Showing posts with label Oglethorpe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oglethorpe. Show all posts

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Blog Post No. 5000: Peter Arno's Side-Show for February 1937

In July of 1985, seventeen works of original cartoon art by Peter Arno published in the magazine College Humor were brought to the Nicholls Gallery in New York. All of them were believed to have been published in the mid-1930s but the specific dates were unknown. Over the years, I have been hunting down various issues of the magazine to identify the print history of each of the drawings in the consignment. Now, forty years after the Arno trove was left with the gallery, I have located the final three cartoons hiding out in the February 1937 issue. 


Yes, I've been searching for decades. For this!
Modeled by Bil Baird
Color photo by Dudley Lee
College Humor, February 1937

As usual, Peter Arno's "Side-Show" includes three cartoons.
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."

"It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson." 
* * *
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"





The original art for these cartoons were included on the photographic contact sheet given to the consignor:
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
February 1937

The original art was sold by the Nicholls Gallery at a Guernsey's auction in March of 1986:
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Guernsey's March 1986 illustration art auction catalogue Lot A720
Image added November 14, 2016




A private collector has shared the piece with the blog:
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937, p. 18


The Miss Dawson cartoon is also on the contact sheet:
"It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson."
February 1937


As is the Oglethorpe cartoon:
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"
February 1937


If you thought I couldn't come up with original art a second time, you'd be wrong.
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937, p. 19

Here's the full spread in all its glory:


This February 1937 issue is surprisingly hard to find today given that back in the day every Arno fan in America should have wanted a copy. I eventually came across one on eBay, paired with another issue:

The two College Humor issues were sold together. I made an offer of $25, which was accepted by the seller.
College Humor
eBay listing ended March 10, 2025

College Humor
eBay item description






Note:  The full contact sheet produced by the Nicholls Gallery can be seen here. This blog's collective posts on Peter Arno in College Humor are here. Enjoy!

Even though the publication history of all the Arno cartoons in the Nicholls Gallery consignment now have been identified, the quest is not over. There are other issues of College Humor with Arno art that is often quite wonderful but has never appeared in any Arno cartoon collection. Readers with access to such issues of College Humor with obscure Arno cartoons not already on the blog are invited to get in touch.


There are now fifty Attempted Bloggery centennial posts. About a quarter of them have some Arno content. Happy browsing.


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




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Monday, May 23, 2016

Peter Arno: Meet the Oglethorpes

What's in a name? Well, good made-up names are hard to come by. When a cartoonist finds a telling name for a character in a cartoon, he may want to reuse it on occasion. Peter Arno's 1927 New Yorker cartoon referencing Raquel Meller, a very popular Spanish vaudeville singer and actress, features a society matron named Mrs. Oglethorpe. A few years later Arno was to reuse that surname for the unseen driver in a College Humor gag cartoon. If you must recycle a name, it's prudent to do it in a different publication.

Peter Arno
The New Yorker, February 26, 1927, page 22


"Come, darling—imitate Raquel Meller for Mrs. Oglethorpe."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, February 26, 1927, page 22

From College Humor:
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937

 Time magazine's cover is an indication of the public's familiarity with Srta. Meller:
Señorita Raquel Meller
Time, April 26, 1926



Note:  Does anyone have additional examples of Peter Arno or another New Yorker cartoonist reusing a name for a different character? Do tell.

Consult the archives for more on these topics:

Peter Arno

 The New Yorker

 College Humor

That'll be all for today, Oglethorpe.

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Sunday, May 22, 2016

Peter Arno Art for College Humor

In the summer of 1985—some fifty years after they were published—eighteen works of original cartoon art from College Humor magazine were brought to the Nicholls Gallery in New York. Five were purchased outright by the gallery and eleven accepted on consignment. The artist was Peter Arno.

One cartoon, by Otto Soglow, was deemed "rather dumb" and may not have been taken at all by the gallery, but it was photographed with the Arno cartoons. It is not mentioned in the written agreement between gallery and consignor. Another work of Arno's was in rough condition with some paper loss—"paper eaten at corner" in gallery parlance. That work was returned to the consignor where it remained, it is believed, until after her death. It was sold on eBay in 2011 along with 41 Arno sketchbook pages that may or may not have been declined by the gallery in 1985 as well.

Also included with this lot were the consignment paperwork from the gallery and a contact sheet with eighteen photographs of the original cartoon art. The paperwork gives captions for all but three of the works. The Soglow cartoon is captionless, as so many of his cartoons were. The gallery lists two of the Arno cartoons as being "uncaptioned," but I subsequently have discovered them and they are now listed here.


