The Gumps is a comic strip about a middle-class family. It was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917, until October 17, 1959.
74-485: According to a 1937 issue of Life , The Gumps was inspired by Andy Wheat, a real-life person Smith met through his brother. "Born forty-seven years ago [i.e., in 1890] in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi , Andy Wheat acquired his unusual physiognomy as the result of an infection following the extraction of a tooth, which eventually necessitated the removal of his entire lower jaw. Through Dr. Thomas Smith of Bloomingdale, Illinois ,
148-454: A 75% interest in the magazine with the remaining 25% held by Miller. Both men retained their holdings until their deaths. Miller served as secretary-treasurer of the magazine and managed the business side of the operation. Mitchell, a 37-year-old illustrator who used a $ 10,000 inheritance to invest in the weekly magazine, served as its publisher. He also created the first Life name-plate with cupids as mascots and later on, drew its masthead of
222-581: A campaign to push the U.S. into the war. Gibson drew the Kaiser as a bloody madman, insulting Uncle Sam , sneering at crippled soldiers, and shooting Red Cross nurses. Following Mitchell's death in 1918, Gibson bought the magazine for $ 1 million. A little more than three years after purchasing Life , Gibson quit and turned the property over to publisher Clair Maxwell and treasurer Henry Richter. In 1920, Gibson had selected former Vanity Fair staffer Robert E. Sherwood as editor. A WWI veteran and member of
296-743: A dentist and a brother of Sidney Smith, Wheat met the cartoonist, who saw in him an ideal comic character. Wheat subsequently had his surname legally changed to "Gump" to match the cartoon character. His wife's name is Min, and he has two children, Chester and Goliath, now living in San Francisco, and an Uncle Bim who lives in Georgia. Gump's home is in Tucson, Arizona , but he also has a farm near his birthplace in Mississippi." The Gumps were utterly ordinary: chinless, bombastic blowhard Andy Gump (short for Andrew), who
370-455: A distracted world that does not know which way to turn nor what will happen to it next. A wonderful time for a new voice to make a noise that needs to be heard! In 1936, publisher Henry Luce purchased Life magazine for US$ 92,000 ($ 2.02 million in 2023) because he wanted the name for his company, Time Inc. , to use. Time Inc. sold Life 's subscription list, features, and goodwill to Judge . Convinced that pictures could tell
444-558: A dog outside his kennel howling at the Moon. Encouraged by a publisher, also an artist, Gibson was joined at Life by illustrators Palmer Cox , creator of the Brownie , A. B. Frost , Oliver Herford , and E. W. Kemble . Life ' s literary roster included John Kendrick Bangs , James Whitcomb Riley , and Brander Matthews . Mitchell was accused of anti-Semitism at a time of high rates of immigration to New York of Eastern European Jews . When
518-552: A four-year run (1934–1937), produced and directed by Himan Brown with scripts by Irwin Shaw . In the early programs, Jack Boyle portrayed Andy Gump with Dorothy Denvir as Min, Charles Flynn as their son Chester and Bess Flynn , born 1899 in Tama, Iowa, as Tilda the maid. Flynn scripted for soap operas, including Bachelor's Children , Martha Webster and We, the Abbotts , and she also portrayed
592-447: A general-interest and humour publication, it featured contributions from many important writers, illustrators and cartoonists of its time including Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell . Henry Luce purchased the magazine in 1936 and with this the publication was relaunched, becoming the first all-photographic American news magazine. Its role in the history of photojournalism is considered one of its most important contributions to
666-451: A knight leveling his lance at the posterior of a fleeing devil. Then he took advantage of a new printing process using zinc-coated plates, which improved the reproduction of his illustrations and artwork. This edge helped because Life faced stiff competition from the best-selling humor magazines Judge and Puck , which were already established and successful. Edward Sandford Martin was brought on as Life ' s first literary editor;
740-402: A minimum of promotion, these issues sold between 500,000 and 1 million copies at cover prices of up to $ 2. Beginning with an October 1978 issue, Life was published as a monthly, with a new, modified logo. Although it remained a familiar red rectangle with the white type, the new version was larger, the lettering was closer together and the box surrounding it was smaller. Life continued for
