#lois long

Charlie Chaplin, Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield, sculptor Helen Sardeau, New Yorker staff writer Lois Long, and screenwriter Harry D’Arrast pose in a Coney Island photo booth, 1925.

Joan Crawford was an MGM star by the 1930s, and according to many critics, an absolute scene-stealer in 1932’s Grand Hotel. However, the New Yorker’s film critic John Mosher saw Garbo, and only Garbo, in this Academy Award-winning pre-code drama. April 23, 1932 cover by E.B. White. Although White’s friend and early office mate James Thurber had been contributing drawings for more than a year, it…

A staged joke photo of a prim young lady in 1890s clothes  pretending to be startled by a 1920s flapper, ca. 1925. The fast young lady is Lois Long, a staff writer for The New Yorker.

In the days before air conditioning, New Yorkers took to the higher rooftops in the city to escape the summer heat and reconnect with familiar entertainers.

June 6, 1931 cover by Theodore Haupt. The title image is a detail from a Sept. 5, 1970 cover by Arthur Getz.

Among those reconnecting was Lois Long, who had abandoned her nightlife column “Tables for Two” the previous year but revived it in…

Rise of the Gangster Film

During the early years of the Depression and before censorship guidelines were imposed by the Hays Code, Hollywood cranked out a slew of “Pre-Code” films filled with sex and violence, including 1931’s Little Caesar, the first “talkie” gangster film that defined the genre for decades to come.

Jan. 17, 1931 cover by Peter Arno.

It also propelled the career of Edward G. Robinson(1893-1973), who…

In the March 17, 1928 issue of The New Yorker, Macy’s responds to “Lipstick”’s column in a previous issue. “Lipstick” was Lois Long, who covered nightlife for the weekly. She was married to the illustrator Peter Arno.