Public Ledger Syndicate

The Public Ledger Syndicate (known simply as the Ledger Syndicate) was a syndication company operated by the Philadelphia '' Public Ledger'' that was in business from 1915 to circa 1950 (outlasting the newspaper itself, which ceased publishing in 1942). The Ledger Syndicate distributed comic strips, panels, and columns to the United States and the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia. The syndicate also distributed material from the Curtis Publishing Company's (the ''Public Ledger'''s corporate parent) other publications, including ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'', and '' The Country Gentleman''.

From 1933 to 1941, the Ledger Syndicate was a key contributor to the burgeoning comic book industry, with many of the company's strips published in both the seminal ''Funnies on Parade'', and what popular culture historians consider the first true American comic book, ''Famous Funnies''.

For whatever reason, the Ledger Syndicate favored comic strips with alliterative titles, including ''Babe Bunting'', ''Daffy Demonstrations'', ''Deb Days'', ''Dizzy Dramas'', ''Hairbreadth Harry'', ''Modish Mitzi'', and '' Somebody's Stenog''.

History

The Public Ledger Syndicate was founded in 1915 by ''Public Ledger'' publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis,Frederic Hudson, Alfred McClung Lee, Frank L. Mott, editors. "The Daily Newspaper in America," ''American Journalism 1690-1940'' (Psychology Press, 2000), p. 594. The first big comic strip success was A. E. Hayward's '' Somebody's Stenog'', launched in late 1918.

The Syndicate was particularly active in the 1920s, when it launched a number of comic strips, including such long-running titles as '' Connie'', ''Dizzy Dramas'', ''Dumb-Bells'', ''Hairbreadth Harry'', and ''Modish Mitzi''.

In 1933, just as the concept of "comic books" was getting off the ground, Eastern Color Printing began producing small comic broadsides for the Ledger Syndicate, printing Sunday color comics from plates. Eastern Color sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg and his coworkers realized that two such plates would fit on a tabloid-sized page; later that year, Wildenberg created the first modern-format comic book when idly folding a newspaper into halves and then into quarters, finding that a convenient book size. Shortly thereafter, Eastern Color published ''Funnies on Parade'', which reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from the Ledger Syndicate, the McNaught Syndicate, Associated Newspapers, and the Bell Syndicate, including the Ledger Syndicate strips ''Hairbreadth Harry'', ''Nipper'', ''High-Gear Homer'', and '' Somebody's Stenog''. Eastern Color neither sold this periodical nor made it available on newsstands, but rather sent it out free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. The company printed 10,000 copies, and it was a great success.Brown, Mitchell.

Following that success, the Ledger Syndicate became a regular source of material for Eastern Color's ongoing anthology series ''Famous Funnies''. The Ledger Syndicate provided strips for ''Famous Funnies'' issues #1–87, from 1934 to 1941, including A. E. Hayward's '' Somebody's Stenog'' and ''The Back-Seat Driver''; Frank Godwin's '' Connie'', ''The Wet Blanket'', ''Babe Bunting'', ''Roy Powers'', ''Vignettes of Life'', and ''War on Crime''; F. O. Alexander's ''Hairbreadth Harry'' and ''High-Gear Homer''; Clare Victor Dwiggins' ''Footprints on the Sands of Time''; Joe Bowers' ''Dizzy Dramas''; Gar (Schmitt)'s ''Dumb-Bells''; and Walt Munson & Kemp Starrett's ''Such is Life''.

Not so happily, the Ledger Syndicate was one of a number of syndicates in 1936–1937 which rejected Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster's proposed ''Superman'' comic strip.

Walter B. Gibson, creator of ''The Shadow'' (which was syndicated by the Ledger Syndicate from 1940 to 1942), was a Ledger Syndicate staff writer. In its later years, the manager of the Ledger Syndicate was George Kearney.

The ''Public Ledger'' closed down in 1942 and most of the Ledger Syndicate strips ended that year as well, with the exception of Frank Godwin's '' Connie'', which kept going until 1944. Syndicate manager George Kearney tried writing a strip called ''Rink Brody'', illustrated by H. Draper Williams, but it was not successful, coming to a close in 1946. Around that same time, author Walter B. Gibson put together the Gibson Studio from the art staff remnants of the Ledger Syndicate Studio and the Jack Binder Studio.

The syndicate stayed afloat a few more years on columns and features, finally closing its doors circa 1950.

Features

The Ledger Syndicate favored female columnists. Writers syndicated by the Ledger Syndicate included Dorothy Dix and Anne Mary Lawler. At its height (1940), Dix's column, ''Dorothy Dix Talks'', appeared in 273 papers with an estimated reading audience of 60 million. Alice L. Tildesley wrote on Hollywood and the U.S. film industry in the 1930s. Phyllis Belmont and Carol Bird were also Ledger Syndicate columnists in the 1930s. Boake Carter wrote a widely syndicate column for Ledger beginning in 1937. Magician Joseph Dunninger wrote the ''Mind Reading'' cokumn in 1939–1940. Edyth Thornton McLeod wrote the ''Beauty After Forty'' column in the 1940s.

The syndicate's most popular/long-running comic strips were A. E. Hayward's '' Somebody's Stenog''; ''Hairbreadth Harry'' (by C. W. Kahles and later by F. O. Alexander); Frank Godwin's '' Connie'' and ''Babe Bunting''; Joe Bowers' ''Dizzy Dramas''; Clare Victor Dwiggins ("Dwig")'s ''Footprints on the Sands of Time'' and ''Nipper''; and ''Roy Powers, Eagle Scout'' ("the official strip of the Boy Scouts of America"). Frank Godwin had a number of strips with the Ledger Syndicate, including ''Rusty Riley'', ''Vignettes of Life'', ''War on Crime'', and ''Roy Powers, Eagle Scout'', in addition to ''Connie'' and ''Babe Bunting''.

