A Comic Book Scrapbook 1 1

[porcupine48]

.

Edited May 28, 2017 by porcupine48

[porcupine48]

[jpepx78]

In 1960 at St. Saviours Church in Guildford England, choirboys remain quiet after they were given comics by the congregation to keep them from fidgeting and giggling during the long sermons. The vicar says the choirboys can bring their own favorites. Although the comics solves the problem of restless choirboys but don’t the comics divert their attention from the messages and lessons from the sermons? Are there any parents today that would allow their young kids play with electronic devices during church services to keep them quiet?

 

[porcupine48]

1955? England

 

[Sqeggs]

Just now, porcupine48 said:

1955? England

 

Fascinating photo! 

[porcupine48]

2 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Fascinating photo! 

thanks!just happened across it in an article on British "Teddy Girls"

No real info on it tho'

[porcupine48]

Canning Town,Docklands settlement,1955 in above photo.

[Duffman_Comics]

Weird thing is that there is an Australian "Sir Falcon" #1 on display.

[Duffman_Comics]

Another Oz book "Terry Lee and the Secret Agents #14".

[jpepx78]

 

A Comic Book Scrapbook

 

The pictures in my original post from a few years ago are gone due to a defunct image hosting site. I've decided to restore the pictures and update my original post. I'm using another image site due to problems with P-bucket and I will be disappointed if all my pictures in my posts disappear in the future. I hope you can enjoy these pictures before they are gone.

 

In my continuing search for pictures containing comics, I’ve come across some weird and wonderful comic-related material and I’ve posted many of the comic-related pictures in the 1939 newsstand pic time machine thread. I find the sociological and historical connections with comic books fascinating and these connections provide a glimpse into the past. Among some of the things I’ve found are: a smoking toddler reading comics, monster hysteria blamed on comics and the sad history of Japanese internment during WW 2. The material brings a wistful contemplation of life from an era before I was born however the past reality may not be as simple or as pleasant as I imagined. The goal of this scrapbook is to collect this material within one thread and I hope to occasionally update with material that doesn’t quite fit in the newsstand thread. Any other interesting contributions of golden age comic-related material would be welcomed. With the 75^th anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in comics and the release of the new movie “Man of Steel”, this first entry into the scrapbook would seem to be appropriate.

 

Superman Day at the 1940 New York World’s Fair

 

The 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair opened on April 30 1939 and was located in Flushing Meadows in Queens. While the main purpose of the fair was to lift the spirits of the United States and drive much-needed business to New York City, it was also felt that there should be a cultural or historical association. It was therefore decided that the fair opening would correspond to the 150th anniversary of George Washington’s first inauguration as President of the United States.

 

The New York World’s Fair was referenced in many comics from the period and the signature landmarks of the fair, the Trylon and the Perisphere, appear on some of the covers.

 

 

Comics pictured: All-American 18, Amazing Mystery Funnies v2#7, Funny Pages v3#4, Nickel 8.

In Amazing Mystery Funnies, the Fantom appears at the fair to stop a crooked contractor but there is no fair-related story in Nickel Comics.

 

The theme of the fair was the “world of tomorrow” and it seemed appropriate that the “man of tomorrow” would make his first public appearance in full costume on Superman Day. Although Superman appeared in comic strips, merchandising and on a radio show, Superman was promoted to a wider audience by a DC comics sponsored Superman Day at the fair on July 3, 1940. This was the first appearance of Superman in full costume and there was a live radio broadcast from the fairgrounds. The name “Superman” was inscribed on the top of the chest emblem to introduce the character to the public. The actor that played Superman is still unknown.

 

Superman Day, the idea of publicist Allen Ducovny, was held in part to promote the sales of DC’s 1940 New York World’s Fair Comics, a 100-page special edition sold exclusively at the fair. The 1939 edition, released on 4/30/39, sold poorly since it was 25 cents while other comics were a dime. Remaining copies were reduced to 15 cents and everyone who sent in a quarter in the mail received a Superman #1 or #2 to make up the dime difference. The 1940 edition published on 5/11/40 was priced at 15 cents.

 

As you can see from this house ad, the ad writer was exaggerating or did not know about the poor sales of the 1939 edition of the World’s Fair comic.

