August 31, 1934: John Smiukse, a 26-year-old Latvian immigrant living in The Bronx, walks into the Westchester Institute of Fine Arts in Tarrytown, New York, and destroys "Nightmare of 1934," a mural painted by an artist known only as Jere Miah II.
Smiukse, on his day off, calmly went to the gallery, paid the entry fee, and went in to view the painting. There, in front of a group of housewives, he splashed the painting with paint remover, pulled it off the wall, and lit it on fire. The flames soon went out, but the painting was ruined. He was arrested on the spot, convicted of malicious mischief, and sentenced to 6 months in jail.
He told the court he was offended by the painting because it attacked not just President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but FDR's wife Eleanor, his children, and some of his advisors. His sentence was reduced, and he was released on November 2, having served 30 days.
History loses track of him after that: I can find no record of what happened to him thereafter, including how long he lived. Nor can I find a photograph of him. And "Jere Miah II" appears never to have been definitively identified, either.
Here's a description of the painting:
At the top of the panel was the great grin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. On the President's shoulder perched a vulture. In one hand, the President held a fishing rod with a sucker on the line; in the other a bouquet of microphones. Mrs. Roosevelt stood beside him, her teeth and chin cruelly caricatured. Son Elliott Roosevelt and daughter Anna Roosevelt Dall were seen tossing their respective spouses, portrayed as dolls, into a trash basket.
The New Deal was represented by scattered playing cards, all deuces. Long lines of green monsters with swollen heads symbolized the Brain Trust. They were dropping gold into troughs at which silk-hatted pigs were feeding. At the lower left, Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace was strangling Ceres, the Roman goddess of the harvest, for whom cereal was named. Behind him, a tax collector was removing a citizen's shirt. In the center sat Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, depicted as a clown juggling money, with a lap full of gold bricks. General Hugh S. Johnson, Chairman of the National Recovery Administration, was jumping irascibly on the roped figure of Industry. Also to be seen were Secretary of Labor Perkins, Postmaster General Jim Farley, Uncle Sam on a cross, dying cattle, silent factories, skulls, reaching arms, and a reformer chasing nudes out of the cinema.
This artistic destruction occurred 6 months after that of a painting on the other side of the political spectrum, Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads, which had been set up in the lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
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August 31, 1934 was a Friday. This was also the day of the NFL's 1st Chicago College All-Star Game. I have a separate entry for that event.
Only 4 major league baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Red Ruffing outpitched Jack Russell, for whom the Phillies' 1955-2003 Spring Training stadium would be named. Babe Ruth went 1-for-2 with 2 walks. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-1 at Ebbets Field. Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons outpitched Van Lingle Mungo. Mel Ott went 0-for-3 with a walk. Bill Terry, by now also the Giants' manager, went 1-for-4.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Dizzy Dean outpitched Guy Bush. Gabby Hartnett hit a home run, but it was the only run that Ol' Diz gave up.
* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ray Pepper brought home the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning.
