Cartoons, Comics and Humor with Phonograph Connections

Assorted Pre-1950

Assorted Post-1950

Archie and Friends

Betty Boop

Blondie and Dagwood

Dennis the Menace

Donald Duck

Flip the Frog

The Menace of Mechanical Music

Peanuts

PhonoJokes

Political Humor

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Talking Machine World Cartoons

Talking Toy Humor

Tom and Jerry

The Yellow Kid & Pore Lil Mose

Uncle Josh's Stories and Records

What day is it? - George & Gracie

Punch, April 6, 1878 - "I thought it was a Sewing-Machine."

This woodcut is from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, May 4, 1878.

Judy, May 15, 1878 (1) Courtesy Yesterday's Papers

Funny Folks, April 8, 1882 Extracted from 6 panel "Electrical Exhibition Experiences" cartoon (2) Courtesy Yesterday's Papers

Punch, July 26, 1889 (3) Courtesy Yesterday's Papers

Phonogram, June 1892

Punch magazine, 1899

Hello! Santy!! - Cartoon by Albert Reid

Topeka Mail and Breeze, ca. 1897

Conception of Happy Holligan by W. C. Patrick, The Edison Phonograph Monthly, June 1903

Happy Hooligan by Frederick Burr Opper

In 1900, Frederick Burr Opper created the always-in-trouble Happy Hooligan, a comic strip character who was known for his tiny tin-can hat. This cartoon (above) is panel number 1 from the June 21, 1903, a comic strip entitled, "Happy Hooligan Takes His Little Nephews to the Photographer," published by William Randolph Hearst newspapers.

 

Punch, May 2, 1906 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

 

 

Appleton's Magazine, "The Menace of Mechanical Music" by John Phillip Sousa reprinted by The Talking Machine World, August 1906

Additional Menace of Mechanical Music cartoons

"Let the Punishment Fit the Crime" for the "Phonograph Fiend" - postcard 1907

Corner from comic strip School Days and Ophelia by Clare Victor Dwiggins 1909 (Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics)

"The Seven Musical Ages of Man Up-To-Date," The Talking Machine World, December 15, 1908

From comic strip School Days and Ophelia by Clare Victor Dwiggins August 5, 1909 (Collection of Paul Tomey)

School Days by Clare Victor Dwiggins, New York Evening World, 1909

Postcard by Clare Victor Dwiggins, 1909

Life artist MH in magazine's section "While there is Life there is Hope." Life, January 13, 1910

"Richard is himself again." Life, June 16, 1910

"WANTED an operator on an Edison Phonograph" - Postcard by Clare Victor Dwiggins, 1910

Life magazine, November 17, 1910

Artist: Otho Cushing, Life Magazine, ca. 1910

Punch (?), c.1910

Postcard, circa 1910

Baseball Game of the Western Talking Machine Jobbers' association as illustrated in the Milwaukee Journal and reprinted by Voice of the Victor, July-August 1911

Every Little Bit, Added To What You've Got, Makes Just a Little Bit More. Arthur Collins, Victor No. 5295

Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, is the Right Little Girl For Me. Billy Murray and the American Quartet No. Victor 16560, 1910

We Won't Get Home Until Morning Bill. Billy Murray, Columbia A-602, ca. 1908

Phonographicum, Punch magazine, 1911

Mutt and Jeff by Bud Fisher, c. 1911

Everybody's Doin' It Now was one of a trio of songs written by Irving Berlin in 1911 that revolutionized American popular music.

Everybody's Doin' It Now sheet music courtesy of Library of Congress

LISTEN to Zonophone Record No. 816 by Harry Fay, 1911

Zonophone Record "Everybody's doing it now" (1911)

Postcard circa 1912

The Talking Machine World, March 1912

The Recording Angels, postcard (PM-0261)

Postcard, 1916 (PM-0458)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 20, 1913

This 1913 cartoon is one of six panels from a comic strip of predictions by Robert Donald, managing editor of the London Chronicle, about the future of newspapers. It was reprinted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1913 and posted in a blog by Stephen Roth in 2018.

 

"The Ten Commandments of the Summer Wife," by Dorothy Dix, August 22, 1913 The Lincoln Daily Star

 

 

, August 22, 1913 The Lincoln Daily Star

That Hawaiian Record

"Wonder What a Music Demonstrator Thinks About" by Clare Briggs, 1921 (Courtesy The Syncopated Times)

R. L. Goldberg, cartoonist of the Evening Mail, The Talking Machine World, February 1921

"The Talking Machine" by Clare Briggs, 1922 (Courtesy The Syncopated Times)

1924 Life magazine by T.S. Sullivant

Laura by Pat Sullivan (Courtesy The Syncopated Times)

Described as a snip off, after Felix the Cat, called "Laura" which is created by Pat Sullivan based on Sunday comic strip between 1926 and 1935.

T.S. Sullivant (Courtesy Animations Treasures Blog)

J. R. Williams, 1932 Courtesy The Synopated Times - Joe Bebco November 29, 2018

Read Wikipedia re: J. R. Williams and his comic strip series Out Our Way

"The family's phonograph" postcard ca. 1930 (PM-2097)

Henry

Artist: Carl Anderson, 1935

This tradecard shows Henry spinning upside down on a turntable. Henry was a popular cartoon character first appearing in the comic strip by the same name in 1932.

This line was said by Grouch Marx in the 1933 movie "Duck Soup"

"You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle."

Rube Goldberg cartoon (unknown date)

Courtesy of Steven Ramm and The Antique Phonograph December 2018

Punch, May 30, 1934

May 15, 1938 Los Angeles Times (Courtesy comicbookplus.com)

Punch magazine, 1941

Little Iodine, King Features Newspaper, 1948