The Snickersnee Press

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.