Charles K. Van Riper
Charles Van Riper in 1924
Born
Charles King Van Riper

September 8, 1891
Paterson, New Jersey, US
DiedApril 16, 1964(1964-04-16) (aged 72)
Tisbury, Massachusetts, US
EducationRutgers College
Occupation(s)Writer, newspaperman, and playwright
Spouses
Helen Dorothy Ordway
​
​
(m. 1917; div. 1944)​
    Celeste Corcoran
    ​
    (m. 1945)​
    Children1
    Military career
    Allegiance United States of America
    Service/branch United States Army
    Years of service1918
    RankPrivate, Sergeant, Officer's training candidate[1]

    Charles King Van Riper (September 8, 1891 – April 16, 1964),[2] also known as C. K. Van Riper and Charlie to his friends,[3] was an American newspaperman, writer, and playwright, best known for writing short stories for nationally circulated magazines, and as the founder of the Abalone League, the first organized softball league in the Western United States.[4] He went on to build a successful ship-model shop and showroom in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. 285 of his ship models and archival materials are now part of the South Street Seaport Museum.[5]

    Early life

    Van Riper's father was Anthony B. Van Riper (1862-1917) of Paterson, New Jersey. He founded the silk manufacturer firm of Frost & Van Riper with his partner Harry B. Frost, for twenty-five years before his death.[6]

    Van Riper was a graduate of Rutgers College, class of 1913. Van Riper did newspaper work for New York and New Jersey newspapers until World War I, when he entered the United States Army Air Service.[7] Van Riper was married to Helen Dorothy Ordway (1893-1965)[8] and they had one child during their marriage, Anthony King (1926-2001).[2][9] Van Riper was a soldier in the United States Army during World War I.[10]

    Soon after graduation, in 1913, Van Riper became president of the Knickerbocker Club, a new Eastside, Paterson club that wanted to look after both social and athletic interests.[11] He was unanimously reelected president of the social club in 1914.[12]

    Career

    Van Riper began his career reporting at The Paterson Guardian, and went to the Newark Evening News, then took up story writing.[13] After the World War I Van Riper came to Carmel-by-the-Sea to work freelance for newspapers, magazines, television, and writing plays.[7]

    In 1920, Van Riper and his wife, Helen, built a 6,575 square feet (610.8 m2) Tudor-style home located at Carmel Point. Next to the house was a garage and residence for servants.[14][15] Directly below the Van Riper house was the former baseball field of the Abalone League, where both he and his wife played. Van Riper held the title of "commissioner" and issued the order to begin each season.[16][17] Van Riper played an important role in establishing the Abalone League, the first organized softball league in the Western United States. The league brought men, women, and children for Sunday afternoon games.[4][8] A historic plaque, situated on a stone wall at the former Van Riper property, serves as a tribute to the Abalone League.[18]

    Between the 1910s to 1930s, Van Riper gained recognition in nationally distributed magazines by contributing to publications, such as Adventure, Argosy, Detective Story Magazine, Blue Book, The Popular Magazine, and The Smart Set. On July 17, 1920, Van Riper's short story Circumstances appeared on the front cover of The Argosy.[19]

    Van Riper’s wrote and performed in a one-act play titled The Gift on February 18, 1917. The play was performed at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Theater, with Katharine Cooke and Ernest Schweninger.[20] The earnings from the performance were intended to cover the costs, with any surplus to be donated to a selected local organization.[21]

    In 1919, Van Riper wrote and produced a one-act play, Shadows that was performed near Carmel-by-the-Sea in an open-air production at a time when Carmel artists were trying to further the dramatic arts in California. A staff writer from the San Francisco Bulletin said that, "Van Riper leads his characters, with the inevitable quality of good drama, and the unctuous declamation at the close, by which the audience is assured that all is well and justice has been done... Last night's effort was one of their best."[22]

    On January 4, 1925, the Dramatists Theater announced the purchase of The Getaway a drama by Van Riper.[23] During September 1925, Van Riper's The Getaway appeared at Nixon's Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City, New Jersey with a cast including Violet Heming, Minor Watson, C. Henry Gordon, Paul Harvey, Louis Sorin, and others.[24] Two reviews appeared in Variety one said, "Most of the success of "The Getaway" is due to the superb work of Miss Heming and a well selected cast."[25] Another review noted, "Here is one that has everything. It ranks high as one of the cleverest bits of satire yet tried out in this man's town. The local scribes lauded it to the skies."[26] The Getaway made an appearance on the stage at the Belasco Theatre in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 1925.[27] The play was announced for production by stage director Edward Childs Carpenter, in association with Broadway theatrical producer William Harris Jr.. The show was scheduled to open for Broadway, opening October 5th.[13][28]

    In 1932, amid the Great Depression, Van Riper wrote a one-act play titled The Crossing specifically for an all-black cast. The play was staged at the Sunset School auditorium as a fundraiser for the Carmel Employment Commission's Fund.[29]

