''Smitty'' was a newspaper comic strip created in the early 1920s by

Walter Berndt Walter Berndt (November 22, 1899, – August 15, 1979) was a cartoonist known for his comic strip, '' Smitty'', which he drew for 50 years. Biography Bernt's job as an office boy at the ''New York Journal'' , which he took on after dropping o ...

. Syndicated nationally by the

Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media Se ...

, it ran from November 27, 1922, to 1974 and brought Berndt a

Reuben Award The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

in 1969.

Characters and story

The strip featured young office boy Augustus Smith aka Smitty, his six-year-old brother Herby, his girlfriend Ginny and his dog Scraps. Other characters were Smitty's boss, Mr. Bailey, and the Indian guide, Little Moose. Berndt based the strip on his own experience as an office boy, recalling, "I learned the tricks, shenangians and schemes of an office boy and became expert at them."Newspaper Archive, ''Winnipeg Free Press'', October 8, 1973.
/ref> Berndt saw his creation as featuring "flashbacks of things you did as a young fellow." As the strip progressed, the teenage Smitty aged to young adulthood (approximately 13 to 23) and eventually got married. From January 11, 1938 through 1974, Berndt also produced the comic strip ''Herby'' as a topper to ''Smitty'' on the Sunday page.

Origins of ''Smitty''

Berndt's first strip, ''That's Different'', drawn for the

Bell Syndicate The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...

, lasted less than a year. In 1922, he created ''Smitty'', which he continued until 1973. Yet it did not begin without a struggle, as cartoonist Mike Lynch described in a 2005 lecture: :After a stint drawing sports cartoons under T.A. "TAD" Dorgan (If you look at Walter Berndt's signature, you can see he draws his "T" just like TAD did), he took over the ''And the Fun Begins'' panel from

Milt Gross Milt Gross (; March 4, 1895 – November 29, 1953) was an American cartoonist and animator. His work is noted for its exaggerated cartoon style and Yiddish-inflected English dialogue. He originated the non-sequitur "Banana Oil!" as a phrase defla ...

. By 1920, Berndt had left the ''Journal'' to start his own strip. The strip lasted a year. Then he worked at ''The New York World''. But within weeks, he was fired for insubordination. (I tried to find out more about this, but this is all I know.) Berndt was out of work and broke. So, with zany cartoonist timing, he got married! And then he began making the rounds with a new strip titled ''Billy the Office Boy''. It was 1922. The World Series was on. Big news, and so no one could get near the editors. Berndt couldn't get in to see anyone. Segar said there wasn't a World Series in Chicago and suggested he send the proposal to Captain Patterson. So Berndt mailed the strip to the ''

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 ...

''. Patterson, opening a phone book for reference, renamed it ''Smitty'' and bought it at Berndt's high asking price. The strip became a mainstay, with the adventures of Smitty and Herby continuing for over 50 years.

Books and toys

''Smitty'' merchandising included tin toys, Cupples & Leon reprint books, comic books and sheet music for the song "Smitty". The Smitty tin toy is valued at more than $1000."Smitty tin toy was a big moneymaker," ''San Diego Union-Tribune'', May 5, 2005.
/ref>

Awards

Berndt won a

in 1969 for ''Smitty''.

References

Sources

NCS Awards

External links

at Don Markstein's Toonopediabr>Archived
from the original on June 4, 2017. {{Tribune Content Agency comics American comic strips 1922 comics debuts 1973 comics endings Gag-a-day comics Child characters in comics Male characters in comics American comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1922