The Open Road for Boys

Last updated
Openroad.jpg

The Open Road for Boys, a boys' magazine encouraging the outdoor life, was published from November 1919 to the 1950s. The magazine was a monthly for the first 20 years and then switched to a schedule of ten issues a year. It began as The Open Road, which expanded to The Open Road for Boys in October 1925. Over two decades later, the title changed to Open Road: The Young People's Magazine in April 1950. During its final year, the title changed to American Boy and Open Road with the July 1953 issue.

Contents

Clayton Holt Ernst was editor-in-chief of The Open Road. It was originally published by The Torbell Company, 248 Boylston St. in Boston, Massachusetts. The founding officers were Ormond E. Loomis, President, Clayton H. Ernst, Vice-President, and Wm. C. Blackett, Treasurer. They derived the company name from the initials of the magazine and their own last names: T[he]O[pen]R[oad]B[lackett]E[rnst]L[oomis]L[td].

By 1940, the circulation had climbed to 301,000. Beginning in 1944, the art director was Jack Murray (1889-1965), who was also the art director of Outdoors, Child Life and Salt Water Sportsman . [1]

Contributors

Contributors included Ellis Parker Butler, Jonathan Eldridge, Edward C. Janes, Kenneth Payson Kempton and Charles G. Muller, Alpheus Hyatt Verrill and Kerry Wood. Some authors, such as Albert Capwell Wyckoff, wrote for both Boys' Life and The Open Road for Boys. In addition to adventure fiction, there were many articles and ads about the construction of model airplanes. The appeal of Open Road for Boys and the magazine's advertising, specifically an ad for the Red Ryder air rifle, was captured by Jean Shepherd in his short story, "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid." This story was collected in In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash , source of the film classic A Christmas Story (1983):

I remember clearly, itchingly, nervously, maddeningly the first time I laid eyes on it, pictured in a three-color, smeared illustration in a full-page back cover ad in Open Road For Boys, a publication which at the time had an iron grip on my aesthetic sensibilities, and the dime that I had to scratch up every month to stay with it. It was actually an early Playboy . It sold dreams, fantasies, incredible adventures, and a way of life. Its center foldouts consisted of gigantic Kodiak bears charging out of the page at the reader, to be gunned down in single hand-to-hand combat by the eleven-year-old Killers armed only with hunting knife and fantastic bravery. Its Christmas issue weighed over seven pounds, its pages crammed with the effluvia of the Good Life of male Juvenalia, until the senses reeled and Avariciousness, the growing desire to own Everything, was almost unbearable. Today there must be millions of ex-subscribers who still can't pass Abercrombie & Fitch without a faint, keening note of desire and the unrequited urge to glom on to all of it. Just to have it, to feel it.

Cartoon contest

A popular Open Road feature was a cartoon contest which showed a drawing of a problem or situation, inviting the magazine's readers to do a follow-up cartoon showing the resolution of the problem. Well known cartoonists, such as Paul Coker, George Crenshaw, Dan Heilman, Eldon Pletcher, Mort Walker, Bill Yates and Bob Zschiesche, [2] saw their first printed cartoons in the Open Road competitions, which also had an influence on illustrators and fine artists, as the painter Wayne Thiebaud noted in an interview with Susan Larsen:

I got very interested in cartooning... mostly just the American comics in the newspapers. For a long time, I remember I cut out strips and kept them around. Then I would copy them and so on and got more and more interested. By the time I was maybe 16, I guess, 15, I started sending in cartoons to magazines. They had these contests in a magazine called Open Road for Boys. They would say: "Draw a cartoon in which you would say how this problem is solved." So I did that and I remember having a couple of things published, and I was very excited and so on... I think I got a dollar, a dollar prize. [3]

Cover artists included Jacob Bates Abbott, George Avison, Clarence Doore, William D. Eaton and Charles Hargens.

In 1927, the magazine began a club for boys called Open Road Pioneers. The club's official pin, in gold and dark blue, displayed the left profile of a Davy Crockett-type adventurer wearing a coonskin cap and carrying a rifle.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cartoon</span> Type of two-dimensional visual art

A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.

