H. O. Hofman's first New Yorker cover plays to one of the magazine's strengths: its theatre coverage. Fred and Adele Astaire are captivating Broadway audiences in 1925 and this cover illustration may be inspired by their stage magic. This angular composition offers us a privileged view from off in the wings. The stylized figures move downstage right in tandem, while the spotlight unites their shadows in an impossible trident. Indeed, there are quite a few triangles in this composition, and many of them converge at the same points. The color palette may be limited to blacks, pinks, and grays, but the excitement of live theatre is in no way limited. The bar across the cover's bottom edge has returned, as if to put the brakes--very gently--on all the excitement. Hofman will do some thirteen covers for the magazine.
H. O. Hofman,The New Yorker, April 18, 2015
"The Talk of the Town" page reveals all:
From "The Talk of the Town"
Reginald Marsh outdoes himself in a spread capturing the energy of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baily Circus. Wow!
Reginald Marsh,Lay-dees and-d Gent-tel-men-nn, I now Direct Yo' Kind At-ten-nshun-nn--
A publishing giant fades into retirement, but it isn't yet time to say "Rosebud."
"Mr. Hearst Retires"
A flapper in stripes:
John Held, Jr. may be drawing flappers himself for the old Life, but for the New Yorker he is getting nostalgic for the songs and sentiment of his youth. Here he cleans up the dialect of "Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes," which was originally a minstrel show song.
John Held, Jr.,Just Because She Made Them Goo Goo Eyes
"Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes" Music by Hughey Cannon Lyrics by John Queen Sheet Music
"'Ruint,' by Hatcher Hughes, is a good folk play. According to what that means to you, you will or will not continue reading this notice. Either way, it will all be the same a hundred years from now." Or ninety.
"The Theatre"
"In the center picture, Mr. Howlett is trying to make Miss Freeman do something she doesn't want to do." The New Yorker explains William Congreve's "Love for Love" to its smart young readers.
W. E. Hill, "Love for Love"
"The primitive episode naturally suggests comparison with Stravinsky's 'Sacre du Printemps,' (which, by the way, this department doesn't regard very worshipfully), and approximates with a dozen players what Stravinsky drives out with a hundred." Take that, Igor!
"Music" Illustration of Emerson Whithorne by Henry Major
Presenting Arthur Watts's one and only cartoon for the magazine. It is rendered from a challenging aerial vantage point with crisp, clean lines, but the woman with the pram and even the dog are a little distracting. The gag, such as it is, would seem better suited to Punch, to which Watts has been contributing since 1912.
Arthur Watts, GUEST (who has been invited for a week-end at his host's country COTTAGE): And very nice too! HOST: Damn it, man! That's only the lodge.
It seems the "Goings On" page includes a greater number of charity events.
From "Goings On"
"To some he is an acquired taste." The New Yorker reviews a Joseph Stella show and notes that it "is worth several visits." Several!
"Arts"
"And as for his Venus--well we just don't like her." Here's what the New Yorker's readers didn't get to see for themselves unless they visited the Dudensing Galleries:
Joseph Stella,The Birth of Venus
"If this fad for 'hat dances' doesn't pass soon all our cabaret gents will be as bald as Maurice."
"Around the Clock" Charles Baskervville,Frisco Back Stage Club
Don't look down!
Spot drawing
I. Klein's first cartoon introduces his bold and distinctive drawing style. Just look at that El with the trolley beneath! Count the different hats! Lookit!
I. Klein, "Lookit, Pete who ever saw a pen yard look like that! It's a dirty shame what them movie birds puts over on the public!"
A bit of light verse marks Ring Lardner's first appearance in the magazine. The subject is the apparently solicitous theatre writer, director, and producer S. Jay Kaufman.
"The Constant Jay" Ring Lardner
Another first appearance is that of E. B. White, who provides a humorous piece on how Madison Avenue promotes the spring! Why hasn't "Medical term for fertilizer" entered the lexicon?
"A Step Forward" E. B. White
Gardner Rea's cartoon gets some good mileage from an old cliché. The artist's palette is too big and gives the critic the appearance of having insect wings. Rea makes some baffling choices, no?
Gardner Rea,"Wonderful, my boy, wonderful! Of course, I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like!"
