Ernie Pyle and G.I. Joe

If you count by fives, this is an anniversary year for wars and wartime events. The First World War, then called the Great War, now also called World War I, commenced one hundred years ago, on July 28, 1914. After an armistice and peace treaty in 1918-1919 and a twenty-year respite, war resumed on September 1, 1939, seventy-five years ago this year. Seventy years ago next week, on June 6, 1944, Allied forces cracked Hitler's "Fortress Europe" by landing at Normandy. And fifty years ago this summer, on August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized President Lyndon Johnson to go to war against North Vietnam.

There were happier events in 1964. The Beatles arrived in the United States for the first time on February 7 and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9. The arrival of John, Paul, George, and Ringo on American shores was no wartime event, but it signaled a British Invasion. The Ford Mustang made its debut that year. So did Jonny Quest, on September 18. Early in 1964, at about the time The Beatles were taking America by storm, a new kind of toy was displayed at a New York City toy fair. By Christmastime, that toy was available in stores and sold well at $4 a pop. The toy was a doll, but it was never called a doll for fear boys would reject it. Instead, G.I. Joe was an "action figure" and the toy every boy wanted during the 1960s and '70s. Since then, Hasbro's G.I. Joe has made his way into comic books, animated cartoons, movies, and video games.

American soldiers were called G.I.s as early as World War I, though doughboy is the term more popularly associated with the men of that war. The term G.I. Joe is from the World War II years and came from the imagination of cartoonist Pvt. Dave Breger. (1) Born in Chicago on April 15, 1908, Breger graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in abnormal psychology and without any formal training--other than that degree--in cartooning. Breger started selling cartoons in the 1930s. He was drafted in 1941, but he didn't let life in the U.S. Army keep him from drawing. The Saturday Evening Post printed his cartoon series Private Breger beginning on August 30, 1941. The Army noticed the young artist's talents and transferred him to its Special Services Division in New York in early 1942. On June 17, 1942, Breger's G.I. Joe made its debut in the first issue of Yank, The Army Weekly. By then of course, America was at war. In addition to millions of men under arms and women in uniform, the U.S. military sent writers, correspondents, combat artists, and cartoonists overseas. Among them--probably the most famous among them--was Ernie Pyle. Even Ernest Hemingway, who called himself "Ernie Hemorrhoid, the poor man's Pyle," paled in comparison.

Ernie Pyle was born on August 3, 1900, near Dana, Indiana. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I and studied at Indiana University. Pyle made a name for himself as a journalist and columnist during the 1930s. When war came, he went to Europe as a war correspondent, arriving first in Belfast, Ireland, where he covered a unit of the Iowa National Guard, part of the 34th Infantry Division. A company in that unit became Pyle's favorite and the basis, in part, for a movie called The Story of G.I. Joe.

From Northern Ireland, Ernie Pyle went on to London, then North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France. (2) His dispatches from the front won him fame in Europe and back home. His book, Here Is Your War, about the campaign in North Africa, was published in 1943. For his reporting, Pyle was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Other books followed towards the end and after the war. In January 1945, Pyle arrived in the Pacific Theater. Three months later, on the island of Ie Shima, he was killed by Japanese machine gun fire.

Late in 1943, Lester Cowan, an independent movie producer, began work on the film that would become The Story of G.I. Joe. The war's events raced ahead of the moviemakers; the Allies were well on their way to victory by the time filming began in late 1944. The storyline of the movie was drawn from Here Is Your War and Brave Men (1944). Burgess Meredith played Ernie Pyle. Robert Mitchum and a number of lesser-known actors and even a couple of boxers rounded out the cast. The Story of G.I. Joe was released on June 18, 1945, two months to the day after Ernie Pyle's death and after the German surrender. The movie was well received and was nominated for four Academy Awards, but came away empty handed.

In April 1950, Ziff-Davis began publishing a comic book called G.I. Joe. Set in Occupied Japan and Korea, G.I. Joe featured painted covers, some by famed pulp artist Norman Saunders. The title character is a big, brawling blond, happily going about his business of punching, kicking, gun-butting, and knocking the heads of his communist adversaries. He even wears a flower in his helmet strap. G.I. Joe lasted for fifty-one issues and came to a close in June 1957. Halfway through its run, G.I. Joe was subjected to the Mad treatment by cartoonist Wally Wood. Called "G.I. Schmoe," the sendup ran in Mad #10 (April 1954). If you have read it, you will remember the recurring punchline, "Hey, Joe! You got chewing gum?" (3) After G.I. Joe the action figure came out in 1964, DC published two issues of Showcase called G.I. Joe (#53, December 1964 and #54, February 1965). I don't know whether those were tie-ins to the release of the toy or not. After that, every comic book with the words G.I. Joe in the title was somehow or other related to Hasbro's coveted action figure.

