Monday Cartoon Day.
In the 17th issue of Tom Heintjes excellent yearly magazine Hogan's Alley (which also has an article on Jack Cole by someone called Ger Appeldoorn) I read a nice article about cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo, who deviced and drew the They'll Do It Every Time panel. It mentions his start as a staff cartoonist, drawing mainly sports cartoons. I went to NewspaperArchive to find a few samples, but mostly found political cartoons. Well, I am not choosy, so here they are. Most are from 1932, which would suggest he later switched to sports cartoons primarily. Three more interesting items follow.
First, there is a mention of a sportsman 'not accepting' the old 'tip of the Hatlo hat' in a recent sports cartoon. This is something he did in They'll Do It Every Time as well, but apparently he originated it in his earlier work.
Secondly, there is a gag cartoon featuring Hatlo's trademark 'before and after' style of telling a gag. In fact, but for the title, this is a sort of precursor to the later feature, suggesting that the often told anacdote that he thought of the feature on the spot, when he had a gap to fill may have been an exaggeration. It is much more likely, he sort of drifted towards the idea over a couple of years.
The third item latches on to one of the most tantelizing aspects of the article. The writer mentions both the mysterious disappearance of Htalo's first wife on a ocan crossing and his 'famous temper' but doen not try to link the two together. Maybe I am just an old gossip monger, but those two things togther make me think (and must have made some people think): Did He Do It?
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