Myrna Loy – A New Yorker State of Mind

Age of the Clipper

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.

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:

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…

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:

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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)*

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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 Colonel Tim 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)

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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)

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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:

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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)

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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 John Mosher 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)

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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…

Next Time: Things to Come…

Having a Ball

 Above: Beginning in 1934, the President’s Birthday Balls became annual fundraisers for polio research. The Waldorf-Astoria's 1936 event (left) featured dance bands, celebrities, and formal dress. At right, a 1934 "Toga Party" birthday with FDR's Cuff Link Gang, Washington D.C. (fdrlibrary.org)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday was a cause for annual celebration throughout the country, where cities and towns both large and small used the occasion to raise money for polio research.

February 1, 1936 cover by Roger Duvoisin.

The Jan. 30, 1936 President’s Birthday Ball marked FDR’s 54th year, featuring celebrities, dances, and a national radio address. The Waldorf-Astoria hosted an event, as did the Central Park Casino, where E.B. White found the one-hundred-dollar price tag and the dress code a bit too rich for his tastes, but not too rich for Lucy Cotton Thomas Magraw, a Manhattan social climber who represented the “Spirit of Golden Prosperity” at the Casino event.

LIKE MOTHS TO FLAME…At left, debutantes mark FDR’s birthday fundraiser at the Waldorf-Astoria in the 1930s; at right, **Lucy Cotton Thomas Magraw** (1891–1948) was a chorus girl from Houston who appeared in several silent films, but was best known as a Manhattan social climber and for her marriages to a series of prominent men. (wwd.com/davidkfrasier.com)

FDR himself was diagnosed with polio in 1921, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. To counter the effects of the disease, Roosevelt explored the potential benefits of hydrotherapy, establishing a rehabilitation center at Warm Springs, Georgia. Proceeds from the charity balls went to Warm Springs until Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938. Funds raised by the foundation supported the development of a vaccine by the 1950s.

A NIGHT OF MERRIMENT…Celebrations in CCC camps in honor of FDR’s birthday became annual events, such as the one at left (illustrated by **Marshall Davis**) that depicted various happenings at the 1936 President’s Birthday Dance in Biloxi, Mississippi; at right, actress Jean Harlow cutting FDR’s birthday cake at the Eastbay Birthday Ball in Oakland, CA, in 1934. (newdealstories.com/facebook.com)

“The Talk of the Town” noted the role of Carl M. Byoir, a pioneering publicist, in creating the buzz around the yearly birthday balls.

CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?…Clockwise, from top left, **Carl Byoir** created and organized one of the world’s largest public relations firms in 1930, and was a force behind making the FDR Birthday Balls a major national event; **Eleanor Roosevelt** cuts the cake at a Birthday Ball, Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 1936; **Margaret Lehand,** personal secretary to President Roosevelt, holds up one of the 30,000 dimes received on the morning of Jan. 28, 1938 for FDR’s National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which would later become the March of Dimes. (Wikipedia)

COIN FOR A CAUSE…As we saw in the previous post, it was comedian Eddie Cantor who coined the phrase “March of Dimes” for the annual fundraiser for polio research. The phrase later became the official name of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. (Facebook)

The Roosevelt Dime went into circulation in 1946, commemorating FDR’s role in inspiring the March of Dimes.

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Rap on Scrap

Poet and author Phyllis McGinley apparently had her fill of social occasions that included interminable, tedious viewings of the hosts’ scrapbooks, photo albums, and various tchotchkes.

SPARE ME YOUR VACATION SLIDES…**Phyllis McKinley** would have hated Facebook. (Wikipedia)

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Wise Guy

Henry F. Pringle published the first part of a three-part profile on Elihu Root, making much of the fact that Root (1845–1937) was still kicking at ninety after a lifetime of public service including two stints as Secretary of War and serving as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt. Unofficially, he advised a number of presidents and other leaders on foreign and domestic issues, giving him the imprimatur of a political “wise man.” A brief excerpt (with caricature by William Cotton):

WAR BUDDIES…U.S. Secretary of War **Elihu Root** (right) and his successor, **William Howard Taft**, c. 1904. Taft was elected U.S. President in 1908, and in 1912 Root would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. (Wikipedia)

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Devastating Irony

According to critic Robert Benchley, the adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome to the stage required a precise hand, and apparently director Max Gordon delivered when it opened at the National Theatre. Excerpt:

EDITH WHARTON WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD, according to **Robert Benchley,** of the stage adaptation of *Ethan Frome.* The cast, from left, included **Pauline Lord, Raymond Massey**, and **Ruth Gordon**. Benchley would have been well acquainted with Gordon, who was a familiar face at the Algonquin Round Table. (Facebook)

Benchley praised the performances of the principal actors Pauline Lord, Raymond Massey, and Ruth Gordon.