 

A sign advertises a special 10 cent admission for kids on Superman Day at the fair.

 

A rejected advertising flyer lists the activities and guests for Superman Day and note that they were giving out free Superman comics. Among the guests were George McManus, Frank Buck and Charles Atlas. The artwork was done by Lou Zimmerman who worked for or at Macy’s.

 

Free tickets to the fair for school kids were given out by Macy's.

 

Radio station WOR 710 gave away Superman comics to promote the Superman radio show.

I wonder what comics were given out but Superman 1 was on the newsstands around this time.

 

According to a back cover ad from Single Series 8, there was a booth promoting Tip Top Comics inside the Children's World Pavillion.

 

This kid is holding a comic at the World's Fair in 1940. What comic do you see?

I wonder if the kid asked for a World's Fair comic but the parents thought 15 cents was too much and settled for a 10 cent comic?

 

Amazingly, this Kodachrome color footage of Superman Day from the 1940 fair exists. This film comes from the estate of Jerry Siegel's son Michael (from first marriage) and the footage is believed to be taken by Joe Shuster using Siegel's film camera. Kids participated in athletic events and notice all the kid’s shirts with the Superman emblem. Superman was portrayed as normal sized and was not very muscular. This footage has been edited to identify some people in the footage. The black & white footage shows the selection of a Supergirl and Superboy that day.

 

 

Superman was on top of a moving float in the parade.

 

Eleven year old Maureen Reynolds from Manhattan and 15 year old William Aronis from Astoria, Queens were selected by the judges, Lucy Monroe, Ray Middleton, Frank Buck, Morris Gest and Charles Atlas.

 

Reynolds & Aronis with Charles Atlas

 

There were a few complaints on the selection of Aronis as Superboy from a few parents because he was 15 years old.

The entry form stated that the contests were supposed to be for kids 8 to 14 years old.

 

 

The fair’s sentiment of hope and optimism for the future would be tempered by tragedy and real life events. It was particularly festive at the fair on July 4th 1940 despite a great war raging in Europe between Great Britain and Nazi Germany. America was deeply divided about intervention into a war and both warring nations entertained support for their causes from American citizens.

 

Two policemen were killed and five others were injured by a time bomb placed at the British pavilion on July 4th. Detectives Joe Lynch and Ferdinand Socha were killed while trying to disarm the bomb after moving it away from a public area. It was the third bombing in New York in 2 weeks and New York residents were deeply concerned. The police had rounded up hundreds of suspects including Nazi sympathizers but none proved to be the perpetrators. The case still remains unsolved and as a result of the deaths of Detectives Lynch and Socha, new safety protocols were developed. The innocence of the time would be lost forever as America would become inextricably enmeshed into world affairs and would officially enter WW2 after Pearl Harbor was attacked. The fair closed on October 27, 1940.

 

References

 

Wikipedia: 1939 New York World’s Fair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World's_Fair

 

Superman Day page

http://theages.ac/fortress/supermanday/

 

Super Boys by Brad Ricca 2013

 

Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide

 

Grand Comic Database

http://www.comics.org/

 

New York Times World’s Fair articles

7/4/40 & 7/5/40

 

Tragedy at July 4th 1940 World’s Fair

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128216755

 

Edited July 11, 2017 by jpepx78

[jpepx78]

While we wait for reports from this years Comic-con, here are a few pictures from the 1974 San Diego Comic-con held at the El Cortez Hotel. Maybe a few forum members who were there could tell us some memories. More pictures can be found at:
http://www.comicconmemories.com/2010/05/31/1974-san-diego-comic-con-photos-batch-1-can-you-identify-people-in-the-pictures/

1974 Comic-Con flyer

 

First meeting of F.O.O.M. (Friends Of Ol’ Marvel). Roy Thomas in front (2nd from right)

Dealers room

Newly married Calvin & Donna Slobodian at their first convention together.

Phil Seuling with his back to us inside his booth. If you notice next to the Xerox box is a copy of Detective 27 out in the open. It probably wasn’t a big deal.

