The thirtieth annual exhibition of the Society of Illustrators was held at the Harlow, McDonald Gallery early in the spring of 1932. It was the time of the Great Depression and, according to an ad found on eBay, many illustrators were out of work. The Society raised money to assist these artists by offering the public fifteen-minute portrait sketches and caricatures by some of the era's most celebrated illustrators. For five dollars ($108.32 in today's money), from March 28 to April 9, visitors could be immortalized by Peter Arno, W. T. Benda, Floyd Davis, James Montgomery Flagg, Rube Goldberg, Jefferson Machamer, Herb Roth, Tony Sarg, Otto Soglow, or C. D. Williams. For those who didn't lose their life savings in the Great Crash, it wasn't a bad deal at all.
What became of these portraits created more than ninety years ago for a good cause? Some of them must still be around, but how are we to recognize if they are from this event?
Society of Illustrators eBay listing accessed January 29, 2023
Maggie of the Suicide Fleet (1930) is the story of Maggie, the "pleasure yacht" of "Bromo-Seltzer King" Isaac Emerson, named for his wife Margaret, the recipient of this unique volume. The yacht was enlisted in the American submarine patrol fleet where it was assigned to protect America's coast, yet through a series of misadventures made it as far as the Azores, judging from the cover illustration by Herb Roth. When the book's illustrator dedicated this copy to Margaret Emerson he provided a sketch, very likely a self-portrait, as he describes himself as a coxswain and has drawn what to all appearances is a naval coxswain. When all is said and done, this probably wasn't Margaret's only copy.
Scanned by A Friend of the Blog
Scanned by A Friend of the Blog
Scanned by A Friend of the Blog
Note: My thanks to A Friend of the Blog for these scans of a fascinating book personalized by Herb Roth, one of The New Yorker's earliest cartoonists and illustrators. This is my friend's sixth contribution here. It is also the first original work of any kind by Herb Roth to appear on this blog, a real unpublished rarity! I would happily post more of such if any should be forthcoming. In the trade, that it what is known as a hint.
Rea Irvin's street sweeper is not pleased to find that a pair of white butterflies are drawn to him. Irvin's working class cartoon figure is in many ways the opposite of his upscale dandy who deigns to regard a single butterfly through his monocle on the cover of the first issue. The street sweepers were called the White Wings because of their regulation white uniforms, but Irvin suggests another, even better reason for the appellation.
Rea Irvin The New Yorker, May 9, 1925
With Ralph Barton off the list of advisory editors, the first in the alphabetical listing is playwright Marc Connelly of the Algonquin Round Table. He is the subject of this issue's first "Talk" piece. Editor Harold Ross's friends from the Algonquin get a lot of press in his magazine. Meanwhile Eldon Kelley illustrates the Roman myth of Proserpine being abducted to the underworld by Pluto, although some classical scholars may dispute the historical details shown here. For added fun, try reading that license plate upside down.
"The Talk of the Town" Eldon Kelley,Proserpine
Reginald Marsh returns to the "Talk" section with a new spread on the subject of golf, "the other great Scotch invention." In the New Yorker of the Prohibition era, it's pretty certain the writer isn't referring to bagpipes.
Reginald Marsh,Elegant America Does Its Duty By the Other Great Scotch Invention.
This "Talk" piece on illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson girl, gives some idea of the type of astronomical earnings top illustrators commanded back in the Golden Age.
Couple about town:
In Herb Roth's cartoon, the padlocking of the City's speakeasies has an all-too-familiar domestic analogy.
Herb Roth,An Early Padlocking--Showing That This Woe Has Long Been Known to Gas Consumers
Island girl:
Fiction, or a reasonable facsimile, by Tip Bliss...
"That's New York"
"Their most acute problem was Mayor Hylan. Hylan didn't want to be Mayor. He wanted to be Music Master. He was devoted to his art and gave concerts in his own parks all over the city." Herb Roth illustrates Mayor Hylan conducting. Note the radio microphone, the very latest communication technology embraced even by Silent Cal in the White House.
