Calvin Lane Alley (October 10, 1915 – November 10, 1970) was the

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curre ...

for ''

The Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, al ...

'' in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

, from 1945 until 1970.

''Hambone's Meditations''

Born in Memphis, Cal Alley was the son of

James Pinckney Alley J.P. Alley (1885-1934) was an editorial cartoonist whose work attacking the Ku Klux Klan brought his employer, the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'' newspaper, the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was best known for his ''Hambone's Meditati ...

, creator of the syndicated cartoon panel ''

Hambone's Meditations ''Hambone's Meditations'' was a comic strip produced from 1916 to 1968, and syndicated initially by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate and later by the Bell Syndicate. Produced by two generations of the Alley family, the one-panel cartoon originated ...

'', and the first editorial cartoonist at ''The Commercial Appeal'' in 1916. ''Hambone's Meditations'' ran on the front page of ''The Commercial Appeal''. When the elder Alley died April 16, 1934, his wife Nona, Cal Alley, and his brother James took over ''Hambone's Meditations''.

Editorial cartoons and ''The Ryatts''

In 1939, Alley began his cartoon career in Missouri where he was an editorial cartoonist with the ''

Kansas City Journal The ''Kansas City Journal-Post'' was a newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1854 to 1942. It was the oldest newspaper in the city when it went out of business. It started as a weekly, ''The Kansas City Enterprise,'' on September 23, 1854, a y ...

''. When the ''Journal'' folded in 1942, he moved on to the ''

Nashville Banner The ''Nashville Banner'' is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998. The ''Banner'' was published each Monday through Friday afternoon (as well as Saturdays unti ...

''. Three years later, he signed on with ''The Commercial Appeal'', where he launched a comic strip, ''The Ryatts'', syndicated by the Post-Hall Syndicate from 1954 to 1994. Comics historian

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

noted: Alley's sister, Elizabeth Alley, was married to Frank Ahlgren, editor of ''The Commercial Appeal'' from 1936 to 1968.

Awards

Alley received the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for a 1955 editorial cartoon. He was inducted into the Tennessee Hall of Fame which "honors those who have made an outstanding contribution to Tennessee Newspaper journalism or, through Tennessee journalism, to newspaper journalism generally, or who have made an extraordinary contribution to their communities and region, or the state, through newspaper journalism." Alley retired in 1965 and died of cancer five years later at the age of 55.

References

External links

Lambiek: Cal Alley

''Hambone's Meditations'', ''San Antonio Express'', May 9, 1931.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alley, Cal 1915 births 1970 deaths American comic strip cartoonists American editorial cartoonists Artists from Memphis, Tennessee