New York Walking Tour Sept. 17

The monument was dear to Benchley.

If you are a fan of Robert Benchley, you know that he was obsessed with the Amiable Child Monument that is across the street from Grant's Tomb. He visited it on his birthday. For several years, I have done the same thing on Sept. 15. This year I am organizing a walking tour around the event that Benchley took part in during the 1930s and 1940s. The information:

Robert Benchley Birthday-1920s NYC Walking Tour

Monday, Sept. 17, 4:30 p.m. 
Meet at Grant’s Tomb, West 122nd Street & Riverside Drive, NY, NY, 10027

New York City’s “Fascinating Crimes” chapter of the Robert Benchley Society is sponsoring the walking tour. It meets in front of the General Grant National Memorial, better known as Grant’s Tomb, at 4:30 p.m.

The walking tour will include sites related to Benchley, starting with the Amiable Child Monument. The walking tour will include Riverside Park and the Upper West Side homes and haunts of 1920s figures, including Polly Adler, Babe Ruth, Dorothy Parker, William Randolph Hearst, George and Ira Gershwin, Heywood Broun, Edna Ferber, and many others.

We will see landmarks, historic sites, and noted architectural sites. The walk is led by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, a licensed New York City sightseeing guide, author of “A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York,” president of the local Robert Benchley Chapter, and founder of the Dorothy Parker Society.

The walk will encompass approximately 25 blocks. Wear comfortable shoes. Bring a MetroCard because we will be boarding an MTA bus to skip over some blocks. The tour will end up approximately 6:15 in a cocktail lounge.

The walk is $10, or free for all Robert Benchley Society members. It is open to the public of all ages; dogs are welcome (but can’t go in the Memorial). For more information: email Kevin Fitzpatrick (Kevin @ dorothyparker DOT com), call 917.526.0597 or sign up on Facebook.

New Book by Kim Goldsworthy, "Lunch at the Algonquin," Features the 1920s Celebrities Known as The Algonquin Round Table

"Lunch at the Algonquin" is a new book by Kim Goldsworthy. A novelette of historical fiction, the book re-creates a dialogue between the group of writers known as "The Algonquin Round Table" or "The Vicious Circle," featuring Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.

The author, Mr. Kim Goldsworthy of Rosemead, California, describes his historical fiction novelette as a re-creation of a one-hour luncheon attended by the famous Algonquin Wits of The Roaring Twenties or The Jazz Age. Specifically, the dialogue features the wit and sarcasm of Dorothy Parker (writer/screenwriter), Robert Benchley (writer/actor), Harold Ross (editor and founder of "The New Yorker" magazine), George S. Kaufman (Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright), and Marc Connelly (Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright), and others.

Like a fly-on-the-wall, the book records a typical conversation of this group as they eat lunch in the Algonquin Hotel in mid-town Manhattan, one afternoon in 1921, as they gab about the hot issues of the day: Prohibition; women's rights; radio; film; the Red Scare; the Sacco-Vanzetti trial of the century. They likewise converse about the little things, like pets, the theater, and what to do this weekend. In between bites, they spit their venom on each other as they toss off their insults and sexual innuendos between puns, word-play, literary allusions, and quotable quotes.

The author has included historical background to allow the reader to pick up the vibration of post-World War I America as expressed by the most literate New Yorkers living through the Jazz Age. For example, the newest interests of the early 1920s were mainly: the spread of the deadly Spanish flu epidemic; the spreading of jazz music; the propagation of radio as a consumer good; and the two newest Amendments to the U.S. Constitution concerning the right to vote ("women's suffrage") and the banning of alcoholic beverages ("Prohibition").

Popular interest in the Roaring Twenties and The Jazz Age is peaking right now, thanks to recent television shows like HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and the Ken Burns documentary "Prohibition" which debuted on PBS.

Cocktail Culture at RISD through July 31st

Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention in American Fashion, 1920-1980 is the first multi-disciplinary exhibition to explore the social ritual of the cocktail hour through the lens of fashion and design.

Organized by the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art’s Department of Costume and Textiles, Cocktail Culture features stunning fashion apparel from Balenciaga to Schiaparelli, jewelry, textiles, decorative and fine art, film, photographs, and more. More than 220 objects are included, drawn from the Museum’s vast holdings and loans from other museums and private collections.

Cocktail Culture is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated book with five essays, which is available for purchase in the Museum's shop, risd|works, and online at risdworks.com.

Cocktail Culture is sponsored by Swarovski, with additional support from The Coby Foundation and the Museum Associates.

The Crossword Craze of the 1920s

We thank Kevin Fitzpatrick for these images from issues of the New York Times of September 1924.Kevin is president of the New York "Fascinating Crimes" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society as well as president of the Dorothy Parker Society. More information on the DPS is available on their website http://dorothyparker.com/

 

Calling All Flappers, Vamps, Sheiks, and Jelly-Beans!

We thank Mr. Kevin Fitzpatrick, president of the New York City "Fascinating Crimes" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society for forwarding us a copy of The Magazine of Zelda: The Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau. Mary DiZazzo-Trumbull of the Boston "We've Come for the Davenport Chapter of the RBS provides this brief review of Zelda:

Do you want to be a dandy? Do you want to be a flapper? You can with "ZELDA" magazine! The magazine of Vintage Nouveau treasures! Find period jewelry, clothes and hats to fulfill your "era" fantasy. From fabulous period articles on the Charleston Step to cocktails from good times past - ZELDA will take you back like a time-machine! Even better!

For more information go to www.zeldamag.com