Stripper's Guide

June 15, 1902 -- Unsigned but by L. de B. July 31 1904 -- signed by F. Neydhart

May 21 1905 -- left signed F. Neydhart, right by "L. de B." July 9 1905 -- by Frank Nankivell

June 4 1905 -- by Frank Nankivell

June 24 1906 -- signed Ryder Gifford

If you don't really care about researcher shoptalk, jump down to Part II.

Part I -- This feature is a case study in how it is darn near impossible to get your newspaper indexes absolutely correct, even when you are sitting in a research library with a full set of neatly organized microfilm reels at your side. 

When Ken Barker documented this New York Herald feature he got the start and end dates wrong, did not cite a creator, and offered only two of the four titles under which it ran. Why? Well, those multiple titles are the first problem; when cartoonists cannot decide on a consistent title, the poor researcher is already at a disadvantage. Add in that this feature often ran with no title at all (at least 50% of the time is my estimate) and the poor researcher is pretty badly outmatched. 

All these problems aside, the researcher can often overcome them all if the feature has a continuing cast of characters. Just look for the characters, and don't worry about the ever-changing title. Unfortunately tis feature did not have running characters - -- it merely consists of gag cartoons featuring generic pretty girls. 

Failing all that, if the creator is consistent, and better yet, takes a byline, you can still pull some semblance of order out of the chaos. This feature went through four different hands, and never carried a byline. So it pretty well represents the newspaper indexer's worst nightmare, an almost untrackable feature. Don't get me wrong, though. If a researcher had unlimited time to go back and pore over the same New York Herald microfilm multiple times, each time with the benefit of having learned something more about the feature's wild and wooly ways, it could be done.

When I wrote the index entry for this feature for my book I recognized that it ran longer than Barker cited, and I added some but not all of the creator information he missed. Most of the creators signed their names rather illegibly, and I imagine Barker just threw up his hands after endless staring at the blurry microfilm trying to tease the information out of it. I am lucky enough to have a small collection of tearsheets of the strip, where the signatures are a bit easier to suss out when a bunch of them are compared side by side. 

My book listing, though, is still woefully incomplete. And guess what -- this post is still not going to cross all the T's and dot all the I's. But between my own collection, the information I found from Ohio State University, and a digitized paper online that ran the Herald's feature for awhile, this is the best I can do right now. If someday the New York Herald is digitized by a proper website*, and the Sunday comics made it to the microfilm consistently (another big if), I'll nail this puppy down, I swear. 

Part II -- In the 1900s it was not at all unusual to have one-shot material in your comic section, and it wasn't unusual for a group of gag cartoons covering the same subject (say, baseball or shopping or whatever) to be run together. So when the New York Herald ran an untitled gag cartoon featuring very well-drawn voluptuous women on April 13 1902**, the newspaper reader wouldn't have particularly expected to start seeing the feature practically every week thereafter. The Herald did continue the feature, though, and the reader would have become accustomed to seeing the same artist represented each week, sporting the scrawled signature that I can best identify only as something like "L. de B." On May 25 1902 the feature first gained its original sometimes title, Those Herald Square Girls.

On September 7 1902***, the feature gained a new title, Woman's Wit and Feminine Fancy, and was promoted to a full page of cartoons. The full page would last through the end of the year, but in 1903 the feature would more often be cut back to the size it pretty much ran from then on, between a third and a half page. During this later period,that could consist of three or four cartoons, and often they were artfully arranged on a full page, where the rest of the space was taken up by text gags.

1903 also saw a new artist on the feature; someone who signed themselves F. Neydhart began drawing the Herald's resident beauties on April 12***. Neydhart had a very different style than "L. de B.", but they were both quite accomplished in penning pretty young things for the Sunday comics section. Just before Neydhart took over the reins, the title was also cut back to the simpler Feminine Fancy on March 29.

Neydhart decided to change the title again, to Fancies of the Fair, in mid-1904.  For the longest time I thought the cartoons were supposed to occur on a fairgrounds, and I wondered whether there was a World's Fair in New York at the time (without bothering to actually check, of course). It only took a few decades before I realized that "fair" referred, of course, to the fair sex. Duh.

Neydhart had the reins for about a year and a half, bowing out on December 11 1904 only to be replaced by the artist he had originally supplanted, "L. de B." As you can see in the samples above, though, Neydhart reappeared at least once later; good thing since I had none of his earlier work in my collection to show you. "L. de B" was not back for the long haul, though, and was replaced by Frank Nankivell on June 4 1905. 

I've never been too taken with Nankivell's work, always felt his illustrations were a bit fussy and overdone, but he really shone on this feature, turning out some of the best work of his life, very crisp and decorative, if still a tad stiff. Nankivell put another personal stamp on the feature by renaming it Feminine Fancies starting in late 1905 or early 1906.

Nankivell spent less than a year on the feature, though, ending his run on February 11 1906****. He was replaced by the final artist on the feature, someone whose signature seems to be "G. Ryder." This artist has now been IDed by Sara Duke as Ryder Gifford. Gifford's work was absolutely stunning, the greatest in a fine parade of cartoonist-illustrators on the feature. How he has escaped the remembrance of illustration lovers I can't imagine. Ryder's term on the feature was unfortunely short, and apparently no one in the Herald's stable was willing to follow him/her. Feminine Fancies ended on November 18 1906****.

Any further information, including date corrections and artist IDs, are of course eagerly sought.

~~~~~~

* The Old Fulton Postcards website has the paper, but their absurdly bad and impressively unfriendly interface makes it impossible to find the material. Buddy, pass your digital material onto someone who can make it accessible, please!

** Source: Ohio State University New York Herald archives.

*** Source: Los Angeles Herald, adjusted back by a week for running late.

**** Source: Houston Post.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM