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.

03796