814-434: A naturally gifted slapstick comedian, made him ideally suited to playing the role (aided by an artificial nose). The Gumps elevated him to a relatively short period of stardom. He was described as "one of the best known comedy actors of the screen, and loved by thousands of moving picture fans". At the height of his popularity Murphy, as Andy Gump, would draw large crowds at promotional events. The Gumps shorts were based on
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#1732858301420888-510: A novel, Andy Gump: His Life Story , published in Chicago by Reilly & Lee. In 1929, when Smith killed off Mary Gold, she was the first major comic strip character to die, and the Chicago Tribune had to hire extra staff to deal with the constant phone calls and letters from stunned readers. The strip and its merchandising (toys, games, a popular song, playing cards, food products) made Smith
962-590: A slipshod manner with no apparent restoration. In 2012, IDW 's imprint The Library of American Comics announced a new series reprinting daily strips , in the LoAC Essentials . A Gumps volume titled The Saga of Mary Gold (1928–29) was published in March 2013. A gift from the Tribune management to Smith was a large statue of Andy Gump, which stood on Smith's Lake Geneva, Wisconsin , estate. After Smith died in 1935,
1036-528: A story instead of just illustrating text, Luce launched the new Life on November 23, 1936, with John Shaw Billings and Daniel Longwell as founding editors. The third magazine published by Luce, after Time in 1923 and Fortune in 1930, Life developed as the definitive photo magazine in the U.S., giving as much space and importance to images as to words. The first issue of this version of Life , which sold for ten cents (worth $ 2.2 in 2023), had five pages of Alfred Eisenstaedt's photographs. In planning
1110-717: A wealthy man. On his way home from signing a $ 150,000 a year contract in 1935, he crashed his new Rolls-Royce and died. Patterson replaced Smith with sports cartoonist Gus Edson . In the late 1940s and early 1950s, when actor Martin Landau was a cartoonist, he worked as Edson's assistant on The Gumps , eventually drawing the Sunday strips for Edson. The Gumps launched a craze for continuity strips in newspapers. It also influenced radio and television programming. Radio/TV sitcoms and serialized dramas can all be traced back to The Gumps , as detailed by broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod in
1184-503: A world still friendly." For Life 's final issue in its original format, 80-year-old Edward Sandford Martin was recalled from editorial retirement to compose its obituary. He wrote: That Life should be passing into the hands of new owners and directors is of the liveliest interest to the sole survivor of the little group that saw it born in January 1883 ... As for me, I wish it all good fortune; grace, mercy and peace and usefulness to
1258-520: Is henpecked by his wife, Min (short for Minerva); their sons Chester and baby Goliath (plus an unnamed daughter in college and an unnamed son in the Navy); wealthy Uncle Bim; and their annoying maid Tilda. They had a cat named Hope and a dog named Buck. The idea was envisioned by Joseph Patterson , editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune , who was important in the early histories of Little Orphan Annie and other long-run comic strips. Patterson referred to
1332-539: The Chicago Tribune since 1914, planned to launch a tabloid in New York, as comics historian Coulton Waugh explained: "So originated on June 16, 1919, the Illustrated Daily News , a title which, as too English, was almost at once clipped to Daily News . It was a picture paper, and it was a perfect setting for the newly developed art of the comic strip. The first issue shows but a single strip, The Gumps . It
1406-708: The Algonquin Round Table , Sherwood tried to inject sophisticated humor onto the pages. Life published Ivy League jokes, cartoons, flapper sayings and all-burlesque issues. Beginning in 1920, Life undertook a crusade against Prohibition . It also tapped the humorous writings of Frank Sullivan , Robert Benchley , Dorothy Parker , Franklin Pierce Adams and Corey Ford . Among the illustrators and cartoonists were Ralph Barton , Percy Crosby , Don Herold , Ellison Hoover , H. T. Webster , Art Young and John Held, Jr. Life had 250,000 readers in 1920, but as
1480-473: The Andy Gump deformity due to his character design apparently lacking a jaw. Life (magazine) Life is an American magazine originally launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972 it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978, until 2000. Since 2000 Life has transitioned to irregularly publishing "special" issues. Originally published from 1883 to 1936 as
1554-525: The Fort Peck Dam in Montana , a Works Progress Administration project, photographed by Margaret Bourke-White . The format of Life in 1936 was a success: the text was condensed into captions for 50 pages of photographs. The magazine was printed on heavily coated paper and cost readers only a dime ($ 2.20 in 2023). The magazine's circulation was beyond the company's predictions, going from 380,000 copies of
