Mickey Rooney and Mickey McGuire

Mickey Rooney died last week at age ninety-three. Born on September 23, 1920, he first went on stage at seventeen months and made his first movie when most children his age were just entering grade school. Mickey Rooney's show business career lasted more than ninety years, his movie career nearly as long. In fact, he was the last actor from the silent era to appear in movies of the twenty-first century. An actor in more than 200 movies, a husband of eight women, and doubtlessly a lover of many more, Mickey Rooney said, "I don't regret anything I've ever done. I only wish I could have done more."

Mickey Rooney was born Ninian Joseph Yule, Jr., or Joseph Yule, Jr., or just plain Joe Yule, Jr., in Brooklyn, New York, to a pair of stage performers. Sources disagree as to the name the Yules gave their son. In 1925, Joe's mother took him to Hollywood. He made his movie debut the following year in a short subject called Not To Be Trusted, in which he was credited as Mickey McBan. In 1927, Mickey appeared in his first feature length film, Orchids and Ermine, starring Colleen Moore. Although he was still calling himself Mickey, the young actor had by then acquired a new surname. Billed as Mickey McGuire, he also played a character named Mickey McGuire in Orchids and Ermine. For most of the next seven years, that would be his stage name and the name of his fictional counterpart on the silver screen.

The character played by Joe Yule, Jr., was not the first fictional Mickey McGuire. Joe's Mickey McGuire was preceded by another, a character who was part of the very large and colorful cast of Toonerville Folks, one of the most popular newspaper comics of its day. Also called Toonerville Trolley, Toonerville Folks began in the Chicago Evening Post on February 19, 1910. The cartoonist was Fontaine Fox, Jr. (1884-1964), a Kentuckian by birth but a Hoosier by education, however brief that might have been. Fox attended Indiana University for two years before setting out on his career as a newspaper cartoonist. Landing in Chicago, he began drawing cartoons about the Louisville suburbs he knew in his youth. Those cartoons grew into Toonerville Folks (a title not used until 1916), which was eventually syndicated in more than 300 newspapers. Fox's comic was also adapted to movie shorts and animated cartoons of the 1920s and '30s.

The star of Toonerville Folks--if it isn't the trolley itself--is The Skipper, operator of the Toonerville Trolley That Meets All Trains. The town's residents, every one of them as distinct as the real people they represent, number in the dozens. They include The Powerful Katrinka; The Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang; Grandma, The Demon Chaperone; Aunt Eppie Hogg, Fattest Woman in Three Counties; Uncle "Chew" Wilson, Two-Quid Man; Little Woo-Woo Wortle, Who Has Never Been Spanked; and Uncle "Pegleg" Sanders, the official rattlesnake killer, for, after all, "He don't give a snake much real flesh to strike at!" Also in residence is Mickey McGuire, more properly called Mickey (Himself) McGuire--if you know what's good for you. Mickey is the head of a gang from--literally--the wrong side of the tracks. He's the terror of Toonerville and always spoiling for a fight. Unlike Scut Farkus from The Christmas Story (authored by another Hoosier), Mickey isn't a weak bully--he's just plain tough.

Toonerville Folks was adapted to two series of short subject films in the 1920s and '30s. Dan Mason starred as The Skipper in the first series, which ran for nine episodes released in 1921-1922 and ostensibly written by Fontaine Fox. The character Mickey (Himself) McGuire is not listed by the Internet Movie Database (IMdB) as being in that series. However, Mickey played a lead role in the second Toonerville series, produced by Larry Darmour from 1927 to 1934. The star of that series was the young actor Mickey McGuire, better known to us as Mickey Rooney.

It isn't clear to me that The Skipper or the Toonerville Trolley played very significant roles in the second Toonerville series. Larry Darmour, the producer, may have had something else in mind in trying to compete with Hal Roach's very popular Our Gang series. In any case, the Mickey McGuire films came to an end in 1934. By then, Joe Yule, Jr., was known to millions as Mickey McGuire. You couldn't have blamed him for wanting to hold onto the name. "Mickey McGuire" was Fontaine Fox's property however, and after a successful lawsuit, it remained his. The young actor, then still in his teens, would have to find another stage name. And that's how Joe Yule, Jr., better known in his youth as Mickey McGuire, became Mickey Rooney.

