Helen E. Hokinson: The Gypsy Blue-Plate Special

Does one say special blue plate or blue-plate special? I've never heard anyone say "special blue plate," but the generally scrupulous editors of The New Yorker chose this syntax for the caption of a 1934 cartoon by Helen E. Hokinson, going so far as to alter the original caption presumably written by her collaborator James Reid Parker. The cartoon depicts a matron ordering from a menu in a gypsy restaurant where meals are followed by a fortune telling. Parker's caption is written in pencil on the original art, which was sold on eBay this past August. It reads, "I'll take the gypsy blue plate special and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy." The New Yorker's published caption is, "I'll take the special gipsy blue plate and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy." Today, special blue plate sounds a bit off, but both terms were coined in the 1920s and in use in 1934. Why make the change? A search of the competing terms on the Google Books Ngram Viewer may reveal the answer. It shows the 1930s to be the only time that special blue plate was preferred over blue plate special.

"I'll take the gypsy blue plate special and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy."
Published as "I'll take the special gipsy blue plate and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy."
Original art
The New Yorker, October 6, 1934, page 76

"I'll take the gypsy blue plate special and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy."

"I'll take the gypsy blue plate special and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy."

Signature of Helen E. Hokinson

The speaker's face is the most carefully reworked part of the drawing:

Helen E. Hokinson
eBay listing ended August 1, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373654733276?hash=item56ff8ec1dc%3Ag%3ADKsAAOSwSrhg9eTP&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Helen E. Hokinson
eBay item description

Helen E. Hokinson
eBay bid history
One bid in the last hour

"I'll take the gypsy blue plate special and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy."
Published as "I'll take the special gipsy blue plate and my fortune with the apple pan dowdy."
Original art
The New Yorker, October 6, 1934, page 76

Cartoon by Helen E. Hokinson

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1934-10-06/flipbook/076/

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=blue+plate+special%2Cspecial+blue+plate&year_start=1900&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3

October 30, 2021 Update:  This piece was offered at auction last year by Jonah Fine Art of Holliston, the same town in which the recent eBay seller is located. The estimate was $500 to $700. The lot was passed.

Helen E. Hokinson
Jonah Fine Art
November 1, 2020

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/HELEN-HOKINSON-I-ll-Take-the-Gypsy-Blue-Plate-Sp_C554324B6B/#

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Tall, Dark...and Handsome?

In yesterday's post, readers may recall, I got on my high horse and very matter-of-factly stated that the copy in a 1949 Alemite ad by Peter Arno featuring a fortune-teller should read "tall, dark, and handsome" rather than just "tall, dark." At least that's what sounded right to my ear. In the light of a new day, it still does.

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

Yet I will always entertain other opinions, and what opinion could be more authoritative on this blog than that of the New Yorker editors who okayed a vintage New Yorker cartoon? Specifically it is the cartoon by Leonard Dove from the issue of January 11, 1941 that brings us into the parlor of another fortune-teller, this one reading tarot cards rather than gazing into a crystal ball:

"But I've already met a tall, dark man."
Leonard Dove
The New Yorker, January 11, 1941, page 13

That's interesting in that it's very similar in both setting and wording to the Arno ad of 1949 and it treats "tall, dark man"—without the addition of "handsome"—as an established cliché. Next thing you know, the movie "Tall, Dark, and Handsome" was released on January 24, 1941, less than two weeks after the publication date of this issue of the New Yorker. That movie may well have enshrined the expression "tall, dark, and handsome" in the language for keeps.

"Tall, Dark and Handsome" movie poster, 1941

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034262/

Except that, come 1949, it didn't affect the caption, as it were, of Arno's Alemite ad. Of course, we don't even know whether Arno wrote the final copy himself. It's possible the words "and handsome" were left off deliberately to keep the ad's large-type words short and punchy. But it's also possible that Arno created the ad with Dove's cartoon in front of him, or at least in his thoughts. (It could also be that he remembered the expression as he'd heard it before 1941.) All of which might go a long way to explaining the apparent similarities between the Dove cartoon and the Arno ad, but alas it is only speculation. So that's where things will have to stand, at least for now.

Cartoons by Richard Taylor and Leonard Dove

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1941-01-11/flipbook/012/

July 3, 2020 Update:  The Facebook group Vintage Panel and Gag Cartoons has proven quite useful once again. A Playboy cartoon by Erich Sokol published in February of 1972 provides further evidence for the common usage of tall dark—no comma needed, apparently, for the Playboy reader—without handsome. So now we have examples of this trope from 1941, 1949, and 1972 which agree with each other…and not with me. It is high time that I admit I was wrong.

"But I don't want to meet a tall dark man. How about a tall blonde woman?"
Erich Sokol
Playboy, February 1972

Scan by George Topham Hayes

Enhanced by Larry Miller III 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/610832789365480/?post_id=955531421562280

November 5, 2023 Update:  A cartoon from the 1970's by Barney Tobey favors the rule of three, but it avoids the word handsome.

"You will meet a tall, dark, attractive Reagan man."
Barney Tobey
The New Yorker, December 22, 1975, p. 35

Image added November 5, 2023

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1975-12-22/flipbook/034/

Cartoons by Lee Lorenz and Barney Tobey

Note:  All right, I'll get off my high horse now. Readers are asked to submit evidence of how good-looking men were described, whether as "tall, dark" or "tall, dark, and handsome," in the 1940s and later. Opinions are welcome as well.

Sound the fanfare. This is my one-hundred thirtieth post about Peter Arno, a subject who never fails to fascinate me. Readers are invited to keep me going by submitting original Arno art, letters, published rarities, or memorabilia for discussion on the blog. Help me to get back on my high horse.

On the other hand, this is only the sixth post here to mention Leonard Dove. One could argue that I am more in need of material about him to balance things out a bit on the blog.

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Views of Arizona: A "Big" Moment

Just take a look at that! Zoltar makes an appearance in Sedona, Arizona, eager to tell your fortune. Perhaps he'll let you make a wish!

Zoltar
Sedona

02625

Lee Lorenz: Oil Futures

A fortune teller sees into the future in this original New Yorker artwork from 1969 by the unpredictable Lee Lorenz. What she foresees is an oil strike in the Antarctic. Whether there truly are vast oil reserves in the Antarctic is anybody's guess even today, but even if there are they would be prohibitively expensive to extract and there are currently international treaties forbidding it.

"Then I see this company making a fabulous oil strike in the Antarctic,
and if the S.E.C. should ask, you never heard of me."
Lee Lorenz, original art, The New Yorker, March 29, 1969, page 28

"Then I see this company making a fabulous oil strike in the Antarctic,
and if the S.E.C. should ask, you never heard of me."

Lee Lorenz, original art, The New Yorker, March 29, 1969, page 28

Lee Lorenz's signature

Who added that lettering?

eBay Listing Ended May 1, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-FRAMED-LEE-LORENZ-INK-WASH-CARTOON-FROM-NEW-YORKER-MAGAZINE-1969-/261871055624?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf8bb3308&nma=true&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

eBay Item Description

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1969-03-29#folio=028

"Then I see this company making a fabulous oil strike in the Antarctic,
and if the S.E.C. should ask, you never heard of me."

Lee Lorenz, original art, The New Yorker, March 29, 1969, page 28

Note:  Thank goodness there's a blog out there that's looking to publish yet more original work by Lee Lorenz and the New Yorker cartoonists he once edited. Now if only I could remember the name of it...

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Lee Lorenz

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I see more cartoons in your future!

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