Annals of Captioning: Further Hunting for The New Yorker in Print

Last Sunday I here related my search for additional print copies of the December 8 New Yorker, the one which announced the finalists to Cartoon Caption Contest #969 among whom I was for the first time included. The Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side was well stocked with the December 1 issue, the previous week's, which by then should have been returned to the distributer. To my frustration, I could find no other store nearby with copies. My quest was noted on Ink Spill and even illustrated by Michael Maslin, who very generously offered me his own copy.

This week the world and The New Yorker have moved on to the December 15 issue. But it crossed my mind to ask, could Barnes & Noble still be a full week behind everybody else? It was worth a brisk walk to find out. 

Here's what I found there yesterday on the newsstand:

Do you see it there? The bookseller was once again brimming with copies of The New Yorker and this time—yes!—it was the December 8 issue I was seeking. Somehow Barnes & Noble was, thank goodness, still a full week behind!

The New Yorker copies were buried behind The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and Vanity Fair:

In sum, there were eleven copies of The New Yorker issue holding my name's first appearance in the hundred-year-old magazine. I'm not sure I will ever have a need for so many but, just to be sure, as an affirmation of my achievement sure to convince any doubters who may come my way and as a legacy to pass on to future generations whether they want it or not, I bought them all.

Now no one can doubt I write for The New Yorker. An eight-word caption, that is.

05155

Margaret McElderry's Copy First Encounters by the Sorels

Man about town David From Manhattan has created an informative piece about a book personalized by illustrator Edward Sorel to a leading children's book editor. David writes:

First Encounters: A Book of Memorable Meetings (1994), written by Nancy Caldwell Sorel and illustrated by her husband Edward, was inspired by a Vanity Fair feature from the 1930s, "Impossible Interviews," that was illustrated with caricatures by Miguel Covarrubias. "First Encounters" became a popular feature of The Atlantic, which six times a year described and pictured actual first encounters between real people that allowed Mr. Sorel "to experiment," as he put it, with different mediums each time an encounter appeared, thus showing off the full scope of his art. After a 14-year run, Sorel's publisher, Alfred Knopf, was quite happy to enlist printers in Italy and produce a lavish volume in time for Christmas.

One of the recipients of this book, most likely during the holidays, was the legendary children's book editor, Margaret McElderry (1912-2011) whose copy of First Encounters is warmly inscribed: "For Margaret McElderry/ Who published my first children's book/ With affection/ Edward Sorel."

Mr. Sorel was still a few years from publishing two children's books, Johnny on the Spot (1998) and The Saturday Kid (2000), under the auspices of McElderry Books at Simon & Schuster, so what exactly was he referring to with his thank-you? We need to go back to 1958, and King Carlo of Capri, a children's story based on "Riquet with the Tuft of Hair," a 17th century tale by Charles Perrault, retold and reworked by Warren Miller (the writer, not the cartoonist), and illustrated by Sorel, who also came up with the catchier title.

Most important, it was actually his very first book, period, published at Harcourt, Brace & Co., with a children's book department headed by none other than Margaret McElderry. Sorel had not forgotten.

Still, in the spirit of not forgetting, I can't quite leave the subject of children's literature and first books without mentioning one more volume of Sorel's: The Zillionaire's Daughter (1989).

His second children's story, it was his first as sole author and illustrator, with a contract that gave him free reign. Published by Warner Juvenile Books, it's a witty, 22-page story set entirely in rhymed verse, and well-illustrated with watercolors, right down to the striking endpapers.

The story of a wealthy Frenchman, Max Maximillion, who brings his daughter Claire on a trip to America, it was also a great excuse for Sorel to share his love of Art Deco, visit the 1939 World's Fair, and spend quality time on an ocean liner Max owned and, with no knowledge of today's billionaires & oligarchs, presciently named the S.S. Gigantic.

Note:  Thanks a zillion to David From Manhattan for providing us with this post, words and pictures, as only he can. This is his seventieth contribution to Attempted Bloggery, so it doesn't qualify as a first encounter.

Edward Sorel is a fabulous illustrator who has been creating top-notch art for decades. Collectors who would like to share their Sorel originals here virtually are encouraged to submit what they have.

05017

Stanley W. Reynolds: Woman With a Parasol

Stanley W. Reynolds illustrated some memorable magazine covers for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair between 1925 and 1927. They are highly stylized art deco designs which may be seen at the Condé Nast Store here. Beyond this brief burst of creativity, there isn't much of his work to be found online. 

Early in 2017, an original Reynolds illustration was listed on eBay. Painted in rich watercolors, it is more art nouveau than art deco and looks nothing like the published magazine covers. A woman wearing, apparently, nineteenth century finery and carrying a parasol stands behind a Dutch door. She is prepared to emerge onto a garden path.

