The Robert Benchley - Peter Arno Connection?

Read about it in this fine Vanity Fair article by Ben Schwartz -- http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/04/peter-arno-the-new-yorker-cartoonist.

Listen to Benchley Perform The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

December 8 is the birthday of James Thurber (1894, Columbus, Ohio), so what a perfect time to listen to Robert Benchley and a full cast perform Thurber's most-popular work, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty? It was recorded in December 1944 for CBS. Thurber loved this adaptation of the story from The New Yorker. This is the complete broadcast, not abbreviated. To celebrate Thurber today, let's share this with our friends, and try to get 100 listeners for both Benchley and Thurber!

Proposed New Yorker Benchley/Parker Tribute

Dear David,

Hi, I'm an entrant in the New Yorker Eustace Tilley contest and my entry is a playful tribute to Robert Benchley & Mrs. Parker.

It's currently posted at the New Yorker website. I doubt if I'll win, but I wanted to see Sweet Old Bob represented at his magazine! Regards,

Eileen Mitchell

http://www.newyorker.com/online/photocontests/eustace_tilley_2013/entry537501244?previousId=537501481.

Introducing the New Yorker iPad App

Robert Benchley "My Favorite New Yorker" Says Style Guy Glenn O'Brien

GQ writer Glenn O'Brien in a recent interview cited "Robert Benchley, the great Algonquin Round Table figure and New Yorker humorist who went on to write in Hollywood and have an acting career as a curmudgeon" as his favorite New Yorker, and aded "I love his resigned but noble sense of humor in the face of mass societal stupidity." Read the interview in New York magazine at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/04/glenn_obrien_thinks_donald_tru.html

Forget Watson on Jeopardy, Show Me a Computer than Can do Stand-up

As this essay in The New Yorker says,

Prof. Richard Wiseman, explains that computers can be programmed to play with the meaning of words, but are not able to judge funniness. (Clearly not.) Wiseman suggests that, were a computer able to do this, it would be true proof of intelligence, the ultimate Turing test.

"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.

Wolcott Gibbs, Who He?

To this inquiry:

I'm currently engaged in writing a biography of Wolcott Gibbs, who succeeded Robert Benchley as The New Yorker's theatre critic. I was wondering if you had any letters, anecdotes, information, contacts, suggestions, etc. touching on their relationship, or any other aspect of Gibbs and his life and times.

Gordon Ernst replied:

Checking my book, I find "Robert Benchley: In Memoriam" by Wolcott Gibbs in the New York Times Book Review, December 16, 1945, p. 3. I also find mention of the Gibbs/Benchley connection in Here at The New Yorker, by Brendan Gill, published in 1975. Probably any book on the New Yorker would have some mention of this. Also, the biographies or memoirs of the various Algonquin writers.