George Price: Girl-Watching Garb

New Yorker cartoonist George Price was not only the master of depicting cluttered household bric-a-brac, he was also quite skilled in the rendition of inappropriate outerwear. His published cartoon from the issue of May 3, 1969 shows how well his gag writer—probably Richard McCallister—played to Price's strengths and how well Price in turn added personality and comic depth to his gag writer's conception. The 2004 sale of the original art also reveals how a really good (presumably hand-written) caption somehow was made even better in the editorial process.

"You're not going girl-watching dressed like that!"
George Price
Original art
Published as "But you're not going girl-watching in that getup!"
The New Yorker, May 3, 1969, page 30

http://www.askart.com/askart/p/george_price/george_price.aspx

http://www.findartinfo.com/search/listprices.asp?keyword=3078&name=George%20Price

"But you're not going girl-watching in that getup!"
George Price
The New Yorker, May 3, 1969, page 30

"You're not going girl-watching dressed like that!"
George Price
Original art
Published as "But you're not going girl-watching in that getup!"
The New Yorker, May 3, 1969, page 30

http://www.askart.com/askart/p/george_price/george_price.aspx

Cartoons by George Price and Al Ross

https://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1969-05-03#folio=030

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Blog Post No. 2400: Sizzling Platter Chatter

It is now time for us to take up the sizzling platter situation. Just imagining what might very well be the specialty of the house can make one’s mouth water. Yet New Yorker cartoonists very deliberately have avoided drawing sizzling platters for... well, decades. Three cartoons in the magazine's storied history specifically mention sizzling platters, but do we ever actually get to visualize the real deal? In 1937, cartoonist Barbara Shermund comes awfully close to drawing one, but there is so much steam there’s just nothing left to see. In other words, it's all sizzle and no platter.

Barbara Shermund
The New Yorker, March 13, 1937

Likewise, very early in 1949 cartoonist Robert Day does not delineate for us a sizzling platter either, only a couple discussing the fancy menu item. This time it's all talk and no sizzle.

Robert Day, The New Yorker, January 29, 1949

Thankfully, the subject finds its way to Peter Arno later in 1949, via gag writer Richard McCallister. In Arno's hands, the sizzling platter is no longer really a menu item at all; instead it's an unseen but potently-suggestive double entendre. Note how the provocatively-posed line of showgirls allows the viewer to imagine the comically-horrific incident described. And what a wonderful look of abject concern on the diner’s face! Yet there is paradoxically a complete absence of food anywhere in the drawing; there's not even a dish in sight. Now it's all innuendo and no platter.

Peter Arno, The New Yorker, May 7, 1949

Arno’s midcentury masterpiece put an understandable end to the small run of New Yorker cartoons on the subject of sizzling platters; there is simply no way to top it. So, do we ever actually get to see our talked-about sizzling platter? We certainly do, but it isn't to be found in the pages of The New Yorker. Rather, the long-awaited sizzling platter is finally depicted on the front cover dust jacket illustration for the collection Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter (1949). (You know a cartoon is iconic when it lends a published collection its title!) Arno's self-restraint has finally exhausted itself and it is only now that we get to feast our eyes on a hot sizzling platter...and the food doesn’t look so bad either.

Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter (1949)

www.abebooks.co.uk/

Note:  I am grateful to New Yorker cartoonist and Peter Arno biographer Michael Maslin for identifying Richard McCallister as the gag writer of the Arno cartoon. Mr. Maslin's 2016 biography, Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of the New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist, is available on Amazon and elsewhere at a mad, mad discount no Arno fan should pass up. Incidentally, if any reader can identify the gag writer for the two other sizzling platter cartoons by Shermund and Day, or whether they indeed used a gag writer at all, please come forward and tell the epicurean world what we need to know.

Surely Peter Arno produced far more than his share of unsurpassed work throughout his career and Attempted Bloggery humbly begs to bring you more of it. I seek scans or photographs of original cartoon art by Arno as well as examples of rare and obscure published work from outside of the well-thumbed pages of The New Yorker. Please send me something that sizzles.


December 31, 2017 Update:  Peter Arno's original book cover illustration is in Harry's Bar, London. It's in the center on the back wall.

Harry's Bar in London by Mark Birley

Image added May 7, 2020

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/294563631848250049/

The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story

Blog Post No. 300:  From the Libraries of Searle, Koren, Booth, and Saxon

Blog Post No. 400: The Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Blog Post No. 500:  The Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Blog Post No. 600:  What I Do When I'm Not Blogging

Blog Post No. 700:  The Many Hazards of Blogging

Blog Post No. 800:  Think Locally, Blog Globally

Blog Post No. 900:  The Blog I Was Meant to Write

Blog Post No. 1000: Happy New Year, Lurkers and All!

Blog Post No. 1100:  The Power of Google

Blog Post No. 1200:  The Ukrainian Situation

Blog Post No. 1300:  Plus-Sizing the Readership

Blog Post No. 1400:  New Goals for an Old Blogger

Blog Post No. 1500:  The Wisdom of Warren Buffett 

Blog Post No. 1600:  "The Big Bang Theory's" Homage to Charles Addams

Blog Post No. 1700:  The New Yorker Apocrypha

Blog Post No. 1800:  The Wrong Bag

Blog Post No. 1900:  Think Good Thoughts About George Booth at 90

Blog Post No. 2000:  Charles Addams and the Birth of a Rare Book Collector
Blog Post No. 2100:  Eustace Tilley in Leotards
Blog Post No. 2200:  Peter Arno Drawings from the Estate of Frank Modell
Blog Post No. 2300:  Peter Arno—Not for Attribution 

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Signed by George Price and Richard McCallister

Cartoonist George Price is known for his angular characters with their distinctive quirks of personality who often surround themselves with ungainly clutter. He attended high school in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a community whose politically-orchestrated traffic jams have made the national news of late.

Gagman and occasional cartoonist Richard McCallister collaborated with George Price on the 1940 book Good Humor Man, which he "compiled and edited." The book was signed by both men on the front free endpaper to one Jean Crawford at what well might have been a book signing circa 1940. The book is now in the collection of longtime reader and contributor David from Manhattan, who acquired it at Strand, New York's great independent bookstore.

Front free endpaper signed and inscribed "Richard McCallister" and "Geo. Price/to Jean Crawford"

Good Humor Man, 1940

Photo courtesy David from Manhattan

George Price
Good Humor Man, 1940, compiled and edited by Richard McCallister

http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2012/03/george-price-early-years.html

Note: Earlier blog posts about cartoonist George Price may be read here.

Mike Lynch Cartoons has an excellent post on this very book here.

More signed books may be seen here.

Got anything similar to share? Get in touch!

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