Russ Cochran

Shel Dorf & Ray Bradbury

Russ Manning

Charles Schultz

A young Dave Stevens

 

Edited July 18, 2017 by jpepx78

[Robot Man]

Awsome post! That was my second SDCC. I just remember driving down from LA with about 4 or 5 friends. My friend was the oldest so he rented the room at the El Cortez. We had half a dozen guys piled into a room all in sleeping bags to save money. Ate at Denny's down the street because it was cheap. I wanted to have as much money as possible to spend in the room. 

Funny like books like Tec #27 and Batman #1 are just sitting on a chair with the dealer's back to them. Times really have changed. I spent most of the time on my hands and knees picking the dollar boxes under the tables  for pre-code horror, crime, jungle and Fox books. Went home with a huge pile. My focus was EC's but they were like $4-$8. EACH! I bought a few but the dollar GA boxes were the best.

I remember walking up to Jack Kirby while he sat smoking a cigar by the pool and getting a free sketch and a couple of autographs. Just an awsome and innocent time that is gone forever. 

Thanks for posting this!

[jpepx78]

An Appreciation for Marked Up Comics with Owner Names

Here is an example of how a name written on a comic can lead to a biography of the comic owner.

It was common for kids to write on their comics to mark ownership and they probably couldn’t imagine their cheap throwaway entertainment would become valuable collectibles many years later. Many collectors don’t like any writing on books from as small as a date to a name or other scribbling since it can be unsightly and devalues the book. Personally I don’t mind a little writing such as a neatly written date or a name since I think the writing adds provenance and character but I normally avoid heavily scribbled books. I don’t collect teen humor and I initially didn’t care for the amount of writing on the cover when I saw this Patsy Walker 20. The owner wrote her name, address and a list of her friends. I became intrigued when she wrote “Patsy Walker my favorite book”. I did a Google search and was surprised by the amount of information I found on the owner Shirley Kutina. She was in the 1940 US census, a high school yearbook and sadly in an obituary.

From the 1940 census, Shirley was 3 years old and lived in Cleveland Ohio with her parents Fred and Helen. Her father was a machinist and her mother did wire work which I think is jewelry making. When Shirley had this book in 1948 she wrote her address on the front and back covers and the names of her best friends Alice Sluko, Arlene Czaplenski and Claudia Oney.

front & back cover

I found Shirley’s South High School yearbook “The Southernaire” from Cleveland and she was a senior in the January 1955 class. We get an interesting look at Shirley’s time at school from the entries in the yearbook. From her picture and profile, she still lived at the same address on Independence Road as written on the cover and we see a list of her school activities. Her best friends from 1948 did not attend her high school since none of them were in the class roster. Her high school boyfriend was Andrew Alli.

 

pictures of Shirley & Andrew

Here are some humorous entries about themselves and their future predictions.

Andrew Alli- Ambition: own a model agency, Prediction: head plumber at White House
Shirley Kutina- Ambition: secretary, Prediction: detective

Senior Personalities:
Andrew: sports man, Shirley: Andy’s gal

Shirley eventually married her high school sweetheart Andrew and lived in Strongsville Ohio. She passed away in January  2010 at age 73 and was a member of the Red Hat Society, Strongsville Eagles Auxillary and Deaconess United Church of Christ. She was the wife of the late Andrew Alli, mother to Arline and Alan and grandmother to Brandon and Kaitlyn.

I would like to thank Shirley for leaving an informational bread crumb to discover her life and sharing her common interest in comics and honor her memory. I am happy to own her copy of Patsy Walker 20 since it was enjoyable to read and contained Al Jaffee and Harvey Kurtzman art.
I wonder if there are more of Shirley’s books out there with her name?

We know some of the history of comic owners such as Larson and Okajima who also wrote their names on covers and I know there are many other books with written names awaiting discovery of their former owners’ lives.
Thanks to fellow forum member mustang33guy for selling the book to me.

 

[Primetime]

On 7/6/2017 at 10:05 PM, jpepx78 said:

 

A Comic Book Scrapbook

 

The pictures in my original post from a few years ago are gone due to a defunct image hosting site. I've decided to restore the pictures and update my original post. I'm using another image site due to problems with P-bucket and I will be disappointed if all my pictures in my posts disappear in the future. I hope you can enjoy these pictures before they are gone.

