Digging through a banker’s box of Life magazines in the Spill’s archives I came across an issue dated February 19, 1945 and bookmarked (by me at some point years ago) at the article, “Speaking Of Pictures: Thurber Amuses People By Making Them Squirm.” The two-page article has one half-page photo of Thurber, wearing a “watchmaker’s magnifier” drawing very very close-up to a pad of paper. There are two Thurber classic drawings right below (“Touche!” and “Well, I’m disenchanted, too. We’re all disenchanted.” ) The second page is taken up by a series of photos showing Thurber, still wearing his watchmaker’s magnifier, drawing with a clock running (thus the 6 1/4 minutes mentioned above). Thurber was famously known for spending little time on his drawings. The caption below the photo spread says, in part:
Thurber draws a cartoon in 6 1/4 minutes, did this one for Life to show his speed.
I’m showing the full page here. The finished drawing carries the caption, “What was the matter with the lamps we used to have.”:
Here’s a close-up of the finished drawing (apologies for quality. I’m working off of an image on faded paper):
