Saturday, August 11, 2018
Herriman Saturday
August 15 1909 -- First, my apologies for the conditon of this Herriman cartoon. The newspaper of this date that was filmed for microfilm was an awful mass of type lice, and I gave up pretty fast trying to make it look pretty. Ya takes what ya gets around here.
In this Herriman Guess Who episode, he might have even stumped baseball fans reading the paper that day. All we know is that the fella's a pitcher. No team name is obvious. We can also assume that he pitched a good game yesterday but faltered in the late inning ... at least that's how I interpret it.
The Angels yesterday sent Bill Tozer to the mound, and he pitched a good game aainst the Seals, and was ultimately the winner, 2-1, though he did indeed have trouble in the late innings. But pictures of Tozer give no inkling of the lantern jaw Herriman is caricaturing. Ed Griffin, his Seals opponent, also pitched a good game but came up short. But I can't find any photos of him, and he doesn't play big in the account of the game I read.
Hmm. How about our other local team in Vernon. Hitt the Vernon pitcher yesterday got a shutout recorded against Portland, allowing only two hits. That doesn't match the cartoon at all, and he's already made a Guess Who appearance anyway. How about his opponent, Jess Garrett of Portland? Well, he allowed nine hits, but allowed only two runs. Well, that could fit, and I found a possible picture of him in which a thin face and lantern jaw are noticeable. Okay, I'm going with him. Any dissenters?
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Comments:
It maybe Fred Toney early in his career. Had a career defining no hitter earlier that year. My guess is he was having less luck later that season.
https://www.mlb.com/cut4/fred-toneys-17-inning-no-hitter-is-the-longest-in-professional-baseball-history/c-229015882
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https://www.mlb.com/cut4/fred-toneys-17-inning-no-hitter-is-the-longest-in-professional-baseball-history/c-229015882
Friday, August 10, 2018
Wish You Were Here, from Dwig
This 1908 Dwig card, which the reverse says is part of Series 21, is copyrighted to Charles Rose on the front, but the back has the logo that I associate with R. Kaplan (the guy in the smock with the Swiss cross, holding the beer stein and U.S. flag). I'm obviously misreading the tea leaves here -- can anyone shed some light?
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Comments:
This logo is a take-off on the City of Munich, Germany coat of arms, which shows a monk holding a book in his left hand. This makes sense since the city's German name, München, means "of Monks."
German printers made most of the best early 20th century postcards. The Ottmar Zieher printing concern, of Munich, used a similar monk logo. This card's logo with the stein and US flag suggests a Munich-based printer - R. Kaplan? - that printed / manufactured postcards for the US market. Lots of them did.
As to Chas. Rose, he (a) owned this image that Dwig drew for him, or (b) was the postcard's "publisher" which means the distributor to retailers, or (c) both.
German printers made most of the best early 20th century postcards. The Ottmar Zieher printing concern, of Munich, used a similar monk logo. This card's logo with the stein and US flag suggests a Munich-based printer - R. Kaplan? - that printed / manufactured postcards for the US market. Lots of them did.
As to Chas. Rose, he (a) owned this image that Dwig drew for him, or (b) was the postcard's "publisher" which means the distributor to retailers, or (c) both.
Thanks Frank, I didn't realize that postcards were in the same realm as books, where the printer and publisher can be (and often are) two different companies. That makes a lot of sense.
--Allan
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--Allan
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Dick Kennedy
Richard J. “Dick” Kennedy was born on March 6, 1897, in New York according to his World War I New York military service card. In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Kennedy was the only child of James and Mary, both native New Yorkers. The trio were part of Kennedy’s paternal grandfather’s household. They resided in Fishkill, New York.
Kennedy and his parents were New York City residents in the 1905 New York state census. The lived in Manhattan at 230 East 42nd Street. Kennedy’s father was a driver.
In the 1910 census, Kennedy’s Manhattan address was 1108 Park Avenue. His father continued as a driver for the parks department.
Kennedy enlisted in the New York National Guard on July 12, 1917. During Kennedy’s service, he contributed illustrations to the 27th Division’s publication, Wadsworth Gas Attack and The Rio Grande Rattler which debuted November 23, 1917. It was retitled Gas Attack of the New York Division on March 2, 1918. Kennedy’s illustration can be viewed in the following issues.
