Frank E. Leonard (January 2, 1896 – August 1, 1970), better known as Lank Leonard, was an American cartoonist artist who created the long-running comic strip '' Mickey Finn'', which he drew for more than three decades.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most popu ...
in 1896, Leonard decided early in his childhood that he wanted to be a cartoonist while he made copies of '' Buster Brown'', ''
Happy Hooligan
''Happy Hooligan'' is an American comic strip, the first major strip by the already celebrated cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper. It debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first p ...
The Katzenjammer Kids
''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
graduation, Leonard took a job as a bookkeeper at a local factory, where he also drew cartoons for the plant's house organ. He studied at a business college from 1914 to 1915, then served in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Returning from the service, Leonard designed a new type of suction sole basketball shoe for a
sporting goods
Sports equipment, sporting equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear used to compete in a sport and varies depending on the sport. The equipment ranges from balls, nets, and protective gear like helmets. ...
firm, which eventually hired him as a salesman. He was in his early twenties, working as a traveling salesman, when he met cartoonistClare A. Briggs on a train between Sioux City and Omaha and showed him the sketch pad he always carried. "Pretty crude, but there's no doubt you have talent," said Briggs.
Briggs referred him to ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' editorial cartoonist
Carey Orr
Carey Cassius Orr (January 17, 1890 in Ada, Ohio – May 16, 1967) was an American editorial cartoonist.
In his youth, Orr was a semi-professional baseball pitcher, and he used the money he made from baseball to study at the Chicago Academy of ...
, who suggested Leonard take the C. L. Evans
correspondence course
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
in cartooning. Leonard did so, mailing in assignments drawn in hotel rooms as he traveled about the country. Later, he took night courses at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...
, and New York's
Art Students League
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.
Although artists may stu ...
.
In the spring of 1925, Leonard left his salesman job and started working full-time as a cartoonist. As an inker at the
Bray Productions
Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...
animation studio, he took home a salary of $11 a week. He then drew sports cartoons for a
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
magazine, then spent nine years doing a sports cartoon feature for the George Matthew Adams Syndicate and writing about sports, while also selling sports cartoons to ''The New York Telegram'' and ''
The New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New Yor ...
''. Weighing in at and towering over , the lanky Leonard also played semi-pro basketball.
''Mickey Finn''
In 1936, the McNaught Syndicate bought his comic strip '' Mickey Finn'' about the family life of an Irish-American policeman. From the start, the strip was calculated to show the good qualities of human nature rather than the sordid side of crime.
Appearing in more than 300 newspapers at the height of its success, the strip continued under Leonard for the next three decades, assisted by Mart Bailey and Morris Weiss with lettering by
Tony DiPreta
Anthony Louis "Tony" DiPreta (July 9, 1921 – June 2, 2010) was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books. He was the longtime successor artist of the comic strip ''Joe Palooka'' (1959–84 ...
. Leonard also did a topper strip, ''Nippie: He's Often Wrong!'', which ran beneath the Sunday ''Mickey Finn''. Nippie was a child who ignored warnings in order to do things his way and suffered the consequences.
The character of Mickey Finn was inspired by Leonard's observations of Port Chester policeman Mickey Brennan. Other characters in ''Mickey Finn'' were drawn from Lank Leonard's own family, and the model for Mickey Finn was Leonard himself. Mickey's mother was based on numerous sketches of Leonard's mother, and his real-life Uncle Phil inspired the comic strip Uncle Phil. Kitty Kelly, Mickey's fiancée, was modeled on Florence McLaughlin, whom Leonard married in June 1939.1951 McNaught Syndicate promotional copy.
After
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 ...
, Leonard began working in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, during the winter months, and in 1950, he bought a split-level home in
Miami Shores
Miami Shores is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States.
History
By the early 1900s, the area encompassing today's Miami Shores Village was occupied by a starch (coontie) mill, a tomato packing plant, a saw mill, a pineapple planta ...
, spending ten months of the year there, drawing and playing golf.
On Saturday, March 10, 1951, at his new Miami Shores home, he hosted a gathering of cartoonists. Attending the party were Colin Allen, Frank Beck,
Wally Bishop
Wallace Bond Bishop (August 17, 1905 - January 15, 1982), better known as Wally Bishop, was an American cartoonist who drew his syndicated ''Muggs and Skeeter'' comic strip for 47 years.
Biography
Born in Normal, Illinois, he grew up in Blooming ...
(''
Muggs and Skeeter
''Muggs and Skeeter'' was an American gag-a-day daily comic strip by Wally Bishop which ran from 1927 to 1974. Originally titled ''Muggs McGinnis'', it was syndicated by the Central Press Association and then King Features Syndicate.
Publicat ...
Al Fagaly
Al Fagaly (January 5, 1909 – April 23, 1963) was an American cartoonist and creator of Archie Comics' Super Duck and the syndicated gag cartoon '' There Oughta Be a Law!''.
Biography
Born in Waynesburg, Kentucky, Fagaly later moved to Oreg ...
Zack Mosley
Zack Terrell Mosley (December 12, 1906 - December 21, 1993) was an American comic strip artist best known for the aviation adventures in his long-running ''The Adventures of Smilin' Jack'' which ran in more than 300 newspapers from 1933 to 1973. ...
, Leonard Sansone, Chuck Thorndyke, Burt Whitman and Elmer Woggon.
In 1951, Leonard and Bishop left Florida for Washington's Carlton Hotel, where they joined other members of the National Cartoonists Society for breakfast on November 6 with Harry Truman. Gathered in Washington to help the Treasury Department sell Defense Stamps, the group presented Truman with a bound volume of their comic strip characters, some interacting with caricatures of Truman.
In the early 1960s, Leonard let Weiss take over the writing of the strip. Leonard died in 1970, two years after retiring. Lank and Florence Leonard had two children, Jim and Nancy. Jim was born in 1956. Daughter Nancy attended Salve Regina College in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...