Above: Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland in "Anthony Adverse". (tcm.com)
Epic costume dramas were all the rage in the 1930s, doubtless due to their escapist qualities (escape from the Depression and fears of war, among other things) and the cool comforts of a movie palace during a decade of exceptionally hot summers (yes, once again I’m leading with a movie. Nevertheless, some tasty bits ahead!).
August 29, 1936 cover by William Steig.
Unlike MGM’s Romeo and Juliet, which lost money, Anthony Adverse was Warner Brothers’ most popular release in 1936, a nearly two-and-a-half-hour film featuring the seemingly ever-present Frederic March and rising star Olivia de Havilland. Based on Hervey Allen’s 1933 historical novel by the same name, New Yorker critic John Mosher gave Anthony Adverse passing marks.
COSTUMES IN MOTION…Critic John Mosher appreciated a costume drama that was also lively. Clockwise, from left: Warner Brothers promotional poster; Olivia de Havilland as Angela, the daughter of a cook who becomes Mademoiselle Georges, a famous opera star and mistress of Napoleon Bonaparte; Anita Louise portrayed sweet young Maria, betrothed to grumpy old Don Luis (Claude Rains). (frockflicks.com)WICKEDLY GOOD…Gale Sondergaard with Claude Rains in Anthony Adverse. Sondergaard would win the inaugural Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as the villainous Faith Paleologus. In total, the film would earn four Oscars. (IMDb.com)
Mosher found other cinema diversions, including a film featuring a cameo by Robert Benchley.
WORLD OF WODEHOUSE…Madge Evans and Robert Montgomery in Piccadilly Jim; Dolores Costello and George Raft in Yours for the Asking; Ida Lupino portrayed con artist Gertie Malloy in Yours for the Asking; pioneer American film animator Mary Ellen Bute created some of the first electronically generated film images, her specialty being visual music. (imdb.com/csfd.sk/facebook.com/Wikipedia)
And lest we forget, here is The New Yorker’sRobert Benchley portraying a “barroom character” in Piccadilly Jim:
THE TWO BOBS…Robert Montgomery and Robert Benchely in Piccadilly Jim.(immortalephemera.com)
* * *
Pentameter Pickle
E.B. White expressed his annoyance with MGM’s claim regarding Norma Shearer as “the first screen Juliet” (see last week’s post on Romeo and Juliet). He also noted that after seeing Romeo and Juliet, he had the urge to speak in Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter.
White noted that either Beverly Bayne or Theda Bara were the first screen Juliets…actually both appeared in dueling films in 1916, opening just three days apart.
FILM DUEL…Top, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne (married in real life) in Metro’s 1916 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Below, Theda Bara and Harry Hilliard in Fox’s 1916 Romeo and Juliet. In direct competition, the Fox film was released on Oct.22, the same week as Metro’s (Oct. 19). Both silent films are considered lost. (theeverydaycinephile.com)
If White had had access to the internet, he would have learned that the very first screen Juliet was actually Florence Lawrence , who appeared in a fifteen-minute silent film short made in 1908 by Vitagraph Studios (amazingly, the film survives and can be viewed on YouTube).
THE ORIGINAL…The first screen Juliet was Florence Lawrence, who appeared in a 1908 silent film short by Vitagraph Studios. Lawrence (1886–1938) is widely referred to as the “first movie star”, appearing in almost three hundred films. She also invented a surprising list of patents, including the first “auto signaling arm.” (messynessychic.com).
* * *
He Used His Bean
“The Talk of the Town” featured a rare mention of baseball in the form of a brief profile of Jo-Jo Moore (1908–2001), a New York Giants left fielder known for his intimidating, left-handed-hitting as leadoff man; Moore batted over .300 five times in his career. Apparently he was also known for getting beaned at the plate, as this excerpt explains:
LEANING IN…Jo-Jo Moore, who batted left-handed and threw right-handed, hit over .300 five times in his career with the Giants from 1930 to 1941. When he died in 2001 at age 92, he was the last surviving member of the 1933 World Champion New York Giants. (centerfieldmaz.com)
* * *
The Bobby We Didn’t Know
Mention the name Bobby Riggs to those of a certain age and they’ll likely conjure up the cheeky grin of a 55-year-old man who in 1973 challenged 29-year-old Billie Jean King to a much-ballyhooed “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match at the Houston Astrodome—which King won in straight sets (6–4, 6–3, 6–3). What seems forgotten is the fact that Riggs was once considered the best tennis player in the world. As a 21-year-old amateur in 1939, he won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Even in 1936 the teenaged Riggs was already sensation, as this excerpt explains:
PROMISING BEGINNINGS…Left, Bobby Riggs (center) accepts the 1939 men’s national singles championship trophy after defeating Welby Van Horn at Forest Hills. Riggs also won the U.S. Singles Championship in 1941. At right, Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs strike a pose in 1973, the year they competed in famed “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. (facebook.com/Wikipedia)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Singer Ethel Merman lit up the opening page of the August 29 issue in this colorful advertisement for Stage magazine…
…the makers of the bargain cigarette Twenty Grand used this New Yorker-style cartoon to push their brand of tobacco…
…the inside back cover featured this bright appeal from Imperial Wallpapers…
…and the makers of Luckies claimed the back page to build their base of women smokers…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with spots by Abe Birnbaum…
…and Robert Day…
…more cartoon art from Richard Taylor to enliven Morris Bishop’s limericks…
…Birnbaum again, with a bit of hide and-seek…
…Alan Dunn confronted a moral quandary…
…Rea Irvin put up a tempting target…
…Helen Hokinson found the right words to describe a bridge party…
…Peter Arno illustrated one way to accommodate an estrangement…
Above: Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer played the lead roles in George Cukor's 1936 adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." In retrospect, these major stars were miscast; Shakespeare's original play identified Juliet as thirteen years old (soon to be fourteen), while scholars estimate Romeo to be around sixteen. Howard was forty-three and Shearer thirty-four when the film was released. (pinterest.com)
Although Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer were too old to play Romeo and Juliet as lovesick teenagers, in 1936 audiences and critics didn’t seem to notice or care. What did keep audiences away from the big budget Romeo and Juliet was the perception that it was too “arty.”
August 22, 1936 cover by Ilonka Karasz.
Indeed, New Yorker film critic John Mosher suggested that “vulgarians” would miss the finer points of this meticulously made film—director George Cukor even secured the services of William Strunk Jr. (of Elements of Style fame) to ensure linguistic accuracy.
This dedication to the finer points of the play obviously didn’t apply to the choice of the principal actors—a middle-aged Romeo, a thirty-something Juliet, or a 54-year-old playing Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio (John Barrymore). In the days of the studio system, it was assumed that big productions needed equally big, established actors attached to them, regardless of age. Also, Shearer was producer Irving Thalberg’s wife.
THE ART OF ARTIFICE…Clockwise from top left: Lavish sets and a star-studded cast made Romeo and Juliet MGM’s most expensive sound film up to that time; the famed balcony scene between Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer; Shearer in a scene with Ralph Forbes, who played a kinsman to the prince. (imdb.com/moviemusings.uk/britannica.com)
Mosher described the film as a “sensible” presentation and praised the 34-year-old Norma Shearer for her youthful appearance. “Actually, for once, we see a Juliet who is a girl,” he wrote. Writing for Literature/Film Quarterly,Allison Kellar notes that “with the help of costumes, props, and lighting, Shearer effectively appears as the young Juliet.”
RAPIER-TONGUED…Top: Mercutio (John Barrymore, left) challenges Tybalt (Basil Rathbone) to a duel and is subsequently slain (this is when Mercutio speaks those famous words, “A plague o’ both houses!”); Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer; MGM promotional poster. (moviemusings.uk/tvtropes.org/imdb.com)
For years MGM’s “Boy Wonder,” producer Irving Thalberg, had pushed the studio to make the film, but MGM head Louis B. Mayer believed (correctly, it turned out) that the masses would consider Shakespeare too highbrow. Mayer was also concerned about a big budget picture in those lean Depression years, but somehow Thalberg won him over (the film lost almost a million dollars, roughly equivalent to $25 million today).
HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS…At left, Anthony Adverse director Mervyn LeRoy and his wife, Doris Warner, accompany Norma Shearer and her husband Irving Thalberg at the Los Angeles premiere of Anthony Adverse, July 29, 1936. A month and a half later Thalberg would die from a congenital heart condition at age 37. (see below). (Wikipedia)
Romeo and Juliet would have its world premiere on Aug. 20, 1936 at New York’s Astor Theatre. The West Coast premiere followed on Sept. 14—that same night legendary MGM producer, Irving Thalberg, husband of star Norma Shearer, would die suddenly at the age of 37. Needless to note, the Los Angeles opening was deeply somber.
Now, just for kicks, here are the ages of actors who have portrayed Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers in more recent films:
FOLLIES OF YOUTH…Clockwise, from top left, with ages in parentheses: Claire Danes (17) and Leonardo DiCaprio (22) in Romeo + Juliet (1996) Hailee Steinfeld (17) and John Booth (21) in 2013’s Romeo & Juliet; Clara Rugaard (27) as Juliet and Jamie Ward (35) as Romeo in 2025’s Juliet & Romeo; Olivia Hussey (16) and Leonard Whiting (16) in Romeo & Juliet (1968). (imdb.com/heyuguys.com/wikipedia.org/reddit.com)
MGM spent a lot on the marketing of Romeo and Juliet, including this full-page ad in The New Yorker that included an endorsement from the magazine’s theater critic, Robert Benchley:
There were other, less-hyped films available for those allergic to Shakespearian drama. Mosher again:
ALL SYSTEMS GO…Clockwise, from top left: Dennis Moore (left) and Humphrey Bogart prepare for a bumpy ride in China Clipper; Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor in His Brother’s Wife. (dailymotion.com/blu-ray.com/imdb.com)
* * *
Getting Out of Town
Food critic Sheila Hibben headed to Long Island to do a little restaurant-hopping, checking out Dahlstrom’s Greentree Lodge on the Jericho Turnpike. Dahlstrom’s was a popular Swedish restaurant that served food smörgåsbord-style. This concept for displaying a variety of self-serve dishes would not become widespread until the smörgåsbord was introduced to the general public in the Swedish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
A RARE TREAT…Dahlstrom’s Greentree Lodge on Jericho Turnpike in Huntington, LI, was a popular Swedish restaurant that served food smörgåsbord-style from the 1930s through the 1960s. (Frank Leist via Facebook.com)
Closer to home, Hibben visited the Battery Park Restaurant, a “perky little kiosk sort of place where you can sit outside…and drink your beer while enjoying whatever air is stirring on the North Atlantic.”
MADE IN THE SHADE…The Battery Park Restaurant, circa 1936. (eBay.com)
* * *
Cheers Before Tears
In her continuing report on the Berlin Olympics, Janet Flanner noted that some German fans—despite their country’s “megalomaniacal nationalism”—were polite about the “monotony of the American victories,” and even offered cheers for the French bicycling team (whose country would be invaded by theirs in less than four years).
CYCLING GREATS…The French cycling team (left to right) Robert Charpentier, Guy Lapebie, Jean Goujon and Roger Le Nizerhy celebrate after winning the team race at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. The Frenchmen delivered a historic performance, capturing seven total medals (three Gold, two Silver, and two Bronze). Charpentier was the star of the team, becoming a triple Olympic champion across road and track disciplines. (Wikipedia)
Flanner also noted some not-so-happy events that would occur following the games, including initial steps by the Nazis that would lead to the systematic seizure and forced transfer of Jewish real estate and property to the Third Reich’s leaders, citizens, and collaborators. It seems unlikely that Flanner was unaware of at least some of this plan, although she never explicitly mentions that this “real-estate adjustment” was directed solely at Jewish property owners.
THE UGLY TERM “Aryanization” referred to the forced transfer of Jewish-owned homes and businesses to the Third Reich’s leaders, citizens, and collaborators. Above, the formerly Jewish-owned store Gummi Weil was expropriated and transferred to non-Jewish ownership (Stamm and Bassermann). Frankfurt, Germany, 1938. (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We begin with Seagram’s, promoting their signature whiskies and “soft-stilled” gin…
…White Rock continued to feature their clever and colorful John Holmgren-illustrated ads…
…Rheingold offered up their “Keglined” canned beer as a summer refresher…
…Wamsutta Mills of New Bedford, Massachusetts became the world’s largest cotton-weaving plant by the end of the 19th century…their iconic “Supercale” sheets (introduced in 1935) typically featured a 200-thread-count…
…William Randolph Hearst’sNew York American (soon to merge with Hearst’s New York Evening Journal) boasted a lineup of writers including short story writer and journalist Damon Runyon, movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons, Forbes magazine founder B.C. Forbes, and “Cholly Knickerbocker“—a pseudonym used by society writers, in this case by Maury Henry Biddle Paul…
…another Flit ad by Dr. Seuss, this time an illegitimate child saves the roof over his head by whipping out some insecticide…
…Stage magazine featured caricatures by Sam Berman to promote its “Great Expectations” issue…
…Susan Willard Flint opens up our illustrators and cartoonists section…
…joined by James Thurber…
…and spots by Garrett Price…
…Richard Taylor…
…and Christina Malman…
…Leonard Dove drew up a stylish scarecrow…
…and a woman who knows what she likes…
…Robert Day found more than scenery on a trip to Yellowstone…
…Barney Tobey exchanged some quick greetings on the omnibus line…
…Charles Addams gave us a case of equatorial insomnia…
…Ned Hilton’s inker had some editing to do…
…George Price gave new meaning to being “in the doghouse”…
…Rea Irvin revealed another advance in American ingenuity…
…Louis Priscilla published the third of a total of three cartoons he contributed to The New Yorker from 1933 to 1936…Priscilla was also a magazine illustrator and a teacher at the Art Students League of New York…
…Helen Hokinson’s club ladies hoped to wow Edna St. Vincent Millay with some of their own poetry…
…and to close…if you’ve seen photos of Coney Island beaches in the 1930s, you know Peter Arno isn’t exaggerating much here…
Above: E.B. White had a bone to pick with whiskey distillers who tried to establish "quick antiquity" by naming their products "Old Something-or-Other." That was not true for these two brands—Old Grand-Dad was introduced in Kentucky in 1840, while Old Overholt debuted in Pennsylvania in 1810, making it America's oldest continually maintained whiskey brand. Both are now subsidiaries of Japan's Suntory Global Spirits. (alcohol professor.com/pinterest)
With the official end of Prohibition on December 5, 1933, brewers and distillers raced to ramp up production and revive brands that had lain dormant for more than a decade. Distillers of aged spirits like rye and whiskey were especially keen to invoke history and tradition when marketing their tipple.
August 15, 1936 cover by Paul C. Robertson.
In some cases newer distilleries made generous use of the word “Old” in their branding, according to E.B. White in his “Notes and Comment.” White also called out the folks at Seagram’s, who compared the character of Thomas Jefferson to that of their “V.O.” whisky (no “e” in spirits tied to British distilling traditions—Scotland, Canada, Japan, Wales, India). Most egregious, however, was the ad’s claim that Jefferson helped to draft the Constitution. White explained:
HE DID WHAT?…E.B. White called out the Seagram’s ad (left, from the July 25 issue of The New Yorker) for its historic inaccuracy (the distiller erroneously credited Thomas Jefferson for the Constitution; at right, the character and leadership of the Founding Fathers (and other early American leaders) were oft-employed metaphors for a number of whiskey brands, including James E. Pepper. (facebook.com)GOLDEN OLDIES…Here are more examples of historic figures being associated with fine spirits…at left, in 1960 the makers of Old Crow (founded 1835) depicted the genocidal Andrew Jackson pouring a glass of the stuff for Martin Van Buren; at right, in 1937 the makers of Old Taylor (1887) used quotes and themes from Thomas Paine’s revolutionary writings to promote their Kentucky Straight Bourbon. (bourbonbanter.com/etsy.com)
While we are on the subject of ardent spirits, let’s take a look at these excerpts from “The Talk of the Town” (attributed to Eugene Kinkead and Russell Maloney), which told the story of a private detective who had a nose for liquor— disguised as hair tonic.
A SIP WITH YOUR SHAVE…During Prohibition (1920–1933), high-alcohol hair tonics like Rexall 93 (containing up to 24% alcohol) were legally sold as cosmetics but were frequently bought and consumed by people seeking a cheap, accessible substitute for bootleg liquor. The photo at right is of a 1930s barbershop—it is not implied that these fine gentlemen were involved in such illicit activities. (ebay.com/pinterest.com)
A closer look at the Rexall label—the makers made sure “24% Alcohol” was clearly visible. Folks known as “strainers” would run hair tonics like these through bread, cloth, or charcoal to filter out poisonous additives, obviously a dangerous practice.
* * *
Doggy Downer
The legendary Kress “five-and-dime” stores, with more than 250 locations across twenty-nine states, served the needs of regular folks, but the designs of its stores were anything but pedestrian. This was especially true of its Fifth Avenue location, a 1935 Art Deco masterpiece. Given its lofty address, it was no place for one to order a lowly hot dog. E.B. White explained:
DECO EDIFICE…Samuel Henry Kress believed his department stores should function as works of public art that elevate the shopping experience for ordinary people. The company maintained an in-house architectural division, under the leadership of architect Edward F. Sibbert, that designed iconic, custom buildings, including the 1935 flagship S. H. Kress & Co. store on Fifth Avenue and 39th Street, an Art Deco masterpiece rendered in granite, bronze, and stainless steel; at right, a view of the store’s Ladies Lounge. Sadly, the building was razed in 1983. (Museum of the City of New York/New York Public Library)
* * *
Merely Mortal
Janet Flanner filed her second report from the Berlin Olympics, where America’s Black athletes dominated the track and field events (ESPN’s Larry Schwartz credits Jesse Owens for “single-handedly crushing Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy”). Flanner noted attempts by propagandists to make sense of the beating they received, including likening the American athletes to wild animals “living in a state of innocence.” Excerpts:
CONQUERING HEROES…Eighteen Black athletes went to Berlin as part of the U.S. team in 1936. Clockwise, from top left: Standing are high jumpers Dave Albritton and Cornelius Johnson, hurdler Tidye Pickett, sprinter Ralph Metcalfe, boxer Jim Clark, and sprinter Mack Robinson…in front, weightlifter John Terry (left) and long jumper John Brooks; Jesse Owens captured four gold medals and became the hero of the Olympics—his long jump (26 feet 5-1/2 inches) was an Olympic record; the American press reported widely on the friendship between Owens and his German long jump competitor Carl Ludwig (“Luz”) Long…Long was killed in action during World War II; the faithful offer their ugly salutes at the opening of the games. (webs.org/Bundesarchiv Koblenz/ushmm.org/history.com)
Flanner also reported on the great fanfare at the opening of the games, including “seventeen searchlights, from far outside the arena…a lofty birdcage of streaming light beams.” One wonders if those same searchlights were deployed during the war four years later, when RAF Lancaster bombers began their night bombing campaign of Berlin.
* * *
At the Movies
Last week we saw Lionel Barrymore in drag (as an old woman) in The Devil Doll. This week he resurfaces as a senile old warhorse in The Road to Glory, a Howard Hawks war film with a screenplay co-written by William Faulkner (the film also featured Frederic March, who had star billing in three major films in 1936). John Mosher found the film “presentable,” but nothing special. The same went for Down Under the Sea, a film concerning sponge divers who battle over the affections of a woman (Ann Rutherford).