 

In my continuing search for pictures containing comics, I’ve come across some weird and wonderful comic-related material and I’ve posted many of the comic-related pictures in the 1939 newsstand pic time machine thread. I find the sociological and historical connections with comic books fascinating and these connections provide a glimpse into the past. Among some of the things I’ve found are: a smoking toddler reading comics, monster hysteria blamed on comics and the sad history of Japanese internment during WW 2. The material brings a wistful contemplation of life from an era before I was born however the past reality may not be as simple or as pleasant as I imagined. The goal of this scrapbook is to collect this material within one thread and I hope to occasionally update with material that doesn’t quite fit in the newsstand thread. Any other interesting contributions of golden age comic-related material would be welcomed. With the 75^th anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in comics and the release of the new movie “Man of Steel”, this first entry into the scrapbook would seem to be appropriate.

 

Superman Day at the 1940 New York World’s Fair

 

The 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair opened on April 30 1939 and was located in Flushing Meadows in Queens. While the main purpose of the fair was to lift the spirits of the United States and drive much-needed business to New York City, it was also felt that there should be a cultural or historical association. It was therefore decided that the fair opening would correspond to the 150th anniversary of George Washington’s first inauguration as President of the United States.

 

The New York World’s Fair was referenced in many comics from the period and the signature landmarks of the fair, the Trylon and the Perisphere, appear on some of the covers.

 

 

Comics pictured: All-American 18, Amazing Mystery Funnies v2#7, Funny Pages v3#4, Nickel 8.

In Amazing Mystery Funnies, the Fantom appears at the fair to stop a crooked contractor but there is no fair-related story in Nickel Comics.

 

The theme of the fair was the “world of tomorrow” and it seemed appropriate that the “man of tomorrow” would make his first public appearance in full costume on Superman Day. Although Superman appeared in comic strips, merchandising and on a radio show, Superman was promoted to a wider audience by a DC comics sponsored Superman Day at the fair on July 3, 1940. This was the first appearance of Superman in full costume and there was a live radio broadcast from the fairgrounds. The name “Superman” was inscribed on the top of the chest emblem to introduce the character to the public. The actor that played Superman is still unknown.

 

Superman Day, the idea of publicist Allen Ducovny, was held in part to promote the sales of DC’s 1940 New York World’s Fair Comics, a 100-page special edition sold exclusively at the fair. The 1939 edition, released on 4/30/39, sold poorly since it was 25 cents while other comics were a dime. Remaining copies were reduced to 15 cents and everyone who sent in a quarter in the mail received a Superman #1 or #2 to make up the dime difference. The 1940 edition published on 5/11/40 was priced at 15 cents.

 

As you can see from this house ad, the ad writer was exaggerating or did not know about the poor sales of the 1939 edition of the World’s Fair comic.

 

A sign advertises a special 10 cent admission for kids on Superman Day at the fair.

 

A rejected advertising flyer lists the activities and guests for Superman Day and note that they were giving out free Superman comics. Among the guests were George McManus, Frank Buck and Charles Atlas. The artwork was done by Lou Zimmerman who worked for or at Macy’s.

 

Free tickets to the fair for school kids were given out by Macy's.

 

Radio station WOR 710 gave away Superman comics to promote the Superman radio show.

I wonder what comics were given out but Superman 1 was on the newsstands around this time.

 

According to a back cover ad from Single Series 8, there was a booth promoting Tip Top Comics inside the Children's World Pavillion.

 

This kid is holding a comic at the World's Fair in 1940. What comic do you see?

I wonder if the kid asked for a World's Fair comic but the parents thought 15 cents was too much and settled for a 10 cent comic?

Love these posts Jeff! Looks like she is holding a Startling Comics #2 from June 1940.

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/comic.php?comicid=149146

 

[jpepx78]

 

I am reposting this since my old pictures were blurred for removal by P-bucket and I hope these pictures would remain by using another image hosting site.

