John Mosher – Page 6 – A New Yorker State of Mind

Portraits and Prayers

Above, left, a 1935 portrait of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten; right, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas arriving in New York aboard the French Line’s SS Champlain in 1934. (Library of Congress/AP)

Much of America’s literary world was abuzz about the arrival of Gertrude Stein in New York after her nearly three-decade absence from the States. Audiences were mostly receptive to Stein’s lectures, even if they were largely unintelligible, but The New Yorker would have none of it.

Stein (1874–1946) visited the U.S. at the urging of friends who suggested that a lecture tour might help her gain an American audience for her work. She crisscrossed the country for 191 days, delivering seventy-four lectures in thirty-seven cities.

Writing for the Smithsonian Magazine (October 2011), Senior Editor Megan Gambino notes that publishing houses regarded Stein’s writing style as incomprehensible (Gambino writes that shortly after her arrival in the U.S., “psychiatrists speculated that Stein suffered from palilalia, a speech disorder that causes patients to stutter over words or phrases”), but in 1933 “she at last achieved the mass appeal she desired when she used a clearer, more direct voice” in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. However, Stein was still best known in the U.S. for her “insane” writings, as one New York Times reporter described Stein’s work upon the writer’s arrival in New York. Excerpts from the Oct. 25, 1934 edition of the Times:

Stein had also achieved success in America via her libretto to Virgil Thomson’s opera Four Saints in Three Acts. Prior to her visit, Stein was featured in a newsreel reading the “pigeon” passage from the libretto, which James Thurber satirized in this piece titled “There’s An Owl In My Room.” Excerpts.

Here is a YouTube clip of the newsreel satirized by Thurber. Stein begins her “pigeon” reading at the 30-second mark:

If Thurber found the libretto ridiculous, it was an opinion not necessarily shared by audiences who attended Four Saints in Three Acts, which premiered in Hartford, Connecticut, before making a six-week run on Broadway.

SAINTS AND PIGEONS…The original cast of *Four Saints in Three Acts*, onstage at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1934; at right, **Gertrude Stein** reviews the libretto for Four Saints with American composer **Virgil Thomson,** 1934. (Harold Swahn/Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley)

Since Stein had never seen the opera performed, writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten convinced Stein and Toklas to fly on an airplane for the first time in order to be able to see the play in Chicago.

FLIGHT INSURANCE…Stein and Toklas were anxious about flying, so Van Vechten gave each a small Zuni fetish—a good luck charm as they prepared to board their plane at Newark. (Boatwright Memorial Library, The University of Richmond)

Thurber wasn’t the only New Yorker writer to throw shade on Stein’s visit. In his “Books” column, Clifton Fadiman described Stein as a “mamma of dada” and a “Keyserling in divided skirts” (Hermann Keyserling was a non-academic German philosopher known for his platitudinous, obscure writings). Excerpt:

Fadiman continued by excoriating Stein’s latest book, Portraits and Prayers, likening its “shrill, incantatory” quality to “the rituals of a small child at solitary play.”

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Over the Rainbow

We leave Gertrude Stein for the time being and check in with Lois Long, who was sampling the fall attractions of the New York nightclub scene in “Tables for Two.” In these excerpts, the 32-year-old Long continued her pose as a much older woman (“about to settle down with a gray shawl”) as she bemoaned the bourgeoisie excess of places like the Colony, once known for its boho, speakeasy atmosphere. And then there was the Rainbow Room, with its organ blaring full blast to the delight of gawking tourists.

LOST IN NEW YORK…**Lois Long** lamented the demise of cafe life in Manhattan; from left, the Colony, circa 1940, which went from boho to upscale; the 21 Club, a favorite Prohibition-era haunt of Long’s where she was suddenly a nobody; and high above the city, the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, and its interminable organ music. (Pinterest/Alice Lum via Daytonian in Manhattan/nycago.org)

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From Our Advertisers

Just one ad from the Nov. 17 issue (more to come below)…the latest athlete to attest to the energizing effects of Camel cigarettes…Cliff Montgomery (1910–2005) was famed for a hidden ball trick play that led one of the greatest athletic upsets—Columbia’s 7-0 win over Stanford in the 1934 Rose Bowl. Montgomery would play one year with the NFL Brooklyn Dodgers, and would later earn a Silver Star for his heroism during World War II…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with Robert Day’s jolly illustration for the “Goings On About Town” section…

…Rea Irvin looked into fair play among the fox hunting set…

…Garrett Price gave us a tender moment among the bones at the American Museum of Natural History…

…and Peter Arno introduced two wrestlers to an unwelcoming hostess…

…on to Nov. 24, 1934 issue, and the perils of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as illustrated on the cover by William Cotton…

…where we find still more scorn being heaped upon Gertrude Stein. “The Talk of the Town” offered this observation (excerpt):

…and E.B. White had the last word on Stein in his Dec. 1, 1934 “Notes and Comment” column:

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There Goes the Neighborhood

Returning to the Nov. 24 issue, Alberta Williams penned a lengthy “A Reporter at Large” column, titled “White-Collar Neighbors,” about the new Knickerbocker Village development in the Lower East Side. Real estate developer Fred French razed roughly one hundred buildings to build what has since been criticized as an example of early gentrification in Manhattan. Williams assessed the development after more than a year of construction, finding that despite federal funding, the leasing company had yet to rent any apartments “to Negroes or Orientals.” Although the development was meant to serve some of the families it displaced, the vast majority were forced to move back into slums due to escalating rents.

BREATHING ROOMS…Knickerbocker Village in 2019. To make way for the development, one hundred buildings were razed in the “Lung Block,” so named because of its high tuberculosis mortality rate. The development continues to be designated as affordable housing. (Wikipedia)

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Dollmaker

Raised in rural Nebraska, at an early age Rose O’Neill (1874–1944) demonstrated an artistic bent, and was already a published illustrator and writer when she drew her first images of “Kewpie” around the year 1908. A German doll manufacturer began producing a doll version of Kewpie in 1913, and they became an immediate hit, making O’Neill a millionaire and for a time the highest-paid female illustrator in the world. When Alexander King penned a profile of O’Neill, Kewpies were no longer the rage, but O’Neill was nevertheless determined to find success in a new doll line. Excerpts:

QP QUEEN…Clockwise from top left, **Rose O’Neill** circa 1910, just before her Kewpie dolls made it big; Kewpie doll in original box, undated; as the Kewpie craze faded in the 1930s, O’Neill tried to launch a new line called Little Ho Ho, a laughing baby Buddha, but before production plans were finalized the doll factory burned to the ground; a 1935 ad for a Rose O’Neill-branded “Scootles” doll, another attempt at a comeback. (Wikipedia/Pinterest/museumobscura.com)

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Last Call

Lois Long was back with another installment of “Tables for Two” and in these excerpts she found the Central Park Casino a welcome place to hang out, apparently unaware that Parks Commissioner Robert Moses had already served an eviction notice to the Casino’s owners (Moses would tear down the Casino in 1936, mostly to settle a personal vendetta). Long also found respite at the Place Piquale, which featured the musical stylings of Eve Symington.

BYE BYE…The Central Park Casino was not long for the world when **Lois Long** paid an enjoyable visit in November 1934. Long also found a good time at the Place Piquale, which featured the “startling,” deep voice of cabaret singer **Eve Symington.** (centralpark.org/Pinterest)

At the Place Piquale, Long was “grateful” to see that silent film star Louise Brooks was also a good dancer. An icon of Jazz Age flapper culture, Brooks loathed the Hollywood scene and the mediocre roles it offered, and after a stint making films in Europe she returned to the States, appearing in three more films before declaring bankruptcy in 1932. A former dancer for the Ziegfeld Follies, Brooks had turned back to dancing in nightclubs to make a living.

