Friday Spill: 50 Years Ago In The New Yorker

                                     50 Years Ago In The New Yorker

After deciding I’d like to see what was happening, cartoon-wise in The New Yorker 50 years ago, I stepped into the magazine’s time machine (otherwise known as its archive), and was pleased to see this cover by Albert Hubbell. I hadn’t remembered it (last I saw it was when it was first published). It’s an excellent example of what James Geraghty, the magazine’s former art editor, called a “fleeting moment.” No big statement, or comment on the current political scene (this was the Summer of Watergate after all). Those fleeting moments were, I believe, a respite from the crazy happening (this didn’t mean the magazine was operating in a bubble — it was very much on the case).

A few words here about Mr. Hubbell, using my own description of him from the Spill‘s A-Z: Mr. Hubbell holds a unique position as the only temporary Art Editor in The New Yorker’s history, filling in for James Geraghty.  Hubbell held the temporary position for the first four months of 1943 while Geraghty was away participating in classes for the Volunteer Officer Corps.

The cover above was 17th of Mr. Hubbell’s 19 for the magazine (he also contributed 3 cartoons, and a number of spot drawings).

Moving onto the cartoonist contributors of the issue, it was an all male affair (the cartoonists stable itself was not 100% male. Lee Lorenz, recently appointed Art Editor, had brought in Nurit Karlin that past March. Her 4th drawing for The New Yorker had appeared in the issue of July 1st. She would remain the only woman cartoonist in the magazine, from 1974 through the summer of 1978).

Here’s Dean Vietor’s drawing from the issue. Mr. Vietor has always been one of my favorite cartoonist contributors:

And here’s another from the issue, by another favorite artist, Joseph Mirachi:

And since I recently spotlighted John Corcoran on this site, here’s his in the issue:

I should mention that the issue contains the classic full page(!) Charles Addams drawing of the kid maneuvering his toy leaking oil tanker in Central Park’s Model Boat Pond. 

Addendum (July 8, 2024):

My New Yorker cartoonist colleague, Liza Donnelly, looking at Joe Mirachi’s drawing above, was reminded of a Mary Petty drawing that appeared in The New Yorker July 20, 1935: