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T H E B E S T T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E T H A T E V E R WA S
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PA M E L A F I O R I A F T E RWO R D
FR A NCK DUR A N D C R E AT I V E D I R E C T I O N
AT EL I ER F R A NC K DU R A N D
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The great blue river. Hemingway fishing. Holiday Vol. 6. NO 1, July 1949
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the reader. Consequently, the table of contents began to list names like William Faulkner, V.S. Pritchett, Eudora Welty, Budd Schulberg, Sean O’Faolain and others who were well known. For Patrick, this was a badge of pride. He also liked the idea of assigning a series of articles to one writer, giving the audience something to look forward to in upcoming issues—not a new idea but in Patrick’s hands the defining word was “antic.” As an example, he commissioned the writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans to give his views on postwar Europe, starting with the January 1947 edition. According to Wikipedia, Bemelmans roots were Austro-Hungarian. He emigrated to the States, where he worked in hotels and restaurants, then joined the U.S. Army (but, because of his German origins, was not sent to Europe) and wrote about his experiences called My War with the United States. In 1918, he became a citizen. Best known for his books about Madeline, an orphaned little French girl living in a convent school in Paris, Bemelmans was prolific as both writer and artist. Subtle humor was his specialty. The first two in the series were about Paris. In the second, “Back again in Paris,“ he describes the typical Parisiennes—hardly the chic females who usually spring to mind: “The women you see in the street are stocky and most of them have bad legs. The legs are piano legs, like planks without any modeling, legs with a dumpling of a muscle attached below the knee….” Accompanying the essay were Bemelmans’s charmingly winsome drawings. Fortunately, there were no piano-legged women. Bemelmans continued his European journey—next to Switzerland, then Austria and to Munich and Bavaria. Another series—broader in its scope and undoubtedly most costly for the magazine—showcased two major talents of their day: the humorist S.J. Perelman and the theatrical caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. “Westward Ha! (Or, Around the World in Eighty Cliches)” took this zany duo to parts mostly unknown in what ended up being twelve separate episodes, commencing in April of 1947. Some of the stories overlapped with the Bemelmans series so that, in a sense, the readers of Holiday got two series for the price of one (an issue back then cost 50 cents). But their styles couldn’t be more different. While Bemelmans’s humor was gentle and high-toned, Perelman’s was lower and more obvious—like ham on wry.
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Title. Photograph by Slim Aarons. Holiday Vol. 32. NO 2, December 1955 — Page 24: Title. Photograph by ?. Holiday Vol. 32. NO 2, June 1955 Page 25: Title. Photograph by ? Holiday Vol. 32. NO 2, September 1954
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1956, Patrick asked Fadiman to explain the making of the collection of travel features in his May 1956 column: “Indeed, it is not too much to say that one of the effects of this book is in the best sense political. To read it reflectively, as well as for the enjoyment of its color and humor and excitement, is to become a better potential American ambassador to the rest of the world.” In his introduction to the book itself, Fadiman wrote: “Holiday is not an organ of the intellectuals. Holiday is a magazine of civilized entertainment. It aims at satisfying the leisure-time interests of a sizable number of moderately well-heeled Americans. It is wedded to no doctrine except of making propaganda for the politer pleasures of our time.”
Café Parisian, Montmartre. Man with his dog. Photograph by Robert Capa. Holiday Vol. 32. NO 2, April 1953
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Still, and despite Patrick’s determination, there was no avoiding the obvious: Holiday was first and foremost about travel. The title itself created an unmistakable, inescapable expectation of what the contents would be. “No major magazine was more dependent on destination profiles than Holiday,” according to Popper. “Holiday made them the bulk of each issue. And in doing so, presented the geography of midcentury cosmopolitanism more explicitly than any other publication.” Frank Zachary’s mission was to bring to life the places that were covered. He did so by forming an armada of freelance photographers who would be his go-tos. And go they did. Suddenly the photo credits went from lackluster to luminous with credits like Burt Glinn, Elliott Erwitt, Arnold Newman, Fred Maroon, Robert Phillips, John Lewis Stage, Tom Hollyman and the great Henri Cartier-Bresson. But there was one man that stood out from the others, partly for his outsized personality and primarily for his sensuous approach to on the world’s most luscious resorts: Slim Aarons. A former war photographer, George S. Aarons, called Slim because of his towering height and slender build, decided he never again wanted to show anyone in the throes of battle, in the depths of poverty or in any kind of distress. Ergo his mantra: “Attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” And what places they were: St. Tropez, Capri, Montego Bay, Acapulco, Gstaad, St.Moritz, Marbella…the list is enviable. High society adored him and gave him a free pass
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Title. Photograph by ?. Holiday Vol. 32. NO 2, April 1952
THE LENSMEN
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