Stripper's Guide

John Rosol was born John Rosolowicz on June 14, 1911, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to his birth certificate at Ancestry.com. His parents were Nicholas and Annie Rosolowicz, both Ukrainian emigrants. On their naturalization papers the family name was spelled Rosolovicz; they arrived in the United States on March 12, 1903.

Philadelphia city directories listed Rosol’s father as a grocer (1914) and meat market owner (1915). The family lived at 4257 Wayne Avenue.

During World War I, Rosol resided at 1950 Bristol Street in Philadelphia. The same address was recorded in the 1920 U.S. Federal Census. Rosol was the youngest of three siblings. Their father owned and operated a saloon.

A 1940 issue of Ukrainian Life said

…[Rosol] attended the Gratz High School, and upon graduation received a four-year scholarship to the School of Industrial Art. In 1930 he took College Humor’s second contest award. After graduation from art school, he worked for the art department of The Evening Public Ledger of Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 3, 1995, said Rosol was “a graduate of Germantown High School … [and] received a bachelor of arts degree from the Philadelphia College of Art.” Biographical Sketches of Cartoonists & Illustrators in the Swann Collection of the Library of Congress (2014) said Rosol “trained at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art.”
 
The 1930 census said Rosol lived with his parents and sister in Philadelphia at 3944 North Smedley Street.

The Ukrainian Weekly (Jersey City, New Jersey), October 27, 1933, profiled Rosol.

Our Cartoonist
The “U. W.” has gained a staunch friend in the person of John Rosolowicz who wishes to contribute to its columns by sending in cartoons, free of charge, for which kindness we extend our most sincere thanks.

Mr. John Rosolowicz, 22 years of age, is a son of well known Ukrainian family in Philadelphia, Pa. His father M.[sic] Rosolowicz was for a long time one of the comptrolers [sic] of the U. N. A., and one of the founders of its first branch in Philadelphia. John’s sister, Mrs. N. Dubas, is a piano instructor, and well known for her appearances on the Ukrainian concert stage.

John, after completing high school studied in the Academy of Fine Arts, and then turned to cartooning as his specialty. He has contributed cartoons to the “Saturday Evening Post”, “The Country Gentlemen”, “Literary Digest”, and other publications. At. the present time he is connected with the Art Department of the Philadelphia “Public Ledger”.

In the 1930s Rosol contributed cat cartoons to The Saturday Evening Post. Biographical Sketches said Rosol’s The Cat and the Kid strip was created for The Saturday Evening Post. The Ledger Syndicate picked up The Cat and the Kid as a daily strip. American Newspaper Comics (2012) said it ran from March 8, 1939 to February 17, 1940.

Rosol had an entry in Who’s Who in American Art, Volume 1 (1935).

Rosol, John, 1437 West Cayuga St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Cart.—Born Philadelphia, Pa., June 14, 1911. Pupil of Pa. Mus. Sch. Indus. Art. Cartoons, Saturday Evening Post; Country Gentleman; Country Home; New York American, etc.

The Ukrainian Weekly, March 11, 1939 said “John Rosol, Comic Artist, Engaged by Philly Ledger”.

John Rosol (Rosolowicz), the young Ukrainian who drew саґtoons for the Ukrainian Weekly several years ago, and whose clev­er sketches have appeared in the Saturday Evening/Post and other American and English magazines, has now been engaged Philadelphia “Evening Ledger.”

Last Wednesday’s issue of the newspaper bore a streamer head­ line across the top of the first page, reading: “A new feature to­ day: The Cat and the Kid, by a new clever comic artist.” On a different page a similar announcement is made, but occupying much more space, in which it is stated that John Rosol is the “man who has made millions laugh with his clever cartoon sketches appearing in The Saturday Evening Post.”

Biographical Sketches said Rosol’s work appeared in Country Gentleman, Country Home, The New York American, New York Journal, and Judge.

On October 16, 1940, Rosol signed his World War I draft card. His address was 1437 West Cayuga Street in Philadelphia. He named his mother, who was at the same address, as next of kin. Rosol’s description was five feet nine inches, 134 pounds with brown eyes and hair.

Rosol was mentioned in The Ukrainian Immigrants in the United States (1939) and One America: The History, Contributions, and Present Problems of Our Racial and National Minorities (1945).

A 1940 issue of Ukrainian Life, announced Rosol had joined its staff. 

For King Features Syndicate, Rosol produced Here and There which ran in 1941.

Rosol’s Cat O’ Five Tails was published by the David McKay Company in 1944.

A 1946 issue of Advertising & Selling said “John Rosol, whose cats have found a home in the Post for years, has paid students for the use of their cartoon ideas.”

The 1950 Philadelphia city directory listed Rosol at 1511 East Pastorius.

The Inquirer said Rosol also drew the Bazooka Joe bubble gum comics for a period of time.

Rosol passed away June 29, 1995, in Philadelphia, as reported in the Inquirer, July 3, 1995. Rosol was laid to rest at Oakland Cemetery.

 
Further Viewing
Cat O’ Five Tails
Cartoons for Victory

 
—Alex Jay

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

[Cartoons Magazine, debuting in 1912, was a monthly magazine devoted primarily to reprinting editorial cartoons from U.S. and foreign newspapers. Articles about cartooning and cartoonists often supplemented the discussion of current events.

In November 1913 the magazine began to offer a monthly round-up of news about cartoonists and cartooning, eventually titled "What The Cartoonist Are Doing." There are lots of interesting historical nuggets in these sections, and this Stripper's Guide feature will  reprint one issue's worth each week.]



TRIBUTE TO “BILLY” IRELAND
A prophet is supposed to be without honor in his own country. Persons have often wondered why “Billy” Ireland, cartoonist of the Columbus Dispatch, elects to remain in the wilds of Ohio when other and presumably more attractive fields are open to him. Mr. Ireland doubtless has his own reasons. That his own newspaper appreciates him is evident from the following editorial published recently in the Dispatch:

“War cartoons that have appeared in The Dispatch in recent months, from the pen of William A. Ireland, have been copied around the world. Instances that have come to the notice of this paper recently have shown that they met with favor from some of the most conservative reviews and from other magazines and newspapers of prominence in France, England and various of the larger cities of America.

“One of the largest reading publics attained for any of these graphic messages was that of the readers of the Hearst Sunday newspapers, which recently carried in their 2,000,000 copies a full page editorial entitled “Do You Pity This Helpless Chinese Colossus?" which had for its theme a recent cartoon of Mr. Ireland's that formed the center of the page. A huge Chinaman is shown with Jap handcuffs that have just been placed on him by a little Japanese soldier, who is shown on his way back to his boat. The editorial draws a moral for America from helpless China because of this country's unpreparedness for war. ‘Our compliments to the editor and the artist of The Columbus Evening Dispatch for their idea and their picture, reproduced here,' runs the bold legend underneath the cartoon. 'We are glad to give them credit. We render a public service in republishing in two million copies of the Hearst Sunday newspapers this excellent and much-needed cartoon.’

