St. Clair McKelway – A New Yorker State of Mind

It Can’t Happen Here

Above: Cover of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a fascist takeover of America, It Can't Happen Here. At right, 22,000 people attended a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. (Wikipedia/Reddit)

Ninety years ago Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here, a dystopian novel that responded to the rise of fascism in Europe as well as to American demagogues like Louisiana Senator Huey Long.

October 26, 1935 cover by Roger Duvoisin. Duvoisin (1900–1980) was a Swiss-born American writer and illustrator best known for children’s picture books. He illustrated 32 covers for *The New Yorker,* along with five cartoons. Duvoisin won the Caldecott Medal in 1948 (along with author **Alvin Tresselt**) for *White Snow, Bright Snow.*

In his 2016 New Yorker article, “Getting Close to Fascism with Sinclair Lewis’s ‘It Can’t Happen Here,'” journalist Alexander Nazaryan notes how Lewis was arguing for journalism and civic education as essential pillars of democracy. The title of Lewis’s book, Nazaryan observes, suggests that ‘It’ was something more subtle: “a collective apathy, born of ignorance, and a populace that can no longer make the kind of judgments that participatory democracy requires.”

Lewis’s novel also made book critic Clifton Fadiman sit up and take notice. Here are excerpts from the first part of his review:

HOME-GROWN…American fascism was represented by organizations such as the German American Bund, the Silver Legion of America, and radio host Charles Coughlin, who opposed the New Deal and promoted conspiracy theories and antisemitic views. Clockwise, from top left: Nearly a thousand uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands and carrying Nazi banners parade past a reviewing stand in New Jersey on July 18, 1937. The New Jersey division of the German-American Bund had opened the 100-acre Camp Nordland at Sussex Hills; **Huey Long** in 1935, the same year he was assassinated; Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. (AP/Wikipedia)

If you zoom in on the photo at bottom right, you can’t help but notice the woman in the black hat, who seems a little unsure about what she is doing, especially in front of a camera…the woman to her right appears to be hiding her face.

Here is more of Fadiman’s review (click to enlarge). It’s worth a read.

WE’VE BEEN WARNED…Published nearly seventy years apart, **Sinclair Lewis’s** *It Can’t Happen Here* (1935) and **Philip Roth’s** *The Plot Against America* (2004) both explored the dangers of fascism in the United States. (pulitzer.org/Wikipedia/Nancy Crampton via stanford.edu)

* * *

It Was Happening There

In her “Letter from Paris,” Janet Flanner was noting “increasing Fascist sentiment and sympathy” in her adopted city:

OVER THERE…The French Popular Party (*Parti populaire français,* PPF) was a French fascist and anti-semitic political party led by **Jacques Doriot** before and during World War II. Formed in June 1936, with an estimated 120,000 members by 1937, it is generally regarded as the most collaborationist party of France. (thefrenchhistorypodcast.com)

* * *

All Talk

Marion Sayle Taylor (1889–1942) was the popular host of a radio advice show, The Voice of Experience. Margaret Case Harriman (1901–1966) penned a two-part profile of Taylor titled “The Voice.” I’ve included the opening lines to Part One here:

IF ONLY SHE KNEW…**Margaret Case Harriman,** left, circa 1936, profiled **Marion Sayle Taylor** before his misdeeds were revealed. (Vogue Archive/eleanorbritton.blogspot.com/Oregon Encyclopedia)

After reading both parts of Harriman’s profile piece, it appears she wasn’t yet aware that Taylor was more than a radio personality; he was also dishonest, manipulative, and opportunistic, according to a biography by Dick and Judy Wagner featured in the Oregon Encyclopedia. For example, Harriman reported (likely from Taylor’s official bio) that Taylor’s first wife, Pauline, had died in childbirth, when in fact she was quite alive and suing him for divorce that same year. Taylor also divorced his second wife, Jessie, who sued him in 1936 after he deceived her about another woman. Not surprisingly, his radio image as a reliable marriage counselor was damaged irretrievably.

