Above: In his review of Tallulah Bankhead's performance in "Reflected Glory," Wolcott Gibbs noted that she was a force to be reckoned with: ..."she would pull any home in the world down around her ears in ten minutes, and after that perhaps eat the children." (newyorker.com/facebook.com)
Broadway’s fall season was still young when the Morosco Theatre staged Reflected Glory, featuring Tallulah Bankhead in a role that mimicked her famously flamboyant lifestyle.
October 3, 1936 cover by Robert Day.
The play, which ran for 127 performances, was not well-received by the critics, but audiences loved it, and especially those who, in the words of critic Wolcott Gibbs, “would be enchanted to spend the evening just watching (Bankhead) knit a sock.”
Bankhead (1902–1968) also appeared in films (she won a New York Film Critics Circle award in 1944 for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’sLifeboat), but she was mostly known for her stage acting and her wild lifestyle—drugs, alcohol, and lots of sex with both men and women; she was candid about her vices, including the claim she smoked 120 cigarettes a day.
ART IMITATES LIFE…Clockwise, from top left: Tallulah Bankhead in promotional photo for Reflected Glory; Bankhead played Muriel Flood, a flamboyant, self-absorbed actress who constantly dramatizes her own life both on and off stage; author and director George Kelly wrote Reflected Glory specifically for Bankhead; Broadway’s Morosco Theatre (demolished 1982). (cinemaclassico.com/jacksonupperco.com/Wikipedia)
Early in her career Bankhead, an Alabama native, moved into the Algonquin Hotel and quickly made her way into the orbit of the famed Algonquin Round Table—so, she was well-known to Gibbs, who noted in this excerpt that Bankhead’s only competition in Reflected Glory was William Brisbane, a man with a face “as mad and vacant as the moon.”
MAD MATCH…Wolcott Gibbs noted that William Brisbane was Tallulah Bankhead’s only competition in Reflected Glory.(themovieb.org/npg.org.uk)
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The Yankee Clipper
Baseball was mostly ignored in the early years of the New Yorker, but every now and then the magazine would feature a famous personality from the game, in this case Joe DiMaggio, who in 1936 would set a franchise record for rookies by hitting twenty-nine home runs (in just 138 games).
DIZZY AND JOE D…Yankees rookie Joe DiMaggio meets with Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean at the All-Star Game in Boston July 7, 1936. (AP Photo)
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Right of the Right
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White took issue with a proposal by the New York Board of Aldermen to ban right-hand turns against a red light (the board ultimately approved the ban).
SEEING THE LIGHT…City officials examine new traffic lights on Fifth Avenue, 1933. (Golden Age Of Travel via facebook.com)
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At the Movies
Based on a 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis, the William Wyler-directed Dodsworth was acclaimed by critics as one of the best films of the year. New Yorker critic John Mosher wholeheartedly agreed:
SHE SAID, HE SAID…At left, Ruth Chatterton and Walter Huston portrayed a couple in a declining marriage in Dodsworth; at right, retired auto magnate Sam Dodsworth (Huston) reconsiders the life he has made for himself. (torontofilmsociety.com/YouTube.com)COMPLICATIONS…While travelling on the RMS Queen Mary to England, the Dodsworths find romantic companions—at left, Sam finds a soulmate in Edith Cortright (Mary Astor), while Fran flirts with a younger Englishman, Captain Lockert, played by David Niven. It was Niven’s first sizable role—he was a lieutenant in the British Army before coming to Hollywood in 1935. (eBay.com/film-foundation.org)
Mosher also reviewed a mixed bag of films, including the “wicked comedy” La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) featuring French opera star Françoise Rosay as a mayor’s wife who cleverly thwarts potential troubles from visiting Spanish soldiers.
BAWDY FUN was how John Mosher described the schemes of a mayor’s wife in La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders)—clockwise, from left: Françoise Rosay (seated) organizes the village women to tame some visiting soldiers; Betty Grable and John Arledge in the crime drama Don’t Turn ’em Loose; La Croisière Jaune (Yellow Expedition) documented a 1931-32 French trans-Asian expedition organized by Citroën to promote its rugged Kégresse track vehicles; Jack Oakie, Bennie Bartlett and Fred MacMurray in The Texas Rangers. (mubi.com/imdb.com/radiofrance.fr/csfd.cz)
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From Our Advertisers
Fall advertising continued its uptick in the magazine, with many splashes of color including this carpet ad that greeted readers on the inside front cover…
…R.J. Reynolds continued to roll out endorsements from society mavens…here Anne C. Rockefeller stated that Camels gave her “a delightful sense of well-being”…
…more Colonel and Duchess archetypes turn up in this issue, on behalf of Ruppert beer…
…the Warwick Hotel (Philadelphia), and College Inn tomato juice “cocktail”…College Inn had softened the appearance of their Duchess…
…since she was last spotted in The New Yorker in 1935 (detail)…
…after a blazing hot summer, the brewers of Rheingold figured this image would still appeal to parched New Yorkers…
…a back of the book ad from Johnston & Murphy, quoting an unidentified author regarding some childhood wishes…
…John Held Jr. was one of the earliest contributors to The New Yorker—from 1925 to 1932 his woodcut-style cartoons and fanciful maps were frequent features…by 1936 Held had turned his talents to painting, book illustration, and the occasional advertisement, here on behalf of Macy’s…
…our illustrators and cartoonists for this issue include Christina Malman…
…a caricature by William Auerbach-Levy for the calendar section’s mini bio…
…another Richard Taylor–Morris Bishop collaboration…
…more historic moments from American Industry, with Rea Irvin…
…Alan Dunn had an M.C. Escher moment on the turnpike…
…Helen Hokinson made a big ask at the beauty parlor…
…Ned Hilton drew up a big man with a big complex…
…Leonard Dove offered a challenge and a unique perspective at the subway station…
….Barbara Shermund’s modern women thrilled to the sights of Manhattan…
…George Price turned this trio into a quartet…
…and we close with a terrific, terrifying moment at the World Series, courtesy Peter Arno…
Above: Postcard image of the "Avenue of Presidents" at the 1936 Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio. (youtube.com)
Before the days of mass communications, millions would flock to various world’s fairs and expositions to see the latest inventions, experience the boosterism of the host city, and seek out the thrills of a carnival ride or peep show.
September 26, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov.
Along with the major world’s fairs such as Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, smaller cities also hosted expositions to “boom” their standing in the world—Omaha’s 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition attracted 2.6 million people, including President William McKinley, and three years later Buffalo’s 1901 Pan-American Exposition would draw eight million—McKinley was there, too, but his visit (and life) would be cut short by an assassin’s bullet.
In many cases these expositions commemorated anniversaries that marked the progress of a particular city or geographic area. Such was the case of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Exposition, which was created to commemorate the centennial of Cleveland’s incorporation as a city while giving a boost to a region hit hard by the Depression. The exposition was visited by The New Yorker’sEugene Kinkead, who was an editor and writer of the magazine’s “The Talk of the Town” section for many years. Here are brief excerpts from his visit:
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE…Clockwise from top left: Poster for the Great Lakes Exposition; the most popular attraction was Billy Rose’s Aquacade, a 5,000-seat theater-restaurant that featured diving and synchronized swimming (the Aquacade was also a hit at the 1939 New York Wold’s Fair); star attractions at the Aquacade were Olympic champion swimmers Eleanor Holm and Johnny Weissmuller, pictured here with Billy Rose; the “Streets of the World” showcased the cultures of more than forty different countries—it also featured the “French Casino,” a restaurant/nightclub that drew massive crowds to its “Girl Revues”—naturally, the scantily clad performances and nude can-can dancers created a major stir among more modest expo attendees. (chicagovintageposters.com/clevelandmemory.org)OTHER DIVERSIONS…Above: the can-can dancers who caused quite a stir at the French Casino, located in the “Streets of the World” section. Below: One of the blimps the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company featured at the exposition rises in the background of “Streets of the World.” Visitors could purchase tickets for three dollars (roughly $65 today) to take a scenic flight over downtown Cleveland, the exposition, and Lake Erie. (clevelandmemory.org)EXPO BY NIGHT…Clockwise, from top left: Postcard view of the main entrance to the Great Lakes Exposition, backlit by the “Aurora Borealis”—a spectacular light display created by powerful searchlights and colored beams; a tower sponsored by Cleveland’s famed Higbee’s Department Store; photograph of the main entrance at night. (clevelandmemory.org/clevelandhistorical.org)
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Relax, Joan
New Yorker regular Frank Sullivan found inspiration in a newspaper article featuring actress Joan Blondell lamenting the “surprised look” she thought was permanently fixed on her face. Sullivan suggested that Blondell “must live a pretty secluded life” not to notice a world “full of startled faces.” Alluding to the coming war in Europe, he suggested that in a year or two “everyone will probably look like ZaSu Pitts.”
