"People who like the theatre can't help but like The New Yorker." So advertised the magazine in the April 1938 issue of Stage: The Magazine of After Dark. The ad featured a collage of nine theatre pages from The New Yorker, all illustrated by Alfred Frueh. Evidently the magazine was making a play for new readers who were fans of the theatre, rather than fans of flawless grammar. Frueh's drawings cover the Broadway plays "On Borrowed Time,""Our Town," Julius Caesar,""Of Mice and Men," and "A Doll's House," among others.
The magazine cover features a photograph of actress Helen Hayes:
Christina Malman caricatures actress Beatrice Lillie.
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| "People who like the theatre can't help but like The New Yorker." Alfred Frueh |
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| Helen Hayes touring as Portia in "The Merchant of Venice" Stage: The Magazine of After Dark, April 1938 Photo by Vandamm |
The truth is, readers of Stage were already familiar with a number of contributors to the New Yorker, many of them artists. Illustrator Victor de Pauw contributed cartoons and spot drawings to The New Yorker. A full-length spot drawing for Stage on the contents page could easily be taken for a New Yorker spot.
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| Contents Spot drawing by Victor de Pauw |
Ludwig Bemelmans illustrates a Frank Sullivan piece the year after the artist's work first appeared in The New Yorker and the year before his first Madeline book was published.
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| First putting suet on his Saratoga lawn for a tame flock of spring harbingers, Frank Sullivan takes a junket to Broadway, and casts a weather-eye on the current drama. Ludwig Bemelmans |
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| Detail showing the remainder of the far right side of the Bemelmans drawing |
Christina Malman caricatures actress Beatrice Lillie.
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| "Till the Weather Breaks" by Beatrice Lillie Caricature of Beatrice Lillie by Christina Malman |
Why , I can remember when a dog could go to sleep all day in the middle of Main Street and nothing come along to disturb him.—Thornton Wilder,"Our Town"
The streets of Grover's Corners still look pretty quiet in Adolf Dehn's illustration of the Stage Manager's story, condensed. New Yorker readers occasionally got to see Dehn's work, but never in color.
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| "Our Town" Adolf Dehn |
Meanwhile Abe Birnbaum illustrates the jazz scene.
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The old Onyx Club "Oh, Say Can You Swing" by Paul Douglas Illustration by Abe Birnbaum |
Ruth Woodbury Sedgwick's column is named for the privilege of sitting in the center seats of the seventh row. One hopes George Price's absurd cartoon takes place many rows back.
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| "He's a dramatic critic, and sees a point in keeping it a secret." George Price |
Music writer Marcia Davenport, who also contributed to The New Yorker, offers the second part of a profile of conductor Leopold Stokowski.Otto Soglow's accompanying cartoon anticipates the iconic handshake between Stokowski and Mickey Mouse that was to occur two years later in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" (1940). The maestro is even shown in silhouette, as both he and Mickey are in the movie. Did Davenport have advance knowledge of the handshake?
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| "Hi-ya, Leo." Otto Soglow |
from "Fantasia" (1940)
Note: This all started when master collagist Stephen Kroninger sent me a scan of the New Yorker theatre advertisement from his magazine collection. After that, one thing just led to another. My thanks to Stephen for all the work he put in. This is his forty-sixth contribution here. He should know better by now.
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