Above: The Morris B. Sanders Studio and Apartment is the second-oldest modern townhouse in Manhattan. Sanders designed the townhouse, located on 49th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, in 1934 for his own use, and construction was completed in December 1935. (Wikipedia/docomomo-nytri.org)
Today we barely notice the tens of thousands of shiny glass buildings that populate our cities, not to mention the countless postwar houses that feature vast expanses of glass from floor to ceiling.
April 11, 1936 cover by Helen Hokinson.
In 1936 a house made of glass, especially as a structural element, seemed unlikely to most folks, if not downright bizarre. Enter Lewis Mumford, arts and architecture critic for The New Yorker, who was critical of many modern industrial trends and often promoted his ideal of human-scaled, organic design in buildings and cities. Mumford was not opposed to new technologies, such as glass block, as long as it was employed with sensitivity and good taste. Here are some of Mumford’s observations after visiting the American Glass Industries Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum:
NEW NEIGHBOR…Morris B. Sanders’ studio and apartment at 219 East 49th Street in Turtle Bay boldly interrupted a stodgy row of brownstones. Lewis Mumford pronounced the 1936 building “very handsome.” The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as an official landmark in 2008. (curbed.com/Wikipedia)
The Sanders House wasn’t the first time a brownstone was replaced by a modernist building. That honor goes to another Turtle Bay-area house, just one block from the Sanders house, designed by architect William Lescaze in 1933-34.
ODD COUPLE…Designed by William Lescaze in the International Style between 1933 and 1934 as a renovation of a 19th-century brownstone townhouse, 211 East 48th Street was one of three houses in Manhattan designed by Lescaze. (atlasobscura.com/inside inside.org)
The Brooklyn Museum exhibition also included commercial examples such as one of the world’s first buildings to be completely covered in glass, the Owens-Illinois Glass Research Laboratory in Toledo, Ohio. Mumford also commented extensively on the new uses of glass in Times Square, namely the rebuilt Rialto Theatre and a Childs restaurant located next door. Excerpts:
THINGS TO COME…Clockwise, from top left, the Owens-Illinois Glass Research Laboratory in Toledo, Ohio, built between 1935 and 1936, is recognized as one of the world’s first buildings to be completely covered in glass, utilizing glass blocks for the facade; Lewis Mumford was less impressed with the use of glass by the newly rebuilt Rialto Theatre, but praised the new Childs location next door for being full of “vitality and color.” (facebook.com/dinerhunter.com)
* * *
Down on Il Duce
Last week we saw Robert Benchley’s review of the anti-war play, Idiot’s Delight. This week he reviews another play with themes that resonated in the moment, Bitter Stream. Written by Victor Wolfson and adapted from Ignazio Silone’s novel, Fontamara, the play depicted the horrors of fascism as Mussolini’s Black Shirts brutally seize an Italian neighborhood. It featured relative newcomer Lee J. Cobb as well as Frances Bavier, who twenty-four years later would portray Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show. Excerpts:
TROUBLE IN SUNNY ITALY…A scene set in Fontamara Square in the play Bitter Stream, which ran for sixty-one performances at the Civic Repertory Theatre. At right, Lee J. Cobb portrayed Don Circonstantza, and Frances Bavier played the part of Soreanera. Bavier is best known for her portrayal of Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968). (revolutions newsstand.com/facebook.com)
* * *
Sick Leave
Also last week we saw the first part of Edmund Wilson’s account of his travels in the Soviet Union. For the April 11 installment of “A Reporter at Large” (titled “Scarlet Fever in Odessa”), Wilson recounted his six-week stay in a filthy Soviet hospital. Excerpts:
WANTING OUT…Edmund Wilson couldn’t wait to get out of the “terribly dirty” Odessa hospital where he was quarantined with scarlet fever for six weeks. At left, photo by Margaret Bourke White, “In a Hospital Waiting Room, Moscow,” 1932. At right, Wilson in 1936. (nyamcenterforhistory.org/Wikipedia)
* * *
Gall in Gaul
In her Paris Letter, Janet Flanner continued to share her observations about the French mood (agitated) in the wake of the German occupation of the Rhineland.
HOW ABOUT A NICE DITTY INSTEAD?…Janet Flanner reported that there was a “near riot” when a performance at the Paramount Theater (left) included “military music.” At left, the Paramount in 1927; at right, a Popular Front demonstration in Paris, 1936. (Wikimedia/Bibliothèque nationale de France)
* * *
At the Movies
Little Lord Fauntleroy was Selznick International Pictures’ most profitable film until Gone with the Wind, and it featured one of the top child stars of the 1930s, English-American child actor Freddie Bartholomew (1924–1992). However, New Yorker film critic John Mosher was “bored to extinction” by the popular film.
SLUMMING…At left, Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Rooney once said of Bartholomew: “He was one of the finest, if not the finest child stars that we had on the scene at that time”; at right, Aubrey Smith, Bartholomew and Dolores Costello in a scene from the film. (MGM/Wikipedia)
One of Hollywood’s greatest screen villains, English actor Henry Daniell, caught Mosher’s attention for his “smooth” performance as a blackmailer in The Unguarded Hour. The critic also enjoyed the thriller The House of a Thousand Candles, but was left flat by Give Us This Night.
