The Dutch Treat Club is a society of illustrators, writers and performers based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Primarily social in nature, the club has had as members such leading literary figures and humorists as

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at ''The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, thro ...

Rube Goldberg Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadge ...

Robert M. McBride Robert Medill McBride (August 24, 1879 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania – April 10, 1970 in Philadelphia) was a publisher and author. He published works by James Branch Cabell and the later books of Frank Buck. He also published Jay Gelzer's first n ...

, and

Ogden Nash Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' the country's best ...

Founding

In 1905, Tuesday was the day of the week when

Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

's editors, such as J. A. Mitchell reviewed the drawings and writings of their regular contributors.

Every Tuesday morning Life's anteroom would be thronged with clever illustrators chatting together sociably as they waited their turns to be ushered into the sanctum of "JAM", and writers waiting similarly for interviews with Thomas L. Masson, the literary editor. Since many of these contributors lived in the suburbs, it was natural that, being in town for the day, they should feel like having a good time in each other's company. And so the "gang" got the habit of lunching somewhere together, each paying for his own meal. Life contributors brought friends who had no connection with that magazine. Numbers grew till one Tuesday the bunch organized themselves officially as the Dutch Treat Club, with Masson as President.

The eleven founders included four writers, four illustrators, two editors and a publisher, among them: *

James Montgomery Flagg James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was an American artist, comics artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his 1 ...

, illustrator later famous for his ''Uncle Sam'' *Rupert Hughes *Julian Street *

Ellis Parker Butler Ellis Parker Butler (December 5, 1869 – September 13, 1937) was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs Is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic s ...

*Frank Ward O'Malley *Will Irwin *Wallace Irwin *George Barry Mallon, then city editor of the New York newspaper '' The Sun''.

Past members

* Richard C. Pionk *

Eric Sloane Eric Sloane (born Everard Jean Hinrichs) (27 February 1905 – 5 March 1985) was an American landscape painter, illustrator, and author of illustrated books on the cultural history and folklore of America. Life and career Eric Sloane was born ...

Lowell Thomas Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescreen ...

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

Clarence Budington Kelland Clarence Budington "Bud" Kelland (July 11, 1881 – February 18, 1964) was an American writer. Prolific and versatile, he was a prominent literary figure in his heyday, and he described himself as "the best second-rate writer in America". Kelland ...

* R.M. Brinkerhoff Steven Dohanos, illustrator, Saturday Evening Post 1940-50

References

{{Reflist

External links

Dutch Treat Club
Cultural history of New York City Arts organizations based in New York City