J. C. Leyendecker: Baby New Year and Prohibition Camel

Happy New Year, even if I am a little late in my self-imposed deadline!

J. C. Leyendecker's cover art for the first issue of The Saturday Evening Post to appear in the year 1920 shows a winged baby concealing a bottle of alcohol as he welcomes in the New Year. This particular year saw the onset of Prohibition, the defiance of which was in many ways to define American social life for a decade. The title Baby New Year and Prohibition Camel comes from the Post's website. It had been the cartoonist Thomas Nast who chose the camel, which drinks only water, to represent the Prohibition Party. Leyendecker put it to good use as we prepared for a bit of a dry spell.

J. C. Leyendecker
Original art
The Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1920

J. C. Leyendecker
Framed original art
The Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1920

Here's an illustration mystery for the ages: How on earth could this artwork, which is very specific to the New Year celebration of 1920, bear a framing label dated 1917?

The bidding was already strong some five days prior to the November 14 sale of Illustration Art at Heritage Auctions where this original art would be sold.

J. C. Leyendecker
Heritage Auctions listing accessed November 9, 2025

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/a-written-description-will-be-available-soon/a/8231-67007.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-BrowseAlsoViewed-012417

Sold!

Auction Action

J. C. Leyendecker
Original art
The Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1920

J. C. Leyendecker
The Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1920

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SaturdayEveningPost3Jan1920.jpg

January 7, 2026 Update:  In the comments section, John Sunday observes that the framing of this piece dates from 2017, and not 1917. I'll leave my error in place as a reminder that I have got to think fourth-dimensionally.

05171

Gregory d'Alessio: Surveying the Scene

An original Saturday Evening Post cartoon by Gregory d'Alessio was recently listed by Bartleby's Books of Chevy Chase. It depicts a couple strolling together down a city sidewalk of a winter's day, unaware that they are about to collide with a surveyor's transit mounted on a tripod. The caption is unknown. Is the woman telling her man to put on his hat or he could take ill and wind up in the hospital? Is there a caption hidden under the matte? That matte is in poor condition but the artwork itself seems only a bit faded so far as we can see from the area of the image.

Gregory d'Alessio
Bartleby's Books listing accessed December 2, 2023

https://www.bartlebysbooks.com/pages/books/68157/gregory-dalessio-ca/oblivious-couple-walking-into-a-sidewalk-surveyor-and-his-tripod-title-supplied

Note:  This artwork remains available from Bartleby's Books at the time of posting. I am in the market for information about the original publication date and caption. I did contact the 8 Henderson Place Foundation, which celebrates the legacy of Gregory d'Alessio and fellow cartoonist Hilda Terry, his wife, but as yet I haven't heard from anyone.

I am, as ever, happy to post other d'Alessio or Terry artwork submitted by readers.

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National Doctors' Day: Joe Zeis in the Exam Room

Today is National Doctors' Day in the US. In order to honor physicians for their selfless dedication, Dick Buchanan offers up a 1957 gag from his clip files by cartoonist Joe Zeis:

"Those X rays of yours are in here somewhere."

Joe Zeis

The Saturday Evening Post, June 15, 1957

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  My thanks to Dick Buchanan for nurturing my appreciation of doctors in this special way. Dick, of course, is the custodian of the renowned Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files and a regular contributor to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a post entitled  "From the Dick Buchanan Files: The Search for Happiness Part Three: Marriage 1946 - 1964." Better check it out before you make any lifelong commitments.

The subject of perceived avarice in doctors with too much green on their hands has been visited here before. See, for example, Attempted Bloggery's most recent post (yes, there's more than one) about the notorious wrong bag cartoon.

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A Charles Addams Mystery Solved: Two Cartoon Quartet Ads

On Halloween I had the privilege of posting Joel Jacobus's images of a scrapbook of vintage Charles Addams cartoons from The New Yorker. At the end of the scrapbook was a bit of a mystery, a small clipped Addams drawing not from The New Yorker with the caption ...slow heating up? without quotation marks. Was it an obscure gag cartoon or a fragment of an advertisement?

...slow heating up?
Charles Addams

Well, now we know. Yesterday, Jeff Nelson came forward with the 1957 advertisement from the Saturday Evening Post that included this Addams art as well as art by three other New Yorker cartoonists: Claude Smith, William Steig, and Richard Taylor. The product is Housepower, an electrical industry-sponsored group promoting solutions to the common problems of inadequate household wiring and outlets.

