Wednesday, June 09, 2010
News of Yore 1937: Tea Party Would Love Crosby
P.L. Crosby Reprints Essay in Sun
by Robert U. Brown (E&P 7/17/37)
Listed last week by the Joint Congressional Tax Evasion Committee as using legal devices to evade taxes, Percy Crosby, creator of "Skippy" for King Features Syndicate, on Tuesday, July 13, bought two full pages in the New York Sun and reprinted his "Essay on Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Address" which he had published Feb. 15. Ten thousand copies were distributed then. At the top of the essay he reprinted part of his letter to Senator Wheeler written March 11 praising him for his Supreme Court stand which read: "In writing this letter, please know that it is from a citizen proud of his vote, proud of his nation, and from a citizen who is a creator and shall never be anything but that. It is from a citizen who believes that freedom for the individual is the most sacred heritage. It is from a citizen who is willing to pay any amount of taxes under the Constitutional form of government, and that willingly, but it is from a citizen who shall never pay toll to a one-man rule government at any price."
Mr. Crosby paid $3,200 for the space in the Sun which was placed through J.P. Muller & Co., advertising agency, where he was described as "one of the few 100 per cent Americans left."
Used Paid Space Before
In answer to a query from Editor & Publisher, Mr. Crosby said the Sun was the only daily paper used, and: "I have consistently used such methods since 1930 to attack conditions and fought prohibition, gangdom and pacifism in like manner. I spent over $59,000 publishing books, pamphlets and page ads. The purpose of the essay is to awaken the people, as I was well acquainted with the subject after writing a 220,000 word book called "Three Cheers for the Red, Red and Red." Five months after publication my essay stands as truth and warning without change of a word."
In a recent promotion piece on Percy Crosby, distributed by King, the cartoonist was portrayed as a "literary and political storm center." One paragraph described his farm at MacLain, Va., and added, "Yet one who expected to find Percy Crosby in complete harmony with his surroundings would be foredoomed to disappointment. Skippy raises a little Cain wherever he goes; so does Crosby. He wouldn't be happy if he didn't."
Crosby worked formerly for McClure Newspaper Syndicate. He sold his first drawing to Life, when he was 17 for $6. Later he worked on the New York Call, Globe, World and Sunday World, Herald, Evening Telegram and the Philadelphia Ledger. He started Skippy in 1925.
Labels: News of Yore
Comments:
Ummm. From Wikipedia, but I believe it's essentially accurate:
"In December 1948, he was committed to the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital after attempting suicide following the death of his mother.[16][36] In January 1949, he was transferred to the mental ward at Kings Park Veterans' Hospital, in Kings Park, New York, where he was declared a paranoid schizophrenic.[16][37] His confinement was authorized by Arthur Soper, an uncle of Crosby's wife.[16]
Though he would spend spent the last 16 years of his life institutionalized..."
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"In December 1948, he was committed to the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital after attempting suicide following the death of his mother.[16][36] In January 1949, he was transferred to the mental ward at Kings Park Veterans' Hospital, in Kings Park, New York, where he was declared a paranoid schizophrenic.[16][37] His confinement was authorized by Arthur Soper, an uncle of Crosby's wife.[16]
Though he would spend spent the last 16 years of his life institutionalized..."