Herb Roth "Story of Manhattankind."
Alfred Frueh demonstrates an ingenious contraption for circumventing the padlocking of speakeasies. Who needs Heath Robinson?
Alfred Frueh,A Crafty and Timely Device--The Turn-Table Club
"The small figure in the centre of the page is Miss Hayes, showing that even in those days there were flappers." In place of Ralph Barton, W. E. Hill has been providing many of the weekly theatre page illustrations, this one featuring the talented Helen Hayes.
"Great Moments front the Drama" W. E. Hill, "Caesar and Cleopatra" at the New Home of the Theatre Guild
"The Theatre" reviewer who last week became carried away with the cumbersome phrase this department, formally announces the welcome return of the editorial we.
Gardner Rea's cartoon about a vacationing White Wing--a New York City street sweeper--appears in this issue perhaps as a companion piece to Rea Irvin's cover. Note that the White Wing dresses in black on his vacation and does his littering from a hired cab.
Gardner Rea,The White Wing's Vacation
Who Were the "White Wings?"
The New-York Historical Society
"We have known George Luks intimately and we have made the discovery that his most sincere attachment is to orange juice in the morning and raw oysters all the rest of the day." Artist George Luks illustrates his own "Profile"--a first--and signs it with the name of boxer Gene Tunney.
"Profiles: The Illustrious George" Illustration by George Luks
Robert L. Gambone elucidates:
From Life on the Press: The Popular Art and Illustrations of George Benjamin Luks by Robert L. Gambone, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2009.
"People heard of the Bronx River for the first time about ten years ago when somebody named a highway commission after it." This still rings true in 2015, with the Bronx River Parkway far better known than the Bronx River itself. E. B. White returns to the magazine, thank heaven, with "Defense of the Bronx River."
"Defense of the Bronx River"
An illustration on the "Music" page is one of the first to add elements of personality.
"Music"
Rockewell Kent on the "Arts" page:
Rockwell Kent
Mayor Hylan deals with a growing murder rate. Prohibitionists react with alarm to a news item about using champagne to christen an airplane. Will Rogers reports on Calvin Coolidge's sense of humor. Motorcycles are banned at Yale. Surgeons are urged to sign their patients. (In 2015, they finally do.) Howard Brubaker's "Of All Things" is truly all over the place, but the punch lines, well, they really aren't so very amusing.
"Of All Things" by Howard Brubaker
Straphangers by Eldon Kelley:
Eldon Kelley
"Broadway has had and still has its negro cabarets, patronized by white people, but the place to see the real colored shows unhampered by white management or tastes is in the center of the negro district of Harlem." Lest one mistake a minstrel show for the real deal...
"When Nights Are Bold" Illustrations at Smalls, left, and of dancer Bobbie, right, by Charles Baskerville
British cartoonist Lawson Wood stops by the New Yorker for his one and only appearance in the magazine.
Lawson Wood, "Look here, I'm going to give you a fiver, and you fellersh musht fight it out among yourselves."
A Parisian bouquiniste:
Eldon Kelley
The New Yorker engages in some lowbrow play on the word colored. One Hundred and Thirty-Fifth Street would describe the neighborhood known as Harlem.
"The Optimist" shows up for its twelfth consecutive issue. Bring it on! Plus, some clear thinking from the military:
The New Yorker's subscription ads continue to provide some of the most humorous copy in the magazine.
Humorist Corey Ford writes about the art of the blotter:
"Blotters: An Absorbing Medium" by Corey Ford
Last week the magazine reviewed Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra" and stated, "One--this department, to be exact--is conscious of being in the presence neither of a great play nor of a particularly high-grade production." This week, in the capsule review on the "Goings On" page, it is a "masterpiece." This shows a lack of editorial consistency; the New Yorker is speaking with too many voices. The review of "They Knew What They Wanted," on the other hand, delivers the kind of quick-witted punch that works so well on this page.
