon phenomenon. Excerpts:

PROMISE OF BIG BUCKS…Tierney, based in New Rochelle and established in 1895, was an early manufacturer of lunch wagons and dining cars. It went out of business in 1933. Above, detail from a Tierney Diner Car Advertisement from the late 1920s. (scalar.usc.edu)

LUNCH ON THE RUN…Clockwise, from top left, early “dog wagons” were horse-drawn affairs; the wagons became semi-stationary with the advent of manufactured units designed to resemble old railroad dining cars; bottom photos show interiors of two O’Mahony diners. (restaurantingthroughhistory.com/americanbusinesshistory.org/dinerhunter.com)

ALL IN A NAME…Above: The Jerry O’Mahony Diner Company produced 2,000 diners in its Elizabeth, New Jersey, factory. Below, an O’Mahoney dining car headed for its new home in Kansas—the O’Mahony company preferred that patrons give their dining cars elite names, such as this “Palace Diner.” (dinerhunter.com/nyfta.org)

LAST CALL…One of the few surviving O’Mahony diners—The Summit Diner in Summit, New Jersey. A prototypical “rail car” style diner, it was built by the O’Mahony Company in 1938. (Jeff Boyce/Wikimedia Commons)

* * *

A Captain’s Curios

“The Talk of the Town” also paid a visit to Captain Charley’s Private Museum for Intelligent People, a place that would later be visited (and written about) by The New Yorker’s chronicler of the commonplace, Joseph Mitchell. Excerpts:

MURKY MUSEUM…This is likely the red brick building on 127th Street where the old mariner **Captain Charley** held court in the basement with his Private Museum for Intelligent People. (Google Street View)

* * *

Origins of Life

Wolcott Gibbs took his turn as theater reviewer (in relief of Robert Benchley) and managed to sit through Life Begins at 8:40, which had a successful run at the Winter Garden.

GIVING IT A REST…**Roy Bolger, Luella Gear, Frances Williams** and **Bert Lahr** headed the cast of Life Begins at 8:40 at the Winter Garden. Critic **Wolcott Gibbs** appreciated Lahr’s change in tempo, as he was becoming a more “restful” comedian. Lahr was the father of *New Yorker* theater critic and writer **John Lahr.** (Library of Congress)

In contrast to Bert Lahr’s new toned-down style, Milton Berle’s outlandish antics over at the Imperial Theatre had Gibbs wondering what the comedian’s vaudeville-style show Saluta was all about, if it was about anything. Whatever it was, it worked—Berle would enjoy a comedy career spanning eight decades, including becoming one of early television’s biggest stars.

ON FIRE…**Milton Berle’s** show *Saluta* featured **Chaz Chase** (right), famed for gobbling up whatever was placed in front of his mouth, including a box of lit matches. At left, Berle in 1930; right, Chase in the 1935 film Vaudeville. (Pinterest/IMDB)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with a cold one from Rheingold, which had “beverage balance” and wasn’t afraid to stamp a slogan right over its ad copy…

…Lucky Strike gave us another stylish reason for taking up a bad habit…

…Arts & Decoration magazine took out this full page to tout the latest news in modern design…

…while the folks at Packard bought this center spread to give ample space to their 1935 model, which must have been a helluva thing to parallel park…

…clothing companies continued use class shaming to goad aspiring toffs to purchase the “correct” attire for school…

…with the help of Gardner Rea, Heinz suggested that the upper orders would simply swoon over cuisine you managed to scoop out of a can…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with spots by James Thurber…

…and Lloyd Coe…

…with the absence of Otto Soglow’s Little King, Gluyas Williams did his best to fill the void of a full page, something Williams did quite nicely…