Peter Arno's Side-Show for September 1936

It's been a while since I've shared the cartoon feature Peter Arno's "Side-Show" which appeared in the magazine College Humor for maybe a couple of years in the 1930s, mostly 1936 to 1937. Recently, I've obtained four issues with Arno content and another three are on the way. This one is September of 1936. Arno knew how to give the college crowd what it liked, just as he did with the upscale readers at the far tonier New Yorker.

"I'd like a picture of my boy."                                         "Psst, Granville! You've ripped something!"
                                                                                   "I think she's in trouble again."
Peter Arno
College Humor, September 1936, pp. 10-11

The "Side-Show" format gave Arno the freedom to produce three different types of cartoons for the two-page spread. Here we have a man who misunderstands the paparazzi, a sophomoric—if you will—cartoon about hurdling, and a rather sophisticated take on the tribulations of a very small dog. Arno's technique seems effortless; it probably wasn't. You can see why, throughout his career, he was an extremely popular cartoonist.

Note:  And he's still popular on this blog. I'm ready to post examples of obscure Peter Arno cartoons published in off-the-beaten-track publications like College Humor. Just send me images of what you've got and tell me what you know. And, for heaven's sake, don't rip anything.

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Charles Addams's First Published Cartoon?

An eBay listing offers a rare 1927 Westfield High School yearbook, the Weather Vane. The eBay seller contends that it holds Charles Addams's first published cartoon, a plausible enough statement. This would have been Addams's sophomore year and the fifteen-year-old is credited as one of three art editors on the yearbook staff. The Addams cartoon in question, dated 1927, appears on page 94 in a section dedicated to the foreign languages—and it's in Latin!

Logic

Terentia:  "When the man began to speak, he did not stop to think."

Cicero:  "But when the woman began to speak, he did not think to interrupt."

It's actually funnier in Latin where the parallel wordplay is more explicit. I don't believe for a minute that this Latin exercise was Addams's idea; he merely illustrated it. He said/she said cartoons were still common back then, but they were soon to be replaced in The New Yorker and later everywhere else, by single-speaker cartoons. The characters, Terentia and her husband Cicero the orator, are vaguely drawn in the style of 1920s newspaper comics. She is drawn as a beautiful flapper and he is drawn as a caricature a little reminiscent of Jiggs from George McManus's comic strip Bringing Up Father. Addams attempts to invoke Ancient Rome with the sandals and those ponderous Roman column table legs. It's rare to see him have any trouble with perspective, but the stool and table leg sit lower on Cicero's side while Terentia's stool is floating just above the tile line. Addams will outgrow all this soon.

Addams may be seen in the yearbook staff photo, I believe, standing to the right of center in the sweater vest.

"IS IT POSSIBLE THAT: . . .                                                         
Charles Addams has learned to play Bethune Jones' Piccolo?"

The yearbook's previous owner observes of Addams, "The neat thing is you can already see his unique, macabre style." And where might that be?

Say it isn't so!

Charles Addams
eBay listing accessed June 10, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175763869365?hash=item28ec57ceb5:g:-eAAAOSwiipkWV-S

Charles Addams
eBay item description

The Westfield Memorial Library has digitized a copy of the 1927 Westfield High School yearbook here. It reveals that Charles Addams had a second published drawing just four pages after the first, an illustration for the Sports section dated 1926. As with the Latin cartoon, he's already signing his name Chas.

I confess I'm not entirely sold on this Addams kid yet. Let's come back in a few years and see what he comes up with.

Image added June 28, 2023

Note:  Is the Latin drawing truly Charles Addams's first published cartoon? Very likely, unless he was previously published in some school or local newspaper. I'd like to hear from anyone who can confirm or refute this. Submissions of other Addams juvenilia, Latin or otherwise, would be welcome too.

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