“A pictorial idea that caught the fancy of La Vie Parisienne, the breezy and fearless Paris publication, recently, was a cartoon of Mr. Ireland's in which the German, standing in the Kiel canal, was describing by means of a compass tipped with submarines a circle of embargo about the British Isles. Several of the artist's cartoons have recently appeared in the London Sketch and not a few in the Literary Digest, of New York, while Cartoons Magazine hardly ever gets out an issue without including several products from his forceful and virile pen.

“Collier's Weekly, of June 19, is sufficiently impressed by one of Mr. Ireland's expressions regarding the Lusitania that it reproduces the drawing in the middle of one of its editorial pages. It is that one which was inspired by the group picture of the American mother, Mrs. Paul Crompton, and her six children, all of whom were lost in that maritime disaster. Von Tirpitz, sea lord of Germany, is shown holding the picture, which he has taken from an envelope addressed to him. Beads of perspiration stand out on his brow, but he falls back on the reiterated explanation, ‘Well, I gave them warning.'”

ONCE-IN-A-WHILE CARTOONS
The French idea of an occasional instead of a daily cartoon is recommended to the New York Evening Sun by a New Jersey correspondent, who believes that the cartoonist can do better work if not constantly under pressure.

“The French plan of having the cartoonist at work every little while rather than daily,” he says, “would probably help the inspirational contents and form. The New York public will soon be ready for a great improvement in the caricature all around, and the exaction of a strictly naturalistic idiom may be less insisted upon as the modernists get more forward in their attack upon conventional models. We are in the case of the early printers and engravers in our desire to make an ephemeral thing not exactly beautiful but as beautiful as the conditions allow. I think the time is near at hand when American caricaturists of the daily press will have their fighting chance to win recognition as artists—with the memory of their great protagonists, Callot, Hogarth, Daumier, et al., nay, even Leonardo and Rembrandt, for ideals.”

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Ray T. Handy, cartoonist of the Duluth News-Tribune, was in Chicago recently to attend the engravers' convention. Mr. Handy owns his own engraving plant, and, unlike most cartoonists, has no fault to find with the engraver. The News-Tribune is one of his best customers.

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Cartoonist Winterhalder, who was identified with the New Orleans Picayune before the consolidation of that newspaper with the Times-Democrat, is now on the staff of the New Orleans American, published by the union printers who left the employment of the Times-Democrat, Daily States, and Item.

“BART" LEAVES THE JOURNAL
After a service of 25 years as cartoonist of the Minneapolis Journal, Charles L. Bartholomew, known affectionately as “Bart,” has left that newspaper to devote his attention to a syndicate. “Bart” was more than an individual. He was an institution, and a national institution, at that. He began his career in the days when the newspaper cartoon seldom appeared, and when perhaps less than a score of names made up the register of active American cartoonists. He has portrayed many important episodes in the nation's history, his album of Spanish American war drawings being representative. For a quarter of a century presidential campaigns have been chronicled by his pen. He devoted much of his attention to the field of national politics. His style was rather that of an older school, as he delighted in exaggerations and the portrayal of the grotesque. While his cartoons had the “punch” and showed a close insight into public affairs, they never offended. It is doubtful whether “Bart” has ever made an enemy. As an expression of the unique regard in which he was held in Minneapolis, a public dinner was given in his honor on June 8 at the Hotel Radison. “Bart's" most recent achievement is a cartoon in oil on goatskins, which he presented to Louis W. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway. It will adorn the new hotel in Glacier Park.

A CARTOONIST IN KHAKI
A. G. Racey, cartoonist of the Montreal Star, is dividing his time these days between his professional and his military duties. He is a member of Montreal's crack rifle corps, the Victoria Rifles Reserve. This organization already has sent several thousand members to the front, where they have given a good account of themselves. In its ranks are to be found lawyers, doctors, artists, authors, members of parliament, and many Bisley men, all experts with the rifle. It is commanded by Chief Justice Sir Charles Davidson. A series of shooting prizes presented by Mr. Racey brought the best shots to the fore during the winter, and many of these are doing good work in the trenches in Flanders.

DOC YAK BOUNDS INTO MOVIE FAME
Good old Doc Yak, with his red automobile, “348,” and his Belgian war orphan, has gone into broader fields. Sydney Smith, his creator, has staged Doc's adventures for the movies, where they are being presented under the auspices of the Chicago Tribune, in the pages of which newspaper they originally appeared. Readers of the Tribune are being offered $50 prizes for the best ideas for a Doc Yak scenario. Doc already has made a trip to the moon, and has explored the bottom of the sea. It is probable that he will make a few excursions into the war zone. Doc Yak has been described as “the funniest funny character ever cartooned.” He has long been a family friend in Chicago from baby to grand father.

ANOTHER IDEAL SHATTERED
Apropos of a decision made by the St. Louis board of aldermen to attend a formal dinner in business dress, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat remarks that it is not to be supposed that the street costume of a city father in any way resembles that which the cartoonists have made famous. “They do not seek such deafening effects,” this newspaper continues. “They do not wear massive gold chains or dazzling diamonds. They are exceedingly modest—at least in matters sartorial.”

WANTS A SUGGESTION
Maurice Ketten, the New York Evening World cartoonist, is said to be looking for a place to spend his vacation. Usually he goes abroad, but such a trip is out of the question this year. He wants something exciting, however, and has rejected the idea of a camping trip in Maine because of its tameness. Having appealed to his friends, the most exciting suggestion he has received thus far is that he hire a Staten Island ferryboat and try to force the Dardanelles.

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“If I were a cartoonist,” suggests a reader of the New York World, “I would make a cartoon of Dr. Dernburg with one hand bidding William Randolph Hearst good by, and passing with the other hand the belt to William Jennings Bryan, with the line underneath: “No use of my staying here, gentlemen. You have beaten me to a frazzle.’”

“S”MATTER POP” AND KIDS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
C. M. Payne (“S'Matter Pop”), accompanied by his wife and two little daughters, has been visiting Los Angeles and southern California, and will remain on the coast for several months. An automobile trip to the Panama-Pacific Exposition and to San Diego is planned during his stay. The kids, true to their comic supplement prototypes, asked myriads of questions, and were delighted and amazed with all they saw.

Mr. Payne created “S'Matter Pop” three years ago while traveling over the Nevada Desert, and has been making the American public laugh ever since. The accompanying cartoon, drawn for the Los Angeles Tribune, shows “Pop” and his talented family marching down Broadway of the California city.



FRED MYERS' JITNEY
“The enclosed sketch will show why I unloaded it,” writes Fred Myers, the Indianapolis cartoonist who did for Terre Haute on a small scale what Nast did for New York in the days of the Tweed ring. The "it" in question refers to an “ancient two cylinder machine” which Mr. Myers picked up for fishing trips. Envious friends, however, made him feel as if he were trying to get about on a couple of spools and an old tin can, and the owner, being sensitive to criticism, reluctantly parted with it.