"The Optimist" is a small bit of column filler which looks like a joke, but most likely isn't. Or rather the joke is that it isn't a joke. It recurs in every issue. Perhaps it is editor Harold Ross's good luck charm. This is followed by an early example of a Newsbreak.
In 1925, Tony Sarg is known as a cartoonist, an animator, and a puppeteer. In 1928, he will introduce the first balloons to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But for now, he just needs to get to work.
Gus Mager explains how songwriters get their exotic ideas. The scattered sheet music includes "Meet Me in St. Louis" which was very specifically about the site of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 and in no way a lyricist's random whim.
Gus Mager,The Popular Song Writers Look Up a Few New Names to Get Sentimental About
Those well-behaved college kids:
"Prohibition at Princeton"
A new section on a popular subject:
"Sports"
The advertising is getting more interesting. An ad from Charles Scribner's Sons announces the publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There's also a book called What of It? by Ring Lardner. One of these authors appears in this issue of the magazine, but it is the other author's book that will become an instant classic.
Charles Scribner's Sons
"Help complete New York's Great Cathedral," the ad states. Today ninety years have passed and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine remains unfinished.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
How do you advertise an automobile to the New Yorker's upscale demographic? Well, you could try snob appeal. "Of several thousand Series 80 owners a surprising number have graduated from the ownership of cars costing less money." That's how it's done. Yours for just $2,895.
Pierce-Arrow Series 80
Note: A word of friendly advice: never look at the ninth issue of a magazine until you've read the eighth issue.
How do I know that Arthur Watts published only one cartoon in the magazine? That's easy. Michael Maslin has already done all the legwork. See his list of The New Yorker Cartoonists A-Z and note that some published only one cartoon and thus proudly belong to the One Club.
Easter was the heavenly theme of the New Yorker's cover for the April 11, 1925 issue, but inside the magazine it was business as usual.
Rea Irvin,The New Yorker, April 11, 1925
Are the Coolidges going to have a baby in the White House? The person to ask is Ted Clark, the President's personal secretary, long before there was any such thing as a Press Secretary. "He refused to confirm or deny. Anybody knows what the effect of that was bound to be. For rumoring purposes it confirmed." Of course, there is no baby on the way. Meanwhile the illustration shows a lesson from Dogwalking 101.
"The Talk of the Town"
This "Talk" piece is quoted in Guide to the White House Staff (CQ Press, 2013, page 31) by Shirley Anne Warshaw, who notes that Mr. Clark was actually the President's "assistant private secretary."
Two weeks earlier the annual Dutch Treat show was mentioned in "The Talk of the Town:"
"The Talk of the Town," The New Yorker, March 28, 1925, page 4
Now the great event at the Waldorf-Astoria has taken place, memorialized with a spread across two pages by Reginald Marsh, who doesn't spend too many nights at home from the looks of it. The D.T.'s, or delirium tremens, is of course a severe form of alcohol withdrawal quite familiar to a nation in theory withdrawing from alcohol on a grand scale. Fortuitously, these initials can also be made to stand for the Dutch Treat show, which is a revue featuring songs, sketches, and presumably abstinence from alcohol.
"The Student Prince," front and center on the left-hand page, is a 1924 operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It contains, as it happens, the famous "Drinking Song" which thirsty Prohibition Era audiences--if you'll forgive the phrase--simply lapped up. Literary lights Ring Lardner and Bob Benchley dominate the right-hand page. Benchley, like the New Yorker's editor Harold Ross, is a charter member of the Algonquin Round Table. The young magazine continues to give a lot of press to Mr. Ross's lunchtime crowd. Here Benchley is covered in armor and singing with minstrels in blackface.
Reginald Marsh, "The D.T's. of 1925" The Dutch Treat Show
Poseurs:
Eldon Kelley, Spot drawing
By far the most popular illustrator of the 1920's, John Held, Jr., regularly illustrates magazine covers for Life and book covers for F. Scott Fitzgerald. He comes from Salt Lake City where he was a colleague of the young newspaperman Harold Ross. Here he makes his first appearance in Mr. Ross's new magazine, a sure sign that Ross is still serious about recruiting major talent. Held's contemporary round-headed style is abandoned here as he adopts a mock "engraving" style which is actually linoleum block printing. This new old-fashioned style of his will prove quite versatile and effective over the coming years.