<i>The New Yorker</i> American weekly magazine since 1925

The New Yorker is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the cultural life of New York City, The New Yorker also produces long-form journalism and shorter articles and commentary on a variety of topics, has a wide audience outside New York, and is read internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Eisner</span> American cartoonist

William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Bell (cartoonist)</span> English political cartoonist

Steven William Maclean Bell is an English political cartoonist, whose work has appeared in a number of publications, notably The Guardian from 1981 to 2023. He is known for his left-wing views. Bell was fired from The Guardian in 2023, after drawing a caricature of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during the Hamas-Israel war.

Eric Ernest Jolliffe was an Australian cartoonist and illustrator.

Notable events of 2006 in comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilda Terry</span> Cartoonist

Theresa Hilda D’Alessio, better known as Hilda Terry, was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip Teena. It ran in newspapers from 1944 to 1964. After marriage, she usually signed her name Theresa H. D’Alessio. In 1950, she became the first woman allowed to join the National Cartoonists Society.

Orlando Busino was an American cartoonist whose cartoons appeared in McCalls, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Saturday Evening Post, and many other magazines. Among his creations were "Gus," the long-running series of cartoons about a large dog that appeared in Boys' Life magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irwin Caplan</span> American cartoonist (1919–2007)

Irwin Caplan, nicknamed Cap, was an American illustrator, painter, designer and cartoonist, best known as the creator of The Saturday Evening Post cartoon series, Famous Last Words, which led to newspaper syndication of the feature in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Miranda</span> Indian cartoonist (1926–2011)

Mário João Carlos do Rosário de Brito Miranda, popularly known as Mario Miranda or Mario de Miranda, was an Indian cartoonist and painter based in Loutolim in the Indian state of Goa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creig Flessel</span>

Creig Valentine Flessel was an American comic book artist and an illustrator and cartoonist for magazines ranging from Boys' Life to Playboy. One of the earliest comic book illustrators, he was a 2006 nominee for induction into the comics industry's Will Eisner Hall of Fame.

Robert Mankoff is an American cartoonist, editor, and author. He was the cartoon editor for The New Yorker for nearly twenty years. Before he succeeded Lee Lorenz as cartoon editor at The New Yorker, Mankoff was a New Yorker cartoonist for twenty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Kraus</span> American cartoonist

Robert Kraus was an American children's author illustrator, cartoonist and publisher. His successful career began early at the New Yorker Magazine, producing over hundreds of cartoons and nearly two dozen covers for the magazine over 15 years. Afterwards, he pivoted his career to children's literature, writing and illustrating over 100 children’s books and publishing even more as the founder of publishing house Windmill Books. His body of work is best remembered for depicting animal heroes who always try their best and never give up, which were ideals important to him at an early age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Ellis (cartoonist)</span> American editorial cartoonist

Fred C. Ellis was an American editorial cartoonist. He is best remembered as one of the leading radical artists of the 1920s and 1930s as an artist for various publications of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA), including stints on the staff of the CPUSA's daily newspaper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Saunders</span> American cartoonist (1899-1986)

Allen Saunders was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth and Kerry Drake.

Virgil Walter Ross was an American artist, cartoonist, and animator best known for his work on the Warner Bros. animated shorts including the shorts of legendary animator Friz Freleng.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Gelman</span> American publisher and cartoonist

Woodrow Gelman was a publisher, cartoonist, novelist and an artist-writer for both animation and comic books. As the publisher of Nostalgia Press, he pioneered the reprinting of vintage comic strips in quality hardcovers and trade paperbacks. As an editor and art director for two-and-a-half decades at Topps Chewing Gum, he introduced many innovations in trading cards and humor products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel Hays</span> American cartoonist

Ethel Hays was an American syndicated cartoonist specializing in flapper-themed comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. She drew in Art Deco style. In the later part of her career, during the 1940s and 1950s, she became one of the country's most accomplished children's book illustrators.

Roger Brand was an American cartoonist who created stories for both mainstream and underground comic books. His work showed a fascination with horror and eroticism, often combining the two.

Although, traditionally, female comics creators have long been a minority in the industry, they have made a notable impact since the very beginning, and more and more female artists are getting recognition along with the maturing of the medium. Women creators have worked in every genre, from superheroes to romance, westerns to war, crime to horror.

References