Mr. Myers, who has been doing chalk talks at local theaters and Y. M. C. A.'s, received a unique compliment not long ago. At the close of an entertainment given in a Posey County metropolis, his “impresario” remarked: “Wall, Myers, derned ef ye' ain't th' fust o' them cartoonists I ever seen who didn't draw th’ Rock of Ages in red chalk somewhere in his program.”

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Albert Dressler, the California artist and cartoonist, has been visiting in Butte, Mont., gathering impressions for a series of sketches. Butte will occupy three pages in a volume by Mr. Dressler, entitled “Seeing San Francisco in 1915,” which is to be published by an eastern firm.

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Joseph Keppler, the cartoonist who helped make Puck famous, has retired in favor of his son. The St. George Staten Islander, therefore, felt quite honored when Mr. Keppler consented to draw the cover design for the quarter-century anniversary edition of that paper. The cartoon portrayed an Indian, symbolizing the earliest recorder or historian of Staten Island.

SHOPPING WITH DONAHEY
When J. H. Donahey, the cartoonist, made his sketching trip through Egypt for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he discovered the deadly peril of the pith helmet. He passes this warning along to all who are intending to do Egypt. Let them heed lest they wear a pith helmet.

With the Donahey party was one of your wealthy young fellows who thinks it necessary to dress for everything. Accordingly he got himself up to look exactly like the tourist of fable and fiction, in puttees, Norfolk jacket and pith helmet. Donahey started out one day with this chap when the latter needed a new pair of puttees. Donahey didn't need anything. He had on an old suit of clothes and no pith helmet.

Together they went into several Cairo shops. At the first one the dusky shop keeper asked $7 for a pair of puttees. It was a wild guess, and they went to another place. Here the price was $9.50. Good night! Another shop was more reasonable —$6.85. They even found a shop where the price hovered around $4.30.

“See here,” said Donahey to his friend, “there's something queering us. You stay outside and let me go in and buy your puttees for you.” This was done. Donahey went in without a pith helmet and came out bearing a fine pair of the desired puttees. “How much d’they soak you for 'em?" asked the pith helmet boy. “A dollar ninety,” answered our hero calmly. (Copyright 1915, American Press Humorists)

OH, WHERE, OH WHERE?
Admirers of E. A. Bushnell's cartoons have been burying the artist lately with inquiries as to what has become of the sad-eyed, mournfu1 looking “Doc” with which canine Mr. Bushnell has for many years embellished his work. As the artist has found it impossible to answer all these communications, he has explained “Doc's" disappearance to the editor of Cartoons Magazine.

Mr. Bushnell, who draws his cartoons for a syndicate, is unable, he says, to please everybody, and as several unappreciative clients objected to the funereal character of “Doc,” it was decided to put him out of the way as humanely as possible. Most of Mr. Bushnell's followers will regret this wanton sacrifice, but the artist himself is reconciled, and states that “Doc” has probably appeared for the last time.

A TRIBUTE TO AMERICA
On the initiative of a committee, of which the presidents of the French Academy and of the Academy of Fine Arts were the heads, a number of artists and literary men have contributed, the former, original drawings, and the latter, their autographs, which have been bound into an album dedicated to the people of the United States as an expression of France's gratitude for the liberal gifts of money, food, and medicine, which have come to her and her allies through the generosity of our people.

This album, ornamented with the arms of the United States and of the French Re public, was presented to Ambassador Sharp at Paris, and will be forwarded to the United States to be deposited in the Library of Congress.

Among the contributing artists were Rodin, the sculptor, Leon Bonnat and Carolus Duran, of the French Institute, both celebrated painters of the older school; Desiré Lucas and Lucien Simon, representatives of a younger generation, Hermann Paul, one of the greatest of the French satirists, and Renouard. Recent war paintings by Lucas and Simon promise to become historic.

CARTOONS HER HEROES
Miss Pauline Taylor, a Salt Lake City girl, has been attracting considerable attention lately by her cartoons of the national sport. She may be seen almost daily with her pad and pencil at the local ball park, where she amuses herself by making drawings of her favorite players. “About the productions of her untaught skill,” says the Salt Lake City Tribune, “there is ever something that speaks of a large native talent.”

A SPORTSMAN CARTOONIST
As a gentleman jockey, cross-country rider, Olympian athlete, and globe-trotter, C. Wiedemann, the new cartoonist of Colman's Weekly, of Manila, P.I., is a person much to be envied. A familiar figure on the Lunetta, or on the Bund of Shanghai, he is known and liked wherever Europeans gather east of Suez. As a horse owner and rider he has shone with special brilliance at Shanghai and Tsingtau. At a recent race meet at Tsingtau he brought in one of his own mounts as winner in every event. Mr. Wiedemann was entered in the Olympic games in London in 1908, and at the Manila carnival this year he won the pentathlon in the athletic meet. His knowledge of China and the Chinese is particularly thorough. He numbers among his friends many a viceroy, taotai, and provincial potentate in the interior of that country. He was a war correspondent for European papers during the Chinese revolution, and marched with the allied forces into Peking. We present one of his cartoons here. For the most part they have to do with oriental subjects.

SAM HUNTER RESTS UP
Kaiser Wilhelm will have one less cause to worry when he discovers that since the first of June Sam Hunter's cartoons have not appeared in the Toronto World. The kaiser, however, can be no more glad than Mr. Hunter. This is the time of the year when, following his custom of a quarter of a century, the veteran cartoonist drops all work, closes his town house, and listens to the call of the wild. He is spending the summer at his camp, “Pepacton,” in the Kawartha Lakes region of northern Canada. Here he remains, finding cartoons in stones and running brooks, until September.

NOW WILL YOU BE GOOD?
“Violent and abusive,” according to the Detroit Journal, are the cartoons that Harper's Weekly has been aiming at the German leaders. “This newspaper,” the Journal adds, “employed Nast to cartoon Jefferson Davis during the civil war as a hyena despoiling the graves of the dead. Similarly the southern press cartooned Lincoln as a naked African. We Americans are more or less ashamed of the rabid horrors of that period, and discover in both north and south some very human elements.
There are some Americans who are going to be quite as much ashamed of their present ignorance and blind prejudices.

ROBINSON'S WAR CARTOONS
Boardman Robinson, who left the New York Tribune some months ago to become a free lance, has published, through the house of E. P. Dutton and Co., a volume entitled “Cartoons of the War.” It is a beautifully printed quarto, and contains 33 drawings in Mr. Robinson's best style. These cartoons, the artist explains, “represent the emotions evoked by the news from day to day, and make no pretense to a philosophic viewpoint.”

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A limited edition of Will Dyson's “Kultur Cartoons” has been imported from England for American distribution by the Page Company of Boston. The most striking of these, together with H. G. Wells' introduction, were reproduced recently in this magazine.