A MANNERED SCAMP was how John Mosher described one of Hollywood’s greatest screen villains, English actor Henry Daniell (right) in The Unguarded Hour, which also starred (at left) Loretta Young and Lewis Stone. (imdb.com/facebook.com)THRILLS AND TRILLS…Top photo, Mae Clarke and Phillips Holmes in the spy thriller The House of a Thousand Candles; below, Give Us This Night was one of five films produced by Paramount that featured the popular Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Gladys Swarthout, seen here with Polish opera singer and actor Jan Kiepura.(imdb.com/mabumbe.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
If you could afford it, a first-class salon on the Normandie sure looked like a great way to travel to France…
…this full-page ad enticed moviegoers with a quiz that promoted MGM’s The Great Ziegfeld…one of the most successful films of the 1930s, the movie won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Luise Rainer), and Best Dance Direction…
…who knows what will happen after the honeymoon, but we do know they will driving around in this swell-looking Packard 120, a lower-priced model that helped keep Packard afloat during the waning days of the Depression…
…Forstmann Woolens continued to entice buyers with their seasonal images of fine fashions…
…on to our cartoonists, we begin with the illustration for “The Theatre” section, this week Miguel Covarrubias taking over for Al Frueh…
…Richard Taylor contributed this fine spot illustration…
…and we have another spot by Helen Moore Sewell…
…James Thurber made an awkward introduction…
…George Price hoped for some comic relief at the theatre…
…Eli Garson found religious zeal at a street corner…
…Alan Dunn gave us a great opening line for an insurance salesman…
…Perry Barlow was inspired by bargains on Union Square…
…Helen Hokinson spotted a familiar face in the crowd…
…a quickie marriage left no room for romance, per Peter Arno…
…Whitney Darrow Jr signed us off with an endorsed blessing…
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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…
Above: Nightlife correspondent Lois Long checked out the latest clubs as well as old-time favorites in her column "Tables for Two." From left, advertisement for Restaurant Larue; Josephine Baker in 1937; and the entrance to Monte Proser's Beachcomber, an early iteration of the tiki bar that would become ubiquitous in midcentury America. (eBay.com/Wikipedia/mytiki.life)
Part three of Janet Flanner’s profile of Adolf Hitler can be found below, but it’s time to lead with something more pleasant, namely Manhattan nightlife through the eyes of Lois Long.
March 14, 1936 cover by Rea Irvin.
In her “Tables for Two” column headlined “Nostalgic Notes,” Long checked out the new Chez Josephine Baker, the garden-like delights of Restauarnt Larue, and the French-themed Le Coq Rouge.
NEW NIGHTLIFE…Clockwise from top left, ad for Restaurant Larue; 1930s postcard showing interior of Larue; Josephine Baker, proprietor of Chez Josephine Baker; ad for Le Coq Rouge; interior of Le Coq Rouge, 1930s. (eBay/Wikipedia)
Long also noted the Beachcomber Bar, which originated in the basement of an old church, and actor Dan Healy’sBroadway Room.
MAN ABOUT TOWN…Dan Healy was a well-known master of ceremonies in the Manhattan nightlife scene. He married the famed “boop-boop-a-doop” singer (and possible Betty Boop inspiration) Helen Kane in 1939—they later opened a New York restaurant together called Healy’s Grill. (whosdatedwho.com/Facebook)
* * *
Bummed Out
E.B. White (in “Notes and Comment”) referred to confessional essays published in Esquire magazine by F. Scott Fitzgerald that frankly described his struggles with alcoholism and the decline of his literary reputation. The confessional tone of the essays (three in all, published in February, March and April 1936) proved controversial at the time.
In his first essay, “The Crack-Up,” Fitzgerald famously observed that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
A CRY FOR HELP?…At left, F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1930s (top), and, apparently during happier days (below, with wife Zelda); at right, the opening page of “The Crack-Up.” (esquire.com/pbs.org)
* * *
Say What?
New Yorker writers rarely missed an opportunity to poke fun of Time magazine’s unique ways with the English language. E.B. White again, in an excerpt:
TIMEWORDS…The March 16, 1936 issue of Time, and E.B. White. (time.com/imdb.com)
* * *
Dying to Know
“The Talk of the Town” made brief mention of a rumor regarding Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton’s health. Reports of her demise were premature; she died in 1979.
HANGING IN THERE…Barbara Hutton with husband no. 2, Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow, circa 1936. Hutton married seven times, including a brief marriage to actor Cary Grant, who was husband no. 3. (whosdatedwho.com)
* * *
Part Three
Janet Flanner completed her three-part profile of Adolf Hitler by looking into the man’s mind, if that was even possible.
OBEDIENT MASSES…Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler addresses soldiers at a rally in Dortmund, Germany, 1933. (encyclopedia.ushmm.org)
Flanner also noted the Führer’s early days as an unsuccessful painter, and an odd wedding gift to his buddy Hermann Göring:
GOOSED…Top, Adolf Hitler presented a specially painted copy of Correggio’s Leda with the Swan as a wedding gift to Hermann Göring and actress Emmy Sonnemann on April 10, 1935; below, Hitler painted this watercolor during his pre-WWI time in Munich, from May 1913 to August 1914. (Wikipedia)
* * *
China Syndrome
Supporting herself as a writer for The New Yorker, Emily Hahn’s years in Shanghai, China (1935 to 1941) were tumultuous. Living in the city’s red light district, she became romantically involved with the Chinese poet and publisher Shao Xunmei (aka Sinmay Zau) and became addicted to opium. In this excerpted short essay, Hahn described her literary encounters with Shao Xunmei (here referred to as “Pan Heh-ven”) and a passel of translators.
ENOUGH OF THAT…Emily Hahn became romantically involved with the Chinese poet and publisher Shao Xunmei (aka Sinmay Zau), but ultimately left him in order to break her opium addiction. (Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
Critic John Mosher did his best to stay awake during the latest fare from Hollywood…
SPECIOUS SPECTACLE…Top, from left, Louise Fazenda, Paul Draper, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Hugh Herbert in Colleen; below, Wendy Barrie and Gene Raymond in Love on a Bet. (cometoverhollywood.com/imdb.com)
Mosher also commented on a film he walked out on (The Farmer in the Dell), and considered the twentieth anniversary of Intolerance, a 1916 drama that had become a “cheap amusement.”
