GUMP DEFEATS TRUMAN

Last week, we saw cartoon character Andy Gump elected to Congress in 1922 as an Independent candidate by a razor-thin margin over his Republican opponent, Sylvester Skink.

You didn't think that would be the end of the story, did you?

The Gumps by Sidney Smith, in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 17, 1922

Before Andy Gump came along, Sidney Smith had a daily cartoon in the Chicago Tribune called "Old Doc Yak," about a talking goat and his family. Doc Yak had a house, drove a car, and did all sorts of non-goat things, until at some point, Tribune editor-cum-publisher Joseph Patterson suggested to Smith that he should draw a cartoon about an Everyman type character living an ordinary life with an ordinary wife. The sort of person Patterson called a "gump."

So, in 1917, Old Doc Yak sold the house and the car to newcomer Andy Gump, a character patterned after an acquaintance of Smith's brother named Andy Wheat, whose lower jaw had been removed due to an infection that developed from a tooth extraction.

Thus was a marketing powerhouse born. By 1922, The Gumps were appearing in animated short films in theaters, and the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News were syndicating the comic strip from coast to coast. Universal Pictures began producing two-reel movies of the Gumps in 1923, starring ex-Keystone Cop Joe Murphy as Andy and Fay Tancher as wife Minerva.

Andy Wheat, rather than being upset by Smith's caricature of him, even had his name legally changed to Andy Gump.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 20, 1922

You should, however, see the incongruity of having common Everygump Andy Gump going to Washington. The Gumps was a continuity strip, not a one-off movie like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; how was Andy Gump to maintain what made him appealing in the first place in the halls of Congress?

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 22, 1922

So, inevitably, after some initially encouraging returns, the recount turned in Sylvester Skink's favor. And there was nothing Gump could do to stop the steal.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 23, 1922

One peculiar detail about this entire story line is that at no point did Sidney Smith allow for there to be a Democratic candidate in the race. That is only natural at this point after Election Day, having put Messrs. Gump and Skink within a few dozen votes of each other. But I find no mention of a Democrat running for Congress in Gump's district even before Election Day, 

Gump would have been prevented from running as a Democrat because the publishers of the Chicago Tribune were committed Republican loyalists; a Democratic hero on the pages owned by Joseph Patterson and Col. Robert McCormick was simply out of the question. Besides, casting Andy Gump as an Independent was more true to his origin as a typical, everyday, regular fella, and certainly not a partisan hack.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 27, 1922 

The lure of public office would nevertheless prove irresistible to Mr. Andrew Gump, his promises to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 28, 1922

In two years, partisan hack or no, he would throw his hat into the presidential ring — and continue to do so again and again election cycle after election cycle...

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 29, 1922

... setting a precedent for future comic strip characters from Pogo Possum to Snoopy to Zippy the Pinhead.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 30, 1922