| A. E. Hayward | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alfred Mark Hayward (1884-02-14)February 14, 1884 Camden, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | July 25, 1939(1939-07-25) (aged 55) New York City, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Syndicated cartoonist, fine artist |
Notable works | Somebody's Stenog |
| Spouse(s) | |
Alfred Earl Hayward (1884 – 1939), was a 20th century American comic strip artist. He was known professionally asA. E. Hayward for his comics work although he used his full name for his fine arts work.
He is best known for his seminal 1918-1941 stripSomebody's Stenog ("stenog" standing for "stenographer"). This strip, featuringflapper-erasecretary Cam O'Flage, was one of the first daily strips focusing on an independent woman.[1] It was the first enduring daily strip to have an "office girl" as the protagonist[2][3][note 1] and to be concerned with a group of female office workers.[7]
Hayward was born as Alfred Mark Hayward[8] on February 14, 1884, inCamden, New Jersey, to English immigrants. His father and grandfather were painters, and he became an accomplishedwatercolorist himself, exhibiting hisimpressionist landscapes (usually of mountains, and some quiteabstract) to critical praise at New York's Fifteen Gallery, thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (where he studied), and many cities of the United States and beyond.[9]
In addition to his painting, Hayward worked as a newspaper writer of humoroushuman interest fare, wrote poetry, and lectured at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, but found his greatest fame when he turned to cartooning.[9]
He created the stripSome Day, Maybe for theNew York World in 1912 andGreat Ceasar's Ghost, later namedGreat Ceasar's Goat and later stillPinheads (1913–1915) also for theWorld. He createdColonel Corn (1915–1918) for theNew York Herald and the single-panelPadded Cell (also 1915–1918) for thePublic Ledger Syndicate. InPadded Cell he ran a suite of cartoons calledSomebody's Stenographer for six weeks in 1916. This served as a prototype for his most successful work.[9][8][10][1][7]
Somebody's Stenog first ran on December 16, 1918, preceding (and perhaps in part inspiring)[11] the similarly-themed stripsWinnie Winkle (1920) andTillie the Toiler (1921). The Sunday strip debuted on April 30, 1922.[7] The strip was distributed out of Philadelphia by theLedger Syndicate.[12][7] Characters included Cam O'Flage's friend Mary Doodle, her boss Sam Smithers, and her rival Kitty Scratch. Hayward retired from the strip in 1933 and died in 1939; the strip was continued by artists including Ray Thompson and Sam Nichols.[1][7] The lastSomebody's Stenog strip was published May 10, 1941.[13]
The strip was published outside America. In French Canada it ran inLa Presse under the titleLouLou[1] and in Sweden it ran inHemmets Journal asGrosshandlare Petterkvist och hans sekreterare ("Merchant Peter Kvist and His Secretary").[citation needed]
Somebody's Stenog was successful enough thatAl Capp, shoppingLi'l Abner in the mid 1930s, was pressured to instead draw a strip similar to Hayward's.[14]
Hayward married Stella Kelly on August 28, 1907. They had a daughter, Joyce. Hayward died in New York City on July 25, 1939.[9]
'Just a few changes' [the syndicate's editor] carelessly added. 'Nobody's interested in hillbillies... Maybe she goes to work in an office in New York...' There alreadywas a strip like the one he had in mind. He was trying to get me to drawSomebody's Stenog.
| International | |
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| National | |