IT’S A LIVING…Promotional photo for the Place Piquale featuring **Louise Brooks** (*sans* her familiar flapper bob) and **Dario** in “Spectacular Interpretive Dances,” April 17, 1934. (books0977.tumblr.com)

…and dance remains a theme with John Mosher’s film review of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger musical The Gay Divorcee, which was based on the 1932 Broadway musical Gay Divorce starring Astaire and Claire Luce.

YOU WILL HAVE TO DANCE BACKWARD, IN HEELS…**Ginger Rogers** and **Fred Astaire** trip the light fantastic in *The Gay Divorcee.* (precode.com)

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Using Her Heads

Clifton Fadiman praised Peggy Bacon’s collection of caricatures, Off With Their Heads!, which included drawings of fellow New Yorker contributors as well as various Algonquin Hotel acolytes. Excerpt:

HEAD HUNTER…**Peggy Bacon** offered up caricatures of forty celebrities in her new book, *Off With Their Heads!* Bacon (1895–1987) contributed cartoons as well as poetry and fiction to *The New Yorker* from 1927 to 1950. Clockwise, from top left, title page with Bacon’s self-portrait; undated photo of Bacon, likely circa 1930; caricatures of **Dorothy Parker, Carl Sandburg** and **Heywood Broun.** (villagepreservation.org/printmag.com/Wikipedia–*Peter A. Juley & Son*)

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More From Our Advertisers

“Beautiful Vanderbilts” Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt and Miss Frederica Vanderbilt Webb wowed one unnamed dermatologist who discovered that both had 20-year-old skin even though they were seven years apart! “Mrs. Reginald” was Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, who was thirty when this ad was produced (Miss Frederica was apparently twenty-three). We’ve met Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt before, shilling for Pond’s—she was the maternal grandmother of television journalist Anderson Cooper, and earned her “bad mom” rep from Vanderbilt vs. Whitney, one of America’s most sensational custody trials…

…we move from skin care to who cares…in this case how many Spud cigs you smoke…hell, smoke three packs a day if you like, the cooling menthol will always keep you feeling fresh even as your lungs gradually darken and shrivel up…

…and here’s a lesson from the makers of Inecto hair dye, no doubt a company solely run by men, who schooled wives with the advice that you’d better color that gray hair pronto or your hubby will kick you to the curb…

…the New York American was a Hearst broadsheet known for its sensationalism, however it did claim Damon Runyon, Alice Hughes, Robert Benchley and Frank Sullivan among its contributors…the morning American merged with the New York Evening Journal to form the American and Evening Journal in 1937. That paper folded in 1966…

…illustrator Stuart Hay drew up this full page ad for the makers of Beech-Nut candy and chewing gum…when I was a kid we used to call this “grandpa gum”…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with a Thanksgiving spot by Alain (Daniel Brustlein)…

…Barbara Shermund delivered another life of the party…

…George Price was finally bringing his floating man back to earth…

…Otto Soglow gave us an unlikely detour…

…Gardner Rea signaled the end to the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair…with a boom…

…Leonard Dove dialed up a familiar trope…

…and we close on a more pious note, with Mary Petty…

Next Time: Al’s Menagerie…

The Age of Giants

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Vanished in the Haze

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

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

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There Oughta Be a Law

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

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

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Crime of the Century

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

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

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Should Have Stayed Lost

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

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

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From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…and some spot art from Isadore Klein…

…Miguel Covarrubias contributed to the theater review section…

…James Thurber entertained a house guest…

…George Price was still up in the air…

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

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

…on to Oct. 20, 1934…

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

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

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

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Fifty Years Young

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

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

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More From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

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

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

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

…and this by George Price…

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Halloween!

Next Time: House & Home…

Cleo’s Allure

Claudette Colbert and Henry Wilcoxon in 1934's "Cleopatra." (cecilbdemille.com)

New Yorker film critic John Mosher was in the mood for one of Cecil B. DeMille’s big, splashy epic movies, but was disappointed to find a relatively restrained effort in DeMille’s latest flick, Cleopatra.

Perhaps Mosher would have preferred a silent version of the film, finding the dialogue “the worst I have ever heard in the talkies.” Among examples cited by Mosher was Warren William’s Caesar, who utters the word “Nope” to one of his senators.

CLEO BRIO…Clockwise, from top left, Paramount’s trailer for *Cleopatra* made a bold claim; Cleopatra (**Claudette Colbert**) hails Caesar after emerging from a rolled up rug that had been presented to the Roman court; Julius Caesar (**Warren William**) acts unimpressed, but eventually falls for the Egyptian queen before meeting his demise; Marc Antony (**Henry Wilcoxon**) is the next to fall for Cleopatra’s seductions. It ends badly for both of them. (pre-code.com/obscurehollywood.net)

Despite Mosher’s grumbles, Cleopatra would receive five Academy Award nominations (winning for Best Cinematography) and would become the highest-grossing film released in North America in 1934. That year Claudette Colbert (1903-1996) would appear in three films that were all nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture—she is the only actress ever to do so.

On the lighter side, Mosher took a liking to Harold Lloyd’s latest picture, The Cat’s Paw, which marked a sharp departure from Lloyd’s trademark slapstick. Lloyd adopted to a calmer pace, “touched with the delicate bloom of satire.”

Moviegoers who associated Lloyd with such pictures as 1923’s Safety Last…

…would have to settle for this new version of Lloyd, which was even touted on the movie’s promotional poster…

STAYING ON HIS FEET…Fox Pictures touted a “new” **Harold Lloyd** (except for his trademark glasses) in *The Cat’s Paw*. At right, Lloyd with co-star **Una Merkel.** (IMDB/criterionchannel.com)

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Fun With Philately

After reading a column in The Herald Tribune that concerned interesting stamps and envelopes…

…James Thurber found himself inspired to make a brief examination of the “Thurber envelope”…

…which proved to be neither interesting nor unusual (excerpts):

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From Our Advertisers

A couple of colorful advertisements, the first from the folks at Heinz, who invited New Yorker readers to become “Salad Wizards”…

…if being a salad wizard wasn’t good enough, you could pop open a bottle of Cora vermouth and feel downright aristocratic…

…and if you wanted to maintain that aristocratic pose, you’d better know how to serve your tomato juice, and make sure it is prepared by a “famous French Chef”…

…more libations in the back pages…here’s a sampling of three…there must have been a reason why all of the one-column ads featured mixers and spirits on the top and ads for hotels and apartments on the bottom…

…and before we jump into the cartoons, a brief look at illustrator Mildred Oppenheim, who worked under the pseudonym “Melisse.” Her work was seen in the early New Yorker mostly in ads for Lord & Taylor, however she also did work for others including the makers of Cannon towels (seen below). In 1931 The New York Times described her as “a wicked and telling satirist—almost a feminine counterpart of Peter Arno”…

…Melisse ran a cartoon strip, “Real News of New York…A Preview of What’s New,” in the New York Sun from 1933 to 1935. Melisse seemed to be flying high, but in 1940 she declared bankruptcy. However she quickly rebounded in 1941 with an advertising panel for Orbachs—“Around Town…with Melisse”—which became a nationally syndicated feature:

…in the 1940s Melisse also produced a variety of drawings and paintings, designed mannequins for window and counter displays, and even produced designs for handkerchiefs and other clothing items. But for all her fame as a commercial illustrator, very little is known about her personal life, or what became of her after 1950. According to Alan Jay of the Stripper’s Guide, Melisse was born in Newark in 1905 and died in Miami in 1993, and was briefly married to another commercial artist in the early 1930s. A December 14, 1934 ad for her “Real News” strip in the Pelham Sun featured her photo:

…on to our well-known New Yorker cartoonists, we begin with the stalwart Rea Irvin…

…accompanying part two of a three-part profile of New Deal Administrator Hugh Samuel Johnson was this terrific caricature by Miguel Covarrubias…

…never too early to get ready for winter…spot drawing in the opening pages by Alan Dunn…

…but there was enough summer left for William Steig’s “Small Fry” to enjoy some leisurely pursuits…

…William Crawford Galbraith continued to ply his familiar waters…

…while Al Frueh turned in this gem…

…Helen Hokinson found some lively anticipation at the train station…

…Garrett Price took us to the seashore…

…while Barbara Shermund kept us abreast of current events…

Next Time: Some Pitiful Melodies…

Up In The Air

The 1930s saw steady improvements in the fledging airline industry, which catered mostly to major businesses or well-heeled (and somewhat brave) folks who were interested in getting to places relatively quickly. Margaret Case Harriman reported on the many ways one could criss-cross the country by heading to the Newark Airport, the first major airport to serve the New York metro.

August 11, 1934 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

Writing for the “Out of Town” column, Harriman described how someone in 1934 could make their way to Los Angeles by boarding a 9 a.m. American Airlines flight in Newark and then changing over to a “sleeper plane” in Fort Worth around 10 p.m. that same day (top speed of the fastest plane was about 190 mph or 306 kph. The trip also required stops for refueling). The night flight from Fort Worth would deliver the traveler to Los Angeles the following day, at 7:55 a.m.—the trip totaled about 23 hours.

NIGHTY NIGHT…In 1934 American Airlines was the only airline offering “sleeper planes,” as the ad at left claimed. The head of American Airlines, **C.R. Smith**, was obsessed with customer service and the amenities offered on his Curtiss Condors—roomy airplanes with sleeping berths that **Margaret Case Harriman** likened to beds in a Pullman railroad car. Passengers loved the Curtiss Condor, although the planes tended to catch fire and pilots found them difficult to fly. (archbridgeinstitute.org/American Airlines)

SKYTRAIN…Top, the passenger section of an American Airlines Curtiss Condor, circa 1930s; below, interior of a Boeing 247—note the steps in the aisle used to cross over the support beams that reinforced the 247’s wings. Also note the female attendant—the profession was dominated by male stewards in the first years of passenger service, but in the 1930s women took over the profession. (American Airlines/bethelgrapevine.com)

TWENTY-TWO HOURS and change on a United Airlines Boeing 247 would get you from Newark to San Francisco in 1934. Top, Passengers are shown boarding a United Airlines Boeing 247 at the Newark Airport circa 1934; United boasted the fastest multi-motored plane service with the 247, but TWA apparently offered the fastest service between coasts with its sleek new DC-2, seen in photo below. (bethelgrapevine.com)

HARD TO BEAT…A TWA Douglas DC-2 could get you to California faster than either United or American—fifteen hours from Newark to Los Angeles. (wahsonline.com)

When we think of flying in the 1930s many of us recall the great travel posters featuring Pan American’s Clipper Ships—flying boats that took passengers to exotic locations in the Caribbean and in Central and South America. Harriman wrote:

FLYING BOAT…Boasting nautical appointments including porthole windows, Pan Am’s Sikorsky S-42 offered roomy seats to its 32 passengers. Top, a postcard image of a Sikorsky S-42 in Miami in the 1930s; below, passenger cabin of the Sikorsky S-42. (clipperflyingboats.com/seawings.com.uk)

Harriman closed with some advice to readers unfamiliar with flying, including putting drops of Argyrol (a silver-protein antiseptic) into ones eyes to “prevent that ticking sensation in the temples.”

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No Offense Taken

Critic John Mosher was no fan of Jean Harlow’s, but he did acknowledge her box office appeal, and that fans eagerly awaited the Blonde Bombshell’s next picture, The Girl from Missouri…with its “usual plot of a gold-digger and millionaries.” Mosher also noted that Harlow, along with Mae West, was a prime target of reformers (see Hays Code) who wanted to ban “immorality” from the pictures, and he was eager to see how the Puritans had wielded their new censoring shears on the film.

GOING FOR THE GOLD…At right, **Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow,** and **Patsy Kelly** in *The Girl from Missouri.* (IMDB)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with another ad from the makers of Spud menthol cigarettes, who deployed what seemed like every known visual metaphor to suggest that smoking their cigarettes “all day” would leave one feeling cool, clean and fresh, in this case as a blanket of newly fallen snow (an appealing sight in that hot summer of 1934)…

…R.J. Reynolds deployed any number of tricks to sell their Camels, from ads promoting their health benefits to endorsements by wealthy socialites, in this case Sarah Lippincott (“Mrs. Nicholas Biddle”) of Philadelphia…

…snob appeal was not limited to cigarette ads, as this full page from the folks at Chevrolet attests…

…zooming in on the copy that accompanied the above ad, we find that this fictive Chevy owner was a “marked woman” sought out by paparazzi and admired by couturiers…

…Dr. Seuss continued his series of weird ads for Flit insecticide…

…Helen Hokinson illustrated this patrician picnic scene to promote Heinz’s line of sandwich spreads…

…and we kick off our cartoons with Helen again, observing a proud moment…

…Robert Day offered this observation on modern architecture…

…Rea Irvin skewered the puritan set with his latest bird illustration…

…William Steig’s precocious “Small Fry” visited Coney Island…

…and we close with E. Simms Campbell, and a sly introduction…

Next Time: Dizzy Drinks…

His Five Cent’s Worth

Above: Final Design of Grand Central Terminal, ca. 1910. (New York Transit Museum)

The heat wave of 1934 spread misery from the Midwest to the East Coast. The temperature in New York City hit 101 degrees F (38.3 C) on June 29, and July recorded at least ten days of temps in the mid- to upper 90s. It must have been miserable in the days before air-conditioning, and since no adult would dare be seen in public wearing shorts and a t-shirt, an outing on a crowded tour boat, as illustrated below by William Cotton, must have been hellish.

July 21, 1934 cover by **William Cotton.**

…putting a fine point on it, recall this wryly captioned cartoon from the June 30 issue by Garrett Price…

…but let us move ahead to the July 28 issue, where E.B. White was hopefully keeping his cool in the men’s waiting room at Grand Central Station, where he plunked down a nickel to cool his heels in the “middle class” section, where he observed side attractions including a vending machine that dispensed handkerchiefs and a coin-operated peep show featuring burlesque star Sally Rand.

NO MASHERS ALLOWED…Separate men’s and ladies’ rooms were available in three classes at Grand Central Station—free, five cents and ten cents. Top, the Ladies’ room, Grand Central Terminal (Central Lines), and below, a men’s room at the station. A nickel back then was worth about a dollar today. (Library of Congress)

NICKEL AND DIMED…Machines similar to these could be found in some men’s waiting rooms at train stations in the 1930s. (pinballhistory.com/comics.ha.com)

…White referred to a peep show that featured famed fan dancer Sally Rand…

DOING HER DEEP KNEE BENDS…**Sally Rand** in the 1930s. (www.vintag.es)

White also commented on the growing number of travelers, still pinched by the Depression, opting for the free section:

We settle in with the June 21 issue (which leads this post) with White once again, this time enjoying a drive to Stamford, Conn., where he admired the “splendor” of the Condé Nast printing plant (apparently the plant also printed The New Yorker, although the magazine itself would not be acquired by Condé Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications, until 1985).

