Judge: March 19, 1927

An issue of Judge cost 15 cents in 1927, $2.79 in today's dollars. I paid $12.50 for a copy on eBay in August, a five-fold premium for being so far behind in my reading. This is my first purchases of any issue of this particular humor magazine. The March 19 issue looks decidedly hit or miss.

The Latest Dirt

The Weigh of a Woman

Judging the Shows
George Jean Nathan

The Cheer Leaders
John Held, Jr., et al.

The Runarounder
Heywood Broun

Judge, March 19, 1927
eBay listing ended August 31, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/376505113731

Judge, March 19, 1927
eBay item description

Judge, March 19, 1927
eBay bid history
Your blogger shows how it's done.

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S. J. Perelman to Harvey Orkin and His Son Anthony

Two postcards from humorist S. J. Perelman have made their way onto the market via the estate of writer and talent agent Harvey Orkin (1918-1975). Orkin won an Emmy award for "You'll Never Get Rich" which starred Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko. The first postcard, chronologically, was sent in 1968 from Florence, Italy.

A 1974 postcard was mailed to Orkin's Fifth Avenue Columbia Pictures office from Sarasota, Florida.

Finally, a 1975 letter to Orkin's son Anthony V., here referred to as "Avo," is written locally on New Yorker magazine stationery. Perelman aims to share his love of words with the young man. Of note, he does not share his love of cheesecake postcards.

Each of these notes is priced at $180 on AbeBooks. (On eBay, they're $188.)

1.

S. J. Perelman
AbeBooks listing accessed September 9, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/Humorous-Autograph-Postcard-Signed-Perelman/31967342352/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_lowk

2.

S. J. Perelman
AbeBooks listing accessed September 9, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/Humorous-Autograph-Postcard-Signed-Perelman/31967337476/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

3.

S. J. Perelman
AbeBooks listing accessed September 9, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/Typed-Note-Signed-New-Yorker-Stationery/31967332880/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_high

June 28, 2025 Update:  The 1975 letter was cross-listed on eBay where it sold for a best offer.

Note:  Readers fortunate enough to be in possession of a postcard or letter from S. J. Perelman and who need a blog on which to have it posted know where to find me.

Can someone please start a Wikipedia page for Harvey Orkin? Or is that asking too much?

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Ronald Searle: S. J. Perelman Rides Through the Desert

On Sunday, Thomaston Place Auction Galleries of Maine sold an original illustration by Ronald Searle for S. J. Perelman's "Nostasia in Asia" series in Travel & Leisure. The color piece, with its muted yellows and oranges, shows Perelman traveling by local conveyance through a stage-like desert landscape without clear geographic features. It is signed by the artist and dated 1973. The word nostasia is one you won't see used by anyone other than Perelman, nor will you find it in the dictionary. The travel pieces were collected in Vinegar Puss (1975), alas, without the illustrations.

Ronald Searle's signature

Ronald Searle
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries listing accessed July 9, 2023 before the sale

https://live.thomastonauction.com/lots/view/1-7LMANW/ronald-william-fordham-searle-nyukfrance-1920-2011

July 9, 2023 presale numbers

Sold!

Note:  For more on the collaboration between Ronald Searle and S. J. Perelman, see Matt Jones's post "S. J. Perelman" on the Searle tribute blog here and, if you are so inclined, "Round the Bend in Eighty Days with S. J. Perelman" here. I believe this latter piece was misunderstood by someone from the auction house, hence the listing's assertion that this drawing was published in The New Yorker and not in Travel & Leisure. I'm eager, by the way, to see a photo or scan of this illustration as it was published, presumably in Travel & Leisure, circa 1973-1974.

Two words sorely missing from the OED are nostasia and bloggery. That's pretty much all that my writing has in common with S. J. Perelman's. The dictionary's slight does much to explain why the auction house thought Perelman's piece was called "Nostalgia in the Middle East."

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Jacqueline and Remo Forlani's Copy of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Ronald Searle

Writers Jacqueline Voulet and Remo Forlani were close enough to illustrator Ronald Searle that in 1969 he simply signed his name Ronald on a copy of his new version of R. E. Raspe's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. He personalized the recently-published book to them with an original drawing of Raspe's hero and inscribed the page in both English and imperfect French. Lucius Books of York offered this exceptional volume for sale back in 2019 for 575 GBP and sold it some time ago.

Lucius Books listing accessed February 5, 2019

http://www.luciusbooks.com/shop/recent-acquisitions/the-adventures-of-baron-munchausen/

Note:  For a lot more about Searle's spirited illustrations of the Baron, see Matt Jones's Perpetua post "Munchausen" here.

