Casimer Norwaish (1919-2008)

Casimer Joseph Norwaish was born on December 31, 1919, in Gary, Indiana. His parents were Lithuanian immigrants by the name of Alex Norvaisis, Norvaisha, Norvaish, Norvish, or Norvick (1887-1963) and Monica "Minnie" Venslovas or Wenslovas (1888-1981). Alex was a baker and ran his own shop and delivery service. Once in the lake region of northern Indiana, he and his wife seem to have remained for the rest of their long lives.

Casimer, nicknamed Cas or Cass, was the middle born of their children. He had an older brother, Alex Norwaish (1918-1981), and a younger sister, Veronica Norvish (b. 1924), who I believe died in infancy. Casimer attended Horace Mann High School and Tolleston High School in his hometown. In 1939, he graduated from the Fort Wayne Art School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and during World War II served in the U.S. Navy. On June 17, 1947, he married Dorothy Snapp in New York City.

Although he worked as a commercial artist and advertising artist, Casimer Norwaish has come to my attention as an illustrator. The first credit I have for him is his cover illustration for The Great Lockout in American Citizenship (1937) by William Albert Wirt (1874-1938), a teacher and educational innovator in the Gary schools. After the war, Norwaish worked for Bonsib Advertising, a firm established by Indiana artist Louis William Bonsib (1892-1979) in Fort Wayne. Bonsib served as president of the Fort Wayne Art School in 1948-1949.

I discovered Casimer Norwaish just this week when I found a paperback mystery at the local secondhand store, entitled The Kidnap Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine (Bantam, 1948) and with cover art by Norwaish. Unlike so many paperbacks from the 1940s and after, this one has something about the artist. Opposite the title page are these tidbits:

About THE COVER

     Artist Casimer Norwaish, who painted the tense scene on the cover, claims it's absolutely authentic. To get an accurate picture of Philo Vance, "Cass" copied photographs of S.S. Van Dine. Seems he was a dead ringer for his own description of Vance. To create Madelaine Kenting, the frightened woman Vance is questioning, "Cass" says he simply drew the picture of a beautiful blonde that every artist has at the back of his mind!

Norwaish created the covers for at least three other paperback mysteries, Murder Cheats the Bride by Anthony Gilbert (Bantam, 1948), Come and Kill Me (originally Brat Farrar) by Josephine Tey (Pocket Books, 1949), and So Young a Body by Frank Bunce (Pocket Books, 1951). His illustrations also appeared in and on the cover of The American Legion Magazine in 1951. I suspect that he created still more paperback covers and magazine illustrations for which he did not receive credit. As a commercial artist and advertising artist, he would have been anonymous or almost anonymous, and so we have very little that is known to have been his work. That's a shame, for Norwaish was an accomplished illustrator who worked in a classic mid-century style that is so much missed today.

Like others in his family, Casimer Norwaish lived a long life. His came to an end on March 24, 2008, in South Bend, Indiana, and though his family was Catholic, his body was cremated.

Above and below: Casimer Norwaish's illustrations for "The Ship the Nazis Had to Get" by James H. Winchester, from The American Legion Magazine, August 1951. Two months after its publication in magazine form, Winchester's article was read by Ray Milland on the NBC radio show The Cavalcade of America on October 16, 1951. Note the spelling of Norwaish's name as "Norwaist."

Above: Norwaish's illustration for "Our New Privileged Class" by Eugene Lyons from The American Legion Magazine, September 1951.

Casimer Norwaish as a student at Horace Mann High School in Gary, Indiana, 1935.

This year, 2019, marks the hundredth anniversary year of the founding of the American Legion, as well as that of Casimer Norwaish's birth. So, Happy Birthday to both.

Original text and captions copyright 2019, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Pictures for Christmas

The year is almost over, but before it ends, I want to offer a few pictures for the season and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

First, a charming illustration by John Dukes McKee (1899-1956) of Kokomo, from My American Heritage, collected by Ralph Henry and Lucile Pannell (1959).

Next, the cover design for More About the Live Dolls by Josephine Scribner Gates (1906), an drawing created by Virginia Keep (1878-1962) of Indianapolis.

Not everyone who puts on a Santa suit is nice. Sometimes they can be naughty, as in this illustration by John A. Coughlin (1885-1943), a Chicagoan who studied at the University of Notre Dame. (For that I think we can call him a Hoosier.) The illustration is from Detective Story Weekly, December 19, 1925.

Finally, what the season is really about, an image of the birth of Jesus Christ by Sister Esther Newport (1901-1986) of Clinton, Indiana, from the book A Bible History: With a History of the Church by Rev. Stephen J. McDonald and Elizabeth Jackson (1932, 1940).

Text and captions copyright 2018, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Little Lost Annie

Four years ago, the venerable newspaper comic strip Little Orphan Annie came to an end in mid-story. In the last strip, dated Sunday, June 13, 2010, Annie was being held captive by a villain called the Butcher of the Balkans, who was then on the run somewhere in Guatemala. The penultimate panel showed Daddy Warbucks back home, looking out the window with as much emotion as a character without eyeballs can summon. In the background, one character says to another, "Poor Mr. Warbucks! It's painful for him--he's resigning himself to Miss Annie's being lost forever--". The last panel of the strip reads: "And this is where we leave our Annie. For now--".

Little Orphan Annie was in danger countless times during her eighty-six years in the comics. Every time, she escaped, or she was found or rescued. Every time she came back. Newspaper syndication is a cruel business, though, and if the readers turn their interests elsewhere, there is little that a red-headed orphan can do, even if she is the protégé of the world's richest man. Annie's fate has been unknown for four years, but that is about to change.

