''Joe Palooka'' is an American

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

about a heavyweight

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. The strip debuted on April 19, 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers. It was cancelled in 1984. The strip was adapted to a 15-minute CBS radio series, 12 feature-length films (chiefly from Monogram Pictures), nine

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc sys ...

film shorts, a 1954 syndicated television series (''The Joe Palooka Story''),

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s and merchandise, including a 1940s

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

, a 1947 New Haven Clock & Watch Company wristwatch, a 1948 metal lunchbox featuring depictions of Joe, Humphrey and Little Max, and a 1946

Wheaties Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring list of athletes on Wheaties boxes, prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originall ...

cereal box cut-out mask. In 1980, a mountain in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

was named for the character.

Publication history

In his home town of

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( , alternatively or ) is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It ...

, Fisher devised the character in 1921 after he met a boxer, Pete Latzo, outside a poolroom. As Fisher explained in an article in ''

Collier's } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'': Many rejections followed before Fisher's strip was finally syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate after Fisher, while employed as a McNaught salesman, sold it to over 20 newspapers. It debuted April 19, 1930, and by 1948, it was ranked as one of the five most popular newspaper comic strips. After Fisher committed suicide in 1955, his assistant Moe Leff drew the strip for four years. Leff had been ghosting on the strip's art since the late 1930s; his first credited strip was September 17, 1956. Lank Leonard recommended Tony DiPreta, who stepped in starting September 7, 1959, to illustrate scripts by Morris Weiss (early 1960s to early 1970s) and Ed Moore (mid 1970s on). DiPreta stayed with the strip for 25 years until it ended its run November 24, 1984, when it had dropped to only 182 newspapers. DiPreta then moved on to draw '' Rex Morgan, M.D.''

Toppers

The ''Joe Palooka'' Sunday page had many different toppers over the course of the run. One of the early toppers was ''Fisher's Looney Legends'', which ran from January 10, 1932 to August 27, 1933. During this run, the strip had many alternate titles, including ''Fisher's Dopey Dramas'', ''Fisher's Foolish Fables'', ''Fisher's Historical Hysteria'', ''Fisher's Neolithic Narratives'', ''Fisher's Nursery Rhymes'' and ''Fisher's Poet's Corner''. This was replaced by three longer features: ''Fisher's History of Boxing'' (Sept 3, 1933 – June 20, 1937), ''Joe Palooka's Boxing Course'' (June 27, 1937 – May 1, 1938) and ''Joe Palooka's Album'' (May 8, 1938 – Nov 14, 1943). From 1943–1946, the topper strip rotated between a variety of different features. The most often used titles during this period were ''War Time Anecdotes'' aka ''Fisher's Wartime Whoppers'' (Nov 21, 1943 – Sept 9, 1945), ''Miss Jones'' aka ''The Estimable Miss Jones'' (March 12, 1944 – Nov 11, 1945), ''After It's Over'' (April 8 – Oct 7, 1945), ''Sidewalks of Manhattan'' (Nov 18, 1945 – Feb 24, 1966), ''Charlie the Cook'' (Oct 15, 1944 – Sept 23, 1945), and ''Lady De Van'' (March 3 – July 7, 1946). Other titles used during this period include ''The Atom Age'', ''Captain Tommy'', ''Could Be'', ''Guy Who Married a WAC Sergeant'', ''Fisher's Follies'', ''How To Be Popular?'', ''Letter From Home'', ''Mebbe I'm Wrong'', ''Now That It's Over'', ''Smythe the Murp's Ex-Butler'', and ''Two Thousand A.D.''

Characters and story

Fisher originally changed the appearance of Palooka to fit each reigning real-life champ – until the coming of African-American

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He r ...

in the 1930s, at which time the image of the cowlicked blond Palooka remained unchanged. Though his adventures were mostly low-key, he was pumped up by a supporting cast led by girlfriend Ann Howe, boxing manager Knobby Walsh, his mute orphan sidekick Little Max, Smokey, his black valet and later sparring partner, and lovable giant Humphrey Pennyworth, a smiling

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

who wielded a 100-pound (45 kg) maul. Like Ozark Ike McBatt in baseball, ''Joe Palooka'' was intended to exemplify the sports hero in an age when uprightness of character was supposed to matter most. The character was part of an effort among top newspaper cartoonists to sell

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

-era Series E bonds to the public as a wartime financing initiative. The strip garnered much publicity when cheese heiress Ann Howe and Joe were married on June 24, 1949. The engraved invitations for the event, sent to a select list of celebrities, read: "Mr. Ham Fisher requests the honour of your presence at the marriage of Ann Howe to Mr. Joe Palooka on the afternoon of June 24th in your favorite newspaper." Fisher received formal acceptances from Chief Justice

Fred M. Vinson Frederick Moore Vinson (January 22, 1890 – September 8, 1953) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 13th chief justice of the United States from 1946 until his death in 1953. Vinson was one of the few Americans to have ser ...

, General

Omar Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (12 February 1893 – 8 April 1981) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He wa ...

and Attorney General

Tom C. Clark Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General, United States attorney general from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United St ...

. At the time, the strip was carried in 665 American newspapers and 125 foreign papers.

Etymology

Of uncertain origin, the word ''palooka'' was found in print as early as 1923 and widely used to mean a lout or an inept fighter.

Comic books

Over decades, ''Joe Palooka'' appeared in comic books from several comic book publishers. Early comic books offered strip reprints, but eventually the character was seen in original comic book stories. Secondary characters Little Max and Humphrey Pennyworth each had their own Harvey Comics series. Joe Antonacci owns the trademark to and has recreated Joe Palooka. A brand new comic book version of the character created by Antonacci and his creative team was published by

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

in 2012. Palooka is reborn as a

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

(MMA) fighter. Antonacci's team has also created a sister series of MMA-themed comic books entitled ''Legion of Combat''.

