Lucky Lindy – A New Yorker State of Mind

Charles Lindbergh was “The Flying Fool” no more after flying nonstop across the Atlantic to worldwide acclaim. The New Yorker shared in the enthusiasm, although it tried its best to appear not too impressed by the feat. But as we shall see in subsequent issues, The New Yorker, along with the rest of the media, couldn’t get enough of the man with a new title, “Lucky Lindy.”

may-28 — May 28, 1927, cover by **Ilonka Karasz**.

But that’s in the future. Here’s what the New Yorker had to say following Lindbergh’s famous flight in “Talk of the Town…”

And from its distant perch the magazine also took some shots at the media hype surrounding Lindbergh, and the usual retinue of money-changers (see title image above)…

So what was the New Yorker saying about the historic moment? Well, for most of us, life goes on…

screen-shot-2016-10-07-at-4-48-14-pm — HE’S A GOOD BOY…Still from Movietone newsreel showing **Charles Lindbergh** with his mother, **Evangeline Lodge Land**, before the historic flight. (Movietone)

…and for those who missed it on TV (because it wasn’t invented yet), they could catch a newsreel of Lindbergh at the Roxy, complete with crude sound effects:

air_and_space_museum_paris_lindbergh — OH CALM DOWN…A gendarmerie links arms in a futile attempt at crowd control as a mob closes in on the just-landed Spirit of St. Louis at Le Bourget airport in Paris. (parisdigest.com)

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On the other side of the pond, Paris correspondent Janet Flanner wrote about the Paris media’s complete denial or ignorance of the deaths of their own Atlantic flyers, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, who were lost at sea in their crossing attempt.

* * *

The New Yorker offered more observations on the Machine-Age Exposition, this time in a column titled “About the House,” by “Repard Leirum,” or Muriel Draper spelled backwards. Under this pseudonym Draper served as interior decoration critic for The New Yorker—she was one of the most influential personalities in the American interior decorating in the early 20th century.

1013583 — **Muriel Draper**, as photographed by **Carl Van Vechten** on July 30, 1934. (Muriel Draper Papers, Yale)

klh_36_hr-web — This model of a radio station by **Knud Londberg-Holm** was displayed at the Machine-Age Exposition in New York City May 16-28, 1927. (artblart.com)

About Muriel Draper: Although she wrote on interior design for The New Yorker during the late 1920s, she was more widely known as a “culture desk” writer, and was prominent in promoting the Harlem Renaissance. She became active in left wing politics after a trip to the Soviet Union in 1934, and in 1949 she was investigated by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee and thereafter ceased her political activities.

The Machine-Age Exposition Draper visited had a decidedly socialist flavor with its prominent inclusion of the Soviet Union and its touting of the International Style of architecture. Before it was appropriated by post-war corporate America, the International Style was developed as housing and workspaces for the masses.

A side-note: The Exposition was initiated by Jane Heap, who like Draper was a follower of the charismatic Russian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff (among Gurdjieff’s other followers were architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the writer P. L. Travers (Mary Poppins) and 1960s counterculture figure Timothy Leary).

georges_gurdjieff — **George Ivanovich Gurdjieff**, circa 1925-35 (Library of Congress)

Marxists with spiritual yearnings—and especially guild socialists—were attracted to Gurdjieff’s ideas about something he called “The Work,” in which crafts and community life provided ways to cultivate a deeper understanding of ourselves and our purpose amidst the activities of daily life.

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And now on to a different kind of Marxism…this odd little item from the “The Talk of the Town”…

In 1927 the Marx Brothers were still known as a traveling vaudeville act—their first feature film was still two years away. But thanks to the vaudeville circuit of the day, an astonishing number of people in cities large and small across the country would see them perform. The “Talk” item concludes with this story that references Henry Ford’s well-known anti-semitism:

mte5ndg0mdu0nty4njy2njm5 — OH THE MOVIES THEY WILL MAKE…**The Marx Brothers**, from left, **Chico, Zeppo, Groucho** and Harpo. (biography.com)

Next Time: The Age of Innocence…

Above: The Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany (photo credit: Andreas Meichsner for The New York Times)

The Roaring Twenties saw astonishing changes to American life, including a dramatic break from the technologies and habits of the past. Icemen gave way to electric refrigerators, broadcast radio brought entertainment and news into living rooms, and Charles Lindbergh made flying something everyone wanted to try.

may-21 — May 21, 1927 cover by **Ilonka Karasz**.

