Tag: Will Rogers

Two Nights At The Opera

Above: Left image, coloratura soprano Lily Pons with Henry Fonda in I Dream Too Much;at right, Kitty Carlisle and Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera. (rottentomatoes.com/IMDB)

The title of this post refers to two items below, which you’ll discover as we make our way through the December 7, 1935 issue of The New Yorker.

December 7, 1935 cover by Robert Day. A longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Day (1900-1985) contributed hundreds of cartoons as well as eight covers from 1931 to 1976.
Robert Day (photo from This Week anthology via Ink Spill.)

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Our first night at the opera comes courtesy of RKO Pictures, which presented French-American coloratura soprano Lily Pons as the star of the musical rom-com I Dream Too Much. Critic John Mosher found the film enjoyable, singling out Pons for praise while chastising the screenwriters for interrupting the lively farce with some “social research.”

DREAM DATE…Clockwise, from top left: Henry Fonda in his third screen appearance as Lily Pons’ love interest in RKO’s I Dream Too Much; movie poster and publicity photo of Pons from the film; Lucille Ball (seen here with actress Esther Dale), appeared in a bit part as a gawky American teenage tourist in Paris (which was actually an RKO studio lot)…little did Ball know that one day she would own that RKO studio lot with husband Desi Arnaz as home to their Desilu Productions facility. (IMDB/Wikipedia/TCM)

Mosher also said farewell to Will Rogers in his final film, In Old Kentucky, which he found to be a “minor affair.” He also reviewed The Land of Promise, a film about Palestine that indicated to Mosher that “life there is highly successful for all present.”

THIS IS GOODBYE…Will Rogers in a scene with Dorothy Wilson in Rogers’ final film appearance, In Old Kentucky. (rotten tomatoes.com)
ORIGIN STORY…According to the Israel Film Archive, Judah Leman’s The Land of Promise “laid the cinematic groundwork for all subsequent Zionist propaganda films that would follow.” (IMDB)

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E.B. White keeps us on the cinema trail with some thoughts on the film, Mutiny on the Bounty, namely a certain historical inaccuracy:

AHEAD OF HIS TIME…E.B. White noted that Roger Byam (Franchot Tone) would have to wait seventy years to learn about germ theory. In addition, the trailer for Mutiny on the Bounty (above) incorrectly referred to Tone’s character as an ensign, when in fact Tone’s role was as a midshipman. (Wikipedia)

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They Had It First

The swastika was among the more popular designs incorporated into southwestern tribal art during the American tourist era (roughly 1890 to the 1930s). For the Navajo, the symbol represented humanity and life, and was used in healing rituals (it was also widely used by tribal peoples across Europe and Asia). Tourism promoters (called “hotel men” here) encouraged the symbol’s use until the 1930s, when it was increasingly associated with Germany’s Nazi Party. E.B. White explained:


TOURIST FAVORITE…Navajo blankets such as this example, made from 1864 to 1910, were popular with tourists. (Wichita State University)

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Lois Long’s fashion column continued to be dominated by exhaustive Christmas shopping lists, in this issue stretching from pages 58 to 97…here are the first and last paragraphs of the column…

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A Woolly Read

Perhaps your special someone was hoping for a thousand-page book under the tree; then look no further than The Woollcott Reader, a collection of stories, essays and other literary gems by New Yorker personality and former “Shouts and Murmurs” columnist Alexander Woollcott. In this excerpt, book critic Clifton Fadiman noted that a signed copy could be had for $7.50.

MY GIFT TO THE WORLD…Alexander Woollcott in 1939, as photographed by Carl Van Vechten, and the $3 brown cloth edition. (Wikipedia/Abebooks.com)

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From Our Advertisers

Colorful advertisements brightened the 149 pages of the Dec. 7 issue…we begin with this colorful array from Martex…

…the women’s specialty shop Jane Engel commissioned one of the best-known commercial photographers of the day, Ruzzie Green, to capture this glamorous image…

…Caron Paris offered up this cheerful bouquet…

…the makers of White Rock were enjoying the fruits of post-Prohibition days…

…the publishers of Stage magazine highlighted Beatrice Lillie’s Broadway revue, At Home Abroad…

…the Capitol Theatre took out this full-page advertisement to tout the opening of the latest Marx Brothers film…

…here is a close-up of the ad’s “testimonials”…

…and what awaited audiences…

(Wikipedia/thedissolve.com)

…the Lord & Thomas advertising firm imitated the New Yorker style in this full-page promotion…

…now who wouldn’t want a Philco “Radiobar” for the holidays?…

…found this one on 1stdibs.com…pretty cool…

…or you could get a little something for every one of your smoking friends (likely everyone)…

…and you could keep those holiday memories alive with a swell Kodak movie camera…

…Schrafft’s must have been something like an upscale Cracker Barrel…

…house ads from The New Yorker included this Otto Soglow-illustrated full pager…

…the magazine also touted books and poems by its contributors…

…and the Seventh New Yorker Album…

…more James Thurber here in this spot drawing for the “Books” section…

…and in this cartoon filled with holiday hijinks…

…Ilonka Karasz gave us a hockey goalie to open the calendar listings…

…George Price drew up this Depression-themed drawing at the bottom of the “Goings On” section…

…a great spot drawing by Aaron Sopher (1905–1972), who is perhaps best known for his depictions of everyday life in Baltimore…it was oddly placed amidst the “Christmas Gifts” section…

…according to Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill, Sopher contributed just two cartoons to the magazine, in the issues of June 15, 1929, and December 6, 1930 (pictured below)… 

…back to the Dec. 7 issue, and at the Velodrome with Robert Day…

…who also visited an ill-suited Santa…

…Helen Hokinson pondered gift ideas…

…Carl Rose illustrated an unspeakable act at a progressive school…

…Mary Petty gave us a straightforward diagnosis…

…Alain asked us to ponder the fate of one man…

…Whitney Darrow Jr eavesdropped on some child philosophy…

…and we close with Peter Arno, and a groom’s surprise at the altar…

Next Time: Marxist Mayhem…

Notes and Comment

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’s Seven 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…

Next Time: School Days…

Down to Earth

Above: Will Rogers (with hat) visits with pilot Wiley Post near Fairbanks, Alaska, hours before their fatal crash on August 15, 1935. (okhistory.org)

It would be a challenge to find a place for a multi-talented, mega-star like Will Rogers in today’s over-saturated and segmented media landscape—he was a trick roper, vaudevillian, social commentator, comedian, journalist, author, and radio and film celebrity. His early fame on the vaudeville circuit, including the Ziegfeld Follies, would spark a film career in 1918 (he would appear in 71 films), and a 1922 town hall speech would lead to a nationally syndicated newspaper column. When radio became a nationwide phenomenon his voice could heard coast-to-coast. He was seemingly everywhere.

August 31, 1935 cover by Harry Brown. Brown illustrated eighteen covers for The New Yorker.

