Fontaine Fox

Fontaine Talbot Fox Jr. (1884-1964) was a famous cartoonist and illustrator born near Louisville, Kentucky.

Fox is best known for writing and illustrating the "Toonerville Folks" comic panel that appeared from 1913 to 1955 in 250 to 300 newspapers across North America. It is about a small-town, which seemed to operate in its own little universe, and the gentle humor of the feature dealt with the antics of the various denizens and featured semi realistic situations. It was one of the most popular comics in the World War I era.

Life before Toonerville

Fox started his career as a reporter and part-time cartoonist for the Louisville Herald. He spent two years in higher education at Indiana University, Bloomington; nevertheless, he continued sketching one cartoon a day for the Louisville Herald. After two years of college, he abandoned his studies in favor of his true calling, writing and illustrating comics. From 1908, Fox started a series of daily cartoons about kids for the Chicago Evening Post. His panel was noted by the Wheeler Syndicate, which started distributing his work nationwide, this eventually led to the creation and distribution of Toonerville Folks. The panel, which expanded its circulation from a few papers to hundreds between 1915 and the mid 1920s, spawned several merchandising efforts including cartoon books, cracker boxes, magic picture folders, paper masks, gum wrappers, bisques and cutout sheets.

Unique style

His work was considered innovative for many reasons. He presented the panel in a rather distinctive illustration style. At first glance, Fox's drawing style seems deceptively simple, but under scrutiny, bits of his interesting become apparent. Vehicles and telephone poles are oddly tilted and, frequently, so is the horizon. He also illustrated his cast and landscape with a slight aerial perspective, so that it always seemed that the reader was looking down at the events of each tale. From this panoramic perspective, readers could fully absorb the antics of town regulars, which included an entire farming community filled with colorful characters of varying ages. The comic panel included the largest cast ever seen in a comic strip, 53 different characters in all. Fox has been described as an ingenious caricaturist, simply because all of his figures are grotesquely exaggerated. It is thought the combined effect of humor and character creation is responsible for the success of the panel.

According to Fox,

“In drawing a cartoon I always try to keep three things in mind -- it must have an original thought: it must be something that has happened or could happen: and it must be laughable. That's all there is to it!”

Toonerville in the movies

The panel also made its way to the silver screen in both live action and animated forms. During the '20s, a series of two-reel live action comedies were produced, and in 1936, Burt Gillett produced cartoon shorts based on the fine folks of Toonerville; however, they never matched the success of the panel. What did succeed was the decision to make Mickey McGuire the star of a series of low-budget live-action shorts, getting into adventures with other back-alley kids, which led to more than 50 short silent black and white film comedies.

A vaudeville comedian named Joe Yule brought his young son, Joe Yule Jr., to audition for the role and landed the part. He was promptly renamed Mickey McGuire and starred as himself. When the young boy actor and the role parted company, Fox would not allow the juvenile to continue performing under Mickey McGuire, so Joe Yule Jr. / Mickey McGuire changed his name once more, this time to Mickey Rooney.

The Mickey McGuire shorts have a very similar feel to the Hal Roach studio's Our Gang shorts. They were produced during the same period and have many of the same flaws, such as racist gags at the expense of an African American member of the gang; however, the McGuire shorts benefited from the strong presence and talent of the young Mickey Rooney.

Inspiration

No less than two cities claim to be the inspiration of "Toonerville Folks": Louisville, KY and Pelham, NY. The folks of Louisville claim the experiences were based on the short Brook Street Line in 1915, which ran until 1930. For years, this route had been getting the cast-off equipment from the trunk lines until it became the joke of the town. Finally, the managing editor of the Louisville Herald asked the young Fox to draw some sketches caricaturing the antiquated vehicles, which is said to have cast the germ for the "Toonerville Trolley".

However, the populace of Pelham NY insists the comic strip was based in part on the artist’s experience during a trolley ride on a visit to Pelham in 1909. They alleged that Fox repeatedly said that he was inspired to create the "Toonerville Trolley" and its skipper based on a trolley ride he took in Pelham. During that ride, he observed the trolley car operator gossip with passengers and, once, stop the vehicle to pick apples in an adjacent orchard. One piece of that evidence is an article that appeared in The New York Times on July 30, 1937, the day before the last journey of the Pelham trolley due to its replacement by a bus route. The article reported, among other things, that Mr. Bailey piloted the Pelham trolley from 1900 to 1914. According to the article:

"Back in 1909, when Mr. Fox took a ride on the Pelham line, then served by a rickety little car, he watched the 'skipper' gossip with the passengers and stop the car to pick apples for them; thus he drew his inspiration for his 'Toonerville Trolley' comics."

Later years

Fox continued the "Toonerville Folks" comic panel until 1955, changing syndicates twice, eventually gaining all rights to his comic panel. He later moved to New York and spent winters at 610 N. Ocean Blvd. in Delray Beach, FL. Apart from drawing comics, he was an author and a fervent golfer, winning several tournaments.

He scored with his unique group of characters and his interesting style of drawing. The strip ran for 42 years and was honored in a 1995 U.S. postage stamp series. Upon retirement, he refused to let his brainchild pass into another cartoonist's hands. Fox also wrote three books, "Fontaine Fox's Funny Folk" (1917), "Fontaine Fox's Cartoons" (1918), and "The Toonerville Trolley and Other Cartoons" (1921), as well as illustrating several others, most notably for Ring W. Lardner "Own Your Own Home" (1919). Fox died at the age of 80 in Greenwich, CT in 1964. His famous epitaph reads, "I had a hunch something like this would happen."

Other information

The Filson Historic Society of Louisville, KY, whose mission is to collect, preserve, and tell the significant stories of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley history and culture, boasts a collection that includes photographs of Fox as a child, the family home at Hubers Station, Ky, Fox, his wife, and their daughters.

The Fox mss comprises 2,574 items and is located at Indiana University. It consists of papers from Fox, including correspondence, original drawings of the cartoons, and scripts of books and series. Printed material includes the prints of the syndicated Toonerville Trolley comic strip and biographical information.

External links

* [http://www.filsonhistorical.org/guide9.html/ Filson Historic Society]
* [http://www.centerlinehobbies.com/toonerville.html/ Toonerville Trolley]
* [http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/html/fox.html/ Fox mss]
* [http://lambiek.net/artists/f/fox_fontaine.htm/ Comiclopedia]
* [http://www.angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/cheap/cheap1_l.htm/ Funny Epitaphs]
* [http://www.delraybeach.com/history.asp/ Delray Beach, FL]
* [http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=5625&si=126/ Collectibles]
* [http://www.unicover.com/EA1CAKIW.HTM/ International Museum of Cartoon Art]
* [http://graphic-design.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?keyword=FONTAINE%20FOX Gallery of classic graphic design featuring the illustrations of Fontaine Fox]
* [http://www.historicpelham.com/BlogArchive/Blog20060706.htm/ Pelham, NY]