PUT ON YOUR WAR FACE…Frank Sullivan reassured Joan Blondell (center) that soon everyone would wear the expression of actress ZaSu Pitts (left). (imdb.com/sspl.org)
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At the Movies
As previously noted, costume dramas were big in 1936, and critic John Mosher was less than enthusiastic about many of them, but he found Nine Days a Queen (Tudor Rose in the British release) a sensible affair, noting that “English studios manage to dress up their historical pageants with a care and a suggestion of authority…”
TEMPORARY CROWN…Nine Days a Queen (aka Tudor Rose) tells the story of Lady Jane Grey’s brief reign as the queen of England before she loses her head. Left: John Mills as Lord Guilford Dudley and Nova Pilbeam as Lady Jane Grey. At right, executioners seek forgiveness from Lady Jane ahead of their grisly task. Critic John Mosher liked the film, but Graham Greene (critic for The Spectator), wrote that he had “seldom listened to more inchoate rubbish…” (oldhollywooddiary via instagram.com)
Mosher found the musical comedy Sing, Baby, Sing a minor entertainment, and dismissed the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey as “nonsense.” Mosher was in the minority on that latter opinion: Godfrey was one of the most acclaimed comedies of 1936, nominated for six Oscars. In 1999 the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
PAIRING OFF…Alice Faye and Adolphe Menjou in Sing, Baby, Sing.Carole Lombard and William Powell in My Man Godfrey. Lombard and Powell were briefly married from 1931 to 1933, but remained close friends after their divorce. (eBay.com/pbs.org)
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From Our Advertisers
The inside front cover greeted readers with this romantic image from Richard Hudnut cosmetics…
…the makers of Lucky Strikes used a bit of romance themselves to inspire more women smokers…
…the folks at Birds Eye took out this advertisement to extol the virtues of frozen fish…
…an odd ad from Green Giant, using the image of an annoying little man to sell peas…one imagines the woman calling “Pa, git yer shotgun”…
…the Parc Vendome advertised its apartments as a great place to keep fit, everything from calisthenics to sun-lamp treatments…
…a couple of one-column ads from the back of the book…at left: founded in 1935, Cadaco was known for transforming real-world sports into table-top versions…on the right: John-Frederics was a partnership between hat designer “Mr John” Harberger and Frederic Hirst…John-Frederics hats were famous in Hollywood, including the green velvet bonnet worn by Vivien Leigh in 1939’s Gone with the Wind…
This 1938 edition of Cadaco’s Bas-Ket featured spring-loaded levers that propelled a ping-pong-like ball toward a basket. (etsy.com)
…Scribner’s magazine, a product of publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons, tried to head off declining circulation by hiring a new editor-in-chief, Harlan D. Logan, who sought to modernize the format to compete with contemporary lifestyle magazines…the publisher took out this cheeky full-page ad to draw attention to the “new” Scribner’s…
…founded in January 1887, the magazine saw its strongest sales when Teddy Roosevelt was a contributor from the 1890s to about 1910…despite Logan’s efforts, the magazine folded in May 1939…
The October 1936 issue of Scribner’s marked a change in editorship and design of the magazine. This cover was by American graphic designer Thomas Cleland. (vintage.es)
…archetypes like the pompous British Colonel and the haughty Duchess seemed to be everywhere in the 1930s, whether they were foils in screwball comedies or wealthy aristocrats laughably out-of-touch and obsessed with past glories (Peter Arno knew that trick well)…if you’ve followed these posts for awhile you know they are often seen in New Yorker advertising as well…
…which makes a nice segue to our cartoons, starting with Arno…
…the calendar section featured this illustration by William Auerbach-Levy for the mini bio of popular bandlander and pianist Eddy Duchin…
…Victor de Pauw opened up the magazine with this painterly illustration…
…some spot art from fashion illustrator Alice Chamalian…
…and Richard Taylor…
…caption-less entries from Alain…
…and Robert Day…
…Leonard Dove supplied a clarification for this sugar daddy…
…William Steig gave us various types of “woe”…
…George Price delivered a surprise at the Automat…
…Otto Soglow pondered the meaning of dreams…
…and we close with some scandalous fashion gossip, courtesy Helen Hokinson…
Above: The BBC offered a public demonstration of television at Waterloo Station, London, in 1936. (Colorized image via Facebook)
E.B. White was ever wary of new technology (except for aviation—he loved to fly), so television posed yet another thing to fear in the coming age of “omniscience.”
September 19, 1936 cover by William Cotton.
In addition to television, White noted two other “giant strides” in the world of science and publicity: a live radio broadcast featuring sounds from the Spanish Civil War, and the launch of a new magazine that would “consist almost entirely of pictures.”
ONE-EYED MONSTER…Clockwise, from top left: On Aug. 11, 1936, Philco Radio and Television demonstrated the transmitting end of a television with the help of camera operator R.E. Waggener and singer Betty McNellis—the sound and picture were projected seven miles to a receiving set; a close-up of a 1936 television camera; photo taken in 1936 during a “live broadcast” from America’s first television studio, NBC Studio 3H—from left, NBC President Lenox Lohr, RCA President David Sarnoff and Fair Committee head Grover Whalen sign a contract for an RCA pavilion at the upcoming 1939 World’s Fair; front and rear view of a 1936 television receiver. (eyesofageneration.com/facebook.com)
White also noted the upcoming launch of a new magazine, The Show-Book of the World,which was the working title of a publication that would become Life magazine. White did not like the idea of a magazine consisting mostly of pictures that graphically expose “once-private lives,” believing it would “do away with the last vestiges of privacy in America.”
MONUMENTAL…The photo on the first cover of Life magazine, Nov. 23, 1936, was shot by one of Life‘s original four photographers, Margaret Bourke-White, who covered the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, a Public Works Administration endeavor to build the largest earth dam in the world during the Great Depression. At right, a Bourke-White photo of Fort Peck workers enjoying some down time. (npr.org/life.com/worthpoint.com)
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Call for Johnny Roventini!
“The Talk of the Town” featured a brief profile of Johnny Roventini (aka Johnny Morris or Johnny the Bellboy), the famous “living trademark” for the Philip Morris tobacco company. Roventini (1910–1998), who represented the company for more than forty years, was working as a bellboy at the New Yorker Hotel in 1933 when he was discovered by an advertising agent. Excerpts:
THEY’RE SELLING YOU…In mid-century America the image of Johnny Roventini, known to the public as Johnny Morris or Johnny the Bellboy, seemed to be everywhere. Clockwise, from top left: Publicity photo, 1937; magazine ad, 1947; ad promoting the armed services, 1941; civil defense-themed ad, 1940s; cigarette match holder; promotional stand-up sign. (cats.ua.edu/standford.edu/worthpoint.com)
Roventini was probably best known for his Philip Morris promos on I Love Lucy. The new show was challenged to find a sponsor (due to the Cuban character played by Desi Arnaz) until Arnaz arranged a deal that made Philip Morris the exclusive sponsor of I Love Lucy from its premiere on October 15, 1951 through Christmas of 1954. Roventini gained unprecedented national TV exposure and became fast friends with Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Here is one more excerpt from “Talk” regarding the quiet life of Philip Morris’s “living trademark.”