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“Perhaps diplomacy,” suggests the Long Beach (Cal.) Telegram, “is able to frame an answer to the executive note. To answer the New York World's cartoon, showing a score of babies with hands extended toward the kaiser, and asking: “But why did you kill US?' simply is beyond the power of the most astute of diplomats.” It was this cartoon that was used as a cover decoration for the July number of this magazine.

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Harry Parsons, a Topeka cartoonist, has been appointed chief of police of that city.

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“Bib Ballads” is the title of the book from which these verses and decorations are taken; are written by Ring W. Lardner, and the illustrations are by Fontaine Fox. The poems, which immortalize Mr. Lardner's little son and heir, will appeal to everybody who loves children, especially to fathers with young sons. The book is published by P.F. Volland and Co. of Chicago.

ONE ON THE INNKEEPER
This is a Eugene Field story from the repertoire of A. J. Taylor, cartoonist on the Los Angeles Times.
It seems that Field was wont in times of stress to resort freely to credit at a certain place of refreshment, so that it grew as hard for him to discharge as the national debt. Good-natured as was the creditor, he at last had to dun, and he “done” so in vain. Finally he decided the thing was hopeless.

“Field,” he said one day, in exasperation, “you now owe me $60. Just as a proof of the fat chance I’ve got of ever getting that money, I'd sell the debt for ten cents!”

Reproachfully, Field eyed him. Then with a sigh, reached down in his pocket and found a thin dime. This he laid on the counter.

The cafe man snorted, but was game. He took the dime and tore up the tab. But Field lingered.
“Well, what are you hanging around for," angrily inquired the victim of this deal.

“Why,” answered Field with elaborate surprise, “don’t you always set 'em up when a patron pays his bills?” Upon which the setting up exercises followed, a large and jubilant throng taking part.  (Copyright 1915, American Press Humorists)



WEBSTER APPLIES NEW DISCOVERY
The recent discovery by a Harvard professor of adrenin, a substance which makes sleep unnecessary, has been heralded by H. T. Webster, cartoonist of the New York Globe, as a heaven-sent fulfillment of a long-felt want. Most important, Mr. Webster believes, will be the discovery in its bearing on those who enjoy an occasional game of “draw.” In a recent cartoon he pictures a scene in his own 137th Street apartments. Sitting in are Mr. Webster himself, Ray Rohn, who does pictures for Judge, and “Bob” Brinkerhoff, illustrator and manufacturer of the national Welsh sweetmeat known as “woggles.”

Fortified with several barrels of adrenin, the group intends to play straight through until Sept. 1. The only dissenting voice appears to come from Mr. Brinkerhoff. The “date two weeks from tonight” that he refers to, evidently is with some society queen, or Lillian Russell, as the artist is much sought after in the best Knickerbocker circles.

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T. A. Dorgan (“Tad”), cartoonist of the New York Journal, was one of the star witnesses recently in an inquiry to determine whether public gambling was being carried on at Belmont Park.

Labels: What The Cartoonists Are Doing

A Puck cartoon that sought to make fun of Milwaukee finds an unexpectedly appreciative audience with the Milwaukee-based postcard company, F.G. Kropp Publishing. The signature was left off from this excellent cartoon -- anyone care to hazard a guess as to the cartoonist?

Labels: Wish You Were Here

Emidio “Mike” Angelo was born on December 4, 1903, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to the Social Security Death Index and several volumes of Who’s Who in American Art.

Angelo and his family has not yet been found in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census.

The 1920 census recorded Angelo as the oldest of six children born to Stanley, a baker, and Laura (Alessandroni). The family resided in Philadelphia at 1325 Garnet Street. Angelo was an assistant at a newspaper office.

Who’s Who (1989) said Angelo studied at the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 15, 1953, said he started at PAFA in 1924. The 1936–1937 Who’s Who said he was a pupil of George Harding and Henry McCarter. Angelo was awarded PAFA’s European Traveling Scholarship in 1927 and 1928.

A passenger list, at Ancestry.com, said Angelo arrived in New York city on September 20, 1927. He had departed Cherbourg, France on September 14. His address at the time was 1255 South 21st Street, Philadelphia.

According to the 1930 census, Angelo’s mother was a widow who had seven children. The family lived at 1628 South 22nd Street in Philadelphia. Angelo’s occupation was commercial artist.

The same address was in the 1936-1937 Who’s Who that said Angelo was a member of the Da Vinci Alliance and Fellowship of PAFA. His pen portraits from life included Mussolini, ex-Presidents Coolidge and Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Premier Dino Grandi, Rudolph Valentino and others. His cartoons were published in Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Life, Judge, Ballyhoo, College Humor, Sales Management, Bell Telephone News and the Public Ledger. He lectured on “Cartoons and Caricatures.”

Who’s Who (1989) said Angelo was the editorial cartoonist for the Main Line Times (Ardmore, Pennsylvania) from 1937 to 1954 and 1981.

The Inquirer, December 12, 1943, said Angelo joined the Inquirer staff and married Yolanda Marinelli in 1938. At the time they had a four-year-old daughter named Jova. Anthony A. Chiurco wrote about his uncle in Up from South Philly (2014) and said Angelo joined the Inquirer staff in 1937. The book has a photograph of Angelo.

Angelo has not yet been found in the 1940 census.

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Angelo produced Funny Angles from January 1, 1945 to 1958. The panel was known later as Emily and Mabel. Vincent Schiller contributed to the writing.


The Inquirer, February 23, 1952, reported Angelo’s Freedom Foundation “third-place award for an editorial cartoon published last July 11 and entitled, ‘No Let-Up On Vigilance.’ He pictured Uncle Sam scanning storm clouds over Korea.”

The Inquirer, November 15, 1953, reported the annual PAFA exhibition and said

This is the first year that humor, in the form of a gallery of original cartoons, has been included in these annual exhibitions. Angelo will speak particularly about this phase of the show.

In 1957 a collection of Angelo’s cartoons, The Time of Your Life, was published by the John C. Winston Company.

Who’s Who (1976) said Angelo received the Da Vinci Award silver medals in 1958, 1960 and 1968, and a bronze medal in 1961. He was awarded a gold medal from the Philadelphia Sketch Club in 1969. His memberships included the National Cartoonists Society and the American Editorial Cartoonists. He was the producer of the 1967 short color film, Alighier’s, The Inferno.

The 1989 Who’s Who said Angelo was an advance art class instructor at Samuel S Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. He received the Freedom Foundation Award in 1983. His mailing address was 419 Redleaf Road, Wynnewood Pennsylvania 19096.

Angelo passed away September 2, 1990.

 
Further Reading
Editor & Publisher, February 18, 1950
Editor & Publisher, May 31, 9152


—Alex Jay

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

Emidio "Mike" Angelo was working for the Philadelphia Inquirer when he sold them on the idea of running his gag cartoons under the title Funny Angles. The panel cartoon debuted as a three-times-per-week feature in the Inquirer on July 25 1944, then soon graduated to a daily on October 23 of that year. Evidently Angelo was also shopping the feature around, because on January 1 1945*, Funny Angles started its syndicated run distributed by the Chicago Sun Syndicate. Evidently Angelo was not much of a gagman, because lots of his panels credit gag writers by their initials; a popular collaborator was Vincent Schiller, whose "+ V.S." is often seen.