IN FINE FORM…**Pauline Lord, Raymond Massey,** and Ruth Gordon in a publicity still for *Ethan Frome*. (witness2fashion.com)

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At the Movies

We take to the air with Howard Hawks’ Ceiling Zero, which featured an odd mix of screwball dialogue and nerve-wracking flight scenes. Critic John Mosher found the film to be well done, even though most of its action took place on the ground.

GROUNDED…Shot a shoestring budget, Warner Brothers’ *Ceiling Zero,* directed by Howard Hawks, staged most of the action at an airline’s headquarters rather than up in the air. From left are **Pat O’Brien, James Cagney**, and **June Travis**. (Harvard Film Archive)

Mosher was also happy to welcome Myrna Loy back to the silver screen in the “agreeable” Whipsaw.

HUSTLE AND BUSTLE…**Myrna Loy** and Spencer Tracy starred in action-packed crime drama *Whipsaw.* (Letterboxd.com)

Mosher was at a loss to explain the popularity of comedian Joe Penner, whose presence in the film Collegiate inspired impatient “mobs” to crash the windows and doors of the Paramount Theatre.

INCONSEQUENTIAL was the word John Mosher used to describe *Collegiate*. Clockwise, from top left, **Frances Langford** and Jack Oakie in a scene from *Collegiate—*Oakie played a man who inherits an all-girls school from his aunt; **Betty Grable** with **Joe Penner**; Grable shows off her school spirit and her famous legs in a publicity photo. (rottentomatoes.com/imdb.com)

About Joe Penner (1904–1941): Broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod sums up Penner’s popularity as “the ultimate Depression-era zany.” Mostly forgotten today, Penner was a national craze in the mid-1930s. “There is no deep social meaning in his comedy, no shades of subtlety,” writes McLeod, “just utter slapstick foolishness, delivered in an endearingly simpering style that’s the closest thing the 1930s had to Pee-wee Herman.”

WANNA BUY A DUCK? was Joe Penner’s catchphrase. Born József Pintér in what is now Serbia, he is shown here with his ubiquitous duck, Goo Goo. According to historian **Elizabeth McLeod,** Penner was doomed to an early decline by the sheer repetitiveness of his format. He died in his sleep, of a heart attack, at age 36. (imdb.com)

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Something Completely Different

We go from Joe Penner to George Santayana, who finished the six-hundred-page The Last Puritan after laboring on the novel for fifteen years. A brief excerpt from a Clifton Fadiman review:

WHEN WRITERS MADE THE COVER…**George Santayana** on the cover of *Time,* Feb. 3, 1936. (Time.com)

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From Our Advertisers

The folks at Hormel continued their ad series pairing Hormel French Style onion soup with notable historic figures…apparently Mary, Queen of Scots was honored with some onion soup when she married the Dauphin in 1558…nearly three decades later she would lose her head under the reign of Elizabeth I…

…the opening spread of the magazine sometimes offered odd juxtapositions…

…and what was this obsession with peas?…last week (and previous weeks) the makers of Green Giant canned foods featured a “Major” obsessed with fresh peas…

…in this issue, the folks at Birds Eye presented frozen peas as a fresher alternative to canned…the ad featured their own version of a “Major,” here sharing the wonderful news about frozen peas with his cronies…

…Capitol Theatre predicted that their latest feature, Rose Marie, would be even better than Naughty Marietta…

…and apparently it was…

WHEN I’M CALLING YOOOOUUUU…The Capitol Theatre’s prediction came true—*Rose Marie* was a big hit, as was the duet “Indian Love Call” (it remained a signature song for both actors); at left, **Nelson Eddy** and **Jeanette MacDonald** in Rose Marie; at right, Eddy and MacDonald in 1935’s *Naughty Marietta*. “America’s Singing Sweethearts” made eight films together. (MGM)