We can be pretty sure that the comic book G.I. Joe had nothing to do with Dave Breger's original humorous version from the 1940s--as one source on the Internet claims--except for in the origin of its name. Instead, the comic book may have been inspired by the movie The Story of G.I. Joe. (4) If that's the case, and if G.I. Joe the action figure was named with the popularity of the comic book in mind, then it's likely that the lineage of "America's Movable Fighting Man" can be traced to Indiana's own Ernie Pyle. There's no telling if he would have approved, although he was always on the side of the dog-faced American soldier.

Notes

(1) The first record of the term in the New York Times, however, was in reference to Ernie Pyle's book, Here Is Your War. The Times published a book review entitled "Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe," written by Edward Streeter, on October 31, 1943 (p. BR1). The Chicago Tribune used the term for the first time on May 19, 1943.
(2) Dick Wingert (1919-1993), a native Iowan and a soldier in the 34th Infantry Division, took the same path from Northern Ireland to London, though in a different capacity. Like Dave Breger, Wingert was stationed in Louisiana before the war. He arrived with his unit in Northern Ireland in early 1942. Also like Breger, Wingert was untrained as a cartoonist, yet gained fame for his comic panel Hubert, which was printed in Stars and Stripes.
(3) In 1945, a German firm, Schon-Druck, issued a set of sixteen postcards entitled "G.I. Joe in Bavaria." The artist was named Trautloft. The situations are comic. One card shows a Bavarian boy with a large stein of beer, apparently offered for trade to G.I. Joe with the question: "You have Kaugummi?" Kaugummi is the German word for chewing gum.
(4) I haven't seen the movie, but the clincher might be if there is a G.I. who wears a flower in his helmet strap, like the comic book version of the 1950s.

The original G.I. Joe, created by Dave Breger (1908-1970) in 1942 and published in book form in 1945. Breger also drew Private Breger, which became, after the war, Mister Breger. Those two comic panels ran in syndication from 1942 to 1970. I wonder now if Antonio Prohias (1921-1998), creator of Spy vs. Spy for Mad magazine, was influenced by Breger.

A poster or lobby card for The Story of G.I. Joe, a film released through United Artists in 1945, after Ernie Pyle's death. The image is of Pyle himself and not of Burgess Meredith (1907-1997), who played him in the movie. 

A magazine advertisement for the same film. Note that the image of Pyle has been reversed. Also note the Bill Mauldin-like cartoons along the bottom. Ernie Pyle knew Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) and wrote of him for the people back home. Like Pyle, Mauldin was a Pulitzer Prize winner for his coverage of the war.

A more dramatic and Hollywood-ized poster or lobby card for The Story of G.I. Joe.

Finally, another poster, advertisement, or lobby card. This image may have predated the others, but I have saved it for last because of the dog. . . 

Which reappeared on the cover of the G.I. Joe comic book in the 1950s. I don't know whether the comic book was inspired by the movie, but the dog might be a clue.

G.I. Joe wasn't always happy-go-lucky. Here he rescues a nurse.

In 1954, G.I. Joe got the Mad treatment at the hands of Wally Wood. That's good evidence that G.I. Joe was not an obscurity. That may, in turn, be evidence of the connection between the earlier movie and the later action figure. Note the flower in Galusha Iggy Schmoe's helmet strap.

G.I. Joe in Showcase #53, which showed up in time for Christmas, 1964, at about the same time as the new G.I. Joe action figure. The cover artist was Joe Kubert.

At last, the G.I. Joe we all know in an advertisement from the 1960s. G.I. Joe was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2004. That makes this year another anniversary year.

Update (Jan. 12, 2015): If you follow a straight line long enough, it makes a circle. In 2002, Hasbro released an Ernie Pyle G.I. Joe action figure, complete with typewriter and newspaper. The release was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the landing at Normandy.

Happy Memorial Day week to all my readers, especially those who have fought to keep our country free. Or, as Ernie Pyle wrote: "Thanks, pal."