I LOVE PHILIP MORRIS…Lucille Ball, Johnny Roventini and Desi Arnaz formed a lucrative trio for the tobacco company Philip Morris when I Love Lucy went on the air in 1951. Roventini was an occasional, social smoker, while Ball and Arnaz were heavy smokers (although Lucy preferred Chesterfields). (facebook.com/instagram.com)
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At the Movies
A Soviet film featuring exiled German communists proved to be a disappointment for critic John Mosher, but in retrospect the 1936 German-Soviet film The Struggle (aka Kämpfer or Der Kampf) reveals the strange and terrifying climate artists had to navigate in Stalin’s Russia.
Set in Germany after 1933, the film depicted the resistance of workers against the rise of the Nazi Party. One of the earliest films to depict Nazi terror and concentration camps, ironically many of those who worked on the film became victims of Joseph Stalin’s terror and the Gulag.
DEFIANCE…German actress Lotte Loebinger in a scene from the 1936 German-Soviet movie The Struggle (“Kämpfer”). Loebinger (1905-1995) managed to survive Stalin’s purges and had a long career on the stage in East Berlin following World War II. Loebinger’s lover, a German refugee physician with whom she bore a daughter, was not so fortunate, dying in a Soviet Gulag camp. (YouTube)
Shortly after The Struggle was completed, Stalin purged the community of exiled German communists living in Moscow, and the film was quickly banned by Soviet authorities. A large number of the film’s cast and crew were arrested, sent to the Gulag, or killed, including lead actor Bruno Schmidtsdorf, who was executed by firing squad near Moscow in 1938. Composer Hans Hauska, who wrote the film’s musical score, perished in a Soviet prison camp.
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Playing the Ponies
The calendar section continued its series of illustrated mini-bios, this week featuring Tommy Hitchcock, widely regarded as the greatest polo player in the history of the sport. A dashing figure in high society, Hitchcock (1900–1944) was also an aviator and decorated war hero. Illustration by William Cotton.
POLO PLAYING PILOT…Tommy Hitchcock flew as a volunteer pilot for the French Air Force in World War I, and was later instrumental in the development of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Hitchcock was killed in 1944 while piloting a P-51 on a test flight near Salisbury, England. (instagram.com)
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From Our Advertisers
A strange advertisement from Bergdorf, announcing the opening of a salon that featured a line of shoes inspired by the Chinese “bound foot”…
…if a bound foot wasn’t your thing, you could wiggle your toes in an elastic shoe fashioned from “Pleatex”…
…Wamsutta continued to promote its high thread-count sheets with these somewhat seductive advertisements…
…oddly composed advertisement for Saks Fifth Avenue by fashion illustrator Margaret Sommerfeld, who produced promotional artwork for Saks…
…Fred Astaire managed to hang on to his hat in this advertisement for “The Packard Hour” on NBC’s nationwide “Red Network”…the ad proclaimed “you’ll hear him sing and dance“…on the radio, that is…
…Scripps-Howard featured this image of the late Will Rogers to promote newspaper advertising…
…this back cover ad also featured a newspaper reader, enjoying a smoke while waiting for the train…
…best known for creating The Little King,Otto Soglow drew hundreds of cartoons and spot drawings for The New Yorker as well as for a variety of advertisers including Pepsi-Cola, Benson & Hedges cigarettes, and here, one from a series of ads he created for WOR radio…
…speaking of spots, here are two by Victor de Pauw…
…biographies of prolific New Yorker cover artist Arthur Getz give his start date at the magazine as 1938, but this might be one of his early spot drawings (although the signature style differs from Getz’s other works)…
…no mistaking this spot by Christina Malman…
…or this one by Richard Decker…
…Leonard Dove demonstrated some moves for a chorus line…
…and more wonderful Richard Taylor illustrations for Morris Bishop’s limericks…
…the well-heeled prepared to engage in a favorite sport, per Peter Arno…
…”Trans-Lux” theaters were conversions of storefronts and retail offices that seated smaller audiences than traditional theaters. Rather than feature films, the Trans-Lux theaters showed continuous 45-to-60-minute loops of newsreels (like The March of Time), short subjects, travelogues, and cartoons from 10 a.m. to midnight—people could come and go as they pleased. The theaters pioneered rear-screen projection, using a specialized, wide-angled lens placed just eight feet behind a translucent screen…
POP IN, POP OUT…The very first Trans-Lux cinema opened in 1931 at 58th and Madison as a unique venue that played newsreels and shorts. According to The New York Times, “by the late 1940s, the rise of television began to kill the newsreel format entirely. By 1949, Trans-Lux stopped expanding its boutique newsreel footprint and pivoted its existing houses toward showing standard feature-length films.” (Library of Congress)
…back to our cartoons, Carl Rose conjured up an unwelcome reminder…
…Charles Addams was up to his old tricks…
…Alain read the obvious from some tea leaves…
…Rea Irvin showed us some strategic thinking by military brass…
…Alan Dunn considered the mysteries of the sea…
…this guy should have suggested a comedy, per Barbara Shermund…
…Helen Hokinson continued to probe the delicate work of the dress shop…
…and we close with another by dear Helen, and the fear of too much thinking…
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)
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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: Nineteen-thirties dance class sponsored by Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy), a sub-organization of the German Labour Front that sought to fulfill the totalitarian ambitions of the Nazi regime by "forming a genuine national and performance-based community of all Germans," in other words, keep them busy and distracted from reality. (bundesarchiv.de)
Paris correspondent Janet Flanner visited Berlin to check on that city’s preparations for the 1936 Olympic Games, an event Nazi leaders saw as a prime opportunity for some big-time propaganda.
August 1, 1936 cover by Constantin Alajalov with a wry twist on the upcoming Berlin Olympic games (note the strap along the left edge bearing some of flags of competing nations).
Flanner noted Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ charge to the German people, instructing them to show the world that the German Volk were “more charming than Parisians, more lively than the Romans, more worldly than the Londoners, and more efficient than the New Yorkers.”
EYE ON BERLIN…Janet Flanner, who wrote under the pen name Genêt, in 1940. (National Portrait Gallery)
There was an ambiguous quality to Flanner’s early writings about Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler in particular. As The New Yorker’sAndrew Marantz noted in “Takes” (Aug. 10, 2025) regarding Flanner’s 1936 profile of Hitler, “Instead of telling readers what they needed to know—that was what newspapers were for—she focused on what they might want to know…” Rather than taking sides, she reported in a cool and ironic tone. In her biography Genêt,Brenda Wineapple wrote that Flanner in her early writings “thought of herself as a high-class gossip columnist.”
Here are excerpts from the first part of Flanner’s “Berlin Letter.”
FASCIST FEVER DREAM…The Nazis spent large sums in preparation for the Olympic games, seeing them as the ultimate propaganda opportunity. Clockwise, from top left: Nazi officials show the extent of the Olympic village using a scale model in July 1936; a street scene with displays of the Olympic and swastika flags in Berlin, August 1936— the regime temporarily toned down public anti-Semitic displays and cleaned up the streets to impress international visitors; lively café scene on the Kurfürstendamm, known colloquially as the Ku’damm, in 1936. (Robert Hunt Library/Sueddeutscher Verlag Bilderdienst/tripadvisor.com)BEFORE IT ALL WENT DARK…In 1936 the Kurfürstendamm was a bustling Berlin boulevard, temporarily masking the oppressive Nazi regime with a veneer of normalcy for the 1936 Summer Olympics—shown at left is the Scharlachberg House at the corner of Kurfürstendamm/Uhlandstraße in Berlin, where the Maison de France stands today; at right, the Hindenburg flies over the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, August 1936. (Wikipedia/Encyclopædia Britannica)
In these excerpts, Flanner wrote that the arts were overseen by Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring (of all people). She also noted the absence from the opera (which she rated poor under Goebbels) of the world-renowned conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who was in seclusion “writing an opera,” but probably wanted to be out of the limelight due to his controversial decision to stay in the Reich rather than flee like other artists and musicians. Furtwängler detested Hitler, but believed his art would wither if he left his homeland.