…only forty hours to paradise, claimed this ad on the inside back cover…

…and on the back cover, readers were greeted by a smug, almost withering look—a fashionable woman striking a pose, one that was doubtless imitated by many in the smart set who would soon realize they were hopelessly addicted to nicotine…

…on to our cartoonists, we begin with Al Frueh and his topless tribute to George White’s Scandals…

…Gregory d’Alessio drew up this trio—endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph—for the opening pages…

…here’s a spot by Robert Day, dreaming of warmer climes…

…we join Charles Addams at the Louvre…

…and on a desert island…

…a rather strange entry by Alice Harvey, with the longest caption I’ve come across so far…

…we join William Steig’s “Small Fry” during a school day, beginning on page 24…

…and continuing onto page 25…

…here is how it originally appeared…

…In 1935, Saks Fifth Avenue installed an indoor ski slope on the men’s floor of its New York City flagship store, here illustrated by Perry Barlow…

IT WAS A THING…Ski slope inside Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, 1935. (CNN.com)

…department stores such as Macy’s often featured model homes in their household departments…Alan Dunn added a bit of color, or rather, soot, to this one…

…Helen Hokinson looked for answers at a book shop…

and Hokinson again, doing a bit of home decorating…

…it appears Morton was displaying a copy of Constantin Brancusi’s Princess X…

…Barbara Shermund engaged in some light banter at a cocktail party…

…and we close with a surprise visit from William Crawford Galbraith…

Next Time: The New Ziegfeld…

London Calling

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Misery Loves Company

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

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

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He Came Up a Bit Short

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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From Our Advertisers

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

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

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

and the car that inspired it…

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

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

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

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

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

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

…a close up of the message…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Time: The Happy Warrior…

Coach Arno

Peter Arno departed from his usual one-liners in the Nov. 18, 1933 issue with a football-themed cartoon that featured a four-paragraph caption…

…that consisted of a pep talk from a football coach—”Old Waddy”…

…Arno had visited the football theme before, notably in this early cover from 1928…

…and he referenced it again in the years ahead…

HAIL VARSITY…**Peter Arno** delivered another, much shorter pep talk in a cartoon (left) from the Nov. 20, 1937 issue; at right, Arno’s last football-themed gag, published in *The New Yorker* of November 25, 1967, just three months before the cartoonist’s death. Check out one of my favorite *New Yorker* sites, **Attempted Bloggery**, for more on the 1937 cartoon.

…and one more from Arno, a classic from September 27, 1947…

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Pre-emptive Nostalgia

Although E.B. White welcomed the end of Prohibition with open arms, he also wondered what could be lost when drinkers emerged from the shadows of the speakeasy world…

THAT HOMEY FEELING…**E.B. White** suggested transforming the Waldorf-Astoria’s Sert Room (right) into a dingy dive to help ease drinkers back into the world of legal alcohol. (Britannica/Library of Congress)

White also referenced his many years at Tony’s, a speakeasy and Italian restaurant popular with writers and others in the New Yorker’s orbit. Tony Soma operated the speakeasy until 1929, when John D. Rockefeller bought Soma’s building along with other properties to make way for Rockefeller Center. Soma would later open another popular (and legit) restaurant and also become known as a yoga practitioner and the grandfather of actress Angelica Huston. You can read more about Soma at The Speakeasy King.

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The French Underground

Although war seemed like a distant rumor to most Americans, the French were busy preparing for that likelihood, according to this “Talk of the Town” piece attributed to Europe-based documentary filmmaker Richard de Rochemont and New Yorker stalwart James Thurber.

LOOK OUT BELOW…At left, a preserved WWII *abris* can be found below platforms 2 and 3 at Paris’ Gare de l’Est; right, Parisians take shelter in an *abris* in 1939. (Trip Adviser/Ebay)

…in his column, “Of All Things,” Howard Brubaker mused on the latest rumblings from Berlin…

DEMOCRACY IN ASHES…An arson attack on the Reichstag (home of the German parliament) on February 27, 1933 was used by **Adolf Hitler** as pretext to suspend civil liberties and conduct a ruthless pursuit of “communists,” both real and imagined. (Wikipedia)

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Little Women, Big Film

On the brighter side, we turn to Hollywood and John Mosher’s review of George Cukor’s critically acclaimed Little Women, which featured a cast led by Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett.