Despite the mechanized horrors of World War I, most people were enchanted by the idea of man and machine coming together to make a better world. In the U.S. the machine-age exuberance was expressed largely in capitalist terms, while many European and Soviet intellectuals saw the machine as integral to the progress of socialism. The Machine-Age Exposition in New York City (May 16-28 at 119 West 57th Street) celebrated all facets through a unique event that brought together architecture, engineering, industrial arts and modern art from a number of nations.

machine-age_exposition_catalogue — Cover of the Exposition Catalogue. (monoskop.org)

screen-shot-2016-09-27-at-10-05-00-am — Scanned illustration of an airplane from the Exposition catalogue.

The exhibition, initiated by Jane Heap of the literary magazine The Little Review, included exhibits from the U.S., Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union. Artists in the exhibition represented a Who’s Who of modernists and futurists—Alexander Archipenko, Marcel Duchamp, Hugh Ferriss, Man Ray and others who celebrated the aural and visual cacophony of the age as well as the gleaming precision of machines and machine-like buildings.

screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-4-38-04-pm — Model of a futuristic parking garage by the **Luckhardt brothers** and **Alfons Anker** on display at the Exposition. (Scanned image from the Exposition catalogue)

New Yorker writer E.B. White shared in the enthusiasm with this bit for “The Talk of the Town…”

screen-shot-2016-09-27-at-10-04-31-am — The Futurist **Hugh Ferriss** contributed this design of a glass skyscraper to the Machine Age Exposition. A thing of dreams in the 1920s, such buildings are now commonplace in cities around the world. (Scanned from the Exposition catalogue)

The sleek and glass-walled buildings featured at the Exhibition were fantastic images in 1927, when most large-scale buildings were still being rendered in brick and stone in various neoclassical, federal or gothic styles.

screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-4-36-30-pm — Image from Exposition featured **Walter Gropius**-designed student studio apartments at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany. (Scan from the Exposition catalogue)

Little did Exposition visitors realize that the radical Bauhaus style on display would become ubiquitous in the U.S. in the second half of their century, thanks not to some new machine age of peace and harmony but rather because of the annihilation of the Second World War and the mass migration from Europe of architects, artists, scientists and other professionals fleeing Nazi oppression.

screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-4-38-35-pm — This image of giant steam boilers from Russia was displayed at the Exposition. (Scan from the Exposition catalogue)

It was also a time when it was believed technology was on the verge of conquering nature, and that the invention of air-conditioning and “Vita-Glass” would create indoor environments with all of the health benefits but none of the discomforts of the outdoors:

hosp-stan-11-01-31 — Children at rest in a “Vita-Glass” pavilion, built in 1927 at Stannington Sanatorium, Northumberland. Used primarily in the treatment of those with pulmonary TB, the glass was designed to allow ultraviolet rays to penetrate easily while protecting patients from the elements. (northumberlandarchives.com)

The invention of sulfa drugs and antibiotics was still a few years away, so health providers were excited about the possibilities of these artificial environments.

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In the “A Reporter at Large” column, Russell Owen wrote about the intrepid aviators who were vying to become the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic. He began the piece with a tribute to French ace pilot Charles Nungesser and his one-eyed wartime buddy François Coli, who disappeared during their May 8 attempt to fly from Paris to New York.

carte_postale-nungesser_et_coli-1927 — A 1927 postcard commemorating Nungesser, Coli and their airplane, *The White Bird (L’Oiseau Blanc).*

Owen also wrote about those who would soon be taking the same daring leap into “the illimitable terror of space”…

Although Charles Lindbergh had yet to accomplish his transatlantic feat, he had already been singled out as a loner and a bit of an odd duck:

**Charles Lindbergh** preparing for his transatlantic flight. (Long Island Press)

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Editors of “The Talk of the Town” also checked in on famed dancer Isadora Duncan, her eldest daughter Anna, and Isadora’s “amazing dancing family…”

anna-duncan-dans-la-berceuse-choregraphie-d-isadora-duncan-musique-frederic-chopin-photo-arnold-genthe-1920-courtesy-of-tanzarchiv-koln-allemagne — **Anna Duncan** dances *La Berceuse,* choreographed by **Isadora Duncan** with music by **Frédéric Chopin**, in 1920. Photo by **Arnold Genthe**. (Tanzarchiv, Cologne, Germany)

isadora-s-dancers-by-frances-benjamin-johnston-1864-1952-photographer-public-domain-via-wikimedia-commons — *Isadora’s Dancers*, by photographer **Frances Benjamin Johnston**. (Wikimedia Commons)

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And finally, an excerpt of a poem contributed by Marion Clinch Calkins—who often wrote humorous rhymes for the New Yorker under the pen name Majollica Wattles. Here she riffs on Horace’s “poetry of pleasure…”

Next Time: The Flying Fool…

Tag: Lucky Lindy

The Flying Fool

Shock of the New