ONLY A MEMORY…Postcard image of the Condé Nast printing plant; at left, a relic of the long-gone plant, one of two pillars that flanked the road to the plant. (Greenwich Historical Society/greenwichtime.com)

* * *

Disney’s Other Mouse

Film critic John Mosher was a fan of Disney’s “Silly Symphony” cartoon shorts, which were produced between 1929 and 1939. Animation, and especially color animation, was in its infancy, so these doubtless had an uplifting effect on many moviegoers.

DON’T CALL ME TINKERBELL…The Butterfly Fairy brought some Disney magic to 1934’s *The Flying Mouse.* (disney.fandom.com)

* * *

The Great McGonigle

W.C. Fields appeared in more than a dozen silent films before making his first talkie, 1930’s The Golf Specialist, and it was in sound films that Fields was able to truly express his vaudevillian wit. It was also in the sound era that Fields teamed up with Baby LeRoy for three films (in 1933 and 1934), including The Old Fashioned Way, in which Fields portrayed “The Great McGonigle,” leader of a traveling (and perpetually underfunded) theater troupe who was always a step ahead of police and creditors. Critic John Mosher found the film’s riff on an old morality play, The Drunkard, to be a bit dated, but overall thought it a cheerful diversion.

HONK…**Baby LeRoy**, aka **Ronald Le Roy Overacker** (1932–2001), was just 16 months old when he became the youngest person ever put under term contract by a major studio. He is best known for his appearances in three W. C. Fields films: *Tillie and Gus* (1933), *The Old Fashioned Way* (1934) and It’s a Gift (1934). (Rotten Tomatoes/IMDB)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with scientific proof (from a “famous research laboratory in New York”) that Camel cigarettes increased one’s flow of energy…

…if that crackpot claim doesn’t get you, here’s one that recommended downing a PBR before a big meeting, a sure remedy for that “listless, tired-out feeling”…

…of course we all know that a few sugary Cokes will get you going…back then they were taking it in six- and ten-ounce bottles, not 30- to 50-ounce Big Gulps…

…it’s not every day you see a dog food ad in The New Yorker…in the 1930s there was no secret to where ol’ Sparky ended up…

…popular were these Rockwellian ads that equated various products with happy and wholesome (and safe) living, in this case a massive “Dual-Balloon” tire that dominated this tableau featuring a stylish mommy and her little boy slumming with an old sea salt…

…the folks at Essex House hired an illustrator who did his or her best to channel Helen Hokinson and William Steig for this New Yorker ad…as we have seen before, Essex House ads walked a fine line between thrift and snob appeal…

…on to our cartoons, beginning with Ned Hilton, whose work appeared in The New Yorker from 1934 to 1957…

…Mary Petty recorded some sweet nothings by the seaside…

…George Price drifted along with two men and tuba…

…Carl Rose revealed a modest side to life at a nudist colony…

…we know Clarence Day for his Life With Father series, but on occasion he also contributed illustrated poems such as this one from the July 21 issue…

…on to July 28…

July 28, 1934 cover by **Adolph K. Kronengold.**

…where we encounter more “scientific research” that encouraged folks to smoke…This ad was placed on the very last page of the July 28 issue by the Cigarette Research Institute, based in Louisville, Kentucky…

…the booklet was filled with “amazing facts” uncovered in a “scientific investigation,” facts did not address the health effects of smoking, but rather such important topics as how to hold a cigarette the right way and how to reduce staining on your teeth…it also helpfully debunked the notion that nicotine was a “dread demon”…

…take for example this woman smoking a Lucky…now she knew how to hold a cigarette!…

…the folks at Essex House were back, aggressively playing the class/caste card…apparently if you lived there you were entitled to kick your old friends to the curb…

…the antacid and pain reliever Bromo-Seltzer was ubiquitous in 1930s medicine cabinets, but after the recipe was changed in the 1970s (all Bromides were withdrawn from the U.S. market in 1975) the brand slowly fizzled away…

…Mildred Oppenheim Melisse was a popular illustrator of ads for department stores and various household goods, including Cannon towels, here guaranteed to absorb even this man’s sweaty “flood”…

…Dr. Seuss back again for Flit, once again having no issues mixing insecticide with food preparation…

…Rea Irvin kicks off the cartoons with his Double Breasted Dowager…

…Helen Hokinson found some misplaced pity at a garden party…

…Garrett Price offered some unsolicited advice…

…Reginald Marsh filled two pages with a scene from Central Park…

…Robert Day looked for a unique experience at an auto camp…

…and we close with Barbara Shermund, and some alarming news on the domestic front…

Next Time: Men of Mystery…

London Calling

Above: Illustration of the Dorchester Hotel’s ballroom in the 1930s. (dorchestercollection.com)

Lois Long took her nightlife column, “Tables for Two,” to London and its famed nightclub scene, where everyone from British royalty to gangsters reveled in a boozy, bohemian scene.

July 7, 1934 cover by **Ilonka Karasz.**

Prince Edward, a well-known party animal (who would serve as king for less than a year and abdicate in 1936) was known to get up on the stage of the Embassy Club and perform drum solos, while at the Savoy his fellow toffs would sip Champagne and glide in elegant dress across the dance floor. London nightlife included a lively jazz scene in edgy Soho basement clubs, featuring such greats as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie.

Long hoped that the visit to London, her first in eight years, would give her some much-needed rest and a change of scene. What she found instead was a red-hot, all-night party, where the smart set took dinner near midnight and danced until dawn.

SAVVY SAVOY….Clockwise from top left, the famed Savoy bartender **Harry Craddock**, credited with inventing the White Lady and the Corpse Reviver, at the Savoy’s American Bar in the 1930s; a Savoy elevator operator in 1926; diners at the Savoy circa 1930s; Savoy entrance. (madamgenevaandgent.co.uk/The Savoy/YouTube)

LONDON SWINGS…More **Lois Long** haunts in London included, clockwise from top left, the Dorchester Hotel; the crowded dance floor at the Monseigneur with **Roy Fox and his Orchestra** (photo from 1932); patrons kicking up their heels at the Embassy Club on Old Bond Street; the Café de Paris, where American actress **Louise Brooks** demonstrated a new dance craze, The Charleston, in 1924. (dorchestercollection.com/albowlly.club/lucyjanesantos.com/Wikipedia)

* * *

Misery Loves Company

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White observed that almost everyone was “made miserable” by the Depression, but if one looked around there were signs that things weren’t so bad after all.

REASON FOR CHEER…For those still feeling blue about the Depression, **E.B. White** suggested watching kids cool off at a pier, such as these lads seen diving into the East River on the Lower East Side on July 3, 1935. (Jack Gordon/New York Daily News)

* * *

He Came Up a Bit Short

Howard Brubaker, in his column “Of All Things,” made this observation about Adolf Hitler’s prediction that Nazism would endure a thousand years.

And now a retreat into the cool darkness of the cinema, where John Mosher singled out Bette Davis’s performance in Of Human Bondage…Mosher’s instincts were correct—the film proved to be Davis’s breakout role on her road to major stardom.