MEINE LIEBCHEN…Impoverished German linguist Professor Bhaer (**Paul Lukas**) proposes to Jo (**Katharine Hepburn**) in 1933’s *Little Women*. (IMDB)

SEW WITH JO…From left, the March family as portrayed by Jean Parker (as Beth), **Joan Bennett** (Amy), **Spring Byington** (Marmee March), **Frances Dee** (Meg), and Katharine Hepburn (Jo) in the **George Cukor**-directed *Little Women.* (IMDB)

…Mosher also found something to like in the MGM romance The Prizefighter and the Lady, which starred Myrna Loy along with professional boxers Max Baer, Primo Carnera, and Jack Dempsey.

THE NEW “IT” MAN was how MGM publicists promoted professional boxer **Max Baer** in his film debut. Top right, Baer in a scene with **Myrna Loy**; bottom right, professional boxer Primo Carnera with Loy and Baer—Carnera was the world heavyweight boxing champion at the time of the film’s release, however Baer would defeat the Italian giant in their real-life 1934 fight; bottom center, Baer’s son, **Max Baer Jr.,** would also find Hollywood fame in the 1960s playing Jethro Bodine on TV’s *The Beverly Hillbillies.* (IMDB/Wikipedia)

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Sausage Factory

We’ve previously looked at the smashing success of Walt Disney’s Three Little Pigs cartoon and its theme song, which took the country by storm in the fall of 1933. So it was no surprise that the piggies could be found in toy departments across the metropolis as the Christmas season approached. These are brief snippets from a lengthy holiday shopping column that was appended annually to Lois Long’s “On and Off The Avenue” every November and December.

HOG HAVEN…You could help the Three Little Pigs find their way to safety in this 1933 Disney board game. As in the film, the final leg of the board game’s journey has the wolf landing in a cauldron of boiling water. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Disney film also featured one of the pigs adding turpentine to the cauldron. (Ebay)

This being America in the 1930s, and early Disney, the Three Little Pigs cartoon contained an offensive scene in which the Big Bad Wolf disguises himself as a Jewish peddler, complete with a fake nose, glasses, and beard (accompanied by a fiddle, the wolf also adopts a Yiddish accent).* The character was included in the above board game:

* The film was finally edited in 1948 with a redesign of the Wolf’s disguise—as a Fuller Brush salesman.

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From Our Advertisers

We kick off our ads with more “healthy nerves” testimonials from Camel smokers, including stuntwoman/pilot Mary Wiggins…

…Caron Paris also went aloft with one of their famed “En Avion” adverts…

…back on the ground, this hapless couple found themselves taking a slow car to a soaking…although wearing a fur coat while riding in a rumble seat probably wasn’t a good idea, regardless of the weather…

…for those rainy days, you could get yourself a Salisbury overcoat from Brooks Brothers…this sports-themed illustration was a new twist for the usually staid BB…

…and there’s always one or two really weird ads, like this one from The Sun newspaper that touted baloney sales at Gimbels as proof of advertising prowess…

…collectors of Art Deco are well-acquainted with the work of Hans Flato, who did a series of ads (and related merchandise) for New York-based Ruppert’s Beer in the early 1930s…Flato (1887-1950) worked in a variety of styles, but the characters he created for Ruppert’s stand out…for reasons known only to the Flato, the feet of the Ruppert’s characters were always attached to yellow disks, like toy dolls…

…James Thurber was keeping busy illustrating ads aimed at folks wanting to escape the cold…

…as well as those who caught a cold in a drafty automobile…

…The New Yorker announced the publication of its sixth album, with an illustration by Gluyas Williams…

…while Otto Soglow, in a much smaller back-page ad, proclaimed the publication of his first The Little King collection…Soglow had just ten months left on his contract with The New Yorker—his Little King would relocate to William Randolph Hearst’s King Features Syndicate in September 1934…

…speaking of Soglow, we kick off the cartoons with his potentate’s latest adventure…

…William Steig gave us a sneeze and a chorus…

…and we close with Eli Garson, and a tale from the Almost Wanted…

Next Time: The Invisible Man…

Queen of the Night Clubs

In the Roaring Twenties, Mary Louise Cecilia—aka Texas Guinan—was the undisputed queen of New York’s boozy, bawdy nightclub and speakeasy scene.