FALSE ADVERTISING…A streetcar, possibly in Newark, N.J., advertising a lecture by Taylor, circa 1931. In addition to hiding a previous prison record, Taylor also falsely reported that he had studied at several universities (he did not earn a Ph.D, as the redundant title claims in the above photo). It appears Taylor also kept much of the money he solicited for charitable causes. (Oregon Encyclopedia)

* * *

Selling Pooh

Commercial cross-marketing of children’s books with toys and other products had its origins in the late nineteenth century with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and in the first years of the 20th century Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series inspired everything from dishes and wallpaper to board games and dolls—in 1903 Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy.

Then came another character from British children’s literature, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. In January 1930, Stephen Slesinger (1901–1953) purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording, and other trade rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works from Milne (for $1,000, plus royalties), marketing a wide range of products. For the column “Onward & Upward With the Arts,” St. Clair McKelway paid a visit to Slesinger at the Park Avenue offices of Winnie-the-Pooh Association, Inc. Excerpts:

KEEP YER SHIRT ON…The Parker Brothers were the first to feature Winnie-the-Pooh in color for a 1932 board game. Stephan Slesinger added the iconic red t-shirt to Pooh for the game and a children’s record, a look that was later adopted by the Disney Corporation when it acquired the rights from Slesinger’s widow and daughter in 1961. (thedisneyclassics.com)

FUNNIES MAN…At left, **Stephan Slesinger** in an undated photo. Slesinger was a radio, television and film producer, and a curator of comic strip characters including *Alley Cop, Captain Easy, Buck Rogers* and Blondie, among others; at center, a record of “Winnie-the-Pooh Songs,” 1932; an ad for the *Red Ryder* BB gun—in 1938 Slesinger created the comic strip *Red Ryder along* with artist **Fred Harmon**. (alchetron/yesterdaysgallery.com/Port Isabel Press)

In another excerpt, McKelway gave us an idea of the scope of Slesinger’s Pooh empire:

* * *

At the Movies

Critic John Mosher found few thrills in the latest fare from Hollywood, offering his views of Admiral Richard Byrd’s Into Little America and the musical Metropolitan, featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett.

FOR THE BYRDS…At left, lobby card for *Into Little America;* at right, **Alice Brad**y and Lawrence Tibbett in Metropolitan. (eBay.uk/rottentomatoes.com)

With a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and direction by Howard Hawks, one would hope for some rough and tumble in a film about Gold Rush San Francisco. Instead, Mosher found the trappings of Barbary Coast rather mild. This was doubtless due in part to the Hays Code that curtailed the sex and violence portrayed in films of the 1920s and early 1930s.

TAKING A SPIN…**Miriam Hopkins** runs the roulette wheel as **Edward G. Robinson** looks on in *Barbary Coast.* A brief 2019 review in the *Harvard Film Archive* praised the film’s Gothic feel created by the “evocative portrayal of early San Francisco as a foggy labyrinth of rickety boardwalks and ominous, sky-high ship masts…” (harvardfimarchive.org)

One might think that a film featuring the destruction of Pompeii would have some thrills, however RKO’s The Last Days of Pompeii proved to be a “temperate affair” in Mosher’s eyes, “one of the great bores of the moment.” The Dick Powell/U.S. Navy vehicle Shipmates Forever didn’t prove to be any better.

HOT TIMES IN POMPEII?…**John Mosher** called *The Last Days of Pompeii* “one of the great bores of the moment,” including the “drearily enacted” eruption of Vesuvius in which “Paper temples fall and there is a bit of bustle, and that is all there is to that.” Mosher did single out **Basil Rathbone’s** performance as an urbane Pontius Pilate, “a Pontius Pilate with a Long Island manner.” (tcm.com)

GO GET ‘EM DICK…The U.S. Naval Academy provided the setting for the musical *Shipmates Forever,* featuring Dick Powell as a crooner who ultimately chooses the Navy over a singing career. (tcm.com)

* * *

From Our Advertisers

We begin with the inside front cover, where the folks at Fisher touted their innovative “Turret Top” design…Body by Fisher began as a separate company in 1908, specializing as an automobile coach builder…although acquired by General Motors in 1926, the Fisher brand was promoted until the 1980s…

…there were many fall and winter fashion ads in this issue, including this continuing series by Russeks promoting Rayon fabrics…and women smoking, no doubt considered a sign of sophistication…

…Guerlain perfume ads featured the unmistakable style of illustrator Lyse Darcy…

…the Heyward/Gershwin production of Porgy and Bess made a splash in this ad for Stage magazine…

