Morris Bishop – A New Yorker State of Mind

Platoon Platitudes

Above: Political cartoon by Clifford Berryman depicting three supporters of the Neutrality Act, 1939; at right, Frank Sullivan at his favorite watering hole, the Worden Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. (nationalww2museum.org/digitalarchive.sspl.org)

In 1935 the American humorist Frank Sullivan introduced the “Cliche Expert” Mr. Arbuthnot to New Yorker readers, exploring a variety of bromides associated with everything from political campaigns to the legal system.

July 18, 1936 cover by **Antonio Petruccelli.**

For the July 18 issue Sullivan (1892–1976) called on Mr. Arbuthnot to explore the subject of war (Sullivan had some familiarity with the subject as a soldier in World War I). Below is the first of two excerpts from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War” (spot drawing by Susanne Suba):

A peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table, Sullivan wrote his first article for The New Yorker in 1925, and seven years later published his inaugural “Greetings, Friends!” Christmas poem (he would contribute forty-two of them, his last in 1974). He penned more than a dozen Mr. Arbuthnot stories from 1935 to 1952, and also introduced such characters as Aunt Sally Gallup, Martha Hepplethwaite, and the Forgotten Bach. An expert in comparative illusion, he is credited with this gem: “This is either a forgery or a damned clever original!”

Here is the second excerpt from “The Cliché Expert Testifies on War”…

In a 1967 interview with The New York Times, Sullivan remarked that the war-divided country had lost its sense of humor. “But wars have never stopped humor,” he told Alden Whitman. Sullivan maintained that the world was more lighthearted in the 1920s and 30s, despite the horrors of World War I. “It was a time of beautiful nonsense,” he said.

SAGE OF SARATOGA was the nickname conferred upon **Frank Sullivan,** who preferred the simpler life in his hometown. Top left, the small clapboard house Sullivan shared with his sister in Saratoga Springs; at right, Sullivan reading the July 9, 1966 issue of *The New Yorker*; below, an **Al Frueh** illustration topped Sullivan’s annual “Greeting Friends!” message for the Dec. 26, 1936 issue. *(algonquinroundtable.org/hillcountryobserver.com)*

Here is the cover of the July 9, 1966 issue featured above; the painting is by Charles E Martin:

A final note: After his service in World War I, Sullivan moved to New York City and wrote for several newspapers including the New York World. After the World folded in 1931, Sullivan moved back to his hometown, Saratoga Springs, where he shared a small clapboard house with his older sister, Kate Sullivan. Of his preference for small town life, he wrote: “Once I visited New York for twenty years but I wouldn’t live there if you gave me Philadelphia. A small town is the place to live. I live in a small town 180 miles from New York and while I would not say it has New York beat by a mile I would put the distance at six furlongs.”

Called the “Ultimate Freelancer,” Sullivan wrote for The New Yorker for fifty years and also contributed to the New York Times sports section, the Saturday Evening Post, and Town & Country. His work is collected in more than a half-dozen books.

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Hanging Around

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White noted the speed at which the Hindenburg made its Atlantic crossing, although the giant German airship had to hover over Lakehurst, N.J. for an extra hour to wait for customs officials to get out of bed. White also mentioned a “Dr. Eckener,” a reference to Zeppelin captain Hugo Eckener (see below), who was also manager of a German aircraft company that produced the ill-fated Hindenburg.

DOOMSDAY MACHINE…The Hindenburg flies above New York City in 1936—the airship made seventeen round trips across the Atlantic in 1936—its first and only full year of service—with ten trips to the United States. The Hindenburg would famously crash and burn while docking in Lakehurst, NJ on May 6, 1937. (zeppelin-museum.de)

LOYAL TO AIRSHIPS, NOT GASBAGS…Airship innovator **Hugo Eckener** was apparently commanding the Hindenburg flight noted by E.B. White, but he was not on board when the giant airship crashed and burned the following May. A stickler for safety, Eckener was sidelined by the Nazi regime and replaced by Hitler loyalists. (Wikipedia)

White also commented on a recent evening at the movies “in the back country,” where a Clark Gable–Myrna Loy picture was playing in a makeshift theater outfitted with wooden benches.