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Mary (1903-1985) & Wallace Stover (1903-1983)

Wallace P. and Mary A. Stover were a husband-and-wife team of commercial artists and illustrators. Wallace Peter Stover was born on January 5, 1903, in Elkhart, Indiana, and graduated from Elkhart High School in 1921. He received a scholarship to the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and received his diploma in 1925 after four years of study. Oakley E. Richey (later a teacher at Arsenal Technical High School), Mabel Bott (artist and wife of Earl Wayne Bott), and Josephine Hollingsworth were among the other students in attendance at Herron during the early 1920s.

Wallace Stover and Mary Alys Polk were married on August 31, 1929, in Manhattan. She was also an artist and a teacher in the Franklin, Indiana, schools. He was then living on Long Island and working in New York as a commercial artist and designer of costumes.

The 1930 census found the newlyweds living in Queens, New York. Wallace was then working as a magazine illustrator. By the 1940s, the Stovers were working together, illustrating inexpensive children's books and coloring books in a number of popular series, including the Wizard of Oz, Uncle Wiggily, and Raggedy Ann and Andy. They ran their own advertising firm, Mary and Wallace Stover Corp., in New York for forty-five years, retiring in 1971.

Wallace P. Stover died on January 13, 1983, in Princeton, New Jersey, and was buried at Florida Memorial Gardens in Rockledge, Florida. Mary Alys Polk Stover followed him to the grave in 1985. Their headstone is marked with the words "Together Forever."

Revised April 12, 2016; January 5, 2021.
Text copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Portia Howe Sperry (1890-1967)

Everyone knows Raggedy Ann, the little rag doll with red yarn for hair and a red felt heart pinned to her breast. Raggedy Ann was born from the imagination of Indiana illustrator Johnny Gruelle in 1915. Nearly a hundred years later, she is beloved by children (and grownups) everywhere. Far less well known is Abigail, the Log Cabin Doll, another Indiana doll created by Portia Howe Sperry and designed to help children learn to dress themselves. 

Portia Howe Sperry was born on June 21, 1890, in Chicago and educated at Milwaukee-Downer College as a teacher of physical education. She married Ralph W.E. Sperry in 1914 and lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1914 to 1917. She returned to take up permanent residence in 1929, at the outset of the Great Depression. When her husband's piano factory closed, Portia moved her family to the backwoods of Brown County, Indiana. Eventually she took over the management of a shop called Brown County Folks, where she sold handicrafts. Portia also began developing a doll called Abigail, with a face designed by local artist L.O. Griffith, manufacturing by local Brown County women, and packaging donated by the Quaker Oats Company. The doll was christened at the Nashville House on February 27, 1932. In 1938, Albert Whitman and Company of Chicago published a companion book, Abigail, by Portia Howe Sperry and Lois Donaldson and illustrated by Chicago artist Zabeth Selover. The inside dust jacket of Abigail summarizes the story:

A story of covered wagon days which the whole family will enjoy. Father, mother, two older brothers, Susan, a little girl of ten, and her baby brother travel overland from Kentucky to a new home in Brown County, Indiana. 

And who is Abigail? The most enchanting companion a little girl going to a new home could have--a cloth doll dressed as a little girl dressed in 1835.

Abigail is still made by the Sperry family, and the book named after her is still in print. You can read more about the doll, the book, the business, and the woman who created all three at the website Abigail Doll, at www.abigaildoll.com.

Portia Howe Sperry died on April 21, 1967. A plaque in Nashville, Indiana, commemorates her life and work.

The cover and the double-page spread that opens the story of Susan and her doll Abigail as they travel to Brown County, Indiana. These drawings by Zabeth Selover are from the seventh printing of the book, 1967. Note the container for the doll: the Quaker Oats Company provided a double-length oats carton for the original Abigail doll. Portia Howe Sperry and her helpers covered the cartons in wallpaper and affixed a handle to them for easy carrying.

Text copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Virginia Keep Clark (1878-1962)

Virginia Keep Clark had a long and varied career in art and society. Descended from William Brewster, a Pilgrim of the Plymouth Colony, she was well connected by family and friendship. Born in New Orleans, she made her home in the Midwest and on the East Coast, studying under some of the most well-known art teachers of her day and creating portraits of everyone from poor girls to women of high society. She was a teacher of children and wounded men, an illustrator and a painter, a wife and a hostess, a friend to many, well loved and well remembered. Through her illustrations for Josephine Scribner Gates' Live Dolls series of books, she is still loved and remembered by collectors of children's literature.

Virginia Hynson Keep was born on February 17, 1878, in New Orleans to Charles B. and Katherine "Katie" Hynson Keep. Her father may have died when she was quite young, for when she was a toddler, her mother married Aretas Wallace Hatch, who moved his new wife and four-year-old stepdaughter to Indianapolis. Virginia Keep attended public school, but her formal education in art began under Mary Yandes Robinson, a children's art teacher, and continued at the Indiana School of Art under William Forsyth. From there it was on to New York and the Art Students League, where she studied under Kenyon Cox, J. Carroll Beckwith, and Walter Appleton Clark, and the Chase School of Art, founded by and named for another Hoosier, William Merritt Chase. She studied briefly with Howard Pyle and alternated between New York and Indianapolis for several years. While in Indianapolis, Virginia Keep taught children's art classes at the Herron School of Art between 1902 and 1906.

At the outset of her career, Keep specialized in drawing women and children.  She probably got her start  in 1901 with her illustrations for A Fearsome Riddle by Indiana author Max Ehrmann and The Story of Live Dolls and More About Live Dolls by Josephine Scribner Gates. At least nine more books in the Live Dolls series followed over the next decade. Other  work for Indiana authors included her decorations for An Old Sweetheart of Mine by James Whitcomb Riley (1902) and her illustrations--along with Maxfield Parrish and others--for Troubadour Tales by Evaleen Stein (1903). Her drawings for Ehrmann's book, done in gloomy half-tone, are in sharp contrast to Keep's later work--with one exception. A scene with a woman and a child is bright and delicate, an indication of what she was to accomplish with the Live Dolls series and other books.

Things changed for the young artist in 1906 when she married Marshall John Clark, scion of a prominent Chicago family. Although her new husband was supportive of her career, Keep left Indianapolis for his home in Evanston, Illinois. Keep opened a portrait studio in Chicago in 1908. At some point, she shared it with Cecil Clark, first cousin to her husband, wife of Richard Harding Davis, and a self-taught painter of considerable skill. In 1911 Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida visited the Art Institue of Chicago and--impressed with the quality of student Ethel Coe's work--extended an invitation to Coe and two fellow artists to follow him to his home country. Coe chose Virginia Keep and Lucy Taggart as her traveling companions, and the three enjoyed a season in Europe drawing and painting under the tutelage of an Old World artist. Keep also studied for a summer under Cecilia Beaux, a prominent portraitist, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1916.

According to her friend Lucy Taggart, Virginia Keep was never without a sketchbook. Throughout her career, she drew and painted wherever she went, in New York and New England, Maryland and Florida, Haiti and the Bahamas. Although she started out as an illustrator, Keep was most well known in her lifetime as a portraitist and took active commissions until 1946. Among her subjects were Elizabeth Harrison, daughter of Benjamin Harrison; members of Indiana's Ball family; artist Charles Prendergast; and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

Keep and her husband moved from Chicago to New York during the early 1920s. They divided their time between a Manhattan home chock-full of servants and a summer home called "Windy Meadow" on Oyster Bay in Long Island. They moved again to Maryland and Connecticut before settling in Florida in 1942. During World War II, Virginia Keep taught painting to convalescing soldiers. At war's end, she was of an age to retire, but it's hard to believe that she would have given up drawing and painting. Keep died on September 13 or 14, 1962, in Winter Park, Florida. She was survived by her husband, Marshall Clark, and laid to rest in the Evergreen Cemetery in Marion, Massachusetts, in her husband's family plot, in the town where they had kept a summer home, and not very far from where her ancestor, William Brewster, first arrived in America.

The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library held an exhibit on Josephine Scribner Gates and her Live Dolls series this summer (ending in Aug. 2010).  The library also showed some of Virginia Keep's original art from its own collection.

Tiffany Benedict Berkson of Indianapolis has done a good deal of research on Virginia Keep Clark's life and career and has posted some of it on her own blog. Some of the information here comes from her efforts, and I thank her for it.

Virginia Keep's "Indiana Girl"--perhaps her answer to Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girl"--from about 1903. The image here is from a newspaper microfilm and can only hint at the quality of the original.

The cover of The Live Dolls' House Party by Josephine Scribner Gates, illustrated by Virginia Keep (1906).

Two of Virginia Keep's interior illustrations. She never had any of her own children. Nevertheless, her drawings of women and children are full of warmth, tenderness, and sensitivity.

Note: My source for Virginia Keep's descent from William Brewster is from an unsubstantiated claim in the discussion section of AskArt. A reader who has done a great deal of research on Virginia Keep has never found evidence of that descent. If anyone can confirm or discount it, please let me know. March 9, 2011.

Text and captions copyright 2010, 2024 Terence E. Hanley