Two months ago, writer Mike Curtis and artist Joe Staton announced that they would put Dick Tracy on the case. Mr. Curtis and Mr. Staton, who began working together on Dick Tracy in 2011, have been planning for some time to have Daddy Warbucks seek the help of Dick Tracy in finding Little Orphan Annie. Beginning Sunday, June 1, 2014, "the comics page’s greatest detective will set out in pursuit of the plucky young heroine." Mr. Curtis promises "action-packed, over-the-top thrills and chills as the two features combine their casts for what we hope will be the most historic tale in comic strip history." I don't have any doubt that Tracy and Annie will meet somewhere in this wide world. (1)

Little Orphan Annie made its debut on August 5, 1924, syndicated by the Chicago Tribune. The writer and artist was Harold Gray, who was part Illinoisan and part Hoosier. Born on January 20, 1894, in Kankakee, Illinois, Gray grew up in Illinois and Indiana. He graduated from high school in West Lafayette, Indiana, and from Purdue University in 1917 with a degree in engineering. Gray served for a short time in the U.S. Army during World War I. Beginning in the early 1920s, he assisted Sidney Smith on The Gumps, one of the most popular comic strips of its day. Gray got a shot at his own strip with Little Orphan Annie in 1924. He stayed with it until his death on May 9, 1968.

Like Harold Gray, the creator of Dick Tracy was a farm boy from the Middle Border, drawn to big, bustling Chicago and a chance to be a famous cartoonist. Chester Gould was born on November 20, 1900, in Pawnee, Oklahoma. He arrived in the city of big shoulders shortly after Harold Gray. Like Gray, he created the comic strip for which he is known today for the Chicago Tribune. Dick Tracy first appeared on October 4, 1931, and enjoyed more than half a century under the guidance of its creator. Chester Gould died on May 11, 1985, but his crime-fighting creation goes on. After eighty-three years, Dick Tracy is one of the most famous and enduring of American newspaper comic strips. It is about to join forces with another in that category, Little Orphan Annie.

Note

(1) The quotes are from an article, "Dick Tracy To Set Off in Search of Little Orphan Annie," written by Kevin Melrose and dated April 1, 2014. The first quote is in Mr. Melrose's words; the second is by Mr. Curtis.

Little Alpha Annie, August 4, 1924. This is Annie's ninety-year anniversary.

Little Omega Annie, June 13, 2010, soon to return in Dick Tracy.

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Illustrators at the Indiana State Library

Indiana illustrators are now on display at the Indiana State Library. From now until the end of June, you can see a display of books illustrated by Indiana artists, all from the collections of the Indiana State Library, located at 315 West Ohio Street in downtown Indianapolis. Represented in the display are Franklin Booth, John T. McCutcheon, Lucy Fitch Perkins, Alice Woods, and author George Ade. Monique Howell, reference librarian in the Indiana Room, created the display and provided the images below.

Bang! Bang!, subtitled A Collection of Stories Intended to Recall Memories of the Nickel Library Days when Boys Were Supermen and Murder was a Fine Art, was the work of Indiana author and humorist George Ade (1866-1944). The book was illustrated by Ade's friend from Purdue, John T. McCutcheon (1870-1949). 

Alice Woods, later Alice Woods Ullman (1871-1959), wrote and illustrated Edges (1902).

Lucy Fitch Perkins (1865-1937) was known for her Twins series of books. The Dutch Twins, issued in 1911, was her first in the series.

Franklin Booth (1874-1948) was one of the most accomplished of Indiana illustrators. Although many have tried, no one has been able to match his skill or technique with pen and ink.

Thanks to Monique Howell of the Indiana State Library for the images and further information.

Text copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Detectives

"Sherlock Holmes Umpires Baseball," a spoof of the popular character, ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1906, illustrated either by Dok Hager (1858-1932) or his son, George Hager (1885-1945), both of whom were Hoosiers and both cartoonists.

Perhaps in answer to Sherlock Holmes, E.W. Hornung created Raffles, a "gentleman cracksman" who lived on the opposite side of the law. Frederick Coffay Yohn (1875-1933) was the illustrator for Raffles' American editions. Hornung by the way was the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes' creator.

Turn-of-the-century humorist John Kendrick Bangs wrote comic versions of popular books and characters. A frequent collaborator was illustrator and cartoonist Albert Levering (1869-1929), who drew this picture for Mrs. Raffles (1905), Bangs' account of the adventures of Raffles' widow. Yohn drew the straight version, Levering the takeoff. Both were Hoosiers.

John McCutcheon (1870-1949) and George Ade (1866-1944) were friends and schoolmates at Purdue University. They spent much of their lives in Chicago, though, and collaborated often. Their book, Bang! Bang! (1928), recounted the investigations of boy detective J.P. Davenant, pictured here. From The Murder Book: An Illustrated History of the Detective Story (1971) by Tage la Cour and Harald Mogensen.

Astrogen Kerby, "Astro," was a different kind of detective, a palmist and fortuneteller who investigated crimes. He appeared in The Master of Mysteries by Gelett Burgess (1912), with pictures by Indiana illustrator George Brehm (1878-1966). From The Murder Book.

Finally, The Strange Case of Mason Brant by Neville Monroe Hopkins (1916) with illustrations by Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962).

Captions copyright 2010, 2024 Terence E. Hanley