James Thurber – Page 3 – A New Yorker State of Mind

Vive La Normandie

Above: At left, Adolphe Cassandre's famed 1935 depiction of the S.S. Normandie; right, image from a 1935 promotional booklet published by the French Line.

When the S.S. Normandie entered service in 1935, she was the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a little over four days. The ship was so impressive that even the imperturbable Janet Flanner expressed enthusiasm over its launch.

May 25, 1935 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

As Paris correspondent, Flanner was giving New Yorker readers a preview of Normandie‘s May 29 maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York City.

HER ENTOURAGE…The S.S. *Normandie* was welcomed into New York Harbor on June 3, 1935. (Wikipedia)

IMAGINE THAT…An S.S. *Normandie* promotional poster from 1935 depicts the ocean liner making an unlikely entrance into Manhattan. The sleek ship measured 1,029 feet (313.6m) in length and carried nearly 2,000 passengers plus 1,345 crew. It was the first ocean liner to exceed 1,000 feet in length. (Museum of the City of New York–MCNY)

To give New Yorkers some idea of the liner’s size, Flanner noted that the Normandie would stretch from 43rd to 47th Street, and if stood on her stern, would stand nearly 180 feet above the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center.

FRENCH TOAST…Top, a crowd cheers the S.S. *Normandie* as it arrives at New York’s Pier 88 on June 3, 1935; below, the first class dining hall was 305 feet long, 46 feet wide and three decks high. (drivingfordeco.com/MCNY)

IN, AND ON THE WATER…Passengers take a plunge in the Normandie’s swimming pool, which included a bar at the far end. (MCNY)

EYE-POPPING…Colorized image of the first-class lounge. (Pinterest)

BARGAIN…Accommodations for weren’t too bad, either, for the other classes. Here is the 3rd class salon. (drivingfordeco.com)

TAKE YOUR PICK…Clockwise from top left, elevators decorated in sea shells; the rear of the Grand Salon; a first class suite; view of the swimming pool. An incredible scale model of the S.S. *Normandie* is displayed on the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked at Long Beach, CA. (MCNY)

World War II would cut short the Normandie’s life. Seized in New York and renamed USS Lafayette in 1942, she was being converted to a troopship when she caught fire, capsized onto the port side, and came to rest half submerged on the bottom of the Hudson at Pier 88, the same pier where she was welcomed in 1935. She was scrapped in 1946.

THE WAGES OF STUPIDITY…The *Normandie* after a fire brought her glory days to an end. (Reddit)

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A Critic Is Born

It turns out that Wolcott Gibbs (1902–1958) cut his teeth as The New Yorker’s theatre critic while he was still in short pants. Gibbs recalled his five-year-old self in an essay that described his first experience with the theatre—a play based on the New York Herald’s popular comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, by Winsor McCay. In parallel with Gibbs’ childhood, the strip ran from 1905 to 1911.

As a child, Gibbs was wild about Little Nemo’s adventures, but the stage adaptation left the child disillusioned (and feeling “tricked and furious”). The New York Public Library’s Douglas Reside wrote (in 2015) that the producers, seeking to draw as wide an audience as possible, presented Little Nemo “as a bloated mixture of theatrical styles, including the minstrel show, pantomime, operetta, farce-comedy, vaudeville, revue, and ballet,” featuring three comedians “mostly superfluous to Nemo’s story.” The part of Nemo was played by a 25-year-old actor with dwarfism.

DREAMLAND…The *Little Nemo* strip from Dec. 17, 1905 depicted the boy’s dream of a visit to Santa’s magical city at the North Pole. (Wikipedia)

THAT’S SHOWBIZ…As a boy, **Wolcott Gibbs** (left) was disillusioned by a 1907 theatre adaptation of his favorite comic strip, *Little Nemo in Slumberland.* The play was dominated by three comedians including **Joseph Cawthorn**, right, who burlesqued German linguistic and cultural mannerisms for comic effect. He played Dr. Pill, the quack doctor of Slumberland’s royal court. The “boy” in the bed portraying Nemo was 25-year-old “Master” Gabriel Weigel. (Wikipedia/New York Public Library)

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Humorous Humors

Clarence Day, best known for his Life with Father stories, wrote humorously about his physical ailments and contributed a number of cartoons to The New Yorker that were accompanied by satirical poems. Day would be dead by December—after a bout with pneumonia—however, despite his ailments he would spend his last months arranging publication of his Life with Father book, which was published posthumously.

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Frankie Got Hitched

Film critic John Mosher still wasn’t finding much to rave about at the cinema, getting more chuckles from the monster mash-up of Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein than he did from the Dolores Del Rio vehicle Caliente.

DATE NIGHT…Top, **Elsa Lanchester** and Boris Karloff let the sparks fly in The Bride of Frankenstein, while **Dolores Del Rio** danced and chatted her way through the unfunny musical comedy *Caliente.* (Wikipedia/TCM)

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Other features in the May 25 issue included H. L. Mencken’s continuing exploration into the origins of American names…

…and The New Yorker published its first John Cheever story, “Brooklyn Rooming House.” Of Cheever’s 180 short stories, the magazine would publish 121 of them.

A NEW FACE…In spring 1935 *The New Yorker* bought two **John Cheever stories**, paying $90 for “The Brooklyn Rooming House” and $45 for “Buffalo.” Fiction editor **Katharine White** urged the purchase of the stories. Above, **Walker Evan’s** photo of Cheever, circa 1940s. (metmuseum.org)

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From Our Advertisers

We start with some one-column gems from the back of the book including the latest innovation in electric refrigerators…a shelf in the door!…apparently Crosley was the first to invent this “Shelvador”…the ad to the right is interesting in that it advertises honey-filled golf balls…in the early 20th century some golf balls did contain real honey…apparently it was chosen for its consistent viscosity (or maybe for a quick snack on the ninth hole)…

…and from General Tire, we have another ominous warning from Dad as the teens head out for another night of crooning, or whatever they are dressed for…

…last week Chrysler was offering its sedans for $745, and this week you could have one of their Plymouths for just 510 bucks…the message: you would be admired by your polo buddies for your smart, thrifty choice…

…where the above ad crammed every square inch with information, the folks at Pierce Arrow offered a restrained, minimal message (suggesting “we can afford to buy a full-page ad and leave much of it blank”)…another class signifier was the absence of a price tag (about $150k in today’s dollars)…but Chrysler-Plymouth would survive the Depression because it sold affordable cars, while Pierce Arrow was on its last legs…

…here’s a couple of Pierce Arrow owners toasting the return of the Manhattan…

…Moët & Chandon offered up this whimsical tableau from the youth of Bacchus…

…Ethel Merman popped through a curtain on the inside back cover to invite readers to subscribe to The Stage magazine…

…and Lucky Strike claimed the back cover with another stylish woman and a talking cigarette bent on mind control…

…the Ritz-Carlton announced the spring re-opening of its famed Japanese Garden…

The Japanese Garden in 1924. (clickamericana)

…and we kick off our cartoonists with this “Goings On” topper by D. Krán…

…followed by this visit to the zoo by Abe Birnbaum…

…James Thurber was up for some fashion criticism…

…Helen Hokinson found a surprise in a paint-by-numbers kit..

