The Society of Illustrators: Pay-Time and Play-Time

The thirtieth annual exhibition of the Society of Illustrators was held at the Harlow, McDonald Gallery early  in the spring of 1932. It was the time of the Great Depression and, according to an ad found on eBay, many illustrators were out of work. The Society raised money to assist these artists by offering the public fifteen-minute portrait sketches and caricatures by some of the era's most celebrated illustrators. For five dollars ($108.32 in today's money), from March 28 to April 9, visitors could be immortalized by Peter Arno, W. T. Benda, Floyd Davis, James Montgomery Flagg, Rube Goldberg, Jefferson Machamer, Herb Roth, Tony Sarg, Otto Soglow, or C. D. Williams. For those who didn't lose their life savings in the Great Crash, it wasn't a bad deal at all.

What became of these portraits created more than ninety years ago for a good cause? Some of them must still be around, but how are we to recognize if they are from this event?

Society of Illustrators
eBay listing accessed January 29, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385378978259?hash=item59ba6089d3:g:JFoAAOSwm4Vj1XrP&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoKHAV2SB8Q%2BNkv8C22373E9efMvoyZ%2FkfzkhEInkS3QxduQMIWe2DSZrX%2BbtOCpf2g5Dw7gpCNcgSLnva1bubKZo2bn9gEu%2BOvttzW7YyBDSxehs%2BE8%2FI2Z9nlOF%2BDs1KchkRkXiyoYDLE4hysR1SMuczlU1DZBlnqZn7rTRma2ZsmHNaWlRvgwIAwOb6gbU5emIOCNWctiUuEsgxYwl8Y0%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8astdzAYQ

Society of Illustrators
eBay item description

Note:  Attempted Bloggery would like to post some of these portraits, so please search your family heirlooms.

The ad is illustrated by W. M. I don't recognize the initials. Could it be Wallace Morgan? Or somebody else?

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The Illustrators' Show

The place to be on May 13, 1932 was the Illustrators' Show at the New Yorker Theatre, now Studio 54. This was an annual benefit with racy content not unlike the Dutch Treat Shows. The program describes a revue in two acts written by and starring famous illustrators. James Montgomery Flagg contributed "The Illustrators' Song" to the first act. Tony Sarg put on a marionette play in the second.

Rube Goldberg supervised the whole event. He contributed a sketch entitled "Diddle Me This" which features such thoughtfully-named characters as Dr. Belcher McBurp and Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Broccoli. Like many of the illustrators, he performed in his own sketch. Otto Soglow contributed and performed in two sketches, "On Guard" and "Home!!!" In J. P. McEvoy's sketch "Art for God's Sake," Rube Goldberg and Otto Soglow play their own pictures in an art gallery. There is an Arno picture on the wall as well, but Peter Arno does not seem to have been a participant. His picture is played by Peggy Young and Dow Walling. Arthur William Brown and James Montgomery Flagg also did not play their own pictures, but they were involved with the production. Patti Patterson—perhaps Russell Patterson's wife—played a nude.

Illustrators' Show program, May 13, 1932

Note:  Thanks to Tom Bloom for providing this extraordinary program.

Anyone with photos, sheet music, scripts, programs, or recordings of this show or any contemporary "Illustrators' Show "or "Dutch Treat Show, " your material is needed here on this blog.

Some of these illustrators have already been blogged about here:

Peter Arno

James Montgomery Flagg

Rube Goldberg

Carl Mueller

Lloyd Myers

Tony Sarg

John Sheridan

Otto Soglow

Encore, encore!

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