The Pages of Punch

1935: How to Behave at the Pictures

The man with the glasses is revealing a strong sense of grievance. I wonder if he has considered the possibility that he will get a ‘thick ear’ for his trouble. The man with the cap looks quite capable of delivering it. ‘Not altogether wasted’ suggests that he isn’t too taken with the film itself.

The cinema audience is shown in its diversity. This is not an upper middle class occasion. Sevenpence sounds cheap to us but 1935 was also a time of austerity for many people.

1935: The Extremes of Fashion

No doubt the artist is well informed about was then the then current fashion scene. He seems to be telling us that the dictators of fashion are demanding that women take tiny, constricted steps during the day but make long, unimpeded strides at night.

This creates job opportunities for those engaged in different parts of the rag trade.

1935: Proof of Affluence

The returned couple look distinctly smug. The point here is that your winter sports injuries proved that you could afford to make the trip. This implies that such an outcome is inevitable. That certainly isn’t the modern perception. I would think nowadays people would think that you had failed to train properly if you got hurt.

1935: Wishful Thinking

This photographer’s studio has an unusually high ceiling which does nothing for the point of the cartoon. This cartoonist clearly specialises in grand interiors. He probably can’t help himself from doing it again even when it adds nothing to the joke.

This joke is that this photographer doesn’t know much about very young children. The ‘little fellow’ isn’t going to adopt the suggested posture and the parents won’t be able to arrange it. No doubt there are others in his profession who know how to get the best out their very young sitters. The new parents look equally unversed in the necessary skills.

1935: When Snobbery Was Alive and Well

The ‘country magnate’ and his wife represent the old order. They are not only rich – they are very respectably rich. They are probably substantial landowners and may well be titled. They are also extremely old-fashioned. Spats again! The ’newcomers’ are not at all old-fashioned but look distinctly insecure. I expect that they are waiting to be accepted but it is still ‘too soon’.

1935: What About the Workers

This is an extremely rare departure form the steady stream of upper middle class scenes interspersed with George Belcher’s occasional incursions into the world of servants and shopkeepers. Here we have the genuine working man scene although the figures rather look as though they have been modelled on Laurel and Hardy.

1935: It’s Not Only the Traffic that is Dangerous

Belisha beacons were a recent innovation in 1935. Here the cartoonist makes the very reasonable point that you still need to look about you even when the traffic has stopped.

Nowadays it tends to be called a zebra crossing.

1935: Some Things Are Best Left Unsaid

Being well aware of the dearth of eligible men (post 1914-1918) she has settled for what is still available. Ideally she should have said something like ‘looks are not the important thing, it’s our love for each other.’ Instead she unenthusiastically blurts out what she is really thinking.

1935: Versatile Authority Figure

My own memories of cinema commissionaires (as they were called in my time) is that they exuded authority. Doorman seems too prosaic a title. It was he who told us we could now leave the queue and go and buy our tickets. I suppose they were all ex sergeant majors (or ex chief petty officers). If not, they clearly wanted you to think of them in that light.

I can’t imagine any of them compromising their dignity to perform in any of the ways that the cartoonist is displaying. That would seem to be the point of the joke.

1935: Hen-pecked Husband

This is not far-fetched. I can quite imagine this scene actually occurring. The setting has strayed somewhat from the upper middle class milieu of the majority of Punch 1935 cartoons but not so much that it would be unrecognisable by the regular readers.

I don’t suppose the speaker even realises the irony in what she is saying.

1935: ‘The Season’

We are witnessing here a scene taking place among the toffs. Each year a new bunch of debutantes was launched onto the marriage market. Ambitious mothers would persuade their husbands to pay for a dance in order to improve their daughter’s chances of finding a suitable husband. At each dance other debs would be invited as well as (of course) suitable young men who were called debs’ delights.

In 1960 a colleague of mine was a debs’ delight. Although he was dancing late into the night he was still trying to do his job as a computer programmer during the day. I have a distinct memory of him fast asleep at the console of the computer – an enormous machine with massive air-cooled cabinets. The whole thing had a minuscule amount of processing power compared with today’s bog standard PCs.

1935: Persistent Office System Salesman at the Court of the Great Khan

On this occasion our cartoonist imagines a modern 1930s office equipment salesman arriving at the court of Kublai Khan (1260 – 1294). This is an absurd notion on several levels. The time mismatch is only the most obvious conceit. How could such a ‘foreign devil’ ever be received at this court? And, having been inexplicably received, how could have generated such a courteous refusal? Even more absurd is the notion that a mediaeval Asiatic despot might possibly see the need for a modern filing system.

1935: ‘Extraordinary how potent cheap music is’ © Noel Coward

Well observed and totally believable.

1935: Cup Final Excuses

Attending a family funeral is a most acceptable reason for having a day off from work. It is also the most abused. Here the boss knows perfectly well what the very young office boy is up to. Indeed he is sympathetic to the wish to attend the match. However since he intends to absent himself from the office he cannot allow the boy to do the same thing.

1935: The Rate For the Job

The man in the cloth cap doesn’t want to miss out on the chance of a tip. The toffs don’t look as they are going to pay up.

It does seem as though parked cars were liable to be vandalised.

1935: Early Introduction to ‘Culture’

She is rather young to be introduced to what went for culture at the time. Mummy wouldn’t see it that way. Today’s parents would not be likely to submit the child (or the rest of the audience) to this kind of experience.

Perhaps the cartoon was intended to discourage the practice.

1935: Poor Fido (and Poor Mr. Jones)

George Belcher continues to focus on a very different world from that portrayed by almost all the other Punch cartoonists. In the eyes of his owner Fido is at least as real a person as Mr. Jones. I don’t suppose anyone ever told her that cake is not a suitable diet for a dog. As her close companion she wants to give him things that she likes herself.

I wonder whether she doesn’t possess any other plates?

1935: She Wants to Know How She Should React

This cartoon inhabits the same world as that shown a few days ago. From experience the girl knows that after the event a certain reaction will be expected of her. If she gets it right Mummy will be pleased, but if she gets it wrong it won’t be as good. So she thinks the best thing to do is to establish the correct attitude in advance. I wonder if Mummy will be able to reassure her?



1935: How Disappointing for Mother

Hoping to see her daughter safely married the mother sees the well-proportioned young man as promising husband material. The blasé daughter knows otherwise. The club’s finances can’t be that sound for her sub to be so important.

1935: What’s Sauce for the Goose…

Another cartoon by the incomparable H.M. Bateman.

This cartoon is the counterpart to the one in which a woman listed the required qualities of a possible husband. His expectations are equally self-centred. Owing to the imbalance in the population he has a noticeably better chance of achieving at least some of his aims – although the part about the children is much too far-fetched.