Here is a page Ben Solowey’s address book when he lived in New York between 1928 and 1942, before moving permanently to Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This single page provides a glimpse into Ben’s world from that time.
The first entry on the page, obviously “K” in his address book, is playwright George Kelly. Ben had drawn a portrait of Kelly, a native Philadelphian who won the Pulitzer in 1925 for his play Craig’s Wife, in 1929 when Kelly’s play Maggie the Magnificent was about to open. Today Kelly is best known as the uncle of Grace Kelly, but his plays The Torch-Bearers (in which his niece Grace made her stage debut at the Bucks County Playhouse in 1949) and The Show-Off are still revived in theaters across the country.
Ben probably knew Arthur Kober, the second entry, strictly as press agent, who Ben would have dealt with to make appointments to draw performers. Kober had married playwright Lillian Hellman in 1925, although the union would not last. In 1926, he started to contribute humorous pieces to The New Yorker, and he became a regular contributor for next quarter century. He also wrote several plays and screenplays.
The third entry probably needs no introduction. George Kaufman was the both a popular playwright and director and New York Times drama editor when they met. Ben would draw Kaufman in 1941.
Otto Kruger was a character actor who Ben had drawn in a 1930 forgettable drama The Boundary Line. Kruger would alter go to Hollywood and often play villians such as Tobin in Hitchcock’s Saboteur (1942). In High Noon, ten years later, he played Judge Percy Metrick who tires to convince Gary Cooper to leave town before the gunfight.
The final entry on this page is for Ben’s dentist.