HORROR SHOW…Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs at the opera in Berlin in 1936. Hitler often appeared in carefully staged public settings like this one and the one in the photo below. (archaeohistories.via Facebook.com)MUSICAL STRAIN…Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler acknowledges the audience following a 1935 performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra—visible in the left corner of the photo are Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Goebbels, among other Nazi leaders. (Archiv Berliner Philharmoniker)A closer look at the photo—a combination of hatred and fear in Furtwängler’s eyes? The first and second violinists don’t look too thrilled either.
In a related item, Howard Brubaker (in his “Of All Things” column), had this to say about Germany’s Olympics preparations.
* * *
A Friendly Shakedown
In Part Two of his profile on Tammany powerbroker Jimmy Hines, journalist Jack Alexander noted Hines’ unorthodox habit of soliciting contributions from his friends (illustration by Hugo Gellert). Excerpts:
* * *
At the Movies
“In the dreadful summer of 1932, [The New Yorker] paid me ten dollars for an anecdote. I was ripe for seduction…,” Russell Maloney once recalled. “[Then] I sent in an account of a situation that I thought would make a good Helen Hokinson picture…and got paid for that: seven dollars.”
Maloney (1910–1948) proceeded to send more ideas to The New Yorker, and enough were accepted that in 1935 he packed his bags and moved to Manhattan for a job at The New Yorker. In his ten years at the magazine he would contribute thousands of anecdotes to “The Talk of Town” as well as casuals, profiles, and countless cartoon captions. His interest in theater as well as celebrity gossip suited him well when he substituted for John Mosher as the magazine’s film critic.
So let’s see what Maloney—who would later call 1939’sThe Wizard of Oz a “stinkeroo,” had to say about the latest fare from Hollywood.
BUT THEY PAID ME THIS MUCH…Top: Russell Maloney wrote that both Bette Davis and Warren William seemed “embarrassed” to be appearing in Satan Met a Lady, which was a loose adaptation of Dashiell Hammet’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon—Maloney found Satan to be vastly inferior to the 1931 film The Maltese Falcon (below), which starred Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. In 1941 Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor would appear in yet another adaptation of the Hammet novel. (imdb.com/facebook.com/jbkaufman.com)
Maloney “enjoyed” The Return of Sophie Lang, with actors “baffling one another with the greatest suavity”…
IS THIS SUAVE ENOUGH FOR YOU?…Ray Milland and Gertrude Michael get close in The Return of Sophie Lang. (Pinterest.com)
…while Spendthrift, featuring actors speaking in various accents, was “perfectly dreadful.” Fortunately Suzy managed to lift the reviewer’s spirits, especially with the appearance of Jean Harlow.
A WINNER AND A WIENER…Top, Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, and George Davis in Suzy; bottom: Henry Fonda is flanked by Pat Paterson (left) and Mary Brian in Spendthrift. (tcm.com/eBay.com)
See this post from Michael Maslin’s Inkspill about Maloney’s contributions to The New Yorker. Also, check out this photo below that includes Maloney (standing next to James Thurber):
LITERARY CLUBHOUSE…Familiar New Yorker faces gathered for a cocktail party at the Hotel Algonquin to celebrate the success of Frank Case’s 1938 memoir, Tales Of a Wayward Inn. Seated, from left, are Fritz Foord, Wolcott Gibbs, Case and Dorothy Parker; standing, left to right, are Alan Campbell, St. Clair McKelway, Russell Maloney and James Thurber (untappedcities.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We begin with this colorful inside front cover advertisement for Bacardi rum, illustrated by George de Zayas, the younger brother of Marius de Zayas. Born in Mexico, these talented brothers took different artistic paths—Marius became a prominent avant-garde artist who collaborated with Alfred Stieglitz and others in New York, while George focused on commercial art and popular media…
…this isn’t exactly avant-garde, but the makers of Four Roses added a modern twist to their usual traditional style…
…United Airlines offered overnight flights as well as “scenic” daylight flights from coast to coast (New York to San Francisco)…this flight typically took seventeen to nineteen hours, with refueling stops in Cleveland, Omaha, and Cheyenne/Salt Lake City…the planes were not pressurized, so they flew through the weather rather than above it…at least this plane (Boeing 247), according to the ad, had air-conditioning…
…for the more adventurous (and perhaps wealthier) traveler, you could hop aboard a Pan Am Clipper and head for Rio de Janeiro…in 1936, this flight from Miami to Rio took five days (flying in daylight only)…
…a one-way ticket to Rio would have cost close to $11,000 in today’s dollars, while the equivalent $9,000 would get you a one-way ticket to Europe on the Hindenburg…
…in the back of the book we find various food and cocktail diversions…
…and some one-column tennis-themed ads…”Johnson’s Tennis Gut” referred to the material used in the Thirties to string rackets…the strings were almost exclusively made from natural animal gut—commonly called “catgut,” though they were actually made from processed and twisted sheep intestines…
…Liggett & Myers claimed the back page to promote their Chesterfields to women smokers…one wonders if a racking cough interfered with her playing…
…on to our illustrators and cartoonists, we kick things off with spots by Adolph K. Kronengold…
…John Groth…
…Richard Taylor…
…Christina Malman…
…and Victor de Pauw…
…Carl Rose took us through a sculptor’s creative stages…
…Helen Hokinson pondered a recipe for the day’s catch…
…and she checked out some summer reading (Warwick Deeping was a British writer of historical romances as well as books that defended the lifestyles of the bourgeoisie)…
…this was F.E. Smith’s sole contribution to The New Yorker, and it’s pretty good…beyond that, I came up empty trying to find out more about the cartoonist…
…but we all know Leonard Dove (who contributed fifty-seven New Yorker covers and 717 cartoons)…here he’s keeping things quiet on the tennis court…
…and, of course, we have the great Charles Addams…
…we close with one of my favorite cartoonists, Barbara Shermund, keeping things light after the wedding…
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…
Above: Undated image (left) demonstrates the versatility of the Model T Ford. At right, E.B. White and Katharine Sergeant White take a spin in a Model T Roadster. (freep.com/whistlestoppers.com)
E.B. White often shared anachronistic views on progress, decrying everything from streamlined cars to fully-enclosed city buses that removed passengers from the open air.
May 16, 2026 cover by Leonard Dove. Note the star next to the date. On older New Yorker magazine covers, the star was a printer’s mark indicating a split run or a specific newsstand edition.
Instead, White celebrated the simplicity and mechanical quirks of earlier motor vehicles, including his beloved Ford Model T. For the May 16 issue White collaborated with journalist Richard Lee Strout on a homage to the old motorcar, “Farewell, My Lovely!” Strout’s contribution is important here, since it was he who originally submitted a manuscript to editor Harold Ross about the Model T. Either White rewrote Strout’s submission or used it as inspiration for “Farewell, My Lovely!” At any rate, that explains the blended byline, “Lee Strout White.” Here are some excerpts (spot art by Constantin Alajalov):
MIX AND MATCH…E.B. White’s famous Model T was a 1917 Roadster like the one pictured at top left. He purchased the car shortly after college and famously drove it across the country in 1922; at top right, the dash featured the ignition key and nothing else, however you could add such extras as radiator “Moto Wings” or a Ruby Safety Reflector. (volocars.com/ebay.com)KEEPING IT HUMMING…As E.B. White noted in his opening lines, you could buy an axle as well as a number of other parts for the Model T from the Sears catalog. Clockwise, from top left: Cover of the 1936 “Golden Jubilee” catalog; replacement parts featured in the catalog included new car tops and an array of replacement parts. (archive.org/babel.hathitrust.org)
Model T owners developed all sorts of hacks to keep their Lizzies running. White wrote that “Dropping a camphor ball into the gas tank was a popular expedient; it seemed to have a tonic effect on both man and machine.” He also noted that the Ford driver “flew blind,” given that on earlier models the dashboard was bare save for an ignition key. Those cars lacked speedometers, fuel gauges, as well as gauges for engine temperature and oil pressure. “Whatever the driver learned of his motor,” White wrote, “he learned not through instruments but through sudden developments.” He concluded his piece with some thoughts on the golden days of the automobile.