I think most Savoyards would state that it is "The Grand Duke" and not "Princess Ida" that is the most obscure of Gilbert and Sullivan's surviving works. Just last week, the New Yorker's capsule review of the "Ziegfeld Follies" called both W. C. Fields and Will Rogers "the funniest man in New York." This week Will Rogers plays second fiddle.
A familiar rite of spring, or so we've been told:
A new header for the "Sports" section featuring William Tell by Rea Irvin:
"Sports"
Some light verse to read on your next cab ride:
"Indifference" by Arthur Guiterman
"'..."Once a P. A. man, always a P. A. man."'" A humorous piece by Charles Street reimagines dime novel hero Frank Merriwell at the Police Academy. A misfire, to be sure.
"Frank Merriwell's Triumph"
Note: Did you happen to catch the May 2nd issue? If you missed it in 1925, you can still read my full report.
Ilonka Karasz was making beautiful covers for The New Yorker within a few weeks of its founding, and she is making beautiful covers for The New Yorker today. For almost forty years I have been grateful to her and have felt her to be a part of all our lives on the magazine, and yet I haven't met her.
--Brendan Gill
Here at The New Yorker,Random House, 1975, page 209
The New Yorker's seventh issue brings with it Ilonka Karasz's first cover. It is printed in only three colors, but still it's so incredibly vibrant. It was reproduced in black and white with half-tones in Here at The New Yorker, which only hinted at how gorgeous it is. What a wonderful image of springtime in New York!
Ilonka Karasz,The New Yorker, April 4, 1925
Spring comes to the "Talk of the Town" section:
Reginald Marsh, Follow the Swallow Back Home "The Talk of the Town"
Mention of Dubuque has become an inside joke for readers of the New Yorker. Editor Harold Ross, even when on a totally unrelated subject, goes out of his way to remind readers that his magazine is edited for sophisticated New Yorkers and not for "the old lady in Dubuque."
"The Talk of the Town"
Eldon Kelley, Rue da la Paix
Eldon Kelley, Rue da la Paix
Which way did he go?
Revolving Door Spot Drawing
All Dressed Up is a political cartoon by Miguel Covarrubias. The knight is New York's Democratic Mayor John F. Hylan. He is committed to defending the subway's popular nickel fare long after inflation has rendered such a low fare untenable for the companies that ran the subway. The City is constructing its own Independent line. Eventually the IRT and BMT will be driven out of business and the City will take over the private subway lines. The buffalo nickel will be replaced by the Jefferson nickel in 1938. The subway fare in 2015 will be $2.75.
Miguel Covarrubias,All Dressed Up
From 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York, Clifton Hood, JHU Press, 2004:
So that's why Mosul is in Iraq. Decisions made in 1925 to support the British Empire have a profound impact on today's current events.
Portraits from "The Hour Glass." Can anyone identify the illustrator?
Can there possibly be a future for New Yorker cartoons?
Alfred Frueh,A Man, A Boil and A Subway
A "Profile" of a Marine Corps. captain is introduced by way of a Broadway play, "What Price Glory?" The magazine's coverage of the local theatre remains its strong suit.
"Profiles: A Gentleman with Two Cauliflower Ears" Illustration of Captain John H. Craige by Henry Major
The City's transformation by the automobile seems complete in 1925.
Spot Drawing
Short fiction:
Illustration by J. F.
"Story of Manhattankind" has been memorable only for Herb Roth's drawings and not for the writing.
Herb Roth,He Pointed Out Typical Bohemians
The New Yorker reports on a dinner for New York's Democratic Governor Al Smith held at the Friars Club. Presumably he was roasted. In 1928 he will become the first Catholic to run for President. He will lose to Herbert Hoover, who subsequently will be blamed for the Great Depression. Today there is an annual dinner held in his memory, a benefit for Catholic charities. In Presidential election years, candidates of both parties attend and give humorous addresses. In 2016, these candidates will be--but I'm afraid I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Take your pick.
