Found this as I was paging through the July 1938 issue of the Pictorial Review to list on eBay:
Click the photo to open a larger version
The illustrator is credited simply as Shapi. It’s for an article titled “Actor’s Actor” about Spencer Tracy that was written by Ed Sullivan.
Up over Tracy and Sullivan is a smaller image of Tracy in Captains Courageous with Freddie Bartholomew — that reminds me, I hope to conclude my Bartholomew biography series over this coming weekend.
Here’s a fun paragraph excised from Sullivan’s article referring to Tracy on the set of Test Pilot with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy:
…no more facile “ribber” exists at M-G-M than Tracy. After the release of Parnell, in which Gable and Myrna Loy were panned unmercifully by the critics, Tracy had an instrument made to order. Working with Gable and Miss Loy in Test Pilot, Tracy made references to Parnell which were a source of constant hilarity to the crew. One afternoon Tracy was excused early and Gable called, “Good-by, you Milwaukee ‘ham.’ Forget to come back tomorrow too.” Tracy was walking off the set, but he turned at the door and said, “Just remember, dear Clark and dear Myrna–when I walk out of this door, all you have left is Parnell.” That he dodged the book Gable heaved at him was a tribute to Tracy’s agility.
It’s a pretty complete article by Sullivan written at a time just after Tracy won his first Academy Award for Captains Courageous. While the focus is on the then present Sullivan does go back and sketch Tracy’s rise along the way to that peak.
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