HO HUM…Critic John Mosher walked out of The Farmer in the Dell, mostly due to boredom—above, Frank Albertson, Jean Parker, Fred Stone and Esther Dale in the romcom The Farmer in the Dell; below, scene from D.W. Griffith’s epic silent film from 1916, Intolerance. (imdb.com/cinemafromthespectrum.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
The folks at Hormel once again claimed the inside front cover with this array of soups featured sideways, in full color…
…the illustrator of this Lord & Taylor advertisement hoped to superimpose a pair of shoes over a woman’s face, with less than convincing results…
…the makers of Packard automobiles sent a condescending message “To The Ladies,” promising not to “bore them” with talk of mechanical features…
…a sampling of one-column ads featured, from left, the renowned Russian Eagle cafe-bar at the Sherry-Netherland, the Modernage furniture store on East 33rd, and the Milwaukee Road railroad, which offered adventure at such places as a Montana dude ranch…
…the inside back cover featured this drawing of actress/dancer/singer June Knight by Abe Birnbaum…
…Birnbaum was a terrific artist, but his portrait of Knight was not terribly flattering…this is what she looked like in the 1930s…
June Knight (1913–1987) circa 1930s. (reddit.com)
…on to the cartoons, we kick off the issue with Canadian cartoonist Richard Taylor…
…and Taylor again, striking a pose…
…Arnold Hall contributed an example of floral marketing…
…Al Frueh contributed to “The Theatre” section…
…Jack Markow did some rubbernecking…
…Howard Baer welcomed a new tax deduction to the world…
…Perry Barlow drew up impressions of a field trip to the Hayden Planetarium…
…Barlow again…
…one of Helen Hokinson’s “girls” explained herself…
…Barbara Shermund interpreted modern dance…
…Alain sought some dish over tea with the vicar…
…and we close with James Thurber, and a penny for her thoughts…
Above: The 1936 Ziegfeld Follies premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on January 30, 1936 and closed on May 9, 1936 after 115 performances. (Hulton Archive)
Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr died in 1932, but his famous theatrical revue lived on for years with revivals including one in 1936 that Robert Benchley praised for being better than the originals.
February 8, 1936 cover by Helen Hokinson, marking the opening of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. According to Michael Maslin’s always enlightening Ink Spill, the first dog-themed New Yorker cover was Feb. 8, 1930, by Theodore Haupt (below).
Now on with the show. Brought back to life by Ziegfeld’s widow Billie Burke and theatre operators Lee and J. J. Shubert,The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 was loaded with talent, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, choreography by George Balanchine, and sets and costumes by Vincente Minnelli. What really brought people in was the star of the show, Fannie Brice, who was supported by cast members Bob Hope, Eve Arden, Josephine Baker, and the Nicholas Brothers, among others. Benchley wrote:
FANNIE AND THE REST…Clockwise, from top left: Bob Hope and Eve Arden performed the popular tune “I Can’t Get Started With You”; Hope with Fannie Brice in the sketch “Baby Snooks Goes Hollywood”; Josephine Baker premiered “The Conga” at the Follies, and Harriet Hoctor performed her “Night Flight.” (gershwin.com/uneicone-josephinebaker.webador.fr/libraryofcongress,org)
This ad for the 1936 Follies prominently featured Benchley’s endorsement:
(uneicone-josephinebaker.webador.fr)
Billie Burke (1884–1970) authorized Follies revivals with the Shuberts in 1934, 1936 and 1943, with the Shubert family producing a final revival in 1957. In 1936 MGM also filmed a Ziegfeld biopic, The Great Ziegfeld (which won two Academy Awards), casting William Powell as Ziegfeld and Myrna Loy as Burke. Burke wanted to play herself in the film, but at age 51 she was deemed too old for the part.
ZIEGFELD MAGIC…Florenz Ziegfeld’s widow Billie Burke kept the Follies going after her husband’s death in 1932. She is best known today for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. (oscars.org/Wikipedia)
Fannie Brice (1891–1951) was the biggest star of the Follies and so dominated the show that when she became ill in May 1936 the production closed. Brice returned to the Winter Garden that September for 112 more performances.
Benchley also praised Call it a Day, a 1935 play by British writer Dodie Smith that ran for 194 performances at the Morosco Theatre. Benchley thought it was so good he saw it twice.
SPRING FEVER drove the action in Dodie Smith’s (right) hit comedy Call it a Day. The play chronicles a single spring day in the lives of the Hilton family, during which each member encounters unexpected romantic temptations and complications. Gladys Cooper, left, starred as Dorothy Hilton. The play was adapted to a Hollywood film in 1937. (vocal.media/Wikipedia)
* * *
At the Movies
We go from the stage to the screen, where John Mosher took in Rose Marie, a musical comedy based on a popular 1924 Broadway play. The film “repolished” the old play and used it as a framework for a series of duets between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
MELODIOUS MOUNTIE…Lobby card for Rose Marie, a musical romcom about a singing Mountie and a world-renowned prima donna, joined in love by a haunting “Indian mating call.” (Wikipedia)
Mosher reviewed three other films that could have used some of Rose Marie’s cheer:
CHEERLESS FARE…Clockwise, from top: Gloria Stuart, Freddie Bartholomew, and Michael Whalen in Professional Soldier; James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Ray Milland in Next Time We Love; Helen Vinson and Conrad Veidt in King of the Damned. (Wikipedia/imdb.com/letterboxd.com/silversirens.co.uk)
* * *
Miscellany
I strive to keep these posts at a readable length, and (hopefully) lively and enjoyable to read, which means that I cannot include absolutely everything that appears in each issue. For example, there are a number of regular features from the sports world—ranging from major attractions like hockey and college football (no coverage yet of baseball—which for some reason Harold Ross hated—or basketball) to more niche pursuits, such as squash (below) or indoor polo. From time to time I will include these under “Miscellany” as a way to give readers a more complete picture, and to assuage my fear that I am leaving something important out. Here is a very brief snippet of a regular feature, “Court Games,” by staff writer Geoffrey T. Hellman.
