Friday, May 17, 2024

 

Obscurity of the Day: Exploits of Mamma's Angel Pet

 

Norman Ritchie, who signed himself "Norman", even to the quotation marks, was the yeoman cartoonist of the Boston Post. His main duty at the paper was editorial cartoons, but when comics came into fashion his job description was broadened to include them as well. 

Ritchie would eventually become quite adept at producing funnies, but in the early days of his new job he was still feeling his way. Exploits of Mamma's Angel Pet was in this early period, and you'll find in the sample above a gag that perhaps had some possibilities, but Ritchie couldn't zero in well enough on the important facts of the case and the gag ends up falling flat. 

Exploits of Mamma's Angel Child ran in the Boston Post Sunday comics section from October 16 1904 to April 9 1905.

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# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM
Comments:
I'm puzzled by the term "song sheet." This usually means "sheet music," but to the kids it seems to mean something else. Did the theater put a group of singers behind a panel with holes in it and have them stick their heads through the holes to sing? I googled extensively but only came up with sheet-music related results.

Maybe the girl saw some sheet music with head shots of performers on the cover. Cutting up the screen makes it resemble the cover montage. Seems far-fetched.

Does anyone out there know what she's talking about?
# posted by Blogger Smurfswacker : 5/17/2024 5:38 PM
 
Smurfswacker, my take was the same as yours -- that the reference was to the head shots of the performers on sheet music, a not unusual design. But if so, Norman Ritchie really botches the gag by the mention of the matinee in panel three. Ritchie might have seen a vaudeville number that 'brought a song sheet to life'in that way, but unless it was a celebrated thing at the timne, he should have confined himself to the original source material. --Allan
# posted by Blogger Allan Holtz : 5/18/2024 6:40 AM
 
From The Monroe Journal of May 24, 1900 describing an "illustrated song sheet" on the stage:
"The 'song sheet' is a white drop on which is painted the musical staff of five lines, and is punctured with holes representing notes which give the music of the chorus. The drop serves as a background for the performer who is to sing the song. Through the holes in the canvas the heads of colored men with melodious voices protrude, and they sing the chorus in harmony."
# posted by Anonymous D.D.Degg : 5/18/2024 6:47 AM
 
Here are photos from The National Magazine, vol. 9, no. 2, Nov. 1898, pp. 148, 149, and 151, of the front and the back of a song sheet in action:
https://books.google.com/books?id=oYzNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA148

The article is "The Vogue of the Vaudeville", by B. F. Keith.
# posted by Anonymous Whygh : 5/18/2024 11:32 PM
 
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