From Prosperity to Depression

In the late 1920s Cobb’s popularity declined, due to the changing times. Although he continued to add books to his repertoire, they failed to receive critical acclaim. Other elements of Cobb’s life were still satisfying, such as his wanderlust and his love of spending time with friends. The stock market crash and the Great Depression took a toll on the Cobb family’s finances. While Cobb’s writing career was slowing down, Buff had become an accomplished writer. Cobb delved into work in radio and ventures in Hollywood.

From the “Boss” to the “Chief”

After his career move from the Saturday Evening Post to Cosmopolitan magazine, owned by William Randolph Hearst, Cobb continued to win awards for his brilliant storytelling. - A man who took great pride in his accomplishments, Cobb apparently cared little about critical approval; his only goal was to satisfy his reading public—the vast middle class that read poplar magazines and novels. Ellis reveals Cobb’s close relationship with his daughter Buff, who also pursued a writing career. Much of the chapter, however, focuses on Cobb’s writing in the mid to late 1920s as he continued to do what he did best—turning out popular and predictable articles and stories for Hearst publications. Cobb was one of the highest paid writers of his time.

A New Beginning and the Beginning of the End

Cobb moved to Hollywood at the invitation of Will Rogers and Hal Roach. With Cobb’s work in the film business, his writing tapered off. His involvement in the filming of Judge Priest, starring Will Rogers, renewed Cobb’s belief in himself and his career. The film received excellent newspaper coverage when it was released in the fall of 1934, owing to Rogers’s celebrity. The rest of the chapter focuses on Cobb’s work and family life in Hollywood until his wealth and health began to decline.

From Newspaperman to Short Story Writer

Ellis begins by describing Cobb’s successful ventures as a humorist and how his appearance played into his style. His attention to detail and offbeat subjects became a staple for Evening World readers. Cobb used his small-town Kentucky perspective to make observations about the big city in his first long-running humor series, “New York thro’ Funny Glasses.” The transplanted Kentuckian exemplified the racial attitudes of many white Americans in the early twentieth century. Eventually, Cobb’s writing found a place in the Sunday World Magazine. Cobb also tried his hand at writing short fiction. Over the next three decades, Cobb turned out an immense amount of copy for newspapers and magazines, wrote short stories and plays, dabbled in movies, and wrote novels. He never seemed to be short of ideas.

Introduction

In this brief introduction, Ellis poses the question: who was Cobb, and why is his story worth telling so many years after his death? To answer this question, he quotes substantially from Cobb’s work, highlighting Cobb’s skill and wit as a wordsmith and showing that he was an important writer of the twentieth century, even though his work is mostly unread today. Ellis encourages readers of this biography to become engaged in and give recognition to Cobb’s works once again.

Exit Laughing

As Cobb’s career hit rock bottom, his health declined, as did daughter Buff’s second marriage. However, he started to write his life story in the late 1930s, titled Exit Laughing. Cobb’s opposition to the New Deal and a third term for Roosevelt led him to campaign for Willkie in 1940. These exertions exacerbated Cobb’s diabetes and intestinal problems, and his health was severely affected. Cobb managed to finish his autobiography, but his condition deteriorated and he died in March 1944. Ellis concludes by remarking on Cobb’s career and legacy.

Accommodation

Cobb’s fame spread in the postwar years because of his creativity and his writing successes. He returned to his passion for reporting and politics when he covered the 1920 Democratic and Republican conventions. Cobb also began to roll out numerous books during this time, quickly compiling his short stories and articles into longer publications. The Ku Klux Klan achieved a resurgence in Kentucky, and Cobb wrote about it. Though Cobb opposed the modern version of the Klan in the early 1920s, his views of race remained tied to his late-nineteenth-century southern heritage.

Momentum

By mid-1917, Cobb had become one of the best-known celebrities in America. Ellis describes Cobb’s rise to fame, the experiences he had because of it, and his day-to-day activities. Next, Ellis follows Cobb on another trip to Europe in 1918, where he continued to write articles for the Saturday Evening Post. All these pieces and others were compiled in The Glory of the Coming, demonstrating in his inimitable fashion the commonplace goings-on in war. Cobb had the highest regard for American soldiers, including the African American soldiers he wrote so much about. As a southerner, his inherited and acquired prejudices often came through in his writing as subtle racism. Cobb’s humorous works generated both backlash and praise.

World War I

Chapter 5 picks up at the start of World War I and details the importance of the press. Cobb was shipped off to Europe to be a foreign correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post. Ellis follows Cobb’s experiences and adventures as a wartime reporter in Europe. Cobb’s reputation for observation and reporting grew while overseas. Upon his return to the United States, Cobb continued to write about his time in Europe and the war’s impact on him. The chapter concludes with a lecture tour Cobb undertook, including the honor of being celebrated in his hometown by old friends and neighbors.

Midlife

After his jaunt to Europe and the exhausting months of his lecture tour, Cobb’s health declined. An emergency operation for a hernia left him recuperating for many weeks, delaying his planned return to Europe. During this time, Cobb published few pieces, but he soon turned his poor health into a triumph of humor. His article titled “Speaking of Operations” struck gold. By 1935, his book of the same name had sold more than a million copies. Cobb’s devotion to the Old South led to his return to southern-influenced writing. The themes of North-South reconciliation and small-town neighborliness suited his audience. Cobb also had ambitions of writing a long-running play and film adaptations of his stories. Cobb became an outspoken voice for “Americanism” and victory against Germany, as well as a prosperous man as he entered mid-life.