Rogers (1879-1935) was also a big promoter of aviation, and he gave his audiences many entertaining accounts of his world travels. In the summer of 1935 he announced plans to join famed aviator Wiley Post (1898-1935) on a flight to Alaska and beyond. It appeared to be routine, making the trip’s tragic ending all the more poignant.

Although E.B. White often seemed stuck in the past—he preferred Model Ts and rattily omnibuses to more more modern conveyances—he was a flying enthusiast, never missing a chance to hop aboard an airplane and marvel at the scene far below. However, when tragedy struck, White would become circumspect. When Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne’s Fokker Trimotor crashed into a Kansas wheatfield, White expressed doubts about air safety and pondered “safer” alternatives such as autogiros (a kind of early helicopter that wasn’t so safe or practical). Such doubts returned in his “Notes and Comment” for August 31, 1935:

The fated aircraft, a Lockheed Orion, was heavily modified by Post into a floatplane; one wing was even salvaged from a wrecked Explorer (an older Lockheed model). The pontoon floats he attached were also designed for a larger aircraft, which made the nose-heavy Orion even more unwieldy.

BUILT FOR SPEED…A Lockheed Model 9 Orion parked at Boeing Field, Seattle, in May 1935. With 200-mph speed, the single-engine passenger aircraft (5 to 6 passengers) was faster than any American military aircraft of the time. It was Lockheed’s last aircraft to use wood construction in the frame, which was lightweight but not designed for longevity on major airlines. (James Borden Photography Collection)
TIGHT QUARTERS….Interior view of a Lockheed Orion 9. No doubt much of the passenger space was loaded with gear for the trip to Alaska. (James Borden Photography Collection)

When Post and Rogers arrived in Juneau, local bush pilots doubtfully regarded the Orion and asked Rogers about the flight plan. “Wiley and I are like a couple of country boys in an old Ford—don’t know where we’re going and don’t care,” he said. They were actually headed to Point Barrow, and from there planned to hop over to Siberia.

After stopping in Fairbanks they set off for Point Barrow in bad weather. Lost in the murk, they landed short of their destination in the shallow waters of Walakpa Lagoon, fifteen or so miles southwest of Point Barrow. Post and Rogers then took off—despite warnings from locals about the conditions. But the weather wasn’t the worst problem: Post had a bad habit of taking to the air in an abrupt, steep climb, which likely caused the engine to stall. Powerless, the ungainly aircraft plunged into the lagoon and landed on its top. Post and Rogers were killed instantly.

JUST A COUPLE OF COUNTRY BOYS…Top photo, Will Rogers on the wing of the Lockheed floatplane belonging to famed aviation pioneer Wiley Post, hours before their fatal crash on August 15, 1935. Below photo, inverted wreckage of the float plane in Walakpa Lagoon.  (Wikipedia/vintageaviationnews.com)

Rather than eulogize the fallen Rogers, “The Talk of Town” offered up an anecdote about his rise as a newspaper columnist, which was sparked by a backhanded endorsement speech:

A HUMAN FACE…Top left, Will Rogers backstage with the 1924 Ziegfeld Follies cast. At right, Rogers made his film debut in the now lost silent film Laughing Bill Hyde (1918) with co-star Anna Lehr. The magazine ad at right quoted producer Rex Beach, who called Rogers “the most human player who ever faced a camera.” (Will Rogers Memorial Museum/Wikipedia/IMDB)
FINAL CURTAIN…Top photo, Will Rogers with co-star Anne Shirley in Steamboat Round the Bend. Rogers wrapped filming just before heading to Alaska. The film was released posthumously on September 6,1935. Bottom image is a detail from a full-page ad in the October 1935 issue of Picture Play Magazine. Oddly, the ad makes no mention of Rogers’ death, proclaiming that “Will blazes a new path in his screen career as he scores his greatest triumph!”  (theretrorocket.blogspot.com/IMDB)

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Putting it Mildly

In “Onward & Upward With the Arts,” H.L. Mencken continued to explore the quirks of American language, this time looking at the pervasive (and evasive) use of euphemisms by “professional uplifters.” Excerpts:

INTELLIGENCE TEST was suggested by “professional uplifters” as a polite replacement for giving someone “The Third Degree.” Image is from the 1941 noir thriller I Wake Up Screaming, starring Victor Mature, pictured here getting his “intelligence test.” (cinematography.com)

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At the Movies

We join film critic John Mosher to take a look at the latest epic from Cecil B. DeMille, The Crusades, which to Mosher’s disappointment was a rather mild epic, with little to astonish. However, our critic did find something to admire in a more recent historical drama, Diamond Jim.

ANTISEPTIC EPIC?…Clockwise, from top left, movie poster for The Crusades offered up an image one typically does not associate with religious warfare, but you had to bring ’em in somehow; Henry Wilcoxon and Ian Keith in a scene from the film; co-stars Loretta Young as Berengaria of Navarre and Wilcoxon as Richard the Lionheart; the film also featured Joseph Schildkraut as Conrad of Montferrat and Katherine DeMille as Princess Alice of France (bottom left). A talented actress, Katherine reportedly landed the role as a Christmas gift from her adoptive father, Cecil B. DeMille. (cecilbdemille.com)
HEY BIG SPENDER…At right, Edward Arnold in the title role (here with Eric Blore) in Diamond Jim. At left, Cesar Romero moves in on Diamond Jim’s love interest, portrayed by Jean Arthur. (Rotten Tomatoes/IMDB)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with this advertisement from Lord & Taylor, featuring the latest fall fashions for young women heading to college…notable here is the inclusion of Mickey Mouse in the illustration…the animated rodent was in vogue as much the latest fashions…


…John Hanrahan, whose advertising savvy helped guide The New Yorker through its lean early years, was publisher of the richly designed Stage magazine, promoted here on the inside front cover…

…soft drink giant Coca-Cola recalled its soda fountain origins in this ad that promoted its 6.5-ounce bottled product…

…on the inside back cover Goodyear continued its series of perilous ads illustrating the dangers of tire blowouts (but not the obvious hazard of children riding untethered in a rumble seat, where they doubtless inhaled all manner of noxious fumes)…

…the majority of back covers in 1935 featured tobacco companies…here we learn that Lucky Strikes were more than cigarette; they were your “best friend”…

…on to our cartoonists, we start with this “Profile” illustration by William Steig…the profile was a two-parter featuring a clever summons server…

…Adolph Dehn adorned the “Goings On” section with this illustration…

…unsigned, but I’m pretty sure this is H.O. Hofman…

…here we get a lift from Robert Day…

…Al Frueh conjured up a nightmare of leaping sheep…

…Helen Hokinson gave us some famous footwear…

…Hokinson again, with Romulus and Remus providing a convenient metaphor…

…Kemp Starrett was bogged down in the rules of a game…

…George Price discovered a budding talent…

…Richard Decker took to the back roads…(reminds me of a scene from The Long, Long Trailer with Lucy and Desi)…

…James Thurber raised a glass to a dry do-gooder…

…Alan Dunn brought an unexpected windfall to Westchester…

…and to close we Dunn again, and a bit of flattery…

Next Time: A Summer Night…

The Cowboy Philosopher

William Penn Adair Rogers, aka Will Rogers (1879–1935), was a man of many talents. Today he is mostly referred to as a humorist, but he was also an actor, a social and political commentator, a trick roper and a vaudeville performer. To Americans he was a national icon.

