Hoople v. Puffle

During the dry deliberations at the annual meeting of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association in Manhattan fortnight ago, two rival oases competed bitterly for the privilege of refreshing weary delegates. Not far from the door of the Waldorf Astoria's convention chamber, Scripps-Howard's Newspaper Enterprise Association lifted a banner to proclaim: "N. E. A.--WITH THE ONE & ONLY MAJOR HOOPLE!" Nearby, N. E. A.'s Hearstian arch-rival shrieked back in big black letters: "KING FEATURES-- WITH THE ONE & ONLY GENE AHERN!" Purpose of the mammoth cocktail party whither this banner beckoned was to notify the trade that Cartoonist Gene Ahern, who originated and for 15 years drew famed Major Hoople of "Our Boarding House" for N. E. A., was henceforth to draw for King Features a new character called Judge Puffle, in a new feature called "Room & Board."

For his new employers, Cartoonist Ahern plans to introduce Judge Puffle in daily papers June 15. Major Hoople has been drawn by N. E. A. staff men since March 15. This has left Gene Ahern nothing to do but play and admire the art collection in his Hollywood home until June i, expiration date of his N. E. A. contract. Only clue to Judge Puffle's possible appearance was the 30-foot silhouette of a pinguid, plug-hatted figure, not unlike Major Hoople in outline, which loomed above the orchestra and the heads of 20 blonde hostesses and Official Greeters James J. Braddock & Fifi D'Orsay at King Features' Waldorf party. Selling Judge Puffle sight unseen on the basis of Major Hoople's fame, King Features last week reported signing up Hearstpapers in 16 cities, 52 non-Hearstpapers besides. N. E. A. counterclaimed that not one of its 500 clients had dropped Hoople for Puffle.

Thirty-seven-year-old Cartoonist Gene Ahern, a onetime butcher boy, began his career in 1914 at N. E. A.'s Chicago office where he inked in comic drawings for $18 a week. Soon he conceived a comic of his own, called it "Auto Otto," followed it with "Squirrel Food," "Ain't Nature Wonderful," "Crazy Quilt." In 1921 N. E. A.'s General Manager Frank Rostock suggested that Ahern draw a feature laid in a boarding house. Ahern went to work, produced Mrs. Martha Hoople and her needle-nosed, cynical Boarders Clyde and Mac. After a few months a new character was needed and Mrs. Hoople's husband, who "had been gone for nigh on ten years," suddenly appeared. At first Hoople was a grotesque, sawed-off figure not much taller than his little Nephew Alvin. Gradually Hoople grew into a genial, full-sized, bulbous braggart, dominated "Our Boarding House." N. E. A. boosted the cartoon's distribution until it now ranks among the first ten comics in the U. S.

Hoople connoisseurs particularly admired Cartoonist Ahern's extravagant poolroom slang, in which slow race horses are called "turf turtles" or "land crabs," a crap game is described as a "few knuckles of dice."

The side-splitting vulgarity of "Our Boarding House" belonged to the same school as the wry "Indoor Sports" which famed, one-handed Thomas Aloysius ("Tad") Dorgan drew for King Features for 22 years. When Dorgan died in 1929 King Features spotted Ahern as his possible successor. By 1934 they were talking it over with the cartoonist. By last July N. E. A.'s spectacled, able President Frederick S. Ferguson was quietly preparing to carry on without Ahern the daily and Sunday doings of Hoople & Co., which legally belong not to the cartoonist but to the syndicate. Reported inducements which led Cartoonist Ahern to abandon the pen & ink characters with whom he rose to fame & fortune: 1) In Hollywood where the Aherns live, Mrs. Ahern considers the Hearstian Los Angeles Examiner the leading paper, hence the one in which she prefers to see her husband's work; 2) a raise in salary from $35,000 to an estimated $60,000.

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