ROAD TO RUIN…**Bette Davis** wowed the critics with her portrayal of a tearoom waitress who seduces a young medical student (**Leslie Howard**) and leads him down a path of self-destruction. The film was based on the 1915 novel by **W. Somerset Maugham.** (IMDB)

Mosher also took in the “bright” performances of William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man, a pre-Code comedy-mystery based on the Dashiell Hammett novel by the same name. Powell and Loy portrayed Nick and Nora Charles, who added spice to their leisurely lives through numerous cocktails, flirtatious banter, and crime-solving. Critics loved the film, as did audiences, spawning five sequels from 1936 to 1947.

CHEERS…Top photo: Nick and Nora Charles (**William Powell** and Myrna Loy) enjoy a drink with their client’s fiancee (**Henry Wadsworth**) in *The Thin Man* (1934); Bottom photo: Charles takes aim at a Christmas ornament (with a BB gun) while Nora enjoys the comforts of her new fur coat in a scene from *The Thin Man*. (Daily Beast/Austin Chronicle)

Another star of the show was Asta, the Charles’s wire fox terrier. Asta was portrayed by Skippy, a dog actor who not only appeared in The Thin Man films but also acted alongside Cary Grant in 1937’s The Awful Truth and in 1938’s Bringing Up Baby. Skippy appeared in three Thin Man movies and in more than twenty films altogether between 1932 and 1941. Being an actor in the film must have been good for one’s health: Powell lived 91 years, Loy 88 years, and Skippy, 20 years—a good long life for any pooch.

ROUGH NIGHT…Nick (**William Powell**) and Asta (**Skippy**) tend to Nora (**Myrna Loy**), who nurses a hangover in *The Thin Man.* (Wikipedia)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

While Chrysler’s styling of their streamlined Airflow proved to be too far advanced for the buying public (the Depression didn’t help), Studebaker’s own foray into the streamlined future caused a sensation…

…thanks to Studebaker’s brief merger with Pierce-Arrow (1928–33), Studebaker’s designers took cues from Pierce’s streamlined 1933 Silver Arrow and created more than 800 cars with “Year-Ahead” design features—the positive reception convinced the company to continue the style in 1935…here is a top-of-the-line 1934 President Land Cruiser…

1934 Studebaker President Land Cruiser with “Year-Ahead” design features, yet not as radical as Chrysler’s Airflow. (hemmings.com)

and the car that inspired it…

1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow. Photo copyright Darin Schnabel, courtesy RM Sotheby’s, via hemming.com.

…we continue with those round rubber things that held the cars up…a lot of tire ads in the 1930s emphasized safety—blowouts were common back then…funny how it took nearly four decades to add seat belts to cars…those tires wouldn’t help much in a head-on collision, especially with your kid standing on the from seat…

…now let’s cool off with crisp Canadian Ale, thanks to Carling’s entry into the American market…

…Carling’s Black Label beer was popular in the states…my parents had a set of these coasters with the Black Label tagline…

…Budweiser continued its artful series of ads featuring the well-heeled enjoying its product…here it appears old dad (wearing some kind of medal) is getting to know his daughter-in-law over some cold chicken…”hey boy, she’s one of us!”…

…and we move on to three very different approaches to selling cigarettes, beginning with Spud, continuing its message that menthol cigarettes are as refreshing as a shower on a July afternoon…

…a close up of the message…

…Camel, on the other hand, continued its campaign against irritability…it apparently did wonders for this woman, who seems to be on something more than nicotine…

…and from the people who brought us the tagline “blow some my way” in 1928 (as a way to encourage women to take up the habit), by 1934 she is owning that cigarette, and apparently setting some ground rules with the gentleman…

…contrast with the more submissive pose in the Chesterfield ad from the late 1920s…

…on to our cartoons, we begin with spot art by Alan Dunn, which appears to have originated as a captioned cartoon…

…William Steig offered up this bit of art for a profile of an “insurance man” by St. Clair McKelway…

…Helen Hokinson drew up a full page of cartoons along the theme of outdoor dining…

…we continue Rea Irvin’s series on native birds…

…George Price found a way to save on the cost of light bulbs…

…and we close with James Thurber, and a welcome to the family…

Next Time: The Happy Warrior…

A Light in Darkness

Above: For this Hollywood-heavy post we feature stars of the 1930s—the two Joans, Joan Blondell (left) and Joan Crawford, marking the Fourth of July holiday.

The New Yorker marked the Fourth of July with this William Steig cover featuring a patriotic “strap” along the binding and one of his precocious “Small Fry”…

June 30, 1934 cover by **William Steig.**

We’ve been looking at ways New Yorkers kept their cool in the hot summer of 1934, and one way to beat the heat was to escape into the air-conditioned darkness of a movie theater. It was not uncommon for folks to remain seated after the credits rolled and watch the feature all over again, just enjoy some cold comfort.

Film critic John Mosher no doubt enjoyed this particular perk, and perhaps this made him a bit more agreeable to whatever was playing on the big screen, including three rather dull pictures featuring actresses Marion Davies, Kay Francis and Elissa Landi.

Marion Davies (1897–1961) was the veteran of the group, beginning her film career in 1917 and appearing in thirty silent films before breaking into sound movies. Sadly, her talents as an actress and comedian were overshadowed by her reputation as William Randolph Hearst’s mistress. Known for her aristocratic bearing, Austrian-American actress Elissa Landi (1904–1948) appeared in several British silents and on Broadway before signing with Fox Films in 1931. Kay Francis (1905–1968) began her film career with the advent of sound movies in 1929. A major box-office draw for Warner Brothers, by 1935 Francis was one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors (she was also a former roommate and longtime friend of The New Yorker’s Lois Long).

BEFORE SCARLETT AND RHETT…**Gary Cooper** and **Marion Davies** as star-crossed lovers in the 1934 Civil War drama *Operator 13.* Davies portrayed actress Gail Loveless, recruited by the Union to infiltrate a Confederate camp, where she falls for Capt. Jack Gailliard, a Confederate officer played by Cooper. (IMDB)

Perhaps one of the more notorious examples of a white actor in blackface, Operator 13 featured Davies as a Union spy who poses as a Black maid to infiltrate a Confederate camp…

FOOLING NO ONE…**Marion Davies**, in blackface, with **Sam McDaniel** in *Operator 13.* (IMDB)

PLAYING DOCTOR…**Kay Francis** and Warren William in the 1934 Pre-Code drama *Dr. Monica.* (IMDB)

JUST KEEP PRETENDING UNTIL THE CREDITS…From left, **Adolphe Menjou, Elissa Landi,** and **David Manners** in the 1934 romantic comedy *The Great Flirtation*. (IMDB)

* * *

Sentimental Journey

Another critic enjoying the cool of the theater was Robert Benchley, who used this break in the Broadway season to reveal his passions regarding a number of stage actresses. An excerpt:

BENCHLEY’S BROADWAY…**Robert Benchley’s** all-time favorite Broadway actresses included, from top row, left to right, **Maud Adams, Florence Reed, Gladys Hanson,** and Charlotte Walker; second row, from left, **Laura Hope Crews, Julia Marlowe, Maxine Elliott**, and **Ethel Barrymore;** third row, **Janet Beecher, Ina Claire, Marguerite Clark,** and **Jane Cowl**; fourth row, **Elsie Ferguson, Martha Hedman, Marjorie Rambeau,** and Pauline Frederick. (NYPL/Wikipedia/IMDB)

* * *

A Poke at Palooka

In his column “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker took a shot below the belt at the new heavyweight boxing champ, Max Baer.