November 23, 1917, here and here
November 27, 1917, here, here and here
December 8, 1917, here, here, here, here, here and here
December 15, 1917, here and here
December 22, 1917, here, here, here and here
December 29, 1917, here
January 5, 1918, here, here, here, here, here, here and here
January 12, 1918, here, here, here, here and here
January 19, 1918, here, here, here and here
January 26, 1918, here, here, here, here, here and here
February 9, 1918, here and here
February 16, 1918, here
March 2, 1918, here and here
March 9, 1918, here
March 16, 1918, here
March 30, 1918, here and here
April 6, 1918, here and here
April 13, 1918, here, here, here and here
April 20, 1918, here
April 27, 1918, here, here, here and here
May 4, 1918, here
Kennedy was honorably discharged on April 4, 1919.
According to the 1920 census, Kennedy was a self-employed cartoonist who lived with his parents in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Four months after the census enumeration, Kennedy married Mabel Butler on May 29 in Manhattan.
The 1925 New York state census recorded cartoonist Kennedy, his wife, son and daughter in the Bronx at 3162 Bainbridge Avenue.
American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Kennedy drew The Whole Dam Family from August 26 to September 9, 1927 for the PNF Syndicate.
Two more daughters joined the Kennedy household in the 1930 census. The self-employed advertising artist’s address was 325 East 238th Street in the Bronx.
In 1940 Kennedy had six children. The family resided in the Bronx on Tiebout Avenue near 187th Street. Kennedy was a WPA Project teacher.
Kennedy’s military service resumed in World War II. On December 13, 1940, Kennedy was a first lieutenant in the 8th Regiment of the New York National Guard. Kennedy was promoted to captain on February 19, 1941. He was transferred to headquarters on August 17, 42. Kennedy’s rank was major on July 16, 1943. He was assigned to 8th Regiment, 1st Battalion. After the war Kennedy was a Lt. Colonel in the 8th Infantry on March 28, 1946.
Kennedy was found in three Beacon, New York city directories. In 1955 he was a salesman who lived on Main Street. The 1957 and 1958 directories listed Kennedy as a machine operator in Poughkeepsie. He still lived in Beacon.
Kennedy passed away February 9, 1962, in New York, according to a military application for a headstone. Kennedy’s home address was 413 Main Street in Beacon. He was laid to rest at St. Joachims Cemetery.
Kennedy passed away February 9, 1962, in New York, according to a military application for a headstone. Kennedy’s home address was 413 Main Street in Beacon. He was laid to rest at St. Joachims Cemetery.
—Alex Jay
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Comments:
None of the "here" links for the Dick kennedy illustration samples seem to work. All I get is "URL not found."
# posted by 
: 8/09/2018 11:01 PM
: 8/09/2018 11:01 PM
The New York State Historic Newspapers site has been undergoing maintenance. I don’t know when the site will be available.
This is my great grandfather. I knew these existed, but have never seen them before. Thank you so much for finding them!
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# posted by : 5/30/2022 8:00 PM
: 5/30/2022 8:00 PM Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Obscurity of the Day: Simple Beasts
Simple Beasts, a daily and Sunday strip penned by Doug Hall and distributed by Tribune Media Services, came and went in a little over a year and a half. The comic strip about a group of forest animals was notably gentle, good-natured and cute without veering into saccharine territory. The gag-writing was quite snappy, and if I'd been exposed to it at the time, I'm sure I'd have looked forward to its daily appearance in my paper.
Doug Hall had tried a number of different concepts on the syndicates, but it was when he signed a contract with impresario Lew Little, a master at selling new features, that he finally landed a syndicate contract. Little offered Hall the editorial oversight that he needed to hone his writing, and reworked the feature from a panel into a strip to make it more marketable.
The Deseret News was one of the strip's initial subscribers, and they printed this syndicate promo article about the strip on April 4 1988, the first day of the new strip:
Drawn by Doug Hall, 31, the strip is billed as a "simple" humor comic that is as entertaining as it is natural. The strip is set in the "Great North Woods," and the characters are described by the artist as lovable and loving animals.
Woodruff the bear is the star. He loves to eat, sleep and watch people. Supporting roles are provided by a squirrel, Rafkind, (who loves to dive into dumpsters and listen to hard rock) and Teether Bob and Teether Lou who are busy beavers raising their family. Clarissa, another bear, is constantly rejecting Woodruff's affections, and she hopes to be discovered by Hollywood or National Geographic. The Rens, a dazed flock of birds who struggle through life without a leader, round out the strip's characters.
