Monday, April 19, 2010

Dorman H. Smith (1892-1956)


Dorman H. (Henry) Smith began drawing editorial cartoons for Cleveland’s NEA Service in 1921 then left in the early thirties for Chicago’s Herald Examiner. Smith was replaced by Herblock in 1933 and when Herblock began his service in the Army in April 1943 Smith returned to NEA. Herblock’s politics had been at odds with the viewpoints of the VP at NEA, Fred Ferguson, who took a personal vindictive hand in editing his cartoons, while Smith, an anti-Roosevelt Republican was more in tune with Scripps/NEA’s isolationist editorial policies.*

Smith was self-taught and sold his first drawing to Life magazine when he was 17 years old. During this early period he worked in Cleveland’s steel mills to augment his cartoon earnings. His cartoons appeared in more than 700 newspapers in the US and Canada. In 1924 he accompanied Hemingway to Pamplona, Spain.

Smith worked in a studio at the Cleveland office of the NEA, reading newspapers, magazines, and following the wire service as research for his political cartoons. His watercolor paintings earned him numerous prizes and he was a member of the Cleveland Society of Artists and San Francisco’s famed Bohemian Club. He won numerous awards for cartooning and in 1950 was awarded the George Polk Memorial award presented by the journalism department of Long Island University for his two 1949 interviews with Stalin.

As far as I know the short lived ‘The Gremlins’ was his only strip. These samples are from February and March 1943.

*Many thanks to Warren Bernard, author, collector and Herblock lecturer.






11 comments:

  1. A very subversive little strip; after all, couldn't everybody blame their mistakes on gremlins?

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  2. Nice blog about my grandfather. Didn't know about the Stalin interview.

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    1. i found an original drawing by your grandfather re: 1932 Olympic games in California. It's up on Ebay now if you're interested

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    2. Shirt-tail relations! Your grandfather was married to my Great Aunt Carrie.

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  3. Apparently he was also a caricaturist? Found an article from '41 that describes him as a 'nationally-known caricaturist" He was giving a talk in San Anselmo Calif.

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  4. Marconi - you and I are half-2nd-cousins.

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  5. Marconi - interesting. Dorman was my grandfather, and I have never heard of you. If you want to know more about him, ask me. If I don't know the answer, the Smith family is having a reunion in November.

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  6. Yesterday in San Luis Obispo,can I discovered some items in a trash bin that belonged to Dorman H. Smith. A pocket alarm watch,a book signed by "Richie" to his dad. Some original drawings Christmas cards etc. Why someone thru them away I'll never know. Sad.

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  7. Oh and some documents birth death certificates deeds. Don't get it! In the trash! 2 awards I pulled out and forgot went back and they were gone!

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  8. Sorry I’m anonymous but couldn’t get it to work. Dorman Smith and my Grandfather were good friends in Columbus, Ohio in the early 1900’s. I have a couple of original paintings/drawings and some Christmas cards from Mr. Smith sent to my grandparents. We visited Mrs. Smith in the late fifties in Marin County after he had passed away. Is there a Dorman Smith collection at a museum?

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    1. Fascinating. I don't know of any large holdings of art or papers.

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