Stanley W. Reynolds's signature

Detail

Detail

Detail

Stanley W. Reynolds
eBay listing ended January 13, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Listed-Artist-Stanley-W-Reynolds-Watercolor-New-Yorker-Vanity-Fair-Deco-/282306695231?hash=item41baca503f%3Ag%3AKz0AAOSw-0xYUrnu&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Stanley W. Reynolds
eBay item description

Note:  I'd like to hear from anyone who can identify where this art may have been published or is familiar with other work by Stanley W. Reynolds.

04816

Helmut Newton: Scene from Pina Bausch's Ballet "The Legend of Virginity"

If memory serves—and it doesn't always—Helmut Newton's 1983 photograph of a scene from Pina Bausch's ballet The Legend of Virginity (Die Keuschheitslegende) was published in the first issue of the revamped Vanity Fair in March of 1983. A signed print of the image came to auction yesterday with an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000, with the bidding opening at $4,000. 

Helmut Newton
Los Angeles Modern Auctions listing accessed June 18, 2023

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/154876132_helmut-newton-scene-from

Helmut Newton
Los Angeles Modern Auctions item description

The sale price was $5,500, not counting the 31% buyer's premium. 

Could it have been the March 1984 issue? No, that's not how I remember it. It turns out I trust my memory more than vanityfair.com.

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/photos/2010/06/art-director-ruth-ansel-slide-show-201006

04358

Edward Koren: Two Cards for Leo Lerman

Author and editor Leo Lerman (1914-1994) spent more than fifty years on the payroll of Condé Nast, working on major magazines including Vogue and later Vanity Fair at the time of its 1983 relaunch. Cartoonist Edward Koren congratulated him on his role in the reimagined magazine with an illustrated postcard. In the year before, 1982, Koren had sent him a printed card invitation to an exhibition of prints and drawings at SUNY, Albany, adding an original note with a small but distinctive illustration. Today Lerman's papers are in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University and in the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. But the libraries apparently did not show much interest in his two Koren cards with original drawings and ten years ago they instead went to auction at Doyle, where bidders also did not show much interest.

Edward Koren
Doyle, September 24, 2013

https://doyle.com/auctions/13lf01-leo-lerman-gray-foy-collection/catalogue/482-art-koren-ed-two-cards-inscribed-leo

04268

Miguel Covarrubias: Miss Shirley Temple Signs a New Contract

Child star Shirley Temple's parents negotiated a new movie contract for her in 1934.

After the success of her first three movies, Shirley's parents realized that their daughter was not being paid enough money. Her image also began to appear on numerous commercial products without her legal authorization, and without compensation. To get control over the corporate unlicensed use of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired lawyer Loyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, the contractual salary was raised to $1,000 a week and her mother's salary was raised to $250 a week, with an additional $15,000 bonus for each movie finished. Temple's original contract for $150 per week is equivalent to $2,750 in 2015, adjusted for inflation. However, the economic value of $150 during the Great Depression was equal to $18,500. The subsequent salary increase to $1,000 weekly had the economic value of $123,000 and the bonus of $15,000 per movie (equal to $275,000 in 2015) was equivalent to a staggering $1.85 million in a decade when a quarter could buy a meal.[note 2] Cease and desist letters were sent out to many companies and the process was begun for awarding corporate licenses.

—Wikipedia entry on Shirley Temple

Retrieved January 6, 2017

Shirley Temple's new contract was big news in the world of entertainment. Vanity Fair covered the July signing in its November 1934 issue with a full-page color illustration by Miguel Covarrubias. The child star, age six, is rendered as happy and incredibly adorable, while the Hollywood studio executives who crowd around her are depicted as greedy and mercenary. All are smiling, but in Shirley it is owing to her cheerful disposition and with the executives,it is all about their avarice. Furthermore, Covarrubias goes out of his way to include a signet ring with a Star of David on the hand plying Miss Temple with an oversized piece of candy, a detail which demonstrates that at least one of the studio bosses is Jewish, reinforcing a stereotype about Hollywood power and money that persists to this day. The original artwork was sold at Christie's New York in 2014 for $15,000.

Miguel Covarrubias
Original art
Miss Shirley Temple signs a new contract
Vanity Fair, November 1934, page 33

Miguel Covarrubias
Christie's Sale 2853, Lot 100, May 28, 2014

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/miguel-covarrubias-mexican-1904-1957-shirley-temple-5793834-details.aspx

Miguel Covarrubias
Original art
Miss Shirley Temple signs a new contract
Vanity Fair, November 1934, page 33

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/miguel-covarrubias-mexican-1904-1957-shirley-temple-5793834-details.aspx

Here's how the illustration looked when published in Vanity Fair:

Miguel Covarrubias
Miss Shirley Temple signs a new contract
Vanity Fair, November 1934, page 33

https://photos.vanityfair.com/2014/11/08/545e2e3daa2a6274565a143b_image.jpg

Oddly, Covarrubias soon after published a nearly identical image of Shirley Temple—from her facial expression, the angle at which she tilts her head, the bows on her outfit, right down even to the placement of her individual locks of hair—also in Vanity Fair. It appeared as part of the Impossible Interviews series. Perhaps this similar appearance is owing to the illustrator having the pressure of a deadline or perhaps Covarrubias created them at the same time as alternative illustrations believing only one would be published. Frances Perkins was the Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the "interview," she voices her strong commitment to protecting Shirley with the child labor laws until she learns that Miss Temple is making $1,250 a week. The text refers to the Academy Award Miss Temple, still six, received in 1935, almost certainly dating the publication to that year.

Miguel Covarrubias

Impossible Interview:  Frances Perkins vs. Shirley Temple

Vanity Fair, circa 1935, page 33

http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2014/10/02/miguel-covarrubias-impossible-interviews/

Finally, Covarrubias also provided the cover illustration for the November 1934 Vanity Fair in which the contract-signing illustration appeared. Here President Franklin D. Roosevelt serves up the National Recovery Administration's Blue Eagle symbol for Thanksgiving in place of the traditional turkey. That just seems wrong.

Miguel Covarrubias
Vanity Fair, November 1934

https://condenaststore.com/featured/a-vanity-fair-cover-of-roosevelt-at-thanksgiving-miguel-covarrubias.html

Note:  Can anyone tell me in which issue of Vanity Fair the Impossible Interview illustration appeared?

Just a reminder:  Attempted Bloggery is always looking for scans or photographs of original works of art by the great Miguel Covarrubias.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

Miguel Covarrubias

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Caricature

Vanity Fair

Attempted Bloggery's Juvenile Index

Attempted Bloggery supports net neutrality.

02424

Peter Arno: Roughing It on a Yacht

Reader and contributor David from Manhattan writes about a sketch by Peter Arno done on board ship:

Arno's biographer has seen the attached, but almost no one else, so I thought I'd share it. Back in the 1990s, I was friends with an antiquarian book dealer by the name of James Carr. You might have heard the name. The ultimate packrat, he turned a five story building on the east side into his private warehouse of books, prints, photos, jewelry and many many other things. Tough to get him to part with anything, but I helped him put together consignments for auction. We once got into a discussion about Arno, and he showed me a rough of the artist's that was apparently one page in a guest book for a yacht owned by John Wanamaker, Jr. Carr had long ago chopped up the book and sold the signatures within, but still had the Arno. Long story short, it became a Christmas gift one year after a very successful auction. Not exactly side-splitting, and one suspects Arno promptly forgot about it. [Michael] Maslin thought early 1930s. The watermark on the paper is XXIX, presumably 1929. The book turned up in a garage in Tuxedo Park that was being used for storage. One of the running jokes with Carr is that he swore that somewhere  he still had a couple of George Price drawings. He'd vow that this time, he'd find them, but they never surfaced, at least when I was around.

Peter Arno, "Yes—this is our little skiff."

Note:  While awaiting my own invitation onto a luxury yacht, I've put together these links for your Arno education.

Peter Arno's new biography by Michael Maslin on Amazon.com.

Peter Arno conversation at the Butler Library on April 18.

Peter Arno posts on Ink Spill.

Peter Arno in Chris Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery.

Peter Arno in the April Vanity Fair.

Peter Arno posts on this blog.

By the way, can you guess this blog's secret password?

01827

Shower or Bath?

Shower or bath? It's September of 1921, and Vanity Fair is having some good clean fun!

A. H. Fish, Vanity Fair, September 1, 1921

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Vanity-Fair-Cover-September-1921-Prints_i8483472_.htm

275

Lady Gaga by Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is not the kind of visual artist I usually mention to my readers, but I'll make an exception today. The iconic singer collaborated with Lady Gaga on "Lady is a Tramp" featured on his new album Duets II. Then Bennett, 85, sat in on Annie Leibovitz's New York photo shoot for the current issue of Vanity Fair and created a charcoal portrait of the nude Lady Gaga, 25. It was published in Vanity Fair along with Leibovitz's photos and is now offered on eBay in a charity auction. Hey, there's always something to blog about.

I mention this not because I admire the artwork--good heavens, I don't--or because I am hoping to attract legions of music fans to my little illustration blog--I wouldn't be able to hold their interest for three seconds. The thing that strikes me about this auction is the sheer brilliance of this is as a publicity grab! I am truly amazed.

We live in a post-Warhol world where getting attention is seemingly its own art form. Lady Gaga is, I believe, a master in this area, and I suppose Annie Leibovitz and Tony Bennett are way above average at the publicity game in their respective fields. It doesn't hurt that they are each prodigiously talented.

But Tony Bennett's talents as a visual artist aren't in the same league as his musical talents. This drawing of an unclothed Lady Gaga which, at this writing, has a healthy bid of $15,200 but hasn't met its reserve, is getting attention not for its artistic vision but rather for its status as a unique object of celebrity memorabilia which, incidentally, can be hung on a wall and talked about ad infinitum once the bidding is over. If I close my eyes, I am truly dazzled.

Lady Gaga by Tony Bennett

Questions and answers about this item
No questions or answers have been posted about this item.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180772753999?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_3007wt_1413

Lady Gaga - The Lady Is A Tramp

(Full Song ft. Tony Bennett)

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