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Cartoonists Come to Vaudeville!
The National Vaudeville Artists (NVA) was a union organized by Edward Albee, the most powerful man in theatre and vaudeville during the first quarter of the 20th century. He was also the adoptive grandfather of the playwright Edward Albee. Benjamin Franklin Keith and Albee formed the Vaudeville Managers Association (VMA) in 1900 as a way of ending bidding for popular vaudeville acts, as well as eliminating competition between managers for the same audiences. The VMA had a stranglehold on the industry, which resulted in the formation of the White Rats, an organization of performers who went on strike to abolish some of the VMA’s dictates. The group was granted a…
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George Clark’s WWII Neighbors
I’ve written about George Clark’s wonderful artwork previously, in my long-defunct Inkmunk blog. Clark remains one of the great cartoonists of the mid-20th century. He also remains a woefully underrated great cartoonist. There are a host of reasons why an artist falls into the underrated category. In short, Clark’s two main daily features, Side Glances (1928-1939) and The Neighbors (1939-1974), did not have reoccurring characters, which can result in less of a connection with the audience who never has a chance to develop an ongoing relationship with any specific characters. We’ve seen a similar situation with TAD Dorgan’s Indoor Sports and Outdoor Sports panels, as well as many of Clare…
Odd thoughts, observations, meditations and meanderings about comic, cartoon and illustration artwork