March 23, 1929 cover by **Gardner Rea.**

During the 1920s Guinan operated one of New York’s most famed speakeasies, The El Fey Club, which attracted the likes of Mayor Jimmy Walker, actors George Raft and Peggy Hopkins Joyce, writers including Ring Larder and Damon Runyon, and gossip columnists Walter Winchell, Mark Hellinger, and Ed Sullivan (yep, the same Ed who later hosted TV’s most famous variety show).

It was still months before the big stock market crash, but in the pages of the New Yorker you could already sense a change in its voice; it was maturing, to be sure, but it also seemed to be growing weary of the party. The magazine’s nightlife correspondent, Lois Long, contributed sporadically to her once-lively “Tables for Two” column (she was now a mother, and would abandon the column altogether in 1930). As for the queen of nightlife, Texas Guinan, New Yorkers were ready for something different.

BEATING THE RAP…In June 1928 **Texas Guinan** and other New York speakeasy operators were arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury. Guinan beat the rap, and was acquitted in April 1929. (ephemeralness york)

In a review of her latest movie, Queen of the Night Clubs, the New Yorker found that Guinan lacked her famed charm and vitality, and that the camera was “not kind to her looks.”

THE FINAL CURTAIN…Clockwise from top left: **Texas Guinan** in a nightclub scene from *Queen of the Night Clubs*; trading lines in the film with **John Davidson**; a 1929 portrait of Guinan by **Cecil Beaton;** and a scene from the film with co-star Lila Lee (far right). The film is considered lost. (boweryboyshistory.com/texasguinan.blogspot.com)

The film in many ways marked the end of Texas Guinan, not so much because it was a bad film but because she had simply run her course and was going out of style. The market crash later that year was the final straw. She took her show on the road, made an unsuccessful attempt at a European tour, then returned to the States. She made one final film, Broadway Thru A Keyhole, which was based on a story by Guinan acolyte Walter Winchell. Guinan died on Nov. 5, 1933, three days after the film’s release; her death was due to ulcerative colitis brought on by a case of amoebic dysentery contracted during a visit to Chicago. She was 49. One month later, Prohibition would be repealed.

A final note: Queen of the Night Clubs would be Texas Guinan’s final starring role (the film is considered lost), but before she became a night club fixture she was a popular star in dozens of shorts and two-reelers—with mostly Western themes— from 1917 to 1921.

HAPPIER TRAILS…**Texas Guinan** featured in a movie poster and publicity photo for *The Two-Gun Woman,* 1918. (Columbia University)

* * *

A Film of Biblical Proportions

The New Yorker’s May 23 film review also sized up the latest epic to come out of Hollywood—Noah’s Ark—a picture with parallel storylines known mostly for its innovations in special effects.

The film premiered in late 1928 as a silent and was re-released in 1929 as a “part-talkie.” It told the story of Noah and the Great Flood, connected to another story featuring cabaret singers, soldiers and espionage during the First World War. Here is the New Yorker’s take on the film:

IDENTITY CRISES…Various promotional posters touted different aspects of the partial-sound film, *Noah’s Ark.* The one at left promoted the film’s biblical story, while the one at right played up **Dolores Costello’s** sex appeal. (IMDB)

The New Yorker concluded that the film was worth seeing for the Noah story’s special effects, despite its attachment to a “dreary and banal” war picture.

DUAL ROLES…**Dolores Costello** (seated, at left) played both a cabaret dancer, Marie, and Noah’s handmaiden Miriam, in *Noah’s Ark.* Note in the first photo the actress at far left, with her leg propped up on the chair—that’s **Myrna Loy,** who would become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 30s and 40s. As for Costello, known as “The Goddess of the Silent Screen,” her greatest success was in the silent era. ***Click image to enlarge***. (1stdibs.com, IMDB)

BIG SHOW…Portions of *Noah’s Ark* were filmed at the famed Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, including the opening shot that featured a massive ark (top, left) beached on the boulders of the movie ranch’s Garden of the Gods. Other scenes from the film included (moving clockwise, from top right) **Paul McAllister** as Noah, issuing a warning to the heathen as Noah’s son Japheth (**George O’Brien**) and servant girl Miriam (**Dolores Costello**) cower at right; the heathen masses desperately clamoring to board the ark as they are engulfed by the flood (600,000 gallons of water was used in the scene—three of the extras actually drowned during the filming); Japheth carries the rescued Miriam into the ark. **Click image to enlarge.** (IMDB, Wikipedia, dukewayne.com, medium.com)

Notable about these silent epics is the lack of precaution they took with both the actors and the extras. A huge amount of water—600,000 gallons—was used to film the the climactic flood scene. Three extras drowned and many others suffered broken bones and other serious injuries. One extra had to have his leg amputated. As for the stars, Dolores Costello caught a severe case of pneumonia during the filming.