…World Peaceways often used terrifying imagery to promote their anti-war messages…this ad was on the inside back cover…

…and as you closed the magazine, the back cover greeted you with this stylish appeal to smoke Luckies…

…on to our cartoonists, starting with Al Frueh in the Theatre section…

…and Frueh again, in this interesting arrangement…

…George Price was featured twice…

…with scenes of domestic life as only Price could render…

…and speaking of distinctive, no one did it quite like the great James Thurber…

…Robert Day gave us two Republicans looking in on the progress of the New Deal…

…Carl Rose bid farewell to a writer sick of his peace and quiet…

…Whitney Darrow Jr illustrated a literary exchange on a park bench…

…and I close with today’s New Yorker cover artist, Roger Duvoisin—here is his cover for White Snow, Bright Snow, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1948.

Next Time: Planes, Trains and Automobiles…

School Days

Above: First-grade pupils at the blackboard, circa 1943. (The New York Times)

Peering into the life of a Manhattan elementary school—as it was ninety years ago—offers a glimpse into the social mores of the 1930s.

October 5, 1935 cover by **Constantin Alajalov.**

Taking us back to those days was St. Clair McKelway (1905-1980), who beginning in 1933 served as a writer and editor for The New Yorker. Although not well-known today, McKelway was credited by William Shawn as one of a handful of people who “set the magazine on its course.”

For the “A Reporter at Large” column, McKelway toured PS 165 on the Upper West Side. In this first excerpt, McKelway sits in on a geography lesson:

AROUND THE WORLD IN TWENTY VOLUMES…The Grolier Society’s *The Book of Knowledge* was a well-known resource to students and teachers alike in the 1930s. Originally largely a reprint of the British *Children’s Encyclopædia* with U.S. revisions, it evolved over time into an entirely new entity. This particular volume is from 1919, part of a twenty-volume set. *(Randal Oulton via Wikipedia)*

In this next excerpt, a teacher and principal speak of the schoolchildren dispassionately, casually referring to one pupil’s IQ as “almost down to mental defective.”

PS PUPILS…Students participate in Elizabeth Irwin’s “Little Red Schoolhouse“ program at PS 61 in 1928; at right, a kindergarten painter at PS 23 in 1935. (NYC Municipal Archives/Fordham U)

In this final excerpt, McKelway looked in on the school’s “ungraded class” of sixteen boys, most from families who were “on relief.” Beginning in the third paragraph, note how the teacher speculates on the future of one of the students.

STILL STANDING, STILL SERVING…PS 165 Robert E. Simon school today. *(insideschools.org/Anna Duncan/Friends of PS 165)*

A final note: It is interesting to compare McKelway’s article with one written almost thirty years later by Richard Schickel for Commentary magazine (January 1964). Schickel also visited PS 165, his observations of the “special service” school sometimes echoing McKelway’s. Today PS 165 receives high marks from teachers and parents. Located a few blocks from Columbia University, the school teaches children of graduate students and professors as well as long-time neighborhood residents and newcomers.

* * *

Moving Days

In the fall of 1935 E.B. and Katharine White and their four-year-old son Joel moved from their Greenwich Village apartment on East 8th Street (reluctantly for E.B.) to Turtle Bay Gardens in the East 40s. At about the same time The New Yorker moved from its original headquarters on West 45th Street to its new digs at 25 West 43rd Street, where the magazine would settle in for more than fifty years.

HOME SWEET HOME…This New York townhouse (left) was the new home of **E.B. and Katharine White** in the fall of 1935 (their neighbor was **Katharine Hepburn**). At right, *The New Yorker* also moved to a new home at 25 West 43rd Street. The magazine would occupy several floors of the building for 56 years. (homes.com/Ink Spill)

* * *

A Good Bad Girl

Journalist Meyer Berger (1898-1959) was known for digging deep into his subjects, including a two-part New Yorker profile of Anna Lonergan, “Queen of the Irishtown Docks.” Her two husbands and a brother—notorious killers themselves—were murdered in gang wars along with dozens of others who were Lonergan’s friends and neighbors. She was often called to the morgue to identify murder victims, thus the “Profile” title “Lady in Crepe”—one who is in a constant state of mourning. Here are the opening paragraphs:

SHE WANTED TO BE A NUN…**Anna Lonergan**, as rendered by Reginald Marsh for the Profile.

