Thursday, February 27, 2020
Obscurity of the Day: Danny Dumm
Harold Russell had been working for the Cincinnati Enquirer for over a decade when, in his role as sports cartoonist, he got the idea to create a mascot. He came up with Danny Dumm, who was introduced to Enquirer readers on April 13 1926. Danny started out in the standard role of a cartoon mascot, making wry comments from the corner of the day's cartoon. It wasn't long, though, before Russell decided to expand his role. On June 3 1926 he placed his first horse track bet, and from then on Russell tracked his purse, just the way that Bud Fisher had in 1907 when he created A. Mutt for the San Francisco Chronicle. Starting on June 26, Danny Dumm was awarded a regular daily comic strip adjunct that ran underneath the sports cartoon on a daily basis.
Unlike Mutt, a pretty consistent loser at the track, Danny generally held his own, and often came up smelling like a rose. And he didn't just bet on horse races, but also at the dog track and perhaps other venues as well. His good luck may have not made him quite as sympathetic character as A. Mutt, but his bets certainly did impress the gamblers, who no doubt took Danny as something of a betting oracle.
Russell's creation attracted the interest of John Dille, who in 1928 advertised Danny Dumm as a daily strip syndicated through his National Newspaper Service. It is unknown if the offering was successful, though, as I've never seen the strip appearing anywhere outside the Enquirer.
The Danny Dumm strip took occasional breaks from Russell's cartoon, especially during prime sports season, but ran pretty consistently until March 12 1932. After that his gambling purse was chronicled in a panel adjunct to the main cartoon, and eventually was dropped altogether. The character Danny Dumm was then reduced back to the role of mascot and commenter on all things sports. Russell would eventually put in over 40 years as the Enquirer's sports cartoonist.
Labels: Obscurities
