We started last week's look at Christmas cartoons from 1921 with examples from Germany. This week's cartoons are from the United States, but we'll start with this one about Germany.
 |
| "Eine Christmas Fantasy" by Ellison Hoover in Life magazine, Dec. 22, 1921 |
By and large, the American cartoons are distinguished from the German ones by a Yankee sense of humor rather than a lot of Teutonic severity.
Not that the Americans couldn't be serious. The daily one-column-inch front page cartoon on the Christmas Day edition of Brooklyn Daily Eagle (often by editorial page cartoonist Nelson Harding, but I don't find his initials on this one) references the Washington Naval Conference negotiating international arms control, but it could be equally a propos today for different reasons.
 |
| "Here And Now" in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 25, 1921 |
Eat your heart out, Massie and Boebert!
 |
| "The Profiteer's Son..." in Life Magazine, Dec. 22, 1921 |
As in Germany, profiteers were a major target of American cartoonists.
I have not been able to identify this cartoonist — that worm-like figure behind Junior Profiteer is the cartoonist's signature, in case any of you reading this are familiar with him or her.
 |
| "Christmas for Two" by John Baer, ca. Dec. 23, 1921 |
Union cartoonist and former Congressman John Baer echoes the previous cartoonist's sentiments in this bleak holiday offering.
 |
| "Merry Christmas" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Dec. 24, 1921 |
Republican cheerleader Dorman H. Smith chose to accentuate the positive in his Christmas cartoon. (I'd note that he was celebrating the naval holiday a bit early.)
 |
| "Aw, You Can't Fool Me" by H.T. Webster in Life magazine, Dec. 22, 1921 |
Harold Webster, whose syndicated newspaper cartoons hardly ever touched on politics, here takes on the Harding administration's proposed alternative to Wilson's League of Nations, and anti-League Republican Senator William Borah of Idaho.
 |
| "Which Shall Win?" by Louis Raemaekers in Life magazine, Dec. 29, 1921 |
Some of the serious stuff, however, had to be imported. Dutch cartoonist Louis Raemaekers earned his fame drawing scathing cartoons against the Kaiser's Germany. Here his target, judging from the costumes, is further east.
But today is Christmas, dammit, so let's just cut to the merriment and jollity.
 |
| "Jimminy Christmus" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Dec. 24, 1921 |
Well, lookie here. At least one of the items on Jim's Christmas wish list will warm the cockles of Massie, Boebert, and the rest of the ammosexual crowd.
 |
| "Jerry on the Job" by Walter Hoban, Dec. 24, 1921 |
Children's hopes for Christmas bounty have long been an evergreen topic for cartoonists. Walter Hoban's comic strip, "Jerry on the Job," stars this little boy who has a difficult-to-determine job at an office where nobody has heard of child labor laws.
Jerry looks to me to be a few years younger than Webster's Jimmy; both are old enough to have figured out where Santa's gifts really come from.
 |
| "Smilin' Through" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 25, 1921 |
Other cartoonists used their Christmas Day space to remind readers of the spirit of the season.
 |
| "The Merry Christmas Spirit" by Rae Irvin in Life magazine, Dec. 8, 1921 |
 |
| "Yule Log Tales" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Dec. 26, 1921 |
Daily Cartoonist relayed the announcement this week that Gannett newspapers would not print editions on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday this week or next, a surprisingly long vacation in the news biz. Skipping a Christmas Day edition used to be quite common, particularly for afternoon newspapers; I'm not finding any three-day hiatuses (hiati? Naah.) in 1921, however.
 |
| Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Sunday Star, Dec. 25, 1921 |
Christmas Day, 1921, was a Sunday, so some of the evening papers put out their regular Sunday editions. Others took Monday off instead.
 |
| "An Empty Mask Without Them" by Harry Murphy for Star Company, ca. Dec. 24, 1921 |
Depriving the kiddies of their Sunday funnies on Christmas, after all, would have been positively Grinchy!
 |
| "From the Evening World" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, Dec. 24, 1921 |
No comments:
Post a Comment