RACKETEERS…At left, Beekman Pool of the Harvard Club was the 1936 singles champion of the Metropolitan Squash Racquets Association; at right, Edwin Bigelow of the U.S. Squash Racquets Association presents the National Trophy to Germain Glidden. To the far right is runner-up Andrew Ingraham, who looks a bit miffed about getting a plate rather than a trophy cup. (thecarycollection.com)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
Let’s start with the inside front cover…advertisements from Dorothy Gray salons were all about the restoration of youth in older women…apparently the treatments were so successful that “Mrs. M” was a bigger attraction at a Ritz-Carlton debutante party than her society-bound daughter…note the young gents at right checking out mom, and not the deb…
…opposite Dorothy Gray was this elegant appeal from Bergdorf Goodman…ads aimed at more refined tastes almost always featured these attenuated figures (whether they were people or luxury automobiles)…I guess I would hold onto something too with stilts like those…
…here’s a Steinway grand for less than a grand…$885 in 1936 is roughly equivalent to $20,000 or so today, but that’s still a bargain—Steinway grand pianos currently start at around $85,000…
…speaking of bargains, you could own “The Most Beautiful Thing on Wheels” (according to this ad) for a mere $615…
…and for an extra twenty-five bucks you could own a durable Dodge like the one endorsed by Roy Chapman Andrews (1884–1960), a globetrotting explorer who discovered fossilized dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert in the 1920s…
THE REAL INDY…Roy Chapman Andrews gained national fame as an explorer for New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The discovery of a nest of complete dinosaur eggs in Mongolia in 1923 (above) provided the first proof that the critters hatched out of eggs. Named AMNH’s director in 1934, Andrews is thought to be an inspiration for the film hero Indiana Jones. (amnh.org/roychapmanandrewssociety.org)
…the folks at Chrysler were doing everything they could to get people interested in buying their Airflows—despite its technological advances, the car’s streamlined design (toned down in later models) was just too radical for mass market tastes…note how the ad draws attention to the work of “Artist Floyd Davis”…
…here’s a photo of Floyd Davis…
CHEERS…Illustrator Floyd Davis (1896–1966) poses in an ad for Lord Calvert whiskey, 1946. In 1943 Life magazine called him the “#1 Illustrator in America.” (Wikipedia)
…the Fisher company, makers of car bodies for General Motors, liked to emphasize the safety of their “Turret Top,” although it didn’t seem to occur to anyone that a child dangling from a car window was problematic…
…actress Lupe Vélez made the unlikely claim that flying on a 1930s airliner was “as comfortable as a private yacht”…
…ads for White Rock were among the more colorful found in the early New Yorker…
…on the back cover, Liggett & Myers tobacco company shifted gears from elegant to homespun with an ad that emphasized the high quality of Turkish leaf tobacco…
…the folks at Coty hired two New Yorker contributors, poet Arthur Guiterman and illustrator Constantin Alajalov, to promote their line of lipsticks…
…which brings us to the cartoonists, beginning with Al Frueh…
…Richard Taylor opened things up in “Goings On”…
…and George Price added this bit of action to the calendar section…
…Abe Birnbaum contributed this delightful spot drawing…
…the Westminster dog show was the talk of the town, and at Grand Central, per Perry Barlow…
…Robert Day had a fight on his hands…
…Helen Hokinson’s “girls” were out to snub the sanitation department…
…Rea Irvin drew up the literal downfall of one business…
…Eli Garson had us seeing spots…
…Charles Addams found the Pied Piper in a Salvation Army band…
…Alan Dunn gave new meaning to “taking a detour”…
…Barbara Shermund illustrated one of the perils of cocktail parties…
…and we close with Peter Arno, and the sinister world of taxi dancers…
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.
* * *
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
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’sScandals…
…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…
(sheldonartmuseum.org)
…Barbara Shermund engaged in some light banter at a cocktail party…
…and we close with a surprise visit from William Crawford Galbraith…
Above: Portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1935, by Alfred Stieglitz, gelatin silver print; at right, O'Keeffe's Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills, 1935. Oil on canvas. (National Gallery/Brooklyn Museum)
Over the seven decades of her career, Georgia O’Keeffe created works that did not necessarily follow the art movements of the 20th century. Critic Lewis Mumford referred to these works as “autobiographies in paint,” every painting “as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa.”
January 18, 1936 cover by Robert Day, illustrating the days before the invention of the Zamboni (in 1949).
O’Keeffe was married to art dealer and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who exhibited her works at his “An American Place” gallery at 53rd and Madison. The couple had a complex, open relationship (Stieglitz had a number of affairs) that proved painful to O’Keeffe, and in 1933 she was hospitalized for two months after experiencing a nervous breakdown; she did not paint again until the following year. Although Mumford did not directly reference this episode in O’Keeffe’s life, he did note that “Certain elements in O’Keeffe’s biography were plainly visible” in her paintings.
PAINED PAINTINGS…Clockwise, from top left, Georgia O’Keeffe’sEagle Claw and Bean Necklace, 1934; Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV, 1930; Purple Hills, 1935. (MoMA/Phillips Collection/San Diego Museum of Art)
Mumford noted that O’Keeffe’s newer works revealed a “resurrection of spirit,” such as the painting of a ram’s skull, “with its horns acting like wings, lifted up against the gray, wind-swept clouds…”
GLOWING WITH POETRY AND TRUTH is how Lewis Mumford described Georgia O’Keeffe’s latest work. Clockwise, from top left: Ram’s Head suggested to Mumford “a resurgence of life and a resurrection of spirit” in the artist; other bright works included Sunflower, New Mexico 1, 1935; and Hill, 1935. (National Gallery/Cleveland Museum of Art/ Denver Art Museum)
* * *
Lights Out
In the previous issue E.B. White noted that the Edison Company was threatening to cut off electric service to the magazine’s offices due to nonpayment. This “Notes and Comment” update cleared up the matter.
THE PRICE FOR POWER…Above, an aerial view from 1926 of New York Edison’s East River Power Station at 38th Street. In 1936 it was powered by coal, which burned pungently and created problems with soot throughout the area. (tudorcityconfidential.com)
* * *
Revisiting a Pint-size Poet
“The Talk of the Town” paid a visit to Nathalia Crane (1913–1998), who became famous after the 1924 publication of her first book of poetry, The Janitor’s Boy, at the age of ten. Excerpts:
PIXIE POET…Nathalia Crane published her first poems in The New York Sun when she was only nine years old, the paper unaware that she was a child. She later became a professor of English at San Diego State University. (gutenberg.org)
The fledgling Crane received a very different New Yorker reception in 1928, when Dorothy Parker took her to task for contributing to the collapse of grammar and civilization in general. Here’s an excerpt from Parker’s Jan. 7, 1928 “Reading & Writing” column:
GRUESOME was the word Dorothy Parker chose to describe chocolate-covered olives and bad poetry. At left, Parker in 1928. At right, a contents page from The Spirit of St. Louis, a collection of one hundred poems selected from thousands in a poetry contest celebrating Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. (literaryladiesguide.com/ebay.com)
* * *
Order in the Court
Howard Brubaker commented on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the ongoing fight by Republicans to curtail FDR’s New Deal.
