Publicity Spot for D.W. Griffith
(Vanity Fair, 1919)
A thumbnail biography of the celebrated silent film director,D.W. Griffith
Vanity Fair Magazine
Articles from Vanity Fair Magazine
Carl Sandburg on Charlie Chaplin
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)
This poem was submitted to the Vanity Fair editors by an obscure film critic named Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967):
The room is dark. The door opens. It is Charlie
playing for his friends after dinner, ‘the marvel-
ous urchin, the little genius of the screen…’
Between the years 1920 – 1928, Sandburg served as the film critic for the Chicago Daily News.
Fifth Avenue Observations
(Vanity Fair, 1922)
This cartoon was drawn by the New York 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.
Click here to read a 1921 article about the growth of the Jewish population in New York.
Click here to read a magazine article about 1921 Harlem.
George Jean Nathan
(Vanity Fair, 1917)
A witty if dry profile of George Jean Nathan (1882 – 1958), one of the more prolific essayists and reviewers of all things dramatic and literary during the Twenties. At the time of this printing he was serving as the co-editor (along with his friend H.L. Mencken) of the American magazine The Smart Set while contributing occasional drama reviews to Vanity Fair. You’ll read a very long list of Nathan’s likes and dislikes, which, in fact, comprise 99% of the profile.
Later in life, Nathan would wed Mary Pickford – read about her here…
Jules Romains and THE DEATH OF NOBODY
(Vanity Fair, 1915)
This very brief column appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine during the winter of 1915 as one element in the publicity campaign supporting the distribution of The Death of Nobody, Jules Romains’ (1885 – 1972) 1911 novel.
Prior to the First World War Romains was primarily known as a poet and founder (along with fellow poet Georges Chennevière) of Unanimisme, a movement that combined concept of international brotherhood with the psychological ideal involving a shared group consciousness. At the time of this printing, the novelist was serving in the French Army.
Douglas Fairbanks on Hollywood
(Vanity Fair, 1918)
Attached is a very funny article written by the great matinee idol Douglas Fairbanks (1883 – 1939) concerning the predictability of silent films:
Whether eastern or western, the villain is never without a big black cigar. On the screen a big black cigar represents villainy; on the stage it represents General Grant.
Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith.
Douglas Fairbanks on the Writers of Silent Movies…
(Vanity Fair, 1918)
Yet another article from the dusty, moldy magazines of yore that illustrate how the silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks (1883 – 1939) would, time and again, bite that hand that fed him so generously: this is one more example in which Fairbanks points out the all-too predictable story lines of American silent movies.
The Rebellion of Theda Bara
(Vanity Fair, 1919)
Disgusted with being remembered for only playing the role of vampires, Theda Bara wrote this piece where she listed several sound reasons as to why she would never play such a roll again:
To me, there is nothing so quaintly naive as this inability of the moving picture public to disassociate the screen personality of a star from his or her own personality. I wonder what they think a Mack Sennett bathing girl must be like around the house.
Lt. Colonel Charles Whittelesey in the Vanity Fair Hall of Fame
(December, 1918)
Unlike the Vanity Fair magazine that we find on our newsstands, the Vanity Fair published under the steady hand of it’s first editor, Frank Crowninshield (1872 – 1947), was able to recognize that military heroes are a rare, three-dimensional breed, composed of an uncommon variety of testicular fortitude. Indeed, some years back, Israel went to the effort of giving IQ tests to the heroes of the Six Day War (1967) and they were not surprised to find that all of them tested in the higher ranges of their populations. The W.W. I U.S. Army hero Crowninshield saluted on the attached page was the commanding officer of a brave group of men called the Lost Battalion.
Click here to read more about the heroism of Major Whittelesey.
Dada in Germany
(Vanity Fair, 1922)
A segment from a longer article on the origins of Dada by the father of Dada. This column pertains specifically to how the movement took root in Germany as a result of the First World War.
Giacomo Puccini
(Vanity Fair, 1915)
A two page profile of the fifty seven year-old opera composer, Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924). Published at a time when his most popular work was behind him, the article centers on the composer’s career; from Puccini’s first opera, La Ville (1884) to his most recent, The Little Wooden Shoes.
Ruth St. Denis in California
(Vanity Fair, 1915)
Three photos and a few well-chosen words concerning Ruth St. Denis’ dance school in the wilds of California.
A Profile of Cartoonist Rube Goldberg, Cartoonist and Quack-Inventor
(Vanity Fair, 1914)
In the attached 1914 magazine profile, Joseph Edgar Chamberlin (1851 – 1935) asked, Who is Goldberg? and then jumped right in and proceeded to answer that question. However, the reader should understand that in 1914 it simply did not take very long to give the answer. With so much good work yet to come, this article outlined the cartoonist’s earliest employment record while making clear that he was already well known for his invention gags, which had already appeared in many papers across the United States.
If you would like to read a 1930 article written by Rube Goldberg click here.
Click here to see an anti-New Deal cartoon that Goldberg drew in 1939.
Artist Jacob Epstein Drafted…
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1918)
In 1918, the London-based American expatriot sculptor Jacob Epstein was living life to the fullest and enjoying all the benefits his talents had provided him. He had no intention of joining the army of his adopted country and had successfully avoided the draft since the outbreak of the war. However in 1918, conscription caught up with him. Epstein hated the idea of joining the colors, believing that the military would kill his creative soul, but this article puts a nice spin on all that.
John Singer Sargent in 1914
(Vanity Fair, 1914)
The attached VANITY FAIR article announced that the numero uno society portrait painter of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) was swearing-off portrait commissions in order to concentrate on water color. Little did he know that he would be back at it in a few years painting whole boat-loads of general officer portraits when he was named as one of the Official British War Artists.
Top-Drawer Golf Accessories
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)
A quick look at some of the golf shoe offerings from the spring of 1916. Ties for the sport are also pictured, as is a portable ash-tray for use on the links.
The Evolution of Golf Clothes
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)
Oddly, this essay has more to do with the evolution of golf from a shepherd’s pastime to the sport of kings, however there are some references made to the evolution of golf clothing:
Royalty did, however, dress up the game. It gave us the brilliant garments that golf captains wear in Britain. When I first went abroad I thought that I had never seen more splendid creatures. And the modern golf costume is a thing of mode and cut…
Serge De Diaghilev’s Balet Russe
(Vanity Fair, 1915)
A one page review by Edward Louis Bernays (1891 – 1995) writing under the nom du flak Ayhern Edwards in order to remove all suspicion that he was in reality the P.R. man who had been hired by Serge De Diaghilev (1872 – 1929) to smooth the way for his troupe as they toured the fruited plain throughout 1915. Strangely, he had nothing terribly critical to point out.