SHOWOFF…The Model T’s unique transmission and gravity-fed fuel system were key to the rugged car’s many stunts. In scaling Scotland’s Ben Nevis mountain, the driver often had to go backwards up inclines to maintain fuel flow. Above is a photo of a Model T climbing the stairs of the Tennessee State Capitol in 1911. (media.lincoln.com)
* * *
Total Recall
E.B. White also filed a lengthy “Notes and Comment” comprised entirely of brief dispatches from around the country:
CIVILIZED SHOPPING…Tea time was observed every afternoon at Kress’s department store—images above are of the store’s ladies lounge; body builder and fitness magazine publisher Benarr Macfadden (seen here with President Franklin Roosevelt circa mid-1930s) said he had no plans to run for president; bottom left, a sale was in progress at the Rolls-Royce building on East 57th. (nypl.org/public domain/mcny.org)
Here are the rest of White’s notes on the passing scene:
LIMITATION OF STATUES…At left, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia presides over the dedication ceremonies of a Times Square statue honoring Father Francis Patrick Duffy, May 2, 1937—apparently some folks were opposed to a statue honoring the most decorated chaplain in Army history; at right, a Borden’s milkman making a delivery in New York City, 1936. (facebook.com/photo army.mil)
* * *
Not Playing in Peoria
Jack Kirkland’s play Tobacco Road, based on the 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell, was one of the longest-running plays in theater history, with 3,182 performances from 1933 to 1941. Although banned in major cities such as Chicago and Detroit for being sensational and immoral (and panned by critics), it nevertheless saw huge success on Broadway and with its touring company. “The Talk of the Town” checked the status of the play at the Forrest Theatre, where it had exceeded the millionth ticket mark.
WORD GETS AROUND…Folks queue up in 1937 to see Tobacco Road at Omaha’s Paramount Theater. Despite being banned in many cities, the play ran until 1941. (Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
One Rainy Afternoon was the first of a small number of films from United Artists produced by its vice-president, Mary Pickford, through her Pickford-Lasky production company. In his opening lines critic John Mosher alluded to Pickford’s popular 1934 essay, Why Not Try God?
HONEST MISTAKE…Francis Lederer played a debonair actor who accidentally kisses young socialite Ida Lupino in a darkened theatre in One Rainy Afternoon. Hilarity and romance follow. Lederer (1899–2000) would enjoy a successful stage, film and television career while becoming wealthy as an L.A. real estate investor. Lupino (1918–1995) was an actress, director, writer, and producer, appearing in 59 films and directing eight. She is regarded as the most prominent woman filmmaker working during the Hollywood studio system of the 1950s. (Wikipedia)
Mosher also reviewed some “Good mid-May entertainment for honest idlers” and a documentary about the Dust Bowl.
MAY DIVERSIONS…Clockwise, from top left: Herbert Marshall and Gertrude Michael in Till We Meet Again; Margaret Sullavan and Henry Fonda in The Moon’s Our Home; Thomas Beck and Helen Wood in Champagne Charlie; a farmer looks to the sky in the Dust Bowl documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains. (csfd.cz,pinterest.com/imdb.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
The makers of Campbell’s soups continued to market their product as an upscale starter for dinner…or perhaps a time-saver for the cook, Madam none the wiser…
…Cadillac continued to entice buyers with bucolic scenes dominated by their luxury sedans…the price isn’t outrageous, roughly equivalent to $40K today…
…we experience much of 1930s history in black and white, but according to this ad things were quite colorful…
…now a couple of ads with an eye on the clock…here we have a suggestion that Johnnie Walker can be enjoyed before dinner and up to bedtime…
…the brewers of Guinness suggested their tipple was suitable for lunchtime, before bed, or when one is “tired or depressed”…
…as we already know, R.J. Reynolds encouraged folks to smoke from morning to night, with the added benefit of improved digestion…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with a spot by Abe Birnbaum…
…and spots from frequent contributors Richard Taylor…
…and Christina Malman…
…and a spot drawing on the opening pages by James Thurber…
…who also contributed this cartoon to the issue…
…Thurber’s caption refers to journalist and radio broadcaster Dorothy Thompson. One of the few women radio news commentators of the 1930s, she was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934. In 1936 Thompson launched her “On the Record” column, syndicated nationwide by the New York Herald Tribune…
Dorothy Thompson in 1937. (Wikipedia)
…we continue our cartoons with Charles Addams (apologies for the quality) floating to earth…
…which recalled another Addams cartoon from the Aug 3, 1935 issue (caption reads “My wife crocheted it.”)…
…and Addams again, this time down to earth…
…Mary Petty looked in on the art world…
…William Crawford Galbraith continued to explore lives and loves of sugar daddies…
…Alain had folks deciphering the news crawler at Times Square…
…Helen Hokinson avoided temptation at the pet shop…
…and we close with Whitney Darrow Jr, and a bedtime story that would keep the sandman at bay…
Above: Detail from illustration depicting the Philippine Clipper arriving in Hong Kong to establish the first commercial air service between North America and the continent of Asia on October 23, 1936. (Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami)
We take to the air with the April 18, 1936 edition of The New Yorker, namely via the China Clipper, a Pan American flying boat that was preparing to begin regular passenger service from San Francisco to the Philippines and Hong Kong along with its two sister ships.
April 18, 1930 cover by Rea Irvin.
Writing for “A Reporter at Large” under the title “See You in Shanghai,” Morris Markey offered an enthusiastic preview of the China Clipper, a Martin M-130 flying boat that was initially tested on a Trans-Pacific mail route laid out by famed navigator Fred Noonan (who would disappear the following year in a fateful flight with Amelia Earhart). Although Markey anticipated a summer launch, the first commercial trans-Pacific airmail and passenger service from San Francisco to Manila actually took place in October 1936, when the Hawaii Clipper made the first scheduled transoceanic passenger flight to the Philippines. The Philippine Clipper inaugurated the first passenger service into Hong Kong that same month, but it was a public relations VIP flight rather than a revenue generating one.
Here are excerpts from Markey’s report:
TAKING WING…Clockwise, from top left, carrying nearly 111,000 letters, the China Clipper passes over the San Francisco waterfront on its first airmail flight to Manila in November 1935; trading card from a pack of Player’s cigarettes; cutaway view of the Martin M-130 flying boat dubbed the China Clipper.(Wikipedia/frommers.com/Smithsonian)
Here is the flight schedule for the China Clipper’s first airmail flight to Manila in November 1935:
(messynessychic.com)
Today’s commercial aircraft squeeze passengers into about six square feet. Compare that to a Pan Am Clipper, which allotted twenty-two square feet per each passenger. They lounged on easy chairs and couches, enjoyed six-course meals served on fine china, and could even take a hot shower if so desired. Markey again:
THE ONLY WAY TO FLY if you had the means. The Clippers were divided into spacious cabins, with couches rather than airplane seats. The passenger compartments would transform at night into deluxe sleeper cabins. There was a dining salon, dressing rooms, and separate bathrooms for men and women. (messynessychic.com/Wikipedia/clipperflyingboats.com)
Talk about legroom…
(everythingpanam.com)
Writing for Messy Nessy,Luke Spencer notes this experience was only available to a select few: “…a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong would set you back $760 in 1939 (more than $13,000 today). But despite being largely reserved for the rich and famous, the seaplanes are so evocative of the bygone era, that today, it’s hard to imagine a vintage travel poster without a Flying Clipper in it, soaring above a distant island.” Indeed, the long-gone Clipper ships live on in popular vintage travel posters such as the one below depicting Pan Am’s most advanced, largest and last flying boat, the Boeing 314. The circa 1939 illustration is by George Lawler:
(panam.org)
* * *
Don’t Step On Them
Suede shoes (aka Bucks, Reverse Calfskin) caught the attention of E.B. White, who thought this “new kind of men’s shoe” resembled a wire-haired dachshund. Suede shoes (blue ones would come later) were introduced as a preppy alternative to heavy lace-up shoes in the 1930s. They were favored (and made popular) by fashion trendsetter Edward, Duke of Windsor, who briefly reigned as British king in 1936 before abdicating the throne.