WHO SEZ I CAN’T READ?…**Max Baer** in the 1930s. (boxing.fandom.com/wiki)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

It was hot outside, folks were cooling off with their favorite beverages, and advertisers responded in kind…we begin with a familiar green bottle, and with apologies to Max Baer, you didn’t need to know how to read to know this was a bottle of Perrier…

…if your taste was more on the domestic side, there was White Rock…

…a series of Hoffman Club Soda ads sought to convince consumers about their superior carbonation…

…or how about a brandy, perhaps lightly chilled, especially if it’s late in the evening, and you happen to be sitting on a breezy hotel rooftop…

…or you could cool down with a Lion beer…considered a heritage brewery, Lion Brewery is one of only ten pre-Prohibition breweries that has independently and continuously operated since the repeal of Prohibition…

…a fairly new brand of cigarettes, Marlboro, was still taking out these bargain-sized ads to build brand recognition…Flit insecticide, on the other hand, was well-known thanks to these ubiquitous Dr. Seuss ads…

…the folks at General Tire & Rubber were the latest advertiser to tie their product to the glamour of aviation…

…and on to our cartoons, we begin with another installment of native birds via Rea Irvin…

…Al Frueh chimed in with this three-panel encounter at a nudist colony…

…Robert Day presented a case of indigestion…

…Garrett Price welcomed us aboard a dream cruise…

…George Price gave us this gem in the “Goings On About Town” section,,,

…Gardner Rea gave us his spare line to illustrate an enormous space…one of his specialties…

…Gilbert Bundy marked the Fourth with an entitled jaywalker…

…and we close with Mary Petty, and a banker’s contentment…

Next Time: London Calling…

The High Life

Above, Stewart's Cafeteria in Greenwich Village, May 1933. (New York Public Library)

Although Sherwood Anderson is mostly known for his short story collections and novels, in the 1930s he also worked as a journalist, and for the June 9, 1934 issue of the New Yorker he explored the “centre of proletarian high life,” Stewart’s Cafeteria in Greenwich Village.

June 9, 1934 cover by **Helen Hokinson.**

What is particularly interesting about Anderson’s page 77 article for the “A Reporter at Large” column is what it doesn’t report, namely, that Stewart’s Cafeteria (later the Life Cafeteria) was known as a popular gay and lesbian hangout in addition to being a place for gawkers, assorted bohemians, and bohemian wannabes.

Anderson was a man of the world, so he knew exactly what Stewart’s was all about. But even the New Yorker wasn’t in the business of outing anyone, and editor Harold Ross, whose eccentricities included a puritanical strain, would not have allowed anything associated with “sexual deviance” to be printed in his magazine. Here is an excerpt from Anderson’s article, “Stewart’s, On the Square,” in which he subtly hints at the cafeteria’s “third life.”

NIGHT LIFE…**Paul Cadmus** depicted Stewart’s in this sexually charged painting, *Greenwich Village Cafeteria,* 1934, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art. (All archival images for this entry were obtained via nyclgbtsites.org/site/stewarts-cafeteria)

While Anderson tiptoed around the topic of homosexuality, gossip rags such as Stephen Clow’s Broadway Brevities put it front and center. Described as one of the most vicious show business gossip magazines ever published, Brevities also provided Clow with some side income: Clow and his collaborators often threatened to blackmail wealthy businesspeople and show business figures who frequented places like Stewart’s—outing them in his tabloid unless payment was made.

Naturally such reporting helped attract gawkers to Stewart’s and its successor, Life Cafeteria. According to the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, “Stewart’s closed in the mid-1930s and was subsequently reopened as the equally popular Life Cafeteria. Regulars included a young Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando (though they didn’t meet each other until years later on a beach in Provincetown). Of the space, Brando later recalled, ‘The rednecks [on the street] were pointing at the diners like animals in a zoo. I was immediately intrigued and ventured in. Before I left that afternoon, I discovered that many of the homosexual men were actually putting on a show for the jam .'”

TODAY, the building still stands, although it is a bit less lively as a home for a CVS store and a Bank of America branch. Just around the corner is the famed Stonewall Inn. (Google Maps Image)

According to the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project:

...in 1935 the manager of Stewart’s was convicted of operating a “public nuisance” and “disorderly house” and “openly outraging public decency” by allowing objectionable behavior in the interior and large crowds to gather outside. Specifically, the district attorney’s complaint cited “certain persons of the homosexual type and certain persons of the Lesbian type, to remain therein and engage in acts of sapphism and divers [sic] other lewd, obscene, indecent and disgusting acts” and that the cafeteria was “used as a rendezvous for perverts, degenerates, homosexuals and other evil-disposed persons.” Much of the testimony centered on the gender non-conforming dress and behavior of the patrons.

Here is another excerpt from Anderson's article, where he delves into the nighttime scene at Stewart's:

* * *

Nightlife, Part II

In my previous post E.B. White pondered the fate of the Central Park Casino, a favorite haunt of deposed Mayor Jimmy Walker and other members of the smart set who openly flouted Prohibition laws. In "Tables for Two," Lois Long made this observation (below) at the conclusion of her nightlife column, believing that Parks Commissioner Robert Moses would give the management a chance to lower food prices and allow common folks to enjoy its sumptuous atmosphere. Little did she know that Moses was feasting on a diet of revenge rather than food, and had plans to tear the place down, regardless of its lower prices.

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We kick off the ads with another Ponds celebrity endorsement from dancer and actress Francesca Braggiotti (1902-1998), who was married to actor, politician, and diplomat John Davis Lodge...

POWER COUPLE...John Davis Lodge and **Francesca Braggiotti** in 1932. They were married for 56 years. (Pinterest)

...Dr. Seuss was back with more ads for Flit insecticide...he was still two years away from his first children's book: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street...

...and with a splash of color, Bermuda beckoned New Yorkers to a "Real Vacation"...

...however, before you headed to Bermuda, you'd needed to do something with the kids...

...on to our cartoonists, we start with spot art from Abe Birnbaum...

...Birnbaum again with an illustration of boxer Max Baer for the profile section...

...more spot art from James Thurber in the "Goings On About Town" section...

...and Thurber again with some alarming news for a potential suitor...

...Rea Irvin kicked off his series, "Our Native Birds"...

...a famed advertising agency launched a new door-to-door survey, per Perry Barlow...

...Helen Hokinson gave us a hopeful gardener...

...Barbara Shermund looked in on the "modern girl" scene...

...and Peter Arno examined a sad medical case...

...and we close the June 9 issue with this item from E.B. White, who commented on a recent rally of American Nazis and some fighting Irish...

...the Nazi rally was also alluded to in the June 2 issue (I have the issues reversed this time to support the narrative)...

...where Howard Brubaker was keeping things light in his column "Of All Things." I was surprised how little was mentioned in either issue about the meeting of 20,000 Nazi sympathizers on May 17, 1934, at Madison Square Garden.

Let's explore further: According to the Jewish Virtual Library, America's first established anti-Nazi boycott group was the Jewish War Veterans (March 19, 1933), followed by the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights (ALDJR), which was founded by the Yiddish journalist Abraham Coralnik in May 1933. By 1934 the ALDJR was led by Samuel Untermyer, who changed the organization's name to the "Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights." Nazi sympathizers targeted Untermyer as the face of boycott efforts, and at the May 17 rally the mere mention of his name prompted shouts of "Hang him!"