RUSTIC RIVOLI…**E.B. White** found the silver screen a bit diluted in a “back country” theater, probably similar to the one pictured at left. He most likely took in the film *Wife vs Secretary* featuring Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. (facebook.com/MGM)

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Komrade With Kamera

Humorist Leo C. Rosten contributed numerous short fiction stories to The New Yorker as well as several “A Reporter at Large” pieces between 1936 and 1939. He published “A Shot of Lenin’s Tomb” (classified as fiction) in the July 18 issue. Two brief excerpts:

THE SOUL OF WIT…**Leo C. Rosten** (1908–1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Fran Lebowitz once called Rosten “the Jewish James Thurber.” Above, Rosten circa 1940s and a foggy view of Lenin’s Tomb, undated. (forward.com/tass.com)

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Crossing Over

Station wagons were first built in the 1910s as custom jobs—independent manufacturers would produce wooden bodies for the Model T chassis. These were considered “depot hacks” and commercial vehicles rather than family cars. But things changed in the 1930s as manufacturers saw their potential in the consumer market. Journalist George F.T. Ryall (pen name “Speed”), who wrote the “Motors” column for The New Yorker in the 1930s, looked in on the new automobiles that would foreshadow today’s crossovers.

IN THE FAMILY WAY…In the mid-1930s U.S. automakers began introducing a new kind of car—the station wagon. Pictured above are the 1936 Dodge Westchester Suburban (left) and the 1936 Chevrolet Carry-All Suburban. (Facebook.com/hemmings.com)

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At the Movies

The 1929 play The Green Pastures, which portrayed Old Testament stories as seen through the eyes of a young Black child, was written by playwright Marc Connelly, one of founding members of the Algonquin Round Table. The play was based on Roark Bradford’s popular 1928 story collection Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun (strongly criticized over the years for its patronizing and demeaning portrayals of Black characters). Connelly, who won a Pulitzer for the play, also directed its screen adaptation, one of just six feature films in the Hollywood Studio era to feature an all-Black cast. Critic John Mosher gave the film, along two other releases, an unenthusiastic review.

HEAVEN CAN WAIT…Clockwise from top: **Oscar Polk** (left) as the Angel Gabriel with “De Lawd” **(Rex Ingram)** in *The Green Pastures—*the film was a commercial success despite criticisms about its racial stereotyping; **Robert Young, Gene Raymond** and **Barbara Stanwyck** in *The Bride Walks Out*; **Dorothy Gish** and **Charles Laughton** in Wanted Men, originally released as the 1930 British crime film *Wolves. (cinemafaith.com/imdb.com)*

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From Our Advertisers

We set off down a long road with a tankful of leaded petrol…

…from the back of the book, select living arrangements from the upscale to the budget conscious…

…this ad from Bell Telephone anticipated the Sherman Brothers 1964 earworm that still accompanies a popular Disney attraction…

…the back inside cover offered a colorful splash of sex and humor (and a bit of phonetics) to promote Siboney Rum…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with some heavy lifting from Garrett Price…

…Richard Taylor sketched up these merry illustrations for a Morris Bishop ditty…

…Alain engaged in some market research…

…and channelled a bit of Barbara Shermund humor…

…Dorothy McKay explored the sad world of phonies and cheapskates…

…Alan Dunn gave us a dutiful doorman…

…and Dunn again, contemplating a hefty tome…

…Helen Hokinson continued her exploration of department store drama…

…as well as the world of foreign affairs…

…Syd Hoff sounded the alarm on some burning cutlets…

…and we close with the master of dark humor, Charles Addams…

Next Time: The Tammany Taint…

Führer Furor

Above, left, Janet Flanner regards the cover of the Sept. 13, 1931 issue of The New Yorker; at right, Adolf Hitler's chosen filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl at Nuremberg's "Shovel Day" parade, 1936. (Library of Congress/Sueddeutscher Verlag)

The February 29, 1936 issue stands out from pack not only for its cover—James Thurber’s first—but also for the magazine’s first in-depth look at a man who would spark the deadliest conflict in human history.

February 29, 1936 cover by James Thurber. This was the first of six covers Thurber contributed to *The New Yorker.* You can see all six covers at Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill, the go-to site for all things Thurber and so much more. **UPDATE:** Also check Maslin’s post regarding the repeat of this cover on Sept. 4, 2023. Fascinating read!

Before we jump in…Thurber’s close friend E.B. White noted another unusual fact about this issue…

…twenty-eight years later, and a dime extra (cover by Garrett Price)…

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Inside the Feb. 29 issue, The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent Janet Flanner published the first part of a three-part profile on German dictator Adolf Hitler. In this first excerpt she described the Führer’s ascetic diet and personality (caricature by William Cotton).

NAZI NUM NUMS….Adolf Hitler with one of his official food tasters, **Margot Woelk**, during World War II. Woelk later claimed she was the sole survivor from a group of food tasters who were summarily executed by the Red Army after the fall of Berlin. *(warfarehistorynetwork.com)*

Flanner described Hitler’s relationships with influential women, particularly filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS…**Adolf Hitler** had influential admirers both in and outside of Germany, including, clockwise, from top left, filmmaker **Leni Riefenstahl** (in the white skirt described by Flanner) at the 1936 “Shovel Day” in Nuremburg; **Winifred Wagner,** daughter-in-law of composer **Richard Wagner,** in 1925; Hitler with **Unity Mitford,** one of six aristocratic Mitford sisters and a fanatical Nazi; Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl with another Mitford sister, **Diana Mitford,** at a 1934 Nuremberg rally. Diana as married to **Oswald Mosley,** leader of the British Union of Fascists, and Hanfstaengl was the son of **Katharina Wilhelmina Hanfstaengl,** a prominent Munich art publisher who helped finance Hitler’s rise to power. *(Sueddeutscher Verlag/Wikipedia/historyreader.com)*

Flanner concluded the piece with a look at Hitler’s sexuality, which seemed non-existent, and drew an ominous conclusion about his personality type.