GOING CASUAL…Suede shoes offered a less formal option to men who still wanted to look stylish about town or at the club. At left is an ad from the 1940s, and at right is a one-column ad from the April 18, 1936 issue of The New Yorker. One wonders if E.B. White noticed it. (chronicallyvintage.com)
* * *
Cowboys and Elephants
The “Talk of the Town” noted the latest attractions the Ringling Brothers were bringing to Madison Square Garden, including B-grade Western film actor ColonelTim McCoy and a trio of elephants who played a rudimentary form of baseball.
NICE DUDS…American actor and military officer Colonel Tim McCoy (1891–1978) was a popular cowboy film star; he was even honored with his picture on a Wheaties box. (Wikipedia/nypl.org)
The tallest person ever recorded, Robert Wadlow (1918–1940), became a celebrity after his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus, appearing at Madison Square Garden in the center ring, and never in the sideshow.
ON DISPLAY…The 8 foot, 11.1 inch Robert Wadlow shares a moment with Harry Earles (aka Harry Doll) behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1936. During his appearance, Wadlow dressed in his everyday clothes and refused the circus’s request that he wear a top hat and tails. (reddit.com)
In addition to Col. McCoy, the circus also featured the daring high wire act of the famous Wallenda family:
IT’S A LIVING…The Wallendas performing at Madison Square Garden in 1934. (facebook.com)
* * *
Sage Advice
Dorothea Brande (1892–1948) was the author of two popular advice books: Becoming a Writer (1934) remains in print today, and her motivational Wake Up and Live (1936) sold more than a million copies and inspired an eponymous 1937 Hollywood movie.
As we’ve seen before, James Thurber relished the opportunity to satirize the writers of motivational books, and Brande’s Wake Up and Live proved to be irresistible. Here are some choice excerpts:
IDEAL FOR AN AIRPORT READ if such a thing would have existed in 1936. Above, Dorothea Brande circa 1937 and her 1936 bestseller, Wake Up and Live, which sold more than a million copies and inspired a Hollywood movie. (Wikipedia/matthewsbookshop.com)
* * *
Legacy Lines
In 1936 Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) was more widely read than any American poet, but his popularity didn’t diminish the respect he received from literary critics. So no wonder The New Yorker gave him a two-page spread to publish his “Notes To Be Left In A Cornerstone.” It’s too large to reproduce here, but this is how it looked in the magazine (with great spot art by Hugo Gellert)…
A closer look at Gellert’s illustration…
…and here are the last two stanzas of the poem:
* * *
Ray Gets Rough
Ray Bolger’s long career included everything from dancing in vaudeville shows and acting on Broadway to appearing in his own television sitcom and in a 1981 Dr. Pepper commercial (dancing, of course). He is best remembered as the lovable, loose-limbed Scarecrow in 1939’s Wizard of Oz. So it was a surprise to learn that the Tony-winning actor could also play a tough guy, a turn that delighted critic Wolcott Gibbs, who penned this review of the Rodgers and Hart comedy musical On Your Toes:
I CAN SCARE MORE THAN CROWS…Ray Bolger (left) gets rough with a thug as Tamara Geva looks on in the musical comedy On Your Toes. (rodgersandhammerstein.com)
* * *
Bio Myopic
Biopics reached a height of popularity in the Thirties, with dozens of these pictures featuring major stars including Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and Rembrandt (1936), Barbara Stanwyck in Annie Oakley (1935), Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933), and Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934). Paul Muni, the king of biopics, appeared in at least a half-dozen including The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936). The year 1936 also brought us The Great Ziegfeld, starring William Powell as Flo Ziegfeld, Myrna Loy as his wife, Billie Burke, and Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld’s first wife, Anna Held. Critic JohnMosher takes it from here:
DOUBLE TAKE..Ziegfeld Follies star Will Rogers was originally intended to appear in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld, but died in a plane crash in August 1935 before filming began. A.A. Trimble (pictured at left), was a map salesman by trade, but was also known to perform impersonations of Rogers at events like Rotarian lunches. Critic John Mosher was shocked by Trimble’s uncanny impersonation of Rogers in the film, which also featured Ziegfeld headliner Fanny Brice (right), the real one. (facebook.com/amazon.com)OSCAR-WORTHY…William Powell and Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Dance Direction, and Best Actress, which went to Rainer. (tcm.com)
A note on Luise Rainer (1910–2014): The Austrian-American Rainer was the first person to win two Academy Awards in a row. The first was for her role as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld, and the second was for her role as a Chinese farm wife in 1937’s The Good Earth.
TIME WAS ON HER SIDE…Luise Rainer in 1936. (Wikipedia)
At the time of her death in 2014, thirteen days shy of her 105th birthday, Rainer was the longest-lived Oscar recipient, and the longest-lived female star from Classic Hollywood.
Mosher also reviewed Desire, a romantic crime drama that reunited the stars of the 1930 pre-code film Morocco, Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper.
REKINDLING THOSE SPARKS…Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper reunite in Desire. (video librarian.com)HMMM…Desire also featured character actor William Frawley (seen here with Cooper), who would go on to greater fame in television, playing Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. (facebook.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
We begin with the inside front cover, where the makers of leaded gasoline appealed to homespun sensibilities with an odd juxtaposition…
…oil companies and other auto-related industries were big advertisers in The New Yorker, including the United States Rubber Company…
…which ran this back cover ad in the very first issue of the magazine, Feb. 21, 1925…
…another advertiser with deep pockets was big tobacco…R.J. Reynolds continued to make the ridiculous claim that their Camel cigarettes aided digestion…
…the makers of Old Gold stuck with sex to sell their smokes, featuring illustrations by pin-up artist George Petty…
…Hiram Walker boasted the availability of their Canadian Club whiskey in “87 lands”…
…at first glance I thought this was a soap advertisement…one doubts this analogy prompted more people to pick up a case of Bud…
…the makers of College Inn Tomato Juice Cocktail continued to employ the social faux pas to sell their product…note the outraged duchess making an appearance on the right…
…Heineken established its U.S. presence in 1933, becoming the first imported beer legally sold after the end of Prohibition…
…Amer Picon called on the talents of illustrator Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) to create this stylish advertisement…
Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) was known primarily for his illustrations of glamorous young women, including his signature “Whitcomb Girl.” Born and raised in the Midwest, Whitcomb moved to New York City in 1934, joining with Al Cooper to found the Cooper Studio. At left, Whitcomb circa 1940s; at right, his illustration for the cover of Colliers, Aug. 23, 1941. (illustrationhistory.org)
…on to our cartoonists, we have a spot illustration by Richard Taylor to kick off the issue…
…Leonard Dove gave us a frustrated sugar daddy…
…Alain illustrated the perils of social realism…
…Whitney Darrow Jr’s butler made himself right at home…
…Ned Hilton’s harpist found a way to adapt to her surroundings…
…Robert Day required a layout adjustment for his human cannonball…
…Mary Petty took an unusual request at the soda fountain…
…Peter Arno diagnosed an incurable eye condition…
…Otto Soglow offered up a surprise at the automat…
…Helen Hokinson went apartment hunting…
…and we close with Barbara Shermund, and a big ask…
Above: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne headed the cast of Idiot's Delight, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning play by Robert E. Sherwood. The anti-war play premiered at Broadway's Shubert Theatre on March 24, 1936, and ran for three hundred performances. (latimes.com)
Set against the backdrop of impending war in Europe, Robert Sherwood’sIdiot’s Delight was a timely exploration of how individuals might respond to a major upheaval. The play’s themes about the futility of war resonate as much today as they did in 1936.
