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William Donahey's very long-running Sunday page, The Teenie Weenies, would have been a half-century gold medalist except that it went on hiatus for two long spells, 1924-33 and 1935-41. But having debuted in 1914, when it ended on February 15 1970 the kiddies who read it from the start were now at retirement age.
Donahey died on February 1 1970 at age 87, and the final Sunday page was run on February 15. According to his obituary in the New York Times, Donahey penned this final installment in November 1969, planning to retire. Sadly he offered no farewell in that Sunday's episode, so it was a nice touch that the Chicago Tribune added the notice of his passing below the final episode.
Fun Fact: The Teenie Weenies cut-out characters were a standard feature of the Sunday page in its final run, 1941 to 1970. If you had cut out the character each week you would have had quite a tableau to organize for display -- there would have been 1496 little standing characters total.
The Teeny Weenies were a favorite of my Mother, and read Donahey's novelisations of them, or rather, illustrated story books about them, with such titles as "The Teeny Weenies Under the Rose Bush"(but there was nothing Sub Rosa going on). Sorry about that. But I ask a question, Why did he quit the series for those nine and then six year periods?
ReplyDeleteDonahey disliked using his Teenie Weenie characters in comic strips (as opposed to illustrated stories), and when the Trib put the screws to him he did it as a strip under duress. In 1924 when he decided to end it, he also thought he was going to get rich off of books and products marketed with the characters, which did not come to pass.
ReplyDeleteThe short middle run in 1933-34 (a strip) I think was done because he needed the money, and as soon as his contract was over he dropped it again.
Only in 1941, when the Trib decided he could do it the way he liked, did he bring it back for the third and final long run.
--Allan