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#17328583014201628-615: The Jazz Age rolled into the Great Depression , the magazine lost money and subscribers. By the time editor George Eggleston took over, Life had switched from publishing weekly to monthly. Maxwell and Eggleston went to work revamping its editorial style to meet the times, which resulted in improved readership. However, Life had passed its prime and was sliding toward financial ruin. The New Yorker , debuting in February 1925, copied many of
1702-529: The United States Army Art Program . Each week during World War II, the magazine brought photographs of the war to Americans; it had photographers from all theaters of war. The magazine was imitated in enemy propaganda using contrasting images of Life and Death . In August 1942, writing about labor and racial unrest in Detroit , Life warned that "the morale situation is perhaps the worst in
1776-545: The "Andy Gump to Andy Brown" section of her popular culture essay, and her book, The Original Amos 'n' Andy: Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll, and the 1928–43 Radio Serial (McFarland, 2005). At the Chicago Tribune' s radio station WGN , Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll signed on as staffers in 1925. WGN executive Ben McCanna believed that a dramatic serial could work on radio just as it did in newspapers. The Gumps first aired on WGN in 1931, then moved to CBS Radio for
1850-560: The 1967 National Magazine Award , chosen by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism . Despite the industry's accolades and its coverage of the U.S. mission to the Moon in 1969, the magazine continued to lose circulation. Time Inc. announced in January 1971 its decision to reduce circulation from 8.5 million to 7 million, in an effort to offset shrinking advertising revenues. The following year, Life cut its circulation further, to 5.5 million beginning with
1924-484: The January 14, 1972 issue. Life was reportedly not losing money, but its costs were rising faster than its profits. Life lost credibility with many readers when it supported author Clifford Irving , whose fraudulent autobiography of Howard Hughes was revealed as a hoax in January 1972. The magazine had purchased serialization rights to Irving's manuscript. Industry figures showed that some 96% of Life' s circulation went to mail subscribers, with only 4% coming from
1998-454: The U.S. ... It is time for the rest of the country to sit up and take notice. For Detroit can either blow up Hitler or it can blow up the U.S." Mayor Edward Jeffries was outraged: "I'll match Detroit's patriotism against any other city's in the country. The whole story in Life is scurrilous ... I'd just call it a yellow magazine and let it go at that." The article was considered so dangerous to
2072-411: The U.S. entered World War II in 1941, Life covered the war closely. By 1944, of the 40 Time and Life war correspondents, seven were women: Americans Mary Welsh Hemingway , Margaret Bourke-White , Lael Tucker, Peggy Durdin, Shelley Smith Mydans , Annalee Jacoby, and Jacqueline Saix, an Englishwoman. (Saix's name is often omitted from the list, but she and Welsh are the only women listed as part of
2146-549: The age of 84 on 31 July 1961 in Santa Clara, leaving his wife, Marie, who was of Irish birth. Murphy began his career in Vaudeville . He was half of a Mutt and Jeff act alongside Little Bobby Vernon and he was also one the original Keystone Cops . From the 1910s through the 1940s Joe worked in many comedy short films, playing for most of the major studios, including Fox, National and L-Ko. His biggest success came during
2220-558: The best offer. Beginning in 1953, a Spanish-language edition was published, titled Life en español. It had a circulation of over 300,000 in Latin America. For his 1955 Museum of Modern Art traveling exhibition The Family of Man , which was to be seen by nine million visitors worldwide, curator Edward Steichen relied heavily on photographs from Life; 111 of the 503 pictures shown, constituting more than 20% as counted by Abigail Solomon-Godeau . His assistant Wayne Miller entered
2294-463: The captions that the photos were fuzzy because Capa's hands were shaking. He denied it, claiming that the darkroom had ruined his negatives. Later he poked fun at Life by titling his war memoir Slightly Out of Focus (1947). In 1954, Capa was killed after stepping on a land mine , while working for the magazine covering the First Indochina War . Life photographer Bob Landry also went in with