Ledger Syndicate strips and panels

Launched 1915–1919

* ''Padded Cell'' by A. E. Hayward (1915–1918)
* '' Somebody's Stenog'' by A. E. Hayward, Ray Thompson, and Sam Nichols (December 16, 1918 – May 10, 1941)

Launched in the 1920s

* ''The Boy Friend'' by Marge Buell (1925–1926)
* ''Carrie and Her Car'' by Wood Cowan (1923–1926)

* '' Connie'' by Frank Godwin (1927–1944) — female aviator strip; accompanied by the weekly bottom strip ''The Wet Blanket'' also by Godwin
* ''Daffy Demonstrations'' by Ray Rohn (1926) — daily panel
* ''Deb Days'' by Charles Coll (1927)
* ''Dizzy Dramas'' by Joe Bowers (1927–1943)
* ''Doc'' by Hy Gage (1925) — daily panel
* ''Dumb-Bells'' by Joe Cunningham (1924–1925)Cunningham entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017. and Gar (Schmitt) (1925-1935, 1937-1939)
* '' Hairbreadth Harry'' by C. W. Kahles and F. O. Alexander (1923–1940) — originated with The Philadelphia Press Syndicate and then the McClure Syndicate
* ''Lady Bountiful'' by Gene Carr (1926–1929)

* ''Miss Information'' by Hy Gage (1924–1930) — formerly by Wood Cowan for the George Matthew Adams Service
* ''Modish Mitzi'' by Jay V. Jay (c. 1923–c. 1938)
* ''Rufus M'Goofus'' by Joe Cunningham (1922–1924)
* ''Sonnysayings'' by Fanny Cory (c. 1920–1935) — moved to King Features"F.Y' Cory's History as an Artist and Illustrator,"
F.Y. Cory Publishers, Inc. Accessed Dec. 3, 2017.
* ''Such is Life'' by Walt Munson and Kemp Starrett (1928–1938)
* ''Vignettes of Life'' by Frank Godwin (1924–1927) and J. Norman Lynd (1927–1939)

Launched in the 1930s

* ''Babe Bunting'' by Roy L. Williams and Frank Godwin (1930–1939)Godwin entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017.
* ''Effie Spunk'' by F. O. Alexander (1935)
* ''Footprints on the Sands of Time'' by Dwig (1931–1937) — taken over from the McClure Newspaper Syndicate, which ran it in 1929Dwiggins entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017.
* ''High-Gear Homer'' by F. O. Alexander (November 8, 1931–July 30, 1939) — weekly topper strip to Alexander's ''Hairbreadth Harry''
* ''Jack Swift'' by Cliff Farrell and Hal Colson (August 28, 1930–?)
* ''Nip and Tuck'' by Bess Goe Willis (1936-1939)
* ''Nipper'' by Dwig (1931–1937)
* ''Roy Powers, Eagle Scout'' (c. 1937–1942) by " Paul Powell," Jimmy Thompson (c. 1937),Thompson entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017. Kemp Starrett (1937–1938), Frank Godwin (1938–1940), and Charles Coll (c. 1940)
* ''Sillyettes'' (c. 1941)
* ''War on Crime'' by Frank Godwin (1936–1938) and Jimmy Thompson (1938)

Launched in the 1940s (& 1950)

* ''Classic Stories'' (1950)
* ''Huckleberry Finn'' by Dwig (1940–1942)
* ''It Never Fails'' by Mo Weiss (1940–1941)
* ''Maggie McSnoot'' (1945–1950)
* ''Rink Brody'' by George Kearney and H. Draper Williams (1946)
* ''The Shadow'' by Walter B. Gibson and Vernon Greene (1940–1942)Greene entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017.

Ledger Syndicate II

A second, unrelated iteration of the Ledger Syndicate operated from 1966 to c. 1973, headquartered in New York City at the Overseas Press Club Building on West 40th Street. The syndicate president was John W. Higgins, and the syndicate distributed strips such as ''Batman'' (taking advantage of the popularity of the ''Batman'' TV series),Desris, Joe
"A History of the Batman and Robin Newspaper Strip,"
''Batman: The Silver Age Newspaper Comics, Volume One: 1966–1967'' (IDW, 2014). a couple of strips by Batman creator Bob Kane, and a revived version of the 1920s Ledger strip ''Hairbreadth Harry''. From 1967 to 1971, the syndicate also distributed Eric Hoffer's column, ''Reflections'' (to 214 client papers in early 1968)."Columnists: Awesome Epigrams,"
''Time'' (Feb. 09, 1968).

Ledger Syndicate II strips and panels

* ''The Aristocrats'' by Bob Kane (1967–1970)
* '' Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder'' (1966–1972) by Whitney Ellsworth, E. Nelson Bridwell, Joe Giella, Al Plastino, and Nick Cardy
* ''Character Clues'' by Joe Giella (1966–1967)

* ''The Drimbles'' by Agoo (1971–1972)

* ''Hairbreadth Harry'' by Joseph Petrovich (1967–1972)
* ''Hector the Director'' by Rama Braggiotti (1967–1973)
* ''The Losers'' by Bob Kane (1966) — daily panel

References

{{refend

Comic strip syndicates
Companies based in Philadelphia
Mass media companies established in 1915