AMERIKA...The site for hockey games and dog shows became a site for ugliness on May 17, 1934, when 20,000 Nazi sympathizers gathered in Madison Square Garden to denounce boycotts against **Adolf Hitler's** regime. (The Archive Project)

This excerpt from the May 18, 1934 edition of The New York Times gives some idea of what transpired at the rally:

REALLY? Americans gathered at Madison Square Garden on May 17, 1934 to show their support for Nazi Germany and denounce American boycotts. (The Archive Project)

* * *

Dueling Muses

Film critic John Mosher always seemed upbeat about anything involving Disney, but given that animation was still in its infancy (its plastic trickery still rather novel), it didn't take much to outshine the otherwise drab fare (the "Grim") being coughed up by Tinseltown.

MAN OR MOUSE? The star-studded cast of *Hollywood Party* included **Jimmy Durante,** seen here duking it out with Mickey Mouse. (IMDB)

The grim included the Pre-Code drama, Upper World, about a rich, married man who falls to his ruin via a romance with a stripper (don't they always?), and Now I'll Tell, another Pre-Code drama, this one loosely based on the doings of racketeer and crime boss Arnold Rothstein.

SHAKE IT WHILE YOU CAN...Ginger Rogers performs “Shake Your Powder Puff” in a burlesque show in the film *Upper World*, one of the last of the Pre-Code dramas. It featured **Warren William** as a wealthy married railroad tycoon whose friendship with a showgirl (Rogers) leads to blackmail and murder; at right, five-year-old future child star **Shirley Temple** with **Spencer Tracy** in *Now I'll Tell*, which was loosely based on the autobiography of **Carolyn Green Rothstein,** wife of New York gambler **Arnold Rothstein**. Temple's role was a minor one, however her appearance in the musical *Stand Up and Cheer!,* which was released a month earlier, would make her a star. (IMDB)

* * *

More From Our Advertisers

We cool off by a taking a dip in the pool...er, rather by enjoying the "No Draft Ventilation" of a car body by Fisher...the model might want to stay in the pool, since air-conditioning in cars was still a good twenty years away...

...and yes, this is also a car-related ad, if you can believe it, the bride looking forward not to years of wedded bliss but rather her new La Salle (a Cadillac product)...

...another bride, and a car...is that a car body by Fisher? Who cares, the wedding is over and its time to fire one up...

...this woman seems to have it all thanks to Daggett & Ramsdell of Park Avenue, who are prepared to coat her in a "complete range of all the essential creams, lotions, face powder...cold cream soap, dusting powder" etc. etc....

...Dr. Seuss again for Flit, with baby in tow...

...on to our cartoons, we have Robert Day checking on the progress at Mt. Rushmore...

...Alan Dunn reveals pandemic worries of a different nature...

...and we close with Helen Hokinson, and a sudden change of mood...

Next Time: Coney Summertime...

Isle of Ill Repute

The penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, later named Welfare Island, in the 1910s. Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. (NYC Municipal Archives)

Until the reform Mayor Fiorello La Guardia took up the reigns at City Hall in 1934, weak or non-existent leadership in city government, coupled with Tammany graft and corruption, had allowed all sorts of institutions to go off the rails.

May 26, 1934 cover by Constantin Alajalov.

The New York City Department of Corrections was a prime example, so La Guardia tapped the no-nonsense assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Austin H. MacCormick (1893–1979) to clean up Corrections, and MacCormick didn’t waste any time going after the No. 1 target: Welfare Island. Previously known as the notorious Blackwell’s Island, MacCormick described its cellblocks as a “vicious circle of depravity” unfit for humans, a place where some inmates lacked basic food and shelter while others, including a pack of gangsters and thugs who essentially ran the place, lived in grand style.

In late January, 1934, MacCormick led a well-organized raid on Welfare Island, finding littered cells full of drug addicts and large caches of weapons. According to an account in Time (Feb. 5, 1934), sixty-eight prisoners virtually ran the place. “They cowed their guards through outside political influence. They sold to some 500 inmates the best of vegetables and meats. Star boarders prepared this food in their own cells, and the prison library of more than 1,000 volumes had entirely vanished as cooking fuel. Since the food was looted from the prison commissary, the other 1,200 prisoners virtually starved on greasy cold stews.”

In his profile of the “The Four-Eyed Kid,” Arthur C. Bartlett attempted to shed some light on what made this stubborn Scotsman tick. Excerpts:

KIBOSH…After taking office in January 1934, New York’s Commissioner of Corrections **Austin H. MacCormick** wasted no time in cracking down on the vice and corruption that was rampant on Welfare Island (pictured at right in 1934). (ceanational.org/NYPL)

INSIDE JOB…Mobster **Joie Rao** lived a lavish lifestyle while incarcerated at Welfare Island. Wielding more power and authority than the warden himself, Raio fed steak to his pet dog and maintained a staff of servants to cater to his every whim. Not that the warden had it all that rough; his home (at right) featured an in-ground pool. (Pinterest/rihs.us)

READ ALL ABOUT IT…The New York *Daily News* (left) and the New York Times offered extensive coverage of the raid in their Jan 25, 1934 editions. (Pinterest/NY Daily News/NYT)

MacCormick literally wrote the book on prison reform. His The Education of Adult Prisoners (1931) called for the introduction of fundamental academic education in prison systems that would provide inmates with the intellectual tools needed for everyday life. His “four goals” included vocational, health, cultural and social education.

MacCormick broke up the gangster ring at Welfare Island and eventually transported its remaining inmates to the newly built prison at Rikers Island. The Welfare Island prison was torn down and replaced by Goldwater Hospital, today the Coler Specialty Hospital on Roosevelt Island. For a little more insight into MacCormick’s tactics, here is the conclusion to Bartlett’s profile:

ALL ABOARD…Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island) was once accessible by taking a trolley halfway across the Queensboro bridge, where passengers would take an elevator (contained in the structure in the top image) down to the island. (Greater Astoria Historical Society/rooseveltislander.blogspot.com)

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You’re Next

Last week we looked at Robert Moses’s plans for Riverview Park, which would quickly sweep away the yacht clubs on the Hudson. Another playground for the rich, the Central Park Casino, would soon be next, as E.B. White correctly surmised.

STICKER SHOCK…It has been suggested that **Robert Moses** determined to tear down the Central Park Casino after being presented a $27 dinner bill for four persons (roughly $500 today), but in reality Moses hated the Casino’s most famous denizen, the deposed Mayor **Jimmy Walker**. It’s too bad Moses didn’t appreciate the **Joseph Urban’s** stunning interiors (the ballroom, right), that crumbled with the building when it was razed in 1936. (NYC Department of Parks & Recreation)

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Schenck’s Schlock

In the 1920s and 30s documentary and docudrama filmmaking was still in its infancy, and for every Nanook of the North (1922)—still considered one of the best documentary films of all time—there were dozens of schlocky films like Harry Schenck’s Beyond Bengal, reviewed here by John Mosher for the New Yorker.