Charles Addams        Claude Smith
William Steig           Richard Taylor
Somebody ought to tell them about full Housepower
The Saturday Evening Post, March 16, 1957, page 82

There's a bonus too. Jeff also has found an earlier ad for Sanforized shirts—they don't shrink in water—dated 1953 with a very similar format. Three of the cartoonists are the same, even their positions on the page are the same, but Ed Nofziger is there where Claude Smith would later be. Perhaps the same advertising agency was behind both these pages.

Charles Addams           Ed Nofziger
William Steig           Richard Taylor
Advertisement for Sanforized shirts
The Saturday Evening Post, August 22, 1953, page 46

Note:  My thanks go to Joel Jacobus for providing the Addams scrapbook cartoon mystery and to Jeff Nelson for solving it.

The full Halloween post about the Charles Addams scrapbook may be seen here.

Take advantages of the wisdom of crowds. If you've got a cartoon mystery concerning a New Yorker cartoonist, perhaps Attempted Bloggery can help solve it. You never know.

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Mary Gibson: New Year Spoilsport

It seems odd that Mary Gibson's lively New Year's Eve cartoon for the Saturday Evening Post was published in the issue of October 31, 1953, a full two months ahead of the holiday. Still, there's no mistaking the spirited celebration or the dour mood of the husband who refuses to have anything to do with it.

"Go ahead, be a spoil-sport! Don't throw your paper streamer!"
Mary Gibson
The Saturday Evening Post, October 31, 1953

Scan by Dick Buchanan

The basic idea here of a husband unwilling to join the festivities and cheer in the New Year would be revisited two years (and two months) later by William Steig in the pages of The New Yorker. Compared with the complexity of the Gibson cartoon, Steig gives us a simpler, linear array of seated partygoers and an even grumpier husband. The caption is mercifully shorter and punchier without the burden of those unnecessary exclamation points. His cartoon is remembered to this day by cartoon cognoscenti as a classic.

"Either cheer up or take off the hat."
William Steig
The New Yorker, December 31, 1955, page 28

Cartoon by William Steig and advertisement by DuPont

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1955-12-31/flipbook/028/

Note:  Dick Buchanan has come through once again with a high-quality scan of a long-forgotten gag from his legendary cartoon clip files. Dick specializes in rescuing thousands upon thousands of vintage cartoons from obscurity. He contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Gag Cartoon Clichés Part 10 1949 - 1966." That's right, part 10, with links to parts 1 through 9! And while we're keeping score, this is Dick's 58th contribution to Attempted Bloggery. Thanks so much, Dick!

This post marks Mary Gibson's first appearance on this blog. Michael Maslin's Ink Spill reports that she had a total of eight cartoons published in The New Yorker, all between 1943 and 1950. This means that the vast majority of her work was published elsewhere. Personally, I would be interested in posting some the artist's original cartoons and published rarities.

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Robert Day: Holiday Inflation

Robert Day's 1952 cartoon about the turkey trade appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. Its publication was timed for the Christmas season and not for Thanksgiving. Still, it seems appropriate to post it now and to have it stand for all the coming holidays in which turkeys are consumed.

Robert Day
The Saturday Evening Post, December 20, 1952

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  My thanks to Dick Buchanan for contributing this scan from his cartoon clip files. If I ever learn how to use a scanner, I hope to be as good at it as he is. 

 

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Peter Arno for Alemite

A vintage 1948 print advertisement for Alemite car lubricant presents a family-oriented pitch. We are told "The Holdens discovered that 80% of all repair bills are not necessary—are the result of incorrect lubrication." Eighty percent! By servicing the family car at a repair shop that specializes in state-of-the-art Alemite Lubricating Equipment, the Holdens were able to save enough to buy young Danny a new bike. What good parents!

Picture of the Holdens paying for Danny's new bike!
Alemite advertisement
1948

https://www.etsy.com/listing/255501139/vintage-print-ad-from-1948-for-alemite?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=Alemite&ref=sr_gallery-1-16&organic_search_click=1

The following year, Alemite commissioned popular New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno to create a series of humorous ads for the product. The basic idea of the ad campaign was that car owners would plan to have their vehicle serviced on "A"-Day, "A" of course being for Alemite. Each of the print ads I have found date from 1949 (if the date is stated by the seller) and were run in the Saturday Evening Post (if the publication is named at the top). They were apparently run monthly.

Let's start at the beginning in January and work our way through the calendar:

Golly! I just remembered it's "A-Day!"
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, January 22, 1949

Scan by Jeff Nelson

Image added June 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=956304638142405&set=gm.941233142992108

Toodle-oo, Miss Pratt. I just remembered it's "A-Day!"
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, February 19, 1949

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-Peter-Arno-art-bandaged-man-crutches-nurse-Alemite-vintage-print-ad-L35/153919297085?hash=item23d64e163d:g:~Y0AAOSw7qFesHsB

Sorry, dear, I just remembered it's "A-Day!"
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
[The Saturday Evening Post, March?] 1949

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALEMITE-283-Peter-Arno-Illustration-Art-1949-Vintage-Print-Ad/184258973952?hash=item2ae6b0d100:g:j0QAAOSwq4Vem7Db

Don't shoot, McGooey! It's "A-Day!"

