VISITING KING FEATURES' ALL-STARS, 1928

 

MAJOR CARTOONISTS GATHER FOR GROUP PHOTO, AND ALMOST SMILE -- 1928

by Rick Marschall

Well, I am being a little sarcastic about America's most prominent fun-makers of the day displaying lassitude, if not boredom. This is a snapshot, and perhaps a moment later they all beamed from ear to ear. Plus, it was while Prohibition still in effect, and newspapermen never "wet their whistles" during the Dry Era.

Seriously, this moment-in-time is interesting glimpse into the people and activities of comics' Golden Age. I have amassed a huge collection of cartoonists' photos -- I mean candids and informal shots; not promotional portraits -- and intend to fashion a History of Comics viewed "behind the drawing board," weaving the growth of the business through anecdotes and private tales. This will unfold in Yesterday's Papers and in NEMO Magazine, maybe into book form. My friends Ivan Briggs and Jim Engel, fellow collectors of this specialized genre, have valuably pledged their help.

The occasion of this jolly gathering was related to the "Just Kids Safety Club," a feel-good promotion built around Ad Carter's eponymous strip. It promoted, obviously, safety -- like encouraging young readers to form clubs and pledge not to walk in front of moving trucks. It promoted, collaterally, the Just Kids comic strip. It lives today, among collectors, by the dozens of character-themed pinbacks that subscribing newspapers distributed to kiddies.

We could run the photo and list the names of the King Features artists and executives; but I will identify the guys, too, by their creations or credentials. Usually I am good at this, but there is one face I cannot place. I will correct in the future when my memory returns. (The photo comes from the collection of my late friend Mary Joe Connolly, daughter of the KFS president.)

I am guessing the photo was taken in 1928. All the guys are wearing Just Kids buttons in their lapels... the "Safety" campaign lasted from 1928 to about 1931... some of these cartoonists were just "hitting" at King Features (Chic Young); some would be leaving (Gene Carr); one was recently hired (Connolly, succeeding Moe Koenigsberg). After 1930, there would have been other faces. 

I will provide the guys' most prominent strip or job, not their full biographies. Left to right, standing: Jimmy Murphy (Toots and Casper); Jack Callahan (Freddy the Sheik); Chic Young (Dumb Dora at the time); Rube Goldberg; Russ Westover (Tillie the Toiler); Harry Hershfield (Abie the Agent); H H Knerr (The Katzenjammer Kids).

In the center, at a slight angle, Ad Carter himself. His role in the promotion included appearances at local newspapers. My own mentor as a cartoonist was Harry Neigher who was on the staff of the Hearst paper in Albany, the Times Union. He told me stories of being assigned the task of shepherding Carter through his appearances and propping him up when asked to draw sketches for the kiddies. (Despite Prohibition, his condition was common among cartoonista and newspapermen of the era.)

Continuing: J T Gortatowski (Hearst executive; head of the Newspaper Feature Service; connected to King Features; later an associate of John Wheeler); then... the manager of the hotel where this event was held (this according to Mary Joe Connolly); Ed Verdier (Little Annie Rooney, which he he drew only into July of 1929, another clue that this photo was taken before then); [unknown to me]; and Joseph V Connolly himself. When Koenigsberg was fired, partly for accepting a medal from the French government, Connolly was hired from the New Haven Register and immediately initiated promotions like the Banshees extravaganzas during American Newspaper Publishers' annual conventions. He guided Blondie through its early years, including the ideas of her marriage to Dagwood and a readers' contest to name their baby. And the Just Kids Safety Club was his brainchild.

Seated, left to right: Guy Viskniskki (Hearst executive, former colleague of John Wheeler as syndication pioneer); Walter Hoban (Jerry On the Job); George McManus (Bringing Up Father); T E Powers (editorial cartoons); Gene Carr (creator of dozens of strips for many newspapers and syndicates since ca. 1902, at the time drawing a daily-strip incarnation of his classic Lady Bountiful).

Speaking personally, among the carr-toonists shown here I have a couple connections. A classmate in first grade was a granddaughter of Gene Carr, and one day her mother brought a scrapbook of his work to class (the cartoonist recently had died). I met John Wheeler, mentioned here, as well as Joe Connolly; I acquired archival material from the widow and daughter, respectively, of these giants of journalism. And I many times met with Rube Goldberg and, especially, Harry Hershfield, when I was young.

A few of the pinbacks issued as promotions in the Just Kids Safety Club campaign. Children actually were encouraged, through local newspapers, to form clubs for which membership certificates and rules sheets were printed. In the strip itself, a storyline featured the character Mush Stebbins almost being injured on a city street.