Every Night She Would Teach Me How to Play Her Mandolin

From the mailbag --

Thanks for naming the [chapter] "We've Come for the Davenport". One of the most elegant practical jokes ever played. But I will not be able to attend.

A friend is working on documenting the mandolin-club fad in the U.S., and Benchley was a part of that early in his writing career. I have lodged in the dusty recesses of my brain a Gluyas Williams drawing of Benchley trying very hard to play one, I think with someone trying to use a radio in the same room. Know which story that would be, which collection?

All the best,
Nick B.

The illustration accompanies Mr. Benchley's essay "My Own Arrangement," which is found in Chips Off the Old Benchley (1949), beginning at page 240. The essay pokes fun at radio performers whose arrangement of popular tunes of the time bear little resemblance to the original compositions. While discoursing on this topic of "Hide the Melody," Mr. Benchley writes, "I used to practice the second-mandolin part at home alone. If you have ever heard a second-mandolin part being played alone without the air, you will understand why my mother felt that I wasn't getting along as fast as I might."

Speaking of mandolins, enjoy this in this popular song of 1920 (music by James V. Monaco and words by Edgar Leslie and Pete Wendling), as performed by Al Jolson.

Just in Time for the New Year...

...the Robert Benchley Society announces that our Commemorative Tenth Anniversary Edition of Love Conquers All is available for purchase on Create Space and at Amazon. (If you buy using the Amazon link, be sure to buy from Amazon to get this commemorative edition. Other resellers on Amazon offer Love Conquers All in other editions lacking our valuable additional materials.)
Originally published in 1922 by Henry Holt and Company, this volume contains 63 Benchley essays, previously published in Life, The New York World, The New York Tribune, The Detroit Athletic Club News, and The Consolidated Press Association. The illustrations by Gluyas Williams are also from the 1922 edition.
The RBS 10th Anniversary Edition features a new forward written for the Society by humorist Bob Newhart, an introduction by Society chairman, David Trumbull, and a thoughtful essay on Benchley's humor style and influence by Ed Tasca.
That's not all. This volume has the essays by the first place winners of the Society's annual humor-writing competitions:
W. Bruce Cameron, Horace Digby, Tim French, Madeleine Begun Kane, Daniel Montville, and Mike Tuck.
Humorists Dave Barry, Arte Johnson, and Mark Russell also contributed material in this edition, which is "must have" item for any fan of witty humor in the Benchley mode.

Published by award-winning Glendower Media.

"You wait here and I'll bring the etchings down."

A few years ago, in 2004 to be precise, we were in Miami Beach, Florida, for Christmas and visit the "Miami Modern" exhibition of the Miami Design Preservation League. Among the many artifacts of the Art Deco Era on display were three framed magazine illustrations each titled: AMERICAN PLAYGROUNDS and bearing the following subtitles:

• "Public Beach, Miami Beach" (1/7/50)
  
• "Venetian Waterway, Miami Beach" (3/29/52)
  
• "Waterfront, Miami" (2/24/51).

They were in the manner of Gluyas Willams, the titles were in the font used by the New Yorker, and the dates correspond to New Yorker publication dates. Furthermore, William did a series of AMERICA'S PLAYGROUNDS for the New Yorker. However, when I looked at the CD that accompanied the big book of The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker, I cannot find those three illustrations.

The World of Gluyas Williams

He was more than just a cartoonist. He was the Hogarth of the American middle class, according to Edward Sorel, writing in AmericanHeritage.com in December 1984. To read the complete article go to www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1984/1/1984_1_50.shtml.

Gluyas Williams Papers

Papers of the American cartoonist, illustrator Gluyas Williams are archived at Syracuse University (http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/w/williams_g.htm). The collection includes original book illustrations for books by Robert Benchley, Edward Streeter, William Freeman, and Corey Ford, magazine cartoons for Cosmopolitan, Life and The New Yorker, and newspaper cartoons (1922-1947); correspondence, 1918-1949, and manuscript of a poem about Williams by Kenneth Bird and prefaces to Fellow Citizens (1941) and The Gluyas Williams Book, both by Robert Benchley (1929). Correspondents include Randolph G. Adams, Robert Benchley, Kenneth Bird, Charles Dana Gibson, G.S. Lobrano, Christopher Morley, D. Nassau, H.W. Ross, Frank Sullivan, and K.S. White.

Repository: Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010

According to information on the Syracuse University Library website:

Gluyas Williams (1888-1982) was an American cartoonist. Born in San Francisco, California, he received his A.B. from Harvard University in 1911 and, in 1915, married Margaret Kempton.

Mr. William's drawings include book illustrations, magazine cartoons and daily newspaper cartoons. He has illustrated many of Robert Benchley's books, William Freeman's Hear! Hear!, Corey Ford's How to Guess Your Age and Edward Streeter's Father of the Bride. He has also done many drawings for magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Life, and the New Yorker, contributing to the latter his famous "Wedding Series". From 1922 to 1947, Williams drew daily newspaper cartoons that were published through the Bell Syndicate in various newspapers in the United States, England, Australia and other nations.

Williams is also the author of several books, including The Gluyas Williams Book, (1929); Fellow Citizens, (1940); and the Gluyas Williams Gallery, (1957).