History of Hatlo: The Creation Myths

"His managing editor, Edgar T. “Scoop” Gleason, was frantic: He had a hole to fill in his comics page when Hearst abruptly ordered him to pull Billy DeBeck’s Bughouse Fables so it could run in the Examiner. (The other version of the story concerns a week’s worth of TAD’s Indoor Sports getting lost in the mail from the syndicate, leaving a hole in the newspaper.) Gleason prevailed upon Hatlo to produce something, pronto."  Ed Black - Hogans Alley

"One day in 1928, his managing editor asked him to dash off a cartoon to fill a space suddenly left vacant on the comics page."  San Francisco Examiner -Obituary 

"In 1928 while he was an artist on the now defunct Call, the managing editor told him, 'We've just lost Bug-House Fables.  You'll have to draw something to fill up the space until we buy another feature.'"  Associated Press - Obituary

"He had to draw a cartoon when a package of cartoons from the syndicate failed to arrive." Lambiek Comiclopedia 

"Hatlo's breakthrough came when a shipment of panels from syndicated cartoonist Tad  Dorgan failed to arrive in the mail.  Hatlo was tasked with creating something to fill the space, which led to the creation of They'll Do It Every Time."  Chris Krol - ToonsMag

Which version of the They'll Do It Every Time creation myth is the closest to the truth? The obituary from the San Francisco Examiner provides the simplest, and surprisingly, most accurate explanation, but even then, they still got the date wrong.

Going straight to the source (the archives of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin), here is the essential reality of the very beginning of TDIET.  A square single panel comic cartoon entitled They'll Do It Every Time debuted in the Call-Bulletin on Monday, February 4, 1929.  It appeared with the paper's other comics on page 20, initially in the bottom left corner.  While not having a byline, the comic displayed the signature "Jimmy Hatlo" in the top left corner of the panel.  It has been long and incorrectly documented that the premiere date was February 5, 1929, with the Hogan's Alley article even featuring an image of the wrong installment.

Myth #1: Bughouse Fables

The notion that the loss of the cartoon Bughouse Fables created the vacancy that Hatlo needed to fill is easily debunked.  The single panel strip was never published in the San Francisco Call-Bulletin.  It was a regular feature of the San Francisco Examiner and had been since 1921. 

Myth #2: Tad's Indoor Sports

The single panel comic Indoor Sports by Tad Dorgan was featured on the Call-Bulletin's sports page, so it could not have caused a vacancy in the comics section.  Also, installments of the strip were published in the Call-Bulletin the week of February 3rd, so apparently nothing was lost in the mail.  This premise may have been rooted in the fact that Dorgan passed away in May of 1929 and Hatlo was likely recruited to help fill the space that Indoor Sports had occupied on the sports page.

The actual reason for the vacancy on the comics page is not nearly as exciting as lost syndicate shipments or William Randolph Hearst comic strip shuffling.  There appears to be a rather simple explanation.  The syndicated column Maybe I'm Wrong by humorist John P. Medbury that occupied that corner of the page was moved to a different part of the paper.  Managing Editor Gleason likely wanted or needed to move the column to another location and then simply recruited his staff artist/cartoonist to fill in the white space.  Almost immediately popular, TDIET would quickly slide up to the top left side of the comics page, a coveted spot it would occupy until 1934.

UP NEXT:  The Road to Syndication

History of Hatlo

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Los Angeles and Apologies to Gale

Part 3: Gasoline Gossip

Part 4: Cartoonist on Call

History of Hatlo: Cartoonist On Call

When Jimmy Hatlo assumed the position of automobile editor of the San Francisco Call in January of 1925, it appeared that he had once again put his cartoonist days behind him. For nine months he presided over all things automotive at the Call, primarily focused on a weekly Wednesday page entitled The Automotive Section, but later rechristened Motordom under Hatlo's stewardship. Quite a bit of Hatlo's reporting during the spring and summer of 1925 focused on nearby Yosemite National Park, which had recently been opened to automobile traffic. Such was his local fame and reputation that he even occasioned a portrait photo with his byline.

Hatlo the cartoonist reemerged in October of that year as described by Ed Black in his Hogan's Alley article:

"During that time in California, football reigned supreme, and no team was more revered than the University of California at Berkeley. Berkeley had gone undefeated for five years running and was the pride of the Bay Area. A loss to a team composed of former college all-stars called the Olympic Club sent shock waves through the community. A football nut himself, Hatlo drew a cartoon about the loss. Reluctant to deliver the cartoon directly to the Call ’s sports editor, Pat Frayne, he waited until Frayne was out of the office and placed the cartoon on his desk. The next day, the cartoon greeted Hatlo on the front page of the paper’s sports section."

The cartoon was entitled "Christmas on Mt. Olympus" and spanned across five columns of an eight-column page. It distinctly overshadowed the Call's coverage of the game in an article that appeared below it. Hatlo had returned to what was clearly his first love, and in a big way. The cartoon was an immediate success and Pat Frayne wanted more.