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2368-578: The country". As one of the earliest continuity strips, The Gumps was extremely popular, with newspaper readers anxiously following the convoluted storylines. By 1919, this popularity prompted an interest in film adaptations, and in 1920–21, with writing credited to Smith, animation director Wallace A. Carlson produced and directed more than 50 animated shorts, some no longer than two minutes, for distribution through Paramount. Between 1923 and 1928, Universal Pictures produced at least four dozen Gumps two-reel comedies starring Joe Murphy (1877–1961), one of
2442-486: The country. Life in the 1950s earned a measure of respect by commissioning work from top authors. After Life 's publication in 1952 of Ernest Hemingway 's The Old Man and the Sea , the magazine contracted with the author for a 4,000-word piece on bullfighting. Hemingway sent the editors a 10,000-word article, following his last visit to Spain in 1959 to cover a series of contests between two top matadors . The article
2516-482: The course of the run: Old Doc Yak (Dec 7, 1930 – Feb 25, 1934), Cousin Juniper (Jan 2, 1944–1955) and Grandpa Noah (1955). The Gumps made its debut in an unusual way. Cartoonist Sidney Smith had previously drawn and written Old Doc Yak , a talking-animal strip that sustained only a brief run. The very last Old Doc Yak strip depicted Yak and his family moving out of their house, while wondering who might move into
2590-543: The election. Dewey was expected to win the election, and this mistake was also made by the Chicago Tribune . On May 10, 1950, the council of ministers in Cairo banned Life from Egypt forever. All issues on sale were confiscated. No reason was given, but Egyptian officials expressed indignation over the April 10, 1950 story about King Farouk of Egypt, entitled the "Problem King of Egypt". The government considered it insulting to
2664-530: The extremely popular newspaper comic strip, written and drawn by Sidney Smith . The Gumps was first published on February 12, 1917. The popularity of the comic strip eventually led to the making of nearly 50 silent film shorts, produced by Samuel Von Ronken and released by Universal Studios. Many of "The Gumps" silent shorts were directed by Norman Taurog , with Joe Murphy as Andy Gump, Fay Tincher as Min (Minerva), Jack Morgan as Chester, and Slim Hamilton as Uncle Bim. Carl Laemmle , owner of Universal Pictures at
2738-564: The features and styles of Life ; it recruited staff from its editorial and art departments. Another blow to Life 's circulation came from raunchy humor periodicals such as Ballyhoo and Hooey , which ran what can be termed " outhouse " gags. In 1933, Esquire joined Life 's competitors. In its final years, Life struggled to make a profit. Announcing the end of Life , Maxwell stated: "We cannot claim, like Mr. Gene Tunney , that we resigned our championship undefeated in our prime. But at least we hope to retire gracefully from
2812-494: The first issue to more than one million a week four months later. It soon challenged The Saturday Evening Post , then the largest-circulation weekly in the country. The magazine's success stimulated many imitators, such as Look , which was founded a year later in 1937 and ran until 1971. Luce moved Life into its own building at 19 West 31st Street, a Beaux-Arts building constructed in 1894. Later Life moved its editorial offices to 9 Rockefeller Plaza . A co-founder of
2886-454: The first wave at D-Day, "but all of Landry's film was lost, and his shoes to boot." In a notable mistake, in its final edition just before the 1948 U.S. presidential election , the magazine printed a large photo showing U.S. presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey and his staff riding across San Francisco , California harbor entitled "Our Next President Rides by Ferryboat over San Francisco Bay ". Incumbent President Harry S. Truman won
2960-475: The five years (1923–1928) in which he played the very popular main character Andy Gump in Universal Pictures silent film shorts. The Gumps was a silent short where the misadventures of its main character, Andy Gump, a pompous bungler whose cry of "Oh! Min!" when he was in trouble became a 1920s catchphrase. Murphy's unusual and distinctive physical appearance (he was 6'3" tall and lanky), as well as being
3034-452: The gestures of the proud; to see strange things—machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man's work—his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women that men love and many children; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed... Luce's first issue cover depicted
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3108-461: The history of the Russian Revolution. As the 1950s drew to a close and television became more popular, the magazine was losing readers. In May 1959 it announced plans to reduce its regular news-stand price from 25 cents a copy to 20. With the increase in television sales and viewership, interest in news magazines was waning. Life had to try to create a new form. In the 1960s, the magazine