…Peter Arno was up for some late night nuptials…

…Gluyas Williams continued to examine club life…

...George Price was back in the air…

…Alan Dunn gave us some men on a mission…

…and we close with Charles Addams, and some dam trouble…

Next Time: Wining and Dining…

Settling Down

Above: Celebrating the repeal of the 18th Amendment, 1933. (New York Times)

“Settling Down” was the title given to Morris Markey’s examination of the post-Prohibition world, which to no one’s surprise heartily embraced (and imbibed) everything this world had to offer.

May 18, 1935 cover by **Adolph K. Kronengold.**

In his column, “A Reporter at Large,” Markey examined the challenges faced by local and federal governments in reestablishing old liquor control laws, in many cases creating new ones to address the technological, economic and social changes that transpired during the fourteen years of Prohibition. Facing this challenge in New York was Edward P. Mulrooney (1874-1960), a former police commissioner tapped in 1933 to head the State Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Markey explained how Mulrooney and New York regulators tried to create new standards for alcohol consumption that would encourage moderation. Excerpts:

CAN’T HAVE A BELT IN THE BIBLE BELT…Published by The United States News on Nov. 11, 1933, this map shows how liquor laws varied by state following Prohibition. After Prohibition ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment, states gained the authority to regulate alcohol sales, leading to a wide variety of state and local laws. Many states adopted local option laws, allowing cities and counties to decide whether to allow alcohol sales, resulting in “wet,” “dry,” and “moist” jurisdictions. (us news.com)

Seventeen chief provisions for moderating alcohol use were published in The New York Times on Nov. 10, 1933, but ten of those provisions were quickly abandoned. Less than a year and a half after repeal, Markey noted that “the citizen is offered every inducement…to drink as much as he can possibly hold.”

SO MUCH FOR RULES…Celebrations for the repeal of Prohibition in bars and former speakeasies began when **Franklin Roosevelt** signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933; the president himself was known to enjoy a dry martini; former New York Police Commissioner **Edward P. Mulrooney** had the unlucky task of figuring out how to regulate the juice of the grape and the grain. In the end, people seemed to be drinking more than ever. (themobmuseum.org/thrillist.com/Condé Nast)

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Hordes From the Hinterland

There was a time, long ago, when Broadway catered mostly to New Yorkers, but with the advent of mass media and better transportation options folks from the hinterlands (from beyond the Hudson) began to descend on the Great White Way. Then as now, certain shows attracted thousands, including The Great Waltz, a musical based on the works of Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. It opened in September 1934 at the Center Theatre and ran for 289 performances. “The Talk of the Town” sniffed that “People who literally have never seen a play before in their lives turn up at Sixth Avenue and Forty-ninth Street, ready for anything.”

MANY AMERICANS WERE AGOG over the *The Great Waltz*…Clockwise, from top left, the play was performed at the Center Theatre (formerly the RKO Roxy Theatre) at 49th Street and 6th Avenue—sadly, it was demolished in 1954, the only building to ever be demolished from the original Rockefeller Center complex; cover of the *Playbill*; actress **Marie Burke** portrayed Countess Olga Baranskaja; **Al Hirschfeld** illustration of Burke and fellow actors **Guy Robertson** (as Johann Strauss) and **Marion Claire** as Therese. (cinematreasures.org/playbill.com/nyt.com)

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From Our Advertisers

Appropriately, this full-page advertisement for Gordon’s Gin appeared opposite the opening page of Morris Markey’s exploration of the post-Prohibition world…

…and business was booming in the liquor trades…most of the full-color ads in The New Yorker were placed by liquor companies, cigarette manufacturers, and automakers…the inside back cover shilled for Penn Maryland…

…while the back cover was once again claimed by big tobacco…here we have Newport deb Mary De Mumm expounding on wonders of Camel cigarettes, which somehow helped her feel both restful and energetic…

…those who enjoyed the finer things could buy this Packard for about $3,000 (nearly $90K today).

…anticipation was building for the June arrival of the new French liner S.S. Normandie, the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat…

S.S. *Normandie* on the high seas. (Wikipedia)

…the Hamburg-American Line was another way to get across the pond, and it promised a ship filled with famous and classy people (and likely more than a few Nazis)…the single-column ad on the right suggested you could spend your summer in Germany…the tourist bureau claimed that Germany was known as “the healing country,” and doubtless many needed healing after being beaten by Brownshirts…

…a couple more single-column ads, first from our friends at College Inn, who dumped the furious Duchess in favor of a dyspeptic father-in-law who brings his daughter-in-law to tears over her choice of tomato juice…the ad at right advertised the services of Mr. Louis, Mr. Jack, and Mr. Paul at the hair stylist Fred, while a tiny ad at the bottom offered a luncheon for a buck at New York’s “Smartest Boulevard Cafe”…

…the key word in many New Yorker advertisements was luxury, and for a fraction of what you would pay for a Packard, you could, apparently, experience luxury for as little as $745…

…or you could enjoy a bit of elegance by opening a some cans of Heinz soup, chili sauce, stuffed olives and other delectables…here a couple of shady-looking butlers are serving nothing but canned goods at a swanky party, much to the annoyance of the cook, who appears poised to take a cleaver to the scheming pair…

…and look what else you can get from a can, some soup with a “personality”…

…enough of that nonsense, on to our cartoonists, with two spots from James Thurber…

...Lloyd Coe gave us this musical multi-panel…

…Leonard Dove looked in on the complex world of young love…

…George Price found the Yuletide spirit still alive among procrastinators…

…and we close with Alan Dunn, and some earthy reading…

Next Time: Vive La Normandie…

What’s in a Name?

Above: H.L. Mencken at the Baltimore Sun, circa 1930. From April 1934 to September 1949, Mencken contributed more than fifty articles to The New Yorker.

The American journalist Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) was well-known as a biting satirist and cultural critic, but he was also a noted scholar of the English language and its various quirks.

May 11, 1935, Mother’s Day cover by **William Cotton.**

One of those quirks was explored in Mencken’s essay, “The Advance of Nomenclatural Eugenics In the Republic,” for the column “Onward & Upward With The Arts.” Broadly defined, eugenics refers to the discredited belief that selective breeding could be used to improve the human race. Mencken used the term satirically to describe the anglicization of immigrant names, either to conform to English spellings or, in many cases, to avoid racial and ethnic discrimination. An excerpt:

A PERFECT PAIRING, for **H. L. Mencken**, was a beer and a cigar. Here he is accepting “his first public glass of post-Prohibition beer” at the Rennert Hotel in Baltimore on April 7, 1933. In 1924 Mencken wrote: “Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists.” (digitalmaryland.org)

Many Jewish immigrants also abandoned their surnames, seeking to blend in and avoid discrimination. Historian and author Kirsten Fermaglich (A Rosenberg by Any Other Name, 2016) found that persons with Jewish-sounding last names made up 65 percent of all name change requests in New York in the first quarter of the 20th century. Mencken observed:

MEET BERNARD, BETTY, ISSUR AND MARGARITA…Some more famous examples of name changes in the first half of the 20th century. From left, actors (and New Yorkers) **Tony Curtis** (Bernard Schwartz), **Lauren Bacall** (Betty Joan Perske), **Kirk Douglas** (Issur Danielovitch Demsky), and **Rita Hayworth** (Margarita Carmen Cansino). (Wikipedia)

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Canada Dry

In his column, “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker noted the “well-merited spanking” FDR gave to military leaders who were talking about fortifying the border with Canada. Brubaker agreed with FDR’s action, observing how Canadians came to the aid of thirsty Americans during Prohibition.

