User:Teblick/Jolly Bill Steinke
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Jolly Bill Steinke (died January 29, 1958) was an American newspaper cartoonist and radio personality.
Early years[edit]
Steinke was born in Rextown, Pennsylvania, near Slatedale, Pennsylvania. He and his family moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, when he was a small boy. As a teenager, Steinke sold cookies from a wagon, and he traveled across the United States with a National Biscuit Company crew that decorated windows of stores selling Nabisco products.[1]
Career[edit]
Steinke's newspaper career began in 1908 at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. An agreement with the newspaper's publisher allowed him to us a room in the newspaper's building as a commercial art studio while he drew one or two cartoons per week for the newspaper in lieu of rent. He gained clients for his art business, and he became a reporter and cartoonist for the Morning Democrat in Allentown. [1]
In August 1912, he went to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and became a cartoonist for The Scranton Republican. He left Scranton in 1918, going first to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and then to Newark, New Jersey.[2] There he worked for The Star-Ledger newspaper, writing a daily column accompanied by his drawings, both of which came from interviews that he did on the street in Newark.[1]
In 1929, he became cartoonist for the radio pages of the New York Daily Mirror, in particular drawing illustrations for a daily radio column by Nick Kenny.[2]
Steinke first became involved with radio in 1922. Each day when he worked as a Santa Claus in a Bamberger's department store in Newark, he read children's letters to Santa on a radio broadcast.[2] In 1924, he began the Jolly Bill radio program on WOR in Newark.[3] He gained national exposure via the Jolly Bill and Jane program on NBC radio. He was with NBC 34 years.[2] In 1929, Steinke and co-star Jane took the program to vaudeville, performing for three weeks at Radio-Keith-Orpheum theaters in New York City and Jersey City, New Jersey. Steinke designed the sets for the stage performances.[4]
In 1943, Steinke began a USO tour to entertain military personnel across the United States. The tour was initially scheduled to last six weeks, but it went on for three years.[1]
Steinke also worked on television, beginning with a program on WNBC-TV in New York on which he drew on a sketch pad. He went to San Francisco in 1946, becoming "an overnight hit with West Coast audiences" on TV programs there.[2] His 30-minute Monday-Friday program there had him portraying a tugboat captain and drawing pictures,. It ended on August 28, 1953.[1]
Personal life and death[edit]
Steinke was a charter member of New York's Circus Saints & Sinners, "a non-sectarian, non-political association of successful professionals dedicated to fellowship and community service through charitable giving".[2]
Steinke and his wife, Alice, had a son and three daughters,[2] including artist Bettina Steinke.[1]
Steinke died on January 29, 1958, in a convalescent home in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.[2]
Papers[edit]
Steinker's papers are housed at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[5] The collection includes original artwork, pages from scrapbooks, posters, programs from personal appearances, and scripts from radio programs. A limited amount of material about his personal life is also available.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Ettinger, Charles W. (August 24, 1953). "Jolly Bill Steinke Going Back To His Beloved Broadway, N.Y." The Morning Call. pp. 5, 7. Retrieved June 18, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Jolly Bill Steinke Dies; Former Local Cartoonist". The Scranton Times. January 30, 1958. p. 4. Retrieved June 18, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Wm. Steinke Cartoonist Dies At 75". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. January 30, 1958. p. 2. Retrieved June 18, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "'Jolly Bill' Steinke now in vaudeville". The Morning Call. Pennsylvania, Allentown. April 22, 1929. p. 25. Retrieved June 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Jolly Bill: Cartoonist & Comedian". National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Archived from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2022.
- ^ "William "Jolly Bill" Steinke papers, 1907-1958". Archivegrid. Archived from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved June 20, 2022.
External links[edit]