{"id":8196,"date":"2017-12-22T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2017-12-24T14:02:39","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T19:02:39","slug":"cy-hungerford-pittsburgh-cartoonist-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2017\/12\/22\/cy-hungerford-pittsburgh-cartoonist-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Cy Hungerford: Pittsburgh’s cartooning chronicler"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Post-Gazette <\/a>
Post-Gazette cartoonist Cy Hungerford works at his drawing station in July 1973. (Morris Berman\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Published <\/a>
Published Nov. 21, 1972 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hungerford <\/a>
Hungerford and Anthony Martin, head of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, look at a display of cartoons at the Downtown branch of the library. Photo published Oct. 14, 1975. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The <\/span>Parkersburg Social Rebel<\/span><\/i> was a West Virginia newspaper so small that it\u2019s hard to find any trace of it today. There wasn\u2019t much of a business structure in 1902, let alone a legal department. So when a libel complaint reached its office, it wasn\u2019t long before the 13-year-old culprit caught wind of trouble. Cyrus \u201cCy\u201d Hungerford dropped his sketch pad and ran to the local courthouse, worried that his art was going to earn him more jail time than money.<\/span><\/p>\n

The art in question was a cartoon of a man stealing money from a bank while attacking women and children. But Hungerford had made a tactical error: He\u2019d put the man\u2019s name on it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was libelous as the devil,\u201d Hungerford told Editor & Publisher in a 1973 profile.<\/span><\/p>\n

An understanding district attorney took pity on him, and he got off scot-free. Had he not, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em> might have missed out on a man whose art became synonymous with the paper for more than half a century.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Original <\/a>
Original Hungerford sketch (Courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Original <\/a>
Original Hungerford sketch (Courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Original <\/a>
Original Hungerford sketch (Courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Original <\/a>
Original Hungerford sketch (Courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Original <\/a>
Original Hungerford sketch (Courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

A farm boy from Indiana by way of West Virginia, Hungerford taught himself to draw by making copies of the cartoons he found in local newspapers. <\/span><\/p>\n

The resources available to Hungerford were outdated even by the standards of the time. To make a cartoon, Hungerford began with a steel plate coated in a quarter inch of chalk and sodium silicate. Placing his sketch paper over top, he traced the cartoon\u2019s lines with a pencil, which left a light impression on the chalk beneath. Hungerford then took a pointed steel stylus and cut deeper lines for shading and detail, taking care not to scuff the steel itself. The result would serve as a mold for casting, and any errors meant restarting from scratch. After blowing excess chalk from the plate, Hungerford placed the stereotype into a box and poured molten metal over it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The process was painstaking and the pay was low. Hungerford moved to Wheeling, W.Va. in 1908, where he worked as a cartoonist and reporter for the <\/span>Wheeling Register<\/span><\/i>. Four years later, Hungerford arrived in Pittsburgh as an editorial cartoonist for the <\/span>Pittsburgh Sun<\/span><\/i>, and when the <\/span>Post-Gazette<\/span><\/i> absorbed the <\/span>Sun <\/span><\/i>in 1927, he was part of the package deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

From 1912 until 1977, Hungerford was among the country\u2019s most famous cartoonists. His cartoons were so popular in Pittsburgh that they ran on the front page for much of his early career. Even more notable than their placement was Hungerford\u2019s editorial freedom. In West Virginia, his bosses had often dictated what he drew. But in Pittsburgh, Hungerford was granted complete creative control, which few in the industry enjoyed. It was at this point that he made the switch from chalk casting to pen and ink, resulting in the sillier, curvy style he used for the rest of his career.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a simple little comic about a simple little boy, though, that lifted Hungerford\u2019s profile beyond the Mon Valley. \u201cSnoodles,\u201d a comic strip that ran six times per week from 1913 to 1925, was syndicated nationally at a time when newspaper comics remained a prominent source of children\u2019s entertainment. The strip was loosely based on Hungerford\u2019s childhood and featured a lead character similar to Dennis the Menace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\""Snoodles" <\/a>
“Snoodles” comic strip published May 5, 1913 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

While \u201cSnoodles\u201d was likely his most widely read creation, many Pittsburghers knew Hungerford for his version of Pa Pitt. The character had existed in many forms since the 1890s, and under Hungerford he appeared as a portly man wearing glasses and colonial garb. This version became so iconic that in 1988, City Council asked the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau to adopt Pa Pitt as the city\u2019s mascot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Hungerford\u2019s] Pa Pitt has unofficially represented the Spirit of Pittsburgh for over 50 years,\u201d Councilman Jim Ferlo said. \u201cHe has proudly ushered Pittsburgh from its industrial beginnings as a smoggy and dirty city to its present status as America\u2019s most livable city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pittsburgh <\/a>
Pittsburgh City Councilman Jim Ferlo reads a nonbinding resolution to name Pa Pitt as Pittsburgh’s official mascot. Pete Iole appears dressed as Cy Hungerford’s version of the character. Photo taken Feb. 15, 1988. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hungerford029\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The same could be said of Hungerford himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis message was always on point with what Pittsburghers were feeling,\u201d \u00a0said Terri Blanchette, a historian<\/span> whose biography of Hungerford is forthcoming. \u201cWhen there was high optimism and patriotism in the lead-ups and fallouts of both World Wars, he was right there. During the conflicts, he was there with some of the most poignant cartoons about the uselessness of war. Many of his cartoons from that time are saying, \u2018Why do we have to go through this again?\u2019 When the Cold War started, he ended up drawing Lenin and Stalin in silly, ridiculous situations because that\u2019s all that many people without deep political knowledge could tolerate at the time. At any point, if you look around at what was happening nationally and how it affected Pittsburgh, Cy was there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n