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Air France

Paris correspondent Janet Flanner considered the state of French aviation as well as signs of war preparation. She also noted the birthday of German dictator Adolf Hitler, the birth of French television, and the streamlined taxis that had suddenly appeared on the streets of Paris. Excerpts:

SOME ICE CREAM WITH YOUR SLICE OF HATE?…Clockwise, from top left, bakers carefully carry **Adolf Hitler’s** birthday cake in April 1935; the French, meanwhile, were ramping up war production including the manufacture of the M210 bomber; airplane factory workers fashion sheet metal in a factory in Châteauroux-Déols; streamlined Peugeot 401 taxis hit the Paris streets in 1935. (reddit.com/dassault-aviation.com/imcdc.org)

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Vamps and Vampires

John Mosher offered mixed reviews of Hollywood’s latest fare, finding Marlene Dietrich’s latest vehicle “fun,” and the singing and dancing of husband/wife Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler “uninspired,” a term he also applied to Bela Lugosi’s latest vampire flick.

TAKE YOUR PICK…Critic **John Mosher** sampled some very different films including, left, **Marlene Dietrich** and Lionel Atwill in *The Devil Is a Woman*; top, **Ruby Keeler** with her then-husband **Al Jolson** in *Go Into Your Dance*; and **Bela Lugosi** did his vampire schtick with the help of **Carroll Borland** (who played Dracula’s daughter) in *Mark of the Vampire*. (MoMA/Pinterest/Instagram)

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From Our Advertisers

We start off with a bang from Goodyear…tire blowouts were common in the 1930s as tire technology could not keep pace with the increasing speed of automobiles, nor the poor condition of many roads…

…after many weeks, the back cover went to something other than cigarette manufacturers…

…let’s take a look at some of the one-column ads from the back pages…many of them highlighted the various nighttime entertainments, from the rooftop of Hotel Pierre to the air-conditioned lounge at the Savoy-Plaza (plus that weird ad that suggested Corn Flakes as a nightcap)…

…interior designer Elsie de Wolfe rolled out “Iron with Tape” chairs, which might be the first example of what would become the ubiquitous webbed lawn chair…also advertised were apartments in the former Pulitzer mansion…

…the Pulitzer apartments were one happy outcome of the Great Depression, which foiled the plans of investors to demolish the house in 1934 and erect an apartment building…

The Pulitzer mansion still stands today, now divided into high-class coops. (daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com)

…here’s something new from the Jay Thorpe shop, “noted for unusual sportswear”…

…perhaps inspired by Hollywood…

**Ruby Keeler** in 1935’s *Shipmates Forever.* (Reddit)

…illustrator Lyse Darcy created many of these distinctive ads for Guerlain products from the 1930s through the 1950s…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with spot art from James Thurber…

…and Thurber again…

…and we have two from George Price…

…Otto Soglow continued with his multi-panel tricks…

…Howard Baer did some eavesdropping on the rails…

…while Barbara Shermund checked in on her modern women…

…Alan Dunn gave us a mother who took care of herself on Mother’s Day…

…Peter Arno found some kindly advice in the crowded city…

…Al Frueh put the “tennis” back into table tennis…

…and we close with Charles Addams, who had become a regular contributor but was still more than three years away from launching his “Addams Family” cartoons…

Next Time: Settling Down, In a Way…

The Royal Treatment

Above: King George V and Queen Mary posed for portraits by John St Helier Lander to commemorate the king’s Silver Jubilee in 1935. (Wikipedia)

The British Royal Family has never been my cup of tea, but its hard to deny their influence on world affairs, even if today it is mostly ceremonial. The king and queen were also figureheads back in 1935, however they could still claim to lead a vast empire, albeit one badly fraying at the seams.

Then as now, the power of the royals lay largely in their ability to boost the political and economic fortunes of their island nation. Such was observed by The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent Janet Flanner, who penned a two-part profile of Queen Mary (nee Mary of Teck or more formally Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India). Flanner wrote the profile of Queen Mary (1867-1953) in anticipation of the Silver Jubilee of her husband, King-Emperor George V (1865-1936). Excerpts:

A DEB AND A DUKE…In 1886 Mary was a an unmarried British princess who was not descended from Queen Victoria, so she was a suitable candidate for the royal family’s most eligible bachelor, Mary’s second cousin **Prince Albert Victor**, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. In early December 1891 Albert Victor (left photo) proposed marriage to Mary, but he died six weeks later in the Russian flu pandemic. Less than two years later (July 1893) Albert Victor’s brother, **Prince George,** Duke of York, would wed Mary—at right, their wedding day photo. (Wikipedia)

Flanner noted that the King George V and Queen Mary were rated by British industrialists as the Empire’s “two best salesmen,” however it was Mary who proved the most influential whether she was buying a hat or a refrigerator. Excerpts:

SILVER AND GOLD…Top photo: to mark the king’s Silver Jubilee on May 6, 1935, **King George V** and Queen Mary greet their subjects from a balcony at Buckingham Palace with their grandchildren, (from left) **Princess Margaret Rose, Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Princess Elizabeth,** and **Viscount Lascelles**. Below, King George V, the **Duke** and **Duchess of York**, and Princess Elizabeth take a trip in the royal carriage, 1933. The Duke and Duchess would succeed the throne upon the death of King George in 1936 and the abdication of the Duke’s brother, **Edward**, that same year. (Reddit/Town & Country)

Naturally, not everyone in the kingdom was thrilled by the Silver Jubilee…

OPPOSING VIEWPOINT…The anti-monarchist cartoonist Desmond Rowney commemorated the Silver Jubilee with this cartoon in the *Daily Worker*. The public expense for the Silver Jubilee in the midst of a financial depression caused some controversy. (National Archives UK)

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Corn-fed Canvasses

Critic Lewis Mumford, like many East Coast intellectuals, was allergic to the over-patriotic and the sentimental, so when it came to assessing the work of the regionalist painter Grant Wood (1891-1942), Mumford found himself perplexed but hopeful that Wood would one day “find himself” and produce “first rate” art.

FLANKING THE ICONIC painting *American Gothic* (1930) are **Grant Wood’s** *Self Portrait* (1932) and, at right, *Arnold Comes of Age* (1930). **Lewis Mumford** considered *American Gothic* to be Wood’s best work. (figgeartmuseum.org/whitney.org/sheldonartmuseum.org)

Mumford did not mince words, however, when it came to Wood’s contemporary landscapes, which he called “unmitigatedly bad…If that is what the vegetation of Iowa is like, the farmers ought to be able to sell their corn for chewing gum…”

BUBBLEGUM TREES…From 1919 to 1925, **Grant Wood** taught junior high art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The seasonal nature of teaching allowed Wood to take summer trips to Europe to study art, and his early work showed strong post-impressionist influences, including his impressionistic *Vegetable Farm* (top) from 1924; below, Mumford thought Grant’s later landscapes looked like they were made of cotton and sponge rubber, including *Near Sundown*, from 1933. (wikiart.org)

HOPE AND NOPE…Mumford wrote that Wood’s more “hopeful” works included, top left, *Death on Ridge Road* and, top right, *Adolescence.* On the other hand, he found the portraiture in *Dinner for Threshers* (bottom) vacuous, suggesting “a color photograph of a model of Life in Iowa done for a historical museum.” (wikiart.org/figgeartmuseum.org)

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Daring Young Man

“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to William Saroyan (1908–1981), an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer who would go on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940 and a 1943 Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. An excerpt:

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Not Long For Long

In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker noted that the “loose talk” of Huey Long, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana and prominent critic of the New Deal, could be squelched by a Senate vote. As it turned out, it wouldn’t be necessary; Long was felled by an assassin’s bullet four months later.

