IMAGE EXTRACTED FROM MICROFILM BY GREG HAND
Over the past century, a deluge of fads and trends has overwhelmed any effort to demonstrate just how popular a comic strip called “The Gumps” really was in 1923. The comic’s creator, Sidney Smith, earned millions from the syndicated comic and its adaptations for film and radio and related merchandise like toys and games, sheet music, playing cards, and even branded food items.
Artist Smith engaged his readers through long story arcs that tossed the Gump family and their neighbors into all sorts of troubles from which they emerged through pluck and the occasional intervention of deus ex machina. Smith is credited with being the first comic artist to kill off a recurring character, a bold move that swamped his syndicate’s offices with letters and phone calls.
The Cincinnati Times-Star was rather late to the game in picking up “The Gumps.” The strip had been running five years before the Times-Star added it to the comics page in February 1922. The strip caught on fast in the Queen City, and readers took to the Gump family as if they were neighbors.
The Gump family consisted of Andrew “Andy” Gump, pater familias; his wife Minerva, known as Min; and their son Chester Bim Gump (that middle name inserted on the discovery that Andy’s Uncle Bim was quite wealthy). The Gumps had a dog and a cat and a troublesome but humorous maid.
EXTRACTED FROM MICROFILM BY GREG HAND
Which brings us to Christmas 1923. Andy Gump was a business executive, long-winded, opinionated, but basically a decent fellow. He was the president of a company that manufactured hairbrushes—a long-running gag because he was bald. A story line throughout the autumn of 1923 involved Andy taking on a partner named J. Ambrose Hepwing in a scheme to produce a patented combination hairbrush and mirror. As Thanksgiving gave way to December, Andy learned that his partner had absconded with all the money set aside to build a new factory. The Gumps faced a bleak Christmas indeed as the family was evicted from their home. Andy declared bankruptcy, while offering a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the swindler, J. Ambrose Hepwing.
Cincinnati rushed to assist the poor Gump family. A reward of $10,000, even if offered by a fictional person in a comic strip, certainly attracted attention. The Times-Star gleefully reported on tips sent to the newspaper, like this one from 21 December 1923:
“I saw a man answering your old partner Hepwing’s description on Fifth street to-day. He was riding in a large automobile of foreign make and was decked out in a swell suit of clothes, black and white checked overcoat and covered with diamonds. Followed him to a prominent hotel where he registered under an assumed name.”
John L. Richey, manager of the Adjustment Bureau of the Cincinnati Association of Credit Men, stepped up, sending along a pamphlet outlining how his organization could assist companies faced with bankruptcy. As reported in the Times-Star [18 December 1923] Mr. Richey indulged in a bit of self-promotion:
“I am inclosing herewith, a pamphlet which would indicate just what steps Andy could take in rehabilitating his affairs. I thought this might be interesting to you, as credit men generally are attracted by a condition such as we see facing Andy, might like to see him pulled out of the hole by some such medium, and his crooked friend brought to ‘time’ through the same instrumentality.”
A couple days later, the Times-Star reported that Credit Man Richey had received several letters in response to his offer of guidance to the bankrupt cartoon character. One was an official application to the National Association of Credit Men, Cincinnati Branch, apparently filled out on Andy Gump’s part by an anonymous employee of the firm. The other was a letter from the superintendent of the Verona, Kentucky, public schools, applauding Richey’s offer:
“I too have been following Andy Gump in his political and business career, and I am glad to note that such men as you are to consider such cartoons from their real business, psychological and moral angles.”
The Times-Star ran an editorial on Andy Gump’s tribulations on 21 December 1923, and compared his situation with a number of local investors who had been bamboozled by a con man selling shares in a Panamanian oil company that did not exist. According to the editorial:
“The word ‘gump’ is in the dictionary, where it is defined as ‘a stupid person, a simpleton.’ It seems that Andy is just a type.”
Of course, no Christmas drama would be complete without the pencil-scribbled and misspelled note from an innocent child. Seven-year-old Dorothy Hancock of 4710 Hamilton Avenue came through. She sent along a letter accompanied by a hand-drawn check for $3,000 and a sample packet of complexion powder for Mrs. Gump. Her letter, as reprinted in the Times-Star [22 December 1923] read:
“Dear Mr. and mis gump – so sorry you lost all your money just before Christmas but I hope Santa will not forgit Chester. hope you catch Hepwing and maybe you will get bake to making happy hairbrushes for happy heads. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.”
While following the travails of its star comic character, the Times-Star ran advertisements from the Starr Piano Company on Fourth Street, where, for the price of a dollar, customers could purchase a phonograph record on which Andy Gump himself (probably voiced by cartoonist Sidney Smith) offered Christmas greetings.
EXTRACTED FROM MICROFILM BY GREG HAND
In the end, it turned out that Andy’s financial woes were manufactured by wealthy Uncle Bim (short for Bimbo), who wanted to test Andy’s financial acuity before entrusting him with any substantial benefactions. Shortly after revealing these machinations, Uncle Bim was called back suddenly to Australia by a mysterious stranger. Andy and the Gumps stumbled on to further misadventures.
Cartoonist Smith died in 1935 on his way home from signing a $150,000-a-year contract to continue the strip. The syndicate recruited Gus Edison to keep “The Gumps” in print through 1959. One of Edison’s assistants was actor Martin Landau. Among the actors performing in the radio version of “The Gumps,” which aired from 1931 to 1937, was Agnes Moorehead, who later went on to star in the television series Bewitched.
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