American cartoonist and animator (1895-1953)
Milt Gross
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Born
| (
1895-03-04
)
March 4, 1895
Bronx, New York
, U.S.
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Died
| November 29, 1953
(1953-11-29)
(aged 58)
Pacific Ocean
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Area(s)
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Notable works
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Milt Gross
(
; March 4, 1895 ? November 29, 1953) was an American cartoonist and animator. His work is noted for its exaggerated cartoon style and
Yiddish
-inflected English dialogue. He originated the non-sequitur "Banana Oil!" as a phrase deflating pomposity and posing. His character
Count Screwloose
's admonition, "Iggy, keep an eye on me!", became a national
catchphrase
. The
National Cartoonists Society
fund to aid indigent cartoonists and their families, for many years was known as the Milt Gross Fund. In 2005, it was absorbed by the Society's Foundation, which continues the charitable work of the Fund.
[1]
Comic strips and books
[
edit
]
Gross was born in
the Bronx
and served as a soldier in
World War I
.
[2]
[3]
After apprenticing as a teenage assistant to
Tad Dorgan
, Gross's first comic strip was
Phool Phan Phables
for the
New York Journal
, begun when he was 20, featuring a rabid sports fan named George Phan. It was one of several short-lived comic strips (and other undertakings, including his first
animated film
) before his first success,
Gross Exaggerations
, which began as an illustrated column, "Gross Exaggerations in the Dumbwaiter", in the
New York World
.
[4]
Originally titled
Banana Oil
until 1925, the comic strip was retitled
Gross Exaggerations
until becoming
The Feitelbaum Family
on June 1, 1926, and finally
Looy Dot Dope
on January 7, 1927.
[4]
Its
Yinglish
vocabulary would set the tone for much of Gross' work, as would its reworkings of well-known tales, as in "Nize Ferry-tail from
Elledin
witt de Wanderful Lemp" and "
Jack witt de Binn Stuck
". These were gathered in a 1926 book
Nize Baby
, which evolved into a
Sunday newspaper color comic strip
.
[2]
[3]
Also in 1926, he published
Hiawatta witt No Odder Poems
, a 40-page parody of
Longfellow
's
The Song of Hiawatha
, each of its pages, in the words of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., "with a barely decipherable stanza and a drawing which only sometimes helped".
[2]
In subsequent years, Gross followed with
De Night in de Front from Chreesmas
,
Dunt Esk
(1927) and
Famous Fimmales witt Odder Ewents from Heestory
(1928).
In 1930, Gross published what many consider his masterpiece, the pantomime tale
He Done Her Wrong
: The Great American Novel and Not a Word in It ? No Music, Too
. Minus words, this "novel" is composed entirely of pen-and-ink cartoons, nearly 300 pages long, and is comparable to such silent films serials as
The Perils of Pauline
.
It resembled (and parodied)
Lynd Ward
's
Gods' Man
, the first American
wordless novel
, published the previous year.
[5]
[
citation needed
]
. It has been reprinted several times, including an abridged version in 1983 (retitled
Hearts of Gold
) and in 2005 by
Fantagraphics
, under its original title.
[2]
[3]
Starting in 1931, Gross worked for the
Hearst chain
, doing various syndicated comic strips and Sunday
topper
strips, including
Dave's Delicatessen
,
Banana Oil
,
Pete the Pooch
,
Count Screwloose from Tooloose
,
Babbling Brooks
,
Otto and Blotto
,
The Meanest Man
,
Draw Your Own Conclusion
,
I Did It and I'm Glad!
and
That's My Pop!
(which later became a radio show). While his strips' vocabulary moved closer to standard English over time, his work always maintained Yiddish touches. In 1936, he illustrated two books in collaboration,
Pasha the Persian
(by Margaret Linden) and
What's This?
(with Robert M. Low and Lou Wedemar).
[2]
In 1945, the year of his book
Dear Dollink
, he suffered a heart attack and went into semi-retirement. His last book was
I Shouda Ate the Eclair
(published 1946), in which one Mr. Figgits nearly starts World War III because he refuses to eat a chocolate
eclair
. In 1946?47, his work appeared in the short-lived comic book
Picture News
.
[2]
[3]
His final published work appeared in the pages of comic books published by
American Comics Group
, including two issues of
Milt Gross Funnies
. In 1950, two of his earlier books were combined as
Hiawatta and De Night in De Front From Chreesmas
.
[2]
Animation
[
edit
]
Gross made occasional animated films through the
silent film
era, including
The Ups & Downs of Mr. Phool Phan
(his first),
Useless Hints by Fuller Prunes
,
Izzy Able the Detective
and
How My Vacation Spent Me
. Most of these were for
Bray Productions
, the studio of
John R. Bray
.
[3]
Others were for Universal.
In 1939, he returned to animation with two MGM cartoons,
Jitterbug Follies
and
Wanted: No Master
, featuring Count Screwloose (voiced by
Mel Blanc
) and J.R. The Wonderdog.