Radio series

On radio, ''Joe Palooka'' was broadcast on CBS from April 12 to August 18, 1932. With Teddy Bergman in the title role,DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 223. the 15-minute series was heard on Tuesdays and Thursdays, sponsored by Heinz Rice Flakes. Elmira Roessler, Elsie Hitz and Mary Jane Higby played Ann Howe. Knobby Walsh was portrayed by Frank Readick and Hal Lansing. Others in the cast: Karl Swenson and Norman Gottschalk. The announcer was Harry von Zell.

Films and television

Joe Palooka made his film debut in '' Palooka'' (1934) with Stuart Erwin in the title role,

Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side New York accent, accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced son ...

as Knobby, Lupe Vélez as Nina Madero, and Marjorie Rambeau as Mayme Palooka. Now in the public domain, the film can be seen online. ''Palooka'' was followed by a series of nine two-reel

shorts (1936–37) starring Robert Norton as Joe and Shemp Howard as Knobby. He returned to feature-length films in 1946, when Monogram Pictures launched a series of 11 low-budget films starring Joe Kirkwood, Jr. as Joe,

Leon Errol Leon Errol (born Leonce Errol Sims, July 3, 1881 – October 12, 1951) was an Australian-American comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in film ...

as Knobby and Elyse Knox as Ann Howe. The first in the series was '' Joe Palooka, Champ'' (1946); the series ended 1951, with ''Joe Palooka in Triple Cross''. ''The Joe Palooka Story'', popularly known simply as ''Joe Palooka'', was a 1954 syndicated television series starring Kirkwood and featuring former boxing champion Maxie Rosenbloom as Humphrey Pennyworth.

Cultural legacy

The name appears in several episodes of the long-running television show '' M*A*S*H'', most notably in the 10th season episode 'Heroes' where fictional prize fighter 'Gentleman Joe' Cavanaugh visits the outfit and Margaret remarks "Is that what it takes to get a steak dinner around here, a visit from some Joe Palooka" South of

on the way to the town of

Mountain Top, Pennsylvania Mountain Top is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 census, its population was 10,982. Mountain Top is ...

is Joe Palooka Mountain, named in the early 1980s by then-Mayor of Wilkes-Barre Thomas McLaughlin. A granite monument with the likeness of Joe Palooka is located at the base of the mountain at the intersection of PA 309 and PA 437 between Wilkes-Barre and the town of Mountain Top. In September 1948, a limestone Joe Palooka statue (in a flowing cape) was erected on a hill overlooking Indiana State Road 37. In 1984, the nine-foot high, ten-ton statue and its base were moved and rededicated to the Town Hall in Oolitic, Indiana. In '' The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor'', sailor Luis Alejandro Velasco refers to a "Joe Palooka" tavern at a port in Mobile, AL, United States, where he and his shipmates, while on leave, went to drink whisky and threw a fight from time to time. In '' Sometimes a Great Notion'',

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...

skewers one of his characters with this paragraph: "' Tsk, tsk,' said Brother Walker. And, as he had learned the comment from ''Joe Palooka'', it came out 'tisk tisk', the way he assumed it was pronounced." In the 1977 film '' Smokey and the Bandit'', after having been drawn into a fight and taking a beating, character Cledus "Snowman" Snow ( Jerry Reed) tells his friend Bo "Bandit" Darville (

Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor most famous during the 1970s and 1980s. He became well known in television series such as ''Gunsmoke'' (1962–1965), '' Hawk'' (1966) and '' Dan Augus ...

) over the CB radio, "Look, you ain't gonna believe this, but I just did my imitation of Joe Palooka."

Filmography

#'' Palooka'' (1934) #'' Joe Palooka, Champ'' (1946) #'' Gentleman Joe Palooka'' (1946) #'' Joe Palooka in the Knockout'' (1947) #'' Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad'' (1948) #'' Joe Palooka in Winner Take All'' (1948) #'' Joe Palooka in the Big Fight'' (1949) #'' Joe Palooka in the Counterpunch'' (1949) #'' Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey'' (1950) #'' Joe Palooka in Humphrey Takes a Chance'' (1950) #'' Joe Palooka in the Squared Circle'' (1950) #'' Joe Palooka in Triple Cross'' (1951)

Vitaphone two-reelers

(made for

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

) #''For the Love of Pete'' (March 14, 1936) #''Here's Howe'' (June 6, 1936) #''Punch and Beauty'' (August 6, 1936) #''The Choke's on You'' (September 12, 1936) #''The Blonde Bomber'' (November 28, 1936) #''Kick Me Again'' (February 6, 1937) #''Taking the Count'' (April 24, 1937) #''Thirst Aid'' (June 12, 1937) #''Calling All Kids'' (November 20, 1937) All directed by Lloyd French and starring Robert Norton and Shemp Howard (except the last two with Beverly Phalon and Johnny Burkes).

References

External links

* * {{Webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030308175530/http://www.radiolovers.com/pages/joepalooka.htm , title=Free Old time Radio Shows - Joe Palooka
''The Incredibly Strange Story of Ham Fisher''

at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia 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 ...

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from the original on October 8, 2016. 1930 comics debuts 1932 radio programme debuts 1984 comics endings American comics adapted into films American comic strips American radio dramas Boxing comics CBS Radio programs Comics adapted into television series Comics adapted into radio series Palooka, Joe Palooka, Joe Palooka, Joe Palooka, Joe Palooka, Joe American film series Harvey Comics titles Harvey Comics series and characters IDW Publishing titles Radio programs based on comic strips Vitaphone short films Warner Bros. short films Comic martial artists Martial arts comics