The film must have made quite an impression around the New Yorker’s offices, or at least one particular scene that depicted a British scientist, a “Miss Joan Baldwin,” coming down with a fever, rather unconvincingly. Both Mosher and E.B. White (below) found her performance intriguing:

WHAT A CROC…Clockwise, from top left, movie poster for *Beyond Bengal*; early in the film a scientist, “Miss **Joan Baldwin**,” is suddenly (and unconvincingly) seized by tropical fever—the remainder of the film entails **Harry Schenck’s** attempt to return Baldwin to civilization; Schenck accompanies Baldwin across a crocodile-infested river, shooting at anything that moves while the “natives” swim ahead, perilously clearing a path through the sea of crocs; back in civilization, Schenck and Baldwin prepare to head home. The whole film is available on YouTube, if you’re up for that sort of thing. (IMDB/YouTube)

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From Our Advertisers

We kick off with the latest installment from Lucky Strike, and another smartly dressed customer…

…the silk merchants struck back against the synthetics with this splash of color…

…the makers of Kingsbury Pale offered up some color of their own, although the illustration itself is a bit strange, what with the molten bubbles in the beer bottles, the bejeweled, disembodied arm that somehow supports them, and the woman who isn’t even looking at the beer…perhaps she was hoping for a cocktail or Champagne…

…there’s no doubting this fellow’s enthusiasm for a glass of Rheingold…

…Wamsutta Mills enlisted the aid of a “fat man” to prove the durability of their sheets…

…and what drives a man to commit murder? In this case, neglecting to pay the extra two cents for leaded gasoline…

…I wonder if the Hays Code extended to advertising…looks like the new “Neo-Angle Bath” caused the folks at Standard Sanitary Manufacturing to lose their inhibitions…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with some spot art by Doris Spiegel (1901-1996), who was especially known for her depictions of street life…

…George Price supplied this bit of merriment for the event listings…

as did James Thurber…

…Thurber again, this time baring it all…

…it appears that same day delivery, for even a mere trifle, is nothing new…per Gardner Rea…

…Alain (Daniel Brustlein) gave us a film editor with the sad task of censoring Joan Blondell…

…tame by today’s standards, this 1932 promotional photo of Blondell for the film Three on a Match was later banned by the Motion Picture Production Code…

…and we close with Perry Barlow, and more wisdom from the mouth of babes…

Next Time: The High Life…

Moses Parts a Yacht Club

Power broker Robert Moses always made sure he was few steps ahead of any possible opposition to his grand development plans in and around New York City. That included the yacht clubbers along the Hudson River, who were more or less erased from the scene by Moses in one fell swoop.

May 19, 1934 cover by **Ilonka Karasz.**

The Upper West Side’s Columbia Yacht Club probably thought it was just swell that the city was dumping waste and rock along the shores of the Hudson River, since it eventually created driveway access for members who previously had to access the club via a footbridge over the New York Central’s tracks. What hadn’t occurred to them was that nearly 25 years-worth of infill had also created a new strip of land that extended from 79th to 96th street, land that Moses envisioned as an expansion of Riverside Park (and the abrupt end of the West Side yacht club scene). “The Talk of the Town” explained:

LOCATION, LOCATION…Two views of the Columbia Yacht Club at West 86th Street, circa 1930. The club was razed to make room for **Robert Moses’s** expansion of Riverside Park. Moses’s ambitious project, which cost twice as much as Hoover Dam, put the train tracks underground and topped the park with the Henry Hudson Parkway. (newyorktoursbygary.blogspot.com/NYPL Digital Collections)

HEADS UP…**Elsie Henneman** dives into the water near the Hudson River Yacht Club, circa 1930. Located at the foot of West 74th Street, the club moved onto a barge at 145th Street to escape Moses’s park expansion plans, but it was eventually banished from the West Side. (Reddit)

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Ode to the Road

We now shift gears to E.B. White, who was poetically inspired by an advertisement in the Herald Tribune that featured Prince Alexis A. Droutzkoy (a member of the exiled White Russian colony in New York) praising the “magic silence” of the new “Dodge Six” automobile:

SILENCE OF THE CAMS…The 1934 Dodge Six. (detail from a vintage ad)

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Führer’s Filmmaker

The ability (or inability) to separate art from an artist’s personal conduct or beliefs has been a particular topic of the last two decades, given the litany of stars who have been “cancelled” despite the quality or importance of their work. The work of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003), still debated nearly ninety years after her collaboration with Nazi leaders, demonstrates the fine line many a film historian or critic must walk when assessing the career of an innovative artist (for an American example, see filmmaker D. W. Griffith). Riefenstahl’s 1932 film, The Blue Light (Das blaue Licht), made prior to her Nazi collaborations, was praised for its beauty by American critics, including the New Yorker’s John Mosher, when it was released in the U.S. in 1934.

The Blue Light also captivated Adolf Hitler, who saw the attractive and athletic Riefenstahl as an ideal of Aryan womanhood. A subsequent meeting with Hitler would result in Riefenstahl’s controversial 1935 Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). We will explore that film, and Riefenstahl’s role, in a later post.

CAREER MOVE…Clockwise, from top left, **Leni Riefenstahl** demonstrated her acting ability, athleticism and filmmaking talents in 1932’s *The Blue Light* (Das blaue Licht); Riefenstahl filming in Nuremberg during the 1934 Nazi Party congress—the footage was used in 1935 Nazi propaganda film **Triumph of the Will**; working at a film cutting table, 1935; with **Adolf Hitler** at Nuremberg, 1934. (IMDB/Library of Congress/UTK Cinema Studies/The Irish Times)

HI HITLER…Nazi propaganda minister **Joseph Goebbels** and **Adolf Hitler** pay a visit to Leni Riefenstahl at her Berlin estate, circa 1937. (Roger-Viollet)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with more Carl “Eric” Erickson-inspired artwork, here promoting the bygone elegance of transatlantic travel…

…perhaps a bit less upscale but still pretty nice, the “Santa” line of ships operated by the Grace Line between New York and Latin America included air-conditioned interiors paneled with aluminum (a fireproofing measure) and spacious cabins with private baths that faced to outside…

…this ad must have been a happy sight to folks who had to endure more than a decade of bootleg Scotch during Prohibition…

…Smirnoff vodka had its origins in 1860s Russia, capturing two-thirds of the Moscow market by the mid-1880s…forced to leave Russia in 1904 after the Tsar nationalized the Russian vodka industry…Smirnoff relocated to Turkey, then Poland, and then Paris, each time with limited success…at the end of Prohibition the brand relocated once again to a distillery in Bethel, Connecticut, hence this advertisement…

…the habanero pepper has been used to infuse everything from tequila to vodka to whiskey…this particular product was marketed as something new that could be mixed with a variety of spirits or topped up with club soda or ginger ale…

…I include this ad from the maker of Spud cigarettes for its sheer audacity…it claims your mouth will feel dewdrop fresh after an entire day of smoking menthols…

…stunt driver Billy Arnold was one of the “Hell-Drivers” Chrysler employed to tout the safety of its low-priced Plymouths at promotional events…

…including Chicago’s “Century of Progress”…below, a crowd watches Arnold take his Plymouth for a roll and emerge unscathed…

…the folks at Redi-Spred employed a murder theme to promote their “Pâté de Foie”…which foie was used…duck, goose or lord knows what, is not specified…

…the signature is muddled, but this looks like another illustration by Herbert Roese, who never published a cartoon in the New Yorker but sure had its style down, especially Peter Arno’s…

…Harold Ross’s high school friend and cartoonist John Held Jr. was a frequent contributor to the New Yorker from 1925 to 1932 (he also contributed to Life, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar), but when demand for his Jazz Age cartoons and illustrations fell off in the 1930s, he turned to painting and illustrating children’s books. So it was a surprise to catch this glimpse of Held’s work in a one-column ad promoting a Held-drawn map of New England inns…

…speaking of elusive illustrators, I am often challenged to discover the identities of spot illustrators in the early issues…this one appears to be signed by “Maurice Dreco”…