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Ode to Abode

E.B. White turned to verse to offer his thoughts on where one should live:

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Tough Guys

After a musical comedy, a Shakespeare adaptation (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and another comedy, James Cagney returned to familiar form with an exciting crime drama, G Men. Critic John Mosher was pleased that Cagney was back to tap-dancing with machine guns rather than showgirls.

CRIME PAYS…AT THE BOX OFFICE… **James Cagney** takes aim at his new role as a federal agent James “Brick” Davis in *G Men.* With the Hays Code in force, Warner Brothers made the film to counteract what many leaders claimed was a disturbing trend of glorifying criminals in gangster films. (Still from film)

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From Our Advertisers

According to General Motors’ Fischer division, good taste was in order whether you were choosing a spouse or an automobile…

…New Yorker ads continued to display bright colors to sell everything from cars to whiskey to sparkling water (with apparent health benefits)…

…the shadowy Dubonnet mascot was back, here making the claim (against the wisdom of the ages) that a lunchtime drink will clear your head for the afternoon ahead…

…no health claims here from Penn Maryland, just pure magic as depicted by Otto Soglow…

…and what goes better with whiskey than the Kentucky Derby…

…the 1935 Kentucky Derby was won by Omaha, a three-year-old Thoroughbred; he was the third horse to ever win the Triple Crown (Omaha was the son of Gallant Fox, the 1930 U.S. Triple Crown winner)…

…on the subject of Thoroughbreds, Camel offered up testimonials from top athletes in a variety of sports…they all agreed that the cigarettes “don’t get your wind”…so what did that mean?…according to R.J. Reynolds, “It means you can smoke Camels all you want”…

…Camels also calmed the nerves, and so apparently did Chesterfields…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with a spot by Charles Addams at the top of page 2…

…later in the issue James Thurber contributed this drawing to stretch across the bottom of page 62 (“On and Off the Avenue”)…

…Thurber again, with the life of the party…

…William Steig offered up a page-full of wits…

…plus one more on the preceding page…

…Gluyas Williams continued to follow the strange ways of club life in America…

…and we close with Alan Dunn, and service with a smile…

Next Time: What’s In a Name?…

Broadacre City

Above: Detail from Spanish architect David Romero's computer-generated model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City, complete with an "aerotor" flying car.

To be sure, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a visionary, creating a uniquely American vernacular that influences architecture and design to this day. That might also true for his Broadacre City concept, which demonstrated how four square miles (10.3 km2) of countryside might be settled by 1,400 families. Wright unveiled this escape to the countryside in the middle of Manhattan.

April 27, 1930 cover by **Reginald Marsh.**

On April 15, 1935, the Industrial Arts Exposition opened at Rockefeller Center, and Wright (1867-1959) was front and center with his audacious proposal to resettle the entire population of the United States onto individual homesteads. Critic Lewis Mumford observed that Wright “carries the tradition of romantic isolation and reunion with the soil” by putting every American family on a minimum of five acres of land.

FLAT EARTH…Clockwise, from top left, cover of Rockefeller Center Weekly featuring the Industrial Arts Exposition—the model on the cover is identified as “Miss Typical Consumer”; detail from the magazine depicting a “streamlined farmstead” in Broadacre City; **Frank Lloyd Wright** examining the Broadacre City model, circa 1935; Wright students who crafted the 12×12-foot model, circa 1935. (digital.hagley.org/franklloydwright.org)

Wright first presented the idea of Broadacre City in his book The Disappearing City in 1932…

ROMANTIC ISOLATION…Broadacre City as depicted in Wright’s 1932 book *The Disappearing City.* (Wikipedia)

…note how the above drawing is reflected in one of Wright’s last designs, the Marin County Civic Center:

A detailed 12×12-foot scale model of Broadacre City—crafted by Wright’s student interns at Taliesin, was unveiled at the Industrial Arts Exposition:

GREEN ACRES…The 12×12-foot model (top images) crafted by student interns who worked for Wright at Taliesin is now housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); bottom right, Wright’s rendering of Broadacre City, and at left, detail from Spanish architect **David Romero’s** computer-generated model of Broadacre City (more images below). (MoMA/David Romero via *Smithsonian*)

For the most part Mumford reacted favorably to Wright’s vision, which is no surprise considering that Mumford derided the dehumanizing skyscrapers popping up all over his city (including Rockefeller Center).

Despite his patrician demeanor, Wright envisioned an egalitarian Broadacre City, with every family having access to cars, telephones and other appliances. Power would come from solar and electric energy, and any technological advances would be applied at a local level toward the common good.

VIRTUAL REALITY…In 2018 Spanish architect **David Romero** created computer-generated models to see what Wright’s unrealized structures might have looked like. At left, cars (based on Wright concepts) in Broadacre City, and an aerial view featuring a tower that bears a strong resemblance to Wright’s 1956 Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Modeling Broadacre took Romero more than eight months to complete—it contains more than one hundred detailed buildings, one hundred ships, two hundred “aerotors” (based on the autogyros of the day), 5,800 cars, and more than 250,000 trees. (David Romero via *Smithsonian* and openculture.com)

What Mumford (and perhaps Wright) didn’t fully anticipate was the urban sprawl such a vision would help inspire, the suburban and exurban landscape that would lead to a car-dominated world of congested, multi-lane highways and housing developments that continue to encroach on our woodlands and wetlands. And we didn’t get those groovy aerotors either.

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Little House on the Avenue

E.B. White, in his “Notes and Comment,” also offered some observations on housing trends, noting the manufactured “Motohome” displayed at Wanamaker’s as well as “America’s Little House,” plopped down at the corner of 39th and Park Avenue.

SETTING A STANDARD…Above, the factory-manufactured Motohome (above) was touted as the solution to the nation’s housing shortage. The federal Better Homes in America organization built a model house (“America’s Little House,” below) at 39th and Park Avenue to illustrate how standardized components and methods could make home improvement easier. (Google Books/Johns Hopkins)

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Horsing Around

Although known for their nonchalance, New Yorkers could still find some enthusiasm when the circus came to town. “The Talk of the Town” looked in on the star of the circus, Dorothy Herbert (1910-1994), a trick rider with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

WHOA NELLY…One of **Dorothy Herbert’s** signature moves was her layback on a rearing horse. Here she demonstrates the move in 1939. (equineink.com)

HOT STUFF…Circus poster touts Herbert’s ride over flaming hurdles in the company of twelve riderless horses. (circushistory.org)

* * *

Don’t Call Him ‘Tiny’

He was known as “The Little Napoleon of Showmanship,” but there was nothing small about Billy Rose’s accomplishments as an impresario, theatrical showman, composer, lyricist and columnist. Here are excerpts from Alva Johnston’s profile:

JUMBO-SIZED ENTERTAINMENT…Clockwise, from top left, **Billy Rose** and his first wife, comedian-actress **Fanny Brice**; illustration of Rose for the profile; poster announcing Rose’s 1935 stage spectacle Jumbo at the Hippodrome; described as more circus than musical comedy, *Jumbo* was one of the most expensive theatrical events of the first half of the 20th century. (jacksonupperco.com)

* * *

On Guard

We shift gears and turn to more sobering events of the 1930s, namely the rise of fascism in Europe. In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker pondered the possibilities of fascism in his own country…

…meanwhile, Paris correspondent Janet Flanner was finding nothing funny about the uneasy calm among Parisians as war with Germany seemed likely.

C’EST LA VIE…**Janet Flanner** found Parisians resigned to whatever fate awaited them in 1935. (unjourdeplusaparis.com)

Flanner also remarked on Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). Flanner’s assessment of this “best recent European pageant” wryly underscored the horrors the film portends.

* * *

News From An Old Friend

Longtime readers may recall one of my earliest entries on Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938); the March 14, 1925 edition of The New Yorker (issue #4) found New Yorkers “agog” over her planned 1926 visit to the city. Her comings and goings were followed for a time (she also appeared in a Pond’s Cold Cream ad in the June 6, 1925 issue), but then she abruptly disappeared. Here she is again, courtesy of a glowing book review by Clifton Fadiman. An excerpt:

A PROGRESSIVE THINKER for her time, **Marie of Romania** was immensely popular in America. Born into the British royal family, she was the last queen of Romania from 1914 to 1927. At left, portrait from 1920; at right, during her 1926 visit to the States, Marie received a headdress from two American Indian tribes. They named her “Morning Star” and “Winyan Kipanpi Win”—“The Woman Who Was Waited For.” (Wikipedia/brilliantstarmagazine.org)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Although we’ve seen plenty of ads from prestige automakers such as Packard, it was clear that companies found their sweet spot in lower-priced models that still suggested “prestige”…here’s an example from Cadillac’s budget line LaSalle…

…for less than half the price of a LaSalle you could get behind the wheel of Hudson, its makers suggesting that prestige doesn’t preclude thrift…this ad seems to have been hastily produced–note the right side of ad, with just a slice of some toff squeezed next to the copy…

…this advertisement would only appeal to those who were among the tiny minority who could afford to fly…from 1924 to 1939 this early long-range airline served British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East…

…for reference, detail below of a Scylla-class airliner used by Imperial Airways…

…and what would the back cover be without a photo of a stylish woman having a smoke?…

…a few advertisers referenced the circus in town to drum up business…

…and we segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, and this circus-themed spot from an illustrator signed “Geoffrey”…

…a more familiar name is found at the bottom of page 4…namely Charles Addams…the milk order outside the tomb hints at things to come…

…Addams again, going from Bacchus to beige…

…George Price, and well, you know…

…Robert Day was aloft with a speculative builder…

…William Steig typecast his Small Fry…

…Leonard Dove made a sudden exit…

…Gilbert Bundy found one old boy unaffected by spring fever…

…Alain channeled Barbara Shermund to give us this gem…

…and we close with a typical day in James Thurber’s world…

Next Time: The Royal Treatment…

Terse Verse

Above: Holiday greeting card circa 1920 (left) and framed poetry (1916) from the P.F. Volland Company, which rejected E.B. White's attempt at a get-well card. (Newberry Library/Wikipedia)

A deep reading of The New Yorker’s back issues can lead a person down some interesting rabbit holes as well as to new insights. For instance, who knew that the greeting card business could lead to murder?

April 20, 1935 cover by **William Cotton.**

Writing for the occasional feature “Onward And Upward With The Arts,” E.B. White examined the hardboiled world of the “sentiment biz,” a world in which each year 42,000 eager writers elbowed their way into a few hundred positions, and even a smaller number made a decent living at it. To test his own mettle at the craft, White submitted a get-well message to the P. F. Volland Company.

A JOB TO DIE FOR…**Paul Frederick Volland** (1875-1919) founded his greeting card company in 1908, producing sheet music, children’s books, calendars, cookbooks, and framed poetry such as the example at left, from 1916. On May 5, 1919, Volland was shot and killed in his office by an elderly contributor, **Vera Trepagnier**, after a dispute about compensation over her miniature of George Washington. The company continued until 1959. (Wikipedia)

HACK RACKET…One of the more illustrious contributors to the Volland Company was J.P. McEvoy (1894-1958). Despite his generous salary, he hated working for Volland. His 1930 novel *Denny and the Dumb Cluck* satirized the greeting-card business and his experiences with Volland. In an author’s note, McEvoy wrote that “among other minor atrocities I have compiled 47,888 variations of Merry Christmas…” (Wikipedia/Pinterest)

The Volland Company employed scores of artists and writers including L. Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Held Jr, Ring Lardner, Robert Louis Stevenson, and J.P. McEvoy—a writer little known today, McEvoy was influential in the 1920s and 30s, writing everything from children’s tales (he likely inspired Raggedy Ann) to short stories, novels and comic strips, including the popular Dixie Dugan. He also wrote a hit Broadway play, and several of his stories were turned into movies, including W.C. Fields’ 1934 classic It’s a Gift.

White also offered some “tips” on sentiment writing, suggesting that one avoid rhyming words such as “smother” and “mother”…

…he also cautioned about the use of certain phrases, and concluded with a cheeky Easter poem of his own…

* * *

More Thoughts From E.B.W.

White occasionally led off his column with observations on the passing scene, in this case springtime happenings in the city and beyond…

SIGNS OF SPRING…**E.B. White** looked around for signs of spring and found, among other things, the bicycle drills of the League of American Wheelmen (top left, professional bike racer Vincent Seifred rode for the the Empire City Wheelmen in the 1930s); top right, tiny spring peepers were for sale as pets at Macy’s; the Fifth Avenue Coach Company switched sponsors, from Marlboro to Gulden’s; White noted freshets (spring meltwater) in the hills—image is from New York’s Finger Lakes. (crca.net/paherps.com/aldenjewell-flickr.com/nygeo.org)

* * *

Star Struck

“The Talk of Town” anticipated the completion of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. When it opened in October 1935, it was only the fourth planetarium in the United States. Excerpts:

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND…When the Hayden Planetarium opened in October 1935, it was only the fourth planetarium in the United States. In its first year the planetarium drew more than half a million visitors. Clockwise, from top left, the exterior of the planetarium; inside the 75-foot dome; the Zeiss projector; Copernican Room demonstrated movements in the solar system with model planets following tracks in the ceiling; prize-winning poster from a contest in which more than 3,500 high school students were invited to compete for a chance to have their poster exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History. (© AMNH Library)

* * *

Broadway Slugfest

The profile by Meyer Berger looked at the life of a “chiseller,” that is, someone who lived day to day by skimming off the labors of others. Today it is mostly done digitally, but in 1935 the mechanical world could be manipulated by a handful of slugs. Excerpts:

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with an elegant evening, the men in white tie, the women in their finest gowns, all preparing to partake of some canned soup…

…there were many ads with Easter themes to move the merch…

…here’s a detail from an Easter-themed ad for neckties, a retired Colonel, presumably, proudly strutting in the Easter Parade with his crop and monocle as he elbows aside his chauffeur and granddaughter…

…the Duchess returns, and she’s still pissed about her tomato juice…I wish I could have entered this contest…

…the Dubonnet mascot, Dubo-Dubon-Dubonnet, made a startling appearance in this ad…the creation of French graphic designer Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Paul Rand took over the drawing of Dubonnet Man when the liquor came to the United States…

…Old Gold continued its campaign (illustrated by pin-up artist George Petty) featuring a homely, clueless sugar daddy…

…while Camel turned out another group of “sports champions” who testified to the energizing effects of cigarettes…

…another grim message from General Tire…this time featuring dear old dad, contemplating a different fate for his wife and children…

…recall the General ad from March 23…

…General Motors was touting its lineup of 1935 models at the Hotel Astor…

…Chrysler was known as an innovator, introducing radical designs like the Airflow, but consumers weren’t ready for the ultra-streamlined model, even if it did ride so smoothly that one could apparently lose consciousness…

…if a car trip was not your thing, you could fly across America, with a few stops…

…and we fly into our cartoons, where we keep up to date with Otto Soglow…

…George Price was still up in the air with this fellow…

…Gluyas Williams continued to look at club life with this cartoon which originally ran sideways on page 21…

…compliments to the cook, from Syd Hoff…

…Walter Lippmann put the scare in this James Thurber subject…

…and we end with Barbara Shermund, and one young woman who won’t be visiting the new planetarium…

Next Time: A Tour of Broadacre City…

The Cowboy Philosopher

William Penn Adair Rogers, aka Will Rogers (1879–1935), was a man of many talents. Today he is mostly referred to as a humorist, but he was also an actor, a social and political commentator, a trick roper and a vaudeville performer. To Americans he was a national icon.

April 13, 1935 cover by **Barney Tobey.**

Rogers was also internationally famous, having traveled around the world three times and appearing in 71 films (50 of those silent). He also wrote more than 4,000 newspaper columns—nationally syndicated by The New York Times—that reached 40 million readers, and there were also magazine articles, radio broadcasts and personal appearances. He seemed to be everywhere.

ROPING THEM IN…In 1902, **Will Rogers** joined Texas Jack’s Wild West Show & Circus in South Africa as the “Cherokee Kid”—he was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory that is now part of Oklahoma. By 1910, he had created a sensational vaudeville act by mixing trick roping with witty monologues. Clockwise, from top left, Rogers in a publicity photo from 1916, the year he joined the Ziegfeld Follies; on stage with the Follies in 1924; poster from his circus days; backstage with the 1924 Follies cast. (National Portrait Gallery)

MULTIMEDIA MULTI-TALENT…Left, Rogers catches a few moments to write one of his 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns; from 1929 to 1935 he used the exciting new medium of radio to broadcast his newspaper pieces. His weekly Sunday evening show, *The Gulf Headliners*, sponsored by Gulf Oil, ranked among the top radio programs in the country. (National Portrait Gallery)

When John Mosher reviewed Rogers’ latest film, Life Begins At Forty, he found it to be one of Rogers’ best. It would also prove to be one of his last. On August 15, 1935, a small airplane carrying Rogers and aviator Wiley Post would crash on takeoff near Point Barrow, Alaska, claiming the lives of both men. Rogers would appear in three more films in 1935, the last two posthumously.

THAT’S LIFE…**Will Rogers** with **Richard Cromwell** and Rochelle Hudson in *Life Begins at 40*. Rogers’ film took its title from a 1932 self-help book by Walter B. Pitkin. Pitkin maintained that keeping a positive attitude toward life could give a person many fulfilling years after age 40. By the time of his death in 1935, the 55-year-old Rogers was Hollywood’s highest paid actor. (Wikipedia/IMDB)

* * *

Not Toying Around

“The Talk of the Town” looked in on the serious business of toymakers, with 1935 being the year of streamlined tricycles, Buck Rogers disintegrator pistols, and, of course, Shirley Temple dolls.

RIVALED ONLY BY MICKEY MOUSE, **Shirley Temple** was the most popular celebrity to endorse merchandise for children and adults, including the “one and only” Shirley Temple Doll (left, ad from 1935); the Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol (top) was produced in 1935 by Daisy, and was available in both copper and nickel finishes–it was also offered as a premium from Cream of Wheat cereal; at bottom, the American National Streamline Velocipede Tricycle (1935), just one example of the hundreds of products receiving the streamlining treatment in the 1930s. (flickr/airandspace.si.edu/onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk)

* * *

Literary Spirits

E.B. White welcomed the return of literary tea party, which thanks to the repeal of the 18th Amendment had been re-dubbed the “literary cocktail party.” He shared his thoughts in “Notes and Comment”…

AMUSING MUSES…Actress, writer and socialite **Peggy Hopkins Joyce** hosted literary “teas” in the 1920s, while former *Cosmopolitan* editor **Ray Long** inspired a book on adventures in the South Seas shortly before his death; from left, Joyce in 1923; photogravure of Long, 1925. (Wikipedia/photogravure.com)

* * *

Proto Feminist

Emily Hahn was one of the more lively figures in The New Yorker’s stable of journalists and writers, leading an adventurous life that included a hike across Central Africa in the 1930s and getting into all kinds of trouble during the Japanese invasion of China. According to Roger Angell, Hahn was, “in truth, something rare: a woman deeply, almost domestically, at home in the world. Driven by curiosity and energy, she went there and did that, and then wrote about it without fuss.” It is no surprise that Hahn’s latest novel, Affair, didn’t shy away from topics like abortion. According to reviewer Clifton Fadiman, the novel’s “anonymous grayness” exposed the banality of love in the twentieth century.

If Hollywood is looking for a new biopic, Hahn would make a fascinating subject (Kristen Stewart would be perfect for the part). According to IMDB, there is an “Untitled Emily ‘Mickey’ Hahn Project”—a TV series—that has been in development since 2022, but so far nothing has come of it.

DOWN ON LOVE?…**Emily Hahn’s** 1935 novel Affair exposed the banality of love in the twentieth century. (abebooks.com/susanbkason.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with this advertisement from Goodyear, featuring what appears to be a father teaching his daughter how to drive, or in this case, fly, just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…

…and we stay airborne with the makers of the streamlined Nash, who claimed their automobile had “flying power”…

…and we return to earth with Cadillac’s budget model, the LaSalle, which featured “flashing performance”…

…by contrast, Pierce Arrow took a minimalist approach, gimmicks and splashy colors being reserved for the lower orders…

…one of the world’s most iconic ocean liners took to the sea with much fanfare in 1935. The SS Normandie was the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; it remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built…

…if you happened to smoke Webster cigars, it could have been a sign that you were favored by the heavens…

…the “20-year rule” in fashion suggests that trends have a tendency to re-emerge every two decades, and that seems to be the case here…

…this next ad tells us everything we need to know about the Stetson wearer: he is a wealthy country gentleman who values tradition but who is also a man of the future…from the 1920s to midcentury the autogyro was thought to be the answer to the long-dreamed of flying car…

…whoever coined the term “night cap” probably wasn’t thinking about cold cereal…

…although Harold Ross’s old high school friend, John Held Jr., contributed many woodcut-style cartoons and faux maps to The New Yorker from 1925 to 1932, Held was more famous for his shingle-bobbed flappers and their slick-haired boyfriends in puffy pants, a style more apparent in this ad for Peychaud’s Bitters (the original was a one-column ad, split here for clarity)…

…Held provides a segue to our illustrators and cartoonists, beginning with a sampling of spot art from the April 13 issue…

…James Thurber got things going on page 2…

…and also contributed this observation of the hypnotic arts…

…Otto Soglow did some careful surveying (this originally appeared across two pages)…

…Alain looked in on some Vatican gossip…

…Richard Decker pitched a Shirley Temple murder caper…

…Carl Rose gave us a sweet send-off…

…and we close out with a big bang, courtesy of Alan Dunn…

Next Time: Terse Verse…

Keep Calm and Carry On

If you lived in Germany in 1935, or in Italy or Spain for that matter, the world would have looked very different from the one most Americans were experiencing, clawing their way out of the Great Depression and hoping to improve their domestic lives. War was not big on their worry list.

April 6, 1935 cover by **Leonard Dove.**

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White satirized the talk about war that was filling more column inches in the nation’s newspapers. He was particularly scornful of journalists such as Arthur Brisbane—the influential editor of William Randolph Hearst’s media empire—who was fond of giant headlines warning of impending war.

TEND YOUR OWN GARDEN...E.B. White in 1946. (Britannica)

White wasn’t naive about the possibilities of war; however, he believed obsessing about things over which we have little control did little to help the human condition. Helping one’s neighbor, on the other hand, would do the world more good. In 1939, just six months before Germany invaded Poland, White wrote a piece titled “Education” for his Harper’s Magazine column, One Man’s Meat. This excerpt helps define his worldview:

“I find that keeping abreast of my neighbors’ affairs has increased, not diminished, my human sympathies…in New York I rise and scan Europe in the Times; in the country I get up and look at the thermometer—a thoroughly set-contained point of view which, if it could infect everybody everywhere, would I am sure be the most salutary thing that could happen to the world.”

With that, here is a selection from the April 6 “Notes and Comment”…

TANKS A LOT…Clockwise, from top left, German war production in the 1930s—by increasing the size of the army by 500,000 and establishing the *Luftwaffe* in early 1935, Germany broke international law and the Treaty of Versailles; the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement was the first sign of British and European appeasement—photo shows the launch of the *Admiral Graf Spee*; a display of force at Nuremberg, mid 1930s; cartoon by **Bernard Partridge** from Punch (September 1932) foresaw the inevitable. (parisology.net/theholocaustexplained.org/Punch Limited)

In March 1973, a “Mr. Nadeau” wrote a letter to E. B. White expressing fears about humanity’s bleak future. Here are the first and last lines of White’s reply:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness…Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

* * *

Another Viewpoint

Ever the observer of the passing scene, Howard Brubaker made these relevant observations in “Of All Things”…

…and back to White’s “Notes,” and the imminent passing of the beloved organ grinder…

THE OLD GRIND…Above, one of New York City’s last organ grinders in Washington Heights, ca. 1935. Organ grinders had been fixtures in Manhattan since the 1850s, and by 1880 roughly five percent of Italian men living in Five Points were organ grinders, often accompanied by monkeys who entertained and collected coins. Organ grinders were outlawed in 1936 by Mayor **Fiorello La Guardia.** It is thought the mayor disliked the Italian immigrant stereotype. (Library of Congress)

* * *

Give Him More Mickey Mouse

John Mosher expressed his displeasure with movies that failed to deliver some escape from life’s mundane realities or offered little more than tepid storylines.

IN SEARCH OF A CREDIBLE PLOT…Critic John Mosher found Claudette Colbert (top left) both unbelievable and unqualified to be a psychiatrist in Private Worlds; at top right, **Joan Blondell** and Glenda Farrell offered some mindless distractions in *Traveling Saleslady* (from 1933 to 1936 Blondell and Farrell appeared together in seven films); bottom, Mosher called The Woman in Red an “anemic” tale. **Barbara Stanwyck** seems to be wondering why she took the part. (rottentomatoes.com/TCM)

* * *

Odds and Ends

Also in the issue, John O’Hara kicked off the short fiction with “I Could Have Had A Yacht,” Margaret Case Harriman penned a profile of Elizabeth Arden (of cosmetics empire fame), and theatre critic Wolcott Gibbs enjoyed the “bitterly effective performances” in Clifford Odets’ Waiting For Lefty, which was being produced at the Longacre Theatre.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH...Elia Kazan led the cast in the original production of **Clifford Odets’** iconic 1935 play *Waiting for Lefty.* Centered around a taxi drivers’ strike, *Lefty* was produced by The Group Theatre, which sought to perform plays that functioned as social commentaries on the inequality and poverty of 1930s America. Some referred to Kazan as the “Proletarian Thunderbolt.” (Creative Commons)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

While Hitler ramped up weapons production and prepared to enact the Nuremberg Race Laws, the German Tourist Office touted their country as “The Land of Music” in this one-column advertisement on page 66 (left)…a couple of pages later we have an old chap looking forward to a German cruise and a quiet soak at Baden-Baden in the midst of madness…

…now this is more like it, fine dining under the stars aboard the Santa Paula, far from the maddening crowds…

…there were several colorful full-page ads in the issue, including this splashy display from the very un-splashy-sounding Bermuda Trade Development Board…

…cherry blossoms lined the path of Lincoln’s Le Baron Roadster…

…Camel played to a wide demographic, from ads featuring stylish young women to ads like this that roped in everyone from an “enthusiastic horsewoman” to an engineer working on the Boulder (now Hoover) Dam…

…I’m not sure what “Life begins at sixty” is supposed to mean, unless it’s about tempting young women with your bad habit…

…the New York American was hoping that some of the “Best People” who read The New Yorker would also want to read their apartment rental want ads…

…spring was in the air at Richard Hudnut’s Fifth Avenue salon…if you had dry skin, it was recommended you try a product with the unfortunate name “Du Barry Special Skin Food”…

…Taylor Instruments hoped readers would monitor the spring weather with one of their stylish thermometers…American graphic artist and illustrator Ervine Metzl provided the artwork…he was best known for his posters and postage stamp designs…

…which brings us to our illustrators and cartoonists, beginning with this small woodcut on page 6 signed “Martin”…

…empathy gained some traction in this Robert Day cartoon…

…Alan Dunn demonstrated the effect of the Depression on the building trades…

…Leonard Dove found one enlistee not ready for basic training…

…Syd Hoff showed us all the right moves…

…Alain was up in the garret with an artist in need of some peace…

…Gluyas Williams took a glimpse backstage…

…William Crawford Galbraith was still exploring the world of sugar daddies and golddiggers…

…Barbara Shermund introduced a few giggles…

…and we close with another James Thurber classic…

Next Time: The Cowboy Philosopher…

The Lighter Side of George Grosz

Above: Landscape in Bayside, 1935, by George Grosz (Phillips Collection)

Knowing that the Nazis would not look kindly on his art, George Grosz took a job teaching drawing in New York in 1932, and by 1933 he had become a permanent resident of the city.

March 30, 1935 cover by **Garrett Price** celebrated the traditional “Bock” beer of spring.

Grosz (1893–1959) was overwhelmed by the size and pace of his adopted city, and for the most part he left behind his bitter caricatures and paintings of Berlin’s Weimar years and turned to other subjects, including landscapes and New York’s urban life. Critic Lewis Mumford took in a show of Grosz’s new water colors at An American Place, a small gallery run by photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz.

THE NEW OBJECTIVITY…**George Grosz** (left, circa 1921), was not alone in his harsh depictions of war and of German society during the Weimar Republic. Other key figures in the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movement included **Max Beckmann** and **Otto Dix** (right, circa 1929). Dix’s oil on canvas *War Cripples (Kriegskrüppel),* 1920, which is pictured above, was exhibited at the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920. Only black and white images exist of the painting, which is believed to have been destroyed by Nazis who condemned it as degenerate art. (Wikimedia Commons/CUNY)

OH THE HUMANITY…Three selections from the “Ecco Homo” series by George Grosz. From left, *Gruß aus Sachsen (Greetings from Saxony)* 1920; *Nachts, (At Night)* 1919; and *Schwere Zeiten (Hard Times)* 1919. Grosz took a dim view of the corruption and moral decline he found in Weimar Berlin. (MoMA)

SEEING RED…Detail from **George Grosz’s** *Metropolis,* Oil on Canvas, 1916-1917. A blood-like shade of red could be seen in many of the artist’s paintings during World War I and the Weimar Republic. In this painting and in others, death is omnipresent. (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid)

A SOFTER SIDE could be found in **George Grosz’s** later watercolors, although he hadn’t entirely lost his sense of the satirical, or his taste for red paint. From left, *Street in Harlem,* circa mid-1930s; *Ehepaar* (A Married Couple), 1930; *Central Park at Night*, 1936. (Phillips Collection/Tate Gallery/Art Institute Chicago)

* * *

Not the Bee’s Knees

For all the progressive thinking that was on display in the early New Yorker, we also reminded that it was also a creature of its time in 1935. Here are excerpts from a lengthy “Talk of the Town” entry that described the sad winnowing process of Broadway revue producer Earl Carroll…

JUDGEMENT DAY…Here is a screenshot from a short film featuring the 1935 audition described in the “Talk” segment. At left is Earl Carroll. You can watch the film **here.** (YouTube)

* * *

Too Little For Too Much

Film critic John Mosher gave Alfred Hitchcock’s 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much just five lines in his review. He described it as “one of those preposterous adventure stories which Englishmen are always writing…” The film, however, was an international success, and it would define the rest of Hitchcock’s career as a director of thrillers with a unique sense of humor.

A HAPPY, CAREFREE HOUR is how critic John Mosher described his experience watching 1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. Clockwise, from top right, director **Alfred Hitchcock** with the film’s German star, **Peter Lorre**, who learned his part phonetically; Lorre and **Cicely Oates**; **Edna Best** did her best at playing a grieving mother. The film was remade by Paramount in 1956, starring James Stewart and **Doris Day.** (Wikipedia/aurorasginjoint.com/IMDB)

* * *

Dizzy Nor Dazzled

In 1935 Lois Long had been divorced from cartoonist Peter Arno for about four years, and she was the mother of six-year-old daughter from that marriage. That didn’t keep her from sampling the city’s night life, but the days of speakeasies and drinking sessions that lasted into the wee hours were over for the 34-year-old Long. For her “Tables for Two” column she took the elevator up to the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza to take in the entertainment at the Rainbow Room…as well as the pedestrian crowd…

WHAT A WHIRL…Above, diners watch a performance by ballroom dancers **Lydia and Joresco** in the then newly opened Rainbow Room in 1934. **Lois Long** enjoyed the Rainbow Room in its 1930s heyday, but she missed her old speakeasy crowd, noting that the Rainbow Room’s customers weren’t “dizzy enough” to suit her tastes. (Rockefeller Center Archives)

…her speakeasy days were over, but it appears Long still enjoyed a bit of indulgence…here is how she concluded her column:

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Step into a crowded mid-century elevator and you were bound to catch a whiff of the menthol-tinged scent of Aqua Velva, not objectionable if properly applied…

…speaking of menthol, the makers of Spud cigarettes were now competing with upstart menthol cigarette makers including Kool…this ad has all kinds of problems, including the suggestion that the occasional Spud not only inspires one’s nuptials, but also ensures marital bliss, as well as a lifetime of chain-smoking…

…Luckies, on the other hand, continued to appeal to the modern woman, and what impressionable young woman wouldn’t be inclined to pick up the habit to complete her ensemble?…

…the makers of College Inn tomato juice gave their raving Duchess the week off, but we get another old sourpuss in the form of a “Dowager” who demands that her servant remove a glass of what very well could have been tomato juice…enter the old bat’s niece, Dorothea, who suggests that the cook, Clementina, serve some Libby’s pineapple juice instead, probably spiked with vodka given the Dowager’s sudden change of demeanor…

…Essex House continued their class-ridden ad campaign, this time with some stuff-shirt dreading his world cruise

…carmakers continued to emphasize economy and price to move their latest models, including the 1935 Nash with “Aeroform Design”…

…last week I noted that Packard was doubling down on promoting the elite status of its premium automobile; however, the carmaker did introduce a “120” that cost a fraction of its luxury models and helped the company’s bottom line…

…Packard’s competition was Lincoln and Cadillac, among other luxury brands, but Pierce Arrow represented the pinnacle of luxury and craftsmanship, the American equivalent of Rolls Royce…unlike the other luxury brands, Pierce Arrow did not offer a lower-priced car, and the company folded it 1938…

…speaking of luxury cars, if you owned a Lincoln, this little ad tucked into the top corner of page 55 showed you were to go to get a tune-up…

…the publishers at Street & Smith announced the launch of a new fashion magazine, Mademoiselle, a seemingly daring move in Depression America…the cover featured an illustration by Melisse (aka Mildred Oppenheim Melisse)…the magazine was later acquired by Condé Nast, and folded in November 2001…

**Mildred Oppenheim Melisse’s** cover for the debut issue of *Mademoiselle,* April 1935. Melisse also supplied the cover art for the May and June issues that year. (Pinterest)

…Otto Soglow was on his way to becoming a wealthy man thanks to his “Little King” cartoon…William Randolph Hearst lured Soglow and the cartoon away from The New Yorker in 1934, so the only way the wee potentate could appear in the magazine was in an ad, like this one for Bloomingdale’s…

…Soglow continued to contribute to The New Yorker, and we kick off our cartoons with an April Fool’s joke…

…for the second week in a row Maurice Freed supplied the opening spot art for “Goings On About Town”…

…Helen Hokinson was on the hunt for some predatory fish…

…James Thurber looked in on the nudist fad that emerged in the 1930s…

…and we close with George Price, an some alarming bedside manners…

Next Time: Keep Calm and Carry On…

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)

* * *

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…