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French Laundry: S. J. Perelman and Victoria Roberts

In the December 12, 1954 issue of the New York Times Magazine, Robert Trumbull's "Portrait of a Symbol Named Nehru" appeared. Trumbull was finishing up seven years as the Times's Indian correspondent. In the article, we learn that when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a boy, his father "sent his laundry to Paris." This remarkable fact was noted by humorist S. J. Perelman, who went on to imagine the spirited correspondence that might have passed between Allahabad and Paris in a comic piece that was called "No Starch in the Dhoti, S'il Vous Plait." It appeared in The New Yorker of February 12, 1955. Here are a few lines that establish the premise:

The piece was later collected in Perelman's The Road to Miltown (1957). Today it is regarded as a classic. It is a favorite of Daniel H. Borinsky, who is well-acquainted with Perelman, The New Yorker and also with this blog. He writes to note a 1994 cartoon by Victoria Roberts with a similar theme:

I wondered whether Roberts had been aware of the Perelman article. So I posed the question to her. She graciously replied:

No, I wasn’t aware of it. In Mexico City, where I grew up, the best dry cleaner was Tintoreria Francesa. This made me think the “best” dry cleaners must be in France!

https://tintoreria-francesa.business.site/

Story by S. J. Perelman
Cartoons by Dana Fradon and Herbert Goldberg

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1955-02-12/flipbook/028/

Cartoon by Victoria Roberts

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1994-09-05/flipbook/096/

Note:  Many thanks to Daniel Borinsky for unexpectedly pointing out today's wonderful juxtaposition of New Yorker comic prose and cartooning. This observation is his first contribution here, but it will not be his last.

Thanks also to Victoria Roberts for playing along.

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Irving Penn: S. J. Perelman

Irving Penn's 1962 photograph of humorist S. J. Perelman is a sober portrait of the funnyman. A 1980 print, numbered 14 of 15, was offered Thursday at Swann Auction Galleries in New York with an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. It sold for $8000 plus a $2000 buyer's premium. 

S. J. Perelman
Swann Auction Galleries, March 11, 2021

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/IRVING-PENN-(1917-2009)-SJ-Perelman?saleno=2561&lotNo=154&refNo=778979

Note:  S. J. Perelman:  Selected Writings is coming from the Library of America this August.

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Fine Dining: The Lüchow's Guest Book

The guest book of Lüchow's reveals the famous German restaurant in lower Manhattan hosted more than its share of celebrity luminaries back in the 1950s. For example, cartoonist Charles Addams dined there, already famous even some thirteen years before anyone heard of the Addams Family:

Including the signature and drawing of Charles Addams, April 11, 1951

John Ringling North, the president and director of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is in town from Sarasota. Immediately under Charles Addams is the signature of British actor Jack Hawkins, who would prove to be one of the most popular English movie stars of the 1950s.

Including the signature and drawing of Charles Addams, April 11, 1951

 

Joe Dimaggio retired after the 1951 baseball season. This page is undated, but as the guest book dates from 1950 to 1956, it is likely from after his retirement. Jean Hersholt played "Dr. Christian" on the radio.

Including the signatures of Joe DiMaggio and Jean Hersholt

Al Hirschfeld shows up with his wife Dolly Haas in 1952. He draws caricatures of them both. Nina, 7, is presumably home with the sitter. The Hirschfelds must have dined with humorists S. J. Perelman and Fred Allen as Hirschfeld caricatures them as well. Also present is Allen's wife Portland Hoffa.

Including signatures and Al Hirschfeld caricatures of Dolly and Al Hirschfeld, S. J. Perelman, and Fred Allen, 1952

Including signatures and caricatures of Dolly and Al Hirschfeld, S. J. Perelman, and Fred Allen, 1952

While we're at it, hooray for Hollywood. So many greats of stage and screen mingle, at least on the pages of the guest book.

Including the signature and self-caricature of Alfred Hitchcock, and the signatures of Elaine Stritch, Ben Gazzara, Billie Burke Ziegfeld, Dolores Del Rio, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, and Will Rogers, Jr.

The art world turned out too:

Including the signatures of Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Pierre Matisse, Joan Miró, and Bill Lieberman of MoMA

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/(ALBUM)-Guestbook-for-L%C3%BCchows-restaurant-containing-over-400?saleno=2502&lotNo=25A&refNo=757213

$5000 hammer price

Note:  My family ate at Lüchow's once when I was a kid. My brother and I were given Tyrolean party hats with feathers. It was great fun, but we did not get to sign the guest book. Neither did my parents. Who's sorry now, Lüchow's?

I would love to establish Attempted Bloggery as the first place readers think of when they have images of celebrity guest books to make public, particularly those that are signed by prominent cartoonists or humorists. Ditto for autograph books, scrapbooks, sketch books, and chapbooks. On second thought, never mind the chapbooks.

Thanks to Joel Jacobus for identifying the autograph of actor Jack Hawkins.

December 26, 2020 Update:  Thanks to @AlHirschfeld on Twitter (David Leopold?) for identifying Fred Allen's autograph.

January 3, 2021 Update:  Thanks to Tom Bloom for noting that both S. J. Perelman's and Fred Allen's caricatures must be by Al Hirschfeld, and for identifying Fred Allen's wife Portland Hoffa. He also identified the signatures of John Ringling North and of Jean Hersholt.

January 12, 2021 Update:  This time, Tom Bloom has identified the signature of Will Rogers, Jr.

November 26, 2021 Update:  Getty Images stocks a photo dated June 13, 2013 from the London International Antiquarian Book Fair, It shows a bookseller holding the Lüchow's guestbook page which bears the signature of Joan Miró and others. You may see the watermarked photo here.

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