Showing posts with label My Crowd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Crowd. Show all posts

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Blog Post No. 5200: A Charles Addams Movie Theater Scream

Original Charles Addams art published in The New Yorker issue of February 8, 1947 shows a theater full of moviegoers and their shared reaction to a big screen scream.

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27


Seventy years after publication, the artwork to this classic cartoon was sold at Swann Auction Galleries in the Illustration Art sale:
Charles Addams
Swann Galleries listing of December 14, 2017
Swann, it will be noted, did not provide the publication date in The New Yorker, or even the year. They did document the drawing's appearances in three Addams collections, but the 1947 book is correctly titled Addams and Evil.

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries item description

With such a classic original selling for $31,200 (including the 30% buyer's premium), well above the 2017 presale estimate of $12,000 to $18,000, one might wonder what an Addams rough drawing of the same subject might be worth in today's market. Well, thanks to Swann Galleries's recent Illustration Art sale, we actually can provide the answer. An unusually detailed pencil study from a Vermont collection went up on the auction block in December of 2025. Perhaps the owners were aware that Swann had sold the original finished drawing eight years earlier.

Charles Addams
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries listing of December 4, 2025

Despite the above, the correct date of publication in The New Yorker is February 8, 1947, as I've already indicated.


Note that in the intervening years, Swann's top buyer's premium has come down from 30% to 27%. There's something to be said for competition. Still, $9,525 with said premium is a remarkable price for a New Yorker rough. Indeed, many Addams New Yorker originals in this blog's archives have sold for less than that. Today, though, Addams's work continues to appreciate and that seems to be carrying over even to the roughs.


Here's the relevant page from Addams and Evil (1947):

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/HumorMagazines/Addams%20And%20Evil%20(1947).pdf



And here's a grouping showing how the drawing appeared in rough form, in the original art, and finally in the pages of The New Yorker:
Charles Addams
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

With a spot drawing by Morris Neuwirth and a cartoon by Charles Addams


* * *

I have a fair degree of confidence that the spot artist on the page opposite the Addams drawing is Morris Neuwirth (1912-1985) and that the toll lanes depicted here relate to something built by Robert Moses.  Some of Neuwirth's work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Stop Pay Toll
Morris Neuwirth
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 26



The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story




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Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Charles Addams: Addams Family Photo

For me, the highlight of yesterday's Illustration Art Signature Auction at Heritage was an original Charles Addams New Yorker cartoon featuring four of his Addams Family characters. Today we know them as Pugsley, Wednesday, Morticia, and Gomez, but they were as yet unnamed in 1951. Morticia prepares to use the camera to photograph the children. Helpfully, she instructs them how to pose.

"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 37
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)
Charles Addams, My Crowd (1970)

"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."
Charles Addams
Framed original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 37
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)
Charles Addams, My Crowd (1970)


The presale estimate was $12,000-$18,000. Bidding reached this range a full twenty-three days before the sale.
Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing accessed April 2, 2023, twenty-three days before the auction

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions item description

The sale price including the 25% buyer's premium:






"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 37
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)
Charles Addams, My Crowd (1970)



A spot drawing by Garth Williams and a cartoon by Charles Addams
"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."     "I'm sorry, sonny. We've run out of candy."
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)



Oh, why not?
Spot drawing
Garth Williams
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 36







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Sunday, October 30, 2022

Fleur's Copy of My Crowd by Charles Addams

To recap: Charles Addams presented his friend Fleur with a copy of Drawn and Quartered, the reissue, in 1970. He included a drawing of the Addams Family's Morticia along with an inscription, in French, alluding to their April picnic in a cemetery.


The same recipient's copy of My Crowd, also inscribed to her in 1970, the year of publication, has a drawing of Wednesday, the daughter of the Addams Family, that refers to the same al fresco graveyard dining experience. Both volumes, and others from Fleur's library, are offered for sale by Meier and Sons Rare Books. This book comes with a card from Addams as well.




New Yorker greeting card with the Addams cover art of February 2, 1957

A letter on a New Yorker card from Charles Addams to Dona—he also sends his affection to Fleur—is amended with a note from "itinerant journalist" Dona to Fleur. The whole thing was apparently passed along to Fleur and is now included in this lot. "Alice" is Alice B. Curr, Addams's dog. "Housewife! Superstar!!" is Barry Humphries's off-Broadway performance as Dame Edna Everage. This reliably dates Addams's letter to the fall of 1977.






"Now kick Daddy good night and run along to bed."                                                             

"This is your room. If you should need anything, just scream."   "Well, here's where I say good night."    

Charles Addams
eBay listing accessed October 29, 2022


Charles Addams
eBay item description




Regarding Addams's theatergoing:
Two excerpts from the Times review of "Housewife! Superstar!!" relevant to Addams's letter


https://www.ebay.com/itm/334459945667?...



Note:  What is Fleur's surname? Dona's? Anybody?




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Monday, August 17, 2015

Charles Addams: Moving Day

Gwyn Steinbeck, the novelist John Steinbeck's second wife, was the recipient of an original New Yorker cartoon by Charles Addams. It bears no caption and shows a mover packing up his van with the effects of Mme. Chenaud who performs, the sign tells us, spirit readings. The drawing was originally published in 1949, the year after the Steinbeck marriage ended, and it came to this estate sale through the children of John Steinbeck. It was sold at auction in 1988 along with many of Steinbeck's important effects. The drawing was offered for sale this past June on eBay where it did not meet its reserve.

Charles Addams
Original art for The New Yorker, October 15, 1949, page 27
Monster Rally, 1950, page 27
My Crowd, 1970, page 81

Inscribed "For Gwyn [Conger Steinbeck]/with love/Chas Addams"





Blue Willow Gallery, Denver, Colorado, May 31 to June 4, 1988, Lot 241

"Steinbeck effects to be auctioned" by Patti Thorn, Rocky Mountain News, circa May 1988

EBay Listing Ended June 5, 2015
The first two bids
EBay Item Description

EBay Bid History
Reserve not met



Charles Addams
The New Yorker, October 15, 1949, page 27

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, October 15, 1949, page 27

Charles Addams
Original art for The New Yorker, October 15, 1949, page 27
Monster Rally, 1950, page 27
My Crowd, 1970, page 81

July 23, 2017 Update:  The artwork was relisted on eBay with a lower reserve and it sold at the reserve price, $100 less than the top bid in 2015.

Charles Addams
eBay Listing Ended July 23,2017

Charles Addams
eBay Item Description
The reserve was posted on July 19

eBay Bid History
Five bidders, only one of whom hits the reserve








Note:  But that's not all! You can still view my earlier blog posts about Charles Addams and about original New Yorker cartoon art.

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