NYC Now Knows Who Co-Founded The New Yorker

It is Women’s History Month. Who celebrates Jane Grant as the co-founder of The New Yorker? Was it, perhaps, The New Yorker? Or newyorker.com? Or another Condé Nast publication, such as Vanity Fair or Vogue? You’d be wrong in every case, just like you’d be wrong to choose The New York Times, where Grant was the first female reporter in the city room, before World War I. The one (and only one) place that recognizes Continue Reading →

As Curtain Closes on Ziegfeld, Remember Dorothy Parker and the Ink She Spilled

The Ziegfeld name is back in the news in New York. It is for a small item—that is only important to a few people—the few souls who like going to a movie theater in a cavernous space of more than 1,000 seats. Newspapers and bloggers in New York are probably writing about the Ziegfeld name for one of the last times, and that is sad. It is because the movie theater that was built in Continue Reading →

New Article on the HuffPo About Condé Nast and Dorothy Parker

I just had my fourth article published on the Huffington Post. Condé Nast Hired Dorothy Parker 100 Years Ago marks the centennial (and really, who else but me would make note of it) of the momentous event. I like anniversaries, and this was one I didn’t want to pass by. I write: Parker wrote some of the earliest trends pieces for Vogue. From being a secret knitter (“People look at me, and sooner or later, Continue Reading →

Condé Nast in Life and Death

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Condé Nast

Condé Nast

 

Condé Nast

Condé Nast

Here is Condé Nast himself, the man who made Vogue & Vanity Fair a powerhouse before World War I. I’m talking about him Thursday, March 26, at the Drama Book Shop during Dorothy Parker Night.

Last summer when I was at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne–paying my respects to Algonquin Round Table members Heywood Broun and Deems Taylor–I stopped by Condé Nast’s grave. He’s buried beside his family in a simple plot, no ostentation at all. I also wrote about him for the Huffington Post and how his magazines launched Dorothy Parker’s career.

Many of the Vicious Circle collected paychecks from Nast, who I find was one of the most interesting men of Jazz Age Manhattan.