Devoted to Rediscovering Ben Hecht Biography & Works
431 Fifth Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
fax: 202 547 0132
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Fans of artist Wallace Smith and his macabre art as epitomized in his drawings for Hecht's shock book, Fantzius Mallare, know Smith did jail time for his art in that book, while Hecht got off with a no lo contendere plea and a fine. The U.S. postal authorities took offense at Smith's drawing of a man embracing a tree and his anatomically correct page-top decorations. Little has been published about Smith, but the Snickersnee Press offers two publications with content about him.
What is known about Ben Hecht's relationship with Smith is expanded in a Hecht story reprinted by Florice Whyte Kovan and the Snickersnee Press. Smith argues about art in Hecht's "Notes by a Bogus Classicist," his Chicago Daily News story, published in Snickersnee's 2003 Hecht anthology Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternooons in Chicago: Essays and Tall Tales of Artists and the Cityscape of the 1920s. The handsome illustration above appears with other drawings by Wallace Smith, for whom art was an unfortunate sideline: He was the rock star reporter of the Chicago Daily News when Hecht joined the staff. Together they became boulevardiers of the Chicago Loop scene, keeping an eye on Chicago and one another. Eventually they collaborated on Fantazius Mallare, the artist's first book and one that got Hecht fired from The Daily News. Wallace Smith also became a Hollywood screenwriter, whose filmography and biographical notes are addressed in The Ben Hecht Story & News: "A Hecht Reprint in Every Issue," The remaining issues and series may still be bought loose. One
or two compilations may still be available. Left, artist Wallace Smith in his fashionable hat of the 1930s. We managed to publish the whole thing in the Ben Hecht Story & News.
431 Fifth Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
fax: 202 547 0132
snickers