WERE THEY SPONGE WORTHY?…Clockwise, from top left: Ann Rutherford finds herself torn between two sponge divers vying for her affections in Down Under the Sea (aka Down to the Sea); divers Ben Lyon and Russell Hardie surprise Rutherford with a “native necklace” in the film; Frederic March, Lionel Barrymore, and Warner Baxter in The Road to Glory; June Lang with March in The Road to Glory. (eBay/silverscenesblog)
Mosher also took in Jailbreak, a minor noir picture about racketeers, cops and newspaper reporters.
SERIOUS BUSINESS…Barton MacLane, June Travis and Joseph Crehan in Jailbreak. (IMDb.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
The inside front cover featured a wholesome image of a roadside stand on behalf of leaded gasoline…the makers of Ethyl, which boosted octane ratings and stopped engine knocking, deliberately hid or omitted the word “lead” in their advertising…I don’t miss the Ethyl, but I do miss those roadside stands…
…Warner Brothers took out a full-page ad to trumpet the East Coast release of their epic drama Anthony Adverse, which would go on to win four Academy Awards…
…the original torch singer Helen Morgan lent her endorsement to a budget cigarette brand in this back of the book ad…at this point her career would be headed on a downward spiral, ending with her death in 1941…
…the makers of the Dominican rum Siboney competed with Cuban rival Barcardi with this colorful full-page ad illustrated by American graphic artist Ervine Metzl…
…Barcardi placed this front cover advertisement in Aug. 1, 1936 New Yorker (illustrated by George de Zayas)…
…James Thurber kicks off the cartoons with two terrific spot drawings…
…this spot drawing by Victor de Pauw recalls my favorite childhood book, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939), by Virginia Lee Burton…
…I’m not sure if one would call this a spot drawing or a caption-less cartoon, at any rate, Garrett Price aptly illustrated the dangers of swimming beyond the bouys…
…Rea Irvin demonstrated the perils of dognapping in this multi-panel entry…
…William Steig celebrated summer in the city…
…Helen Hokinson drew up an urgent social connection…
…Denys Wortman looked in on the trappings of motherhood…
…Alan Dunn showed us one effect of long-distance travel…
…and Dunn again, with a man who’d rather not ask questions…
…and leave it to Charles Addams to draw up The New Yorker’s first Medusa-themed cartoon…
…before we continue, here are other interpretations of the mythic Gorgon from The New Yorker…this one by Lars Kenseth is from Jan. 21, 2019…
…this is by Ali Solomon (Oct. 29, 2025)…
…and from May 3, 2025, this terrific caption contest cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein (and the winning caption by Peter Sergison, Durham, NC)…
…and here’s a timely cartoon by Daryl Seitchik that was rejected by the magazine…
…we go back to 1936 with George Price and a plucky salesman…
…Chon Day made an unappetizing find at the fish market…
…Gardner Rea looked in on a summer stock performance…
…Peter Arno drew up a Milquetoast unwittingly ordering a knuckle sandwich…
…and we close with some racy decor, courtesy Richard Taylor…
Above: The building that housed Manhattan's Democratic Party, known as Tammany Hall, circa 1935, and James Joseph "Jimmy" Hines, perhaps Tammany's most powerful leader. (wpsu.org/facebook.com)
Tammany Hall was founded more than two hundred years ago as an independent social organization serving the needs of New York City’s immigrants and Irish Catholics in particular. After the 1854 mayoral election, however, Tammany grew into a powerful political force, and for nearly a century controlled both city and state elections and the power of patronage that came with them.
July 25, 1936 cover by William Crawford Galbraith.
It was no secret that political graft was rampant in the organization, but business leaders were happy to support Tammany’s corrupt practices as long as they served the bottom line. The same, it seems, also applied to politicians, law enforcement, and the courts, beneficiaries of political favors as well as outright bribes.
Few knew how to work Tammany’s levers better than James Joseph “Jimmy” Hines (1876–1957), who held absolute power over New York’s Eleventh District. Journalist Jack Alexander published Part One of a three-part profile on Hines for the July 25 issue. Excerpts:
SOBER REPORTING…Journalist Jack Alexander (1902–1975) was a reporter in St. Louis before joining New York’s Daily News in 1930. He later worked for The New Yorker and then moved to The Saturday Evening Post, where he became senior editor. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1941 article on Alcoholics Anonymous. (saturdayeveningpost.com)
Tammany was weakened when their scandal-plagued mayor, Jimmy Walker, was ousted in 1932 and eventually succeeded by reformist Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Hines, however, grew even more powerful as head of the U.S. Civil Service’s patronage system for Manhattan District employees. Ironically, Hines was appointed to the post by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who saw Tammany as a liability but owed Hines a favor—in 1932 Hines split from other Democratic machine bosses (who initially favored Al Smith) to back Roosevelt’s bid for the presidency.
One person who was not tainted by Hines’ influence was Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, who in 1936 was busy going after New York’s rackets and Hines in particular.
William Auerbach-Levy provided the illustration for Part One of the Hines profile:
In these excerpts, Alexander noted Hines’ “ace in the hole” (the White House) when Tammany Leader James J. Dooling tried to oust him.
I’M GONNA GET YA…Clockwise from top left: In 1936 reformers looked to Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey to fight New York’s entrenched rackets; Jimmy Hines (right) leaves the courthouse after a 1938 mistrial; Hines was accused of having close ties with mobsters Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano among others; Hines with his attorney, Martin Littleton, after leaving Tombs Prison on April 4, 1939—he was released on $35,000 bail pending an appeal for his conviction as a political fixer for the numbers racket. Hines would lose the appeal—convicted on thirteen counts of racketeering, he would be imprisoned at Sing Sing until 1944. (alchetron.com/facebook.com/Wikipedia)
Despite his misdeeds, Hines’ many admirers remained faithful to him until his death in 1957 at age 80. Many recalled his annual “June Walk” from the days before he went to prison. According to his New York Times obituary, the annual event in Central Park drew as many as twenty-five thousand women and children, who “listened to half a dozen brass bands, put on paper hats and gorged themselves on ice cream, hot dogs and pop furnished by Hines, who used to take part in the fun wearing the gay green bucket hat of the stage Irishman.” The obituary noted that when Hines left Sing Sing prison, a guard said, “Best of luck. Jimmy! Give my regards to the missus!”
* * *
At the Movies
Critic John Mosher found the perfect distraction from the summer heat in the Mary Boland–Charlie Ruggles comedy Early to Bed:
SILLY SOMNAMBULIST…From left, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles and Colin Tapley in Early to Bed. (Pinterest)
Mosher also reviewed a Nero Wolfe mystery starring Edward Arnold, and a rather “slight” romance featuring an heiress with a penchant for speeding.
HOMEBODY…Rex Stout’s portly detective Nero Wolfe loved to solve crimes without venturing from the comforts of home. Clockwise, from top left; Edward Arnold (as Wolfe) with John Qualen, Lionel Stander, and Dennie Moore in Meet Nero Wolfe; eighteen-year-old Rita Hayworth (credited as Rita Cansino) appeared in several Nero Wolfe scenes as she continued to build her résumé at Columbia; an heiress with a lead foot runs afoul of a traffic cop (Randolph Scott) who eventually falls in love with her in “And Sudden Death; Frances Drake as the heiress in a scene with Tom Brown. (dancinglady39.wordpress.com/csfd.cz)
* * *
Genteel Sport
The New Yorker featured a variety of sports in its early years, most of them elite pastimes except for hockey, college football and boxing. Save for the occasional mention of Babe Ruth’s antics (and his 1926 “Profile”) and a scattering of cartoons and spots, the game was conspicuously absent from the magazine during the Yankees’ “Murderers’ Row” years in the late 1920s and beyond. I’ve read that editor Harold Ross hated the game, but perhaps the real reason was explained by James Thurber in his “Talk of the Town” piece titled “Peanuts and Crackerjack” (September 22, 1928). Thurber described Yankees baseball as a mass spectacle for out-of-towners who were “a bit mad.” It wasn’t cool to be a Yankees fan if you counted yourself among Manhattan’s smart set.
G.O.A.T. HERD…Less than a month after James Thurber published “Peanuts and Crackerjack,” the New York Yankees would sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in The World Series. The 1928 Yankees set a major league record by having nine players on the team who would eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame. (Wikipedia)
Basketball was also missing from those early issues of The New Yorker, even though it had been played since the 1890s. So we turn to New Yorker cartoonist and author Michael Maslin (via his essential Ink Spill), who recently noted The New Yorker’svery first basketball-themed cartoon by Robert Day (Dec. 23, 1933). The post also features Abe Birnbaum’s terrific 1951 basketball-themed cover and a hilarious MAD magazine parody of Charles Addams.
The elite sports that dominated the back half of the magazine in those early years included golf, tennis, badminton, squash, yachting, rowing, horse hunts and horse racing, and polo (both indoor and out).
Lets look at a couple from the July 25 issue, beginning with these brief excerpts from the “Polo” column authored by “Backhander”—a generic pen name that referred to a rotating cast of polo correspondents including Robert F. Kelley, George F. T. Ryall and Tom O’Reilly (who covered indoor polo).
ELECTRIC HORSEMEN…At left, the Jaipur Polo team (shown here in England in 1933) won all the open tournaments between 1930 and 1938 in India and England. From left is Maharaja Swai Man Singh of Jaipur State and Rao Raja Hanut Singh, Rao Raja Abhey Singh and Colonel Prithvi Singh of Baria; at right, international polo star Laddie Sanford was the dynamic patron and captain of the famed Hurricanes, which won the U.S. Open in three different decades. (The Rajputs via Facebook/polo museum.org)
The “Yachts and Yachtsman” column was also signed by a pen name—”Bosun”—signifying any staff writer assigned to boat races or boat shows. In this case the writer was H. K. Rigg, who covered the start of the 1936 Larchmont Race Week, one of the most successful and heavily attended spectacles in the early history of yacht racing.