KILL OR BE KILLED…Members of the Irish “White Hand Gang” battled their Italian rivals (the Black Hand Gang) on the Brooklyn waterfront from the early 1900s to 1930. **Anna Lonergan’s** first husband William “Wild Bill” Lovett (top) was murdered in 1923; her brother Richard “Pegleg” Lonergan was gunned down in 1925. *(artofneed.com)*

* * *

At the Movies

Film critic John Mosher took on a couple of very different films—the lively Claudette Colbert comedy She Married Her Boss, and the “mournful, graceful” Iceland Fisherman featuring the 1890s French cabaret star Yvette Guilbert.

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE…**Melvyn Douglas** and Claudette Colbert in *She Married Her Boss.* (IMDB)

GRAND GRANDMOTHER...John Mosher found French actress and cabaret singer Yvette Guilbert (1865–1944) to be the main attraction as a Breton grandmother in 1934’s *Pêcheur d’Islande* (Iceland Fishermen). Guilbert was a favorite subject of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who made many portraits and caricatures of Guilbert, including the one at right from 1894. (musee-breton.finistere/National Portrait Gallery, London/Wikipedia)

Mosher also screened Soviet Russia through the Eyes of an American, which documented American engineer Charles Stuart’s travels through the Soviet Union. You can watch the entire film here.

NO FAMINE HERE…Children playing games were featured in *Soviet Russia through the Eyes of an American*, a travelogue that skipped all the bad parts of Stalinist Russia. (YouTube/Hoover Institution)

* * *

Some Housekeeping

Before we jump into the advertisements, I would feel remiss not to mention other writers in the issue, including poet Ogden Nash (“How Now, Sirrah, Oh, Anyhow”), James Thurber (“Smashup,” featuring henpecked husband Tommy Trinway); Frances Warfield (“Practical Nurse”); Theodore Pratt (“I Jes’ Goin'”); James Reid Parker (“The First Day”); Andree L. Eilert (“Words Across the Sea”) W.E. Farbstein (“Copycat”); and P. S. Le Poer Trench (“Parsons is Prepared”). Some of these contributors are long forgotten—Warfield often wrote about her deafness, but little to nothing can be found out about Eilert or Trench without considerable effort (Trench published twice in the New Yorker in 1935).

AMONG THE KNOWN…At left, **Ogden Nash** (1902-1971) is the most famous of this trio that includes **Theodore Pratt** (1901-1969), center, known as the “Literary Laureate of Florida”; and at right, **James Reid Parker** (1909-1984), who sidelined as a writer of captions for **Helen Hokinson.** Read more about Parker’s contributions to *The New Yorker* at **Michael Maslin’s** *New Yorker* treasure trove **Ink Spill.**

* * *

From Our Advertisers

Apparently business was booming at Forstmann Woolens, who continued to post these stylish ads in the opening pages of The New Yorker—note Midtown’s 1927-29 New York Central Building (now Helmsley Building) that served as a gateway to Grand Central…

…who knew that one could be so stylish while drinking a glass of tomato juice?…

…the Capehart Automatic Phonograph Company produced a radio-phonograph that could automatically flip records to play both sides—this particular model could play up to twenty records in succession…

QUITE THE GIZMO…Restoration of a Capehart 405E. These units were not cheap, selling for the equivalent of $30k or more today. (forum.antiquephono.org)

…Warner Brothers took out a full-page ad to announce the world premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream…the lavish, star-studded production featured, among others, James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, Dick Powell, Anita Louise and Mickey Rooney…

AN ACQUIRED TASTE...Anita Louise as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and **James Cagney** as Bottom, the Weaver, in the 1935 film production of Shakespeare’s *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*. The film failed at the box office with mixed reviews, however it won two Academy Awards—Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, and it was nominated for Best Picture. Today the film gets mostly good reviews. (www.academymuseum.org)

…Stage magazine also took out a full-page ad to trumpet its own star-studded lineup, including contributions by James Thurber, Peggy Bacon and Abe Birnbaum…

…Mrs. Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, nee Caryetta Davis Saunders (1899-1971), was the latest society maven to encourage women smokers to enjoy the unfiltered pleasures of Camel cigarettes…