"Simple Beasts" will show interaction of the animals with man and his complex society. Hall said the strip will provide the real story on animal courtship, shedding and the mysteries of plastic garbage cans.
Hall says he is a nature lover and hopes that the ever-increasing interest in nature, wildlife and the environment will make "Simple Beasts" popular. A native of Indiana and graduate of Anderson College, Hall is a former magazine editor. He has done comic strips for his high school and college newspapers, as well as for the "The New Yorker" and "The Saturday Evening Post." He loves cycling, backpacking and canoeing and currently lives in Maryland.
The Deseret News editorial staff and readers evidently liked Simple Beasts very much, but sadly few other papers had shown interest. When the strip was cancelled, they ran the following farewell to it on December 26 1989:
The Deseret News is sad to report that the "Simple Beasts" comic strip will end after Saturday's, Dec. 30, installment.
At the request of its cartoonist, Doug Hall, "Simple Beasts" will be discontinued. "Phipps," a new comic strip from Newspaper Enterprise Association and United Media Syndicate, will replace "Beasts" on Jan. 1.
Hall said earlier in the month that he has been extremely disappointed that so many newspapers did not give "Woodruff" and friends a chance to catch on with readers and instead dropped his comic after only a few weeks or months - in favor of publishing other new comic strips.
Since only a few newspapers had retained "Beasts," Hall was likely receiving little money for his cartooning efforts and so the move was probably simply a financial decision on his part. (Each newspaper that publishes a comic strip pays a weekly fee to the syndicate that distributes it and the syndicate in turn, pays the cartoonist on the basis of how many newspapers carry the strip.)
"Simple Beasts" started April 4, 1988 and was a good family strip that had seemed to catch on with many Deseret News readers.
Labels: Obscurities
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Walter H. Gallaway
Strand Magazine
The 1880 census listed Gallaway and his parents, Samuel, a fur dealer, and Alice in Pendleton. The Indianapolis News, September 11, 1911, said Gallaway “at an early age was brought to Indianapolis by his parents. His mother, Mrs. Alice Gallaway, is a sister of Charles L. Henry, of Indianapolis. He was educated in the Indianapolis public schools and studied art in the old Indianapolis art school under William Forsyth. For a time he contributed drawings to The Indianapolis News, and later was taken on the regular art staff of the paper.”
The New York Herald, December 12, 1893, mentioned Gallaway in the article “Regarded as the Finest Edition of a Newspaper Ever Issued”.
Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 11, 1893.—The Christmas number of the Herald arrived here this morning and before noon it was impossible to buy a copy of the paper. Newsdealers had ordered an extra supply and were surprised when they found themselves without papers so early in the day.In the Strand Magazine, May 1903, an article about American humorous artists included Gallaway.
Louis Deschler, the newsdealer in the Bates House, said he never had such a run on Heralds. “I consider this the finest edition of a newspaper that has ever been issued,” said he, as he spread the pages of the last paper he had on the counter before him. “It is simply marvelous.”
The great feat of the Herald was discussed in all the local newspaper offices. Newspaper men all say that, considered in all its parts, it is the greatest edition an American newspaper has issued.
"Newspaper art has reached its highest standard in the Herald office,” said Walter Galloway, the artist, “It is as good as magazine work. It is wonderful what they can do in the Herald office.”
F. N. Hubbard, an artist who has had much experience on metropolitan newspapers, said:—“The Herald leads in all things. Its pictures are the best printed by any newspaper in the world. I supposed they had reached the highest standard one year ago. but there has been improvement over that great effort.”
Mr. Walter H. Gallaway, whose work appears regularly in Puck, humorously writes: “My ‘career’ is about as uninteresting as the fighter who was ‘down and out.’ I am thirty-one years old, and began to make drawings for publication, while on an Indianapolis newspaper, at the age of twenty. I did no humorous work until I came to New York in 1893, and began working at different periods on the World, Herald, and Journal. In ’97 I went to Puck, and since then I have contributed comic drawings regularly, with the occasional appearance in other papers of more serious stuff. I like best to do street urchins and farmers, and think that if any of my work has attracted attention it has been drawings of those characters.”Gallaway’s address, 49 West 24th Street, was listed in the illustrators category of the 1898 Trow’s (formerly Wilson’s) Business Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, City of New York.