And Frayne got more.  And quickly.  Hatlo immediately established a publishing routine that focused on the college football weekly schedule.  He would produce a Friday cartoon that would anticipate the weekend matchups, then follow up with Monday episode lampooning the results. He also peppered in additional material throughout the week, whether self-commissioned or requested by Frayne. Likely feeling just a bit liberated, he even dropped a cartoon onto the automotive page which he continued to edit.  

When football season ended, so did Hatlo's cartooning resurgence, at least until the following spring when it appears Call managing editor Freemont Older recruited him for content that expanded beyond sports into general interest and political humor.  On March 1, Hatlo delivered a cartoon that could certainly be seen as a precursor to They'll Do It Every Time.  Entitled "Spring is in the Air," it featured a husband squeamishly reviewing the price list at a spring fashion show while his wife gushes.  As time and his endeavors would show, Hatlo would never completely abandon an idea or detail that could possibly serve his needs later.  The husband's name was Henry and he bore a distinct resemblance to the character who would become one of TDIET's most popular recurring cast members - Henry Tremblechin.

"Spring is in the Air" marked the arrival of Hatlo on the Call's editorial page and established a residency of sorts as one of the paper's cartoonists.  His contributions to the editorial page would mix both topical and political content and typically appear two to three times a week.  He would pen the occasional vignettes for the sports page throughout the year but dominated the section again once football season began in earnest in the fall.  Thus began the transition of Hatlo from automobile editing to full-time cartooning, and the Call editors were more than happy to allow him to unleash his inner artist over the next few years.

Such was Hatlo's popularity and success, that on a fateful day in 1929 when there was a sudden vacancy to fill on the Call's comic page, managing editor Edgar Gleason knew he already had a man for the job.

UP NEXT:  The Creation Myths of They'll Do It Every Time

History of Hatlo

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Los Angeles and Apologies to Gale

Part 3: Gasoline Gossip

History of Hatlo: Gasoline Gossip

Sometime in early 1919, Jimmy Hatlo left Los Angeles behind and traveled north up the California coast. His name next appeared in print in the March 23rd edition of the Oakland Tribune. Referred to as "CARTOONIST HATLO," he reported on the Santa Monica Races, once again pursuing his interest in automobiles. Hatlo would be credited for cartoons at the Tribune nine more times through the end of that year.

In the Hogan's Alley article, Ed Black reports that after World War I, Hatlo worked briefly as a movie publicist before moving to an agency that represented automobile dealers. His Tribune material was comprised entirely of automobile related content, with a particular focus on Chevrolet, supporting the notion that Hatlo was working for an outside interest and not necessarily on the Tribune staff. In fact, one of Hatlo's Tribune cartoons showcased a Chevrolet branch manager and "his aggressive sales organization," further reinforcing the publicist nature of his work there.

In January of 1920, it is noted in multiple bay area newspapers that Hatlo was working for the Elliot Pabst Company while acting as an official observer of a Fageol-manufactured truck test run between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Hatlo would ultimately write an article on the Fageol demonstration for the Tribune.  Throughout much of 1920 and into early 1921, he would continue to produce "publicity" cartoons that appeared in various California newspapers.

Black reports that Hatlo became the automobile page editor of the San Francisco Bulletin in 1923, but that actually occurred earlier in 1921.  The Automotive Section was a weekly feature of the Bulletin, published every Saturday.  Hatlo assumed his editorial duties on May 7, 1921.  Cartooning immediately took a back seat (pun intended) and his bylines became attached to articles, not art.  In July of 1923, he started his own weekly column entitled Gasoline Gossip, that featured a cartoon self portrait in the header.  On May 28, 1924, Hatlo was featured in a front page in-house advertisement showcasing five Bulletin staffers.  The ad described him as a "former cartoonist" who is now one of the "best-liked automobile writers on the Pacific coast."

In September of 1924, two significant things happened.  First, Hatlo was elected to the position of vice president of the San Francisco Press Club, further reinforcing his newspaper reporting credentials. But then ironically, he returned to his artistic roots and created a new cartoon for the Automobile Section.  It was his first large scale, full panel effort in three years.  It was especially significant in that it would foreshadow material Hatlo would produce some three decades later for Sunday editions of TDIET.  Entitled "If There Be Hell Then Pity These," it could easily be considered the very first episode of Hatlo's Inferno.  Hatlo produced one more auto-themed cartoon for the Bulletin in late October.  It was his last printed work for the paper.  It can be assumed that this was when he left the Bulletin to become the automobile editor at the San Francisco Call.  His first byline for the Call appeared on January 3, 1925.

UP NEXT:  The sports cartoon that set everything in motion.

History of Hatlo

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Los Angeles and Apologies to Gale