Otto Soglow: On Strike at the Deli

Original Depression Era New Yorker art dating from 1937 by cartoonist Otto Soglow was sold last month on eBay. The sequential drawing takes us into the nitty gritty of a labor dispute at a delicatessen belonging to one E. Swartz. Will the protest be resolved?

Otto Soglow
Original art
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

Soglow has reoworked the last panel a little. There is some white-out in the area of the picketer's forward leg and some glue staining at the bottom of the hanging placard.

Verso

Otto Soglow
eBay listing ended July 23, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176486041197?_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01JA75GRHZ41G1ZVP8WQDWXXJC&hash=item291763466d:g:pBoAAOSwgWRmjrhF&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnl3XP2vwNBdXK9mSCl48A9hYw29Qlqn6EXU2A1VSRfMEnzvcGhb%2F0RFJTi7GyecDSJOi39%2FC--MrlK%2BYo%2F4r6FuidDi%

2BC3nvj5%2F0GD2ipVeaGfw0N0YlpKt7Us1CQF%2F3384j1s5C3PAXQ%2Bm%2FFwHcWq6GHr9CxzFzpzlMGDeezLu2In0SbHVu5h0AZNgv40EWtNkigrnar33CmkdyoIkBj%2FmT7Hg9N%2FTwfAwJfDb4hFa8PMJj8ziO0e15GC%2FSfpctHqXHaNO%2BJsX4phqy%2FSZ81SZVDBQpw0DOSY0798gT2xjQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4qJw-XRZA

Otto Soglow
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

In Soglow's final panel, the bottom of the sign that is worn reads Today's Big Special, which repeats the first words on the sign that is carried. The New Yorker's editors evidently had Soglow restore the bottom of that sign to read Local Union, as in the first panel, with a patch that is now lost. Some residual glue must have caused discoloration to that part of the paper.

Otto Soglow
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

Otto Soglow
Original art
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

With cartoons by George Price and Otto Soglow

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1937-10-09/flipbook/026/

* * *

On the other side of the page, cartoonist George Price uses shading and a more relaxed and freewheeling line to produce a very different sort of cartoon image. Here he shows a physician perched upon a laboratory table during an office visit, perhaps not such an unconventional seating choice when there is no examining table. Price, though, is making fun of a cigarette promotion which must have been very familiar at the time to the magazine's readers. Line thickness and empty white space assures that we don't miss the essential speech balloon.

"It suddenly appeared                                         

when I started working on that Old Gold contest."

George Price

The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 26

The thing is, I haven't been able to find a print example of the Old Gold cigarette contest referenced in the Price cartoon. Still, I think I know a caption contest when I see one.

Note:  With the help of enterprising collectors, I would love to dedicate future posts on this blog to examples of original art by the likes of New Yorker cartoonists Otto Soglow and George Price. I would also like to add information about that elusive Old Gold contest right here.

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