Sally Holmes was an inbetweener at Walt Disney Studios, meaning that she animated transitional frames between key frames. She left her job circa 1946 at which time she had many of the animators and even Walt himself sign her copy of Deems Taylor'sFantasia (1940). Some of the book's signers were well on their way to becoming Disney legends and others were to remain more obscure. Most added original drawings. Some of these presented to the married Holmes were sexist and risqué—and quite different from the usual Disney fare. The book was sold on eBay circa November 2009. It is now on the market again via AbeBooks, selling for a pretty penny.
Title page "To Sally Holmes All Best Wishes Walt Disney"
"G'By Sally!" Artist Unknown "Gosh Sally! I'm sure gonna miss yuh! 'Take care of yourself baby' David Deliege[?] (Dave)"
Note:Sally Holmes's farewell book was previously sold on eBay in 2009. This allowed Jenny Lerew'sTheBlackwing Diaries blog to show many additional pages from this volume. You can see her full 2009 post here. Also, Mark Mayerson's blog Mayerson on Animation has an additional page from the 2009 listing here. Back in 2009, I still had the good sense not to try blogging.
EBay listings are generally deleted three months after auction close. I would love to hear from anyone who may have had the foresight to archive the complete 2009 listing for this volume. Additional information about Sally Holmes would be welcome, of course.
Books signed and illuminated en masse like this one are often fascinating, at least to me. I would like to post images provided by collectors who are lucky enough to own books personalized by the likes of Disney studio animators, Dutch Treat Club members, or New Yorker artists—that sort of thing.
If you were in town on November 9, 1946, you should have been at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom for the annual Dutch Treat Show. Directed by no less a Dutch Treat Club member than George Abbott, the music included "The Dutch Treat Hymn" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In fact, Richard Rodgers played a little piano as well. The alternate title of the show was "What is Art?" That's always something worth pondering. The show's players were a veritable Who's Who in the world of illustration, publishing, and the performing arts. The performance included a comedy sketch by Rube Goldberg in which a young Wally Cox played someone named Stella—this was obviously classy stuff, and there were no women in the Dutch Treat Club to take the female roles anyway—and Vanity Fair'sFrank Crowninshield (of the Algonquin Round Table too) played, naturally, a connoisseur. Harry Staton, manager of the Herald Tribune Syndicate, played a visitor from the newly-created United Nations. George Abbott played in his own sketch alongside Bennett Cerf. Cartoonist Otto Soglow got to realize his dream of being an actor by cross-dressing as Gilda in a sketch by Deems Taylor.The New Yorker'sRea Irvin was one of many extras. There was a lot more going on. Just take a look at the program. And please tip your waiter.
John E. Sheridan The D.T. Presents the 1946 Show
"AND FINALLY—PLEASE TIP YOUR WAITER"
Note: My thanks again go to Stephen Kroninger for scanning this program which he found inserted in one of his Dutch Treat Club yearbooks. Memorabilia of the Dutch Treat Club makes a welcome addition to the blog. I'd love to take a look at what odd items readers have on hand.
Margaret Schloeman would create only two covers for the New Yorker, both of them outstanding. The first appears right here in the spring of 1925 but the second won't be published until 1931. Nevertheless Schloeman qualifies as the magazine's second female cover artist—the first is Ilonka Karasz, of course.
With this cover printed in only two colors for the sake of economy, the white of the paper becomes a crucial component of the design. There are a number of interesting things going on here. New York City's impossible traffic is indicated simply by showing two cars diverging at unlikely angles, perhaps to pass on either side of the slow-moving bus. The double-decker bus is tilted, which creates interest and tension while introducing diagonals in the composition. That tilt to the right also increases the upward sweep of the handrails to the staircase and it creates a cozy corner below the magazine logo in which there is a scene of starlit bliss. The magazine logo is mostly in white; only the initials N and Y are in green, which is a very unusual arrangement and serves to balance the subtle splash of green in the woman's scarf. In the midst of all this stands the conductor in his uniform, a solitary figure on duty in the doorway. He may or may not be aware of how brightly the star is shining this night on the couple above.
Margaret Schloeman The New Yorker, May 2, 1925
Ralph Barton's name hasn't been among the editorial advisors since the issue of April 11, and he hasn't had a theatre drawing in the magazine since the issue of April 4. Has there been some sort of problem?
"The Talk of the Town"
Puppy love:
Reginald Marsh's elaborate spreads have been a fixture of "The Talk of the Town" section, but change is in the air and this week it's Eldon Kelley who shows us around the clubs.