Mickey (Himself) McGuire from Toonerville Folks, a daily comic panel drawn by Fontaine Fox from 1910 to 1955. Born in Kentucky, Fox attended Indiana University for two years before becoming a newspaper cartoonist in Chicago. He retired in 1955 and passed away half a century ago, on August 10, 1964. In the minds of some, two years at Indiana University might not qualify Fontaine Fox as a Hoosier. He may have felt differently, because that's where his papers--including hundreds of original cartoons--now reside.

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

Lucille Webster Holling (1900-1989)

Lucille Webster was born on December 8, 1900, in Valparaiso, Indiana. Her father, George A. Webster (1854-1924), was a Canadian-born photographer. Her mother was Nellie Carpenter Webster (1862-1951). As a child, Lucille lived with her parents and her older sister in Bloomfield, Indiana, and in Chicago. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and shared a studio with her sister Mildred. Lucille Webster married another artist, Holling Clancy Holling (1900-1973), in 1925, the same year in which he legally acquired his new name. Born Holling Allison Clancy in Holling Corners, Michigan, Holling graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and worked in taxidermy at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He also studied with anthropologist Ralph Linton. Together Holling Clancy Holling and his new wife Lucille Holling set out on an adventure in 1926-1927 with the first University World Cruise, sponsored by New York University. Lucille designed scenery and costumes for the drama department while her husband served as a shipboard instructor of art. There would be many more travels to come.

Lucille Holling and her husband worked in advertising and as commercial artists and illustrators. In addition to drawing fashion illustrations, Lucille Webster Holling illustrated Kimo: The Whistling Boy by Alice Cooper Bailey (1928), Wedding of the Paper Dolls (a coloring book, 1935), and Songs from Around a Toadstool Table by Rowena Bastin Bennett (1937). She also contributed a cover illustration--one of the finest--to the pulp magazine Oriental Stories (later called The Magic Carpet Magazine) in Autumn 1931. Holling Clancy Holling is renowned for his many beautifully illustrated children's books. Less well known is the fact that his wife assisted him on several of them, including Roll Away Twins (1927), Choo-Me-Shoo the Eskimo (1928), The Book of Indians (1935), The Book of Cowboys (1936), Little Buffalo Boy (1939), and Pagoo (1957). The couple also illustrated Road in Storyland (1932) and The Magic Story Tree (1964).

The Hollings lived in southern California as early as 1930. In 1951, Lucille Holling designed and oversaw the construction of their home and studio in Pasadena. Holling Clancy Holling, a jack-of-all-trades and a man well worthy of his own written biography, died on September 7, 1973. His wife survived him by more than a decade. Lucille Webster Holling died on December 31, 1989, in Verdugo City, California, at age eighty-nine.

For more reading, see the blog devoted to Holling Clancy Holling, called, conveniently enough, "Holling Clancy Holling," here. There is or was also a museum devoted to him in Leslie, Michigan. The Hollings' papers are at UCLA and the University of Oregon.

Two illustrations by Lucille Webster Holling from Kimo: The Whistling Boy by Alice Cooper Bailey (1928). Incidentally, an illustration I posted previously on this blog, drawn by Lucille and showing a biplane over a tropical coastline (at this link), is also from this book. It may or may not have been used as a travel poster.

Lucille Holling's lone cover for Oriental Stories (Autumn 1931) and perhaps her only pulp magazine cover. She would very likely have outclassed many in that field.

Finally, the cover of Songs from Around a Toadstool Table by Rowena Bastin Bennett (1937), drawn by Lucille Webster Holling.

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Ursula Koering (1921-1976)

According to the book Illustrators of Books for Young People by Martha E. Ward and Dorothy A. Marquardt (1970), Ursula Koering spent part of her childhood in Indiana. By my estimate, that makes her part Hoosier. If she would allow it, we would welcome her as all Hoosier.

Ursula A. Koering was born on December 22, 1921, in Vineland, New Jersey. She grew up on a small farm populated by "many dogs, cats, goats, pigs, pigeons, chickens, [and] even canaries and parakeets." Remembering her youth, Ursula wrote, "It seems to me that for years I drew only horses and more horses." Later the winner of many prizes, she collected her first for a drawing of Popeye even before she entered school. She made her first sale to Our Sunday Visitor, published in Huntington, Indiana.

Ursula came from an artistic family. Her father, Eustachius W. Koering, and her mother's father, Amour LeFevre, were glassblowers. Her grandfather, Louis Koering, was a wagon maker and wood carver. Ursula's mother, Mariette H. LeFevre Koering, was a native-born Hoosier and a painter. When Ursula was a child, Mariette began taking her to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for Saturday art classes. Ursula attended Sacred Heart Grade School and High School and later graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art. 

Ursula Koering loved working in clay and took post-graduate classes in clay modeling and ceramics. Unfortunately, she found out there weren't many opportunities for a woman in the field of sculpture. Instead she became an illustrator, first with Jack and Jill magazine (which is today published in Indianapolis), later for publishers of children's books. Her greatest achievement as an artist is surely the more than 200 books she illustrated in her brief life. One of her first was Petar’s Treasure: They Came From Dalmatia by Clara Ingram Judson (1879-1960), a prolific author of children's books and an Indiana author of note.

A partial list of books illustrated by Ursula Koering:

• A Cabin for Crusoe by David Severn (pseudonym of David Unwin) (1943)
• Petar’s Treasure: They Came From Dalmatia by Clara Ingram Judson (1945)
• Slappy Hooper, the Wonderful Sign Painter by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy (1946)
• Trucks at Work by Mary Elting (1946)
• The Adventures of Winnie and Bly by Anne H. White (1947)
• Trains at Work (1947)
• The Trolley Car Family by Eleanor Clymer (1947)
• Wagon for Five by David Severn (pseudonym of David Unwin) (1947)
• Worzel Gummidge: The Scarecrow of Scatterbrook Farm by Barbara Bower (1947)
• Patch by Mary Elting and Margaret Gossett (1948)
• The Picture Story of the Philippines by Hester O'Neill (1948)
• Celia's Lighthouse by Anne Molloy (1949)
• The First Book of Indians by Benjamin Brewster (pseudonym of Mary Elting) (1950)
• The Picture Story of Alaska by Hester O'Neill (1951)
• The Picture Story of Norway by Hester O'Neill (1951)
• The First Book of Eskimoes by Benjamin Brewster (pseudonym of Mary Elting) (1952)
• The First Book of Negroes by Langston Hughes (1952) 
• The Picture Story of Denmark by Hester O'Neill (1952)
• Shaken Days by Marion Garthwaite (1952)
• This Boy Cody and His Friends by Leon Wilson (1952)
• Red Sails on the James by Leone Adelson (1953)
• Machines at Work (1953)
• Peanut Butter Mascot by Helen D. Olds (1953)
• Rosemary's Secret by Irmengarde Eberle (1958)
• Antelope Singer by Ruth M. Underhill (1961)
• The Loner (1963)
• Mystery at Squaw Peak by William D. Hayes (1965)
• Spacecraft at Work by Mary Elting (1965)
• A Place by the Fire by William MacKellar (1967)
• The Long Year by Ester Wier (1969)
• Wilderness Winter by Mary Wolfe Thompson (1969)

Ursula's favorite subjects were people in costume, "any kind of costume, from caveman days up to the nineteen hundreds; and animals, any kind of animals." For The Picture Story of Norway, she and the author, Hester O'Neill, went to Norway and "traveled up and down fjords, climbed mountains, walked in the snow in June, and saw the midnight sun." Ursula later created coin faces for the Franklin Mint. She also taught at the Villa Rosella and the School of Industrial Arts and drew editorial cartoons for her local paper. 

"I hope I may always be able to illustrate books for children," she wrote for More Junior Authors, "and I hope boys and girls will always like to see my drawings." My hope is that children still love books as we all do when we are young and that Ursula Koering's books will always be available to young readers.

Ursula A. Koering died on December 22, 1976, her fifty-fifth birthday. Her mother remembered: "There was nothing that she could not do. But now, her beautiful hands are at rest."

Notes
Quotes are from More Junior Authors, edited by Muriel Fuller (1963) and Something About the Author, edited by Donna Olendorf, Vol. 64 (1991). There is a small collection of Ursula Koering's papers at the University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections.

Ursula Koering got her start as an illustrator with Jack and Jill. Here's an illustration for "The Bulls of Altamira," an article by Ursula for Jack and Jill from many years later (March 1969). 

Here is a two-page spread--a fascinating picture--from one of her first books, Trucks at Work by Mary Elting (1945). From a website called "We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie" by Ariel S. Winter.

Ursula A. Koering

"She was tall, blond, so graceful. She walked like a ballerina. Salesgirls asked me [her mother] if she was a model."

