Harold Teen
Encyclopedia
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
written and drawn by Carl Ed . Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson
Joseph Medill Patterson
Joseph Medill Patterson was an American journalist and publisher, grandson of publisher Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune and a mayor of Chicago, Illinois.-Family:...
may have suggested, and certainly approved, the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
's successful novel Seventeen
Seventeen (novel)
Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William is a humorous novel by Booth Tarkington that gently satirizes first love, in the person of a callow 17-year-old, William Sylvanus Baxter. Seventeen takes place in a small city in the Midwestern United States shortly...
. Asked in the late 1930s why he had started the strip, Ed answered, "Twenty years ago, there was no comic strip on adolescence. I thought every well-balanced comic sheet should have one."
Sundaes on Sunday
Under the title The Love Life of Harold Teen, it debuted as a Sunday stripSunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
in the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
on May 4, 1919, and a few months later it was nationally syndicated by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate
Tribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...
. A daily strip
Daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
was added later that year. The strip did a good job of representing the Jazz Age
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged. The movement came about with the introduction of mainstream radio and the end of the war. This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has...
and became a minor cultural icon of its time. The principal characters were Covina High School
Covina High School
Covina High School, commonly known as Covina High or CHS to the students, is a public high school located in Covina, California, United States. Covina High School is one of three comprehensive high schools within the Covina-Valley Unified School District. Established in 1897, Covina High is...
student Harold Teen, his girlfriend Lillums Lovewell, his diminutive sidekick Shadow Smart and Pop Jenks, proprietor of the Sugar Bowl soda shop
Soda shop
A Soda shop, also often known as a Malt shop, is a business akin to an ice cream parlor and a drugstore soda fountain. Interiors were often furnished with a large mirror behind a marble counter with gooseneck spouts, plus spinning stools, round marble-topped tables and wireframe sweetheart...
where Harold consumed Gedunk sundaes
Gedunk bar
A Gedunk bar or geedunk bar is the canteen or snack bar of a large vessel of the United States Navy. A service member who works in the geedunk is traditionally referred to only as that "geedunk guy" or "geedunk girl", or more informally as a "geedunkaroo". The term was popular during World War II...
. The Sugar Bowl (aka Ye Sugar Bowl) also sold "Sodas and how" and advertised "the biggest soda in town."
Pop Jenks was inspired by the real-life Pop Walters, who ran a soda fountain and stationery shop across from the high school Ed attended in Moline, Illinois
Moline, Illinois
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
. The Gedunk sundaes reached such popularity that Ed had to answer requests for a recipe. In the 1928 Hrold Teen film, the sundae is a soupy concoction of ice cream and hot chocolate which is eaten by "gedunking" a large ladyfinger cookie in it. As noted in Random House’s Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the word "gedunk" soon entered military slang to refer to snack shops and ice cream beginning with a 1931 usage in Leatherneck Magazine
Leatherneck Magazine
Leatherneck Magazine of the Marines is a magazine for United States Marines. It was first published as a newspaper by off-duty Marines at Marine Corps Base Quantico in 1917, and was originally named The Quantico Leatherneck...
.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Harold joined the Navy. In the post-war period, the strip failed to retain its relevance. When Ed, who lived at 711 Michigan Avenue in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
, died in 1959, his once-popular comic strip died with him.
Three different topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
strips by Carl Ed ran on his page, positioned beneath Harold Teen: The Absent Minded Professor (early 1930s), Josie (1930s and early 1940s) and Myrtle (1940s).
In other media
Willard P. Farnum (1906-1994) and Charles Flynn portrayed Harold Teen in the 1941 radio series which aired on Tuesday evenings at 7:30pm. Willard WatermanWillard Waterman
Willard Lewis Waterman was a character actor in films, TV and on radio, remembered best for succeeding Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve at the height of that show's popularity.Peary was unable to convince sponsor and show owner Kraft Cheese to allow him an ownership...
was also in the cast.
Carl Ed received writing credit for both film adaptations of Harold Teen. Tap dancer Hal Le Roy
Hal Le Roy
Hal Le Roy was a dancer, actor and singer appearing on stage, in film and on television.-Career:Le Roy was born John LeRoy Schotte in Cincinnati in 1913. He broke into New York theater as a dancer, and quickly worked his way into Broadway roles where his dance style created a sensation in the 1931...
had the title role in the 1934 movie musical Harold Teen. In the 1928 silent version, Harold was portrayed by Arthur Lake
Arthur Lake (actor)
Arthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio and television.-Early life and career:...
, best known for his many performances as Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead is a main character in comic artist Chic Young's long-running comic strip Blondie. He first appeared sometime prior to 17 February 1933....
. The Educational Screen commented:
- The lovelorn hero of the comic strips is delightfully done by Arthur Lake who is the real Spirit of Seventeen. Everybody and everything you've laughed over in the papers is there, including Lillums, Horace, Beezie, the Gedunk sundae and the autographed Ford and slicker.
Kansas City jazz band pianist Joe Sanders wrote a song about the "Don Juan of comic strip fame", describing him as a "human love machine" and as "romance personified". A performance by the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra
Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra
Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts...
can be heard in the March 1, 1929 episode of the Maytag Frolics radio program.
See also
- Aggie MackAggie MackAggie Mack was a newspaper comic strip about a teenage girl. Created by Hal Rasmusson, it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate beginning in 1946. It had a 26-year run, with a title change to Aggie during the final six years....
- Etta KettEtta KettEtta Kett was a long-run comic strip created by Paul Robinson. Launched as a single panel during December 1925, it originally offered tips to teenagers on manners, etiquette and the social graces...
- Freckles and His FriendsFreckles and His FriendsFreckles and his Friends was a popular American comic strip set in the peaceful small town of Shadyside where young Freckles McGoosey and his friends live...
- Marty LinksMarty LinksMarty Links was an American cartoonist best known for her syndicated comic strip Emmy Lou.-Biography:Born Martha Arguello in Oakland, California, she moved with her family to San Francisco, where she grew up...
- PennyPenny (comic strip)Penny was a comic strip about a teenage girl by Harry Haenigsen which maintained its popularity for almost three decades. It was distributed by the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate from 1943 to 1970....
- TeenaTeenaTeena is a cartoon panel series and comic strip about a teenage girl, created by Hilda Terry. It ran from 1944 to 1966, distributed by King Features Syndicate....
- Zits