* * *
Cinderella Stories
For his Jan. 4, 1936 “A Reporter at Large” column Morris Markey visited “Major Bowe’s Amateur Hour” at NBC’s Rockefeller Center radio studios. He was so impressed by the rags-to-riches stories that he shared a few in his Jan. 18 column, titled “The Crystal Slipper.” He warned readers that the stories were “sentimental,” but not in the vein of A Christmas Carol: “Tiny Tim, asking God to bless every one, regardless, was a pious little fraud,” Markey noted. Excerpts:
Markey shared the story of a garbage collector turned opera tenor, and a wealthy debutante who was encouraged to “stay off the stage” by “Major” Edward Bowes himself.
CUT THE TRASH TALK…Joseph Rogato told the Amateur Hour audience that his job as a “garbage man” was no laughing matter, and went on to wow them with his singing voice. At left, a detail from an ad for Chase & Sanborn coffee, the show’s sponsors. At right, show founder and host “Major” Edward Bowes with the gong he used to abruptly end acts he deemed poor—he soon abandoned the practice after listeners objected. (eBay.com/Facebook)
Markey next told the story of Marguerite Ryan, the “Singing Housewife”…
FROM RELIEF TO RICHES…This Chase & Sanborn advertisement described Marguerite Ryan’s brush with fame and her deliverance from poverty thanks to her appearance on the Amateur Hour. (newspapers.com)
Finally, the story of Rhoda Chase, whom Bowes promoted as a “penniless orphan.” Born Anna Blanor, her stage name, Rhoda, was selected by a psychic, while her last name was inspired by sponsors Chase & Sanborn.
VELVET VOICE…At right, detail from a Chase & Sanborn ad that promoted Rhoda Chase as a “Penniless Orphan” who made the big time thanks to the Amateur Hour. At left, a 1944 newspaper ad for the Zombie Club in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Known as “The Blue Velvet Voice”, Chase was a radio, stage, nightclub and USO blues singer. (Wikimedia Commons/eBay)
* * *
At the Movies
Film critic John Mosher found some bright spots at the movies, praising René Clair’s The Ghost Goes West but feeling sorry for Jean Harlow in her “thankless” role in Riffraff, a film about the tuna-fishing industry.
THE FRIENDLY GHOST…Robert Donat and Patricia Hilliard in the romantic comedy The Ghost Goes West. (IMDB)FISH OUT OF WATER…Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, and Joseph Calleia in Riffraff, a drama about a strike at a tuna fishery. “Just why a life of tuna-fishing should be chosen as background for Miss Harlow’s vehicle I can’t imagine, but there it is,” wrote critic John Mosher. (IMDB)
Mosher didn’t know what to make of Katharine Hepburn’s latest film, Sylvia Scarlett, in which she portrayed a con artist disguised as a boy hiding from the police. Despite its major star power and George Cukor as director, the film was a flop.
Mosher also reviewed Last of the Pagans (also about a labor dispute!) and The Private Life of Louis XIV (released in Germany in 1935 as Liselotte von der Pfalz).
SHE’S A MAN, MAN…Clockwise, from top left, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in Sylvia Scarlett; Lotus Long and Mala in Last of the Pagans;Renate Müller in The Private Life of Louis XIV (Liselotte von der Pfalz). Müller would die in 1937 at age 31 under mysterious circumstances. Many believe the Nazis had her killed because she refused to appear in their propaganda films. (academymuseum.org/MGM/IMDB)
* * *
From Our Advertisers
General Motors promoted their Buick Eight in a two-page advertisement that called out Eustace Tilley and reprinted a Carl Rose cartoon from the Nov. 2, 1935 issue…
…here is the original cartoon…
…with the holidays a memory and the Depression still lingering, most of the automobile ads touted economy over luxury, however Chrysler claimed you could have both with this $760 model…
…by the looks of this guy, he probably added three fingers of vodka to his pineapple juice…
…as noted before, the folks at World Peaceways pulled no punches with their anti-war appeals…
…the makers of Lux were still rolling out Broadway stars to endorse their toilet soap…(Betty Lawford, #5, was an English film and stage actress and a cousin of actor Peter Lawford)…
…the inside back cover belonged to Stage magazine…the illustration, “Amateur Night at the Apollo,” is by Alexander King…
…the Grand Central Palace was hosting the thirty-first annual National Motor Boat Show, a rare back cover not taken by a tobacco company…
…a couple of ads from back of the book…at left, an Anglophilic appeal from Miami’s Roney Plaza Hotel, and, at right, pre-revolutionary days at the National Hotel in Havana (I had a drink there a few years ago during the Obama thaw…the lobby is beautiful, a classic from another era still hanging on thanks to Canadian and European tourists)…
…William Steig continued to illustrate these one-column ads from Pilgrim Rum…
…which segues to our cartoonists…on the bottom of page 3 was this one-column drawing by Peggy Bacon…
…Norwegian opera singer Kirsten Flagstad (1895–1962) was a famous Wagnerian soprano who made a triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1935…
Kirsten Flagstad circa 1940. (Wikipedia)
…we continue with Helen Hokinson soaking up some sun…
…Robert Day cracked the whip in the steno pool…
…originally published sideways, another look at club life by Gluyas Williams...
…James Thurber offered up a toast…
…Richard Taylor looked into an auction mystery…
…Barney Tobey gave us a friendly greeting on the slopes…
…Perry Barlow was lost in a department store…
…William Crawford Galbraith continued to probe the woes of sugar daddies…
Above: Margaret Dumont with Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx in A Night at the Opera. A trained operatic singer, Dumont portrayed wealthy, regal women as comic foils to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films. Groucho once referred to her as "the fifth Marx brother." (Britannica.com)
If you were looking for a break from the doldrums of winter or the mad rush of the holidays, a ticket to the Marx Brothers’ A Nightat the Opera could fit your bill.
December 14, 1935 cover by William Crawford Galbraith. A New Yorker contributor from 1929 to 1940, Galbraith (1894–1978), illustrated 151 drawings and seven covers for the magazine.
With their move from Paramount to MGM, Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx launched a new style of comedy with A Night at the Opera, one of 1935’s biggest hits. Critic John Mosher was pleased to see the trio’s familiar antics on the screen, but with more story structure than their previous films.
