Attempted Bloggery: For Members Only

Showing posts with label For Members Only. Show all posts

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Peter Arno: The Fireman's Pledge

An early cartoon original by Peter Arno was sold by Clarke Auction Gallery of Larchmont in 2020.

"Now remember your promise!"
Peter Arno
Original art
For Members Only (1935)

Arno imbues the rescue scene with all the bawdy innuendo he can muster. That fireman is surely brave, but he is no match for the mature, stout, playful woman descending the ladder in her flimsy nightgown.

"Now remember your promise!"
Peter Arno
Framed original art
For Members Only (1935)

Alas, there is some surface loss to the original.

Conveniently, a caption has been written on the back: "Now remember you promised!"

The back of the frame

The handwritten caption differs slightly from what is printed in For Members Only.

The caption

Peter Arno
Clarke Auction Gallery listing of April 26, 2020

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/peter-arno-american-1904-1968-now-remember-50-c-01241b78bb

Peter Arno
Clarke Auction Gallery item description

https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/clarke/fine-art-jewelry-antiques-asian-midcentury-auction-5040?page=2#catalog

Febrary 11, 2026 Update: The cartoon was published in the 1935 collection Peter Arno's For Members Only with the caption "Now remember your promise!" I therefore have corrected the caption slightly from "Now remember, you promised!"

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Thursday, April 21, 2016

Earth Day: Peter Arno's Fresh Produce

For Earth Day, here's something fresh from cartoonist Peter Arno that's all-natural and 100% organic:

"Young man! You put that celery in a bag, where it belongs!"
Peter Arno
Original art

Skinner, March 7, 2008

http://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2399/lots/626

May 29, 2016 Update: Another version of this artwork appears in Peter Arno's For Members Only (1935).

Note: The blog archives have many posts about Earth Day that are less of a stretch than this one.

Posts about Passover may also be found here.

This blog may not have more examples of original cartoon art than every other blog, but it has more examples than most. Check them out.

By now you know that Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist by Michael Maslin is available wherever you buy books. My copy is in a bag, where it belongs.

More Arno links. Stop me if you've seen these already.

Peter Arno posts on Ink Spill.

Peter Arno in Chris Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery.

Peter Arno in April's Vanity Fair.

Peter Arno in a recent Wall Street Journal article.

Peter Arno posts here on Attempted Bloggery.

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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Peter Arno's Leading Gag

Peter Arno, who was born on this day in 1904, liked to poke fun at weak men with difficulty standing up to domineering women. Original artwork for an early example of this sort of gag was sold at auction for $800 over the summer in Seattle. The auction listing offered a detailed publication history, citing the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper of November 23, 1935. Could Peter Arno have published this sophisticated gag cartoon in a Brooklyn family newspaper? That's a very interesting idea, but it's also very wrong.

The auction house was onto something though. They must have done an internet search for the caption and come up with this issue of the newspaper. If they just had taken things a step further, they would have found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle not the gag cartoon itself but a book review of Peter Arno's For Members Only (1935) which directly quotes the caption in question. It is in this Arno collection that the cartoon was published, although it could have appeared elsewhere first. If you missed the newspaper's book review the first time around, it is reproduced here. See what informed Brooklynites were reading in 1935 when Mr. Arno was 31 and men still knew how to lead on the dance floor, mostly.