April 13, 1935 cover by Barney Tobey.

Rogers was also internationally famous, having traveled around the world three times and appearing in 71 films (50 of those silent). He also wrote more than 4,000 newspaper columns—nationally syndicated by The New York Times—that reached 40 million readers, and there were also magazine articles, radio broadcasts and personal appearances. He seemed to be everywhere.

ROPING THEM IN…In 1902, Will Rogers joined Texas Jack’s Wild West Show & Circus in South Africa as the “Cherokee Kid”—he was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory that is now part of Oklahoma. By 1910, he had created a sensational vaudeville act by mixing trick roping with witty monologues. Clockwise, from top left, Rogers in a publicity photo from 1916, the year he joined the Ziegfeld Follies; on stage with the Follies in 1924; poster from his circus days; backstage with the 1924 Follies cast. (National Portrait Gallery)
MULTIMEDIA MULTI-TALENT…Left, Rogers catches a few moments to write one of his 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns; from 1929 to 1935 he used the exciting new medium of radio to broadcast his newspaper pieces. His weekly Sunday evening show, The Gulf Headliners, sponsored by Gulf Oil, ranked among the top radio programs in the country. (National Portrait Gallery)

When John Mosher reviewed Rogers’ latest film, Life Begins At Forty, he found it to be one of Rogers’ best. It would also prove to be one of his last. On August 15, 1935, a small airplane carrying Rogers and aviator Wiley Post would crash on takeoff near Point Barrow, Alaska, claiming the lives of both men. Rogers would appear in three more films in 1935, the last two posthumously.

THAT’S LIFE…Will Rogers with Richard Cromwell and Rochelle Hudson in Life Begins at 40. Rogers’ film took its title from a 1932 self-help book by Walter B. Pitkin. Pitkin maintained that keeping a positive attitude toward life could give a person many fulfilling years after age 40. By the time of his death in 1935, the 55-year-old Rogers was Hollywood’s highest paid actor. (Wikipedia/IMDB)

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Not Toying Around

“The Talk of the Town” looked in on the serious business of toymakers, with 1935 being the year of streamlined tricycles, Buck Rogers disintegrator pistols, and, of course, Shirley Temple dolls.

RIVALED ONLY BY MICKEY MOUSE, Shirley Temple was the most popular celebrity to endorse merchandise for children and adults, including the “one and only” Shirley Temple Doll (left, ad from 1935); the Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol (top) was produced in 1935 by Daisy, and was available in both copper and nickel finishes–it was also offered as a premium from Cream of Wheat cereal; at bottom, the American National Streamline Velocipede Tricycle (1935), just one example of the hundreds of products receiving the streamlining treatment in the 1930s. (flickr/airandspace.si.edu/onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk)

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Literary Spirits

E.B. White welcomed the return of literary tea party, which thanks to the repeal of the 18th Amendment had been re-dubbed the “literary cocktail party.” He shared his thoughts in “Notes and Comment”…

AMUSING MUSES…Actress, writer and socialite Peggy Hopkins Joyce hosted literary “teas” in the 1920s, while former Cosmopolitan editor Ray Long inspired a book on adventures in the South Seas shortly before his death; from left, Joyce in 1923; photogravure of Long, 1925. (Wikipedia/photogravure.com)

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Proto Feminist

Emily Hahn was one of the more lively figures in The New Yorker’s stable of journalists and writers, leading an adventurous life that included a hike across Central Africa in the 1930s and getting into all kinds of trouble during the Japanese invasion of China. According to Roger Angell, Hahn was, “in truth, something rare: a woman deeply, almost domestically, at home in the world. Driven by curiosity and energy, she went there and did that, and then wrote about it without fuss.” It is no surprise that Hahn’s latest novel, Affair, didn’t shy away from topics like abortion. According to reviewer Clifton Fadiman, the novel’s “anonymous grayness” exposed the banality of love in the twentieth century.

If Hollywood is looking for a new biopic, Hahn would make a fascinating subject (Kristen Stewart would be perfect for the part). According to IMDB, there is an “Untitled Emily ‘Mickey’ Hahn Project”—a TV series—that has been in development since 2022, but so far nothing has come of it.

DOWN ON LOVE?…Emily Hahn’s 1935 novel Affair exposed the banality of love in the twentieth century. (abebooks.com/susanbkason.com)

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From Our Advertisers

We begin with this advertisement from Goodyear, featuring what appears to be a father teaching his daughter how to drive, or in this case, fly, just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…

…and we stay airborne with the makers of the streamlined Nash, who claimed their automobile had “flying power”…

…and we return to earth with Cadillac’s budget model, the LaSalle, which featured “flashing performance”…

…by contrast, Pierce Arrow took a minimalist approach, gimmicks and splashy colors being reserved for the lower orders…

…one of the world’s most iconic ocean liners took to the sea with much fanfare in 1935. The SS Normandie was the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; it remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built…

…if you happened to smoke Webster cigars, it could have been a sign that you were favored by the heavens…

…the “20-year rule” in fashion suggests that trends have a tendency to re-emerge every two decades, and that seems to be the case here…

…this next ad tells us everything we need to know about the Stetson wearer: he is a wealthy country gentleman who values tradition but who is also a man of the future…from the 1920s to midcentury the autogyro was thought to be the answer to the long-dreamed of flying car…

…whoever coined the term “night cap” probably wasn’t thinking about cold cereal…

…although Harold Ross’s old high school friend, John Held Jr., contributed many woodcut-style cartoons and faux maps to The New Yorker from 1925 to 1932, Held was more famous for his shingle-bobbed flappers and their slick-haired boyfriends in puffy pants, a style more apparent in this ad for Peychaud’s Bitters (the original was a one-column ad, split here for clarity)…

…Held provides a segue to our illustrators and cartoonists, beginning with a sampling of spot art from the April 13 issue…

…James Thurber got things going on page 2…

…and also contributed this observation of the hypnotic arts…

…Otto Soglow did some careful surveying (this originally appeared across two pages)…

…Alain looked in on some Vatican gossip…

…Richard Decker pitched a Shirley Temple murder caper…

…Carl Rose gave us a sweet send-off…

…and we close out with a big bang, courtesy of Alan Dunn…

Next Time: Terse Verse…

 

 

Belle Geste

“Nobody said not to go” was a phrase often used by Emily “Mickey” Hahn when returning from one of her far-flung and often wild adventures.

Feb. 4, 1933 cover by Rea Irvin.