SWEET TALKER…In Night at the Opera, Groucho Marx (as Otis B. Driftwood) advises Margaret Dumont (as Mrs. Claypool) on how to be inducted into high society—Driftwood: “I have arranged for you to invest $200,000 in the New York Opera Company. You’ll be a patron…Then you can marry me and they’ll kick you out of society and all you’ve lost is $200,000.” (amazon.com)
Sure, there were some old gags, as one “youngster”—seated next to Mosher—noted, but even this newbie pronounced the film “excellent.” As Mosher observed, “It may not be new or surprising, but it’s quick and funny.”
OH WHAT A NIGHT…Clockwise, from top left, during the overture to Verdi’s Il Trovatore, the sheet music is switched to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) responds by hawking peanuts to the startled audience; lobby card for the film; the famous “Stateroom Scene,” written by gag man Al Boasberg; taking a break on the set are, from left, Groucho, Boasberg, Kitty Carlisle, and director Sam Wood. (onset.shotonwhat.com)
Mosher also reviewed the underworld thriller Show Them No Mercy!, which displayed some of the effects of the Hays Code…
TONE IT DOWN, WOULD YA?…From left, Cesar Romero, Rochelle Hudson, Bruce Cabot, and Edward Brophy in Show Them No Mercy! (rotten tomatoes.com))
* * *
Fond Memories
In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White recalled the good old days at a place called Tony’s on 49th Street. I couldn’t find any record of the place (or images), but apparently the new Tony’s lacked the smoke-filled charm of the original. Not to mention that the air-conditioning gave an earache to one of White’s acquaintances:
* * *
Gun Shy
James Thurber was also facing the challenges of the modern world, being the unlikely owner of a very old derringer and hoping to possibly get it repaired. He stopped in at Stoeger’s gun store on Fifth Avenue, where a salesman tried to sell him a newer model. Instead, Thurber opted for a copy of the catalog (which he found fascinating), and pondered the store’s various game calls, which he thought might make suitable holiday gifts. Some brief excerpts:
GUNS ON FASHION ROW…View from inside Stoeger’s Fifth Avenue gun store with manager John T. Meechan, undated; cover of the store’s 1936 catalog. (Facebook/ebay.com)
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Hello Dolly
Dolls of all sorts—ranging from Popeye to the Dionne quintuplets—were all the rage for the holidays, according to the magazine’s third installment of its exhaustive Christmas lists.
RARE COLLECTIBLES TODAY, toys popular at New York’s department stores in 1935 included, clockwise, from top left, Ideal’s Shirley Temple baby doll, fashioned after a photo of the young actress at age six months; the Dionne Quintuplets craze continued with the growing quints now standing up; a Skippy velocipede; Buck Rogers Rocket Skates. (theriaults.com/ebay.com/MidwestModern via X/grandoldtoys.com)
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Some Light Holiday Verse
This poem comes courtesy of Phyllis McKinley (1905–1978), a children’s author and poet who lovingly satirized her suburban life, publishing in both popular as well as literary magazines, including The New Yorker.
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From Our Advertisers
Mixed in with the advertisements for last-minute Christmas gifts were a slew of ads beckoning those with wealth and leisure time to head south for the winter…
…Forstmann Woolens switched gears, replacing their lovely seasonal ads (featuring fall and winter fashions) with the latest in tropical togs…
…Bermuda beckoned to those fashionable folks…
…as did the cruise lines heading south…
…even the makers of the La Salle (Cadillac) were feeling the warmth with this image of the sunny Southwest (this was the left panel of a two-page spread)…
…Packard could sweeten a woman’s dowry, according to this holiday message…
…it looked like Grandpa had a bit too much of the Old Schenley…
…according to this Heinz ad, modernism should play a “minor role” on Christmas, so for a real “olden time” treat, you could enjoy some of their figgy pudding…out of a can…
…and leave it to good old St. Nick to push his bagful of cigarrettes…
…Old Gold also employed Santa for this GeorgePetty-illustrated ad…
…Mount Vernon continued its series of ads that idealized the days before Emancipation…
…the automatic toaster, still something of a novelty, was front and center at this holiday gathering…
…back of the book, single-column ads featured delights of the stage and screen and an appeal for Pilgrim Rum aided by the talents of WilliamSteig…
…Nikita Balieff’s La Chauve-Souris had seen better days when it showed up at the Continental Room…
…Balieff (1877–1936) was a Russian Armenian performer best known as the creator and master of ceremonies of the theatre group LaChauve-Souris. The company toured the U.S. six times from 1922–1929—including appearances on Broadway—presenting a variety of songs, dances and sketches based on Russian stories and legends. The troupe’s popularity even landed Balieff on the cover of Time (Oct. 17, 1927)…
The New Yorker’s Ralph Barton designed a curtain for the 1922 Chauve-Souris, and AlexanderWoollcott heaped praise on the performances. However, his fellow Algonquin Round Table wit, DorothyParker, was not impressed: it has come to the stage where these poor nerves jangle nastily every time the local cognoscenti hail as incomparable art any bit of literature, play, writing or stagecraft that comes out of Russia. ….. what I don’t really grasp is just why “Russian” and “great” should have come to be looked upon as synonyms…
Ralph Barton painted this celebrity curtain in 1922 for Chauve-Souris. (National Portrait Gallery)
…back to our ads…B. Altman had a suggestion for the last-minute shopper…
…a Robert Day cartoon was employed to advertise the latest New Yorker Album…
…Thomas Eastwood opens up our cartoon section…
…Maurice Freed tossed in this spot drawing…
…Perry Barlow got into the rhythm with the Salvation Army…
…Gilbert Bundy looked for some holiday cheer at a neighborhood tavern…
…Helen Hokinson gave us a generous spirit…
…Walter Lippmann’s column raised eyebrows at George Price’s breakfast table…
…Price again, on an urgent request…
…Ned Hilton did some peeking…
…Fritz Wilkerson showed us a couple in need of a dog whisperer…
…Carl Rose unmasked an imposter…
…and James Thurber presented a medical challenge…
…and before we go, another word on our cover artist, William Crawford Galbraith, who also created posters for MGM from the 1920s to the 1940s and drew cartoons for Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook, Vanity Fair, the Saturday EveningPost, and Cosmopolitan. He took over the nationally syndicated “Side Glances” comic panel from George Clark in 1939 and worked on it for two decades.
