Clare A. Briggs(August 5, 1875 – January 3, 1930) was an early Americancomic stripartist who rose to fame in 1904 with his stripA. Piker Clerk.Briggs was best known for his later comic stripsWhen a Feller Needs a Friend,Ain't It a Grand and Glorious Feeling?,The Days of Real Sport,[1]andMr. and Mrs.
| Clare Briggs | |
|---|---|
 Briggs in 1922 | |
| Born | August 5, 1875 Reedsburg, Wisconsin |
| Died | January 3, 1930(aged 54) Baltimore |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
Notable works | When a Feller Needs a Friend Ain't It a Grand and Glorious Feeling? The Days of Real Sport Mr. and Mrs.. |
| Spouse(s) | Ruth Owen
(m.1900;div.1929)Marie C. Briggs a.k.a. Maggie Touhey
(m.1929–1930) |
| Children | 3 |
Early life
editBorn inReedsburg, Wisconsin,[2]Briggs lived there until the age of nine. In 1884, his family moved toDixon, Illinois,where he started his newspaper career at age ten, delivering the local paper to subscribers for 40 cents a week while wearing a red, white and blue cap with the name of the newspaper.
Briggs had three brothers, who grew up to all have creative careers, one as a musician, one as a writer, and the third in advertising. After five years in Dixon, Briggs was 14 when his family relocated toLincoln, Nebraska,where he lived until 1896 when he was 21. Life in the Midwest gave Briggs the source material for the small town Americana that he later depicted in his cartoons.[1][3]
A push from Pershing
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While attending theUniversity of Nebraskafor two years, he studied drawing and stenography. Employment as a stenographer brought him six dollars a week when the work was available. One of his art instructors was an editor withWestern Penman,where his first published drawings appeared. His mathematics teacher was LieutenantJohn J. Pershing."If ever a fellow needed a friend, I did in mathematics," said Briggs. "It happened that Lieutenant Pershing was my instructor, and I believe he will testify that it was easier to conquer Germany than to teach me math. One day he ordered me to the blackboard to demonstrate a theorem, and while I was giving the problem a hard but losing battle, he remarked: 'Briggs, sit down, you don't know anything.' Right then and there, I decided to become a newspaper man."[1]
On July 18, 1900, he married Ruth Owen of Lincoln. He began his career as a newspaper sketch artist inSt. Louis, Missouriwith theGlobe-Democrat,which sent him off to cover theSpanish–American Waras aneditorial cartoonist.Relocating in New York, his drawings for theNew York JournalpromptedWilliam Randolph Hearstto send Briggs to theChicago Heraldand theChicago's American,where he createdA. Piker Clerk,often described as the firstdaily continuity comic strip.After 17 years in Chicago (living in the community ofRiverside, Illinois), Briggs returned to New York to spend the remaining 13 years of his life with theNew York Tribune.He lived in to the suburban community ofNew Rochelle,a well-knownart colonyand home to a majority of the top commercial illustrators of the day.[4] During the 1920s, the New Rochelle Art Association commissioned its best known artists to create a series of signs on major roadways to mark the borders, including "New Rochelle The Place To Come When a Feller Needs a Friend", which was created by Briggs representing one of his major comics, "When a Feller Needs a Friend".
Clare and Ruth Owen Briggs were together for 29 years and had three children.[5]They divorced in February 1929. Briggs died ten months later, leaving his estate of $90,067 to Ruth Briggs. However, the will was challenged by his second wife, Marie C. Briggs, aka Maggie Touhey.[6][7]
Vaudeville, films and radio
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Briggs was a popular lecturer, earning $100 for a single speech. He accepted a five-week contract for $500 a week to appear on thevaudevillecircuit in 1914. In 1919, he produced four comedy film shorts forParamount Pictures.
TheMr. and Mrs.radio series, based on Briggs' strip, starredJack Smartand Jane Houston as Jo and Vi. The series was broadcast on CBS from 1929 to 1931.
Nationalcatchphrasescaught on from the titles of some of his newspaper cartoon features:Ain't It a Grand and Glorious Feeling?,Danny Dreamer,The Days of Real Sport,Movie of a Man,Mr. and Mrs,Real Folks at Home,Someone's Always Taking the Joy Out of Life,There's at Least One in Every OfficeandWhen a Feller Needs a Friend.Mr. and Mrs.ran during the last years of his life and continued in syndication by theNew York Herald Tribune Syndicateafter his death under his name. (The names ofArthur Folwelland Ellison Hoover finally appeared on the strip in 1938;Frank Fogartyillustrated the Sunday strips from 1930 to 1946.) In 1947, the strip was taken over byKin Platt,who continued it until 1963.[8]
His daughter, Clare Briggs, also was a comic strip artist and had an eponymous strip syndicated from 1939 through 1941. She used the name "Miss Clare Briggs" to distinguish her work from her father's.[9][10]
In September 1929, neuritis of the optic nerve led Briggs to Baltimore for treatment atJohns Hopkins Hospital.He died at the Neurological Institute of pneumonia on January 3, 1930.[5]As he had requested, his ashes were scattered over New York Harbor.
Briggs' death in 1930 promptedFranklin P. Adamsto write:
I feel acutely the loss of a cartoonist whose work I have enjoyed hugely for 30 years. I enjoyed it so much that I got him to leave Chicago so that his work could appear in theNew York Tribunewith mine. It helped the paper so much that Clare stayed there for 15 years, seven years longer than I did. To my notion, he drew no dud cartoons. I never knew anyone who so enjoyed working. Often while drawing a cartoon I have seen him laugh uproariously at it. He was a sweet and merry boy, if a rotten poker player, and the public, poorer for his leaving it, is a big winner in having him at all.[1]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abcd"Claire Briggs - Cartoon Genius Dies at 54"
- ^"Clare A. Briggs".City of Reedsburg, Wisconsin.RetrievedMay 21,2014.
- ^"Cartoonist Briggs' Characters Are His Friends in Wisconsin".Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. 21 July 1924.Retrieved11 April2012.
- ^"New Rochelle - Arts City".Archived fromthe originalon 2014-10-26.Retrieved2014-12-06.
- ^ab"Clare Briggs, Famous Cartoonist, Is Dead".The Bulletin. 4 January 1930.Retrieved12 April2012.
- ^"Clare Briggs Divorced; Wife of Cartoonist Gets Decree in White Plains".New York Times.21 May 1929.Retrieved12 April2012."A final decree of divorce was granted today by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Morschauser to Mrs. Ruth Owen Briggs,..." (pay per view)
- ^"Clare Briggs' Will Attacked By Second Wife".Chicago Tribune. 22 January 1930. Archived fromthe originalon July 18, 2012.Retrieved12 April2012."Mrs. Marie Briggs, second wife of Clare A. Briggs, the cartoonist, started suit today In Surrogate's court to break his will," (pay per view)
- ^Markstein, Don."Mr. and Mrs.,"Toonpedia.Accessed Dec. 23, 2017.
- ^Miss Clare Briggs (17 June 1939)."How To Start the Day Wrong".The Milwaukee Journal. Archived fromthe originalon 24 September 2015.Retrieved11 April2012.
- ^"All the Famous Clare Briggs Cartoons Are Back".The Ottawa Citizen. 26 May 1939.Retrieved11 March2012.
Sources
edit- Strickler, Dave.Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index.Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995.ISBN0-9700077-0-1
External links
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