ON YOUR MARK…Photo above depicts the start of the July 21, 1936 Larchmont Yacht Club Race. The 1936 event is remembered for its massive turnout—300 boats duelling through crowded waters. In the Aug. 1, 1936 issue of The New Yorker,H. K. Rigg wrote that a “sausage balloon” was needed just to see over the congested fleet. (Rosenfeld Collection via newyork32.org)
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From Our Advertisers
A couple of issues ago we looked at the Advertising Federation of America’s “truth in advertising campaign” (Better Living Through Fiction) that sought to forestall government regulation. On June 29, 1936, the AFA hosted more than a thousand ad executives in Boston, where the head of advertising at Scripps-Howard criticized competitive selling among papers (it hurt them in competition with other media). Newspaper ad executives were urged to work together as a profession, and that likely explains this lavish two-page spread in The New Yorker…
…as well as this full-page appeal from the Chicago Daily News…
…and this spot from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin…
…Dr. Seuss was still honing his style in ads for Flit insecticide…
…this White Rock ad featured the work of two artists…the prolific R. John Holmgren famously illustrated White Rock ads in the 1930s and 40s, often featuring the “tiny Colonel,” seen below regarding the original painting of Psyche at Nature’s Mirror by German artist Paul Thumann…the owners of White Rock bought the rights to the painting after seeing it at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and adopted Psyche as their trademark…Holmgren would incorporate a modernized version of Psyche in dozens of ads…
…on the inside front cover Seagram’s referenced the character of Thomas Jefferson as an apt metaphor for their product…
…and on the back cover the makers of Luckies kept it simple with this colorful appeal to the growing market for women smokers…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with another installment of “Limericks” by Morris Bishop featuring the unique style of cartoonist Richard Taylor…
…Alain helped open things up for the events calendar…
…as did Susan Willard Flint with her woodcuts…
…Ned Hilton offered a new wrinkle in a familiar game of skill…
…and Hilton again, preparing for take-off…
…Carl Rose used a double spread to illustrate a singles match…
…Alan Dunn illustrated a familiar problem of the electric age…
…and Dunn again with some realtor trickery…
…Helen Hokinson looked to an Eastern ascetic for some sage advice…
…and found one of her “girls” overdressed for an outing on the Thames…
…Rea Irvin celebrated the genius of American marketing…
…and we end with Peter Arno, and his unique view of matrimony…
Above: Political cartoon by Clifford Berryman depicting three supporters of the Neutrality Act, 1939; at right, Frank Sullivan at his favorite watering hole, the Worden Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. (nationalww2museum.org/digitalarchive.sspl.org)
In 1935 the American humorist Frank Sullivan introduced the “Cliche Expert” Mr. Arbuthnot to New Yorker readers, exploring a variety of bromides associated with everything from political campaigns to the legal system.
July 18, 1936 cover by Antonio Petruccelli.
For the July 18 issue Sullivan (1892–1976) called on Mr. Arbuthnot to explore the subject of war (Sullivan had some familiarity with the subject as a soldier in World War I). Below is the first of two excerpts from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War” (spot drawing by Susanne Suba):
A peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table, Sullivan wrote his first article for The New Yorker in 1925, and seven years later published his inaugural “Greetings, Friends!” Christmas poem (he would contribute forty-two of them, his last in 1974). He penned more than a dozen Mr. Arbuthnot stories from 1935 to 1952, and also introduced such characters as Aunt Sally Gallup, Martha Hepplethwaite, and the Forgotten Bach. An expert in comparative illusion, he is credited with this gem: “This is either a forgery or a damned clever original!”
Here is the second excerpt from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War”…
In a 1967 interview with The New York Times, Sullivan remarked that the war-divided country had lost its sense of humor. “But wars have never stopped humor,” he told Alden Whitman. Sullivan maintained that the world was more lighthearted in the 1920s and 30s, despite the horrors of World War I. “It was a time of beautiful nonsense,” he said.
SAGE OF SARATOGA was the nickname conferred upon Frank Sullivan, who preferred the simpler life in his hometown. Top left, the small clapboard house Sullivan shared with his sister in Saratoga Springs; at right, Sullivan reading the July 9, 1966 issue of The New Yorker; below, an Al Frueh illustration topped Sullivan’s annual “Greeting Friends!” message for the Dec. 26, 1936 issue. (algonquinroundtable.org/hillcountryobserver.com)
Here is the cover of the July 9, 1966 issue featured above; the painting is by Charles E Martin:
A final note: After his service in World War I, Sullivan moved to New York City and wrote for several newspapers including the New York World. After the World folded in 1931, Sullivan moved back to his hometown, Saratoga Springs, where he shared a small clapboard house with his older sister, Kate Sullivan. Of his preference for small town life, he wrote: “Once I visited New York for twenty years but I wouldn’t live there if you gave me Philadelphia. A small town is the place to live. I live in a small town 180 miles from New York and while I would not say it has New York beat by a mile I would put the distance at six furlongs.”
Called the “Ultimate Freelancer,” Sullivan wrote for The New Yorker for fifty years and also contributed to the New York Times sports section, the Saturday Evening Post, and Town & Country. His work is collected in more than a half-dozen books.
* * *
Hanging Around
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White noted the speed at which the Hindenburg made its Atlantic crossing, although the giant German airship had to hover over Lakehurst, N.J. for an extra hour to wait for customs officials to get out of bed. White also mentioned a “Dr. Eckener,” a reference to Zeppelin captain Hugo Eckener (see below), who was also manager of a German aircraft company that produced the ill-fated Hindenburg.
DOOMSDAY MACHINE…The Hindenburg flies above New York City in 1936—the airship made seventeen round trips across the Atlantic in 1936—its first and only full year of service—with ten trips to the United States. The Hindenburg would famously crash and burn while docking in Lakehurst, NJ on May 6, 1937. (zeppelin-museum.de)LOYAL TO AIRSHIPS, NOT GASBAGS…Airship innovator Hugo Eckener was apparently commanding the Hindenburg flight noted by E.B. White, but he was not on board when the giant airship crashed and burned the following May. A stickler for safety, Eckener was sidelined by the Nazi regime and replaced by Hitler loyalists. (Wikipedia)
White also commented on a recent evening at the movies “in the back country,” where a Clark Gable–Myrna Loy picture was playing in a makeshift theater outfitted with wooden benches.
RUSTIC RIVOLI…E.B. White found the silver screen a bit diluted in a “back country” theater, probably similar to the one pictured at left. He most likely took in the film Wife vs Secretary featuring Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. (facebook.com/MGM)
* * *
Komrade With Kamera
Humorist Leo C. Rosten contributed numerous short fiction stories to The New Yorker as well as several “A Reporter at Large” pieces between 1936 and 1939. He published “A Shot of Lenin’s Tomb” (classified as fiction) in the July 18 issue. Two brief excerpts:
THE SOUL OF WIT…Leo C. Rosten (1908–1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Fran Lebowitz once called Rosten “the Jewish James Thurber.” Above, Rosten circa 1940s and a foggy view of Lenin’s Tomb, undated. (forward.com/tass.com)
* * *
Crossing Over
Station wagons were first built in the 1910s as custom jobs—independent manufacturers would produce wooden bodies for the Model T chassis. These were considered “depot hacks” and commercial vehicles rather than family cars. But things changed in the 1930s as manufacturers saw their potential in the consumer market. Journalist George F.T. Ryall (pen name “Speed”), who wrote the “Motors” column for The New Yorker in the 1930s, looked in on the new automobiles that would foreshadow today’s crossovers.
IN THE FAMILY WAY…In the mid-1930s U.S. automakers began introducing a new kind of car—the station wagon. Pictured above are the 1936 Dodge Westchester Suburban (left) and the 1936 Chevrolet Carry-All Suburban. (Facebook.com/hemmings.com)
* * *
At the Movies
The 1929 play The Green Pastures, which portrayed Old Testament stories as seen through the eyes of a young Black child, was written by playwright Marc Connelly, one of founding members of the Algonquin Round Table. The play was based on Roark Bradford’s popular 1928 story collection Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun (strongly criticized over the years for its patronizing and demeaning portrayals of Black characters). Connelly, who won a Pulitzer for the play, also directed its screen adaptation, one of just six feature films in the Hollywood Studio era to feature an all-Black cast. Critic John Mosher gave the film, along two other releases, an unenthusiastic review.
HEAVEN CAN WAIT…Clockwise from top: Oscar Polk (left) as the Angel Gabriel with “De Lawd” (Rex Ingram) in The Green Pastures—the film was a commercial success despite criticisms about its racial stereotyping; Robert Young, Gene Raymond and Barbara Stanwyck in The Bride Walks Out; Dorothy Gish and Charles Laughton in Wanted Men, originally released as the 1930 British crime film Wolves. (cinemafaith.com/imdb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
We set off down a long road with a tankful of leaded petrol…
…from the back of the book, select living arrangements from the upscale to the budget conscious…
…this ad from Bell Telephone anticipated the Sherman Brothers 1964 earworm that still accompanies a popular Disney attraction…
…the back inside cover offered a colorful splash of sex and humor (and a bit of phonetics) to promote Siboney Rum…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with some heavy lifting from Garrett Price…
…Richard Taylor sketched up these merry illustrations for a Morris Bishop ditty…
…Alain engaged in some market research…
…and channelled a bit of Barbara Shermund humor…
…Dorothy McKay explored the sad world of phonies and cheapskates…
…Alan Dunn gave us a dutiful doorman…
…and Dunn again, contemplating a hefty tome…
…Helen Hokinson continued her exploration of department store drama…
…as well as the world of foreign affairs…
…Syd Hoff sounded the alarm on some burning cutlets…
…and we close with the master of dark humor, Charles Addams…
Above: Introduced by the American Tobacco Company in 1917, the iconic slogan "It's Toasted" became the cornerstone of Lucky Strike marketing in the 1930s. The company claimed their heat-curing method (as opposed to sun-drying) removed tobacco's "corrosive acids." This 1933 Lucky Strike advertisement was illustrated by Hayden Hayden. (wash.edu)
In May 1936 the Advertising Federation of America (AFA) celebrated the 25th anniversary of its “truth in advertising” movement, highlighting the work of vigilance committees that encouraged advertisers to avoid government intervention through self-regulation. As one can imagine, such voluntary efforts were largely ignored.