And nobody ever told Hahn (1905–1997) what she could write about, and so she wrote, with brio and authority, on a variety of subjects ranging from feminism, diamond mining, and animal behavior to Chinese history and cooking. The author of 54 books, Hahn also penned a number of biographies including those of Leonardo da Vinci, Chiang Kai-shek, and D. H. Lawrence among others. In the Feb. 4 issue Hahn wrote about spending the night at a New York flophouse, not out of necessity but rather to write about the experience. Excerpts:

NO RITZ, THIS…Entrance to a flophouse in the Bowery, photo by Walker Evans, 1934.

In the following two excerpts, Hahn described her sleepless night, and her exit from the flophouse the following morning…

More on Emily Hahn, who defied convention from the very start of her adult life: before graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1926 (the first woman to earn a degree in mining engineering there), she drove across the U.S. in a Model T, dressed a man. She wrote about her experiences in letters to her brother-in-law who, unbeknownst to Hahn, shared them with New Yorker editors. This would lead to a longtime relationship with the magazine, to which she would contribute nearly 200 articles (and one poem) between 1929 and 1996. She would also serve as China correspondent from 1935 to 1943.

In 1930 she traveled to the Belgian Congo, where she lived for two years with a pygmy tribe while working for the Red Cross; she later crossed Central Africa alone on foot. In his 2006 memoir, Let Me Finish, Roger Angell described Hahn as the magazine’s “Belle Geste,” a woman “deeply, almost domestically, at home in the world. Driven by curiosity and energy, she went there and did that, and then wrote about it without fuss.”

AT HOME IN THE WORLD…Clockwise, from top left, Emily “Mickey” Hahn poses with her pet gibbon, Mr. Mills, in Shanghai, circa 1935; undated photo with more of her furry friends; Hahn as a teenager, circa 1920; cover photo from her 1944 book, China to Me; Hahn in 1944 with her daughter Carola, following their return from occupied China. (Wikipedia/Lilly Library, Indiana U)

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Chief Stooge

Theatrical promoter Alfred Cleveland Blumenthal (1885–1957) was well-known to New Yorkers in the 1920s and 30s as a speakeasy owner, buddy to Mayor Jimmy Walker and husband to actress Peggy Fears. Although “Blumey” is largely forgotten today, in 1933 he merited a two-part profile by Alva Johnston. Here are excerpts from the opening lines:

ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS…A.C. “Blumey” Blumenthal (at left in the light suit) was often seen shadowing Mayor Jimmy Walker in his role as chief counselor and chief stooge. Here the mayor is escorted by Blumey and New York’s finest during corruption hearings in 1931. At right, Blumey’s wife Peggy Fears (1903–1994) in her most notable film role, 1935’s The Lottery Lover. Their tempestuous marriage lasted from 1927 to 1950. (avenuemagazine.com)

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Coward’s Ménage

Playwright Noel Coward existed in the orbit of the Algonquin Round Table, so it was doubtless challenging for Robert Benchley to critically review his friend’s work. Fortunately, Benchley found Design For Living mostly to his liking. Note how Benchley subtly refers to the play’s gay subtext, and to the fact that it mirrored the real-life relationships of the play’s trio.

THREE’S COMPANY…A studio in Paris. A penthouse in New York. A flat in London. These were the settings for Noël Coward’s play Design for Living at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, which starred the wife-husband team Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt and their close friend Coward in a Broadway run of 135 performances from January to May 1933. (Vandamm theatrical photos via wisc.edu)

Benchley did have a few quibbles, but reasoned there was no need to be overly critical when there was such a dearth of quality stage entertainment. Note the great caricatures by Al Frueh (below) that accompanied the review.

Benchley had a different sort of dilemma criticizing Elmer Rice’s earnestly patriotic We, the People, a play about the misfortunes of a working class family in Depression America.

Rice, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1929, was an occasional contributor to The New Yorker from 1929 to 1931, including his sci-fi satire on the film industry, Voyage to Purila, which was serialized in eleven installments (with illustrations by Peter Arno) in The New Yorker from Oct. 12 to Dec. 21, 1929.

LET’S MAKE A MOVIE…Elmer Rice (standing) joins theatre producer Joseph P. Bickerton, Jr. (left), and Universal’s Carl Laemmle Jr. to sign a contract for the film version of Rice’s 1931 Broadway play Counsellor at Law. The film proved to a critical success. (Wikipedia)

Meanwhile, film critic John Mosher was trying his best to enjoy the latest Hollywood fare, another Broadway play adapted to the silver screen. Whistling in the Dark…

MURDER MOST AMUSING…The 1933 American pre-Code comedy-mystery film Whistling in the Dark starred Ernest Truex and Una Merkel. (IMDB)

However, Mosher was surprisingly enthused by the rustic charms of Iowa country folk in State Fair…

THE TRIUMPH OF PRIZE PICKLES and other delights awaited viewers of 1933’s State Fair, which gave star billing to Will Rogers and Janet Gaynor. At right, Lew Ayres sweet-talks Gaynor at the fairgrounds. (IMDB)

 *   *   *

Form Follows Function

E.B. White paid close attention to all the little details of daily life, including the advertisements that appeared in The New Yorker. In “The Talk of the Town” he wrote about a Camel ad that inspired a sudden fashion trend:

…here is the Dec. 24, 1932 New Yorker ad to which White referred:

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From Our Advertisers

We keep our cigs lit for our first ad, from Lucky Strike, keeping it simple with their familiar slogan…

…this ad from Powers Reproduction shows us the beach caps that were all the rage in the early ’30s…

…this may look like an old car to modern eyes, but in 1933 these sweeping curves were la dernière mode in the auto world…

…and then there was Hupmobile, trying its best to stay relevant in the Depression…

…the company folded in 1939, but a few reminders live on…

HUP HUP HOORAY…The 1917 Hupmobile dealership at 25th and Farnam in Omaha, NE, was located along the old Lincoln Highway and is the last preserved Hupmobile dealership in the United States. On the National Register since 2014, it now houses apartments. (Flickr)

…Valentine’s Day was just around the corner, so time to buy your sweetheart something special, like this scarf that was all the rage among the Miami snowbirds…

…Greenwich Village restaurateur and personality Don Dickerman took out this two-page ad to trumpet his partnership with puppeteer and illustrator Tony Sarg at the Bohemia restaurant on Broadway…

…the German-American Sarg is also known as the creator, in 1927, of the first giant balloons for Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade…

THE OLD GASBAG…Tony Sarg (upper right hand corner) and assistants painting one of his Macy’s parade balloons. (Fotograms News Photo Service via Pinterest)

…on to our cartoons, and what a big day for The New Yorker…the Feb. 4, 1933 issue featured the first captioned cartoon by Charles Addams…

…for the record, Addams’s very first contribution to the magazine was this spot illustration (below) featured on page 65 of the Feb. 6, 1932 issue…

…one of the original contributing artists to The New Yorker, Gardner Rea, continued his skewering of America’s plutocrats…

…William Steig took us before the bench to make an honest plea…

…James Thurber gave us another skirmish between the sexes…

…and recalling my Jan. 12 post (about the Jan. 7, 1933 issue), in which the puritans got their knickers in a bunch over Robert Laurent’s Goose Girl sculpture in the Radio City Music Hall lobby…

…we end with Helen Hokinson, inspired by Laurent’s work…

Next Time: Role Reversal…

An Unmarried Woman

When New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno hooked up with his colleague, nightlife columnist Lois Long, it was like twisting together two sticks of dynamite.

