The World through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury PDF
Preview The World through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury
THE WORLD THROUGH A MONOCLE THE WORLD THROUGH A MONOCLE The New Yorker at Midcentury Mary F. Corey HARVARDUNIVERSITYPRESS Cambridge,Massachusetts / London,England 1999 Copyright©1999bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Corey,MaryF. Theworldthroughamonocle:TheNewYorkeratmidcentury/Mary F.Corey p. cm. Includesindex. ISBN0-674-96193-5(alk.paper) 1.NewYorker(NewYork,N.Y.:1925)—History. 2.Popular culture—UnitedStates—History—20thcentury. 3.UnitedStates— Sociallifeandcustoms—1945–1970. I.Title. PN4900.N35C67 1999 051—dc21 98-41167 CIP FOR GEORGE AND FRANCES COREY, AND FOR MOLLY CONTENTS Preface:FirstThings ix 1 TheLayoftheLand 1 2 BeyondtheManhattanSkyline 18 3 RedHuntingandtheNewYorkerVillage 40 4 SlouchingtowardAnti-Communism 58 5 TheNewYorkerinBlackandWhite 77 6 TheRomanceoftheOther 101 7 ManagingwithServants 124 8 TheWarbetweenMenandWomen 149 9 GoodsandGoodness 181 Conclusion:FaultLines 205 Notes 215 Acknowledgments 243 Index 247 vii PREFACE: FIRST THINGS A very black-skinned African-American maid stands at the sink in the spacious kitchen of a prewar Manhattan apartment, gazing wistfully into spaceas sherinsesasilverplatter.Behindherlurksasmallgolden- hairedgirlwearingaghostcostumefashionedfromasheet.Inonehand the child carries a glowing jack-o-lantern, in the other, a pair of white gloves. Tiny saddle shoes peep from beneath the sheet. The room is shadowyandthemaid’seyes,herapron,hershoes,andthechild’ssheet and skeleton mask seem to glow. Soon the frozen scene will explode, when the child shouts “BOO!” and the housekeeper screams, her eyes widening with terror as the silver tray slips from her hands onto the checkerboardlinoleum_oor. This Halloween tableau, suspended somewhere between domestic comedyandminstrelfarce,isthecover(byEdnaEicke)oftheOctober 28, 1950, New Yorkermagazine.Tostepintothecornerofthepostwar worldinwhichtheblackmaidandherghostlychargeareeasilyrecogniz- able playersinafamiliarhouseholdscenarioistoenteraveryparticular time and place in midcentury American culture. Like a diorama in a naturalhistorymuseum,thisNewYorkercoverisaperfectshowcasein which the hallmarks of the period have been miniaturized and frozen in time. ix
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