It seems my friends all know how to make good use of their scanners, something I seem to be constitutionally unable to learn to do with my own. My good friend Jerome Wrinkle has contributed a superb set of scans of an original Christmas cartoon by Frank Beaven, one of his favorite cartoonists. It was published in the Saturday Evening Post at the end of 1940. He writes:
Well, I think we can all agree that such a gift is not exactly age-appropriate and therefore the premise of the gag is probably not so believable. But multivolume complete sets of Dickens were sold widely in those days, proud testaments to the owners' literary taste whether they were read or not, and perhaps even if they were given to budding young readers.
Although published seventy-nine years ago, the scenario remains a familiar one. Some period details stand out: the density of the sales staff and the fact that all the customers, even the boy, have hats.
The published cartoon shows shades of red added in production.
Note: My thanks to Jerome Wrinkle for his wonderful scans and commentary. This is his ninth contribution to this blog. He notes that the original cartoon shown here is no longer in his possession.
I asked my father about his own complete set of Dickens. He believes a "door-to-door salesman sold it to us when I was a young boy." You would "pay a little bit each week"—or perhaps it was each month. They would drop off a new book and the subscriber would pay there and then. He adds, "I was the only one who read them." So…perhaps the cartoon isn't quite as implausible as I thought!
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I have scanned both front and back, the tear sheet I have, and an isolated scan of the published cartoon.To which I would add a simple note that even both Addams and Arno took on plenty of illustration and advertising work, and they published some cartoons in magazines other than the New Yorker as well.
I bought this on eBay. The seller thought it was from 1955 as 55 is scrawled on the front but, of course, that was what he was paid—$55.00. That's why, in those days, a cartoonist needed to hustle to make as many sales as possible to make a living. That meant turning out many, many cartoons each week. And, for the lucky ones, scaring up advertising assignments. Gagwriters were a necessity in order to turn out enough batches each week. Nobody, except Addams and Arno, could make a real living by simply working for the New Yorker.
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"All I want to know is what gave you the idea I wanted
the complete works of Dickens last Christmas?"
Frank Beaven
Original art
The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940, page 64
Scan by Jerome Wrinkle
|
Well, I think we can all agree that such a gift is not exactly age-appropriate and therefore the premise of the gag is probably not so believable. But multivolume complete sets of Dickens were sold widely in those days, proud testaments to the owners' literary taste whether they were read or not, and perhaps even if they were given to budding young readers.
Although published seventy-nine years ago, the scenario remains a familiar one. Some period details stand out: the density of the sales staff and the fact that all the customers, even the boy, have hats.
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| Verso
Scan by Jerome Wrinkle
|
 |
"All I want to know is what gave you the idea I wanted
the complete works of Dickens last Christmas?"
Frank Beaven
The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940, page 64
Scan by Jerome Wrinkle
|
 |
"All I want to know is what gave you the idea I wanted
the complete works of Dickens last Christmas?"
Frank Beaven
The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940, page 64
Scan by Jerome Wrinkle
|
Frank Beaven's 1940 New Jersey home—the address is written on the back of his cartoon—was built either in 1928 or 1930 (Zillow mentions both dates). It is a three-bedroom single-family dwelling. No word on how many works of Dickens it housed.
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| Frank Beaven's 1940 home today |
Note: My thanks to Jerome Wrinkle for his wonderful scans and commentary. This is his ninth contribution to this blog. He notes that the original cartoon shown here is no longer in his possession.
I asked my father about his own complete set of Dickens. He believes a "door-to-door salesman sold it to us when I was a young boy." You would "pay a little bit each week"—or perhaps it was each month. They would drop off a new book and the subscriber would pay there and then. He adds, "I was the only one who read them." So…perhaps the cartoon isn't quite as implausible as I thought!
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
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