April 18, 1930 cover by Charles Donelan, his only cover for The New Yorker. See more about the artist at the end of this post.

Married in 1927, they were the glamour couple at The New Yorker, and each played an outsized role in giving the early magazine a distinctive, cosmopolitan voice and look. Hard-drinking hell raisers, they both loved the Roaring Twenties nightlife in what seemed like an endless party. But when the party ended, so did their brief, volatile marriage.

VOLATILE COMBINATION…Peter Arno and Lois Long were the toast of The New Yorker office and the toast of the town with their office romance, marriage (in 1927), and much-publicized split. The hard-partying couple separated in 1930 and divorced the following year.

As the end of her marriage neared, the 29-year-old Long had become almost circumspect, and in a series of columns under the title “Doldrums,” she took a skeptical look at the world around her, the sad ways of the younger generation, and in this fifth installment, subtitled “Can’t We Be Friends?”, she probed the inequities of a society that encouraged women to be hard-working, super competent and attractive while men still did as they pleased (the question remains today: recall 2018, when Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg asked women to “Lean In”).

LIFE WITH LOIS…Peter Arno drew on his domestic experiences with wife Lois Long for comic inspiration. Clockwise, top left, Arno and Long with baby daughter Patricia, 1928; a wedding day wakeup call from Arno’s 1930 cartoon collection Hullabaloo; Nov. 18, 1929 cover and a Aug. 24, 1929 cartoon suggesting a lack of maternal instinct. By all accounts Long was a doting mother and grandmother.

In Vanity Fair, Ben Schwartz (“The Double Life of Peter Arno,” April 5, 2016) quotes Arno’s and Long’s daughter, Patricia (Pat) Arno, about her parents’ wild relationship: “There were lots of calls to (gossip columnist Walter) Winchell or some other columnist about nightclub fights…with my mother calling and saying, ‘Oh, please don’t print that about us,’ trying to keep their names out of the papers.”

Here’s another excerpt from Long’s “Doldrums,” asking about the state of Modern Men (apologies for the missing fifth line — “novels”)…

Long had not only given up on marriage—and apparently men for the time being—but she’d also had it with the partying life. She had put her nightlife column, “Tables for Two,” on hiatus, turning her attentions to her popular fashion column, “On and Off the Avenue,” while continuing to contribute unsigned pieces to “The Talk of the Town” and occasional pieces like “Doldrums.”

In early 1931 Arno moved to Reno, Nevada, which granted quick divorces to anyone who took up residency for five months. According to a 2016 book written by New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin (Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker’s Greatest Cartoonist), Arno found more trouble in Reno when newspaper publisher Neely Vanderbilt accused him of having an affair with his wife, Mary, and threatened violence against Arno. Maslin writes: “Nearly lost in the whole Arno/Vanderbilt dust-up was the end of Arno and Long’s marriage. On June 29th, Lois was granted a Reno divorce on the grounds of intolerable cruelty.” I highly recommend Maslin’s book, filled with anecdotes drawn from a fascinating life lived in some of New York’s headiest times.

Vanderbilt would also divorce his wife in 1931. Mary Weir Logan Vanderbilt was the second of his seven wives.

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON…On the same month as his Reno divorce (June 1931), Vanity Fair ran this photo of Arno pretending to conduct bandleader Fred Waring and two of his Pennsylvanians. (CondeNast)

Arno and Long would get joint custody of Patricia, but the child would remain living with her mother. Long had this to say about the future of her “Little Persimmon”…

 *  *  *

A Man’s World?

E.B. White wondered in his “Notes and Comment” after encountering a barroom (had to be a speakeasy) with a carpeted floor…

KEEPING IT REAL…Patrons relax at McSorley’s Old Ale House near Cooper Square, circa 1935. (ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com)

 *  *  *

Long Before Social Distancing

There were many diversions around the old city, including baseball games and the circus at Madison Square Garden…some clips from the “Goings On” section…

…Reginald Marsh marked the arrival of the circus with a drawing that encircled pages 20-21…here is a detail…

and how the whole thing appeared…

 *  *  *

The Twain Never Met

Once a star attraction with the Ziegfeld Follies, comedian Will Rogers was also finding success on radio and in the films. His latest talkie, A Connecticut Yankee, referenced Mark Twain’s 1889 novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, in name only, as noted by reviewer John Mosher. But then again, Rogers himself was not a Yankee, but an Okie.

MARK WHO?…Inspired by a Mark Twain novel, 1931’s A Connecticut Yankee was mostly a Will Rogers vehicle. Top right, Sagramor (Mitchell Harris) confronts the “Connecticut Yankee” Hank Martin (Will Rogers). Below, the queen (Myrna Loy) tries to make nice with Hank. (IMDB)

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From Our Advertisers

If you had the time but not the means to travel to Europe (it was the Depression, after all), you might have considered a trip to “Old Québec,” just 500 miles up the road from New York City, although in those days you likely took the train, or possibly a boat, since routes between cities were still a uneven patchwork of roads…

…and you could look stylish at the station or the boat dock with these handsome Hartmann trunks…

…these spring travelers opted for a car, filled with the aroma of burning tobacco…

…spring was also time for the latest Paris fashions, and Macy’s suggested you could “put one over on Paris” by donning a garment spun from from DuPont’s miracle fiber, Rayon…

…however, those operating the finer dress shops would never consider letting any synthetic hang in their windows, or touch their skin for that matter, and proudly proclaimed the latest shipments from Paris…

…those shopping for Paris fashions might have consulted Majorie Dork to get slim in all the right places…

…on to our illustrations and cartoons, we have two by Ralph Barton, his “Hero of the Week”…

…and his “Graphic Section” take on the week’s news…

…Gardner Rea kicks off our cartoons with a look at the machine age…

…Rea’s cartoon referred to the popular vaudeville comedian Joe Cook, who was known for his demonstrations of needlessly complex machines…here he is featured in the September 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics magazine…

…Erlanger’s Theatre advertised Cook’s “Newest, Maddest Musical” in the back pages of The New Yorker…

…it’s not often you find Mahatma Gandhi as the subject of a cartoon…this one is by Bruce Bairnsfather…

…a unique form of stage fright was illustrated by John Floherty Jr…

…Jack Markow gave us a little night music…

…Leonard Dove and the possibly reluctant apple of someone’s eye…

…I would love to know more about this Rea Irvin cartoon, which seems to be a parody of a cartoon from the British Punch…

…John Reehill rendered a portentous moment at the barbershop…

…and finally, today’s cover (bottom left) by Charles Donelan caught my eye because the early New Yorker rarely noted the existence of baseball, except in the events section. Up to this point there had been just two covers featuring baseball: May 8, 1926, by Victor Bobritsky…

…and, at right, the Oct. 5, 1929 cover by Theodore Haupt...