Peter Arno

Alemite advertisement

The Saturday Evening Post, April 16, 1949

Scan by Jeff Nelson

Image added June 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=956585428114326&set=gm.941533332962089

Pardon me! I just remembered it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, May 14, 1949

Scan by Jeff Nelson

Image added June 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=956585808114288&set=gm.941533556295400

June is the month for a June bride:

Sorry, folks—I just remembered it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, June 11, 1949

Scan by Jeff Nelson

Image added June 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=956586058114263&set=gm.941533862962036

Let me out of here—it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, July 9, 1949

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-Alemite-Car-Lubrication-Peter-Arno-Cartoon-Advertisement/153693298705?hash=item23c8d5a011:g:es0AAMXQKQhRH0sL

I'm sorry, miss! Just remembered—it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, August 6, 1949

Scan by Jeff Nelson

Image added June 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=956882541417948&set=gm.941843139597775

Let go, Mathilda! I just remembered—it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, September 3, 1949

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1949-Vintage-Ad-Alemite-Car-Lubricant-Peter-Arno-Art-Illustration-Cartoon-/182682058471?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Turn me loose, woman—it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, October 6, 1949

Scan by Jeff Nelson

Image added June 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=957237894715746&set=gm.942193632896059

Pardon me, boys!—it's "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, November 12, 1949

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-Peter-Arno-cartoon-man-escaping-police-paddy-wagon-Alemite-car-service-ad/292026789626?hash=item43fe272efa:g:x5QAAOSw3v5YoKmR

Finally, Arno takes us on a trip to the fortune-teller's. But shouldn't the expression be "tall, dark, and handsome?" 

You'll meet a tall, dark man on "A"-Day!
Peter Arno
Alemite advertisement
The Saturday Evening Post, December 17, 1949

https://www.ebay.com/itm/274370421763?ul_noapp=true

A 



A good journalist never reveals his confidential sources. Here are some of mine:

Peter Arno vintage Alemite ads listed on eBay, accessed May 20, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Alemite+Arno&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=Alemite

June 6, 2020 Update:  This post appeared in its original form on May 23, 2020. On May 26, Jeff Nelson began posting Arno's Alemite ads from the Saturday Evening Post in the public Facebook group Vintage Panel and Gag Cartoons. He was able to include scans with the dates of publication for each of the eleven ads he posted, helpful information which I have added here. He also provided a higher-resolution image of the lifeguard ad I found on Pinterest and several new images I had been unable to locate on eBay or anywhere else. These images have been added here as well. The only ad missing from his grouping was the one with the elopement, presumably from the missing month of May 1949.

Note:  Do I have them all now? I would think so. Still, I'm happy to hear from readers with access to any Peter Arno Alemite ads I might somehow have missed, or the date of publication of the elopement ad, or perhaps with original art from the series. See, I don't ask for much.

Ads by Peter Arno from the Warren Bernard collection, including the fortune-teller image shown above, were collected on Ink Spill in 2017 here.

Christopher Wheeler's gallery of Arno advertising work may be seen here.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Peter Arno

Advertising

Attempted Bloggery's Greasy Index

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Don Tobin: Special Mother's Day Dinner

Dick Buchanan delves back seventy-two years in his Cartoon Clip Files to bring us a postwar Mother's Day gag by cartoonist Don Tobin. The baby boom began in 1946, just two years before the Saturday Evening Post published this cartoon. Dick writes, "Don Tobin was a Disney animator who left after the 1941 strike, as did Partch, Ketcham, Dedini and others, to become a very successful gag cartoonist."

Don Tobin
The Saturday Evening Post, May 8, 1948

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  My thanks to Dick Buchanan for his fifty-fourth contribution to Attempted Bloggery. Dick maintains the invaluable Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. He also contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a scholarly post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Puck Magazine Cartoons 1879 - 1890." I, for one, 
learned a lot.

Don Tobin is brand new to this blog.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Mother's Day

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's Nurturing Index

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Blog Post No. 3100: Frank Beaven's Dickensian Christmas

It seems my friends all know how to make good use of their scanners, something I seem to be constitutionally unable to learn to do with my own. My good friend Jerome Wrinkle has contributed a superb set of scans of an original Christmas cartoon by Frank Beaven, one of his favorite cartoonists. It was published in the Saturday Evening Post at the end of 1940. He writes:

I have scanned both front and back, the tear sheet I have, and an isolated scan of the published cartoon.