[3]
According to
Bill Littlejohn
, they were both extremely funny works. But
Fred Quimby
thought them to be too vulgar and had Gross fired.
[6]
Gross would also co-write the 1943
Screen Gems
cartoon
He Can't Make It Stick
(directed by
John Hubley
and Paul Sommer)
,
after he pitched the story to then-producer
Dave Fleischer
and writer Stephen Longstreet.
[7]
Death
[
edit
]
On November 29, 1953, Gross died of a heart attack aboard the
Pacific Ocean
liner
SS
Monterey
, while returning from a Hawaiian vacation with his wife. He was buried at
Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
in
Culver City
, California. At the time of his death, he was developing a children's TV show starring his character Pete the Pooch, which combined animation with live-action footage of Gross as host. Two pilot episodes were completed but never shown to the public.
Legacy
[
edit
]
In 2009 the
New York University Press
published
Is Diss a System?: A Milt Gross Comic Reader
,
[8]
which argues for Gross' importance as a link between the cartooning cultures of the first and second halves of the 20th century, especially as they related to Jewish culture.
[9]
[10]
In August 1971,
Dover Publications
reprinted
Nize Baby
. In 2010, cartoon historian
Craig Yoe
edited
The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story
, a complete collection of the Gross comic book stories from the 1940s with a lengthy illustrated biography by Yoe and an
Al Jaffee
introduction.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Banana Oil!
(1924) M.S. Publishing Co.
- Nize Baby
(1926) George H. Dolan Company
- Hiawatta witt No Odder Poems
(1926) George H. Doran Co.
- De Night in de Front from Chreesmas
(1927) George H. Doran Co.
- Dunt Esk!!
(1927) Grosset & Dunlap
- Famous Fimmales witt Odder Ewents from Heestory
(1928) Doubleday, Doran & Co.
- He Done Her Wrong
(1930) Doubleday, Doran & Co.
- What's This?
(with Robert M. Low and Lou Wedemar) (1936) Simon and Schuster
- Pasha the Persian
by Margaret Linden, illustrated by Milt Gross (1936) Claude Kendall, Inc.
- That's My Pop Goes Nuts for Fair: A Cartoon Tour of New York
(1939) The Bystander Press. Reprinted 2015 as
Milt Gross’ New York: A Lost Graphic Novel
[11]
- Dear Dollink
(1945) G.P. Putnam's Sons
- I Shoulda Ate the Eclair
(1946) Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.
- Milt Gross Funnies #1
(August 1947) American Comics Group
- Milt Gross Funnies #2
(September 1947) American Comics Group
- Hiawatta and De Night in de Front from Chreesmas
(1950) Doubleday
- The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics
(1977) Bill Blackbeard, ed., Smithsonian Institution Press/Harry Abrams
- He Done Her Wrong
(Reprinted 2006) Fantagraphics
ISBN
1-56097-694-2
- Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900?1969
(2006) Dan Nadel, ed., Abrams
ISBN
0-8109-5838-4
- Is Diss a System?: A Milt Gross Comic Reader
(2009) Ari Kelman, ed., NYU Press
ISBN
0-8147-4823-6
- The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story
(2010) Craig Yoe, ed., IDW Publishing
ISBN
1-60010-546-7
- Gross Exaggerations: The Meshuga Comic Strips of Milt Gross
(2020) Peter Maresca, ed.
Sunday Press Books
ISBN
978-0-98355-048-8
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"NCS"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2008-10-03
. Retrieved
2008-09-30
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Vadeboncoeur Jr.
"Milt Gross"
. Bud Plant Illustrated Books
. Retrieved
2008-09-30
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Markstein, Don.
"Milt Gross"
.
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
. Retrieved
2006-10-25
.
- ^
a
b
Markstein, Don.
"Milt Gross"
. Don Markstein's Toonopedia.
Archived
from the original on April 15, 2012
. Retrieved
2015-08-22
.
- ^
Milt Gross (January 2006). "An Appreciation by
Paul Karasik
".
He Done Her Wrong
. Fantagraphics.
ISBN
978-1560976943
.
- ^
Cohen (2004), p. 40
- ^
"MichaelBarrier.com -- Interviews: John Hubley"
.
www.michaelbarrier.com
. Retrieved
2023-08-12
.
- ^
"Here's to You, Mrs. Feitlebaum" by J.W. Joselit
New Republic
17 Feb. 2010
- ^
Leiter, Robert (April 1, 2010).
"A Certain 'Patois'
"
.
The Jewish Exponent
.
Archived
from the original on March 14, 2012
. Retrieved
August 22,
2015
.
- ^
Paul Buhle,
"Grossed Out, Or Remembered At Last? A Genius of Comic Confusion"
,
The Forward
, April 9, 2010.
- ^
Heller, Steven (2 April 2015).
"Rediscovering a Lost Predecessor to the Graphic Novel"
.
The Atlantic
. Retrieved
6 April
2015
.
Sources
[
edit
]
External links
[
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]
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International
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National
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Artists
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Other
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