The Evolution of Vanity Fair

Part II. From the Civil War to the Present Day

JAMES L. FORD

THE passing in 1862 of the original periodical called Vanity Fair was followed by a distinct retrograde movement in comic journalism, for Punchinello, Wild Oats and other of its immediate successors were coarser and more obvious in quality, and there were even one or two whose misspelled titles like The Phunny Phellow were mournful suggestions of the nature of their contents.

One characteristic, exhibited by these journals, and by the first Vanity Fair, too, that cannot fail to impress the reader of modern magazines is the paucity of their advertisements and the utter lack of anything like taste or originality in their display. That Vanity Fair circulated among a superior class of readers is evidenced by the fact that most of its advertisements were of books, but there were very few of these.

But even before the demise of this journal, Thomas Nast had begun his work and although Harper's Weekly was never, strictly speaking, a satirical paper, its cartoons were the most popular and effective of any that the country has ever known. Nast rendered an unforgettable service to the city by his persistent attacks on the members of the Tweed ring— attacks that called forth from the Boss who had vainly attempted to silence the artist by a prodigious bribe, the significant remark: "My constituents can't read but they can all look at pictures." It was one of these cartoons, which had made its way into Spain while Tweed was in hiding there, that led to his identification, arrest and extradition.

The next cartoonist of note to appear was Joseph Keppler, who had founded Puck in St. Louis, where it enjoyed but a brief life, and started it again in New York in 1877. Puck was the most influential comic paper that we have ever had. Its first editor was Sydney Rosenfeld, still active in the theatrical field, and its corps of salaried artists included J. A. Wales and F. B. Opper. H. C. Bunner succeeded Rosenfeld and, in course of time, B. B. Valentine and R. K. Munkittrick were added to the editorial staff. Among the artists later employed were Charles J. Taylor, Zimmerman, Hutchins, Dalrymple, Gratz and others. Originally printed in German, it had had a succession of editors, of whom the best remembered was Carl Hauser, a typical German humorist. For a time the English edition was an uncertain proposition and more than once its proprietors would have stopped it, had it not been for the remonstrances of Bunner and Opper.

Bunner and Munkittrick

VANITY FAIR had been distinctly English in tone, despite its anti-British attitude, but Puck, although of German origin, was strongly American. Keppler proved himself a cartoonist of ability second only to that of Nast, and the comic features of the paper were infinitely better than anything previously seen in the town. Even the coarseness in which Keppler indulged from time to time had the effect of startling the community and increasing the current sales, while the truth contained in every one of these pictures was often of sufficient value to justify its printing. For purely humorous work Opper has seldom been excelled in this country, and it is pleasant to know that he continues to this day a cheerful and active toiler in his chosen field. Bunner edited the paper with much care and wrote editorials on such serious matters as the tariff, the currency and politics, that attracted the attention of business men all over the country. He gave to Puck a fine literary tone and was quick to recognize new talent and make fitting use of it. His stories and poems, printed in his own paper and elsewhere, gave him a permanent reputation.

A valuable member of the staff was Munkittrick, a typical humorist, and a genuine one, too, of his day. "Munk", as he was called, was adept at paragraphing and could also turn out at will humorous articles on almost any subject and of precisely the necessary length. He boasted that he could stretch a single idea further and get more out of it than any man in the business. Once while washing his hands with a slippery cake of round soap, it fell from his grasp, hit his dog on the nose and then bounded elsewhere. Quick to seize upon an idea, he began a story based on this trifling catastrophe and carried the soap through a series of manoeuvres until the space demanded by Bunner was precisely filled. Even then he wanted to go on, declaring he could easily make a serial out of it. Munkittrick possessed unrivalled rhyming facility and his friends were -wont to say that he could talk in rhyme as readily as in prose. Most of his work in this line was of a trivial nature, but from time to time he wrote poems of real beauty. He was never known to be guilty of a false rhyme or of a false quantity. Moreover, he had a genuine love for and appreciation of the best verse and was withal a keen critic of everything that he read.

Bunner died in his forty-first year and was succeeded by Harry L. Wilson, who had been for some time a member of Puck's editorial staff. Of unusually sound judgment for a man of his years, Wilson's editorials maintained the high standard set by Bunner's. His books are now widely read by an appreciative public, and there are a few of us who remember that his first appearance "between covers" was in the form of some reprinted Puck sketches entitled Zigzag Tales.

