Tablecloth Art
The other day I came to discover a Thurber article, “James Thurber: Doodler Extraordinary”* by Barbara Klaw in a now somewhat ancient American Heritage (February 1965). The two-page article centered on a photograph of a tablecloth covered with Thurber drawings.
According to the American Heritage story, Thurber drew (in pencil) on the tablecloth while at Tim Costello’s restaurant one night (Costello’s will be forever remembered as the restaurant adorned with Thurber murals). At the end of the evening, Thurber friend, J.P. Gude, asked Costello for the tablecloth.
From the article:
“He [Gude] didn’t look at it til the following morning, and then he was revolted by its spattered state. ‘Frankly, it was one of the filthiest tablecloths I ever saw.’ Yet if it were sent to the laundry, the pencil lines of the drawings would obviously wash out along with the beer and the steak juice.”
Another person at Costello’s that night, Mrs. Elizabeth McGhee (whose nickname was “Buddy”) offered to “preserve” the drawings by embroidering over the pencil lines. Mrs. McGhee signed “Buddy fecit” on the tablecloth (you can see her signature on the top right in the above photo).
Here’s a photo from the article showing the tablecloth at Costello’s. You can see some of Thurber’s drawings on the wall. :
* I’ve read that Thurber disliked the word “doodle.”
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Thurber’s A-Z Entry:
James Thurber Born, Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 1894. Died 1961, New York City. New Yorker work: 1927 -1961, with several pieces run posthumously. According to the New Yorker’s legendary editor, William Shawn, “In the early days, a small company of writers, artists, and editors — E.B. White, James Thurber, Peter Arno, and Katharine White among them — did more to make the magazine what it is than can be measured.”
Key cartoon collection: The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments (Harper & Bros., 1932). Key anthology (writings & drawings): The Thurber Carnival (Harper & Row, 1945). There have been a number of Thurber biographies. Burton Bernstein’s Thurber (Dodd, Mead, 1975) and Harrison Kinney’s James Thurber: His Life and Times (Henry Holt & Co., 1995) are essential. Website