Ninety years ago, if you had picked up that first issue of the
New Yorker on your neighborhood newsstand, you would have seen very little advertising and not all that much editorial content. Nevertheless, today's readers of the magazine will recognize that some familiar elements were there from the very beginning. Let's have a look.
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| Rea Irvin, The New Yorker, February 21, 1925 |
The dandy who we now call Eustace Tilley was conceived not solely as a cover illustration but also as a recurring figure on the masthead, a mascot of sorts for the new magazine watching over its editorial content through his monocle. His quill pen, another extremely retro element, is hardly necessary in the presence of that excellent crop of advisory editors. It was quite impressive of Harold Ross to put this team together for his first issue. Many of the names are still instantly familiar to us ninety years later!
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| Rea Irvin, Of All Things, page 1 |
The first cartoon in a magazine that would come to be known for its outstanding cartoons is by
Alfred Frueh. It takes place on the subway--or is it the El?
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| Alfred Frueh, Co-operation |
The Talk of the Town section was present from the beginning, but it soon was to replace
Of All Things in the leading position.
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| Rea Irvin, The Talk of the Town |
The fledgling magazine was working hard to convey a light tone. Here is some timely humor pulled from the headlines of February 1925. Those who have seen "Balto" will be acquainted with the story, but not with this little-known sequel.
The New Yorker's first spot drawing is quite lively too.
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| Spot drawing |
Could there be any doubt what corner of the world would be this magazine's primary focus?
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"The Story of Manhattankind."
Illustration by Herb Roth. |
Surprise! The second cartoon is also by
Alfred Frueh.
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| Alfred Frueh, The Tower of Pisa in a Nervous Household |
The magazine's first
Profile featured Maestro Giulio Gotti-Casazza of the Metropolitan Opera.
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Profile of Giulio Gatti-Casazza.
Illustration by Miguel Covarrubias. |
Cartoons of the era typically presented bits of dialogue. The first speaker would set up the joke and the second would deliver the punchline. It's a bit of work to read and, as in this case, there's often not much of a payoff.
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Gardner Rea, "What's th' drunk's name, Reilly?"
"Dunno, serjeant. He claims he's a unidentified body!" |
Ralph Barton's mock-recapitulation of the theatre season supposes that censorship is imminent.
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| Ralph Barton, Synopsis of the Preceding Chapters |
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| Rea Irvin, The Theatre |
The artist responsible for the caricature
Flor de Pince Nez, Alfred Leete, was unknown even to the
New Yorker's archivists
until 2013. An auction house in Devon offered the original watercolor in July of 2012 and erroneously identified the artist as Arthur T. Tansley. The auction estimate was 25-45 GBP, but what might it have been if the true publication history had been known?
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| Alfred Leete, Flor de Pince Nez |
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| Alfred Leete, Flor de Pince-Nez / Absence of Mind |
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| Detail of Flor de Pince-Nez / Absence of Mind |
The modern single-speaker caption did already exist with the
New Yorker's first issue. Still, there was room for improvement.
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| Oscar Howard, "I don't know what I shall do, Amelia, when I think of you alone in Paris." |
Clearly the magazine intended to engage in social commentary:
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| Wallace Morgan, The Bread Line |
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| In Our Midst header |
Among the lightheaded social notes in this section, we find this note on Don Marquis, author of
archy and mehitabel (newspaper columns to be collected in book form in 1927), among many other things:
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| Image added March 9, 2015 |
Then there is cartoonist Al Frueh, who appeared twice in this issue, shown attaining new heights.
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| Image added March 9, 2015 |
And even Broadway composer Jerome Kern gets a sideways mention.
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| Image added March 9, 2015 |
Ethel Plummer's cartoon does more than hint at the revolution in attitudes towards sex taking place in the Jazz Age:
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Ethel Plummer, Uncle: "Poor girls, so few get their wages!"
Flapper: "So few get their sin, darn it!" |
Today Fritz Kreisler remains a towering figure in the pantheon of the world's great violinists.
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| Einar Narman, Fritz Kreisler |
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| Art header |
Goings On soon became
Goings On About Town. It was to be moved to the front of the magazine preceding the editorial content. Here, a carnival barker:
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| Rea Irvin, Goings On |
The first subscription offer is quite humorous. A year's subscription costs five dollars.
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| Subscription offer |
Presumably these little subject drawings were by Rea Irvin. Hear ye! Hear ye!
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| Books header |
Are you cosmopolitan enough to know where to get your old corsets rejuvenated? Well, now you are.
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| Where to Shop |
Note: What luck! I have other blog posts about
Rea Irvin and
Miguel Covarrubias. You also might be able to learn a bit about what's been going on for the last ninety years at
The New Yorker.
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