Under the Brooklyn Bridge 

 GEORGE SMITH Seen above,

contemplating a dive from the Brooklyn Bridge at midnight, is one of the boy wonders of cartoondom.

To put the sad story in his own words,

I was born in Brooklyn in 1920 in a wee log cabin I built myself. Have had work in Collier's, American, Elks, Squad Riot, Hooey, King Features, and a batch coming out in Snap soon. (Incidentally, their rate is $10., not $15., as stated in Bulletin 47 unless I'm being Gypped as usual)

Hobbies, piano; making money, music and nuisance of myself when I get near & juke box with Bing Crosby's recording of 'Beautiful Dreamer'. "I'm single, skinny, 6 ft tall, have Kneen

Knacking for an especially to any offer made by any rich old lady with a hacking cough.

Turn out about 40 roughs a week but would like a job with some syndicate doing one a day, with Friday to Monday off and a pension after 1st year." And that, folks is George Smith.

If you turned your back on the business of cartooning as I did, for even so short a time as 3 years, you'd find changes. The biggest change would not be among the editors, but in the number of top name cartoonists missing from the freelance scene. Where are they now? Are they rich millionaires living off the fat of syndicated comic strips and juicy advertising accounts? Let's take a good look back 10 years ago when Cavalli, Mort Walker, Clyde Lamb, Ketchem, and George Smith dominated the pages of every magazine on the stands. All these great names, and perhaps a dozen more, are syndicated now. Was it luck, talent, business ability, or a combination of all three that put these people in the lead?

I remember George Smith, one of the finest artists in the cartoon business. George was a long, thin, sad-faced drink of water who looked as if he had the troubles of the world on his shoulders. While he wasn't exactly accident-prone, more awful things seemed to happen to him than to any other cartoonist. For instance, in making the rounds on Wednesday, George would get off the elevator, turn right toward the magazine office, change his mind, make an abrupt left, step kerplunk on the editor's foot in back of him, and at the same time manage to give the editor a good boot in the behind with his briefcase! Apologies on both sides didn't make for happy relations when George sat opposite that editor ten minutes later showing his cartoons!

Another time George was showing his cartoons to an editor of a top magazine who had a kind of facial quirk which George didn't know about. This editor's eyebrows would go sky-high and he'd gulp very deep at the same time, and he looked for all the world as if he were seeing the cartoon of a lifetime! When George saw this expression, he leaped out of his seat to stand in back of the editor's shoulder to see just what cartoon had so astonished him-only to have the editor look up coldly and say "yes?" George swore then and there that if anyone, anywhere would offer him $100 a week he would quit the freelance business forever! George Smith was a pet of us all because he was such a fervent family man. He had six girls on which he based most of his gags. So, the very popular comic strip "The Smith Family" was born. The George Matthew Adams Syndicate snapped it up the minute they saw it, and it is one of their top sellers. While George's syndicated family stays about the same, his personal tribe has increased to 10 girls and with George's luck one boy! We called to congratulate George on the boy only to find that he and his family had left for Fallbrook, California, an hour before. So, if you see a Mack truck with eleven little children sticking out of the top, that will be "The Smith Family."

The Smith Kids

 

Q-Can you tell me something about the Mr. and Mrs Smith who write the Smith Family in the Boston Globe comics?-P. S., Athol.

 

SMITH CLAN COMING SATURDAY New Comic Strip in Journal

 

Sat Evening Post

 

1942 Liberty Magazine

 

The Lowly Dandelion

WOW! THE BIGGEST PART OF OUR TAXES ARE GOING FOR THINGS THAT GO BOOM!

 

Nationally syndicated cartoonist George J. Smith moved his family and seven children to a new home in Mt. Angel, Oregon. The house, located at 880 Taylor St., was built around 1912 and formerly served as a residence for Mt. Angel College students. Smith is the creator of the comic strip "The Smith Family."

 

"The Truth Will make You Free!!"

Love

 

1954-1955

 

It's from the government. Times are really tough. Postages, due

 

Guy on TV said from the looks of it, evolution has gone into reverse..."

 

Dolores spoke her first words today.

 

Beyond the Gag: The Philosophical Evolution of George J. Smith

The intellectual weight of The Smith Family was rooted in George J. Smith’s diverse and often gritty background. Born in Brooklyn in 1920, he refined his craft under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and at the Pratt Institute. During World War II, he served as the chief artist for the 58th Signal Battalion in the Pacific. Having seen the "botch" of the world through the lens of war, he eventually turned toward the domestic sanctuary of family humor, famously remarking that he’d "had enough of that in the Army."

As the strip matured, it transcended the daily gag to become a sophisticated critique of what Smith called "The Suffocating Death Grip of Technocracy." He used his panels to target overregulation, consumerism, and the "spiritual aridity" of modern life. He lived by a profound philosophy, often attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, which served as his creative compass:

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

                                                                                                       While George held the pen, The Smith Family was a dual engine. Virginia Smith was not merely the inspiration for the strip but its Editor and Co-Writer. In an era where creative partnerships of this scale were rare in syndication, the Smiths maintained a formidable 44-year tenure in The Boston Globe, appearing daily from 1951 to 1995. This collaboration ensured the strip remained an "old familiar friend" to millions, grounded in a shared voice that only a four-decade marriage could produce.

Words People Use Text Book