Vanity Fair Magazine – Page 13 – Old Magazine Articles

London Society, 1915
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

Five months into the general unpleasantness going on across the Channel had transformed London into a very different city, and sadly, it was the leisured classes that had to shoulder most of the burden:

London is well worth living in these troubled days if only for its contrasts…The gloom of the streets, the sinister play of the searchlights, the abnormal hour at which the theatres open and and the public houses close, the fact that half the male population is in khaki and the other half would like to be, that Society is wearing Noah’s Ark clothes and that to buy a new hat is a crime, that there are no dances, no dinners, no suppers, no premieres, no shooting, no no posing, no frivolity, nor idling, it’s rather quickening, you know. But the searchlights have absolutely killed all practical romance.

British Tennis Stars Rally for 1922
(Vanity Fair Magazine,1922)

Having seen the international pantry shelf sadly depleted in the way of cups during the stirring campaign of 1921, extended preparations now underway beneath the Union Jack, indicate a counter attack of no slight proportions this coming summer.

Paul Thevenaz: Rhythmatist Painter
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

A one page article regarding Swiss-born painter Paul Thevenaz (1891 – 1921) and his thoughts on the relationship between dance and modern painting. The article is accompanied by four of his portraits; the sitters were Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, the Comtesse E. De Beaumont and Comtesse Mathieu De Noailles.The profile was written by the novelist Marie Louise Van Saanen.

Read a 1937 article about another gay artist: Paul Cadmus.

A Covered Golf Caddy Bag
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

A few words, accompanied by a photograph, concerning the ‘traveler’s covered caddy bag‘ — another attempt at thwarting the efforts of ‘the golf thief’ as well as just plain lousy whether.

The Well-Born Officer
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

For it’s October issue, the editors of VANITY FAIR magazine stepped up to the plate and did their bit with this splendid review of all the finest uniform apparel that New York City offered it’s silk stocking officers. The article is nicely illustrated with photographs of a double-breasted mackinaw coat, two officer blouses (one of a wool-silk blend), a classic silk knit service tie as well as a very fine trench boot.

New From Amazon: Doughboys on the Great War:
How American Soldiers Viewed Their Military Experience

Clothing the Camper and Yachtsman
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1917)

For all too few it is understood that fashion need not end in the wilderness: for it is more than likely that that was where the need for fashion was first recognized and it was there, among the toads and the dung, that the Well-Dressed man first crawled out of the muck and civilization

was born. With all this in mind, Robert Lloyd Trevor reviewed the fashions for the enjoyment of camp-life in this 1917 Vanity Fair review. Another vital concern touched upon by the journalist was the clothing available to the yachtsmen at that time:

Yachting is one of the things that begin at the bottom. That is to say, at the shoes. They are the foundation, as it were, for the rest of life on the rolling deep.

Four Photgraphs of the Extended Royal Family
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

Assorted photographs of the assembled German, Spanish, Belgian, Russian, Norwegian and British royal families, posed as they gathered to attend the the 1894 and 1896 Royal weddings at Coburg; also pictured is the group photo snapped at the 1898 shooting party at Sandingham. Queen Victoria appears in two of the pictures, while Kaiser Wilhelm II can be seen in all of them.

The Four Social Zones of Fifth Avenue
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)

This cartoon was drawn by the artist Reginald Marsh (1898 – 1954), who had a swell time comparing and contrasting the bio-diversity along 1922 Fifth Avenue; from the free-verse poets on Eighth Avenue up to the narrow-nosed society swanks on Sixty-Eighth Street -and everyone else in between.

William Orpen and the Portrait of Mrs. Oscar Lewisohn
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

Here is a petite notice that appeared in a 1915 issue of VANITY FAIR heralding a new portrait by the British painter William Orpen (1878 – 1931), which depicted the likeness of a popular American stage actress Mrs. Oscar Lewisohn (Edna May Pettie 1878 – 1948). The anonymous reviewer compared the portrait styles of Orpen with that of London’s reigning portrait painter, John Singer Sargent:

Sargent had a way of showing his sitters as they didn’t think they looked. On the other hand, Orpen has a trick of making his sitters look like what they would like to be.

