Sunday Spill: Warren Miller’s Fountain Of Youth…and Others

Warren Miller’s Fountain of Youth…And Others

It’s not all that often a Warren Miller New Yorker original shows up on Ebay. Shown directly below is one that turned up a week or so ago on Ebay. “Wifey! Wifey! I’ve found the fountain of youth!” was published in the issue of February 9, 1976.

Seeing it got me to thinking about fountain of youth New Yorker cartoons. They were never anywhere close to being as popular as desert island drawings, or psychiatrist couch drawings, but they did occasionally show up. There was a fountain of youth cartoon extravaganza, of sorts, in 1968 (we’ll get to that in a minute).

According to The New Yorker‘s database, the very first fountain of youth cartoon in the magazine, appeared in the issue of July 2, 1938. But the description is off. The drawing, by Richard Decker, is of a young boy at a soda fountain who just took a sip of soda. So let’s skip to the next fountain of youth drawing as indicated in the database: July 9, 1938. Another strike out: this turns out to be a Perry Barlow drawing of children splashing in a park fountain. The database strikes gold in its third listing, a Mischa Richter drawing from the issue of September 11, 1943:

The database lists three more fountain of youth drawings (one in 1946 by Carl Rose, one in 1959 by William O’Brian, and one in 1965 by Dana Fradon). Here’s the Fradon drawing, from the issue of January 16, 1971:

And now to the extravaganza mentioned earlier.

In the issue of August 10, 1968, Charles Saxon was given a three page spread titled “The Fountain of Youth” that consisted of 10 drawings, telling a story, set in what we might guess was Saxon territory, southwest Connecticut.

Arnold Flagler, wearing a window pane sports jacket, tie, and vest, is out for a stroll in the woods near his home, when he comes across the fountain.

I can only show you a snippet here. It’s classic Saxon, beautifully drawn (of course!).

Following that spread, again according to the database, there was the Warren Miller drawing above, and then a Charles Addams fountain of youth drawing in March of 1977. And then (if the database is accurate)… a drought.

According to the magazine’s Cartoon Bank (and then a Conde Nast Store) search function, there were just two more: a Roz Chast drawing titled “The Fountain of Puberty” in 2012, and a Brooke Bourgeois drawing in July of 2019.

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–The Spill welcomes additions and corrections