Eldon Kelley, Spot Drawing
This week's theatre illustration by Ralph Barton:
Ralph Barton, "The Actor's Theatre's Third Knock-Out" Bring Your Lunch and Remain in Your Seats to See "The Wild Duck"
From the informative "Goings On" section:
Irving Berlin is on Broadway. It happens that Alexander Woollcott's biography of Berlin is reviewed in this issue.
W. C. Fields has appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies since 1915. He's been in the moving pictures too.
Hint: This flapper is not reading the Saturday Evening Post!
Quite the concert!
Last chance to hear him on a first-name basis.
The Matisse show is reviewed in this issue:
The second Madison Square Garden is to be torn down soon to make way for the New York Life building on Madison Square. A new Garden will open later in 1925 away from Madison Square on 8th Avenue in midtown. In 1968, it will be replaced by the current Madison Square Garden atop Penn Station. It is possible that a new home for the Garden may be realized as early as 2023 when the current lease ends to make room for an expanded Penn Station.
"Music:"
Henry Major,Duolina Giannini
The New Yorker, just seven issues into its run, has some fun at the expense of the experienced conductor Walter Damrosch. Today Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center is named for him.
"We never tire of Matisse." Is the editorial we simply stating the obvious, or did one have to defend one's appreciation of Matisse and the Modernists back in 1925?
"Art"
The cartoon by Donald McKee has one speaker, helpfully identified as "wife." I leave it to the discerning reader to decide whether spousal abuse is funnier than a boil on the neck.
Donald McKee,Wife: I'm not angry, I'm only terribly hurt!
Herb Roth, who here drew the illustration accompanying "Story of Manhattankind," some years earlier drew a caricature of cartoonist Donald McKee. It was published in 1916 in the Green Book.
Herb Roth, A caricature of Donald McKee, 1916 Both artists would be associated with the New Yorker in 1925 The Green Book, May 1916 From the blog Stripper's Guide by Allan Holtz
Play juries were proposed to determine what would or would not be appropriate to present on stage. Joseph Pulitzer's New York World had championed the movement to clean up the theatre. The New Yorker was opposed to such censorship.
Lloyd B. Myers,The Play Jury
Illustrator Lloyd B. Myers is listed as an artist with the Salmagundi Club.
The Salmagundi Club Painting Exhibitions Records 1889 to 1939: A Guide to the Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings And The Annual Exhibition and Auction Sale of Pictures by Alexander W. Katlan
He went on to become an art director for an advertising agency in San Francisco. He attempted to work with Edward Hopper c. 1939 and later he successfully recruited photographer Edward Steichen in 1940-1941.
The following is from Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin, 1998:
The nineteenth century style of cartooning persists in Gilbert Wilkinson's first drawing for the magazine. It's a golf cartoon in dialogue format.
Gilbert Wilkinson, Visitor: Who's the old boy going out? Member: He's had touch luck. His wife ran away about a year ago. Then he lost a ball in the rough and that seemed too much for him.
Abstractly speaking...
Spot drawing
The section "New York, Etc." presents light fare from New York and from around the country. The items for each region have a different author. Like Harold Ross, vaudeville and Broadway star Harpo Marx was a frequent visitor to the Algonquin Round Table. His brother, Julius H. Marx, contributed this short piece. You can call him Groucho.
The "Books" section raves about Alexander Woollcott's The Story of Irving Berlin. Woollcott is one of the editorial advisors to the New Yorker, but you won't see any mention of that here. Putnam has a full page ad for the book on the inside back cover.
From "Books"
Nigger Mike's was the informal name of the Pelham Cafe on Pell Street. Here's a 1926 press photo of the Chinatown establishment where Irving Berlin got his start as a singing waiter.
There's some good information about Izzy Baline--Irving Berlin--and his early employment in Stephen Birmingham's "The Rest of Us": The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews, 1984, page 184. This is well-written with the best usage we're likely to see of the word unlovelier.
A year's subscription to the New Yorker costs $5.00, or six months for $2.50. Compare this with the price of the complete works of William Shakespeare.
Advertisement for Alexander Woollcott's The Story of Irving Berlin
