Attempted Bloggery: Peter Arno's Side-Show for March 1937

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Peter Arno's Side-Show for March 1937

The March 1937 installment of Peter Arno's "Side-Show" is definitely a keeper. I'm keeping my copy. The magazine is College Humor. These Arno cartoons must have created a sensation among young readers, but they were never collected and have been lost to popular culture for many decades. My guess, though, is that the people who encountered these drawings when they were coming of age remembered them fondly for life.

"Hurry, dear! Our guests are beginning to arrive!"
Peter Arno
College Humor, March 1937, p. 18

"Gosh, I forgot to look at your teeth, didn't I?"
* * *
"After the part where you tell them to 'speak now or forever hold their peace'—er—don't pause too long."
Peter Arno
College Humor, March 1937, p. 19

Here's the original art for each of these as seen on a 1985 contact sheet from the Nicholls Gallery:

"Hurry, dear! Our guests are beginning to arrive!"

"Gosh, I forgot to look at your teeth, didn't I?"

"After the part where you tell them to 'speak now or forever hold their peace'—er—don't pause too long."

Note: For those keeping score at home, I am still looking for the published versions of three of the Peter Arno College Humor cartoons consigned to the Nicholls Gallery in 1985. There's also a "rather dumb" Otto Soglow psychoanalysis cartoon that should be in one of these issues as well.

"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, c. 1936-1937

"It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson."
College Humor, c. 1936-1937

"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe."
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, c. 1936-1937

An organ grinder on the street feels sad that his monkey has more satisfying interactions with people than he does. He goes to a psychoanalyst and soon after changes places with the monkey.

"I think rather dumb." —Barbara Nicholls

Otto Soglow

So I'm keeping an eye out for "It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club," "It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson," and "You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe," but if any reader should already know where they are hiding out, please do tell.

All right, if you insist, I'll give you my own best guess for the location of these cartoons: College Humor, February 1937. Unfortunately, I don't see a copy currently available for sale but one was sold on eBay not all that long ago.