John Held, Jr.,The Rumrunner's Sister-in-Law
Hans Stengel's first cartoon--he already provided a "Profiles" portrait in the fifth issue--isn't merely window dressing--or is it? The brash young magazine's exaggerated depiction of the old codgers is unforgiving and perhaps unforgivable.
Hans Stengel,One of Our Clubs on the Avenue Arranges Its Spring Window Display
"Of All Things" is truly all over the place this week. There's mention of President Coolidge, Governor Smith, Mayor Hylan, Harvard, Florenz Ziegfeld, and the intractable five-cent subway fare. Then there is the Birth Control Conference mentioned in the second item. Margaret Sanger, the crusader for birth control, is the subject of this week's "Profiles," but Dr. Norman Haire's comment is altogether chilling. To use this as mere fodder for a gag seems all too glib. Reading on, the rest of the page seems trivial.
"Of All Things"
Three illustrated portraits:
"The Hour Glass"
Alfred Frueh gives you your money's worth: three panels each with three barbers giving three shaves. In a few years, the magazine will be doing far better than this with just a single panel.
"Profiles: The Child Who Was Mother to a Woman" Illustration of Margaret Sanger by Carl Fornaro
Miguel Covarrubias caricatures some of the biggest names in the theatre. Ninety years after the fact, most of these names remain well-known. (Ralph Barton must have the week off.)
Miguel Covarrubias,Mr. Covarrubias Looks at the Players
A dramatic approach to the piano:
There's always plenty to do in town. A sampling:
"Goings On"
Rea Irvin provides a brand new new subject heading for the "Art" page.
"Art" Illustration of Georgia O'Keeffe by Henry Major
Oscar Cesare's only cartoon for the magazine is an illustration of Mayor Hylan resting on the beach.
"Limitations of Intellectuals" by the Professor Illustration by Oscar Cesare
Who is Cesare? Take that, Kaiser! Bonnet Rouge is a powerful World War I political cartoon by Cesare that shows his more serious side.
Oscar Cesare,Bonnet Rouge Original art
"The tone of the hat-check attendant's 'Thank you' is about the same for a dime as a dollar." Perhaps, but how can a concession force far-off employees to turn over all tips?
"When Nights Are Bold"
This sounds suspiciously like another fake contest, but why not subscribe a few hundred times to the New Yorker to find out for sure?
"See Wilkes-Barre, Pa., for Nothing"
Many of these "Journalistic Jingles" are amusing. How about that?
"Journalistic Jingles"
Paul Reilly begins his short-lived career with the magazine. Who'd like to weigh in on this one?
Paul Reilly,Knickerbocker History--Primary Election for Burgomaster
Here's a slightly later example of Reilly's work, from the old Life:
Paul Reilly,The Kilkenny Cats Life, March 17, 1927
The advertising slogan "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" is already well known. "The Optimist" is reprinted again for the sake of consistency. Gus Mager's cartoon is rather elevating.
Gus Mager,The Elevator Man's Day Off
Coming up?
Frank Hanley
Groucho Marx mails it in. "Vaudeville Talk" is a brief dialogue between Vaude and Vill. Vill, the second speaker, has Groucho's unmistakable cadence and delivery. As for the first speaker, Vaude conceivably could be enacted by Zeppo or Chico or indeed any straight man.
"Vaudeville Talk"
Despite some gains, The New Yorker is still seeking humor in inconsequential prose.
"Jottings About Town"
"A friend of ours thinks we owe Ford Madox Ford an apology." The editorial "we" established itself first in the back sections of the magazine. The "Books" section takes another look at Ford Madox Ford's Some Do Not...
"Books"
Some of the recommended books here already have been reviewed during the magazine's first two months, but who expected to find A. A. Milne's When We Were Very Young on the short list?
"Nowadays it doesn't matter so much what you do as how many people get to know your name." The New Yorker already has it all figured out three years before the birth of Andy Warhol.
"Speaking of Publicity"
"It uses the simplest time table in the world--a train is always just pulling out as you get to the platform." Is the identity of author B. B. Bob Benchley? Busybody?
"Suggestions for the Subway 'Sun'"
The humor is Greek to me.
"When Greek Meets Greek"
"The Drinking Song" from "The Student Prince" (1954 Film)
