Attempted Bloggery: Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter

Showing posts with label Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2026

Peter Arno and Whitney Darrow, Jr.: "A Delightful Addition to Any Child's Bookshelf"?

eBay seller kna_4183 is new to the auction platform, having just joined in November, so perhaps I should go easy on him—but I won't. A current eBay listing offers three cartoon books by New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno, one by Whitney Darrow, Jr., Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit (1907) by Joel Chandler Harris, and Colette and the Princess (1965) by Louis Slobodkin. The group is listed under the title "Joel Chandler Harris & Peter Arno • Illustrated Children's Hardcover Book Lot." To which I would only ask, "Are you sure these are really all children's books?"

This is an unconventional grouping, to be sure. There are fifty-eight years and two world wars between the two actual children's books in the lot, those of Harris and Slobodkin. In between are four books by New Yorker cartoonists that collect some of the wittiest and most sophisticated cartoons of their era. These books are Peter Arno's Parade (1929), his Hullabaloo (1930), and his Sizzling Platter (1949), as well as Whitney Darrow, Jr.'s, "You're Sitting on My Eyelashes" (1943). They're not in any way harmful to children, but they were all marketed to adults. The dust jacket to Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter with its delectable double entendre makes that pretty plain.

Here's how the eBay seller describes the listing: "This product is a lot of illustrated children's hardcover books featuring stories by Joel Chandler Harris, Peter Arno, and others. The books are in English and are original editions, with illustrations done by Louis Slobodkin. The stories fall under the genres of fairy tales and fantasy, making them perfect for young readers to enjoy. This collection would be a delightful addition to any child's bookshelf, offering a mix of classic tales and whimsical illustrations to spark imagination and creativity." They are all treated as if they had exactly the same sort of fairy story content and were all illustrated by Slobodkin. But the Harris book has folk tales, not fairy tales, and the Arno and Darrow books have single panel cartoons, not stories. Did the seller ever look inside them?

Peter Arno, Whitney Darrow, Jr., Joel Chandler Harris, and Louis Slobodkin
eBay listing ended March 14, 2026

https://www.ebay.com/itm/147190625647?

Peter Arno, Whitney Darrow, Jr., Joel Chandler Harris, and Louis Slobodkin
eBay item description

Since February 14, this lot has been relisted on eBay every Saturday at the same price, $90.

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Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Peter Arno: Mother's Little Helper

Peter Arno would occasionally intersperse a few more serious drawings among the brilliant cartoons in his published collections. One can't imagine they ever got anywhere near the reception that his gag cartoons did, but he no doubt was seeking some sort of artistic validation. One such drawing is Mother's Little Helper which appeared in his 1949 book Sizzling Platter. The execution is somewhat gritty and the title is evidently meant ironically. The influence of Georges Rouault is apparent.

The ink and wash drawing came up for auction in Westchester on December 10. The estimate was $1,000 to $1,500.

Peter Arno's signature

The handwritten title

Peter Arno
Clarke Auction Gallery listing accessed December 2, 2023

https://clarkeny.com/auctions/?a=317&search=lot%2080

Lot 80 was indeed sold, but not for all that much. Bidding reached just one half the low estimate.

The sober artwork is reproduced in Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter (1949) on page 70 opposite a buoyant circus drawing.

Mother's Little Helper Circus Lady
Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter, pp. 70-71

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233754611406?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=O4VJuWDDSW6&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

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Friday, April 21, 2023

Chuck's Copy of Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter

It can't be that unusual for a buyer to show up at a book signing and ask the author to inscribe his book to some other recipient not present. On more than one occasion, New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno employed the formulation he uses here, inscribing a copy of Sizzling Platter (1949) "Peter / to Milt / to Chuck / the best! / Peter Arno." This could be a nod to "Tinker to Evers to Chance," the most famous double play combination in the history of baseball, but that is by no means certain.

Faces That Pass in the Bar

"Ah, M'sieu, I have a table for you now."

"Let's not lose our tempers, sir!"

"We'd better get started, dear. Time and tide, you know . . ."

"Don't breathe a word to anyone—it's a nightgown."

"See anything?"

