LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - OCTOBER 29, 2017 Football Season and Now’s the Time for Jell-O by Lynne Belluscio In the 1950s, Jell-O featured a series of cartoons which ap- peared in the Saturday Eve- ning Post and Life Magazine. What is intriguing is that some of the best known cartoonists contributed to this advertising campaign. Hank Ketchum was famous for his long running carton strip, Dennis the Men- ace. Syd Hoff was known for many children’s books includ- ing “Danny and the Dinosaur.” Stanley and Janice Berenstain were known for the Berenstain Bears, which still airs on televi- sion. William Steig was known as the “King of Cartoons and forty years after his Jell-O car- toon appeared, he wrote about a repugnant and monstrous ogre who leaves home and saves a Princess. He named the ogre “Shrek” in 2001, Steig’s Shrek was made into a blockbuster movie. The cartoon about the football team is by Whit- ney Darrow Jr. He was born in Princeton, New Jersey where his father was one of the found- ers of the Princeton University Press. Young Darrow graduat- ed from Princeton in 1931. He studied with the artist Thomas Hart Benton. At first he first thought he would become a writer, but in 1933, at the age of 24 he sold a cartoon to The New Yorker. His cartoons ap- peared in The New Yorker for over fifty years. Occasional- ly his art would appear on the cover. It is said that he helped the cartoon evolve from a gag style humor to a commentary on character. He illustrated for the author Jean Kerr. Her books in- cluded “The Snake Has All the Lines” and “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.” Darrow published four collections of his cartoons, “You’re Sitting on My Eyelash- es,” “Give Up?” “Stop, Miss” and “Please Pass the Hostess.” Darrow died in 1999.