I bought this on eBay. The seller thought it was from 1955 as 55 is scrawled on the front but, of course, that was what he was paid—$55.00. That's why, in those days, a cartoonist needed to hustle to make as many sales as possible to make a living. That meant turning out many, many cartoons each week. And, for the lucky ones, scaring up advertising assignments. Gagwriters were a necessity in order to turn out enough batches each week. Nobody, except Addams and Arno, could make a real living by simply working for the New Yorker.

To which I would add a simple note that even both Addams and Arno took on plenty of illustration and advertising work, and they published some cartoons in magazines other than the New Yorker as well.

"All I want to know is what gave you the idea I wanted

the complete works of Dickens last Christmas?"

Frank Beaven

Original art

The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940, page 64

Scan by Jerome Wrinkle 

Well, I think we can all agree that such a gift is not exactly age-appropriate and therefore the premise of the gag is probably not so believable. But multivolume complete sets of Dickens were sold widely in those days, proud testaments to the owners' literary taste whether they were read or not, and perhaps even if they were given to budding young readers.

Although published seventy-nine years ago, the scenario remains a familiar one. Some period details stand out: the density of the sales staff and the fact that all the customers, even the boy, have hats.

Verso

Scan by Jerome Wrinkle

The published cartoon shows shades of red added in production.

"All I want to know is what gave you the idea I wanted

the complete works of Dickens last Christmas?"

Frank Beaven

The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940, page 64

Scan by Jerome Wrinkle

"All I want to know is what gave you the idea I wanted

the complete works of Dickens last Christmas?"

Frank Beaven

The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940, page 64

Scan by Jerome Wrinkle 

Frank Beaven's 1940 New Jersey home—the address is written on the back of his cartoon—was built either in 1928 or 1930 (Zillow mentions both dates). It is a three-bedroom single-family dwelling. No word on how many works of Dickens it housed.

Frank Beaven's 1940 home today

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17-Iroquois-Ave-Allendale-NJ-07401/37847011_zpid/

Note:  My thanks to Jerome Wrinkle for his wonderful scans and commentary. This is his ninth contribution to this blog. He notes that the original cartoon shown here is no longer in his possession.

I asked my father about his own complete set of Dickens. He believes a "door-to-door salesman sold it to us when I was a young boy." You would "pay a little bit each week"—or perhaps it was each month. They would drop off a new book and the subscriber would pay there and then. He adds, "I was the only one who read them." So…perhaps the cartoon isn't quite as implausible as I thought!

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

Blog Post No. 300:  From the Libraries of Searle, Koren, Booth, and Saxon

Blog Post No. 400: The Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Blog Post No. 500:  The Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Blog Post No. 600:  What I Do When I'm Not Blogging

Blog Post No. 700:  The Many Hazards of Blogging

Blog Post No. 800:  Think Locally, Blog Globally

Blog Post No. 900:  The Blog I Was Meant to Write

Blog Post No. 1000: Happy New Year, Lurkers and All!

Blog Post No. 1100:  The Power of Google

Blog Post No. 1200:  The Ukrainian Situation

Blog Post No. 1300:  Plus-Sizing the Readership

Blog Post No. 1400:  New Goals for an Old Blogger

Blog Post No. 1500:  The Wisdom of Warren Buffett 

Blog Post No. 1600:  "The Big Bang Theory's" Homage to Charles Addams

Blog Post No. 1700:  The New Yorker Apocrypha

Blog Post No. 1800:  The Wrong Bag

Blog Post No. 1900:  Think Good Thoughts About George Booth at 90

Blog Post No. 2000:  Charles Addams and the Birth of a Rare Book Collector

Blog Post No. 2100:  Eustace Tilley in Leotards

Blog Post No. 2200: Peter Arno Drawings from the Estate of Frank Modell

Blog Post No. 2300: Peter Arno—Not for Attribution

Blog Post No. 2400: Sizzling Platter Chatter

Blog Post No. 2500: E. Simms Campbell in Color—Esquire Cartoons from 1935

Blog Post No. 2600:  Peter Arno—You're Welcome?

Blog Post No. 2700:  Peter Arno and Charlie Chaplin Shipyard Gags

Blog Post No. 2800:  George Price's House Rules

Blog Post No. 2900: My Copies of The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons

Blog Post No. 3000:  The Vatican Museums 2019

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Frank Beaven

Jerome Wrinkle

Charles Dickens

Original Cartoon Art

The Saturday Evening Post

Attempted Bloggery's Giftable Index

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