July 11, 1936 cover by William Steig.
The celebration was short-lived, for later that year the Food and Drug Administration’s Ruth Lamb, published American Chamber of Horrors: The Truth About Food and Drugs. Lamb, who was head of public relations for the FDA, based her publication on a FDA traveling exhibit that exposed dangerous, poisonous, and deceptively marketed cosmetics, foods, medicine, and medical treatments. Lamb played an important role in advising Congress on new regulations that culminated in the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938, which expanded the Federal Trade Commission’s unfair competition mandate to include consumer protections from “unfair or deceptive acts or practice.” That same year, Congress also passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, requiring pre-market safety testing and prohibiting false therapeutic claims.
BLISTERS INSTEAD OF BEAUTY…In 1933 the makers of Lash Lure mascara promised women a permanently made-up look using aniline dye on eyelashes. Tragically, Lash Lure contained p-phenylenediamine, which caused horrific blisters, abscesses and ulcers on the face, eyelids and eyes of Lash Lure users. It even led to blindness in some women. (livingnewdeal.org)
Apparently Lamb hadn’t yet published her American Chamber of Horrors when E.B. White filed his July 11 “Notes and Comment.” He did, however, pen this satirical take on the AFA’s sanctimonious commitment to the “truth.”
…Otto Soglow provided this apt illustration along the bottom of White’s “Notes” column…
HORROR SHOW…The FDA’s Ruth Lamb displays some of the worthless and harmful products in her “Chamber of Horrors.” Lamb was instrumental in advising Congress on new drug and food legislation. (Wikipedia)BUYER BEWARE…Clockwise, from top left: In the 1930s Othine promised to remove brown spots and lighten skin; the active ingredient was mercury; Bred-Spred was a line of beautifully colored “jellies” that did not contain the industry standard of 50 percent fruit/juice to qualify as jelly. Indeed, they had no fruit or juice at all—just artificial colors and flavors, and in the case of the “strawberry flavor” pictured above, a few hayseeds were added to simulate strawberry seeds; a circa 1930 ad claiming substantial weight loss simply by listening to a record. (fda.gov/brandingstrategyinsider.com)
Quackery was not confined to the smaller companies. Big Tobacco made outlandish claims regarding the health benefits of smoking…
BIG MONEY from tobacco companies financed these splashy ads from the 1930s, including, from left, Lucky Strike’s weight-loss claims; Philip Morris asserted they used a different type of moistening agent that also prevented throat irritation—these ads were aimed at easing smoker anxiety about deep inhaling; R.J. Reynolds claimed their Camels did everything from aiding digestion to easing one’s nerves. Many of the ads featured famous athletes claiming they could smoke all they wanted and still perform at their peak. (Stanford.edu)
* * *
A Quiet Place
E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) revealed a hallowed spot in the city where he could gather his thoughts on hot summer mornings…
REFUGE FROM THE HEAT AND DIN…This apartment building’s courtyard at 277 Park Avenue offered E.B. White a place to ponder on a summer day. Built in 1905 and designed by McKim, Mead and White, the apartments were demolished in 1964 and replaced with a glass tower. (mcny.org)
* * *
On Your Mark
“The Talk of the Town” visited the new Randalls Island Stadium (later renamed Downing Stadium). Built with WPA funding, the stadium hosted the Men’s Olympic Track and Field Trials where Jesse Owens qualified for the Berlin Summer Games.
READY TO RUN…Aerial photo of the new Randalls Island Stadium taken on July 10, 1936, the day before the Olympic trials; at right, Jesse Owens at the stadium’s Olympic tryouts—Owens dominated the competition by winning the 100-yard dash, the 220-yard run, and the broad jump. He would go on to win four gold medals at the Berlin Games. (Associated Press/randallsisland.org)
* * *
Ach Du Lieber
In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker offered his thoughts on the state of higher education in Nazi Germany:
* * *
Haggard and Debonair
Margaret Case Harriman profiled talent agent and theatrical producer Leland Hayward (1902–1971), a kid from Nebraska City, Nebraska who would become a renowned playboy (married five times) and agent to scores of Hollywood actors. He would also produce the original Broadway stage productions of South Pacific and The Sound of Music. Excerpts:
ALL SMILES…at left, Katharine Hepburn with agent/boyfriend Leland Hayward arriving at director George Cukor’s home, circa 1936; Hayward with wife number three Margaret Sullivan, circa 1940. (instagram.com/alchetron)
* * *
Juvie Justice
For the column “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Gamins”), Morris Markey looked in on the workings of the Children’s Court on East Twenty-second Street. Beginning with the sixth paragraph is an example of how teen pregnancies were addressed in New York ninety years ago. Excerpts:
Markey examined the possible outcomes of unwed mothers and fathers, and concluded that the Children’s Court was a realistic and kindly way to deal with these issues as well as a range of juvenile offenses. History seems to be on Markey’s side; for its time, the Children’s Court offered a progressive approach that kept minors from the horrors of the prison system.
STILL STANDING…The Children’s Court building on East Twenty-second Street was visited by Morris Markey for his column. Today it serves as Newman Hall for CUNY’s Baruch College. (J.C. Rice via nypost.com)JUST SOME KIDS HANGING OUT…Arnold Eagle’s Federal Art Project photo, “Boys Climbing the Fire Escape of a Deserted Building,” 1935. (mcny.org)
* * *
Some Lawn Tennis
American journalist and sports radio personality Cedric E. Adams (known as “Ced,” hence the initials below) occasionally provided tennis commentary for The New Yorker. Here he takes in Wimbledon, where he found the men’s matches dull and the women’s memorable.
THREE’S A CHARM…In 1936 Fred Perry won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon for the third year in a row, while Helen Jacobs’ “cool tactics” helped her capture the women’s title. (facebook.com/findagrave.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) was a rising star of the London stage when he moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Not making the breakthrough he had hoped for, he returned to London for stage and film work, including the 1935 film Moscow Nights, which was released in the U.S. in 1936 as I Stand Condemned. Critic John Mosher still wasn’t wowed by Olivier, but found the film better than average.
SPIES LIKE US…Laurence Olivier and Penelope Dudley-Ward in I Stand Condemned. Directed by Anthony Asquith, the film concerned a wounded officer who falls in love with his nurse. (rotten tomatoes.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “minor melodrama,” Forgotten Faces.
A GAMBLER AND A STRIPPER were portrayed by Herbert Marshall and Gertrude Michael in Forgotten Faces. (mubi.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Illustrator Jon Whitcomb sketched up this happy scene to promote this “Smart French Drink”…
…as noted in our lead story, cigarette manufacturers made all sorts of health claims connected to heavy smoking…
…now this was the way to travel…sadly the U.S. has largely abandoned reliable rail service…
…from the back of the book, enticements to escape the city into the countryside…
…another Dr. Seuss Flit ad, anticipating his 1954 bestseller Horton Hears a Who…
…on to our spots, we start with a summer stock-themed woodcut by Susan Willard Flint…
…escaping the heat with Christina Malman…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with caption-less entries by Constantin Alajalov…
…Daniel ‘Alain’ Brustlein…
…George Price…
…and Otto Soglow…
…Alan Dunn gave us a man seeking order in chaos…
…and Helen Hokinson gave us a woman turning chaos into order…
…another from Hokinson, anticipating a scene from The Music Man…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and a surprise announcement…
Above: Margaret Mitchell poses with her award-winning novel, c. 1938. Mitchell won the National Book Award for Fiction for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Gone With the Wind was the only novel she published in her lifetime. (britannica.com)
Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel Gone With the Wind and the 1939 film it inspired have both served as controversial reference points for cultural critics and scholars, particularly for the stereotypical and derogatory portrayals of African Americans in the 19th century South.
July 4, 1936 cover by Peter Arno.
Ninety years later the novel still proves divisive; it also remains one of America’s most-loved books. Worldwide, more than 30 million copies have been printed in the U.S. and abroad.
In 1936 the novel quickly rose to the top of fiction bestseller lists, and was generally well received by critics. Novelist and literary critic Louis Kronenberger (1904–1980), who sat in for Clifton Fadiman in The New Yorker’s book section, praised the novel for its “highfalutin absurdities,” calling it a “masterpiece of pure escapism.” Kronenberger wrote that Gone with the Wind provided “a kind of catharsis…of all the false sentiment and heady goo that even the austerest mind somehow accumulates and periodically needs to get rid of.” He correctly predicted that the novel would be “very feverishly discussed” once people found the time to read its thousand-plus pages. Excerpts:
GOO GONE…Clockwise, from top left: Reading Gone With the Wind will clear one’s “heady goo,” according to critic Louis Kronenberger; Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) seated before a selection of Gone With the Wind translations; an example of a German version of the novel—Gone With the Wind was translated into at least forty different languages with eight hundred unique international printings. (azquotes.com/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/georgiaencyclopedia.org)IT HAS HOW MANY PAGES?!…Clark Gable, who portrayed Rhett Butler in the 1939 film adaptation of Gone with the Wind, has a look at Margaret Mitchell’s doorstop of a book. Mitchell was not involved in the screenplay or film production. (yahoo.com)
* * *
Tweet From Tinseltown
Apparently actress Mary Astor was a New Yorker reader, having read an E.B. White “Notes” column that mentioned his stained-glass hummingbird feeders.
