Wednesday, August 07, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Jefferson Machamer
1928
Thomas Jefferson Machamer was born on July 5, 1898, in Holdredge, Nebraska, according to his World War I and II draft cards. The 1900 United States census recorded the same month and year. His birth year was in error on a 1931 passenger list (1889), the Social Security Death Index (1900) and California Death Index (1901).
In 1900, Machamer was third son of Daniel and Lillie. The family resided in Holdrege, Nebraska. His father was a printer.
1910 census counted the Machmers, which included a daughter, in Fairbury, Nebraska at 203 West 4th Street.
According to the 1915 Kansas state census, the Machamer family of five lived in Belleville.
On September 7, 1918, Machamer signed his World War I draft card. He was a cartoonist at the Kansas City Star. Machamer’s description was medium height and build with gray eyes and dark hair.
The 1920 census said Machamer was an artist, a self-employed painter. He was one of four people staying at 125 East 34th Street in Manhattan, New York City.
From 1921 to 1922, Machamer was a regular contributor to the New York Tribune. The Metropolitan Newspaper Service hired Machamer to illustrate stories.
Machamer produced several comics series including covers, panels and strips. American Newspaper Comics (2012) said East Side, West Side, All Around the Town was a weekly panel, from December 25, 1921 to August 5, 1923, from the New York Tribune. King Features Syndicate’s Petting Patty ran from April 16, 1928 to October 5, 1930. Its topper, Past Performances, appeared in January 1929 to 1930. Adventures of Patty was a Sunday strip from September 30 to November 11, 1928. Newspaper Feature Service syndicated Winky’s Week-ends from July 26 to September 27, 1931. Machamer drew Gags and Gals beginning in 1932 to December 27, 1936 and February 14, 1937 to February 6, 1938. James Trembath contributed from January 3, to February 7, 1937. The toppers were Bubbling Bill, and Simple Sylvia. Nifties was produced in 1937 for the McNaught Syndicate. From the same syndicate was Hollywood Husband, from January 29 to October 27, 1940. Machamer was one of many artist who did Wheaties cereal cartoon panels from 1944 to 1946. Machamer did the daily panel, Today’s Laugh, from September 6, 1947 to 1960, for the Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News Syndicate.
Machamer illustrated many covers for Judge and College Humor magazines.
According to the New York Evening Journal, April 12, 1928, Machamer married Grayce Mack in 1922. In April 1928, she left him to marry eighteen-year-old Edward Tarrant of San Antonio, Texas. Machamer consented to the divorce but wanted their dog back. The New York Evening Journal, April 8, 1929, said the couple reunited and married in Port Chester, New York (April 4, 1929, New York State Marriage Index). Years later, they divorced again.
In the 1930 census, Machamer, his wife, sister-in-law and a servant were in Sands Point, Nassau County, New York on Barkers Point Road.
On January 26, 1931, Machamer, aboard the ship Governor Cobb, arrived at Key West, Florida. The purpose of the trip is not known.
Machamer was an avid and competitive golfer who participated in the Artists and Writers tournaments.
Machamer and Pauline Moore’s marriage was reported in the Harrisburg Sunday Courier (Pennsylvania), May 24, 1936.
Miss Pauline Moore Marries N. Y. ArtistMiss Pauline Love Moore, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Moore, became the bride of Jefferson Machamer, New York artist, this week at the Methodist Church at Westminster, in the presence of the immediate families.The pair left after the ceremony for a trip through the West, and after October they will reside in New York. Mrs. Machamer is a graduate of the William Penn High School and has played in a number of New York theatrical productions. Recently she has been posing for magazine covers. Her husband contributes comic strips to magazines and newspapers.
In the second half of the 1930s Machamer wrote and appeared in several short films produced by Educational Pictures.
Machamer moved to California. He was listed in the 1938 Beverly Hills, California city directory at 143 1/2 South Beverly Drive.
The 1940 census counted him, his wife and two daughters (one born in Maryland, the other in California) in Los Angeles at 2203 Camden Avenue. Machamer had two years of college.
The Greensboro Daily News (North Carolina), November 9, 1941, reported Machamer’s wife, Pauline, and daughters’ visit. Pauline attended public schools in Greensboro where some of her relatives reside. Machamer joined them later. The Greensboro Record, August 13, 1942, reported the canteen set up by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
... Posters for the canteens are being made and donated by Jefferson Machamer, well-known cartoonist, who is now living on the Huffine Mill road.
On February 16, 1942, Machamer signed his World War II draft card. His address was Route #5, Greensboro, Guilford, North Carolina. His description was five feet eleven-and-a-half inches, 175 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.
Collier’s, December 11, 1943, said
Jefferson Machamer says too many people ask: “How do you ever get ideas for cartoons?” (Ideas like the one on page 50.) And he gives an answer. He says: “Well, an idea might bloom this way: Business demands me in Washington, D. C., for a few days and I ask my wife to help pack a bag.“ ‘A bag?’ she stonies. ‘You’d better put a couple of windows in our steamer trunk and let me makeup a bed in it and-’“ ‘Quiet!’ I yell, race for the drawing board and rough out a businessman starting for Washington with a combination trailer trunk. Which bears out advice Clare Briggs once gave me. ‘Listen to or watch anyone in the world for ten minutes, and they’ll say or do something funny enough to draw!’ ”Machamer turned to painting after he wrote (and starred in) eight two-reel comedies for 20th Century-Fox. “I painted 60 oil and pastel masterpieces in three months at Los Angeles,” he says, “and had a one-man show, but he didn’t buy anything. . .“Am now living on a wonderful old North Carolina plantation which we named Four Chimneys. It has four coal-burning fireplaces, three coal-burning stoves and a coal-burning furnace. I have to tend all and sometimes I just don’t know whom I agree with, Harold Ickes or John L. Lewis!”
The Greensboro Record, November 11, 1946, said Pauline was dismantling the farm and packing her husband’s art supplies for their return to Santa Monica.
In 1947, Macahamer started his art school. He advertised in the Los Angeles Times.
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4/20/1947
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The 1947 Santa Monica city directory listed Machamer at 409 Santa Monica Boulevard in room 202.
In 1950, Machamer, his wife, two daughters and son, were living in Santa Monica at 1315 23rd Street, apartment C. He was an art teacher at a government school.
Machamer did a cartoon for the Travelers Safety Service that appeared in the The Republican (Oakland, Maryland), August 12, 1954.
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Machamer passed away on August 15, 1960, in Santa Monica. Obituaries appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times on August 17, 1960.
Further Reading and Viewing
The Hearst Sunday Newspaper Magazine Cover Indexes Part 2: The 1930s ‘Continuing Series’ Series
The Hearst Sunday Newspaper Magazine Cover Indexes Part 6: The Cover Series of Longer Stories (thru 1929)
Figure Quarterly, Volume 11, selected pages From Laugh and Draw with Machamer (1946)
Selected Judge Covers: April 9, 1927; August 6, 1927; October 1, 1927; November 5, 1927; December 10, 1927; January 14, 1928; February 11, 1928; March 10, 1928; April 14, 1928; August 4, 1928; November 10, 1928; February 16, 1929; April 6, 1929; May 4, 1929; June 1, 1929
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
