George Baker (May 22, 1915 – May 7, 1975) was a cartoonist who became prominent during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as the creator of the popular comic strip '' The Sad Sack''. The 1957 comedy film '' The Sad Sack'' starring Jerry Lewis was based on Baker's fictional character.

Biography

Early life and education

Baker was born in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, living there until 1923. He grew up in Rock Island, Illinois, and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. In Chicago, he attended

Lane Tech High School In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each ...

and graduated from Roosevelt High, where he played baseball and drew pictures for the high school annual.

Commercial artist

After six weeks of art training in a night school, he got a job as a commercial artist "but soon grew tired of drawing pots and pans for newspaper advertisements."''Current Biography 1944'', pp. 28-30.

Disney days

He moved to California to pursue a baseball career. Instead, he was hired by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

in 1937, and assisted in the production of the studio's full-length animated features, including ''Pinocchio'', ''Fantasia'', ''Dumbo'' and ''Bambi''. His specialty was animation of thunderstorms, waterfalls and other effects.Id. at 28

World War II

Five months prior to Pearl Harbor, Baker was drafted (June 1941) into the United States Army. He related later that he expected that the Army Classification System would have no use for his artistic experience, noting "They say it makes cooks out of mechanics, and vice versa. But I must say, it worked perfectly in my case." To his surprise, he was assigned to

Fort Monmouth Fort Monmouth is a former installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about from the Atlantic Ocean. T ...

for basic training and to create animation for Signal Corps training films. Baker won a cartoon contest, sponsored by the "Defense Recreation Committee", and received a portable typewriter as first prize. ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine printed some of his submissions, and he was hired by ''

Yank, the Army Weekly ''Yank, the Army Weekly'' was a weekly magazine published by the United States military during World War II. History The idea for the magazine came from Egbert White, who had worked on the newspaper Stars and Stripes during World War I. He ...

'', where he adapted his drawings of the misadventures of an army recruit into '' The Sad Sack''. Drawn in pantomime, the strip became the magazine's most popular feature, as measured by the fan mail from servicemen who identified with the luckless private. In an official document, General

George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...

praised ''Sad Sack'' as a morale-booster for World War II troops.

Civilian life

At the end of the war, the U.S. Army created an advertising campaign with the phrase: "Don't be a Sad Sack, re-enlist in the Regular Army". Discharged from military service, Baker returned to live in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

where he transformed the ''Sad Sack'' army cartoon into a syndicated comic strip and a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series aimed at younger readers. While Baker gave the job of writing the comic narrative to others, he continued to illustrate the ''Sad Sack'' comic book covers until the time of his death. The ''Sad Sack''

radio program A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

was broadcast in 1946.

Death and burial

George Baker is buried at

Riverside National Cemetery Riverside National Cemetery (RNC) is a cemetery located in Riverside, California, dedicated to the interment of United States military personnel. The cemetery covers , making it the largest cemetery managed by the National Cemetery Administratio ...

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, George (cartoonist) American comics artists United States Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Legion of Merit American comic strip cartoonists Artists from Los Angeles Artists from Lowell, Massachusetts Burials at Riverside National Cemetery 1915 births 1975 deaths