The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #93

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #93 manages to misspell the name of the cartoonist. At least Cartoon Collections got Godzilla's name right. The drawing is by Brooke Bourgeois.

I had some concern that the bride possibly could be the intended speaker here, but I strongly preferred to have Godzilla as the speaker and I went with this in all three captions I submitted.

"Do I look like the sort to forever hold my peace?"
"I hope you weren't planning a honeymoon in Tokyo."
"Sorry, they didn't have a tux in my size."

September 30, 2020 Update:  The Winner

The bride is the speaker in each of these three.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Brooke Bourgeois

Weddings

  

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

All the Collected Cartoon Caption Contests

Attempted Bloggery's Bourgeoise Index

 

03390

Sketchbook Page by William Hamilton, PFC

William Hamilton's sketchbook pages in pen and ink unmistakably come from the same hand as his finished drawings. They could never be mistaken for those of any other artist. Aside from all that, who would not be impressed in the sketch shown below with the fun this cartoonist has noting his (former) military rank?

William Hamilton
eBay listing accessed September 21, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Sketch-William-Hamilton-New-Yorker-Cartoonist-Signed-Autographed-RARE/362896055356?hash=item547e4a5c3c:g:WngAAOSwEaJeL4ic

William Hamilton
eBay Item Description

Note:  Are William Hamilton's sketchbook pages pure exercises in drawing or are they attempts to develop specific cartoons? If you can match up a sketchbook drawing with a published cartoon, please step forward.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

William Hamilton

Sketchbook Pages

Wine

Attempted Bloggery's Unranked Index

 

03389

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #725

I always aim high with my entries in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. Contest #725 for September 21, 2020 is the exception. The drawing is by Lars Kenseth.

"I'm not Walter. Are you sure you're wearing your contacts?"

September 29, 2020 Update:  The Finalists

October 5, 2020 Update:  The entry from Northampton is very good, commas and all. Kudos to the entry from Bethesda for being specific to the cherry. In the end, I voted with Ottawa because I thought that caption was the funniest.

October 12, 2020 Update:  The Winner

Note:  Last week in the Caption Contest, cartoonist Mick Stevens had a dinosaur stand in line at a book signing. My caption bit me in the asteroid. Should you bring Contest #724 along to the book fair or to the science fair?

 
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

Lars Kenseth

William Tell

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

All the Above Cartoon Caption Contests and More

Attempted Bloggery's On-Target Index

 

03388

William Hamilton: The Tautology of Their Symbolism

A 1971 New Yorker cartoon by William Hamilton was deemed good enough to be included in The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975. The setting is a college seminar; the Harvard seal is prominent in the window. A professor and several students are seated at a long table while one student makes his thoughtful argument.


It was only when listening to the expanded audio edition of Steve Stoliar's compelling Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House (1996, 2012) that I learned that Groucho Marx himself had owned Hamilton's original cartoon art corresponding to this gag. And why wouldn't he? The cartoon mocks academic pretense, as Groucho himself had been known to do, while referencing three classic Marx Brothers films. He had it proudly displayed in his Beverly Hills home. Having already contacted Steve to inquire about a book that was once in Groucho's library, I decided to ask as well whether he knew what had become of that cartoon original after Groucho's death. He responded:

No. It was in the front entryway on the left. Across from it was the John Decker "Dutch masters" painting and nobody seems to know what happened to that either, dammit. I was out of the loop after he died. I know a solid chunk of memorabilia did go to the Smithsonian, but when I found a "Paris Review" book that [Dick] Cavett inscribed to Groucho at a local Hollywood bookstore a few years later, I was irked when the bookseller told me there was like a garage sale of a lot of Groucho's stuff, and he got that book amongst other things. I wish I'd've known...But—again—I know not where any of the art ended up.

I asked the same question of acclaimed Groucho portrayer Frank Ferrante, who also knows a thing or two about the comedian and his family life. He replied:

I don’t know of its whereabouts. In fact I didn’t realize he actually owned the original art.

So, a dead end. With no new information to go on, there are frustratingly many possibilities here. The Hamilton drawing might still be held by the heirs of Groucho Marx or it might have found a new owner. It is my hope that someone reading this may know and provide us with more information. A photograph or two, perhaps?

With cartoons by Warren Miller and William Hamilton

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1971-12-11/flipbook/052/

Note:  My thanks to Steve Stoliar for so ably assisting me in my search for the hopelessly unfindable. This is his fifth mention here on the blog. As I've noted just recently, I highly recommend the expanded audiobook edition of Raised Eyebrows which includes Steve's own outstanding narration and voice characterizations. Would I steer you wrong?

Thanks again to Frank Ferrante. This is already his second mention here on the blog.

Let me repeat myself: Attempted Bloggery seeks information, preferably documentary evidence, on the current whereabouts of this splendid work of original cartoon art by William Hamilton. If you've encountered it at any time after Groucho's death in 1977, please drop me a line. Or, better still, write me a thesis.