FOR THE BIRDS…A New Yorker column by E.B. White inspired actress Mary Astor to feed Hollywood’s hummingbirds. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Going, Going, Gone
A “Talk of the Town” piece co-written by A. J. Liebling and Russell Maloney tracked down what remained of the Central Park Casino, which had been demolished under the orders of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.
Moses hated former Mayor Jimmy Walker, and by association he hated Walker’s favorite haunt, the Central Park Casino. Despite pleas from preservationists to save the famous Art Deco supper club, which had been beautifully rebuilt by the late designerJoseph Urban, Moses moved as quickly as possible to demolish the building. Following a public auction, the iconic horseshoe-shaped bar and some interior fixtures were acquired by the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey and subsequently installed beside the park’s wave pool.
FROM GLITTER TO RUIN…Clockwise, from top left, the Central Park Casino on the evening of Sept.10, 1935; interior images of Joseph Urban’s elegant Art Deco designs; workers remove windows and interior fixtures as demolition commences in May 1936. (nycgovparks.com/centralpark.org/mcny.org)
* * *
Maddy Returns
It’s a shame that writer Maddy Vegtel is largely forgotten today. She wrote with great wit and verve, and was well known in the 1920s and 30s for her Vanity Fair profiles and for her articles about Holland, her native land. A contributor to The New Yorker from 1926 to 1956, she published this casual in July 4 issue.
* * *
Bad Men and Mad Men
The poet Ogden Nash shared his thoughts on the summer political convention season:
THE LORD’S ANOINTED…Ogden Nash (center) observed this belief in the political animal; at left and right, the Democratic and Republican nominees for president in 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alf Landon. (Wikimedia/poetryverse.com/Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
Critic John Mosher was on board for MGM’s musical-drama disaster film San Francisco, which told the story of a saloon keeper, a singer, and a priest caught up in 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
SHAKING IN THEIR BOOTS…Clockwise, from top left: MGM poster for San Francisco touts the first-time pairing of Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald in a film; scene from the film featuring, from left, Gable, Jack Holt, Spencer Tracy and MacDonald; the film included stunning effects, including an earthquake montage sequence that interspersed scenes of wreckage with the faces of terrified victims; Gable assesses the carnage in a scene from the film. (imdb.com/kittypackard.wordpress.com)
Mosher offered a tongue-cheek assessment of Shirley Temple’s appearance in her latest film, The Poor Little Rich Girl, noting that “There’s not the slightest indication of aging in Miss Temple.” The child star was just shy of eight years old when she filmed the picture. As for the The White Angel, Mosher found the Florence Nightingale biopic—with Kay Francis in the title role—”a little schoolbookish [and] quite on the dull side.”
THAT YOUTHFUL GLOW…Top photo: Critic John Mosher found Shirley Temple still able to “delight her tremendous public” in The Poor Little Rich Girl—she is seen here with co-stars Jack Haley and Alice Faye; Below: Kay Francis and Ian Hunter in The White Angel, a film about Florence Nightingale’s pioneering work as a nurse during the Crimean War. (tcm.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Sunscreen as we understand it today wasn’t available to New Yorkers in 1936, so they relied on zinc oxide and other mineral applications to avoid sunburns…however, Eugene Schueler, founder of L’Oréal, developed the first tanning oil with UV radiation-filtering properties in Europe in 1935 (active ingredient was benzyl salicylate), and later marketed it to the U.S. as Ambre Solaire…the brand is still sold today…
…Stage magazine continued to promote their 1911 throwback issue…
…the back cover belonged to Liggett & Myers, offering another romantic couple enjoying their Chesterfields…
…we open the cartoons with Richard Taylor, who felt the heat as summer took hold in the city…on July 4, 1936, the official high temperature in Central Park reached an unseasonably warm 93 degrees F (34 c), hitting 106 F (41C) five days later on July 9…that mark remains the city’s all-time absolute highest temperature…
…Otto Soglow’s spot art showed us how one well-heeled family escaped the hot city…
…while Susan Willard Flint offered a woodcut if a quiet cobbled street…
…Tom Holloway showed us how one posh kid delivered the Saturday Evening Post (Holloway was a cartoonist for the Post, contributing just two drawings to The New Yorker, both in 1936)…
…the woman’s expression says it all in this Helen Hokinson cartoon…
…George Price gave us a saleswoman who saw one two many pool floats…
…Gardner Rea drew up a vast estate for a man who (almost) had it all…
…Fritz Wilkinson did some deep sea swan diving…
…Gilbert Bundy found a clue at the gentleman’s club…
…Mary Petty went all out for the Fourth of July…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and the miracle of birth…
Above: Rochelle Hudson and W.C. Fields in scene from Poppy. Fields reprised his vaudeville character Professor McGargle (from the hit 1923 stage revue of the same name), who learns about a million-dollar inheritance meant for a long-lost local heiress and concocts a plan to pass off his daughter, Poppy, as the true heiress. (Facebook.com)
Eighty years after his death W.C. Fields is still recognized as one of the America’s great comic geniuses. When he made a sound film version of his hit Broadway play, Poppy, in 1936, many thought it would be his last, since he suffered from a variety of ailments including a bad back and chronic lung congestion. Doubtless two quarts of liquor a day also had a few people wondering.
June 27, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
It would have been an appropriate, if premature ending to Field’s career, since it was the Poppy stage play that launched him into national stardom (along with the play’s first adaptation into film, the 1925 silent Sally of the Sawdust). The play and the silent film introduced audiences to the lovable snake oil salesman “Professor” Eustace McGargle, who returned in the 1936 film, “a slightly blurred affair” according to critic John Mosher.
THE PROFESSOR RETURNS…Clockwise, from top left: W.C. Fields and Carole Dempster in 1925’s Sally of the Sawdust, which was based on the stage play Poppy and was directed by D.W. Griffith; Fields as Professor Eustace McGargle and Rochelle Hudson as Poppy in 1936’s Poppy; Fields and Catherine Doucet, who portrayed Countess Maggi Tubbs DePuizzi.(filmforum.org/doctormacro.com/facebook.com)
The “blurred” performance by Fields (1880–1946), the result of his various ills, didn’t seem to affect most critics—the New York Times, for example, called the film “a glorious victory.” Remarkably, Fields would live another ten years and go on to star in such classics as 1940’s My Little Chickadee, (with Mae West), 1940’s The Bank Dick, and 1941’s Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.
HELLO FRIENDS…W.C. Fields chats with his close friend and Poppy director Eddie Sutherland, who was accompanied by writer Dorothy Parker during a visit to the set of Poppy. (Facebook.com)
Mosher also reviewed a “sad” picture about the tragic life of a Tyrolean sexton, Sins of Man, and the musical comedy Dancing Pirate, which he deemed even sadder because it was so terrible (Mosher walked out during the middle of the picture).
FROM BELLS TO THE BOWERY…Jean Hersholt played a Tyrolian sexton with an American dream that goes awry in Sins of Man. (eBay.com)SEEING RED…Not even Technicolor could spare Dancing Pirate from John Mosher’s wrath. At left, Steffi Duna and Charles Collins in a dance scene; eighteen-year-old Rita Hayworth (right) appeared as an uncredited dancer in the film—here she poses in a publicity photo for 1936’s Human Cargos.(mediaplaynews.com/facebook.com)
* * *
All Aboard
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White described a trip on a Boston & Main streamliner that traveled along a branch line. Lacking a turning loop, the train had to run in reverse for half of the round trip.
TWO-WAY TICKET…The Boston & Main streamlined Flying Yankee (seen here in 1938) would run both forward and backward when traveling along a branch line that lacked a turning loop. (Wikipedia)
* * *
Furies Al Fresco
On June 17, 1936 Rockefeller Center opened the Promenade Café in the plaza surrounding the Prometheus Fountain (later that year a temporary ice skating rink took the spot, now a permanent, iconic feature of the plaza). Writing for “The Talk of the Town,” E.B. White commented on the breezy dining experience he shared with wife, Katharine Sergeant White. Excerpt:
FIRE AND ICE…Patrons enjoy dining with the god of fire in the plaza beneath 30 Rock, circa 1970. The plaza is converted to an ice skating rink in the winter. (eBay.com)
The magazine’s next issue (July 4) advertised dinner, dancing and thirty-five cent cocktails at the Promenade Café…
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We open with a June Bride and hubby tanking up on some leaded gas before heading to Niagara Falls…
…opposite the Ethyl ad was this Simeon Braguin-illustrated spot for Bergdorf…
…the pacifists behind the World Peaceways ads pulled no punches when delivering their anti-war message…
…Budweiser continued its laborious series of ads that employed analogies and metaphors to promote its best-selling suds…
…recall the ad from the April 18 issue of The New Yorker, when the brewer used this disagreeable analogy to tout its “vacuum-cleansing” process…
…the Revere Copper and Brass company responded to the recent invention of canned beer with an invention of its own…the Tapster, an elegant nickel and brass pitcher with a built-in punch on the underside of the lid…just insert a can, push down on the lid, and pour…great for the yacht, or as a gift to some newlyweds…
The nickel-silver and brass “Tapster” is highly sought by collectors today. (americanhistory.si.edu)
…in contrast to Budweiser’s wordy ads (or to White Rock’s colorful ones), the folks at Hoffman advertised their products with just a few lines of black ink…
…Don Dickerman continued to promote his latest “Pirates Den” near Port Chester…note that among many other talents, Dickerman was also an artist…he illustrated the ads for all of his enterprises, including this one…
…John Hanrahan, publisher and editor of Stage theater magazine (and who also helped put The New Yorker on solid financial footing), set aside the August 1936 issue as a special edition, the “1911 Number,” a nostalgic, tongue-in-cheek look back to the founding of Stage’s predecessor, The Theatre Guild Magazine. The magazine marked its 25th anniversary by examining the striking differences between 1911 and 1936 in the world of theater as well as in fashion and cultural mores.