Club Lido Eldon Kelley
Deems Taylor is, like New Yorker editor Harold Ross, a member of the esteemed Algonquin Round Table. He has been commissioned by the Met to write an as yet unnamed new opera. Today we know it is to be entitled "The King's Henchman," it will have a libretto by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and it will receive its first performance in 1927. It will later pass into obscurity.
"O Caesar, great wert thou!"
From "The King's Henchman," Act 1
Music by Deems Taylor
Libretto by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Lawrence Tibbett as Eadgar, King of England
The Philadelphia Orchestra
The Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Leopold Stokowski, Conductor
Lawrence Tibbett as Eadgar in Deems Taylor's "The King's Henchman"
Over the course of its first ten issues, the New Yorker published at least two corrections. Here is the first of two corrections to appear in this issue alone.
Correction
Keep this under your hat! Cartoonist Alfred Frueh reveals a new religious brand of teetotaling "speakeasy." Note the insensitive sign language gag.
The Liberal Modernists Open Their Own Speakeasy Alfred Frueh
Florida for sale...
Eldon Kelley[?],"The New Conquistadores"
Has the plight of the dieter changed much over the last ninety years?
"Metropolitan Monotypes" by Baird Leonard
The saga of U.S. mail delivery.
"The Mail Must Go Through" Alfred Frueh
Ralph Barton has been absent from the theatre page for a few weeks now. Fortunately there's no shortage of artists who can draw French maids.
"Great Moments from the Drama" W. E. Hill
The New Yorker pans Shaw.
"The Theatre"
The second correction to grace this issue concerns last week's review of "The Mikado."
"The Theatre" Correction
Curtain call:
This week's Profile is of Sam Drebbin, "The Fighting Jew." Because Drebbin has just died as the result of a medication error, this piece is illustrated with a (not very Jewish) angel rather than the usual portrait.
The unsigned illustration is in a style reminiscent of Rockwell Kent.
Sam Drebbin fought in several wars, but that's not what killed him.
A caricature from the "Music" page:
Ernest Newman Miguel Covarrubias
Today Deems Taylor is remembered more for his appearance in "Fantasia" than for his musical compositions, but in his day his music was well-received.
Play ball!
The capsule reviews in the "Goings On" section continue to be rewritten, with the result that this page remains fresh and timely. How many of these long-forgotten productions would you give anything to be able to see today?
"Goings On"
A fine artist passes away...
In memoriam John Singer Sargent Born 1856—Died 1925
"There is a great sameness about these negro shows and few individual performances stand out in your memory." It's all very ho-hum. The type of racial caricature shown here is commonplace in the 1920's and doesn't raise any red flags at the New Yorker. Neither does the ongoing proliferation of performers in blackface, which will still be very mainstream when "The Jazz Singer" is released in 1927.
Charles Baskerville Club Alabam "When Nights Are Bold"
In the center column, the New Yorker quips that a new statue of Balto to be placed in Central Park will paradoxically guarantee obscurity for the famed sled dog. Ninety years later, both the statue and the dog remain popular.
Party time, gentlemen! How can the ladies keep away?
The Annual Banquet Hans Stengel
Gather ye rosebuds and subscriptions...
After hours...
Ladies of the Evening Paul Reilly
Just take a look at this! The final cartoon of the May 2 issue is by Gardner Rea, whose New Yorker work to date has been in the old-fashioned style of magazines like Judge and Punch. It may not have been expected then that a Rea gag would be the one to question the very foundation of the 19th century dialogue cartoon. Yet here is an absolutely extraordinary gag cartoon, against all odds. This is one of those rare cartoons that knows it's a cartoon, that flouts the moribund conventions of the cartoon, and that proclaims some new era is on its way. It is set up conventionally to have two speakers, yet only one person speaks and really that's the whole point. The New Yorker has not quite laid the dialogue caption to rest, but it has laid the groundwork for it. The he/she gag cartoon will soon be gone. What on earth is going to replace it? Do the editors even know? Stay tuned...
Old Gentleman: Dear, dear, I
suppose the child has a wise crack to
spring and I should ask him what
he's crying about!
Gardner Rea
This bit has run in all eleven issues now:
"The Optimist"
Perhaps this column explains the absence of John Held, Jr. from the last couple of issues of the magazine.
Weston, Conn. By John Held, Jr.
For all you geography buffs, Syosset is a fine Long Island town whose name no doubt evokes the epitome of style.
Give my regards...
It is now some two weeks since F. Scoott Fitzgerald published the The Great Gatsby. It has yet to be reviewed in the magazine, old sport, but while waiting Conan Doyle fans might enjoy this:
From "Books"
Critic and Algonquin frequenter Alexander Woollcott writes some copy for an advertiser.
Cruger's
"Endorsed by leading professors of mouth hygiene..." Ah, the academic life!