Owned by Germans, it was not surprising that humour should have been quickly organized into a system in the Puck office. Mr. W. C. Gibson, who became the art editor after a long apprenticeship in the establishment, devised what he called a "crucible" in which artists were subjected to a severe test. It was merely a small room in which artists were interned and compelled to draw without recourse to other pictures, from which they too often copied. During Mr. Gibson's tenure of office, it was a difficult thing to sell any stolen comics to Puck.

"Judge" and "Truth"

THE success of Puck led to the starting of Judge on similar lines, a journal that has since then passed through the hands of various owners and editors and is now firmly established under the editorship of Mr. Perriton Maxwell. Bernard Gillam, a cartoonist of no mean ability, as back numbers of Puck will plainly show, was transplanted from that paper to the Judge staff, under the following circumstances: It was Gillam who made the first rough sketch of that famous cartoon 1'he Tattooed Man, and when he submitted it to the regular weekly council which decided on all the pictures, it was found that he had made David Davis a small figure in the background labelled "The Tattooed Man". Schwarzmann suggested that Blaine should be substituted for Davis, while others said that he should be tattooed with such political war-cries as "Mulligan Letters" and "Little Rock". The result was that Blaine as the tattooed man became the dominant figure of the picture and the cartoon attracted so much attention that Gillam received a liberal offer from Judge.

While Puck was riding on the top wave of popularity, Blakely Hall, a brilliant member of the Sun staff, obtained control of a struggling weekly called Truth and proceeded to build it up on lines not unlike Puck's. It was on Truth that George B. Luks, now widely known through his genre pictures, made his first reputation as a comic artist, in which field of endeavor he gave promise of achieving real distinction. Granville Smith and Archie Gunn were also on the staff and it was on this paper that Robert W. Chambers, then aspiring to be an artist, did his first work in New York. James L. Ford .was managing editor of the paper and it was in its pages that his Literary Shop first appeared. Paul Potter and E. D. Beach were also regular contributors. It was in Truth that A. B. Wentzell's series of Poker Party pictures were first printed. The colour work was superior to that of either Puck or Judge and the paper soon gained a large circulation. It was sold to the American Lithograph Co., soon went into a decline, and finally died in their arms chiefly from incompetent management.

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The History of "Life"

MEANWHILE Life, started in the early eighties, was steadily climbing toward the position that it now occupies as the most successful and distinguished of Puck's rivals. The earlier numbers were issued by its founder, the late John A. Mitchell, from his studio at Broadway and Twenty-seventh Street, with Henry Guy Carleton as editor and E. S. Martin as special writer, which position he maintains to the present day. It was a black and white publication and more refined in appearance than its contemporaries. Carleton's "Thompson Street Poker Sketches" were among the first of its successes. Later Carleton was succeeded as editor by John Kendrick Bangs, who was followed by James S. Metcalf, who, in his turn, was succeeded by Thomas L. Masson, the present incumbent. Charles Dana Gibson's debut as an illustrator was made in one of the earliest numbers of the paper and he is now the virtual owner of the property.

Other short-lived comic and satirical journals have flashed across the public vision from time to time since Puck first showed the way to enduring success. One of these was Time, published by Funk and Wagnalls and edited by the late Wolcott Balestier,, the brother-inlaw of Rudyard Kipling. Had it been stronger, its life might have been longer. Another was The Verdict, edited by the late Alfred Henry Lewis, and containing much work by Luks. Lewis was a forceful and original writer who had already given the public a taste of his quality in Wolfville, but despite his unquestioned ability and the substantial backing of the late O. H. P. Belmont, the paper died an early death. The most recent of these essays was The Porcupine, edited by James L. Ford, which began its existence in 1916 and perished one year later, because of .the death of its backer. The Porcupine contained excellent cartoons from the pen of J. Norman Lynd.

Such is the story of the evolution of the present Vanity Fair from its namesake of the sixties. It is the very last word in the field in which it now stands preeminent and we have only to compare its reading matter, its pictures, and its advertising columns with those of its predecessors to realize how great has been the advance during the past sixty years Current taste demands beauty of appearance, which is arrived at through the distinctively modern art called "makeup" and in this respect, at least, Vanity Fair stands alone in the field. We need say no more about it. The evidence in the case is all in the hands of the people who read this number.