Harlem New York 1939

We will take a detailed look at two pictures of a Harlem New York newsstand taken for the Federal Art Project by Sid Grossman in 1939. Harlem New York, a 3 square mile section of Manhattan, is well known as a major African American residential, cultural and business center. In the period after World War I to the mid 1930s, there was a literary, cultural and artistic movement that kindled a new black cultural identity that was called the “Harlem Renaissance”. This outburst of African American creative expression resulted in many literary works and artistic works of which the best known is jazz music. There were many socioeconomic factors contributing to the Harlem Renaissance. There was a great migration to northern cities because industrialization created demand for unskilled industrial labor and offered escape from the institutional racism of the southern states. However, job losses during the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after WW2 contributed to increased rates of crime and poverty in the neighborhood in later years.

 

A few of you might have seen this picture before but may not have taken a closer look. See if you can figure out the exact date of when these photos were taken from all the details in the closeup pictures.

It may be possible to determine the exact address of this newsstand from a 1939 or 1940 New York City phone book.

This stand was packed with newspapers, magazines and comics and in the closeups you will be able to identify many of them.

 

 

You could get a lot of things for a 5 cents in 1939: a newspaper, a loaf of bread, and from the pictures a jumbo malt, a shoeshine, a sausage or a ham or bologna sandwich with a free root beer. A dime could get you a valuable comic if you picked the right one and held onto it for 60-70 years. What would you get? Notice the gumball machine on the left.

 

Let's get to the the good stuff first: comics! Okay, I'll pick out the easy one. Can you see that Action 14?

Identify the other books.

 

I'll let someone else to do the work of identifying all the pulps in the newsstand.

 

Can you identify the movie stars on the bottom 4 movie magazine covers?

 

More pulps, magazines and a newspaper are on the left side.

 

In these closeups, you can see some of the major African-American newspapers and tabloids of the period.

 

Newspapers and tabloids are held by clothespins near the gumball machine.

 

Hitler was the subject of tabloid fodder in True Story magazine but probably wasn't a major concern yet in many American lives since most people were concerned about getting out of the depths of the Great Depression. In a short time, he will become one of the faces of the enemy and on the minds of nearly everyone.

 

Here is the second picture of the same newsstand.

 

How many of you have ever used a relic from the past like a rotary dial payphone?

 

Another closeup of the comics from the second picture.

 

Here's a closeup of the pulps.

 

Here's more pulps to the left of the newsdealer.

[

 

This is a closeup of the newspapers.

 

 

Elmer Simms Campbell

Coincidentally the name Elmer Simms Campbell appears prominently on the headlines of African-American papers that day.

 

The subject of race relations is still a divisive issue after the end of forced segregation and after the civil rights movement in America. So it is noteworthy to recognize individuals who acheived successful careers despite the social barriers during their lifetimes. Elmer Simms Campbell (1906-1971) was the first African-American nationally syndicated cartoonist and a very successful commercial artist who is best known for his art and cartoons in Esquire magazine.

 

Campbell was born in St Louis, Missouri to school teacher parents and later moved to Chicago. He first gained national attention in 1926 with his award-winning Armistice Day cartoon for his high school newspaper. In the cartoon, Campbell drew a soldier kneeling in front of his comrade's grave with the caption “We've Won, Buddy!” At age 14 he attended the University of Chicago for a year and then finished his education at the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon graduation he went to work as a waiter in a dining car on the New York Central Railroad. His big break came one day as he was drawing caricatures of train passengers. J.P. Sauerwein, the manager of Triad Studios was so impressed with his work that he offered Campbell a job at his St Louis art studio. That job gave Campbell the courage to move to New York where he worked at an advertising agency and was able to sell his work to many magazines. In October 1933, Esquire magazine hired Campbell and gave him creative freedom as long as there were beautiful girls in his drawings. He contributed art in nearly every issue of Esquire from 1933 to 1958 and created the magazine's pop-eyed mascot “Esky”.

 

His work might be of interest to aficionados of good-girl art since Campbell is known for his drawings of voluptuous women in harem outfits.

 

His good-girl art was compiled in this 1945 Cuties magazine.

 

Here is an example of a 1939 cartoon.

caption: Esquire, "Personally, I'm willing to close my eyes to Reverend Thornton's methods-- after all, the basket fund has already doubled last year's record."

 

Campbell's most popular character was a voluptuous red-head named Cutie who appeared in these 1944, 1946 and 1950 Barbasol ads.

 

Campbell describes the interesting origin of the character Cutie in the interview below.