Early in the run Angelo or one of his gag writers came up with the characters Emily and Mabel, identical twin spinsters who are always on the make to snag some men. In 1950 the ladies took over the panel entirely, and the title was changed to Emily and Mabel. In this era it is claimed that the feature had upwards of 150 clients, a very healthy number.

Perhaps the newspaper-reading public got tired of what was now a one-note gag panel, and the Chicago Sun syndicate (now under the name Field Enterprises) dropped the panel sometime in 1958. Angelo signed on with a company called Metcalf Features, of which I know nothing, and they distributed the panel for a very short period, until January 10 1959**. An impish spacesuit-wearing boy was added to the cast to save the feature, but evidently it did not.

In the late 1970s Angelo brought the old gals back for the Philadelphia neighborhood weekly paper, the Chestnut Hill Local, as evidenced by the below short item in an AAEC Bulletin. I don't know how long that lasted.




* Source: Jeffrey Lindenblatt based on Long Island Star-Journal.
** Source: Camden Courier-Post.

Labels: Obscurities

Back from the days when syndicates and newspapers actually marketed their features, here is a special strip created by Edgar Martin in 1925 to announce that Boots and her Buddies was soon going to begin appearing in the Dubuque Times-Journal. The Times-Journal would go belly up in 1927, despite the presence of this cute as a button NEA starlet.

Martin could have easily used this same art to advertise the strip in other new client papers, but this is the only instance I've seen where this promo was used. Scan from the collection of Cole Johnson.

Labels: Marketing Madness

Cartoonist John Rosol lucked out when the Saturday Evening Post took a shine to his comic strips that featured a small boy and litter of white-faced black cats. The cartoons began appearing there around 1934, and were to become a regular fixture.

Eager to parley his good fortune, Rosol signed a contract with Philadelphia's Ledger Syndicate to produce a daily comic strip on the same subject, though the cat population was cut back to one. The Cat and the Kid debuted on March 8 1939* in a very small list of client papers.

Considering that Rosol wasn't making much off of this major investment of effort it is perhaps not altogether surprising that he started making his life easier by adding word balloons to what had been a pantomime strip. He also started penning typical kid gags in which the cat only figures as a background object. It wasn't long before Rosol threw in the towel, ending the feature on February 17 1940*, apparently not even finishing off a one-year contract.

The Ledger Syndicate, as with many of their features, had the strips numbered rather than dated. That made it all the easier to resell the strip on the reprint market. Western Newspaper Union took the bait, and resold the series at least 1941-46. Oddly, they did not include the strip with their own regular weekly line-up that I know of; and they never removed the Ledger copyrights in favor of their own.

If you'd like to see a much more intriguing series penned by Rosol, I commend you to the archives of King Features' Ask The Archivist to check out a real oddball item, Here and There.


* Source: Philadelphia Evening Ledger

Labels: Obscurities

[Cartoons Magazine, debuting in 1912, was a monthly magazine devoted primarily to reprinting editorial cartoons from U.S. and foreign newspapers. Articles about cartooning and cartoonists often supplemented the discussion of current events.

In November 1913 the magazine began to offer a monthly round-up of news about cartoonists and cartooning, eventually titled "What The Cartoonist Are Doing." There are lots of interesting historical nuggets in these sections, and this Stripper's Guide feature will  reprint one issue's worth each week.]

PULLING THE EAGLE'S TAIL
A.G. Racey, the Montreal Star cartoonist, admits that he has been guilty, since the beginning of the war, of giving the American eagle's tail feathers an occasional pull.

"We on this side of the line," he says, "have been so accustomed in the past to seeing our old mother Lion's tail twisted by your Uncle Sam that it is hard to resist a return of the compliment when the occasion offers. Last summer while on a visit to Lake Champlain I was requested to assist at an entertainment for the benefit of an American charity. As about half the audience were Canadians, an American senator insisted that the British Union Jack be hung from the platform on which I was to speak. All other flags were Old Glories. When my time came to appear, I found, much to my surprise, a streamer of crepe hung from the lonely British flag, and a card attached which read 'To h*** with this dirty rag.'

How I got square with the perpetrator of the insult is another story — but experiences like that make us draw our own conclusions. However, 'Cartoons' can do a grand work decrying this foolish and idiotic 'Lion tail twisting' and 'Eagle tail-feather pulling.' If there is any way in which I can assist in fostering more cordial feeling, I would be only too glad to do my little bit."

TREND OF THE TIMES
It is noticeable that cartoonists picture the suffragist nowadays as a beautiful, stylishly dressed young woman, and the anti-suffragist as an old, vinegar-faced person in the clothes of other days. It hasn't been very long since the ugly old woman with a face like the hatchet she carried in her hand was the ballot seeker and the anti was a sweet, womanly woman. Nothing more surely indicates the growth of equal suffrage sentiment than the cartoonists' flop. — Savannah News.

ANOTHER PUNCH CARTOON PERSONIFIED
A feature of the London Hippodrome show is a series of Punch cartoons in life. The above cartoon appeared October 21, 1914. The dialogue between the kaiser and King Albert of Belgium reads: "So, you see, you've lost everything." "Not my SOUL."



PRACTICAL POLITICS
Clifford Berryman, the Washington Star cartoonist, while in New York not long ago, told this story on himself:

"Many years ago, when I had been in Washington only a short time, and had a kid's propensity for asking questions, I said to the late Senator Quay of Pennsylvania:

" 'Senator, how is it that you have kept your seat in the Senate so long, when there are so many other able and brilliant men from your State who must covet it?'

" 'Young man,' said Quay, 'I do not know that myself. But I do know one factor in the problem, and it is something which it may be useful for you to remember. I have never kicked a friend to please an enemy.' "


An exhibition of the work of the student cartoonists of the Brooklyn Evening High School has brought the first term of the cartoon classes to a close. This is the first school in America to undertake instruction in cartooning. Some of the work, it is said, showed a good deal of promise.

AN ANTICIPATORY CARTOON
All cartoonists are supposed, in a way, to be prophets. E. A. Bushnell, of the Central Press Association, Cleveland, showed an almost uncanny gift for reading the future when he sent out to the newspapers served by that syndicate his cartoon entitled "Making War Frightful."

This drawing, which was reproduced in the supplement to the June Cartoons Magazine, showed the ill-fated liner in the grasp of a shrouded angel of death rising from the waters. Evidently Bushnell took seriously the German warning, for the cartoon was made on the day the "Lusitania" sailed from New York. What he predicted came true, and newspapers as far west as Texas, using the service, were enabled to print the cartoon on the day following the disaster. Usually this country-wide service is a handicap to Bushnell, but if one can forecast events instead of recording them, there is still a chance to do effective work.


Harold S. Cary of Flint, Mich., has joined the staff of the Flint Daily Journal as cartoonist.




