George McManus

George McManus (January 23, 1884 – October 22, 1954) was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Irish immigrant Jiggs and his wife Maggie, the main characters of his syndicated comic strip, Bringing Up Father.

Biography George McManus and Florence Bergere; composite by Marguerite Martyn for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1910 Born in St. Louis, Missouri, of Irish parents, McManus had an innate gift for drawing and a sense of humor. He recalled an incident when he was in high school: "My teacher sent home to my parents a picture I had drawn of a classmate named Sweeney. 'This is what your boy has been doing,' the teacher wrote, icily. I laid the note in Pop's lap and headed wearily for the woodshed. But Pop, instead, put on his hat and coat and went to the editor of The Republican. He showed [my drawing of] Sweeney to the editor. Next day I had a job on The Republican at $5 a week—as an errand boy."

At The Republican, he created his first comic strip, Alma and Oliver. In 1904, after winning $3000 at the racetrack, he went to New York City and a job with the prestigious New York World, where he worked on several short-lived comic strips, including Snoozer, The Merry Marcelene, Ready Money Ladies, Cheerful Charlie, Nibsy the Newsboy in Funny Fairyland, Panhandle Pete and Let George Do It.

Comic strip evolution

In 1904, McManus created the first American family comic strip, The Newlyweds, about an elegant young couple and their baby Snookums. The popularity of the strip prompted the management of The New York American to invite McManus to work for their newspaper. He began working for them in 1912. Renaming The Newlyweds as Their Only Child, he continued that strip and began other daily strips: Rosie's Beau, Love Affairs of a Mutton Head, Spareribs And Gravy and Bringing Up Father.

Yule and Riano made one film annually until 1950, when Yule died. George McManus himself appeared as a surprise guest in the first film (Bringing Up Father, 1946) and the last (Jiggs and Maggie Out West, 1950).

Awards For his contribution to American humor, Roanoke College honored McManus with an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.

Later life During the 1940s, McManus lived at 8905 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. He died in 1954 in Santa Monica, California and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Cultural legacy Jiggs serves as insignia of the U.S. Air Force's 11th Bomb Squadron, with whom McManus served during World War I. In 1995, the comic strip was one of 20 included in the "Comic Strip Classics" series of commemorative United States postage stamps.