April 4, 1936 cover by Harry Brown. Although he created some distinctive, whimsical covers for The New Yorker (including today’s), there is very little biographical information available on the artist. Brown created eighteen covers for the magazine from 1931 to 1937.
Presented at Shubert Theatre, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play was set at a hotel in the Italian Alps, where the guests—among them a military captain, a German scientist, a radical socialist, and a honeymooning couple—find themselves trapped by the sudden onset of world war. The cast was led by Alfred Lunt, who played a small-time American entertainer accompanied by a troupe of chorines, and Lynn Fontanne, who portrayed a mysterious Russian woman who was traveling with an arms dealer.
The Pulitzer jury called the play first-rate, full of dramatic invention and “Molierian richness.” Critic Robert Benchley heartily agreed:
FRIVOLITY AMID THE CHAOS OF WAR…Clockwise, from top left, souvenir program for Idiot’s Delight; Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in a scene from the play; playwright Robert E. Sherwood; Lunt with a chorus line in Idiot’s Delight. The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote that the play “demonstrates Mr. Sherwood’s taste for exuberance and jovial skulduggery.”(eBay.com/nypl.org/imdb.com)
Benchley concluded that the play was at once entertaining and edifying:
FORGET ABOUT IT…In Idiot’s Delight, Sydney Greenstreet (left) portrayed a doctor who, in the face of senseless war deaths, gives up on his life-saving research; at right, Jean MacIntyre (left) portrayed Mrs. Cherry, part of a young English honeymooning couple stranded at a hotel due to the sudden closing of the border. With her in the scene are Fontanne and Lunt. (radioclassics.com/Public Domain)
Sherwood adapted the play into a 1939 film of the same name, starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable.
* * *
Earth Gazing
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White mused about plans at the Hayden Planetarium for a program that would give visitors some idea of how earth would appear from a point in space. Earthlings would have to wait until 1968 to actually see a clear, color image of their planet.
THE WONDER OF IT ALL…Clockwise, from top left, the cosmosarium at the Hayden Planetarium, circa 1935; Howard Russell Butler’s attempt at an accurate portrayal of the earth for the American Museum of Natural History, circa 1920s; in 1966, Lunar Orbiter I sent back this image of Earth from the vicinity of the Moon; Earthrise is a famous photograph of Earth taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. (facebook.com/pinterest.com/NASA)
* * *
From Russia With Love
Journalist and literary critic Edmund Wilson Jr (1895–1972) traveled in Russia from May to October 1935, and later filed a couple of articles in The New Yorker detailing his travels. Writing for the column “A Reporter at Large,” Wilson described his journey by boat from London to Leningrad, finding an unexpected kinship with his Soviet cabin mates. Excerpts:
DESTINATION…Leningrad’s Nevsky Prospect 1930s; Edmund Wilson Jr in 1936. (pinterest.com/Wikipedia)
Wilson found that he preferred the company of the Soviets to a stuffy English couple who were his dining companions. He concluded:
It should be noted that Wilson, despite his Marxist sympathies, would soon become disillusioned with the Soviet experiment; his travels concluded just before the onset of Josef Stalin’s “Great Purge,” which featured the notorious Moscow Show Trials that sent millions of innocent Soviet citizens to labor camps or to their deaths in prisons.
DOOMED…During the Great Terror, which included the notorious show trials of Stalin’s former Bolshevik opponents in 1936-1938 and reached its peak in 1937 and 1938, millions of innocent Soviet citizens were sent off to labor camps or killed in prison. This image from 1936 shows defendants dressed in prison clothing during one of the Moscow Show Trials. (umkc.edu)
* * *
At the Movies
Film critic John Mosher observed that moviegoers mostly needed “thrills and nonsense” at the cinema. Thrills were not to be found, but Harold Lloyd provided the nonsense.
PUNCH LINES…Harold Lloyd (left), portrayed an unlikely middleweight boxer in The Milky Way. Above is a scene with Adolphe Menjou (center) and Lionel Stander. (obscurehollywood.net)
The “thriller” of the week was Moonlight Murder, which Mosher suggested audiences could “dismiss at once.”
DISMISSED…Katharine Alexander, Leo Carrillo and Benita Hume in Moonlight Murder. (rotten tomatoes.com)
Mosher also offered tepid reviews of Everybody’s Old Man and Sutter’s Gold, despite these films featuring a popular humorist and a respected character actor, respectively.
SAY SOMETHING FUNNY…Rochelle Hudson, Irvin S. Cobb and Warren Hymer in Everybody’s Old Man. (imdb.com)WHO AM I?…A vague narrative left critic John Mosher wondering if Edward Arnold’s character was supposed to be a “hero, villain, scamp, or fool” in Sutter’s Gold. Above, Arnold in a scene with Binnie Barnes. (film booster.com)
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From Our Advertisers
Arrow Shirts rolled out a colorful array of pre-shrunk sanforized shirts and neckties just in time for the Easter holiday…
…from the 1930s through the 1950s the distinctive voice of James Wallington (1907–1972) filled the airwaves on both radio and television…here he endorses those “Sanforized Shrunk” shirts…
…French costume designer and illustrator Marcel Vertès (1895–1961) provided the art for the Antoine de Paris lipstick line at Saks…Vertès created the original murals in the Carlyle Hotel’s Café Carlyle and in the Waldorf-Astoria’s Peacock Alley… he also won two Academy Awards for his work on the 1952 film Moulin Rouge…
…Hockanum Mills announced its new line of woolens for the spring racing season…
Hockanum’s Rockville mills were shut down in 1951. Today the site is being redeveloped for commercial and light industrial uses as well as the site for the New England Motorcycle Museum. (historicbuildingsct.com)
…more claims from R.J. Reynolds regarding the gastrointestinal benefits of their Camel cigarettes…
…while Liggett and Myers stuck with the pleasures of hearth and home, and a pack of Chesterfields…
…on to the cartoon section, we begin with Christina Malman…
…Richard Taylor…
…Robert Day…
…and a wonderful spot drawing by illustrator and children’s book author Helen Moore Sewell…
…who won a Caldecott Medal for her illustrations featured in Alice Dalgliesh’sThe Thanksgiving Story (1954)…
…we go shopping with Helen Hokinson in the garden section…
…and in the hat department…
…Mary Petty caught up on the latest gossip…
…Perry Barlow gave us a shopkeeper in need of some marketing tips…
…William Steig continued to probe the joys of married life…
…even one’s dream world required some careful grooming, per Otto Soglow…
…James Thurber drew up a duet out of tune…
…outside of Wall Street, Leonard Dove’s titan of business was just another sugar daddy…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and strangers on a train…
Above: Although MGM head Louis B. Mayer (right) had a strong business sense, he needed Irving Thalberg's keen ability to combine artistic quality with commercial success. During his twelve years at MGM, Thalberg supervised the production of more than four hundred films. (artsfuse.org)
Born in a Ukrainian village in 1884, Louis B. Mayer grew up poor in Canada and dropped out of school at age twelve to support his family. Nearly three decades later he co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, lured the “boy genius” Irving Thalberg from Universal, and went on to lead one Hollywood’s most prestigious filmmaking companies.
