“We All Have To Start Somewhere Department”. Case in Point No. 19

Case in point Number 19 in this very irregular feature is . . . me.

In 1946, at the age of 14, I sent a letter to cartoonist Stan MacGovern at the New York Post. The Post in the 1940’s was New York City’s politically-liberal newspaper, owned and published by Dorothy Schiff, and it had a huge circulation all over town. That’s just the opposite of what the Post is today, under the ownership of Australian Rupert Murdoch.

Anyway, one of the Post’s exclusive comics at that time was Stan MacGovern’s daily and weekend strip “Silly Milly”, which ran the humor gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime. MacGovern had many “Departments”, and in my note to him I suggested an idea for one of his running gags. In my exhuberance, I even sent him a drawing of the gag so he could see how it could work. 

The next thing I knew, the letter, the drawing and my gag appeared in a Silly Milly weekend strip and MacGovern built the rest of that day’s strip around it. Here it is, and I guess I should mention at this point that Eli is my middle name and Isidore is my first name!  

Of course, I was delighted to see the strip and, as they say, the rest is history. So thank you, Stan MacGovern, wherever you are.

I usually finish my “We All Have To Start Somewhere Department” with a photo of the cartoonist, so here’s one of me at age 14, give or take a year or two.

2 Comments

  1. I was looking around your
    I was looking around your site, looked at this photo, and said to myself “that’s Gary!” I see I had the same reaction in 2017.

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Foreword

Welcome to the Eli Stein Cartoon archive. To begin, read my introduction and personal notes, and then please look at the cartoons, which are categorized by either decade, publication name or topic. I’ve included some personal comments, memories and photos below many of the cartoons. I’ll be adding cartoons, memories and photos ad infinitum. Remember, your comments are appreciated (just click on the “comment” link at the bottom of each post).

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