Contact sheet from the Nicholls Gallery, July 1985
Original cartoon art from College Humor, including seventeen works by Peter Arno and one by Otto Soglow


The original cartoons from the contact sheet are here paired with their respective captions, as modified by the actual published captions.
"Hurry, dear! Our guests are beginning to arrive!"
March 1937

"Gosh, I forgot to look at your teeth, didn't I?"
March 1937


"She keeps asking for you!  She's delirious."
November 1936

"It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson."
February 1937

"Your husband, Eleanor—what sort of looking man is he?"
October 1936

"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
April 1937


"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Original art
April 1937
Nate D. Sanders Auctions, November 20, 2025, Lot 2
Image added November 22, 2025


"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
February 1937

"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Guernsey's March 1986 illustration art auction catalogue Lot A720
Image added November 14, 2016

Image added November 14, 2016

"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937, p. 18
Image added August 25, 2018

"By gad! I wish I were your father for about five minutes."
January 1937


"By gad! I wish I were your father for about five minutes."
January 1937
Guernsey's March 1986 illustration art auction catalogue, Lot A726
Image added November 14, 2016


"Here!—You folks ought to know each other."
October 1936

"Here!—You folks ought to know each other."
Peter Arno
Original art at auction
College Humor, October 1936
Image added May 29, 2016


"It's for you, dear."
October 1936

"See here, Prentice—it's all right to look, but you needn't cheer them on!"
January 1937

"See here, Prentice—it's all right to look, but you needn't cheer them on!"
Peter Arno
Original art at auction
College Humor, January 1937
Image added May 29, 2016


"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe."
February 1937

"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937, p. 19


"I do wish you'd change your mind and come along!"
December 1936

"Well—put up a fight! Don't just sit there!"
December 1936

"After the part where you tell them to 'speak now or forever hold their peace'—er—don't pause too long."
March 1937

"Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair."
December 1936

"Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair."
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, December 1936

"All right—I take the key, go to your hotel, go to the twelfth floor and walk down one flight, and go in your room and wait till you come—and then what do I do?"
April 1937


An organ grinder on the street feels sad that his monkey has more satisfying interactions with people than he does. He goes to a psychoanalyst and soon after changes places with the monkey.
"I think rather dumb." —Barbara Nicholls
Otto Soglow










 


July 16, 2024 Update:  I have added the publication dates to the three cartoons (nos. 13, 14, and 16, the latter being the "chewed up" original) from the December 1936 issue.

July 17, 2024: Update  I have added the publication dates to the two cartoons (nos. 6 and 17) from this group that appeared in the April 1937 issue. I have added the caption to no. 17 which previously was unknown.

July 20, 2024 Update:  I have added the publication date for image no. 3 (November 1936) and for image nos. 8 and 11 (January 1937).

August 16, 2024 Update:  I have added the information for October 1936 and corrected the captions of image nos. 5, 9, and 10.

August 17, 2024 Update:  The March 1937 issue information has been added including the missing caption for the bride and clergyman cartoon. The other captions have been corrected to the printed versions. It's possible that the captions as written on the worksheets are Arno's original captions before editing.

July 12, 2025 Update:  The information for the February 1937 issue has been added to this post regarding nos. 4, 7, and 12. Two of the captions have been corrected slightly to the published captions. That now covers all the Arnos on the contact sheet.

November 22, 2025 Update:  I have added the artwork for "Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?" which was sold on November 20 by Nate D. Sanders Auctions in Los Angeles. I corrected the caption to the published caption.


Note:  Thanks to Ronan from France for providing the invaluable contact sheet and paperwork issued by the Nicholls Gallery. The unique content of this blog post about Peter Arno could never have been put together without him.

Enjoy my original post about "Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair." You'll eat it up.
You know you want to see them. Arno's original sketchbook pages as well as the contact sheet are posted here.

 I consider many of my posts to be incomplete, but this one is more incomplete than most. Ideally it would have more full-size images of the original art to accompany the thumbnails taken off a contact sheet, the pages from College Humor where the art was originally published c. 1935, the Guernsey's auction catalogue page where some of these originals were sold, and the two missing captions. All this material is out there somewhere, and if it finds its way to me I'll add it to the post. So, collectors of these rare Peter Arno originals and of 1930's issues of College Humor, please get in touch. Write to my email address with AB—for Arno Blogging—in the subject line. Look, I really don't ask for much...

For those wanting to know more about Peter Arno, there's no better place to start than Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist by Michael Maslin. By all means, read the book review in the Christian Science Monitor that calls the book "dazzling." Then perhaps read the excerpt entitled The Peter Arno Cartoons That Helped Rescue The New Yorker which was published on May 5 in the New Yorker's online edition. It's all about the Whoops Sisters. If you don't know who they are, well, hang on to your knickers, dearie!

Here are some more links for the budding Arno connoisseur:

Peter Arno posts on Ink Spill. 

Peter Arno in Chris Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery. If you could have any collection of Arno books, this is the one you would want.

Peter Arno in the April 26 Record.

Peter Arno in April's Vanity Fair. 

Peter Arno in the March 29 Wall Street Journal.

Peter Arno here on Attempted Bloggery.

 And, once you come up for air:

Otto Soglow on this blog.

Some original cartoon art on this blog (not from the New Yorker).

College Humor magazine posts here on Attempted Bloggery.








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