Walter Berndt was a cartoonist known for his long-run comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

, Smitty

Smitty (comic strip)

Smitty was a popular newspaper comic strip created in the early 1920s by Walter Berndt. Syndicated nationally by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, it ran from November 29, 1922 to 1973 and brought Berndt a Reuben Award in 1969....

, which he drew for 50 years.

Bernt's job as an office boy at the New York Journal put him in contact with leading cartoonists, as he recalled, "When I was 16, I worked as office boy for Tad, Herriman

George Herriman

George Joseph Herriman was an American cartoonist, best known for his classic comic strip Krazy Kat.-Early life:...

, Hershfield

Harry Hershfield

Harry Hershfield was an American comic artist, humor writer and radio personality. A columnist once labeled him "the Jewish Will Rogers".Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hershfield was the son of Jewish immigrants...

, Tom McNamara, also Hoban, McCay, Gross, T. E. Powers, C. D. Batchelor, Sterrett

Cliff Sterrett

Clifford Sterrett , was an innovative comic strip cartoonist who created the influential Polly and Her Pals....

 and Segar

E. C. Segar

Elzie Crisler Segar was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of Popeye, a character who first appeared in 1929 in his comic strip Thimble Theatre. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was "SEE-gar". He commonly signed his work simply Segar or E...

. Not much money but a million dollars worth of experience! Stayed with the New York Journal for five years, sweeping floors, running errands, drawing strips, sport cartoons and what have you. Then one year with World Telegram. From there to the Daily News in 1922 where Smitty and Herby work for me! Golf used to be my love, but it is now taboo. So now it's a little swimmin' in my pool."

Fishing for ideas

Ed Black wrote about the method E. C. Segar and Berndt used to generate cartoon ideas:

Segar did another strip in the 1920s, but not on his own volition. One of his friends at the New York Journal was Walter Berndt who would in 1922 create the daily and Sunday Smitty strip for the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate

Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...

 (under the aegis of the legendary Capt. Joseph Patterson

Joseph Medill Patterson

Joseph Medill Patterson was an American journalist and publisher, grandson of publisher Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune and a mayor of Chicago, Illinois.-Family:...

), a feature destined to run for years. Both liked fishing. Berndt was doing a two-column strip called Then the Fun Began, inherited from Milt Gross

Milt Gross

Milt Gross , was an American comic strip and comic book writer, illustrator and animator. He wrote his comics in a Yiddish-inflected English. He originated the non-sequitur "Banana Oil!" as a phrase deflating pomposity and posing. His character Count Screwloose's admonition, "Iggy, keep an eye on...

. Both Segar and Berndt would finish their work by noon then steal away to an old pier on the Jersey side and spend the afternoon fishing and thinking up ideas. "We'd finish the day with a bunch of fish and about 15 or 20 ideas each," Berndt once said.

Then the Fun Began was appearing as early as March 3, 1919. When Berndt left that strip on October 13, 1921, it was taken over by Fred Faber, who continued it until 1928.

Origins of Smitty

Berndt's first strip, That's Different, drawn for the Bell Syndicate, lasted less than a year. In 1922, he created Smitty, which he continued until 1973, working with his assistant Charles Mueller. Yet it did not begin without a struggle, as cartoonist Mike Lynch described in a 2005 lecture:

After a stint drawing sports cartoons under T.A. "Tad" Dorgan (If you look at Walter Berndt's signature, you can see he draws his "T" just like Tad did), he took over the And the Fun Begins panel from Milt Gross. By 1920 Berndt had left the Journal to start his own strip. The strip lasted a year. Then he worked at The New York World. But, within weeks, he was fired for insubordination. (I tried to find out more about this, but this is all I know.) Berndt was out of work and broke. So, with zany cartoonist timing, he got married! And then he began making the rounds with a new strip titled Billy the Office Boy. It was 1922. The World Series was on. Big news, and so no one could get near the editors. Berndt couldn't get in to see anyone. Segar said there wasn't a World Series in Chicago and suggested he send the proposal to Captain Patterson

Joseph Medill Patterson

Joseph Medill Patterson was an American journalist and publisher, grandson of publisher Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune and a mayor of Chicago, Illinois.-Family:...

. So Berndt mailed the strip to the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

. Patterson, opening a phone book for reference, renamed it Smitty and bought it at Berndt's high asking price. The strip became a mainstay, with the adventures of Smitty and Herby continuing for over 50 years.

In 1937, Berndt moved to Port Jefferson, Long Island, where he lived until his death at age 79. He died on Monday, August 15, 1979, at Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson,

Awards and legacy: The Berndt Toast Gang

Berndt won the Reuben Award for 1969 for Smitty. He also produced the comic strip Herby from 1938 through 1960.

The Berndt Toast Gang, named in honor of Walter Berndt, is a group of Long Island cartoonists who meet on the last Thursday of each month, as explained by cartoonist Lee Ames

Lee J. Ames

Lee Judah Ames was an American artist noted for his Draw 50... learn-to-draw books.He was born in Manhattan, New York. His first job at age eighteen was at Walt Disney Studios. He has since led a career as an advertising artist, fine artist, cartoonist, designer, animation in-betweener,...

:

When the Long Island group, Creig Flessel

Creig Flessel

Creig Valentine Flessel was an American comic book artist and an illustrator and cartoonist for magazines ranging from Boys' Life to Playboy...

, Bill Lignante

Bill Lignante

Bill Lignante is an American illustrator.He was initially known for his work on The Phantom for Gold Key Comics and Charlton Comics and for his 16-year career as an animator for Hanna-Barbera....

, Frank Springer

Frank Springer

Frank Springer was an American comic book and comic strip artist best known for Marvel Comics' Dazzler and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D....

, Al Micale and I got together to work for Hanna Barbera in the 1960s, we decided to have a Finnegan's Bar lunch every last Thursday of the month. During that period, Creig brought Walter Berndt to join us. We fell in love with the cigar-smoking old-timer (look who's talking!), as he did with us. After a couple of years he passed away and left us grieving. Thereafter, whenever we convened on Thursdays, we'd raise a toast to Walter's memory. On one such, my big mouth opened and uttered, "Fellas, it's time for the Berndt toast!" I wasn't trying to be cute at the time, but I'm not displeased that it stuck and we became the Berndt Toast Gang, one of the largest branches of the National Cartoonists Society

National Cartoonists Society

The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...

.

Sources

• Strickler, Dave
  Dave Strickler
  Dave Strickler is a reference librarian noted for his compilation of Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index, regarded as a major reference work by researchers and historians of newspaper comic strips....
  
  . Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1