3182-579: The house next. On Thursday, February 8, 1917, the last panel showed only the empty house. On Monday, February 12, 1917, after the Gumps were introduced in the space formerly occupied by Old Doc Yak , they moved into the house formerly occupied by the Yak family. ( Old Doc Yak would reappear as a topper for The Gumps Sunday page from 1930 to 1934.) The Gumps had a key role in the rise of syndication when Robert R. McCormick and Patterson, who had both been publishing
3256-643: The magazine blamed the theatrical team of Klaw & Erlanger for Chicago 's Iroquois Theater Fire in 1903, many people complained. Life 's drama critic, James Stetson Metcalfe , was barred from the 47 Manhattan theatres controlled by the Theatrical Syndicate . Life published caricatures of Jews with large noses. Several individuals would publish their first major works in Life . In 1908 Robert Ripley published his first cartoon in Life , 20 years before his Believe It or Not! fame. Norman Rockwell 's first cover for Life magazine, Tain't You ,
3330-410: The magazine's archive in late 1953 and spent an estimated nine months there. He searched through 3.5 million images, most in the form of original negatives (only in the last years of the war did the picture department start to print contact sheets of all assignments) and submitted to Steichen for selection many that had not been published in the magazine. In November 1954, the actress Dorothy Dandridge
3404-526: The magazine's team in a Times 's publisher's letter, dated May 8, 1944.) Life backed the war effort each week. In July 1942, Life launched its first art contest for soldiers and drew more than 1,500 entries, submitted by all ranks. Judges sorted out the best and awarded $ 1,000 in prizes. Life picked 16 for reproduction in the magazine. The National Gallery in Washington, D.C. agreed to put 117 entries on exhibition that summer. Life , also supported
3478-470: The masses as "gumps" and thought a strip about the domestic lives of ordinary people and their ordinary activities would appeal to the average American newspaper reader. He hired Smith to write and draw the strip, and it was Smith who breathed life into the characters. Smith was the first cartoonist to kill off a regular character: His May 1929 storyline about the death of Mary Gold caused a national sensation. The Sunday page also included several toppers over
3552-555: The military's efforts to use artists to document the war. When Congress forbade the armed forces from using government money to fund artists in the field, Life privatized the programs, hiring many of the artists being let go by the Department of War (which would later become the Department of Defense ). On December 7, 1960, Life managers later donated many of the works by such artists to the Department of War and its art programs, such as
3626-489: The more profitable newsstand sales. Gary Valk was publisher when, on December 8, 1972, the magazine announced it would cease publication by the end of the year and lay off hundreds of staff. The weekly Life magazine published its last issue on December 29, 1972. From 1972 to 1978, Time Inc. published ten Life Special Reports on such themes as "The Spirit of Israel", "Remarkable American Women" and "The Year in Pictures". With
3700-403: The mural of life-size leathermen in the bar, which had been painted by Chuck Arnett in 1962. The article described San Francisco as "The Gay Capital of America" and inspired many gay leathermen to move there. On March 25, 1966, Life featured the drug LSD as its cover story. The drug had attracted attention among the counterculture and was not yet criminalized. In March 1967, Life won
3774-425: The mushrooms, which were used in traditional religious rituals. Life ' s motto became "To see Life; to see the world." The magazine produced many popular science serials, such as The World We Live In and The Epic of Man in the early 1950s. The magazine continued to showcase the work of notable illustrators, such as Alton S. Tobey , whose contributions included the cover for a 1958 series of articles on
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#17328583014203848-410: The new Life magazine, Longwell served as managing editor from 1944 to 1946 and chairman of the board of editors until his retirement in 1954. He was credited for publishing Winston Churchill 's The Second World War and Ernest Hemingway 's The Old Man and the Sea . Luce also selected Edward Kramer Thompson , a stringer for Time , as assistant picture editor in 1937. From 1949 to 1961 he
3922-468: The next 22 years as general-interest, news features magazine. In 1986, it marked its 50th anniversary under the Time Inc. umbrella with a special issue showing every Life cover starting from 1936, which included the issues published during the six-year hiatus in the 1970s. The circulation in this era hovered around 1.5 million. The cover price in 1986 was $ 2.50 (equivalent to $ 6.95 in 2023). The publisher