    Theater

    Van Riper acting in the play Mr. Bunt

    Van Riper was active in theatrical as well as civic activities. In 1924, Van Riper played a role in Mr. Bunt[30], an original play by Ira Mallory Remsen, which won the $100.00 prize annually offered by the Forest Theater.[16][7] Michael J. Phillips from the The Morning Press said this about Van Riper, "Charles King Van Riper as Jim, the circus clown ... shows a great deal of acting ability. He made Jim a faulty but likeable human being who wasn't just a character in a show, but a real man."[31]

    Van Riper was friends with writer Harry Leon Wilson and toured the South Seas together in 1924. He acted as one of Wilson's seconds in the Duel with Theodore Criley at the Carmel Highlands, California in 1922.[32]

    Civic life

    Van Riper was among the first to influence the thinking of the Carmel village. and was involved in village matters and was referred to as "solid as a rock."[4]

    In 1938, Van Riper was head of the committee to obtain signatures for a petition for the Sunset School District to secede from the Monterey Union High School District. The Sunset School District voted 724 in favor of, and 252 against, the passing of a $165,000 (equivalent to $3,430,284 in 2022) bond issue for a new Carmel high school.[4]

    Van Ryper ship models

    In 1933, after a polo injury in California, Van Riper and traveled to Massachusetts to spend time with relatives and to visit his brother, Donald Van Riper. Charles and his wife Helen fell in love with Martha's Vineyard.[5][16] That same year, Van Riper ended up opening a ship model shop and showroom in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, where he used the traditional Dutch spelling “Van Ryper” for the shop's name, Van Ryper of Vineyard Haven. He worked in a two-story wooden building on Beach Road. A small group of craftsmen were hired to build the model boats. The shop listed more than 250 different model ships in stock. In 1938, the shop received requests for ship-models from Moore-McCormack operating shipping lines, and the United States Maritime Commission, to help teach sailors and naval aviators how to recognize enemy warships by their silhouettes.[3][5]

    His "Travel Series" were among the most popular models, which were waterline models depicting the world's shipping lines from the 1920s and 1930s. Upon the United States' entry into World War II, Van Riper was commissioned to build identification models at a scale of 1 ft (0.30 m) to 64 ft (20 m). Around 50 men and women worked across three buildings at the location. Two shifts were necessary to meet production requirements. He produced 1:1200 models of freighters for the U.S. Navy's Submarine Attack Teacher at Groton, Connecticut. A fire destroyed the shop in July 1942 and Van Riper failed to fulfill these contracts he had in place with the government.[33]

    Post-war, he resumed making merchant ships and liners. A scale model of the SS Will Rogers was made for the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, Oklahoma. The model approximately 5 ft (1.5 m) long, was acquired by the Will Rogers Memorial commission from the Van Ryper shipbuilders.[34]

    The shop continued production of handcrafting models until 1960, supposedly producing over 150,000 models during its nearly 30 years of operation.[33] In 1960, Van Riper stopped production at the shop after having a stroke. He kept the showroom open for another two years.[5]

    In October 1944, Van Riper divorced Ordway and married Celeste "Cece" Corcoran on October 5, 1945, in the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York.[35][2]

    Death and legacy

    Van Riper died on April 16, 1964, in Tisbury, Massachusetts, at the age of 72.[2] His wife died on May 2, 1965, in a Boston, Massachusetts hospital, at the age of 71.[16]

    In 1982, the South Street Seaport Museum acquired a collection of 285 Van Ryper ship models and archival materials from Van Riper's son, Anthony K. Van Riper.[5]

    Selected works

    • The Nocturnal New Yorker (1916)[36]
    • 'The Gift (1917)[20]
    • The Gentleman Strangler (1918)[37]
    • Shadows (1919)[22]
    • Two Marked Twenties (1919)[38]
    • The Man Who Knew (1920)[39]
    • The Puffer (1920)[40]
    • Circumstances (1920)[41]
    • The Hole in the Doughnut (1920)[42]
    • Caesar's Choice (1920)[43]
    • From Behind the Fence (1920)[44]
    • Two Many Champions (1923)[45]
    • The Blue Lightning (1923)[46]
    • Requiem (1923)[47]
    • The Expositor Short Story (1924)[48]
    • The Gateway (1925)[28]
    • Thieves' Holiday (1926)[49]
    • The Crossing (1932)[29]
    • Legion Of Ships (1938)[50]

