This is really an April 27 '29 advertisement for a new record by Ben Bernie, accompanied by some high-quality hipster prose:Ben Bernie and his Boys loose their sobbing saxes and agonized oboes on this tantalizing foxtrot and excite "Scrappy" Lambert to a vocal chorus that would make the meanest of mamas unlock the strongest of doors.Besides being a striking illustration, however -- and being far sexier than that guy in the B.V.D.s from a few days ago -- I'm sort of surprised at the STYLE of the drawing...it's more naturalistic than you'd expect, right down to her surprisingly rendered midriff.
The guy on the other side of the door, however, is just the usual cartoon. I guess they couldn't show HIS belly-button.
PS, the B-Side -- "My Castle In Spain Is A Shack In The Lane" -- sounds equally fun:
Confession of an opium eater five minutes after marrying a gold digger. A foxtrot by Ben Bernie. "Scrappy" Lambert supplies the local smelling salts! A wow and how!I assume that "local" was supposed to be "vocal," but anyway. You could also buy "Mean to Me" sung by Chester Gaylord, "The Whispering Serenader." This was truly the age of crooners singing through those funnels you sometimes see in old films.
2 comments:
I puzzled and puzzled, and then - I've got it!
This could be the picture to accompany that "Slowpoke" song that Arthur Godfrey sang in the 1950's!
It could be interpreted as a femme fatale takin' her own sweet time getting dressed, while hubby (or daddy) stews as curtain time approaches.
That could mean the lady's tired of the ol' man barging in every ten minutes telling her how late she is - so she's locked the door. Now he has to resort to shouting to hurry her along ("I wait and worry but you never seem to hurry, little slowpoke...").
Obviously this type-A has not heard (or learned from) a later stanza: "Why should I keep trying to change you; it's not the thing to do. I guess I'll have to learn to be a slowpoke, too..."
That’s my less-salacious interpretation of this picture. Maybe we’ll leave the Rorschach tests for later!
Maybe the "slow poke" is the doorknob he's tryin' to poke her with!
My first impression -- once I twigged to the cross-section thing -- was that he came over to pick her up, but she was already "having a party" with another beaux, so she just locked the door and let him rave.
You know, whenever I think of Arthur Godfrey I think of puppies and yachts and a really mean guy.
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