…as for the cover on the left, it would be Charles Donelan’s only New Yorker cover…throughout his career he would illustrate for various publications, including the sports section of the Boston Traveler (this is from the March 21, 1921 edition)…

…and a comic strip featured in the Boston Globe called “Russett Appul” (this is from Oct. 11, 1929)…Donelan also performed Russett and other characters on Boston radio stations and stage shows…

Next Time: Cinema’s Underworld…

 

Wickersham Sham

Introduce the topic of the Wickersham Commission at your next dinner party and you will most likely be answered with a puzzled silence.

January 31, 1931 cover by Constantin Alajalov.

However, in January 1931 it was THE topic of the month, especially among New Yorkers keen to see the end of Prohibition, which was the focus of the commission.

Established by President Herbert Hoover, the 11-member Wickersham Commission (officially, the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement) was not seeking to repeal the 18th Amendment, but rather to examine the criminal justice system under Prohibition, everything from police brutality and graft to the rapid rise of organized crime.

SOBER UNDERTAKING…George Wickersham was featured on Time’s Feb. 2, 1931 cover for his leadership on the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, better known as the Wickersham Commission. (Time Inc.)

To the chagrin of many New Yorkers, the report (released on Jan. 7, 1931) called for even more aggressive enforcement of anti-alcohol laws.

This caused such a stir that The New Yorker dedicated the entire first page of “The Talk of the Town” to a satirical commentary furnished by E.B. White. An excerpt:

LEAVE MY NAME OUT OF IT…Former US Attorney General George Woodward Wickersham, left, was tapped by President Herbert Hoover to lead the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. Humorist Will Rogers weighed in on the likely outcome of the Commission’s report. (Wikipedia/PBS)

Humorist Will Rogers also commented on the report in this letter published on page 19 of the Jan. 26, 1931 edition of The New York Times…

…Algonquin Round Table co-founder Franklin P. Adams, on the other hand, summed up the Commission’s report with a poem:

Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can’t stop what it’s meant to stop.
We like it.
It’s left a trail of graft and slime
It don’t prohibit worth a dime
It’s filled our land with vice and crime,
Nevertheless, we’re for it.

Back to The New Yorker, Howard Brubaker weighed in with his column, “Of All Things,” correctly noting that the majority of Americans wanted an end to Prohibition laws despite the Commission’s recommendations…

…and Rea Irvin gauged the mood of the parlor crowd in light of the report:

 *  *  *

Polar Plunge

On to happier news, “The Talk of the Town” looked in on preparations for a North Pole trip by a refitted and renamed military submarine, Nautilus. An excerpt:

POLAR OBSESSED…Above, the Nautilus arrives at Plymouth, England, on June 26, 1931. It left New York City on June 4 on the first leg of a voyage that was to continue on to Spitsbergen, Norway and ultimately to the North Pole and a rendezvous with Germany’s Graf Zeppelin. At right, crew members Cornelius P. Royster, John R. Janson, and Harry Zoeller dine in the Nautilus galley, April 20, 1931. (amphilsoc.org)
HOW IT WORKED…The June 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics asked the question, “Will the Nautilus Freeze Under the North Pole?” Stay tuned. (Modern Mechanix)

 *  *  *

Dorothy, Abridged

Laid up with the flu, Dorothy Parker turned to some reading during her convalescence, only to find that the books provided to her (for review) were far from uplifting. One in particular, a censored version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, was downright galling. Excerpts:

FIFTY SHADES OF EMBARRASSMENT…D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was published privately in 1928 and swiftly banned by the United States the following year. Amazingly, the first unexpurgated edition would not be published in the U.S. until 1959, in the edition pictured above issued by the fledgling Grove Press. (mhpbooks.com/orbooks.com)

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Old Before Her Time

Lois Long was only 29 years old when she wrote her “Doldrums” series for The New Yorker, but the chronicler of Jazz Age nightlife who once epitomized the flapper lifestyle felt much older given how much the world had changed in just a few short years. She was particularly appalled by the younger generation’s embrace of “health and vitality” over her own generation’s lust for the party life…

GETTING THEIR KICKS…Lois Long was appalled by the new generation’s healthier pursuits, left, contrasted with the flapper lifestyle Long embodied in the 1920s. (Pinterest)

…Long was mother to a toddler at the time, and would divorce husband and New Yorker colleague Peter Arno in the spring. This, no doubt, contributed to her feeling of estrangement from the younger generation:

Endnote: Bernarr MacFadden (1868-1955), referred to above, was an early proponent of body building and healthy diets that anticipated the rise of physical culture icons such as Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne.

*  *  *

The Last Warrior

Paris correspondent Janet Flanner noted the passing of 78-year-old French Field Marshal Joseph Joffre, the last of the great World War I military leaders. Note that Flanner referred to Joffre’s war as “the world war,” since the next world war was still on the horizon.

AU REVOIR…French Field Marshal Joseph Joffre (saluting) in 1922. (Library of Congress)

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From Our Advertisers

We have two of New York’s finest hotels advertised along with the newly opened National Hotel in Havana, Cuba. All three were under the same management at the time. The Cuban hotel would be heavily damaged two years later in a coup led by Fulgencio Batista. It would be restored, and eventually nationalized by Fidel Castro. The Savoy-Plaza would not be so lucky, demolished in 1965 to make way for the General Motors Building…

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T…The elegant Savoy-Plaza (left) was razed in 1965 to make way for the General Motors Building. (Wikipedia)

…and we have this lovely color ad from the makers of Alcoa aluminum chairs, which bespoke “the new vogue.” Alcoa created the market for aluminum furniture in the 1920s in an effort to increase demand for its aluminum products. It obviously worked, as all kinds of aluminum chairs and desks became ubiquitous by mid-century, especially in the workplace…

…on to our cartoonists…the Jan. 31, 1931 issue marked a big moment in New Yorker cartoons, as it featured James Thurber’s very first…

…Alan Dunn showed us a man who could not be distracted from financial woes…

…William Steig settled in as a New Yorker regular…

…Carl Rose gave us a lot of sour faces in a bank lobby…

…and Gluyas Williams demonstrated the effects of decaf coffee…

…and before I go, here is a scene from the Third Academy Awards, which are referred to as the 1931 awards, although they were actually held on Nov. 5, 1930 in the Fiesta Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles….

(oscars.com)

Next Time: And the Winner Is…

 

 

 

 

Paramount on Parade

Before we launch into the latest offering from Tinseltown, a note about the cover artist for the April 26, 1930 issue.