 

Campbell describes his working methods, friends and frank opinions in this September 1, 1945 article from The Afro American newspaper.

Campbell 1945 bio

 

Campbell was certainly aware of the irony that he was making a successful living drawing white women in lingerie at a time when southern states mandated jail terms for blacks whistling at white women. It is unknown if Campbell ever met Matt Baker but since they were both artists known for their drawings of beautiful women, Baker certainly would have been aware of Campbell's art and it might have had an influence on Baker's drawings of women.

 

He also drew children's books and penned comic strips such as Phantom Island that was primarily for an African-American audience.

 

 

Campbell had an interesting personal life. There was much newspaper speculation about the circumstances of the death Campbell's first wife Constance, however the medical examiner pronounced the case as a suicide and attributed her ill health as a motive. Incidentally, Elmer married Constance's younger sister Vivian in 1940.

 

Campbell wasn't just an artist since he wrote articles about racism and music for Esquire. Campbell socialized with many famous jazz musicians and many were his close friends including Cab Calloway. Here is Calloway singing one of his signature songs, Minnie the Moocher.

 

If you thought Michael Jackson's moonwalk and spin moves were original, take a look at Calloway's dance moves from the 1930s and 1940s.

 

A map of the night clubs in Harlem drawn by Campbell.

 

His later commercial art appeared in other national magazines such as Ebony, Cosmopolitan, New Yorker and Playboy.

His daughter Elizabeth, a fashion model, married the famous photographer Gordon Parks (1912-2006) in 1962. Campbell was not happy with his daughter's marriage since Parks was twice the age of Elizabeth at that time. Parks would later divorce Elizabeth in 1973.

In the mid 1950s Campbell moved to Neerach Switzerland because he was tired of the racial prejudice in America and stayed until his wife died in 1970. He returned and lived in New York until his death in 1971.

 

Can you figure out the exact date from these pics? Answers to follow later.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

References

 

Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African-American National Biography, H.L. Gates, E. B. Higginbotham editors, 101-2 2009

 

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library Museum blog, Ohio State Univ.

http://library.osu.edu/blogs/cartoons/2013/02/28/found-in-the-collection-e-simms-campbell-letters/

 

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Sandra West, 56 2003
 

Escape from the Rat Race, Ebony November 1966, 133-138

http://books.google.com/books?id=9zlc1lcRd44C&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=simms+campbell+ebony+1966&source=bl&ots=9_iHXItTzK&sig=DCGvplu_IaCrOpjVF9c38Wes0HM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BsVuU8qoCYOxyAS5noKICA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=simms campbell ebony 1966&f=false

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by jpepx78

[jpepx78]

 

 

Why are these pictures of this Harlem newsstand so fascinating to me? Look at the comics and the closeup pictures and read my explanation below.

 

The comics in the stand are:

single series 6 Jim Hardy

Tip Top 39

Feature 22

Keen Detective Funnies v2 #7

The Funnies 32

All-American 4

Action 14

More Fun 45

Famous Funnies 59

King Comics 39

Crackajack Funnies 13

 

 

If you take a close look at the newsdealer, he is holding and counting a stack of new DC comics because that back cover is a Johnson Smith ad that appears on DC comics with the cover date of July 1939. The previous month's back cover was a Spencer Fireworks ad. The DC comics that came out that month are Action 14, All-American 4, Adventure 40, Detective 29, More Fun 45 and Movie Comics 4. Which of these comics are in his hands? There could be a fortune in his hands. So this is a photo of new comic day in 1939 at the very moment a newsdealer is about to put out or just finished putting out new comics.

 

A closer look:

 

Adventure 40 back cover

The Action 14 was only on this newsstand for a few days according to the on sale date of June 2nd as seen in this DC house ad for Action 14.

[

 

The movie stars on the covers are Carole Lombard on Silver Screen, Tyrone Power on Screen Romances, Tyrone Power & Alice Faye on Motion Picture and Paulette Goddard on Look. Goddard was married four times including marriages to Charlie Chaplin and Burgess Meredith.

 

The date of these photos is Thursday June 8, 1939. One clue is the sign for the Annual dance on June 26, 1939 and the tabloid headlines about the death of the wife of Esquire artist E. Simms Campbell dates the pictures.