Robert Henri
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

A VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE profile of the American painter Robert Henri (1865 – 1929):

Robert Henri does not sympathize with the artists who throw their work in the face of the public with a ‘There, take it or leave it.’ Indeed, he has an almost hieratic belief in the power of the fine arts, not merely to delight, but to improve, to uplift and to educate the masses.

Click here to read further about the 1913 Armory show.

W.W. I and the Royal Families of Europe
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

In five short paragraphs, this writer (Ard Choille), nicely sums up the chumminess that made up the royal families of old Europe and the vital role Queen Victoria played in the creation and maintenance of that bond:

Until the outbreak of the war the royal families of the various nations made up a wonderful club, the like of which had never been known before. Judging from the society papers, most of Europe existed for their convenience, and even the variety of military uniforms was kept up in order that royalty, while at home or abroad, might have the opportunity to change its clothes as often as possible

The Princess Colonels of 1914
(Vanity Fair, 1914)

Attached is a page from VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE depicting the ten European princesses from 1914, having benefited from full hair and make-up, posing bemedaled and amused in full military dress before the society magazine cameras.

The Royals pictured on this page were all granted the ceremonial rank of ‘Colonel’ in the household cavalry units within their respective principalities, as well as a few of the cavalry regiments outside their domains.

Several of the Royal and Imperial women in Europe, who are possessed of military rank, have lost their colonelcies in foreign regiments by the World War. Thus, the Czarina and the Russian Grand Duchess, as well as Queen Mary of England, have been deprived of their commands in the Kaiser’s army.

Augustus John on the British Homefront
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

A war-time interview with the Welsh painter Augustus John (1878 – 1961).

Hats Having Modernist Tendencies
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1921)

The fashion editors who presided over the very young VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE made an effort to keep pace with the dramatic changes taking place in the design of ladies hats and wraps for 1921. The attached article is a case in point.

W.B. Yeats and Those He Has Influenced
(Vanity Fair,1915)

With the publishing of the first part of his autobiography, Reveries Over Childhood and Youth, W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) got some attention in the American press. Here is a small notice from an American society magazine which praises his ability as an artist to influence other writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, John M. Synge, George Moore and Dr. Douglas Hyde.

Photographs of the Crowned Heads of Europe
(Vanity Fair, 1914)

Will Any of These Pictures be Turned to the Wall? asked the editors of VANITY FAIR shortly after the outbreak of the W.W. I. On the attached pages are photographic portraits of the potentates representing the assorted combatant nations; French President Raymond Poincare was the only elected official to be included among the royals. Pictured are Austria’s Emperor Franz Joseph, Britain’s King George V, Germany’s Willhem II, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Peter of Serbia and Albert, King of the Belgians.

Manhattan Servant Problems
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

The attached cartoon depicted one of the unintended consequences of German aggression during the First World War: the creation of what was known as the servant problem. It should be understood that the difficulty in question caused no particular hardship for those who were supposed to be the servants; they were simply delighted to vacate the collective domiciles of Mr. & Mrs. Got-Rocks in order to pull down a living wage in a nice, cozy smoke-spewing armament factory some place – leaving their former employers to fix their own meals and diaper junior.

Click here to read about the New York fashions of 1916.

Patriotic Verse by Gertrude Stein
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

When you stop to think of patriotic poetry, Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) is not one of the word-smiths whose name comes to mind. Yet she, too, applied her talents to the genre after having labored many moons as an ambulance driver in France on behalf of the American Fund for the French Wounded. She had joined this group in 1916 and in 1922 was awarded the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Française for all her good work. This poem, in praise of the U.S. Army, appeared in a 1918 VANITY FAIR.