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Herbert Temple (1919-2011)

Herbert Temple was born in 1919 in Gary, Indiana, to Herbert Temple and Carey Britt Temple. He grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and graduated from Evanston Township High School before enlisting in the U.S. Army. Temple was a veteran of World War II and used his G.I. Bill benefits after the war to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. "He had been drawing his whole life," Temple's daughter, Janel Temple, remembered, "and he didn't want to go work in the steel mills or slaughterhouses. He envisioned a different future for himself." (1) His first job was at Container Corporation of America, where he designed cartons, containers, and packaging. In February 1953, Chicago publisher John H. Johnson hired Herbert Temple to be an artist on Ebony and Jet magazines. Temple was promoted to art director in 1967 and spent an amazing fifty-four years at the company. He also illustrated record covers and children's books. He and his daughter created JanTemp Greetings, a greeting card company. Herbert Temple lived on the South Side of Chicago and in South Holland, Illinois, and was involved in the South Side Community Arts Center. Herbert Temple died on April 13, 2011, in Hammond, Indiana, at the age of ninety-one.

Note

(1) Quoted in "Herbert Temple, 1919-2011: Longtime Art Director for Ebony and Jet Magazines" by Lolly Bowean, Chicago Tribune online, April 26, 2011.

Ebony, August 1969, with a cover illustration by Herbert Temple.

Text copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Ted Chambers (1920-2009)

Theodore T. "Ted" Chambers was born on November 21, 1920, in Indiana, probably in Indianapolis. His parents were William S. and Pearl Chambers, both from the South but in Indianapolis by 1920.

Ted Chambers graduated from Crispus Attucks High School, the Indianapolis high school for black students, in 1938. (Oscar Robertson also graduated from Crispus Attucks.) He studied architecture at Howard University, but only for a year and a half. By 1940 he was back in his home city and working as a draftsman.

Chambers joined the U.S. Navy in 1942. While in training in Boston, he became cartoon editor of Tracer, a monthly service magazine. A member of the first graduating class of black midshipmen, he was stationed in China towards the end of the war and was discharged in May 1946 after attaining the rank of lieutenant/junior grade.

Ted Chambers graduated from Tufts University and studied at the Art Students League in New York City. He began selling cartoons to Argosy, Pic, and This Week Magazine in the summer of 1947. He lived and worked as an artist in New York City as late as 1960 and specialized in product illustration. He also lived in Yonkers and Sag Harbor, New York, and in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators.

Ted Chambers, Sr., died on June 16, 2009. His last residence was Sarasota, Florida. He was survived by his wife, son, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Thanks very much to Ted Chambers, Jr., for the information used in this update (April 23, 2014). To Mr. Chambers: I am unable to reply to your comment in the space below, so I will reply here. If you have any artwork by your father that you would like me to post here, please send it along to:

info@hoosiercartoonists.com

I hope you don't mind that I have used the cartoons shown below. Thanks again.

Three magazine gag cartoons by Ted Chambers.

Text copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Clare Angell in Picture Postcard Monthly Magazine

Ken Dickinson and I recently collaborated on an article on the artist Clare Angell for Picture Postcard Monthly magazine. The article was published in the November 2013 issue and showcases some of Angell's art in full color. All the images are from Ken's collection. Picture Postcard Monthly is a British magazine. Their website is:

http://www.postcardcollecting.co.uk/

Clare Angell had only a tenuous connection to Indiana. In her book, Art and Artists of Indiana (1921), Mary Q. Burnet listed Angell as having been born in Goshen, Indiana. Public records tell a different story. If those records are accurate, then Angell was born on March 4, 1874, in Lansing, Michigan. His father, Eugene Angell (1848-1907) was also a native of Michigan. Clare Angell's mother, Mary Butterfield Angell (ca. 1853-?), was born in Indiana, probably in Goshen. In 1880 she was with her husband in Lansing. Eugene Angell, a banker and investor, became insolvent in 1883. Presumably he and his wife separated after that. The records of the 1890 census have of course been lost. They may very well have showed Clare Angell with his mother in Goshen, where she was enumerated in the 1900 census with her family. By then Clare Angell was on his own as an artist and probably living in New York City.

Clare Angell worked as a postcard artist and illustrator for about thirty years. Unfortunately, there aren't any records of him after the 1920s. If anyone knows anything more on Clare Eugene Angell, Ken Dickinson and I would very much like to hear from you.

The First World War began one hundred years ago this year. This postcard by Clare Angell will not be the last image you see in 2014 from that long-ago conflict.

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

All images are from the collection of Ken Dickinson.