''Our Boarding House'' is an American single-panel cartoon and comic strip created by

Gene Ahern Eugene Leslie Ahern (September 16, 1895 – March 6, 1960) was a cartoonist best known for his bombastic Major Hoople, a pompous character who appeared in the long-run syndicated gag panel '' Our Boarding House''. Many of Ahern's comic strips took ...

on October 3, 1921 and syndicated by

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...

. Set in a boarding house run by the sensible Mrs. Hoople, it drew humor from the interactions of her grandiose, tall-tale-telling husband, the self-styled Major Hoople, with the rooming-house denizens and his various friends and cronies. After Ahern left NEA in March 1936 to create a similar feature at a rival syndicate, he was succeeded by a number of artists and writers, including Wood Cowan and

Bela Zaboly Bela P. Zaboly (May 1910 – April 1985), a.k.a. Bill Zaboly, was an American cartoonist best known for his work on ''Thimble Theatre'' with ''Popeye''. Zaboly's illustrated signature used the initials BZ with the "B" formed by the wings of a bee ...

, before

Bill Freyse William Henry Freyse (June 12, 1898 – March 3, 1969) was an American cartoonist notable for his three decades of work on ''Our Boarding House'', syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association. After Freyse graduated from the Central High School ...

took over as ''Our Boarding House'' artist from 1939 to 1969. Others who worked on the strip included Jim Branagan and Tom McCormick. The Sunday color strip ended on March 29, 1981; the weekday panel continued until December 22, 1984.

Publication history

In 1921,

created the comic strip ''Crazy Quilt'', starring the Nut Brothers, Ches and Wal. That same year, NEA General Manager Frank Rostock suggested to Ahern that he use a boarding house for a setting. Ahern initially used his own experiences as a boarder while a

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

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, art student as grist for his comic mill, and featured the picaresque peccadilloes and bickering of its residents, presided over by the no-nonsense Martha Hoople. Horn, Maurice. ''100 Years of American Newspaper Comics'' (Gramercy Books : New York, Avenel, 1996), , . ''Our Boarding House'' entry, pp. 230-231 ''Our Boarding House'' began September 16, 1921,''Our Boarding House''
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on October 22, 2016. scoring success with readers after the January 1922 arrival of the fustian, blustery Major Amos B. Hoople, Martha's husband, who'd returned after some long sojourn. "Hoople has been compared to the type created on-screen by

W. C. Fields William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathe ...

, but was probably closer to

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

," writes comics historian

Maurice Horn Maurice Horn (born 1931) is a French-American comics historian, author, and editor, considered to be one of the first serious academics to study comics. He is the editor of ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics'', ''The World Encyclopedia of Cartoon ...

. "A retired military man of dubious achievement like

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's omic figure he boasted of soldierly exploits that were perhaps not all invented, and his buffoonery sometimes concealed real pathos." That character depth diminished as the comic became more popular, with Major Hoople becoming "the one-dimensional figure of fun most people remember" of the strip. The primary boarders were the cynical Clyde and Mack, and the only somewhat more trusting Buster. According to comics historian Allan Holtz, a multi-panel Sunday strip was added on December 31, 1922. This Sunday page had a series of topper strips, beginning with ''Boots and Her Buddies'', which ran from September 12, 1926 to October 18, 1931. The next week, Ahern's ''The Nut Bros'' began, featuring loony siblings Ches and Wal in pun-filled,

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

bits of business. This ran until June 6, 1965. For some of ''The Nut Bros run, there would be an extra panel filled by a series of different titles running in tandem, including: ''Comic Scrap Book'' (1932), ''Silly Snapshots'' (1932–1933), ''One in a Million'' (1934–1945), ''Mister Blotto'' (1935–1946), ''Major Hoople - Jobs I Would Like'' (1936–1937), ''Rummy Riddles'' (1936–1937), ''Brainwavy'' (1938–1939), ''Honks from Otto Auto'' (1938–1939), ''Postcard Pests'' (1938–1940s), ''Screwy Scenarios'' (1943), ''Looney Letters'' (1943–1944) and ''Scientific Corner'' (1946). The panel cartoons mostly disappeared after 1946, although ''Mister Blotto'' did return sporadically until 1957. Ahern left NEA in March 1936 to create the similar '' Room and Board'' for King Features Syndicate. ''Our Boarding House'' "passed into the hands of a bewildering array of artists and writers" including Bela "Bill" Zaboly"Comic Strip Credits L-P: ''Our Boarding House''"
/ref> at The Comic Strip Project, before Bill Freyse (the father of the American actress

Lynn Borden Lynn Marie Freyse (March 24, 1937 – March 3, 2015) was an American film and television actress. She was known for playing Barbara Baxter in the final season of the American sitcom television series '' Hazel''. Life and career Borden was bor ...

