Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Virginia Huget
Virginia Huget was born Virginia Dilliard Clark on December 22, 1899, in Dallas, Texas. Her birth name was recorded on her marriage license and at Find a Grave which had her birthplace.
In the 1900 United States Census, Huget was the youngest of three children born to William and Sarah. They lived in Dallas at 211 Park Street. Her father was a civil engineer.
The 1910 census counted the family twice. Their Dallas address was 161 Lear Street, and their Jackson, Texas home was on Stewart Street. Her mother's name was recorded as Sadie and her father worked for the railroad. During this decade, it appeared her father passed away.
A profile in Editor & Publisher, November 18, 1944, said
... The Southern-born artist started to work first on the New Orleans Item. She was a cousin of the managing editor. “It was probably the only reason I got the job,” she laughed, adding that she was 16 and did fashion and advertising sketches. Next she sketched for the Maison Blanche.At 17 she was society editor of the Dallas Journal and from her wise vantage wrote a lonely hearts column. After attending the Chicago Art Institute and flirting with the stage, she “became completely contented” with free lance sketching …
Huget, her mother, youngest brother, older sister and brother-in-law lived in Dallas at 1412 Sanger Avenue, according to the 1920 census.
On January 15, 1923, Huget married Coon Williams Hudzietz in Texas.
A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993) said
…she married her childhood sweetheart, Coon Williams Hudzietz, and moved to Chicago, where she attended the Art Institute. The name Hudzietz was pronounced Huget, so in 1926, when the artist sold her first strip, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, to the Bell syndicate, it was natural that she signed it not with a suspiciously ‘foreign’ name that was difficult to pronounce, but with the glamorous ‘French-sounding’ Huget.”
The Fourth Estate, June 5, 1926, said
The Bell Syndicate is distributing a comic strip based on the adventures of Lorelei and Dorothy, the two super gold-diggers whose adventures in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the best seller by Anita Loos, have aroused the mirth of the nation. Miss Loos has provided an entertaining scenario for the girls, and the drawings will be done by Virginia Huget, a fashion drawing expert.
American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Huget drew the Bell Syndicate strip from April to July 24, 1926. Phil Cook continued the strip from July 26 to September 25, 1936.
The Fourth Estate, July 24, 1926, identified Huget’s next project.
“You Said It, Marceline”!Premier Syndicate announces that, beginning with the August 2nd release, the “You Said It, Marceline!” daily feature will also be available with illustrations by Virginia Huget, whose piquant Jazz Age comic drawings are popular art sensations of the year.The column will be syndicated in a 6 column, 4 panel illustrated form. Virginia Huget’s drawings will appear in strip.This feature will also continue in unillustrated form, but the majority of newspapers that publish, “Marceline” have already applied for the Huget illustration service.
[Allan chimes in -- I have yet to find this illustrated version of Marceline d'Alroy's column].
Huget’s whereabouts was noted in Editor & Publisher, December 18, 1926.
Virginia Huget, illustrator of newspaper features, is visiting New York City for a few weeks before returning to her home in Fort Worth, Tex. She is now drawing the humorous strip for “You Said It, Marceline!” column by Marceline d’Alroy, handled by Premier Syndicate of New York.
Huget’s next assignment was reported in Editor & Publisher, October 22, 1927.
Miss Virginia Huget, Texas girl who formerly illustrated the Anita Loos strip, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” and later the fashion strip, “You Said It Marceline!” for the King Features Syndicate, is now illustrating “Adventurous Anne,” new cover page feature to be offered soon by King.
In the late 1920s, Huget produced several strips including Babs in Society (1927), Merry Mary (1927), Miss Aladdin (1929; written by J. Kenneth Jones), and Double Dora (1929).
The 1930 census recorded Huget and her family in New York City at 1046 Madison Avenue. She was a commercial artist and her husband was a mechanical engineer. Their 16-month old daughter was born in Texas.
The family settled in New Rochelle, New York. The 1931 city directory listed Huget as “Virginia C Hudzietz” at 716 Webster Avenue.
During the 1930s, Huget newspaper series included Campus Capers (1930) and Hollywoodn’t (1935). She illustrated stories of fiction that were distributed by the Bell Syndicate.
“Careful Young Man Evening”
Recorder (Amsterdam, NY) 6/15/1934
“Glorious Buccaneer Evening”, Recorder (Amsterdam, NY) 8/11/1934
Her illustrations were published in the Monroe Morning World (Louisiana), September 9, 1934 and November 18, 1934.
Huget provided the illustrated for the books, Still More Boners (1931) and Prize Boners for 1932.
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Huget drew the advertising strip Peggy Lux for art director Paul Berdanier of the advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson and its client Lever Brothers. The strip won an award in the Art Directors’ show according to the April 20, 1935 issues of Advertising Age and Editor & Publisher. Editor & Publisher, November 18, 1944, said “for four years she did the Peggy Lux drawings which in 1937 won a national advertising award.”
American Newspaper Comics said Huget ghosted Percy Crosby’s Skippy, in 1937, for King Features Syndicate.
The 1940 census said Huget, her husband and three children resided in Kensington, Nassau County, New York, at 50 Nassau Road. She was an advertising artist who earned $3,380 in 1939.
According to American Newspaper Comics, Huget, as Virginia Clark, continued Don Flowers’ Oh, Diana! from September 27, 1943 to November 27, 1946. The Comics (1991) by Coulton Waugh said
... Several artists have handled the latter strip since, among whom are Bill Champs and, lately, Virginia Clark, who has proved that a woman cartoonist can turn in an excellent job. Her style is different from that of Flowers, relying less on pure line, but it has its own vivacity.
Editor & Publisher, November 10, 1945, published photographs and an article about its party for women comic artists Huget/Virginia Clark, Tarpé Mills, Dale Messick, Hilda Terry, Edwina Dumm and Odin Burvik the wife of Coulton Waugh.
Huget’s mother passed away in 1948. The May 5, 1948 Dallas Morning News named the survivors and said Huget lived in Great Neck, New York.
The 1950 census counted Huget, her husband, daughter and brother, Solomon, in Greenwich, Connecticut on Clapboard Ridge Road.
Huget’s husband passed away in August 2, 1968 in Rye, New York.
In 1970 Huget remarried to Francis I. Maslin in Manhattan, New York City.
Huget passed away on June 27, 1991 in Columbia, South Carolina. The Comics Buyer’s Guide #966, May 22, 1992, published an obituary.
Further Reading and Viewing
Comics Buyer’s Guide #899, February 8, 1991
Huget (Hudzietz, Virginia Dillard Clark) was a member of the Vermont Society of Colonial Dames.
(An earlier profile was posted in 2011.)
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