Peter Arno
eBay listing ended April 12, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125859600813?hash=item1d4dd119ad%3Ag%3A%7EdkAAOSw10ZkKK0L&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4MxVdNMUVz9Bh6WevvP2IxJSvXvJakU5du6WtJtQc%2BkrHagHCEAVSz%2FpzN4OMV2KfgfhxuFjPEnQk5xwKQYcDvDAaSNOQC%2BXk4k%2FfWe5IDfWZuUC0N1dndq6NS1FeQKW2HAfS8eEk5uZqPqjP6Wl0IE vv0DQ98aPHQ%2F8GfG

wjVTb 2qubd1Cz50vkSqut8W41pRy%2BWqYBLGJYNWQ8%2FB%2FpjhYpBqtY03xJ2A%2B3m9YoyoD8877yYYpoR%2FuygGQCue%2F3rwtLBiiLTB7rpWimOFi9JzbDkYCvVU71KaW6AStQvb2q%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4zx9pf0YQ&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Peter Arno
eBay item description

Note: What are the odds? This blog's archive boasts another copy of Sizzling Platter serially inscribed by Peter Arno to two recipients just as he did here. A double play!

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Saturday, December 16, 2017

Blog Post No. 2400: Sizzling Platter Chatter

It is now time for us to take up the sizzling platter situation. Just imagining what might very well be the specialty of the house can make one’s mouth water. Yet New Yorker cartoonists very deliberately have avoided drawing sizzling platters for... well, decades. Three cartoons in the magazine's storied history specifically mention sizzling platters, but do we ever actually get to visualize the real deal? In 1937, cartoonist Barbara Shermund comes awfully close to drawing one, but there is so much steam there’s just nothing left to see. In other words, it's all sizzle and no platter.

Barbara Shermund
The New Yorker, March 13, 1937

Likewise, very early in 1949 cartoonist Robert Day does not delineate for us a sizzling platter either, only a couple discussing the fancy menu item. This time it's all talk and no sizzle.

Robert Day, The New Yorker, January 29, 1949

Thankfully, the subject finds its way to Peter Arno later in 1949, via gag writer Richard McCallister. In Arno's hands, the sizzling platter is no longer really a menu item at all; instead it's an unseen but potently-suggestive double entendre. Note how the provocatively-posed line of showgirls allows the viewer to imagine the comically-horrific incident described. And what a wonderful look of abject concern on the diner’s face! Yet there is paradoxically a complete absence of food anywhere in the drawing; there's not even a dish in sight. Now it's all innuendo and no platter.

Peter Arno, The New Yorker, May 7, 1949

Arno’s midcentury masterpiece put an understandable end to the small run of New Yorker cartoons on the subject of sizzling platters; there is simply no way to top it. So, do we ever actually get to see our talked-about sizzling platter? We certainly do, but it isn't to be found in the pages of The New Yorker. Rather, the long-awaited sizzling platter is finally depicted on the front cover dust jacket illustration for the collection Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter (1949). (You know a cartoon is iconic when it lends a published collection its title!) Arno's self-restraint has finally exhausted itself and it is only now that we get to feast our eyes on a hot sizzling platter...and the food doesn’t look so bad either.

Peter Arno's Sizzling Platter (1949)

www.abebooks.co.uk/

Note: I am grateful to New Yorker cartoonist and Peter Arno biographer Michael Maslin for identifying Richard McCallister as the gag writer of the Arno cartoon. Mr. Maslin's 2016 biography, Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of the New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist, is available on Amazon and elsewhere at a mad, mad discount no Arno fan should pass up. Incidentally, if any reader can identify the gag writer for the two other sizzling platter cartoons by Shermund and Day, or whether they indeed used a gag writer at all, please come forward and tell the epicurean world what we need to know.

Surely Peter Arno produced far more than his share of unsurpassed work throughout his career and Attempted Bloggery humbly begs to bring you more of it. I seek scans or photographs of original cartoon art by Arno as well as examples of rare and obscure published work from outside of the well-thumbed pages of The New Yorker. Please send me something that sizzles.

December 31, 2017 Update: Peter Arno's original book cover illustration is in Harry's Bar, London. It's in the center on the back wall.