) took over the art for ''Our Boarding House'' from 1939 until his death in 1969. Writer Bill Braucher scripted from 1939 to 1958, followed by Tom McCormick on the daily from 1959 on. Freyse's 1960s assistant, Jim Branagan, drew the strip from 1969 to 1971, succeeded then by Les Carroll. The Sunday strip came to an end on March 29, 1981, and continued as a daily feature until December 22, 1984, when Carroll and writer Tom McCormick retired. Others who worked on the strip included writers Wood Cowan in 1946, Tom Peoples on the Sunday strip circa 1968, and Phil Pastoret on the Sunday strip from 1977 on. The finale had Hoople finally striking it rich: a multimillion-dollar project needed a minor patent that he had obtained many years ago. In the last strip, Hoople and Martha embarked upon their new lives of wealth. Ahern once revealed the origin of Major Hoople:

Reprints

There were comic book reprints in Whitman's ''Crackajack Funnies'' and a single issue of

Standard Comics Standard Comics was a comic book imprint of American publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines (under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics) and paperback books (under the Popular Library name). Standard in t ...

' ''Major Hoople Comics'' (1943). In 2005, Leonard G. Lee's Algrove Publishing reprinted Ahern's cartoons in ''Our Boarding House, 1927'' as part of its Classic Reprint Series.

In other media

Radio

The ''Major Hoople'' radio series began on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's Blue Network on June 22, 1942. With Arthur Q. Bryan in the title role, the 30-minute program aired on Mondays at 4:05 p.m. on the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

West Coast and 7:05 p.m. on the East Coast. The series was written by Jerry Cady (1903–1948). Patsy Moran had the role of Hoople's wife, Martha. Conrad Binyon and

Frank Bresee Frank Bresee (August 20, 1929 – June 5, 2018) was an American radio actor, radio historian, and board game designer. He hosted the "Golden Days Of Radio" program which began in 1949 and aired on the Armed Forces Radio Network from 1967 to 1995. B ...

portrayed Hoople's "precocious little nephew", Little Alvin. Mel Blanc played the star boarder, Tiffany Twiggs. The radio series ended April 26, 1943. No recordings of the ''Major Hoople'' radio program are known to exist. (Coincidentally, Arthur Q. Bryan was the actor who first voiced the role of Elmer Fudd in the Warner Bros. cartoons, opposite Blanc's Bugs Bunny.)

Books

The Saalfield Publishing Company, the maker of Little Big Books, published ''Major Hoople and His Horse'' under the ancillary imprint Jumbo Books (listed as #SS41 1190), in 1940. The 400-page, hardcover book was written and drawn by the panel's successor cartoonist Bill Freyse.

Music

In 1974, the

Kitchener, Ontario ) , image_flag = Flag of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , image_seal = Seal of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_shield=Coat of arms of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_blank_emblem = Logo of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , blank_emblem_type = ...

, pop band known as Major Hoople's Boarding House charted a top-30

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

radio hit with the song "I'm Running After You"."Major Hoople's Boarding House"
Borderline Books: "Magic Circus - Major Hoople's Boarding House", via Alextsu.narod.ru.
WebCitation archive

Cultural legacy

The first recording of the term "hooplehead" appears in 1980, in Dennis Smith's ''Glitter and Ash'' ("The old man said, 'Speakin' of Maureen, you know she's been acting like a real hooplehead lately, like a kid they let out of Creedmoor sychiatric Centerby mistake.'"). Cited in "Hooplehead", as used by the character

Al Swearengen Ellis Alfred Swearengen (July 8, 1845 – November 15, 1904) was an American pimp and entertainment entrepreneur who ran the Gem Theater, a notorious brothel, in Deadwood, South Dakota, for 22 years during the late 19th century. Personal life Sw ...

on the HBO

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

'' Deadwood'', is an anachronism as it was "probably derive from Major Hoople. One etymologist, without giving citation, said, "The producer and head of the scriptwriting team,

David Milch David Sanford Milch (born March 23, 1945) is an American writer and producer of television series. He has created several television shows, including ABC's ''NYPD Blue'' (1993-2005), co-created with Steven Bochco, and HBO's '' Deadwood'' (2004 ...

, has been reported as saying in essence that he picked something out of the air to serve as a suitable insult without great concern for its etymology. It seems he must have heard it somewhere and it came conveniently back to mind while writing the scripts.

References

{{Reflist

External links

June 1997 interview with Frank Bresee who discusses his role on radio's ''Major Hoople''"Your Comic Supplement: ''Our Boarding House'', Gene Ahern"
BarnaclePress.com (sample strips)

ComicStripFan.com (sample 1967 and 1982 strips)

Syracuse University Library Finding Aids: "Abstract: 581 original cartoons from the comic strip ''Our Boarding House'' ... Inclusive Dates: 1966-1967"
"PCL MS-48: Allen and John Saunders Collection: Box 21, Series VIII: Other Professional Work, Subseries A: 'Writing Comics is a Serious Business'"

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...