Elzie Crisler Segar (1894 - 1938)

Elzie Crisler Segar is born December 8, 1894 in Chester, Randolph, Illinois, United States.^[1][2] He is a son of Amzi Andrews Segar and 2. Erma Irene Crisler.^[1][3][4]

He assists his father in house painting and paper hanging. Skilled at playing drums, he also provides musical accompaniment to films and vaudeville acts in the local theater, where he is eventually given the job of film projectionist at the Chester Opera House, where he also performs live.

At age 18, he decides to become a cartoonist. He takes a course in cartooning from W. L. Evans of Cleveland, Ohio.

Segar moves to Chicago where he meet Richard F. Outcault, the creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown. Outcault encourages him and introduces him at the Chicago Herald. On March 12, 1916, the Herald published Segar's first comic, Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, which runs for a little over a year. In 1917, Barry the Boob was created.

He marries Myrtle A. Johnson on May 10, 1917 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.^[5] Together they have two children, Marie and Thomas Elzie.^[6]

In 1918, he moves on to William Randolph Hearst's Chicago Evening American, for which he creates Looping the Loop and works as a second-string drama critic.

In October 1919, Segar covers the World Series, creating eight cartoons for the sports pages.

Evening American Managing editor William Curley thinks Segar could succeed in New York, so he sends him to King Features Syndicate, where Segar works for many years. He begins by drawing Thimble Theatre for the New York Journal. The strip made its debut on December 19, 1919, featuring the characters Olive Oyl, Castor Oyl and Harold Hamgravy. They are the strip's leads for about a decade.

Segar also creates The Five-Fifteen for King Features in 1920; it is retitled Sappo in 1926. In 1926, the retitled Sappo is converted into a Sunday-only topper to the Thimble Theatre Sunday pages. Segar later adds the character of inventor Professor O. G. Wotasnozzle to Sappo.

On January 17, 1929, when Castor Oyl needs a mariner to navigate his ship to Dice Island, Castor picks up an old sailor in the docks named Popeye. The character stole the show and becomes the permanent star. Some of the other notable characters Segar creates include J. Wellington Wimpy and Eugene the Jeep.

Elzie dies on October 13, 1938 in Los Angeles, California, United States after a long illness of leukemia and liver disease.^[7][8]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Illinois Births and Christenings, 1824-1940 Elzie Crisler Segar, 8 December 1894; Chester, Randolph, Illinois, United States.
2. ↑ United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Elzie Crisler Segar, 1917-1918.
3. ↑ United States Census, 1900, Elziro Segor in household of Anezi A Segor, Chester Precinct Chester city, Randolph, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 66, sheet 8A, family 147
4. ↑ United States Census, 1910 Elsie Segar in household of Amzi Segar, Chester Ward 2, Randolph, Illinois, United States; citing Enumeration District (ED) ED 103, sheet 6B, family 140
5. ↑ Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920, Elzie C. Segor and Myrtle A. Johnson, 10 May 1917.
6. ↑ United States Census, 1930, Elzie C Segar, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1478, sheet 27A, line 38, family 609.
7. ↑ California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994, Elzie C Segar, 1938.
8. ↑ California Death Index, 1905-1939 Elzie C Segar, 13 Oct 1938; citing 60621, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._C._Segar