    See also

    References

    1. ↑ Year Book of the Holland Society of New York, Holland Society of New York, Theodore Melvin Banta, Henry Lawrence Bogert, Edward Van Winkle, 1919
    2. 1 2 3 4 "Death Notices". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. April 18, 1964. p. 2. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
    3. 1 2 A. Bowdoin Van Riper (September 2017). "Toy Boat, Toy Boat, Toy Boat". Martha’s Vineyard. Dukes County, Massachusetts. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
    4. 1 2 3 4 Hale, Sharron Lee (1980). A tribute to yesterday: The history of Carmel, Carmel Valley, Big Sur, Point Lobos, Carmelite Monastery, and Los Burros. Santa Cruz, California: Valley Publishers. pp. 27, 57–58. ISBN 9780913548738. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
    5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Van Ryper Ship Models". South Street Seaport Museum. Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. December 15, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
    6. ↑ "Anthony B. Van Riper". The Sun. New York City. October 31, 1917. p. 9. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
    7. 1 2 3 "Author to Take Part In Play at Carmel". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. June 29, 1924. p. 28. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
    8. 1 2 James Karman (October 12, 2011). The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-8172-5. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
    9. ↑ "De Halve Maen". Holland Society of New York. Wisconsin. 2001. p. 39. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
    10. ↑ WWI Army Cards, aterson, New Jersey
    11. ↑ "Eastside Young Men Organize New Club". The Morning Call. Paterson, New Jersey. June 13, 1913. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    12. ↑ "Van Riper Will Lead "Knickies" Local Newspaper Man Selected to Head Eastside Social and Athletic Club". The Morning Call. Paterson, New Jersey. September 18, 1914. p. 3. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    13. 1 2 "Seen and Heard". Passaic Daily Herald. Passaic, New Jersey. September 1, 1925. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    14. ↑ "Teardown gets OK, but could it be a Comstock?" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. January 4, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
    15. ↑ Paul, Linda Leigh (2000). "Gate House". Cottages by the Sea, The Handmade Homes of Carmel, America's First Artist Community. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California: Universe Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 9780789304957. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
    16. 1 2 3 4 "Helen van Riper". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. May 6, 1965. p. 15. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
    17. ↑ Irene Gaasch (April 15, 1976). "Abalone League, a glorious league in Carmel's golden age". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. pp. 1, 18. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
    18. ↑ "Local History" (PDF). Carmel Public Library Foundation. 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
    19. ↑ Charles King Van Riper (July 17, 1920). "Circumstances". Argosy Issued Weekly. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    20. 1 2 "Arts and Crafts Club Scrapbook". Harrison Memorial Library. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 1912. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
    21. ↑ Don Autor (February 2, 1921). "Initial Presentation of Winter Plays". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. p. 1. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
    22. 1 2 Special Dispatch to The Bulletin (July 30, 1919). "Two Plays In Open Air At Carmel". San Francisco Bulletin. San Francisco, California. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    23. ↑ "Broadway and Beyong". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. January 4, 1925. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
    24. ↑ "Stirring Dram at the Apollo "The Getaway," With Violet Heming, New Play of Adventure". Press of Atlantic City. Atlantic City, New Jersey. September 30, 1925. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    25. ↑ "The Getaway". Variety. 80 (8). October 7, 1925. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    26. ↑ Meakin (September 30, 1925). "The Getaway". Variety. 80 (7). Retrieved January 8, 2024.
    27. ↑ "Belasco "The Getaway"". Evening star. Washington, District of Columbia. September 13, 1925. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
    28. 1 2 Mordaunt Hall (August 26, 1925). "The Screen; An Eye-Full". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
    29. 1 2 "For The Benefit Of The Benefit". Carmel-by-the-Sea, California: Carmelite. January 14, 1932. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
    30. ↑ "Forest Theater To Show Mr. Bunt". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. June 17, 1924. p. 22. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
    31. ↑ Michael J. Phillips (July 9, 1924). "Remsen Play Wins Approval In Performance at Carmel". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. p. 8. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
    32. ↑ "Carmelites Return From South Seas". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. January 20, 1924. p. 41. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
    33. 1 2 Jacobs, Paul (2008). Miniature Ship Models A History and Collector's Guide. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-78383-003-9. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
    34. ↑ "Model of Famed Liberty Ship Bought for Rogers' Memorial". Tulsa World. Tulsa, Oklahoma. January 11, 1948. p. 14. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
    35. ↑ Nancy Randolph (October 5, 1945). "Society War Worker Weds Boss". Daily News. New York, New York. p. 18. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
    36. ↑ The Smart Set, The Nocturnal New Yorker, 1916
    37. ↑ The story The Gentleman Strangler in Popular Magazine
    38. ↑ Two Marked Twenties, Detective Story Magazine, 1919-08-05: Vol 25 Iss 3
    39. ↑ Blue Book v031 n06 1920-10, The Man Who Knew, 1920
    40. ↑ Detective Story Magazine, The Puffer, 1920
    41. ↑ Argosy v123 n02
    42. ↑ The Smart Set, A Magazine of Cleverness · Volume 61, 1920
    43. ↑ The Argosy Volume 124, Issue 4, 1920
    44. ↑ Detective Story Magazine, From Behind the Fence, 1920
    45. ↑ Adventure Volume 43, 1923, Adventure magazine
    46. ↑ Blue Book v037 n02
    47. ↑ Adventure Magazine, February 1923, page 125
    48. ↑ The Expositor Brantford, Ontario, Canada · Friday, June 27, 1924
    49. ↑ The Playshop to Favor American Playwrights, The Billboard, 1926-01-16: Vol 38 Iss 3
    50. ↑ The American Legion Magazine, Volume 24, No. 6, (June 1938
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