Here’s a clip to give you an idea of what the extras had to deal with:

Some trivia: John Wayne was an extra in the film, and also worked in the prop department. The director of Noah’s Ark, Michael Curtiz, would go on to direct some of the most well-known films of the 20th century, including The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, Angels with Dirty Faces with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca with Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford, and White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. He would also direct an Elvis Presley movie, King Creole, and in his final film would reunite with John Wayne in 1961’s The Comancheros.

* * *

While Americans were enjoying epic filmmaking, Russian audiences were being served up the latest in propaganda, although this was propaganda presented with stunning film innovations and avant-garde sequences. In this item from the March 23 “Talk of the Town” the film is referred to as Through Russia With A Camera, but today it is known as Man with a Movie Camera. This experimental silent film from 1929 supposedly documented ordinary life in Soviet Union (with no signs of the famine that claimed 5 million Soviet citizens in the early 1920s). Directed by Dziga Vertov, the documentary’s famed cinematography was by Mikhail Kaufman. “Talk” observed:

AVANT GARDE…Poster for *Man with a Movie Camera* rendered in the Constructivist style. At right, cinematographer **Mikhail Kaufman** risks his life for a unique camera angle. (Wikipedia)

Clockwise, from top left: Cinematographer **Mikhail Kaufman** prepares to set up for a Black Sea beach sequence near Odessa; images of ordinary life include a woman at a hairdresser and a young woman fastening her bra; the eye through the camera lens, the film’s final image. (ascmag.com)

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From Our Advertisers

A sampling of advertisements from the pages of the March 23 issue include this nearly two-page spread for Pond’s cold cream…no doubt Pond’s was thrilled with this endorsement by “Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr,” otherwise known as Mary Weir of Davenport, Iowa. Mary was wife No. 2 of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s seven wives. Mary and Cornelius were married in 1928 and divorced in 1931…

…and then we have this advertisement from Knox hatters, illustrated by the New Yorker’s own Rea Irvin…

…this advertisement for the new Lincoln Building played up the building’s dominating form on Madison Avenue…

…a dominance that continues to this day. I know it’s not cool to gaze up at buildings in Manhattan, but if you’re ever in the neighborhood you must look upward at least once and gaze at the canyon that splits the Lincoln Building’s massive facade…

Lincoln Building, circa 1950. (Museum of the City of New York)

…this Remington typewriter was the closest thing to a desktop computer in 1929…I own one of these and I must attest that it isn’t exactly noiseless…

…this next ad caught my eye because it encouraged people to commit negligent homicide by throwing their product out of a high-rise window…it is also interesting because today Crosley is still a big name in radios and record players, although today’s Crosley is similar in name only. The original Crosley Corporation was a major player in early radio broadcasting, and in addition to manufacturing radios Crosley would go on to build refrigerators, a line of inexpensive subcompact cars and trucks (from 1939 to ’52) cars, and even small airplanes (1929-’36). Crosley ceased as a brand name in 1956, but the name was revived in 1984 by Modern Marketing Concepts. Today Crosley is a leading manufacturer of vintage-styled turntables, radios and other electronics…

…speaking of encouraging ridiculous behavior, some clever marketer at Ronson lighters found a great way not only to sell lighters, but also to encourage customers to waste lots of lighter fluid…

…and then we have this, one of the unlikeliest advertisements ever to appear in the New Yorker—at first I thought it was one of E.B. White’s fake newspapers, but it was actually a two-page spread promoting Davey Tree Surgeons of all things…

…just for fun I am tossing in this illustration by Constantin Aladjalov that appeared along the bottom of a two-page spread…

…and finally, our cartoon from Otto Soglow, in which our subject is either referring to a popular board game from 1929, or a particular sequence in a domino game…

Next Time: While You Were Away…