…here is the cover of that issue, featuring Billie Burke, a leading Broadway actress who would marry producer and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr in 1914…she is still known today for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz…
(eBay.com)
…and Dr. Seuss was still at it, finding new and clever ways to deploy the insecticide Flit…
…the New York radio station WOR employed Otto Soglow to drum up some business for their ad department…WOR began broadcasting in early 1922, and is one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the U.S. (the three–letter call sign is characteristic of stations dating from the 1920s)…
…Soglow gives us a nice segue to our cartoonists and illustrators, beginning with a Susan Willard Flint woodcut…
…Alan Dunn contributed this spot drawing…
…as did Richard Taylor…
…Perry Barlow offered some sketches from the summer convention scene…
…Helen Hokinson considered the value of fortune-teller…
…Alain illustrated what dreams are made of, at least for one man…
…and what are friends for? Gardner Rea had an idea…
…Barbara Shermund offered a challenge at a dress shop…
…and Shermund again, with an enterprising commuter…
…just the facts ma’am, with Peter Arno in the court of law…
…Robert Day presented a construction conundrum…
…Rea Irvin took a child’s perspective of the wild world…
Above: Rudolf Persson's rendering of the main entrance to the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, designed by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund. The exhibition was a landmark event that introduced Functionalism to Swedish architecture and design.(Svensk Form)
Architecture critic Lewis Mumford turned his exacting eye on exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art that looked to the future of building design. Of particular interest was an exhibit on those world expositions that have given us everything from theEiffel Tower (1889 Exposition Universelle) to the car-dominated landscape that inspired millions of Depression-weary visitors at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair.
June 20, 1936 cover by Adolph K. Kronengold. Kronengold (1900–1986) created twenty-three covers for the New Yorker from 1928 to 1947. Born and raised in New Orleans, he frequently used watercolors and often painted scenes honoring his hometown. The June 20 cover was Kronengold’s seventeenth for the magazine.
Mumford made passing mention to the museum’s exhibit on government housing (he noted it was below MoMA’s standard) and then turned his attention to a review of world’s fairs, examining how they have inspired both waves of architectural achievement and “counterfeits of civic grandeur…”
BREAK FROM THE PAST…Images from the covers of MoMA’s exhibition catalogs depict the 1934-35 Carl Mackley Houses in Philadelphia (top, from the government housing exhibit) and the 1930 Stockholm Exposition. (MoMA.org)STILL SERVING…the 1934-35 Carl Mackley Houses in Philadelphia have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. (Wikipedia)PONDERING what a modern exhibition should be, Lewis Mumford cited the granddaddy of them, the London Exhibition of 1851 (top), with its Crystal Palace, which he called “the first definitive monument of modern architecture,” as definitive and challenging as the Pavillon L’Esprit Nouveau (bottom), designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret for the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. (devonandexeterinstitution.org/Wikipedia)SHAM AESTHETIC…Mumford referred to buildings in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (left) as “laborious limestone counterfeits of civic grandeur,” while praising the 1893 and 1900 Paris expositions for design innovations including the Art Nouveau style—at right is Le Pavillon Bleu, a lavish restaurant once located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It was built by French architect René Dulong in collaboration with Belgian architect and designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. (getzen.com/messynessychic.com)
Looking ahead to the planned 1939 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows, Mumford believed the age of grand world expositions had passed, especially those that moved the needle on design innovation. Moreover, he observed that the lack of real drama or rational purpose would threaten bankruptcy to future fairs, a symptom especially acute in America: “…a hasty transfer of attention from the agents of production to the organs of reproduction; a bevy of naked hussies remind the spectator that there are other wonders in Nature besides the harnessing of Niagara Falls, or the five-millionth Ford car.”
POINTING TO THE FUTURE..Rosalie Fairbanks, a guide to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, points to the theme of the exposition—the Trylon and Perisphere—after the entire sheath of scaffolding was removed for the first time on February 22, 1939. (Associated Press)
Earth-movers were already at work sculpting the fair’s site from the swampland and ash heaps along the Flushing River when Mumford assembled a self-anointed advisory group in 1936. This group— the “Fair of the Future Committee”—urged the fair’s leaders to abandon superficial commercialism and instead demonstrate how technology could serve the public good and restore ecological balance in American communities. That did not come to pass; when the fair opened in 1939, Mumford wrote in his “Sky Line” column (titled “Genuine Bootleg”) that the committee’s “hopes and proposals for a major contribution to urban design were progressively defeated. Today their wreckage is strewed about the Fair, so thoroughly smashed and disfigured that their own fathers could scarcely identify the corpses.”
FUTURAMA was a popular exhibit and ride at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the General Motors pavilion, it proposed a sprawling car-based future that was the antitheses of Lewis Mumford’s vision of human-scaled, ecologically balanced development. (Wikipedia)
Mumford got one thing right. Although the 1939 fair attracted more than 45 million visitors, it lost a lot of money, recouping only 32 percent of its original cost.
* * *
Only a Memory
In “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White recalled the brief life of “America’s Little House” at 39th and Park in the Murray Hill neighborhood. The eight-room Georgian colonial was built in 1934 during the “Better Homes in America” campaign that promoted single-family home ownership as well as design innovations. The CBS radio network (which contributed $50,000 to the project) installed a studio in the house’s garage, from which it broadcast three national radio programs to a hundred stations across the country.
Open for about a year, the house was demolished in November 1935, its doors and interior furnishings sold to hostesses who had worked at the house. In its place William Van Alen—architect of the Chrysler Building—erected the all-steel “House of the Modern Age.”
CHANGE OF SCENE…At left, America’s Little House on Park Avenue and 39th Street, replaced by William Van Alen’s prefabricated steel house (right), “The House of the Modern Age,” detail from a photo by Berenice Abbott. (Wikipedia/cornell.edu)
…in the following week’s issue of The New Yorker, June 27, a back of the book ad from the Modernage Furniture Corporation touted the opening of “The House of the Modern Age”…
* * *
Fan Fans
Staying on the domestic scene, here is an excerpt from Barbara Blake’s “About the House” column, where she updated readers on the latest in electric fans (air-conditioning in private homes was still a rarity).
ELECTRIC WIND…Barbara Blake highlighted the latest in electric fans including, clockwise from top left, the Airflow Safefan, which moved air with looped ribbons; the Samson Safeflex employed rubber blades as a safety feature; the noted designer Robert Heller produced these fan designs (1936 and 1937) modeled on airplane propellers. (worthpoint.com/ebay.com/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
* * *
Billy’s Beef
In 1899 vaudevillian Billy Watson (aka Isaac Levie) formed his Beef Trust burlesque troupe of plus-sized women. Although his shows starred women in the 200-pound range, he also relied on slight-of-hand provided by the “Tights King” Morris Kohan, who apparently could produce tights that could make a person look either heavier or slimmer. “The Talk of the Town” explains in this excerpt:
WHERE’S THE BEEF?…Billy Watson’s burlesque troupe of plus-sized women—the Beef Trust— padded their profiles with the aid of specially designed tights. (Facebook.com)
* * *
Divine Dilemma
In Part Two of Father Divine’s profile, St. Clair McKelway and A.J. Liebling recounted the preacher’s 1931 arrest, prompted by ongoing complaints from the citizens of Sayville, New York about the traffic jams caused by Divine’s daily feasts as well as the noise generated by the faithful who would holler hallelujahs late into the evening. During one of these late night revivals police raided Divine’s property and fined each of the seventy-eight followers a few dollars apiece. Divine, however, insisted on a jury trial, which was held seven months later. The charge: Maintaining a public nuisance.
Jurors convicted Divine, with a request for leniency, but Justice Lewis Smith sentenced the preacher to a year in prison, calling him a “menace to society.” However, four days later the judge dropped dead of a heart attack, and Divine was freed. The notion that the judge’s death was divine retribution was naturally perpetuated by the media. A brief excerpt, with illustration by Abe Birnbaum.
GET OUT OF JAIL CARD…In 1931 Father Divine was arrested for maintaining a public nuisance. Following a jury trial and conviction, the presiding judge dropped dead, leading the preacher’s freedom a few days later. (facebook.com/nydailynews.com)
* * *
At the Movies
The drama film Private Number was based on the 1915 play Common Clay, which had already been made as a silent in 1919 and as a sound film in 1930. The play had a somewhat scandalous theme for the time (a young servant is fired when she becomes pregnant by her employer’s son), but thanks to the Hays Code, the more scandalous parts of the earlier films were omitted in 1936’s Private Number, leaving the viewer with little except for some “old-fashioned hocus pocus,” according to critic John Mosher.
THE BUTLER DID IT…In Private Number,Basil Rathbone portrayed a tyrannical butler with a personal interest in one of his new maids (Loretta Young). She in turn secretly marries the scion of the family (Robert Taylor) and bears his child. Clockwise from top left: Poster for the film; Rathbone, Kane Richmond, and Young; Taylor, Young, and well-known canine actor Prince; rivals for a maid’s affection—Taylor and Rathbone. (Wikipedia/imdb.com/basilrathbone.net)
Thirty-nine-year-old Marion Davies appeared in one her final films, Hearts Divided, a musical based on the real-life marriage between American Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Although in real life Napoleon annulled the marriage, Hollywood gave the couple a happier ending.
