Lou Grant (cartoonist)

Lou Grant- At the Drawing Table Sports Cartoonist Milwaukee Sentinel 1944

Lou Grant (December 3, 1919 - September 7, 2001) was an American editorial cartoonist. He mainly worked for the Oakland Tribune for 40 years and was the syndicated political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times.

History

Lou Grant started his career in the newspaper business as a copy boy for the Los Angeles Examiner ^[1] in 1937. He illustrated his High School yearbook at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, and worked as a cartoonist during the war years for the Camp Roberts newspaper. His first art lesson came from winning a contest on a matchbook cover called 'Learn How to Draw'. He then received free lessons, but he was a natural talent. During WWII, he was stationed at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro, Ca. where he worked for the camp newspaper, after having been diverted from the infantry unit that was sent to Anzio Beach in Italy, experiencing a hugh loss of life. At that time he met his future writing partner in comedy Bob Schiller who created All In The Family and was a comedy writer in Television for I Love Lucy. They worked together as comedy writers for the radio show Duffy's Tavern.

Work

After the War, Grant went to Carmel, California, to work with cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo, the comic strip artist for King Syndicate, inking the panels for They'll Do It Every Time. After marriage to Doris Weisel, they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to work as a sports cartoonist in 1944 for The Milwaukee Sentinel. His sports cartoons were known as Swine Skin Gulch and referenced on the site for the baseball stadium Borchert Field in Milwaukee.^[2] William Randolph Hearst recruited Lou to be the sports cartoonist for the News Cal-Bulletin in San Francisco and his cartoons appeared daily in the Sports Section, 1949-1953. His family includes son Bill Grant,^[3] wrestling hall of fame coach, and daughter Josie Grant, artist and muralist in San Francisco and archivist of The Lou Grant Archives. He lived with his family in Palo Alto and San Francisco. He later resided in Oakland, California. He remarried Florenzi Pooley in 1973. She is the executor of his estate.

Grant's political career took him to the Oakland Tribune. His editorial cartoons appeared daily from 1954-1987, and he remained as Editorial Cartoonist until his retirement in 1986. He never took a day off due to the nature of being current with the politics of the day. The Los Angeles Times Syndicate distributed Lou Grant cartoons to newspapers and news magazines nationally on a daily basis.

Grant was memorialized by Ed Asner in a television show, called The Lou Grant Show, for MTM productions. Grant was nicknamed "Dr. Gloom".

Archives

The cartoons of Lou Grant are archived at The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley,^[4] The Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, Independence Mo, In the Collection, Cartoons of President Harry Truman,^[5] The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, Boston, MA,^[6] The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum,^[7] The Jimmy Carter Library. Atlanta, Georgia,^[8] 'The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco' ^[9] and The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.^[10]

Awards

Grant received many awards, including from the National Safety Council for "Drinking & Driving Awareness"; from the National Press Club, the National Headliners Organization's award for Outstanding Editorial; The National Conference of Christians & Jews Brotherhood's award for Promoting World Peace, and posthumously the Sparky Award 2001 from The Charles M. Schulz Foundation ^[11] and The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco.^[12] His work is archived in the collection The Best of Lou Grant of 1954-1955 cartoons^[13] and in the book Artists in California 1786 - 1940 by Edan Hughes.

Grant was honored with a one-man show at the Oakland Museum of Californiacalled 'The Pointed Pen' in 1983.

Lou Grant's obituary appeared in many newspapers nationally and locally in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[14][15][16]

His work was syndicated with the Los Angeles Times, and was seen daily throughout the country, as well periodically world-wide in Newsweek, 1960-1986 and Time Magazine 1960-1986. His life's work covered comedy and political satire, sports, radio, and political cartoons.

References