Vanity Fair Hall of Fame – Page 3 – Old Magazine Articles

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.

D.W. Griffith in the ‘Vanity Fair Hall of Fame’
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

Sweet words of praise were heaped high for the silent film director D.W. Griffith when he was selected by VANITY FAIR magazine to be one of their anointed ones:

Because he was for many years an excellent actor and a leading man on Broadway; because he went into moving pictures as a an actor and emerged from them as a producer;because the greater the magnitude of the task ahead of him the more the prospect pleases him; because he invented the high-priced movies; because he has employed upwards of 5,000 people in a single scene; because he is an excellent musician and wrote the orchestral music for ‘Hearts of the World’, the most sensational moving picture of recent years.film production
check
summary
single
business ethics articles
display cases
imaging
old magazine
film production
check
summary
single
business ethics articles
display cases
imaging
old magazine
film production
check
summary
single

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.

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.

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.

Sergei Diaghilev and Russian Art
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

Henri Matisse Viewing in New York
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

This article will give you a good look at how the seeds were sewn as early as 1915 to ensure the rise of New York City as one of the great art centers of the world. For the first time since the 1913 Armory Show, New York was again to host an important exhibition of the European modernists. Much of the article concerns Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) and is illustrated with a portrait of the artist by the photographer Edward Steichen.

Things were changing – not long after New York was proclaimed as the commercial capital of the art world, America was recognized as the preeminent world power, click here to read about it…

U.S. Naval Officers Insignia
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

Yet another examination of U.S. Navy officer insignia with additional illustrations of American naval rating patches.

Tristann Tzara on Dada
(Vanity Fair, 1922)

An essay by one of the founders of Dada, Tristan Tzara (Sami Rosenstock a.k.a. Samuel Rosenstock; 1896 – 1963), who eloquently explains the origins of the movement:

Dadaism is a characteristic symptom of the disordered modern world…

In Defense of Literary Rebels
(Vanity Fair, 1920)

Literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895 – 1972) was a big part of the intellectual world that existed in New York throughout much of the Twenties through the Fifties. His reviews could be found in a number of magazines such as VANITY FAIR, THE DIAL and THE NEW REPUBLIC. Wilson is remembered for championing many of the younger poets that we still read to this day and in this review, Bunny Wilson celebrated the new poetic form that the modern era had created: free verse. Good words can be read on behalf of the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Amy Lowell.

The Art of Thomas Hart Benton
(Vanity Fair, 1922)

When this profile of the thirty-tree year-old Thomas Hart Benton (1889 – 1975) was published, the painter was not as yet recognized as the eccentric that history remembers him to have been. The anonymous journalist took an enormous interest in understanding Benton’s education and the source of his inspiration.

Click hereto read a 1936 art review regarding the paintings of Grant Wood.

Paul Cezanne Gets His American Viewing
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

This is a VANITY FAIR art review that was reverently torn from the brittle, yellowing pages of a 1915 issue of VANITY FAIR covering the first Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906) exhibit on American shores.