THREE’S A CROWD…Napoleon (Claude Rains) comes between lovers Marion Davies and Dick Powell in Hearts Divided. The two also shared an off-screen romance behind the back of William Randolph Hearst, with whom Davies had a long-term relationship and to whom she believed she owed her career. (imdb.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Illustrator R. John Holmgren drew up this non-partisan appeal for White Rock mineral water…
…Stage magazine touted its upcoming July issue, featuring the “Glamour Girls” of Hollywood…
…here is the cover of that July 1936 issue, illustrated by Sam Berman featuring caricatures of leading ladies including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Merle Oberon, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn…
(abebooks.com)
…longtime member of the New Yorker coterie and contributor Alexander Woollcott appeared in this full-page ad endorsing the work of the American Civil Liberties Union…
…from the 1920s to the 1940s the Powers Reproduction Corporation was a prominent, New York City photo-engraving firm that created high-quality color images for magazines and advertising agencies…
…these back of the book ads joined forces to promote the healing waters of Saratoga Springs and the Gideon Putnam hotel and spa…apparently the waters and other spa services treated everything from heart conditions to obesity…
…Dr. Seuss returned with another scenario for insecticide use…
…on the inside back cover, the distillers of Four Roses Whiskey conjured up a June bride as an apt metaphor for their blending techniques…
…while Lucky Strike reclaimed the back cover with an ad that promoted its low acid cigarettes, whatever that meant…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, we begin with Arnold Hall…
…and Robert Day…
…with other featured spots from John Groth…
…Richard Taylor…
…and Otto Soglow…
…James Thurber drew up an unusual development in the sheepfold…
…Barbara Shermund posed a challenge for a hair dresser…
…and Shermund again, revealing a tactic of the modern woman…
…Carl Rose commanded a two-page spread to tell his tale of sin and redemption…
…Ned Hilton needed a hand at the subway station…
…Mary Petty gave us a patient in need of a second opinion…
Above: Father Divine points to a Crum Elbow Estate sign (in Highland, NY) in July 1938. His followers purchased the 500-acre spread from anti-New Dealer Howland Spencer...the property was located directly across the Hudson from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Hyde Park family home. That same summer Father Divine would also buy a fifty-room double dwelling in New York City. These and other locations served as integrated "heavens" for his followers. (Wikimedia Commons)
America has long been fertile ground for various religious denominations, sects and cults. Although the U.S. Religion Census has cataloged more than 370 distinct religious groups and bodies in the U.S., there are tens of thousands of independents scattered across the country.
June 13, 1936 cover by Leonard Dove.
Some of these remain small, while others grow into megachurches often organized around a charismatic leader. Such was the case with Father Divine (1876–1965), aka Reverend Major Jealous Divine, aka George Baker.
His life as George Baker of Valdosta, Georgia came to an end in 1907 when he became known as “the Messenger.” He parted ways with the Baptist church, declared himself a god, and was asked to leave Georgia after his 1914 arrest for lunacy. He led his followers to Brooklyn and later to a commune in Sayville, New York (Long Island), where he founded the International Peace Mission movement and came to be known as Father Divine. By the early 1930s his small and predominantly black congregation had grown into a multiracial and international church.
So intriguing was his story that The New Yorker published a lengthy, three-part profile written by St. Clair McKelway and A.J. Liebling. Here are excerpts from Part One (illustration by William Cotton):
A DEFT DUO…A.J. Liebling (left) and St. Clair McKelway, both acclaimed journalists, co-authored the three-part profile of Father Divine. Liebling (1904–1963) was closely associated with The New Yorker, joining the magazine in 1935 (he was also a well-known gastronome); McKelway (1905–1980) served as The New Yorker’s managing editor for journalistic contributions from 1936 to 1939 and wrote for the magazine for forty-seven years. (Wikipedia/sfgate.com)DIVINE’S PATH…Clockwise, from top left: After relocating to Brooklyn in 1914, Father Divine married his first wife, Peninniah—they are shown here admiring his portrait; Father Divine led large gatherings centered on food—here he entertains guests at a summer retreat in upstate New York in 1938; following the death of Peninniah, the 70-year-old Father Divine married 21-year-old Edna Ritchings in 1946—she took the name “Mother Divine, with Father Divine claiming she was the reincarnation of Penninah; in 1953 Father Divine was given a hilltop estate (“Woodmont”) in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, by follower John Devoute. The estate is the center of the International Peace Mission movement, a shrine to Father Divine’s life, and a meeting place for the few remaining followers. (thecityroot.com/Newark Public Library/hsmcpa.org/Wikipedia)
How did Father Divine come to believe he was a god? This excerpt offers some insights into his early development:
One of the perils of this kind of thinking is that it can lead to the formation of dangerous cults. Jim Jones, the notorious leader of the Peoples Temple, heavily modeled his early church activities and authoritarian structure on Father Divine’s example. Jones even attempted to take over the International Peace Mission after Father Divine’s death—in 1971 he tried to convert the Peace Mission’s followers, claiming he was the reincarnated Father Divine. His takeover attempt was thwarted by Mother Divine, who went to the media and publicly denounced Jones and the Peoples Temple. In 1974 Jones and his followers would relocate to a Guyana commune he called Jonestown. Four years later Jones would lead the mass murder-suicide of 909 Jonestown inhabitants.
AT ODDS…Jim Jones (left, circa 1970) attempted to take over the International Peace Mission after Father Divine’s death, but was publicly denounced by Mother Divine. At right, Mother Divine giving her first interview following the death of Father Divine in 1965. (Wikipedia/temple.edu)
* * *
At the Movies
The media has always thrived on crime stories, feeding the public’s insatiable desire to be tantalized; once sated, they often demand swift justice. Take the heavily publicized 1933 case of two San Jose, California men who were accused of kidnapping and murdering a department store heir. Rather than wait for justice to be served, an angry mob broke into the jail and lynched the accused. Fascinated by the story, MGM screenwriter Norman Krasna pitched it as a potential film.
That film would become Fury, German director Fritz Lang’s first American project. Prior to fleeing the Third Reich in 1933, Lang was perhaps best known to Americans for his pioneering 1927 silent sci-fi film Metropolis and the 1931 thriller M. Lang sought to demonstrate how a decent and civilized man could become filled with vengeance and hate. Although critic John Mosher could see how the film had been tampered with by studio execs (and the Hays Code), he was nevertheless impressed by Lang’s direction and by the performances of lead actors Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy.
WRONG TURN…Clockwise, from top left: In Fury,Spencer Tracy played gas station owner Joe Wilson, who drives west to reunite with his fiancée—the dog seated to his right is Terry, the same Cairn Terrier who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz; while camping outside a small town, Joe is arrested by a creepy local deputy (Walter Brennan) on suspicion of kidnapping a child; a mob forms and tries to burn Joe in his cell; in the confusion of the fire he escapes and seeks vengeance on the mob, but in the end finds peace with his fiancée (Sylvia Sidney). (imdb.com)
Peter Lorre, who was famously directed by Fritz Lang in the 1931 German thriller M, was starring in Alfred Hitchcock’sSecret Agent, which also featured John Gielgud (already famous as a London stage performer), Madeline Carroll, and Robert Young.
SECRETS AND LIES…Clockwise from top left: Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, Madeline Carroll, and Robert Young in Secret Agent; Carroll with Young, who played a German mole; Carroll, Gielgud and Lorre amid the wreckage of a train; Lorre in a scene with Lilli Palmer. (imdb.com)
Mosher briefly mentioned a new Fred MacMurray/Carole Lombard comedy–mystery, and the return of two silent movie stars.
CHOOSE YOUR PARTNER…The second of four films Fred MacMurray made with Carole Lombard between 1935 and 1937, The Princess Comes Across featured Lombard doing a clever take-off on Greta Garbo; silent-film veterans Harry Carey and Hoot Gibson stood for the ideals of the Old West in a culture clash with scientific crime-fighting in The Last Outlaw. The film was a remake of a 1919 silent film originally written and directed by John Ford.(imdb.com/csfd.cz)
* * *
Beer Bottle Battle
E.B. White (in his “Notes and Comment”) seized on the battle between bottle and can manufacturers as an apt metaphor for the jousting of Republicans and Democrats ahead of the November elections.
FOAMING AT THE MOUTH…Competing ads from Collier’s magazine circa 1935-36 illustrate the battle between can and bottle manufacturers. Ninety years later, beer drinkers still debate the merits of glass over cans. (boakandbailey.com/ebay.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
In 1936 whisky was still firmly in bottle form, and the makers of Canadian Club—through a series of ads—wanted to let us know you could enjoy their tipple almost anywhere in the world…
…this woman poses an interesting question, considering the fellas are riding atop a dusty stagecoach in the Arizona heat—in formal attire no less…
…over the years we’ve seen a lot of Adolph Teidler’s work for the Bermuda Board of Trade…Teidler (1886–1981) was also well known for his Saturday Evening Post covers…
…here’s an example of Teidler’s work for the Bermuda Board of Trade from the Feb. 22, 1936 issue of The New Yorker…
…the Zenith Radio Corporation touted their modern, streamlined “Zephyr” radio by industrial designer Robert Davol Budlong…
A restored Zenith 10-S-147 Zephyr chairside radio. (Pete Johnson–Zenith Radios Enthusiasts and Collectors via Facebook.com)
…Frank Quail Jr was a prominent automotive illustrator active from the 1920s through the 1930s. He was well-known for his work with luxury automobile brands such as Cadillac, LaSalle and Packard…here he conjures up a breezy seaside image for Cadillac’s more affordable LaSalle model (most of these ads were two-page spreads, with promo copy on the right-hand page)…
…and more Dr. Seuss on behalf of Flit insecticide…
…we begin the cartoon section with some spot art…here are two by Arnold Hall…
…and one from Richard Taylor…
…Alain referenced the upcoming heavyweight bout at Yankee Stadium between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis…their two fights in 1936 and 1938 were international sensations…
…more glimpses of “Holy Wedlock” from William Steig…
…a bit of trouble in Yonkers, per Carl Rose…
…George Price brought out the fire brigade for the Crêpes Suzette…
…Peter Arno drew up a colonel with a communication issue…
…William Crawford Galbraith celebrated the June bride…
…two by Mary Petty, at the dress shop…
and at the in-laws…
…Petty’s husband Alan Dunn feted the Class of ’36 (and ’06)…
…Perry Barlow illustrated a scoutmaster’s leadership skills…
A New Yorker State of Mind 