March 28, 1936 cover by Perry Barlow.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Henry F. Pringle (1897–1958) looked into Mayer’s life in a two-part profile, leading with a look into the movie mogul’s ability to control his vast stable of stars (illustration by Hugo Gellert):
BOY GENIUS…Clockwise, from top left, MGM producer Irving Thalberg (seen here in 1929 with wife and actress Norma Shearer), had a knack for combining quality art with commercial appeal. Born with a weak heart, Thalberg died in September 1936 at age 37; The Great Ziegfeld was one of MGM’s top movies in 1936—it won three Academy Awards including Best Picture; Louis B. Mayer with young MGM stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; Shirley Temple signing with MGM in 1941 with Mayer, Garland and Rooney. (theguardian.com/Wikipedia/facebook.com)
Mayer (1884–1957) is credited with helping to create the “star system” in Hollywood. “The idea of a star being born is bush-wah,” Mayer once said. “A star is made, created; carefully and cold-bloodedly built up from nothing, from nobody.” Mayer believed he “made” his stars, and therefore had the right to control their careers as well as their very lives. Pringle explained the predicament of actress Joan Crawford:
MAYER-MADE…Louis B. Mayer not only gave Joan Crawford a new name (she was born Lucille LeSueur), he was also instrumental in transforming her from a dancer to a major Hollywood star. Throughout her career at MGM Crawford pestered Mayer for better roles (until she finally left MGM in 1943). However, they remained friends until his death in 1957. Crawford once called Mayer “the best friend I ever had.” (Wikipedia/imdb.com)
Many stars were less forgiving than Crawford regarding Mayer’s controlling behavior. Although many male actors saw him as a father figure, women often had a very different view. A young Elizabeth Taylor called him a “monster” for his attempts to oversee her life, while Judy Garland was forced to go on diets and take amphetamines and barbiturates to meet Mayer’s punishing work schedules. Many believe this led to Garland’s lifelong addiction issues.
* * *
Water Water Everywhere
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White was at a loss for words to describe the floods in the northeastern U.S. that followed a bitter winter. A combination of rain and the melting of heavy snowpack caused massive damage in the Connecticut and Merrimack River valleys as well as in the Pittsburgh area. In addition to approximately two hundred fatalities, hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
DELUGE…The flooding in Albany, NY, in 1936 (top) was part of a series of devastating floods that affected much of the northeastern United States. Below, the Holyoke Dam in Massachusetts, March 19, 1936. (South Hadley Public Library/sungazette.com)
White’s “Notes” also included an update on the “aesthetic restlessness” at Rockefeller Center, where the statues Youth and Maiden were removed from the Paul Manship-designed Prometheus fountain. The artist decided the two bronze figures did not fit well in the fountain, so they were moved to the roof garden of the Palazzo d’Italia.
EXILED…Paul Manship’s two gilded figures, Youth and Maiden, representing mankind receiving the fire, originally flanked Prometheus (top photo). In 1936 they were moved to the roof garden of the Palazzo d’Italia, but were returned to the Plaza in the 1980s. Pictured below, the six-foot statues were again moved in 2001 to the top of the Plaza staircase between the Channel Gardens and the Sunken Plaza.(mcny.org/Elisa.rolle/photo-opsblogspot.com)
* * *
Pyramid Scheme
“The Talk of the Town” commented on some unusual research conducted by Dr. A.E. Strath-Gordon, in which he used measurements from the Great Pyramid to predict the end of the Depression. Excerpts:
JUST READ THE STONES…Dr. A.E. Strath-Gordon (1873–1952) was a spiritualist, researcher, author, and lecturer on the occult and paranormal subjects. (strathgordon.wordpress.com)
* * *
Deeper South
James Thurber had some fun with novels about the Deep South that sought to employ authentic dialogue—but not as successfully as novelist Erskine Caldwell. These excerpts are the first and last paragraphs from the piece.
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED…Erskine Caldwell’s writings about poverty and racism in his native South included novels such as Tobacco Road (1932) and God’s Little Acre (1933). Unlike Thurber’s parody, Caldwell’s writing style has been described as spare, direct and unadorned. (Wikipedia/etsy.com)
* * *
An Introduction
I didn’t know much about the novelist Leane Zugsmith until I read her short story in the March 28, 1936 edition of The New Yorker. During the 1930s she was prominent among writers who focused on the struggles of the working class during the Great Depression. “Mr. Milliner” was the eighth short story she published in the magazine, out of a total of fifteen from 1934 to 1949. Here are the opening lines:
FED UP…Writer Leane Zugsmith(1903–1969) focused on the shortcomings of capitalism in her novels and short stories, including her 1936 novel A Time to Remember, which depicted a department store strike and the rise of white-collar unions. She published fifteen short stories in The New Yorker from 1934 to 1949. (bolerium.com)
* * *
Over There
In her latest dispatch from Paris, Janet Flanner noted the growing anxiety among Parisians over Germany’s arms buildup and its re-occupation of the Rhineland.
HAIRY HEADLINES…Janet Flanner noted the anxious crowds around newspaper kiosks (unlike the quiet image above) and the boos being issued by the market women in the Halles (at passing soldiers) as war with Germany was being seen as inevitable. (tresors-de-paris.com/mattbarrett-travel.com)
* * *
At the Movies
Lillian Hellman’s drama The Children’s Hour premiered on Broadway on Nov. 24, 1934, and ran for 691 performances—but bringing it to the screen in the era of the Motion Picture Production Code (aka Hays Code) proved a bit tricky, according to film critic John Mosher. Hellman’s play centered on a schoolgirl’s false accusation of lesbianism against two of her teachers, or as Mosher put it rather delicately, “a friendship of two young women…characterized by such emotional undercurrents as are not held seemly for screen exposition.”
Hellman rewrote the play to conform to the Code, removing any mention of lesbianism and changing the dramatic focus to a schoolteacher accused of having sex with another’s fiance. It appeared in 1936 under the title These Three.
Mosher wished the film could have included Florence McGee, who portrayed the conniving student protagonist Mary Tilford in the original play. The part in These Three went instead to Bonita Granville, who at age fourteen earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Mary Tilford.
TWO TAKES…Florence McGee (pictured at right, seated center) portrayed the conniving student protagonist Mary Tilford in the Broadway production of The Children’s Hour. The part of Mary Tilford in the re-written film version of the play, These Three, went to Bonita Granville (left), who at age fourteen earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance. (oscarchamps.com/Wikipedia)THREE TOTALLY STRAIGHT PEOPLE…Joel McCrea, Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins starred in These Three, a cinematic rewrite of Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour. (quadcinema.com)
Mosher also reviewed Petticoat Fever, a “trifle” starring Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery.
BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE…Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery in Petticoat Fever. Montgomery was the father of Elizabeth Montgomery, best known for her portrayal of Samantha Stephens on the TV sitcom Bewitched. (IMDb.com)
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From Our Advertisers
The inside front cover advertisement belonged to the “House of Schenley,” which emphasized the purity of Kentucky’s “limestone waters”…
…the makers of Packard automobiles also appealed to bucolic sensibilities with this homespun image…
…the Easter Parade has been a New York tradition since the 1870s, when New York’s elite would walk down Fifth Avenue to show off the latest European fashions…the event was largely centered around churches like St. Patrick’s, hence the ad from its neighbor across the street, Rockefeller Center…today the event is called the Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival, a more inclusive event featuring eccentric, handcrafted bonnets…
…Lux Soap Flakes were featured in big, celebrity-filled ads in mid-century America, soap being one product (like whiskey and cigarettes) that proved to be mostly Depression-proof…
…a twelve-cylinder engine was usually a feature of top-of-the-line luxury automobiles, but the folks at Lincoln put one into their medium-priced Zephyr…the car succeeded in reigniting sales at Lincoln dealerships during the Depression…
…beginning in the late nineteenth century cigarette companies included coupons that could be redeemed for items ranging from cocktail sets to silk stockings (per this ad)…Brown & Williamson, the makers of Raleigh and Kool cigarettes, featured coupons on the back of every pack, and smokers could write the company for a free premium catalog…
…this Raleigh catalog from the early 1950s even featured toys…250 coupons could get you a “Teddy bear with plastic nose”…so keep on puffing…
…Luckies went with the glamour of flying, an experience only the well-heeled could afford…
…on to our cartoonists, we have Richard Taylor…
…and Barbara Shermund welcoming us into the issue…
…and a this nice spot from Christina Malman…
…Al Frueh gave us his interpretation of Saint Joan…
…W.P. Trent explored the deep seas…
…Helen Hokinson revealed a secret…
…Gluyas Williams was still examining club life…
…William Steig went for a haircut (across two pages)…
…Leonard Dove received some junk mail…
…George Price uncovered a spy…
…Garrett Price assessed the price of fame…
…William Crawford Galbraith continued to explore the world of sugar daddies and chlorines…