April 26, 1930 cover by Barney Tobey.

Barney Tobey (1906-1989) was known for gently humorous cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker for more than fifty years. He also contributed four covers, the first of which appears above. In the Sept. 21, 1998 issue, illustrator Richard Merkin offered this remembrance:

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Star-spangled Banter

All-star musicals were all the rage in the early sound era, as they gave studios the opportunity to showcase contract players (who were virtually owned by the studios) doing things they usually didn’t do on screen. Following the success of MGM’s Hollywood Revue of 1929, Paramount Studios released Paramount on Parade in April 1930, much to the liking of New Yorker critic John Mosher, who also praised the film’s accompanying cartoon, 1929’s The Prisoner’s Song:

You can watch Max Fleischer’s The Prisoner’s Song here (and ponder how far animation has advanced)…

Mosher also praised a number of Paramount’s contract players, and especially actors Jack Oakie and Maurice Chevalier…

MUCH ADO…A great crowd gathers for the premiere of “Paramount on Parade” at the New York’s Rialto Theatre in April 1930. (cinematreasures.org)
SEEING STARS…Clockwise, from top left, Helen Kane (possibly the inspiration for the cartoon character “Betty Boop”) and Jack Oakie do a little footwork; Clara Bow, Hollywood’s “It Girl,” pops through a Navy recruitment poster at the beginning of her song and dance number (with Stuart Erwin and Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher); one of Hollywood’s top actresses in 1930, Kay Francis, portrays “Carmen” in the revue; Ruth Chatterton entertains doughboys Stuart Erwin, Fredric March, Jack Oakie, and Stanley Smith in Paramount on Parade. (IMDB)
BOOP GIVES A BOP…Helen Kane (left) and child star Mitzi Green in a sketch from Paramount on Parade. (IMDB)

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Lost In the Crowd

In his “Notes and Comment,” E.B. White lamented the fact that the world’s tallest building appeared less than lofty, since neighboring skyscrapers were nullifying its grandeur:

DOWN IN FRONT…E.B. White found the streetview of the world’s tallest building wanting after it was completed in 1930; the iconic Flatiron Building, however, enjoys some elbow room even today. (spectator.co.uk/walksofnewyork.com)

 *  *  *

Full of Hot Air

That was another opinion shared by E.B. White, this time regarding the Empire State Building’s top promotor, former New York Governor Al Smith, who spoke of plans to attach a mooring mast to the top of his skyscraper (which would eclipse the Chrysler as the world’s tallest in 1931):

*  *  *

View From the Top

The New Yorker featured a profile of Aloysius Anthony Kelly (1893?-1952), better known as the Roaring Twenties most famous pole-sitter, “Shipwreck” Kelly. He achieved his greatest fame in the 1920s and 1930s, sitting for days at a time on elevated perches — often atop buildings — throughout the U.S.

Kelly’s fame was already on the wane when this profile appeared, and by 1934 he was reportedly working as a dance hall gigolo. Kelly’s last flagpole stunt was at a 1952 event sponsored by a Lion’s Club in Orange, Texas — he suffered two heart attacks while sitting atop their 65-foot flagpole. After climbing down he announced, “This is it. I’m through.” He died one week later after he was struck by car on West 51st Street in Manhattan.

LOFTY AMBITIONS…Alvin ‘Shipwreck’ Kelly atop a flagpole near College Park, Maryland, in October 1942. At right, undated photo circa 1940s. (CSU Archives/Digital Commonwealth)

 *  *  *

Brand X

Folks were still abuzz about the discovery of a ninth planet in the solar system, soon to be dubbed “Pluto” by an English schoolgirl. Howard Brubaker, in “Of All Things,” observed…

…and Carl Kindl illustrated the problem a new planet posed for astrologers…

 *  *  *

I Beg Your Pardon

Will Rogers was a beloved comedian with a few rope tricks up his sleeve, but I’ve never known him for working blue. However, one critic for The New Yorker (“A.S.”– not sure who this is) found Rogers’ new radio show both humorless and gauche…

CAN YOU TAKE A JOKE?…In photo above, Will Rogers debuts his new radio show in April 1930. It would become the most popular Sunday evening radio show, and Rogers would prove to be the second biggest motion picture box office draw in the U.S. before his death in 1935. (Will Rogers Memorial Museum)

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Before He Got Axed

Ten years before he was murdered by one of Stalin’s NKVD agents, Leon Trotsky published an autobiography that was written in his first year of exile in Turkey. The review is signed “G.H.” so I am assuming the author is Geoffrey Hellman, who contributed for decades to The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town.” Excerpts from the review:

RED ALERT…Leon Trotsky wrote his autobiography, My Life, while exiled in Turkey. (Wikimedia)

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From Our Advertisers

The makers of Bozart rugs and fabrics invited New Yorker readers to “introduce a breath of summertime indoors”…

…while Macy’s urged the same by gracing a sunroom or terrace with one of their Marcel Breuer-inspired chairs…

…Colonial Airways touted an early form of radar — an “invisible pilot” — as the latest safety feature in its airplanes…

…the Douglas L. Elliman company promoted its yet unbuilt River House, which would feature a pier where residents could dock their yachts…

The 26-story River House in the 1930s. Originally, the Art Deco building featured a pier where residents could dock their yachts, but that feature was lost with the construction of FDR Drive in the early 1950s, effectively sealing the building off from the water. The building has been home to author Barbara Taylor Bradford, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and actress Uma Thurman. (observer.com)

…and then we have our more unfortunate ads, such as this one from Macy’s that shows grandpa passing along his racist tendencies to a grandchild…

…and this sad appeal from the makers of Lucky Strike to keep puffing and avoid that hideous double chin…

…our cartoons include Garrett Price and thoughts of spring…

…Barbara Shermund eavesdropped on tea time…

…Alice Harvey found an awkward moment in a hosiery department…

…Peter Arno revisits a familiar theme — chorus girls and sugar daddies…

…and Otto Soglow looked in on a fat cat’s moment of pride…

Next Time: Minding the Gap…

 

 

 

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From Broadway to Babylon

While the introduction of sound to motion pictures ended the careers of some silent film stars in the late 1920s, Hollywood’s “talkies” offered new opportunities for Broadway stage actors who could now take their vocal talents to the screen and to audiences nationwide.

May 4, 1929 cover by Ilonka Karasz.