3996-471: The original Keystone Cops, as Andy Gump, Fay Tincher as Min and Jack Morgan as Chester. Many of these shorts were directed by Norman Taurog , later famed as the leading director of Elvis Presley movies. In the comic strip, Sidney Smith had Andy run for Congress in 1922 and for President in 1924 and in practically every succeeding election, one of the first of many comic strip and cartoon characters to run for office. In 1924, Smith wrote his characters into
4070-466: The people," he said. A June 1964 Paul Welch Life article, "Homosexuality In America", was the first time a national mainstream publication reported on gay issues. Life 's photographer was referred to the gay leather bar in San Francisco called the Tool Box for the article by Hal Call , who had long worked to dispel the myth that all gay men were effeminate. The article opened with a two-page spread of
4144-551: The recent Harvard University graduate was a founder of the Harvard Lampoon . The motto of the first issue of Life was: "While there's Life, there's hope." The new magazine set forth its principles and policies to its readers: We wish to have some fun in this paper...We shall try to domesticate as much as possible of the casual cheerfulness that is drifting about in an unfriendly world...We shall have something to say about religion, about politics, fashion, society, literature,
4218-404: The scarlet woman because of my rather puritanical upbringing and beliefs. I couldn't just have a romance. It had to be a marriage." In the 1960s, the magazine printed photographs by Gordon Parks . "The camera is my weapon against the things I dislike about the universe and how I show the beautiful things about the universe," Parks recalled in 2000. "I didn't care about Life magazine. I cared about
4292-522: The screen star. "I'm not a 'sex queen' or a 'sex symbol,' " Taylor said. "I don't think I want to be one. Sex symbol kind of suggests bathrooms in hotels or something. I do know I'm a movie star and I like being a woman, and I think sex is absolutely gorgeous. But as far as a sex goddess, I don't worry myself that way... Richard is a very sexy man. He's got that sort of jungle essence that one can sense... When we look at each other, it's like our eyes have fingers and they grab ahold.... I think I ended up being
4366-457: The stage, the stock exchange, and the police station, and we will speak out what is in our mind as fairly, as truthfully, and as decently as we know how. The magazine was a success and soon attracted the industry's leading contributors, of which the most important was Charles Dana Gibson . Three years after the magazine was founded, the Massachusetts native first sold Life a drawing for $ 4:
4440-493: The statue was moved to a city park. In 1943, the statue was acquired by the city of Lake Geneva, but it was destroyed in 1967 during a drunken riot. It was replaced with a new statue, which was stolen in 1989 and again replaced. A plaque honoring Smith was also stolen from Lake Geneva in 1952, but it was later found. The statue is currently on display at the Lake Geneva Museum. Hockey great Gump Worsley , born Lorne Worsley,
4514-464: The time, recognized Joe Murphy's physical suitability for playing the Andy Gump character. Carl knew Joe was an ex-vaudevillian who had experience with L-KO, Keystone, FOX, Triangle, Reelcraft, and Educational Studios. The producers had thought it would be nearly impossible that they would find a character who could play the comic strip character until Laemmle recommended Joe. The Gumps series is now part of
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#17328583014204588-419: The title role on Martha Webster . In 1935, Wilmer Walter played Andy Gump with Agnes Moorehead portraying Min during the last two years of the series when Lester Jay and Jackie Kelk were heard as Chester. Herb Galewitz assembled a selective compilation of the comic strips for the book, Sidney Smith's The Gumps , published in 1974 by Charles Scribner's Sons . However, the strips in this book were assembled in
4662-625: The war effort that it was censored from copies of the magazine sold outside North America. The magazine hired war photographer Robert Capa in July 1943 to cover the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. A veteran of Collier's magazine, Capa accompanied the first wave of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France , on June 6, 1944, and returned with only a handful of images, many of them out of focus. The magazine wrote in
4736-451: The weekly news magazine, Luce circulated a confidential prospectus within Time Inc. in 1936, which described his vision for the new Life magazine, and what he viewed as its unique purpose. Life magazine was to be the first publication, with a focus on photographs, that enabled the American public, To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and
