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Best New Yorker Articles of 1950

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1950 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: S. J. Perelman (4)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

The Millionaire.
Lillian Ross · Profiles · January 7

Profile of Henry Jonas Rosenfeld, millionaire dress manufacturer and Wonder Boy of Seventh Avenue. Rosenfeld's second-in-command is Paul Hershcopf, …

THE MILLIONAIRE~II
Lillian Ross · Profiles · January 14

PROFILE of Henry Jonas Rosenfeld, 38-year-old millionaire dress manufacturer. Since he was six years old, Henry's goal has been to become a …

THE GENTLEMAN FROM NEW YORK.
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · January 21

Profile of Congressman Jacob K. Javits, of the 21st Congressional District, a predominantly Jewish district, with some Catholics and Negroes sprinkled …

THE GENTLEMAN FROM N.Y. Part II,
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · January 28

Profile of Jacob K. Javits, Representative of the 21st Congressional District. He has served 3 years in Congress and b been asked during that time to …

Wallace
Richard H. Rovere · Fiction · February 4

The writer recalls how afraid of teachers he was until Wallace came along. Wallace was a genius according to tests and he never bothered to study. Instead …

THE PLEASURE AND THE ART
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · February 11

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to the Silverbrook Art Glass Works, Silverbrook. L. I. The factory is owned and operated by three brothers, Frank, Henry, &…

TIMES SQUARE KID
Croswell Bowen · A Reporter at Large · February 18

REPORTER AT LARGE about Joseph Apperson, a 22-year-old, typical Times Square Kid. He was born in Bklyn of poor but respectable parents. As a youngster he …

LEGEND OF A SPORT: THE KLONDIKE PHASE
Alva Johnston · Profiles · February 25

PROFILE of Wilson Mizner. When he died in 1933, he was Broadway's leading wit, a successful playwright & confidence man. But years before that, he had …

THE PLIGHT OF THE PROSPEROUS
Lewis Mumford · The Sky Line · March 4

THE SKY LINE about upper-class apartments in New York City.

Easy Money
Robert M. Coates · Fiction · March 11

The writer demonstrates what a strange place New York is by relating some coincidences and unusual accidents that have taken place. Then he tells a story …

Grandfather And The Montague Collar
Samuel Hopkins Adams · Fiction · March 18

The writer's grandfather tells how the detached collar was invented in Troy. An irate ironmonger's wife, Mrs. Montague, who was tired of washing an…

But Where Was The Rest Of Ozma?
Wolcott Gibbs · Fiction · March 25

The story of the murder of 46-year-old Ozma Beserk who worked in a Long Island fish market. Only her head was found. After 4 years of detective work the …

Dead Game.
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · April 1

REPORTER AT LARGE, about a cockfight held somewhere in Connecticut. The fight was staged in the cellar of a farmhouse and the main event of the evening was…

An Ingrid Bergman News Crisis
Janet Flanner · Letter from Rome · April 8

Janet Flanner’s 1950 Letter from Rome telling of the journalistic excitement stirred up by the birth of Ingrid Bergman’s baby.

The Perfect Past
Vladimir Nabokov · Fiction · April 15

Fiction, from 1950: Neither in environment nor in heredity can I find the exact instrument that fashioned me.

Arachnologist.-1
Eugene Kinkead · Profiles · April 22

Profile of Dr. Alexander Petrunkevitch, a retired Yale professor who probably knows more about spiders than anyone else in the world. Nobody has any idea …

ARACHNOLOGIST
Eugene Kinkead · Profiles · April 29

PROFILE of Dr. Alexander Petrunkevitch, an emeritus professor of zoology at Yale. Several years after he joined the faculty he met Ivan Pavlov, the great …

WHERE THE GRASS, THEY SAY, IS GREEN.
John McNulty · A Reporter at Large · May 6

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Coldstream Stud Farm, a few miles outside of Lexington, Ky. The farm, which is owned by Elmer Ellsworth Dale Shaffer, is about …

How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?
Lillian Ross · Profiles · May 13

Lillian Ross’s 1950 Profile of Ernest Hemingway, the author of “The Sun Also Rises” and other books.

THE END OF OUTER DARKNESS
Christopher Rand · A Reporter at Large · May 20

REPORTER AT LARGE about a trip over the Tatsienlu road from the city of Yaan to Tatsienlu, the capital of China's Sikang Province. The country beyond …

THOUGHT ON BASEBALL.
Robert Rice · Profiles · May 27

Profile of Branch Rickey, Sr., president, manager and one-quarter owner of the Brooklyn National League Baseball Club. His son Branch Rickey, Jr., is the …

THOUGHTS ON BASEBALL
Robert Rice · Profiles · June 3

Second part of Profile of Branch Rickey, the president, general manager, and one-fourth owner of the Brooklyn Natl Baseball Club, a 68-year-old Methodist, …

GERIATRICIAN.
Daniel Lang · Profiles · June 10

PROFILE of Dr. Martin Gumpert, a practitioner of geriatrics, the branch of medicine dealing with old age. He tries to fire the dormant minds of the elderly…

GERIATRICIAN
Daniel Lang · Profiles · June 17

PROFILE of Dr. Martin Gumpert, the best-known practitioner of geriatrics - the field of medicine dealing with the ills of old age. Dr. Gumpert, who was …

Mingle!
Walter Bernstein · A Reporter at Large · June 24

Reporter at Large about a visit to a lecture-dance at the Fellowship Forum which meet Sunday nights at the Fraternal Clubhouse on West 48 St. The subject …

MORE BOUNCE TO THE OUNCE
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · July 1

PROVILE of Walter S. Mack, Jr., a chairman of the board of the Pepsi-Cola Co. Coca-Cola & Pepsi account for 90% of the cola drink business in the U. S. …

Out on the High Water.
Mark Murphy · A Reporter at Large · July 8

Reporter at Large about a few days spent on the Mississippi River and two of its tributaries, during a flood. The writer was staying at Marianna, a …

CLASS REUNION.
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · July 15

REPORTER AT LARGE about the attempt to gather members of the 1924 class of the Moravski Ostrava Gymnasium to a reunion in Prague, in 1950. Of the 39 …

A Hepcat May Look at a King
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · July 22

Some of the music and lyrics for Michael Todd's revue "Peep Show" were written by Bhumibol, King of Thailand. This inspires the writer to do an …

The Unpersuaded
Louise Field Cooper · Fiction · July 29

At a summer colony the children between the ages of 8 and 10 are very mischevious. Their mothers get together over cocktails and decide to hire a college …

The Song Is Endless, But the Malady Lingers On
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · August 5

The author takes excerpts from the New York Times and from an article by Brian P. Flanagan, M.C., in the Current Medical Digest for March. The former to …

A PURELY PERSONAL DECISION
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · August 12

REPORTER AT LARGE about Dr. Aleksander W. Rudzinski, the Polish delegate to the U.N. who, on orders from the Kremlin walked out. An hour later he resigned …

A Search for the Poet’s Tomb
Gerald Brenan · A Reporter at Large · August 19

A REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Granada, in search of the grave of Federico García Lorca, the poet, who was shot as a Red during the first days of …

Curator Getting Around.
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · August 26

Profile of Dr. Sidney Dillon Ripley II, one of the countrys outstanding authorities on, and collectors of birds of the Far East. Although he holds the …

A Thousand Dollars Is A Lot Of Money
John McNulty · A Reporter at Large · September 2

Reporter at Large about a swimming race across the Block Island Sound from Mautnuck Beach to Block Island, a distance of 13,7 miles. One of the contestants…

Cloudland Revisited; Antic Hey-Hey
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · September 9

The writer re-reads "Wife of the Centaur" by Cyril Hume, which he originally read 20 years ago while a student at Brown University. He burns anew at its …

Madam.
Mollie Panter-Downes · Profiles · September 16

PROFILE of Ninette de Valois, the director of the Sadler's Wells Ballet. In 1923, her dancing teacher, Enrico Cecohetti, insisted that she try out at a…

HOWLING WITH THE WOLVES
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · September 23

REPORTER AT LARGE about Karel Janda family, of Prague, mother, father, an 18-year-old son, and a 12-year-old daughter. The family was in comfortable …

Cloudland Revisited; Why Doctor What Big, Green Eyes You Have!
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · September 30

The writer recollects reading books about Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer, as an adolescent. He was badly frightened by them. He discovers his young daughter …

THE LORD MAYOR OF WEST BERLIN.
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · October 7

REPORTER AT LARGE about observing the Lord Mayor of West Berlin, Ernst Reuter at work. Background of the city's administration; and what has been …

Across the Street and Into the Grill
E. B. White · Other · October 14

E. B. White imagines how Hemingway would describe a visit to a restaurant.

WEAKNESS IS A CRIME
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · October 21

PROFILE of Bernarr Macfadden, publisher & physical culturist. An article written by John Russell Coryell, who also wrote detective stories under the name …

PHYSICIAN HEAL THYSELF.
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · October 28

PROFILE of Barnarr Macfadden, health-faddist & publisher of among other publications, the Evening Graphic, a tabloid newspaper, started in 1924, the year …

Hitler’s Photographer
Bernard Taper · A Reporter at Large · November 4

Bernard Taper’s account of his 1950 visit with the imprisoned photographer Heinrich Hoffman, who took thousands of pictures of his friend Adolf Hitler during the Third Reich. “Hitler was not an easy person to photograph,” Hoffmann said.

The Pursuit of the Wild Pigeon.
Charles Wertenbaker · A Reporter at Large · November 11

REPORTER AT LARGE describing the Basque method of hunting the wild pigeon. The birds nest in northern Europe and fly south in the fall. They fly fairly …

Paradise Imperilled
Mary-Carter Roberts · Fiction · November 18

The writer tells about her friends Claire and Richard who live in a primitive wilderness in Northern California. They make everything they need and grow …

GUYS LIKE US HERE ARE BORN TO HAVE FUN
John Bainbridge · Profiles · November 25

PROFILE of Toots Shor, prop. of the restaurant by the same name, which some of its patrons have called The Temple of Friendship. The members of the Shorian…

MR. PACKS CHICKENS
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · December 2

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to two of Harry Pack' 32 chicken farms in Dagsbury, in Sussex County, Dela. Pack, the son of a Jewish immigrant, who …

"Wellcome to the Caves of Arta"
Robert Graves · Fiction · December 9

They are hallowed out in the see coast at the municipal terminal of Capdepera, at 9 kilometer from the town of Arta in the Island of Mallorca...with a …

Add Lives of Presidents
Arthur Bartlett · Fiction · December 16

When Mr. Bartlett was a reporter on a Portland, Maine, newspaper, he interviewed Calvin Coolidge. In 1932, on the editorial staff of a farm magazine, he …

LEGEND OF A SPORT
Alva Johnston · Profiles · December 23

PROFILE of Wilson Mizner covering his playwriting phase. In 1911, he was not only box-office success; he was also the center of an intellectual disturbance…

LEGEND OF A SPORT
Alva Johnston · Profiles · December 30

PROFILE of Wilson Mizner.

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