Note: We are now in the second week of a New Yorker double issue period, meaning there is no new issue for us to pore over this morning. Instead, here’s something seaweedsy for you.
Thanks to the eagle-eyed friend of the Spill, Steve Stoliar, we can add to our reservoir of Alfred Hitchcock imagery this one of Eustace Tilley floating in the Atlantic Ocean.
The fleeting part Rea Irvin’s* Eustace plays is in Alfred Hitchcock‘s classic, Lifeboat, released in 1944.
After a passenger ship is sunk by a Nazi U-boat, Hitchcock shows us debris from the ship floating in the water — a copy of The New Yorker drifts by about 48 seconds into the film (the plot and all kinds of other information can be found here). Identifying which anniversary issue of The New Yorker Hitchcock filmed is impossible from the shot, but let us for a moment guess that it’s in all likelihood the 1943 issue (the Lifeboat Wikipedia entry tells us the film was “in production from August 3 through November 17, 1943″).
For those wondering if there was any “special” New Yorker / Alfred Hitchcock connection (besides reviews of his films over the years), the magazine’s Russell Maloney wrote a “Profile” of Hitchcock, “What Happens After That” — it appeared in the issue of September 10, 1938:
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–My thanks to Mr. Stoliar for bringing the floating Eustace to the Spill’s attention, and for the screengrabs from the film.
— Portrait of Mr. Hitchcock in The New Yorker is by Hugo Gellert
*Rea Irvin’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:
Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist) Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art and only art supervisor (some refer to him as its first art editor) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title of art editor. Irvin then became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn officially succeeded Harold Ross in early 1952. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time. Number of New Yorker covers (not including the repeat appearances of the first cover every anniversary up to 1991): 163. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.