Where and when does the History of Hato begin?
For my purposes here, I am starting the story with what appears to be Jimmy Hatlo's first attributed work as a cartoonist. The biographical background is that Hatlo dropped out of high school after his freshman year and to took a job as a linotype apprentice with the Los Angeles Times. He moved to the art department of the paper in 1917. While likely doing unattributed work such as spot illustrations and advertising pieces, his Hatlo signature first appeared on October 6, 1917; the art was a page wide banner cartoon featuring silhouettes of individuals celebrating the beginning of the 1917 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants.
Featured on the same page was a one-panel comic entitled "The Battle of Ball Run" by the Times own established cartoonist Ted Gale. It would be the first in a series of sports page vignettes about the World Series that Gale would hand over to Hatlo beginning with the fifth installment. It noted, "continued by Hatlo" in the bottom right corner.
Installment #6 would further elevate the young staff artist. The cartoon credited Hatlo a byline at the top right which he would retain for the remainder of the series. He signed the piece with "apologies to Gale." The art distinctly showed the influence of Bud Fisher's Mutt & Jeff, a comic strip the Times was then running. "The Battle of Ball Run" concluded with the eleventh installment which showcased the triumphant White Sox. The illustrations Hatlo produced featured rather strong and often stark World War I imagery including trench warfare, bombs, a field ambulance, tanks and biplanes. Following the conclusion of the World Series, Hatlo produced a few additional cartoons for the Times sports page throughout the rest of October 1917.
Hatlo surfaced again on November 13th with another full page banner cartoon, this time featured on the paper's Automobile page and tied to the city's Auto Show. Four days later he produced a cartoon recapping the show entitled "Impressions of the Auto Show by Our Eminent Cartoonist."
These cartoons from late 1917 would be prescient of the subjects that would largely influence and inform Hatlo's output for the next two decades. Sports and automobiles, but primarily sports, would more or less define Hatlo's work in the years leading up to the debut of TDIET. He would byline additional material at the Times throughout 1918 but it was occasional rather than consistent. Thirteen bylines can be found, all relating to either sports or automobiles.
As previously noted, I'm primarily using the 2012 Hogan's Alley article "Jimmy Hatlo-Man of Many Hats" by Ed Black as my biographical source material, but I have found one inconsistency with it and my own research. Black states that " . . .in early 1918 some of his cartoons about Kaiser Wilhelm made the front page as editorial cartoons." As noted, there are thirteen Hatlo bylines in 1918, but none made the front page nor were any editorial in nature. It is possible that material by Times cartoonist Ted Gale has been mistakenly identified as belonging to Hatlo. Gale's editorial cartoons frequently made page one and there is at least one example of his work featuring Wilhelm in January of 1918. Gale's and Hatlo's styles are similar and it is possible the young Hatlo was emulating the more experienced Gale.
UP NEXT: Hatlo travels up the California coast to Oakland and San Francisco
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