William Steig Illustrates Bing Crosby's "Small Fry" Album

The song "Small Fry" with music by Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Frank Loesser was written for Paramount's "Sing You Sinners" (1938). In the film it is performed as an onstage musical number by Bing Crosby as Pappy, a young Donald O'Connor as Small Fry, and Fred MacMurray cross-dressing as Mammy. Crosby later recorded the song with Johnny Mercer and Victor Young's Small Fryers for a 1941 Decca album named "Small Fry: A Collection of Songs About 'Small Fry.'"

William Steig was already known for a long-running cartoon series in The New Yorker called "Small Fry." His cartoons may have done much to popularize the term or at the very least to associate it with his sophisticated and nostalgic humorous sensibility. It is therefore no surprise that Steig was asked to illustrate the album cover. Aside from the title song, his drawings seem to specifically draw inspiration from the songs "Shoe Shine Boy," "The Girl with the Pigtail in Her Hair," "School Days," "Sunbonnet Sue," and "Poor Old Rover." In addition, the boy hawking newspapers refers to "Just a Kid Named Joe." The boy leaning against the lamppost may or may not reference the song "If I Was a Millionaire." The same Steig drawings are used for the cover of the enclosed booklet, but with a different layout to accommodate the taller proportions. Steig's Small Fry was not collected in book form until 1944, so it's interesting that his series known primarily to readers of The New Yorker was used in this mainstream album promotion in 1941.

Bing Crosby
eBay listing accessed November 25, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283772175505?hash=item421223c491:g:YXAAAOSw~8leOcqY

Bing Crosby
eBay item description

"Small Fry" from "Sing You Sinners" (1938)

Sung by Bing Crosby and Johnny Mercer (1941)

Music by Hoagy Carmichael

Lyrics by Frank Loesser

http://www.pianomanslc.com/Lyrics/S/Small%20Fry.htm

https://beethoven.oktav.com/i/at/14f04a4e_t-001-small-fry-1200w.jpg

The published sheet music uses images from the movie and does not feature any art by William Steig:

"Small Fry"

https://www.amazon.com/Small-sung-Bing-Crosby-Sinners/dp/B003XYJV0A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Fry_(song)

Note:  To me it seems obvious that Bing Crosby's "Small Fry" album with its cover art by William Steig should have been advertised in The New Yorker, but I am unable to find any evidence of this. 

You can watch the song "Small Fry" as it appeared in the 1938 movie "Sing You Sinners" on Vimeo here.

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Original New Yorker Dog Cartoons by Arnie Levin and Michael Maslin

Jo Sullivan originated the role of Rosabella, the young mail-order bride in the original 1956 Broadway production of Frank Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella." She married the composer in 1959. After her husband's death in 1969, she continued to rear their family while managing his musical legacy. Jo Sullivan Loesser passed away earlier this year at the age of 91.

Her estate includes two original New Yorker cartoons that went on the auction block in Connecticut just yesterday. Both cartoons were published in September of 1991 and both are concerned with the subject of dogs. One of the drawings has a cat too for good measure. The auction house has identified both cartoons it would seem as the work of Michael Maslin, and it is half-right. The other cartoon is by Arnie Levin.

Both drawings are matted and framed. Paperwork affixed to the back includes printer's instructions and copies of the printed cartoons.

The drawing by Arnie Levin includes no fewer than thirteen dogs (and even more than thirteen dog names). I love the way he draws them here—the dogs, not the names.

Capt. Hargeter's Obedience School
Graduating Class 1991
Arnie Levin
Original art
The New Yorker, September 9, 1991, page 40

A temperamental dog confronts a possibly rude cat in the cartoon by Michael Maslin. While the dog and cat are sorting it out, just look at the lovely detail the artist has lavished on the house! When has a backyard looked quite so inviting?

"You may never have hissed at me, but it's certainly been implied."
Michael Maslin
Original art
The New Yorker, September 23, 1991, page 32

For reasons we can only guess at, the auction house has chosen to show us a close-up of the pencilled crop lines:

We also get a couple of random details from the back of the art:

Arnie Levin and Michael Maslin

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/2-new-yorker-magazine-cartoon-illustrations-7f94e4a9ef

These two cartoons when published look pretty similar to the original art:

Capt. Hargeter's Obedience School
Graduating Class 1991
Arnie Levin
The New Yorker, September 9, 1991, page 40

Capt. Hargeter's Obedience School
Graduating Class 1991
Arnie Levin
Original art
The New Yorker, September 9, 1991, page 40

Cartoon by Arnie Levin

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1991-09-09/flipbook/040/

The New Yorker has cleaned up its online archive. The words are legible now and the images sharp. It's about time.

Cartoons by Michael Maslin and William Hamilton

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1991-09-23/flipbook/032/

"You may never have hissed at me, but it's certainly been implied."
Michael Maslin
Original art
The New Yorker, September 23, 1991, page 32

"You may never have hissed at me, but it's certainly been implied."
Michael Maslin
The New Yorker, September 23, 1991, page 32

"Somebody, Somewhere"
From "The Most Happy Fella"
Original 1956 Broadway Cast
Jo Sullivan as Rosabella
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser

https://www.amazon.com/Somebody-Somewhere-Happy-Loesser-Artist/dp/B0767PPBML

Update:  This post has prompted cartoonist Michael Maslin to write, "I find it interesting that someone applied the heavy ink(?) caption on mine. I would never have let my caption overwhelm the drawing. In your close-up you can see my caption ever-so-slightly underneath. Looks like it was erased."


Note:  You can read Jo Sullivan Loesser's obituary in the Times here.

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Follow the Fold: Otto Soglow in College Humor, July 1937

Cartoonist Otto Soglow's bank teller gets religion in four panels as seen in the July 1937 issue of College Humor. We know quite a lot about this teller: his name is Mr. Macintosh, he works for the Bean Exchange(!), and he sports a mustache that is about to go out of style forever.

Otto Soglow
College Humor, Vol 5, No. 3, July 1937, page 13

Note:  This cartoon was photographed in the July 1937 issue of College Humor, just one page out of some 5,600 publications in the Steven Boss humor magazine collection. You can find it in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University. A blogger could get lost in this collection for a very long time. I imagine someone without a blog could get lost too, but then who would know? The collection is accessible by the general public. Just contact Curator for Comics and Cartoons Karen Green. Be sure to blog about what you find, or send me a few pictures and I'll blog about them for you.  Really, how hard can it be?

Why isn't Otto Soglow better known? He was pretty popular in his day. Help me keep his work in the public eye on Attempted Bloggery. I am looking for high-quality scans or photographs of original cartoon art by Soglow and other artists whose work appeared in magazines like College Humor or The New Yorker. Examples of rare or forgotten published work like this bank teller cartoon are always desired.

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