EXPENDABLE…**Ernst Röhm** with Adolf Hitler in 1933. Although Hitler knew Röhm was gay, he also valued Röhm’s leadership and organizational skills, that is until his presence proved a liability. Röhm was murdered by the SS in 1934 during the “Night of the Long Knives.” *(Wikipedia)*

As part of a centenary series, The New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz recently looked at Flanner’s profile of Hitler, noting that she was “neither an antifascist, like her friend Dorothy Parker, nor a Fascist, like her friend Ezra Pound; she was against crude bigotry, but she was not the world’s greatest philo-Semite.”

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Lamour Amour

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White pointed out the challenges of expressing physical beauty over a non-visual medium like radio:

TELEGENIC…Hopefully E.B. White managed to see **Dorothy Lamour** on the “television waves… bumping along over the Alleghenies.” At left, publicity photo of Lamour from 1937; at right, Lamour appeared as a mystery guest on *What’s My Line?*, Feb. 20, 1955, seen here with host John Daly. In later years Lamour was a guest on a number of television shows, ranging from *Marcus Welby, M.D.* to *Remington Steele. (Wikipedia/YouTube.com)*

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Shadow Plays

Morris Bishop (1893-1973), a noted scholar of the Middle Ages as well as a writer of light verse, offered up these lines after screening early silent films at the Museum of Modern Art. The screenings were curated by Iris Barry to showcase MoMA’s new film library and to advance the study of film as a serious art form.

TIME CAPSULES…The Museum of Modern Art was a pioneer in the study of film as a modern art form. Among the films screened at MoMA in 1936 (clockwise, from top left): famed stage actress **Sarah Bernhardt** as Queen Elizabeth in the *Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth* (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth) with **Lou Tellegen,** 1912; Bernhardt in the film *Camille* (*La Dame aux camélias*) with **André Calmettes,** 1911; **Theda Bara’s** 1917 take on *Camille*, in a scene with Alan Roscoe; **Gloria Swanson** in *Zaza,* 1923. *(Wikipedia/imdb.com/YouTube.com)*

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A Reporter’s Chops

With so much attention given to James Thurber as a humorist, it is easy to forget that he was an experienced journalist, and that he could apply his considerable gifts as a writer to narrative non-fiction. For the Feb. 29 “A Reporter at Large” column, Thurber penned “Crime in the Cumberlands.” I can’t do it justice through excerpts, but I highly recommend giving it a read as a prime example of Thurber’s skills as a reporter.

SERIOUSLY SERIOUS WRITER…You can find both humorous and not-so-humorous crime stories (and drawings, of course) in 1991’s *Thurber on Crime,* edited by Robert Lopresti. “Crime in the Cumberlands” is included in the collection. *(jamesthurber.org/barnesandnoble.com)*

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At the Movies

Not so serious were the films being churned out by Hollywood, including the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers toe-tapper Follow the Fleet, set to an Irving Berlin score that featured the hit “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” Critic John Mosher was on board for the ride.

GOOD CLEAN FUN…Dance partners “Bake” Baker (**Fred Astaire**) and Sherry Martin (**Ginger Rogers**) find love during shore leave in *Follow the Fleet.* *(Toronto Film Society)*

Bandleader Harry Richman, well known in the New York nightlife scene of the 1920s and 30s, showed his acting chops in The Music Goes ‘Round…

I CAN SING TOO…**Rochelle Hudson** and **Harry Richman** in The Music Goes ‘Round. (imdb.com)

…Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sydney, Henry Fonda and Fred Stone appeared in living color in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine–it was just the second full-length feature to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first to be shot outdoors in Technicolor…

LIFELIKE…Clockwise, from top left: **Fred MacMurray; Sylvia Sydney**; a Paramount movie poster; **Henry Fonda** and **Fred Stone.** *(moviesalamark.com/imdb.com)*

…the 1936 film Rhodes (aka Rhodes of Africa) featured the massive acting talents of Walter Huston and Peggy Ashcroft; not surprisingly, the subject matter of the film has not aged well…a 2015 review in The Guardian is headlined: “Rhodes of Africa: only slightly less offensive than the man himself”…