4810-527: The world of publishing. From 1936 to the 1960s, Life was a wide-ranging general-interest magazine known for its photojournalism . During this period it was one of the most popular magazines in the United States, its circulation regularly reaching a quarter of the American population. Life was founded on January 4, 1883, in a New York City artist's studio at 1155 Broadway , as a partnership between John Ames Mitchell and Andrew Miller . Mitchell held
4884-746: Was Charles Whittingham; the editor was Philip Kunhardt. Joe Murphy (actor) Joseph Murphy (May 16, 1877 – July 31, 1961) was an American comic stage actor. He went on to become a silent film actor, notably playing Andy Gump in the shorts The Gumps during the mid-1920s. His unusual tall, thin stature and extraordinary facial features were instantly recognizable. Joe Murphy was born Joseph J. Murphy on 16 May 1877 in San Jose , California . His mother Anna (Mahoney) and father John Murphy were married in Michigan , January 13, 1875 before moving to San Jose, California. On October 30 ,1920, his son Russell, aged 16,
4958-520: Was filled with color photos of movie stars, President John F. Kennedy and his family, the war in Vietnam , and the Apollo program . Typical of the magazine's editorial focus was a long 1964 feature on actress Elizabeth Taylor and her relationship with actor Richard Burton . Journalist Richard Meryman traveled with Taylor to New York , California , and Paris . Life ran a 6,000-word first-person article on
5032-590: Was nicknamed for his resemblance to Andy Gump. Jazz musician Min Leibrook , born Wilford Leibrook, received his nickname from Andy Gump's wife, Min. The town of Bim , West Virginia is named for Uncle Bim Gump. A bunker on the 16th hole of the Hinsdale Golf Club in Clarendon Hills, IL is shaped in the likeness of Andy Gump. The surgical removal of the mandible can result in a dysmorphism referred to as
5106-453: Was published May 10, 1917. His paintings were featured on Life 's cover 28 times between 1917 and 1924. Rea Irvin , the first art director of The New Yorker and creator of the character " Eustace Tilley ", began his career by drawing covers for Life . This version of Life took sides in politics and international affairs, and published pro-American editorials. After Germany attacked Belgium in 1914, Mitchell and Gibson undertook
5180-500: Was republished in 1985 as the novella, The Dangerous Summer . In February 1953, just a few weeks after leaving office, President Harry S. Truman announced that Life magazine would handle all rights to his memoirs. Truman said it was his belief that by 1954 he would be able to speak more fully on subjects pertaining to the role his administration played in world affairs. Truman observed that Life editors had presented other memoirs with great dignity; he added that Life had also made
5254-532: Was shot and killed by a police officer after he and his friends were mistaken for robbers. Murphy filed a $ 18,000 lawsuit against a patrolman of the L.A. Police Department, after criminal charges against the police were dropped by the district attorney claiming that the officer killed the boy in the line of duty. Joe continued to live in California where he worked as a silent moving picture star in Hollywood. He died at
5328-541: Was the almost instant popularity of this famous strip that directly brought national syndication into being. Midwestern and other papers began writing to the Chicago Tribune , which also published The Gumps , requesting to be allowed to use the new comic, and the result was that the heads of the two papers collaborated and founded the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate , which soon was distributing Tribune-News features to every nook and cranny of
5402-513: Was the first African-American woman to be featured on the cover of the magazine. In 1957, R. Gordon Wasson , a vice president at J. P. Morgan , published an article in Life extolling the virtues of magic mushrooms . This prompted Albert Hofmann to isolate psilocybin in 1958 for distribution by Sandoz alongside LSD in the U.S., further raising interest in LSD in the mass media. Following Wasson's report, Timothy Leary visited Mexico to try out
5476-441: Was the managing editor, and served as editor-in-chief for nearly a decade, until his retirement in 1970. His influence was significant during the magazine's heyday, which was roughly from 1936 until the mid-1960s. Thompson was known for the free rein he gave his editors, particularly a "trio of formidable and colorful women: Sally Kirkland , fashion editor; Mary Letherbee, movie editor; and Mary Hamman , modern living editor." When
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