I'd also be happy to hear from readers with information about other celebrities who might be fortunate enough to own a work or two of original New Yorker art. Relevant photos and stories would be a plus.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

William Hamilton

Steve Stoliar

Groucho Marx

Attempted Bloggery's Lost and Found Index

03387

Roger Angell at 100

Today is the one-hundredth birthday of author and editor Roger Angell, one of the great baseball writers of our time. Much of his work over the years has appeared in The New Yorker; indeed he worked with four of the magazine's editors, all but the magazine's founder Harold Ross. On July 26, 2014, Angell received baseball's highest honor for writers, the annual J. G. Taylor Spink Award, at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. This past June, a baseball signed and notated "H-O-F-2014" by Angell was sold on eBay. No doubt it dates from that Spink Award ceremony back when Angell was a spry ninety-three.

Roger Angell
eBay listing ended June 17 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Roger-Angell-HOF-2014-PSA-DNA-New-Yorker-Sports-Writer-Signed-baseball-/223245114227?hash=item33fa721b73%3Ag%3AT4MAAOSwbehbzqIq&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roger Angell
eBay item description

Note:  You can watch Roger Angell's acceptance speech on The New Yorker's website here.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Roger Angell

Baseball

Signed Baseballs

Attempted Bloggery's Inside Baseball Index

03386

William Hamilton: Like the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

Men sure do love to talk about their cars. Still, not every automotive feature is always what it seems, as cartoonist William Hamilton duly notes in his New Yorker cartoon of July 2, 1973. The original drawing came up for sale on eBay in May and sold for a lot less than the cost of my new brake pads.

"Like the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, she's got four fully rotating
wheels; like the Jag XKE, she carries a transparent windshield; like the
Cadillac Eldorado custom cabriolet, she comes with a precision swivel
rearview mirror; and like the Mercedes 300 SEL, she has a dash gauge
indicating the fuel-supply level at all times."
William Hamilton
Original art
The New Yorker, July 2, 1973, page 29

Some mild matte burn may be present. There's never an excuse for not using acid-free mattes.

Detail of men talking cars. There is some paper cut out at the top right.

William Hamilton's signature

The caption is taken from the published magazine page. It has browned with light exposure.

One hopes this water damage doesn't affect the art.

William Hamilton
eBay Listing Ended May 18, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/William-Hamilton-Original-Cartoon-Art-Published-The-New-Yorker-Magazine-1973-/143599664925?hash=item216f34ff1d%3Ag%3AbwMAAOSwhC1etcmC&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

William Hamilton
eBay Item Description

[End of eBay listing]

"Like the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, she's got four fully rotating
wheels; like the Jag XKE, she carries a transparent windshield; like the
Cadillac Eldorado custom cabriolet, she comes with a precision swivel
rearview mirror; and like the Mercedes 300 SEL, she has a dash gauge
indicating the fuel-supply level at all times."
William Hamilton
Original art
The New Yorker, July 2, 1973, page 29

Cartoons by Boris Drucker and William Hamilton

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1973-07-02/flipbook/028/

Note:  Attempted Bloggery seeks additional images of original art by William Hamilton.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

William Hamilton

Original New Yorker Cartoon Art

Cars

Attempted Bloggery's Late Model Index

03385

At the Piano: Stan's Sketchbook Page by William Hamilton

A young woman at the piano is the subject of a sketchbook page by New Yorker cartoonist William Hamilton. The piano has to be taken on faith; it is left out of the drawing. The sketch is inscribed "For Stan with best wishes" and signed by Hamilton with the date June 15, 1991. The sheet has one horizontal fold and two vertical folds, each of which go into the image. Tsk-tsk, Stan.

William Hamilton
eBay Listing Ended June 23, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-New-Yorker-Cartoonist-William-Hamilton-Autographed-Signed-Original-Sketch-/351767109699?hash=item51e6f42043%3Ag%3AvFAAAOSwqu9U622s&nma=true&si=MY%252BVlM1DDf4MNMNGGnCdh3m%252FHQQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

William Hamilton
eBay Item Description

Note:  Just on the basis of the two sketchbook pages by William Hamilton that have appeared on this blog to date and another currently on eBay, I am going to go out on a limb (my favorite part of the tree) and state that of all the New Yorker cartoonists I chronicle, he was the most likely to tear a page out of his sketchbook and inscribe it to a stan—sorry, fan. As I have based this sweeping conclusion on an extremely small sample, I invite readers to respond with their own observations. I also invite the submission to the blog of other sketchbook page images by Hamilton or by other New Yorker artists. All sketchbook pages are welcome, but this argument specifically is about pages removed from a sketchbook by the artist, as opposed to by some dealer, and dedicated in writing to a recipient.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

William Hamilton

Sketchbook Pages

Pianos

Attempted Bloggery's Note by Note Index

03384

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #92

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #92 comes with words of explanation that demonstrate editors can misread cartoons as well as the rest of us: "This week’s cartoon of a wizard waiting for an elevator comes from Lars Kenseth." Call me a stickler, but there are two figures here, not just a wizard, and they are inside an elevator, not waiting for it. The elevator is heading down and the wizard is carrying a box with his office belongings. My captions await you in the lobby.

"You'll never guess who's transphobic."
"This firm has lost its magic."
"My charms must have worn off."
"I forgot my wand. But I gained a stapler."

September 24, 2020 Update:  The Winner

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Lars Kenseth

Magic

  

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

All the Collected Cartoon Caption Contests

Attempted Bloggery's Spellbound Index

 

03383