A. Zetterburg (Zett), sports cartoonist of the Los Angeles Times, has Joined the Navy, his place having been filled by Cecil Hatton. Sketch [above] by Dudley Logan, Los Angeles

PARABLE OF THE CARTOONIST
Often He Sigheth for the Day When He Had a Chance to Become a Plumber -- W. H. Hanny, cartoonist of the St. Joseph News-Press

His days are long and full of trouble. He cometh to the office in the early morn, where he sitteth and thinketh and thinketh and consumeth many pipesful of Old Hillside. He readeth the morning papers. Sad are the sights that greeteth him therein; murders, suicides and scandals without number. He sigheth a sigh that reacheth to the innermost recesses of his soul, for he realizeth that he must be funny if he still continueth to connect with the payroll.

Yea, verily, 'tis a solemn business to be funny.

The morning passeth. The cartoonist thinketh and thinketh and beateth his breast and pulleth his hair like one bereft of reason. And so it cometh to pass that he draggeth forth from his massive intellect three or four ideas sufficient to the day thereof, one of which may be acceptable to him that sitteth in state, namely, the Managing Editor. The terrified cartoonist taketh these ideas and shoveth them under the nose of the august presence, who readjusteth his specs and proceedeth to give them the "once over." This is indeed a solemn moment, my friends. But the ordeal passeth and the terrified cartoonist escapeth and returneth to his desk, where he spendeth the next three hours in the higher forms of artistic expression, while the noble figure of Art hovereth about in great mental anguish.

And so it cometh to pass that he finisheth his masterpiece. He signeth his name in the most prominent part thereof and taketh it to the telegraph editor, who hath no soul for art. He taketh it in his hand and tosseth it disrespectfully on the desk between the phone and the electric light stand.

The evening of the day arriveth and the sun goeth into Kansas. And doth the cartoonist now wend his way to the Hotel Robidoux and sit among the elect and partake of much high-class food? Nay, verily, he goeth to a cheap, but respectable, beanery, where he speaketh thusly in his usual chaste and classical English: "Gimme some roast beef an' a cup o' coffee." And after he waiteth many moons, the haughty waitress, who painteth her checks, shoveth his provender before him, and he partaketh thereof.

And as he wendeth his way to his humble domicile, he envieth the printer with a paid-up union card, who, when his work is done, slammeth down his tools, and goeth away from there. The cartoonist who wisheth to remain a cartoonist doeth this not, for the small voice of the jinx that percheth on his shoulder speaketh this wise: "What are you going to have tomorrow? What are you going to have tomorrow?" And as he tosseth on his couch, and as he sinketh into slumber, he heareth the voice.

VIEW CARTOON COLLECTION
A rather interesting afternoon was spent by the visiting newspaper men at Syracuse during the Barnes-Roosevelt hearing when they were invited to the residence of Mr. Newell B. Woodworth to inspect his collection of cartoons. Mr. Woodworth probably has the most complete collection of its kind in the world. It is being augmented daily by cartoons from all parts of the globe. A series of British posters by Frank Brangwyn is the latest addition.

HOW HIS NERVE FAILED HIM
It was Judas Iscariot who denied his Master, but it remained for Frank Hammond, now cartoonist of the Wichita Eagle, to deny the pride of his heart. This was in the shape of a little high-school annual published in his home town, Clinton. Mr. Hammond had illustrated it, and the more he looked upon his work the better he liked it. It would be, he thought, the open sesame to a position as cartoonist on a metropolitan daily.

Accordingly he took the book, together with a portfolio of sketches, and presently stood before "Doc" Norberg, grand mogul of the Kansas City Journal's art department. "My heart sank," says Hammond, "when he began to turn the pages of the annual. His expression was so utterly disapproving that I denied the authorship of each picture in turn. Finally we came to the last page, and in desperation I was forced to claim for my own the very worst of all the bad drawings in the book.

"Norberg laughed, and told me that he could see from my anxiety that I was endeavoring to cover up my crime. The pictures, he said, were not so bad as they might have been, and he gave me a chance on the strength of them."

BEQUEATHS NAST PICTURES
Mrs. Thomas Nast, widow of the artist, has presented to the War Department two pictures by her husband.

One of them, "Saving the Flag," illustrates the song "We're Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand Strong."

The other, "Peace Again," is illustrative of General Grant's remark in permitting Confederates to have their horses, after Appomattox.

"Let them take their horses with them," said General Grant. "They will need them for spring plowing."

The pictures have been hung in the reception room of the secretary of war.


Z. A. Hendrick, remembered for his circus cartoons, has joined the celluloid brigade. His first animated cartoon is called "A Clown's Dream," and depicts the adventures of Flippo, a clown, and Bolivar, an elephant.

THAT "SPANKING CARTOON"
St. Louis recently was quite upset over a cartoon by Fitzpatrick in the Post-Dispatch, representing Uncle Sam in the act of spanking Ambassador von Bernstorff with a paddle labeled "Bryan's reply." An editorial entitled "The Von Bernstorff Spanking" supplemented the work of the cartoonist. A representative of the German-American Alliance wrote to the newspaper as follows:

"Evidently the cartoonist and the editor forget the distinction between an Ambassador and any other person; we have long since become accustomed to newspaper libels and lampoons of our President and other public men, so much so that nothing appears sacred in their eyes, the many libel verdicts against newspapers testifying most eloquently to the truth of my assertion.

"You failed to state that the German Government has ratified the von Bernstorff interview, so that the German Government, and not the Ambassador is responsible for it. The duly qualified persons in this country who are to pass judgment on his conduct, are the President and the Secretary of State, and it does not devolve upon a newspaper to usurp that prerogative."

In reply to the foregoing, and other letters of a similar character, is this one:

"For the love of Kaiser William what's all this rumpus about the 'Spanking' cartoon? And why take up valuable space listing complaints of members of the German-American Alliance? If we're to have a censor of the daily press in the United States — and more particularly in St. Louis — the Post-Dispatch might as well sell its presses for old iron and scrap and close up shop.

"I, myself, am a sympathizer of the Germans, but that doesn't blind me to the merits of just, adverse criticism of them and their cause. The cartoon was O. K., only, if you'll pardon my suggestion, you should have used an automatic 42c., double-action spanker, instead of the slow, unreliable, old-style paddle. To remedy this you might get one of the new spankers — and use it on the German-American Alliance if they won't behave."

THE IRREVERENT CARTOONIST
The cartoonist makes fun of the home gardener, translating into merriment the enthusiasm of the gardener over the first onion. But he doesn't know, the cartoonist, the joy that comes of planting and watching the seeds bursting through the warm soil and thrusting their tiny lances upwards to meet the sunlight. If he sees it all as a joke let him make the most of it.

We have our own opinion of the man who sees a joke in the first onion of the home gardener. There is something wrong with the fellow. Of all men he is least to be trusted. He would poke fun at the first baby chick in the backyard coop, even hold his nose against the springy smell of a neighbor's burning grass. — Niagara Falls Journal.

