Theatrical Cartoons: Cartoons Magazine Centennial 1913
As shown in these cartoons, 1913 was a year in which puritanical America looked at all forms of theater — Vaudeville and silent cinema — as sources of sin, moral decay, and danger. Above, from when America had a patchwork of local censor boards, controlling movies, books, publications, and shows could be shown or sold [...]
Them As Is Because, 1911 NYC Vaudeville 2: Local Vanity Cartoon Books, Part 7
It’s been awhile since we last focused a post on the Vanity Cartoon Books of the early 20th Century, in which local business people & others of import, paid to have themselves caricatured by local newspaper cartoonists. Being in such a book with other local leaders, was both a status symbol, as well as good [...]
Ernie McGee’s Vaudeville Comic Strip Blotters: Harry A. Meyers Agency, 1929
Above, from 1929, a comic strip blotter by artist Ernie McGee, advertising the Harry A. Meyers Entertainment Bureau, booking vaudeville acts. Ernie did “chalk talks” on stage for vaudeville, and apparently did a number of such blotters for different vaudeville agencies. Click here to see two more, plus learn a bunch more about Ernie, posted [...]
Focus on Cartoonists: Cartoons Magazine Centennial 1913
Before we reach month’s end, it’s time we review the Focus on Cartoonists pages from the March 1913 issue of Cartoons Magazine. Above, Robert Minor, Jr. writes about the cartoonist’s art. Click on the above & below pagees, to enlarge and read them. Below, Henry C. Williamson continues his series on 19th century cartooning, writing [...]
“Tattooed-Man” Series, 1884 + “Blaine Language”, 1888 (Part 3)
Above, The Honor of the Country in Danger, by artist Bernhard Gillam. The centerspread cartoon in the October 29th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine, this was part of the “Tattooed Man” Series, it is one of twenty-two cartoons which ran in Puck in 1884, satirizing the candidacy for President of Republican Maine Senator, James G. [...]
Them As Is Because, 1911 NYC Vaudeville; Local Vanity Cartoon Books, Part 4
First, I’ve posted a day late this week, to allow the report of Dwayne McDuffie’s unexpected death to sit at the top of the blog yesterday, daytime. I’ll always remember McDuffie, who I hadn’t previously met, for his stopping me at the San Diego Con while he was in the middle of promoting his newly [...]
Lookin’ ‘Em Over, Nashville 1920s Theatre Owners; Local Vanity Cartoon Books, Part 3
Continuing our series on theatrical cartoons, we return to Lookin’ ‘Em Over — a 1920s vanity cartoon book, wherein local business & community leaders appeared in city-based cartoon books in which they paid to be caricatured. Illustrated by Donald H. Grant, and published in Nashville, we showed a few sample pages from this book last [...]
B.F. Keith’s Theatre, 1911 Philadelphia Vaudeville
Next in our series on theatrical cartoons, we feature a small sampling of pages extracted from a souvenir booklet (given away? sold?) in 1911, in the B.F. Keith’s Philadelphia theatre. Benjamin Franklin Keith owned a chain of theatres in the northeast U.S., in which he featured a travelling circuit of vaudeville acts. Artist Charles Bell [...]
Jack Ward’s “The High-Kicking Kellys”, 1926 Vaudeville
Click on the above & below pictures, to open larger versions. This week — and for the next several weeks — I’m engaged in an activity which makes many book/comics collectors cringe, and question their sanity in having accumulated such a quantity of stuff (weighing one down, like the chains gathered by the ghost of [...]
Alexandre Dumas, père and Alexander Dumas, fils by André Gill
208 years ago today, on July 24, 1802, Alexandre Dumas was born to a poor family in Northern France. His grandfather was a member of the French aristocracy and his grandmother was a former slave from Haiti. His father was a distinguished general who served under (and later fell out of favor with) Napoleon I. [...]