At left, Galbraith’s poster for Anna Christie, 1930; right, a 1946 Side Glances comic panel. The caption reads: “No, I’m not curious – I just like to hear Mom on the phone because her voice sounds so mellow compared to when she’s talking to us around the house!” (IMDB/comicartfans.com)
Above: Among E.B. White's notable happenings in the fall of 1935 was a streamlined baby carriage for the toddler of tomorrow. (Pinterest)
Occasionally, E.B. White would allow his seemingly random thoughts to fill out his “Notes and Comment” column, observing in no particular order various happenings of the day.
Sept. 28, 1935 cover by Antonio Petruccelli, who began his career as a textile designer. In addition to four New Yorker covers, Petruccelli (1907-1994) illustrated twenty-four Fortune magazine covers as well as several covers for House Beautiful, Collier’s, Life and other magazines.
What he accomplished, however, was a collection of snapshots of life in Manhattan and abroad. Here is the first part of E.B. White’s “Notes and Comment” for Sept. 28…
PERENNIAL PROBLEM…E.B. White noted that more than 51,000 Americans died in car accidents in an 18-month span, a number that is oddly similar to today’s statistics (although the U.S. has more than double the population today). At left, photo by Weegee (aka Arthur Fellig) of a wrecked taxicab in New York City, circa 1930s; at right, a streamlined baby buggy, 1930s. (Instagram/Pinterest)
…White also noted a number of cultural events, from airmailed lobsters to a new slogan for the State of Maine…
HODGEPODGE…Clockwise, from top left, Leo Reisman brought the sound of music to the beautiful Central Park Casino ballroom (adjoining photo), which was designed by Joseph Urban; in 1927 Clarence Chamberlain became the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic and the first to carry a transatlantic passenger—in 1935 he accepted a contract from boxer/restauranteur Jack Dempsey to fly two-hundred Maine lobsters to NYC; safari film celebrities Osa and Martin Johnson bought a picnic basket at Abercrombie & Fitch; the state of Maine announced plans to add “Vacationland” to license plates—a slogan still in use today. (IMDB/centralpark.org/alchetron.com/ebay)
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Class Acts
Lois Long continued to chronicle the nightlife scene in her “Tables For Two” column, observing the efforts of nightclub impresarios to promote their establishments as epitomes of sophistication.
WHY GO HOME?…Lois Long noted the many reasons why New Yorkers might stay out into the wee hours. Clockwise, from top left: Gossip columnist Walter Winchell as photographed by Edward Steichen in 1930; nightclub impersario and former Village speakeasy king Barney Gallant; the exclusive confines of El Morocco; Romanian-born American crooner and actor Georges Metaxa made the society ladies swoon at the Stork Club; the Stork Club’s Cub Room in 1944 occupied by Orson Welles (left) among other notables; entrance to the club, 1930s. (CondeNast/boweryboyshistory.com/Pinterest/Wikipedia/NYPL)
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From Rough to Refined
Alva Johnston profiled acclaimed film director W.S. Van Dyke (1889–1943), whom Johnston portrayed as a tough guy who slipped effortlessly from the rough and tumble world of Westerns to the sophisticated heights of high society films such as 1934’s The Thin Man.
LOW TO HIGH…W.S. Van Dyke moved from making Westerns to more sophisticated fare including 1934’s The Thin Man. (Facebook/Wikipedia)
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Silly Mystification
Book reviewer Clifton Fadiman began his review of T.E. Lawrence’sSeven Pillars of Wisdom by first clearing the air about the enigmatic writer and diplomat who had recently died in a motorcycle accident. “Wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly, he exhaled during his lifetime a vapor of silly mystification,” Fadiman wrote about Lawrence, who was known to embellish accounts of his adventures in the Arab world. Here is an excerpt of the review:
LITERARY COSPLAY…T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) in an undated photo. Writing for the New Criterion,David Fromkin noted the importance of Lawrence’s prestige to the British Empire. “T. E…was of his time and ours. Of all the public figures of the twentieth century, across a wide range of interests, issues, and attitudes, he best expresses the century. ” (The New Criterion)
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At the Movies
Critic John Mosher reviewed one of Will Rogers’ final films, Steamboat Round the Bend, released just weeks after Rogers’ death in an Alaska plane crash. Mosher found the film “satisfying.”
SOUTHERN CHARM was laid on thick in Steamboat Round the Bend, which featured Anne Shirley and Will Rogers in one of his final film roles (Rogers filmed In Old Kentucky before Steamboat, but In Old Kentucky wasn’t released until Nov. 22, 1935).
Mosher also took in another “revue” film, Broadway Melody of 1936, which served as a showcase of MGM’s star power.
THE MGM STABLE OF STARS showcased in Broadway Melody of 1936 included, at top, the elegant Eleanor Powell; below, Powell (left) joins brother-sister dancing team Buddy and Vilma Ebsen in a down-home skit. Buddy Ebsen’s “carefully preserved homeliness” (quoting John Mosher) served him well 27 years later when he was cast as Jed Clampett in TV’s The Beverly Hillbillies. (IMDB)
Mosher also endured a “perfunctory” performance by Bette Davis in Special Agent, and a “mousy” Madeleine Renaud in Maria Chapdelaine.
PHONING IT IN…Joe Sawyer, Bette Davis and Ricardo Cortez in Special Agent. (IMDB)NOT GAGA-WORTHY…Critic John Mosher thought French actress Madeleine Renaud (center) was too “mousy” to be cast against the rugged beauty of the Canadian frontier in 1934’s Maria Chapdelaine. Based on a romance novel written in 1913 by the French writer Louis Hémon, the film cast Renaud as a young woman enduring the hardships of rural Quebec while she is pursued by three suitors. An IMDB reviewer writes that this early Julien Duvivier film “is mostly of pictorial interest: the location shooting in Quebec is impressive, but the story is thin-to-nonexistent. Madeleine Renaud is cute but not magnetic enough to have three men going absolutely gaga over her.” (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
Forstmann Woolens kicks off our advertisements with this image of attenuated women posed in the autumnal landscape of Central Park…
…what is notable about this Arrow Shirts ad is the formal attire of father and son at a baseball game, not at all unusual in 1935…
…Seagram’s continued its aggressive campaign to promote its lineup of seven “masterpieces”…
…Coca-Cola also had a substantial war chest, marketing its product for home consumption, which still seemed to be somewhat novel…
…the back page ad went to the makers of Lucky Strike, pursuing that growing market of women smokers…
…Richard Decker drew up an ad for a more wholesome product…
…while Peter Arno put pen to paper to promote his “puzzle-cartoons” in the New York Post…
…which segues to our cartoon section, and Arno again with some office hijinks…
…Christina Malman’s wonderfully unique spot art was making regular appearances in the magazine’s pages…
…Perry Barlow served up some dinnertime etiquette…
…Carl Rose found order in the court…
…James Thurber continued to mesmerize…
…Helen Hokinson’s Ladies Club took a stand against fascism…
…Alan Dunn looked in on a polite perp…
…Mary Petty encountered a challenge in a dress shop…
…Gilbert Bundy revealed an odd duck among the fox hunters…
…and we close with Barbara Shermund, ready to curl up with a good (or bad) book…
Above: James Thurber with his beloved Christabel, circa 1950s, and Mary Pickford enjoying some puppy love, circa 1920. (The Thurber Estate/Pinterest)
James Thurber and silent film star Mary Pickford had one thing in common; they loved their dogs.
September 21, 1935 cover by Ilonka Karasz. Antiques magazine (March 8, 2018) described Karasz’s covers as “leafy modernism,” evolving from “dynamic modern depictions of urban life to enchanting, peaceful images of leisure activities…recording details like family picnics or the insects and flowers in her garden.” Many depict scenes around Brewster, New York, where she lived with husband, Willem Nyland, a Dutch-American chemist and pianist. Karasz contributed 186 covers across six decades, beginning with her first on April 4, 1925.
From that point of agreement, however, these contemporaries (Pickford was born in 1892; Thurber in 1894) diverged. Consider Thurber’s response (excerpted) to Pickford’s spiritual musings in a Liberty magazine article titled “Why Die?”
…Thurber contributed this spot drawing for his rebuttal…
ONE OF A KIND…James Thurber immortalized his Airdale, Muggs, in a 1933 story, “The Dog that Bit People.” Muggs, who died in 1928, has his own monument in Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio, installed in 2021. The inscription, taken from Thurber’s short story, reads, “Nobody knew exactly what was the matter with him.” (https://www.dispatch.com/Facebook)AMERICA’S SWEETHEART was well-known as animal lover. At left, Mary Pickford in 1916; at right, with husband Douglas Fairbanks at their mansion, Pickfair, in the 1920s. (Wikipedia/Pinterest)SECOND LIFE…Mary Pickford gave up acting in 1933 to pursue her writing career. In 1934 she penned the tract, Why Not Try God?, followed in 1935 by another spiritual bestseller, My Rendezvous with Life. That same year she also published a novel, The Demi-Widow. From left, cover of Liberty magazine with her essay, “Why Die?,” Aug. 18, 1935; Pickford posing with copies of The Demi-Widow, ca. 1935. Kirkus Reviews (Aug. 1, 1935) dubbed The Demi-Widow “Good hammock reading for hot days — light and not too dreadful froth…” (picclick.com.au/digitalcollections.oscars.org/Goodreads)
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Rumble Humbled
In his “Notes and Comment” E.B. White observed the absurdity of a grown man riding alone in a rumble seat. These seats were phased out by 1939 in American autos (the British, who called them “dickies,” abandoned them a decade later). Rumble seats were unsafe, to be sure, but it was also unpleasant to sit near the exhaust pipe and collect the dust, grit and bugs that would merrily dance around one’s eyes, nose and mouth.
BONE RATTLER…Detail from a photo of man riding in a rumble seat, 1935. (General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A Red By Any Other Name
White also considered the intentions behind a new book by Robert Forsythe, Redder Than a Rose. Kyle Crichton (1896-1960) used the Forsythe nom de plume whenever he wrote for communist publications such as the Daily Worker. A former coal miner and steel worker, Crichton was also a writer and editor for Collier’s magazine.
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Fight Night
In anticipation of the boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Baer, The New Yorker featured a Peggy Bacon portrait of Louis at the bottom of its events section, which also contained a listing under “Sports” of the upcoming fight at Yankee Stadium. The caption below the Louis portrait was a quote attributed to Bacon: An out-size in juveniles, simple, unruffled, a shade sullen, practically expressionless, hoarding his energies with the inarticulate dignity and pride of some monster vegetable.–P.B.
a better view of Peggy Bacon’s portrait of Joe Louis…
(Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery)
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At the Movies
Well, the fun couldn’t last forever, as critic John Mosher discovered with the latest batch of films to roll out of Tinseltown. Here he tried to make sense of The Big Broadcast of 1936, and gave a closing nod to Dorothy Parker.
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT…Theatre card promoting the appearances of Gracie Allen and George Burns in The Big Broadcast of 1936. These films were essentially long promo pieces for Paramount’s stable of stars. (IMDB)
Mosher also took in The Goose and the Gander, featuring Kay Francis, one of Warner Brothers’ biggest stars and one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors. Known for her roles as a long-suffering heroine and her lavish wardrobes, Mosher found Francis ill-suited to a comedic role.
NEEDED A BIT MORE GOOSE…Kay Francis and George Brent in The Goose and the Gander. (IMDB)
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From Our Advertisers
The 1920s and 30s saw a proliferation of all sorts of electric gadgets, one of them being the toaster, here serving as a centerpiece for a cocktail party…
…before 1935 beer cans were not feasible because they couldn’t withstand the internal pressure of a carbonated liquid…it was the American Can Company (not Continental) that solved the problem by developing an internally-lined can that could contain the pressure…the lining also prevented the beer from tasting metallic…
…R.J. Reynolds continued to build its tobacco empire by lining up scads of famous athletes to endorse the health benefits of their Camel cigarettes…
… Liggett & Myers, who in 1926 launched their “Blow some my way” advertising campaign to target women smokers, continued to employ images of young lovers in romantic settings to push their Chesterfields…
…for reference, a Chesterfield ad from 1931…
…on to our cartoons, we start with this spot from Perry Barlow…
…Alain looked in on a tender moment between father and son…
…Charles Addams found a glitch on the assembly line…
…Peter Arno drew up two old toffs looking for some adventure…
…Robert Day offered up the latest twist in the culinary arts…
…and we close with Helen Hokinson, who was just passing the time…
A New Yorker State of Mind 