KNECHT'S REVERSIBLE CARTOON
 "Save this cartoon," says Mr. Knecht, "and when the Russians win, turn it upside down." Readers of the Evansville Courier, from which it is taken, are heeding this advice.



CARTOONISTS, ATTENTION!
De Mar's cartoon, depicting a turkey about to decapitate itself, and used as a cover design for the January Cartoons Magazine, elicits a request for more from an Armenian reader in Canada.

"I am not a cartoonist," he writes, "but if I suggest a design, will you ask some artist to draw it? A fierce dog and a lifeless woman in a sack. It may be a net to show the figures inside. John Bull, France, and Nicholas beating this dog for all they are worth, and the dog tearing the woman. France says to John Bull:

" 'John, I am afraid by the time we kill this dog, we'll kill the poor woman.'

"John: 'I don't care about the woman. I want the hide of the dog.'

"Nicholas: 'Please, John, leave the head to me.'

"The woman shall represent Armenia, and the dog the Turk. As the allies beat him he is massacring the Armenians.

"I am sure this picture by a clever hand will bring you millions of admirers, as it will strike the very keynote of the situation. You do not need to credit me with the idea. So long as one of your staff artists or someone who knows does this job, he will be crowned by the poor Armenians. As for myself, I would give (if I could) $100,000 for the best cartoon on this subject." B. C. M.

AN ERUDITE CARTOON
A knowledge of Scripture is sometimes useful in helping one to realize the full significance of a Punch cartoon, and many readers possibly missed the subtle reference of Mr. Raven-Hill's striking drawing "A Naval Triumph" through not being able to recall the eighteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation. It will be remembered that Mr. Raven-Hill represented a very sinister looking German commander standing on a submarine lettered and numbered "U 666," sneering at his victims, who vainly with uplifted hands seem to implore assistance. When one turns to the passage of Scripture above mentioned one finds the following words: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six." — Manchester Guardian.


John Elliot Jenkins has opened an art class in Wichita, Kansas, and the local cartoonists are taking advantage of the opportunity offered to improve their work. Mr. Jenkins has studied for some years in Paris.


Ryan Walker, official cartoonist of the Friars, presented his "Adventures of Henry Dubb" recently before 1,800 inmates of the Sing Sing penitentiary. The lightning crayon sketches of the much-imposed-on hero were highly appreciated by the convicts.

Labels: What The Cartoonists Are Doing

Here's another card from Dave Breger's series for Nyack Art Pictures. For those interested, the code on the back is 608 / 89371, whatever all that means. Still only finding unused copies of these, so I'm still just guessing that the series was published in the 1950s.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

Thornton Edward Fisher was born on April 8, 1888, in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to his World War I and II draft cards.

In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Fisher, his mother and sister were in the household of his uncle, Charles Burkhead and his family. They resided on Clason Street in Columbia, Ohio.

Thornton was profiled in the New York Telegram-Mail, April 25, 1924. The newspaper explained the whereabouts of Thornton’s father and family travels.

Fisher began life in the middle eighties in Cincinnati, Ohio, and by the time he reached school age his father had been appointed a special inspector in the Post Office Department under the regime of Postmaster General John Wanamaker. The result was that he went to school in nearly every city of importance in the East and in some parts of the South, including Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington and Greensboro, N. C. He was fortunate in getting time to finish high school in Pittsburg, Pa.

His first defeat occurred in the grammar grades in Cincinnati, where he did several sketches of his teacher instead of doing mathematics, his propensity for drawing being knocked out of him for several years. To be exact, it was not until he reached the high school stage in Pittsburg that he began to draw in earnest.

The 1905 New York state census recorded Fisher and his family in Brooklyn at 310 Livingston Street. Fisher worked in real estate and his father was a broker.

The New York Telegram-Mail said

Ambition swelled his chest and he came to New York with a massive portfolio full of cartoons with the idea of “peddling” them at the various engraving shops. Failing, he tackled the city editor of the Globe. “If you happened to be a Raphael or a Kipling I could use you,” the C. E. told him. “And being neither, I naturally took the air,” he said.

Tom Quinn, managing editor of the old Daily News, then located across the street on Park row from the Post Office, gave Fisher his first job—not as an artist, but as a reporter at police headquarters.

His first assignment was a murder case, concerning which he wrote two columns. About two inches of type appeared in the paper. He was proud of the story. The humiliation was great, but he bore up under the shock and learned there was such a thing as brevity. Day after day meanwhile he continued his studies at the various art schools in and about New York city and working in his spare time in the studio of Dan McCarthy, cartoonist and good angel to hundreds of struggling young artists, who, though long dead, lives in their memory.

Then came the day of days—his assignment as a retouching artist on the News, which had moved to Twenty-fifth street. From that moment on he dreamed of the day when he would “make Gibson look like a beginner.” After a while the chance came for him to do comics on the Philadelphia Record as well as to do some illustrating for books and magazines. Within six months be was back in New York for a short stay and the next two years found him doing comic, sport and political cartoons for the Cleveland Leader. Fisher put the succeeding two years in doing the same sort of work for the St. Louis Republic.

The 1910 census said Fisher, his English wife, Ruth, and New York-born, nine-month-old daughter, Ruth Mildred, lived in Cleveland, Ohio at 1165 112th Street. At the time Fisher’s job was railroad clerk.

The New York Telegram-Mail said

But the New York virus had permeated his system and he could stay away no longer. Senator James Smith gave him a job on the Newark Star while he awaited an assignment to do a Sunday comic for the New York Herald, having applied for it when he learned that Winsor McCay had definitely made arrangements to transfer his activities to the American. [McCay left in 1911.]

On the Herald Fisher jumped into fame with his [August 31, 1913] strip entitled “Wishing Wisp,” a sort of fantasy that New Yorkers need not become so very reminiscent to recall. In addition he wrote stories for the newspaper’s Sunday magazine section.

A vastly more remunerative position on the World was his next jump, which became even more so with the success of the two strips, “The Marrying of Mary” [debuted June 11, 1914] and its [October 18, 1915] sequel, “Mary’s Married Life.” It was while doing this that he became a substitute for Bob Edgren, whose work on the World had become internationally famous. He found his natural inclination to gravitate toward sport greatly stimulated until in fact it became clear to him that be had at last found his particular niche. McClure’s Newspaper Syndicate was attracted by the conception and excellent execution of his work and a contract calling for considerably more salary than be was receiving at the time was sent to hint. He signed on the dotted line.

Two years later Bob Edgren retired and went to California. The executives on the World, mindful of his work for them, offered him the position. McClure’s graciously released him. [Edgren’s last sports cartoon for the World appeared July 20, 1918. Fisher’s run on the sports page began July 23, 1918.]  All told the World published Thornton Fisher’s sketches for ten years. During that time he had all the thrills attendant upon the game, even going in for writing and drawing aviation races, a sport that almost drew him from newspaper work and would have had it not been for the “mailed fist” of his boss and the pleading of his mother.