And so began the so-called “Broadway Exodus.” Robert Benchley offered his wry observations on the phenomenon in the May 4, 1929 “A Reporter at Large” column:

AW SHUCKS…Broadway mainstay and a perennial performer with the Ziegfeld Follies, humorist Will Rogers found his element in Hollywood’s new talkies, appearing here with Fifi D’Orsay in 1929’s They Had to See Paris. (Wikipedia)
TALE OF TWO CITIES…Broadway in 1925 (left) and Hollywood Boulevard in 1929. (Daily Mail/USC Digital Library)

Benchley observed that regardless how many Broadway stars moved west, Hollywood Boulevard would never be mistaken for Broadway. However, Benchley himself would catch the bug and head to Tinseltown, appearing in dozens of feature films and shorts including How to Sleep, which would win an Academy Award for “Best Short Subject, Comedy,” in 1935.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT…Robert Benchley in the 1935 Oscar-winning short, How to Sleep. (YouTube)

 *  *  *

One Who Stayed on Broadway

James Thurber reported in “The Talk of the Town” that famed boxing champion Jack Johnson was a common sight on the sidewalks of Broadway. Thurber noted that Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915), had fallen on less glamorous days, but still appeared fit at age 51.

IN FIGHTING FORM…Jack Johnson visits with writer Joe Butler at the Scranton Times-Tribune offices on Nov. 30, 1929. (Scranton Times-Tribune)

Thurber noted that Johnson was planning to sell stories of his life, and possibly get into vaudeville. The boxer also mused that who could lick either of the heavyweight champs of the 1920s, Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey…

CREAMPUFFS…The 51-year-old Jack Johnson claimed he could defeat either of the famed heavyweight champions of the 1920s, Gene Tunney (left) or Jack Dempsey. (Reemus Boxing)

…and Thurber shared a strange account regarding the thickness of Johnson’s skull, which apparently bested that of an ox…

FIGHT TO THE LAST…The 67-year-old Jack Johnson prepares for an exhibition boxing match at a war bond show in New York City on May 1945. Along with making public appearances, Johnson also performed on Broadway during his retirement. (Houston Chronicle)

Johnson continued professional boxing until age 60, and thereafter participated in boxing exhibitions in various venues until his death at age 68 in a car crash near Raleigh, NC. It was reported that Johnson was racing angrily from a nearby diner that had refused to serve him when he lost control and hit a light pole.

 *  *  *

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Anyone who thinks the recent squabbles over Planned Parenthood are anything new might do a little reading on the life of Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916 (in Brooklyn) and was subsequently arrested for distributing information on contraception. In 1929 she was again arrested for operating a “secret” birth control clinic in the basement of a Manhattan brownstone. On March 22, 1929, the New York Police Department sent an undercover female detective, Anna McNamara, to Sanger’s clinic. Posing as a patient who wished to avoid another pregnancy, McNamara was advised on various forms of contraception. She later returned to the clinic as part of the police raid, during which she seized a number of confidential patient files. At Sanger’s subsequent court hearing, McNamara learned first-hand about the importance of patient confidentiality. From the May 4 “Talk of the Town”…

Recalling her arrest in a 1944 article, “Birth Control: Then and Now,” Sanger wrote that McNamara taunted her during the raid when she was told that she had no right to touch private medical files. Sanger wrote “I shall never forget the color of Mrs. McNamara’s face when she heard this medical testimony recited several days later in Magistrates’ Court at the hearing. She was totally unprepared for this embarrassing revelation of her own organs.” The New Yorker made note of this…

Sanger would continue to work for birth control until her death in 1966. Although her name is still invoked in debates over abortion, Sanger herself was generally opposed to abortion, maintaining that contraception was the only practical way to avoid it.

GAG ORDER…In April 1929 Margaret Sanger planned to speak at Boston’s Ford Hall Forum on Free Speech. Ironically, the topic of birth control was banned in Boston at the time, so Sanger appeared onstage with a gag over her mouth while historian Arthur M. Schlesinger read her remarks on free speech to the assembly. At right, the February 1926 issue of Birth Control Review. Founded by Sanger in 1917, she served as editor until 1928. It ceased publication in 1940. (womensstatus.weebly.com/sangerpapers.wordpress.com)

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Please Sit Still

The “Talk of the Town” also looked on American Impressionist painter Childe Hassam, who demonstrated the challenges of painting en plein air…

LOVELY SCENE…Childe Hassam’s Landscape at Newfields, New Hampshire, oil on canvas, 1909. Hassam in his studio circa 1920. (Wikimedia Commons/Wikipedia)

…and found it difficult to finish a farmhouse sketch when a door was unexpectedly closed on his subject…

THIS ONE HE FINISHED…Childe Hassam’s etching, The Old Dominy House (East Hampton), 1928. This work was probably created during Hassam’s visits to East Hampton described in “The Talk of the Town.”(Smithsonian)

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All That Jazz

As Lois Long’s contributions to her “Tables for Two” column grew ever more infrequent, it was clear that she was wearying of the nightlife scene. Now 28 and a young mother, “Lipstick” was shedding her image as a fun-loving flapper and devoting more time and energy to her fashion column, “On and Off the Avenue.” Nevertheless, she still found the time to visit the Cotton Club and proclaim Duke Ellington’s jazz orchestra as “the greatest of all time”…

…although her other observations of the New York nightclub scene appear to have been hastily dashed off…

THE BEST…Duke Ellington and his orchestra (top), circa 1930. Below, Vincent Lopez conducts his orchestra in 1923. (oldtimeblues.net / www.jazzhound.net © Mark Berresford)

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Electric Wonders

The May 4 issue updated readers on some of the latest gadgets available to modern households in 1929. I particularly like the device that allowed your vacuum to blow “moth poison” into your garments…

NOW THIS DOES NOT SUCK…Garments and other household items could be fumigated against moths using a new reverse vacuum attachment, available at Lewis & Conger. (Cyberspace Vacuum Cleaner Museum / Columbia University)

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From Our Advertisers

One thing you notice about 1920s advertising is the amount of turgid copy they contain…I suppose without distractions such as TV and iPhones people actually took the time to read all of these bloated messages, such as this one from Whitman’s that suggested a box of candy is more than a box of candy…

…or how about this lengthy appeal from Kodak, which used guilt to convince you to get some film of grandma while she was still “at her best…”

…the makers of Spud promised a “new freedom” and a “16% cooler smoke” to the users of its menthol-laced cigarettes. Spuds were the first menthol cigarettes, developed in 1924 by Ohioan Lloyd “Spud” Hughes, who sold them out of his car until the brand was acquired in 1926 by The Axton-Fisher Tobacco Company. By 1932 Spud was the fifth-most popular brand in the U.S., and had no competitors in the menthol market until Brown & Williamson launched their Kool brand in 1933. The Spud brand died out by 1963 (along with, presumably, many of its customers)…

…leveraging the popularity in the 1920s of knights and fairies, as well as the Anglo- and Francophila of New Yorker readers, “Mrs. Marie D. Kling” hoped to entice city dwellers up to the burbs in Scarsdale…

…our cartoons are courtesy of Barbara Shermund, who looked in on a couple of debs performing their daily exercises…

…while down in the parlor, Rea Irvin captured the horrors inflicted by an author’s tedious reading…

…and finally, Peter Arno probed the depths of sanctimony…

Next Time: Waldorf’s Salad Days…