In the 1900 census, artist Gallaway shared an apartment with fellow Hoosier artist, Frederick Yohn. They resided in Manhattan at 106–108 East 23rd Street. Gallaway’s address in the 1903 city directory was the same.
Gallaway was a subject in the Indiana Weekly, August 10, 1901.
Walter H. Gallaway, the illustrator, of New York, is a native of Indianapolis, and is one of the largest contributors to humorous papers in the United States. He has a keen sense of the ridiculous, and is, to his intimate friends, a born comedian. To all other he assumes an austerity that is non-breakable. His knowledge of current events and political personages are, as Charles Dickens expressed it, “consistent with getting up at eight, shaving close to quarter-past, breakfasting at half-past, and down to the city at nine.”The Indianapolis News said “Mr. Gallaway immediately became known as one of the best of magazine artists. His work in Indianapolis had been of a general nature, but when he went east he devoted himself largely to humorous drawings. Much of his work was seen in Life, and he was also employed on the art staff of Puck. During a visit to London he made a large number of interesting pictures of London street scenes.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 15, 1901, named Gallaway as one of the passengers aboard the steamship St. Paul who arrived at the Sandy Hook Lightship the day before, having departed from Southampton and Cherbourg.
It was on one of his semi occasional visits to Indianapolis that he was standing by the cigar-stand in the Denison hotel, when he was accosted by Albert J. Beveridge, who had just been elected United States Senator from Indiana.
“Why, how do you do, Mr. Gallaway?” said Mr. Beveridge briskly, as he grasped him by the hand till Gallaway cringed. “I am glad to see you back in the city again.”
“Why—why—who are you?” Gallaway stammered out.
“A. J. Beveridge is my name. Don’t you remember me?”
“Oh—yes!” replied Gallaway. “You’re running’ for something’, ain’t you?”
American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Gallaway produced three series for the New York Herald: Citizen Fixit (1903–1905), Absentminded Augie (1905) and Louis Laughs (1905). For the Boston Herald/W.E. Haskell, Gallway drew Was There Ever a Boy Like Barney Blue? (1906–1907).
In the 1905 New York state census, which was enumerated in June, Gallaway was married to Minnie and resided in New Rochelle, New York. The New York, New York, Extracted Marriage Index, at Ancestry.com, has a person named Walter Gallaway who married on October 24, 1905 in Manhattan.
The New York Herald, August 17, 1908, noted Gallaway’s appearance, “Mr. Walter Galloway [sic], a sketch artist, gave a chalk talk at the concert in Keith & Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theatre yesterday.”
Gallaway passed away September 7, 1911, at his home in Westport, Connecticut, according to the Indianapolis News which said “His sickness was caused by a disease of the spleen.” An obituary also appeared in the Indianapolis Star, September 12. Gallaway was laid to rest in Brooklyn, New York.
Further Reading
Biographical Sketches of Cartoonists & Illustrators in the Swann Collection of the Library of Congress
—Alex Jay
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Monday, August 06, 2018
Obscurity of the Day: Absentminded Augie
Walter H. Gallaway sure could draw well, but his grasp of basic writing, much less gag-writing, seemed a bit tenuous. When he contributed to the big humor magazines, Judge, Puck and Life, he was probably fed gags by the editors, but when he worked for the New York Herald 1903-1905 he seemed to be on his own, and boy does it show.
Gallaway's bread-and-butter feature at the Herald was Citizen Fixit, but today we'll take a look at Absentminded Augie, a short-lived feature that he offered from January 22 to May 21 1905*. As usual the drawing is a delight, and even the gag ideas are serviceable, but the captions? Oh my. The winner for plain awful is panel two of the second sample: "Hello pug -- this is the time I remembered you. Thought of it half-hour ago. My boxing lesson, says I, and I'm fit." I'm pretty sure I know what Gallaway is trying to get across there, but what he wrote sounds like something you'd hear in an English as a Second Language classroom.
These samples come from the Denver Republican, where type lice were a constant problem. They've eaten the captions for the lower half of sample 2, so allow me to translate:
Panel 4: Bing! Stars and Stripes!!!
Panel 5: I know you're sorry, but really you should'ndt (sic) hit quite so hard.
Panel 6: (8:30 PM) By Jove! I forgot all (illegible) Jack and the girls. ("about" would be the sensible word there, but that's definitely not what Gallaway wrote -- it looks something like "binke")
* Source: Ken Barker's New York Herald index.
Labels: Obscurities