In the last few years of the decade Fisher wrote verse and short stories and sold them to Popular Magazine.

According to the 1915 New York state census, cartoonist Fisher, his family, mother and sister were Brooklyn residents at 4404 6th Avenue.

Beginning around 1915, Fisher was staff cartoonist on Moving Picture World magazine. Some of his cartoons are here, here, here and here. His photograph appeared in the March 31, 1917 issue, right-hand page, lower right-hand corner. 


On September 14, 1916, Fisher and his wife returned from Bermuda. The passenger list said their address was 2205 Foster Avenue in Brooklyn.

Fisher signed his World War I draft card on June 5, 1917. His Brooklyn address was 2104 Albemarle Terrace. His employer was the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. Fisher’s description was tall and thin with blue eyes and dark brown hair.

For the Boston Globe, Fisher drew Dippie Ditties from January 13 to March 24, 1918. The words and music were by Byron Gay. Also in 1918, Fisher illustrated Ellis Parker Butler’s parody of Sherlock Holmes.

The 1919 New Rochelle, New York city directory and 1920 census said Fisher’s home was at 71 Woodland Avenue.

Apparently Fisher’s adultery was not reported in New York City newspapers. The Rockland News (Nyack, New York), November 25, 1921, revealed the details.
 
WNYC said Fisher began his radio broadcasting career “in 1923 at AT&T’s WEAF in New York as one of radio's earliest sports commentators. He switched to WNYC the following year, not long after the municipal station began broadcasting. ”

Fisher wrote about being a broadcaster in Radio News, October 1923.

The New York Telegram-Mail said

Last summer [1923] he gave up newspaper work to organize a syndicate to handle his own drawings. In September be began broadcasting for the United Cigar Stores Company of America. This led to his appointment as editor in chief of the company’s sport magazine.

Also in 1923 was the establishment of the Thornton Fisher School of Cartooning. It continued into 1924.

The New York Telegram-Mail said

Broadcasting five nights a week, as be does, has broken up his home life, since it is at least nine o’clock when he gets to his home. It is a sacrifice that few would care to undertake. It has its compensations, however, he believes. Thousands of letters of commendation reach him weekly, with an occasional one from a disgruntled radio fan who bemoans the lack of more information on his particular brand of sport. Others ask questions. “Life, it seems to me,” he said with a grin, “is just one questionnaire after another, but I like it.” Interest in amateur sports keeps him at it.

Mr. Fisher never loses an opportunity to get into games himself. Golf claims all his spare time and he manages to “walk around” eighteen holes in about ninety-four or ninety-five, a respectable score for a man with so few opportunities to play the royal game.

Boxing, however, is the greatest thriller to watch, he believes, and wherever there is a match of any importance at all he is sure to be somewhere around.

Next to sport, his greatest interest is centered in Flushing, where he has his own home. His family consists of a wife and daughter, the latter a freshman in high school. An adopted member is the bull pup.

Prior to his sentence to broadcasting the cartoonist found time to visit the many clubs in which he is enrolled. These include the Society of Illustrators, of which Charles Dana Gibson is honorary president; the Dutch Treat, Shelter Rock Country Club at Great Neck, the Newspaper Club, the New York Athletic Club and others, as well as prominent fraternal societies.

On July 2, 1924, Fisher received his passport. The application listed England, France and Italy as destinations. His address was North 29th and Crocheron Avenue in Flushing, New York. When his passport was extended it had a different address, 594 East 22nd Street, Brooklyn.

The 1925 New York state census enumeration listed Fisher and family in Flushing on Crocheron Avenue.

Fisher and family returned from their European vacation May 7, 1926. They had sailed from Le Havre, France on April 28. Their home was at 594 East 22nd Street, Brooklyn.

The Boston Globe, May 23, 1926, published Fisher’s visit to Morocco. The article was illustrated with his photographs and drawings.

The Daily Star (Queens, New York), October 29, 1926, reported Fisher’s lawsuit against the New York Evening Graphic.

Thornton Fisher, sports writer and cartoonist, of Richmond. Va., and formerly of Bayside, brought suit in Queens Supreme Court yesterday against the McFadden Publications, Inc., of Manhattan, alleging breach of contract.

The writer-artist said he was hired on a year’s contract at $7,500 a year by the New York Evening Graphic in September, 1924. After working six weeks, he charges, he was discharged without sufficient cause.

The amount involved in the suit is $6,750, the difference between the six weeks salary Fisher received and the amount called for in the contract.

Vincent Treanor, sporting editor of the Evening World, and other well-known figures in newspaper circles, were called as witnesses.

The case was resumed this morning before Justice Lewis E. Fawcett and a verdict is expected today.

The Daily Star, November 1, 1926, said Fisher’s lawsuit was dismissed.

In 1929 Fisher was listed in the District of Columbia city directory. The cartoonist’s address was 2900 Connecticut Avenue NW, apartment 443.

According to the 1930 census, Fisher and wife were living apart. She was in Brooklyn with her parents, while he remained in DC at the same address. At some point they divorced.

For the Chicago Daily News, Fisher described some of Jack Dempsey’s boxing matches which were illustrated with frames from the films. The match with Gene Tunney was published June 13, 1936. 



Thornton’s 1932 divorce was a topic in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 6, 1937.

Divorced Wife Asks Decree Be Voided
Supreme Court Justice Thomas C. Kadlen has reversed decision on a motion made by Thornton Fisher, radio commentator, of Forest Hills Inn, to dismiss the complaint in an action brought by his first wife, Mrs. Ruth H. Fisher of Manhattan. She seeks a declaratory judgment that she is still his wife and would set aside a Mexican degree of divorce he obtained in 1932.

Fisher’s attorney yesterday told Justice Kadlen that Mrs. Fisher was a willing party to the Mexican divorce. She denied she was a willing party and had agreed to the proceeding only after “being threatened.”

Fisher married the plaintiff in 1908. A year after the divorce Fisher remarried. His present wife is the former Laura Haugaard.

 The 1940 census said Fisher and second wife, Laura, a public school teacher, resided in Coral Gables, Florida. Fisher said his occupation was newspaper artist.

Fisher signed his World War II draft card on April 25, 1942. His address was RD Piperville, Bedminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was employed by Street & Smith Publications of New York. His description was six feet and two hundred pounds with blue eyes and gray hair.

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Fisher drew Wishing Wisp (1913), Do You Know Why? (1913), If (1914), The Marrying of Mary (1914), Betty’s Brother Bobbie (1915), Kitty Keys (1915), Mary’s Married Life (1915), This Way Out (1915), Human Nature (1916), Preparedness (1916), Raising the Family (1916) Dippie-Ditties (1918), Jazbo Jones (1918), Mister I. Knowit (circa 1919), Omar Jr. (1927) and The Zanities in the 1940s.

Fisher passed away August 13, 1975, at his home in Washington, DC, according to the Evening Star, August 17, 1975.


—Alex Jay

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles