Joe Louis – A New Yorker State of Mind

Above: James Thurber with his beloved Christabel, circa 1950s, and Mary Pickford enjoying some puppy love, circa 1920. (The Thurber Estate/Pinterest)

James Thurber and silent film star Mary Pickford had one thing in common; they loved their dogs.

September 21, 1935 cover by **Ilonka Karasz.** *Antiques* magazine (March 8, 2018) described Karasz’s covers as “leafy modernism,” evolving from “dynamic modern depictions of urban life to enchanting, peaceful images of leisure activities…recording details like family picnics or the insects and flowers in her garden.” Many depict scenes around Brewster, New York, where she lived with husband, **Willem Nyland**, a Dutch-American chemist and pianist. Karasz contributed 186 covers across six decades, beginning with her first on April 4, 1925.

From that point of agreement, however, these contemporaries (Pickford was born in 1892; Thurber in 1894) diverged. Consider Thurber’s response (excerpted) to Pickford’s spiritual musings in a Liberty magazine article titled “Why Die?”

…Thurber contributed this spot drawing for his rebuttal…

ONE OF A KIND…**James Thurber** immortalized his Airdale, **Muggs**, in a 1933 story, “The Dog that Bit People.” Muggs, who died in 1928, has his own monument in Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio, installed in 2021. The inscription, taken from Thurber’s short story, reads, “Nobody knew exactly what was the matter with him.” (https://www.dispatch.com/Facebook)

AMERICA’S SWEETHEART was well-known as animal lover. At left, **Mary Pickford** in 1916; at right, with husband **Douglas Fairbanks** at their mansion, Pickfair, in the 1920s. (Wikipedia/Pinterest)

SECOND LIFE…**Mary Pickford** gave up acting in 1933 to pursue her writing career. In 1934 she penned the tract, *Why Not Try God?,* followed in 1935 by another spiritual bestseller, *My Rendezvous with Life.* That same year she also published a novel, *The Demi-Widow*. From left, cover of *Liberty* magazine with her essay, “Why Die?,” Aug. 18, 1935; Pickford posing with copies of *The Demi-Widow,* ca. 1935. *Kirkus Reviews* (Aug. 1, 1935) dubbed *The Demi-Widow* “Good hammock reading for hot days — light and not too dreadful froth…” (picclick.com.au/digitalcollections.oscars.org/Goodreads)

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Rumble Humbled

In his “Notes and Comment” E.B. White observed the absurdity of a grown man riding alone in a rumble seat. These seats were phased out by 1939 in American autos (the British, who called them “dickies,” abandoned them a decade later). Rumble seats were unsafe, to be sure, but it was also unpleasant to sit near the exhaust pipe and collect the dust, grit and bugs that would merrily dance around one’s eyes, nose and mouth.

BONE RATTLER…Detail from a photo of man riding in a rumble seat, 1935. (General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A Red By Any Other Name

White also considered the intentions behind a new book by Robert Forsythe, Redder Than a Rose. Kyle Crichton (1896-1960) used the Forsythe nom de plume whenever he wrote for communist publications such as the Daily Worker. A former coal miner and steel worker, Crichton was also a writer and editor for Collier’s magazine.

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Fight Night

In anticipation of the boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Baer, The New Yorker featured a Peggy Bacon portrait of Louis at the bottom of its events section, which also contained a listing under “Sports” of the upcoming fight at Yankee Stadium. The caption below the Louis portrait was a quote attributed to Bacon: An out-size in juveniles, simple, unruffled, a shade sullen, practically expressionless, hoarding his energies with the inarticulate dignity and pride of some monster vegetable.–P.B.

a better view of Peggy Bacon’s portrait of Joe Louis…

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At the Movies

Well, the fun couldn’t last forever, as critic John Mosher discovered with the latest batch of films to roll out of Tinseltown. Here he tried to make sense of The Big Broadcast of 1936, and gave a closing nod to Dorothy Parker.

A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT…Theatre card promoting the appearances of Gracie Allen and **George Burns** in The Big Broadcast of 1936. These films were essentially long promo pieces for Paramount’s stable of stars. (IMDB)

Mosher also took in The Goose and the Gander, featuring Kay Francis, one of Warner Brothers’ biggest stars and one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors. Known for her roles as a long-suffering heroine and her lavish wardrobes, Mosher found Francis ill-suited to a comedic role.

NEEDED A BIT MORE GOOSE…**Kay Francis** and George Brent in The Goose and the Gander. (IMDB)

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From Our Advertisers

The 1920s and 30s saw a proliferation of all sorts of electric gadgets, one of them being the toaster, here serving as a centerpiece for a cocktail party…

…before 1935 beer cans were not feasible because they couldn’t withstand the internal pressure of a carbonated liquid…it was the American Can Company (not Continental) that solved the problem by developing an internally-lined can that could contain the pressure…the lining also prevented the beer from tasting metallic…

…R.J. Reynolds continued to build its tobacco empire by lining up scads of famous athletes to endorse the health benefits of their Camel cigarettes…

… Liggett & Myers, who in 1926 launched their “Blow some my way” advertising campaign to target women smokers, continued to employ images of young lovers in romantic settings to push their Chesterfields…