Death of Newspapers #10: Barney Google ushers in the New Year! ~~
Control click header above to hear vaudevillian George Price sing his 1923 hit, "Barney Google with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes".
Billy DeBeck was a comic genius. In other words, he was flat out funny. Thus, Barney Google kicks off our Splendiferous Barney Google New Year Celebration! Note in the 12/26/20 b/w page how the comic situation escalates with every panel advancing in a logical manner.
December 26, 1920
January 1, 1921
September 26, 1923 show in Elyria, Ohio
January 3, 1926
Bughouse Fables, DeBeck's topper strip, came to an end on May 9, 1926. In the corner of the last panel of
Bughouse Fables is a note of thanks to "Odd McIntyre" (pronounced "udd"). Now mostly forgotten, O.O. McIntyre (1884-1938) was a newspaper columnist with a huge readership in the 1920s and 1930s. (He almost vanished entirely. Try to find more than three pictures of him on the Internet!) His daily column, "New York, Day by Day," was widely syndicated and collected into bestselling books. His readers expected to find his columns about celebrities and parties in the big city occasionally interruped with portraits of small town life, such as
"The Glee-or-ious Fourth". Why did O.O. veer into obscurity while other columnists (Hedda Hopper, Herb Caen, Louella Parsons, Walter Winchell, Irv Kupcinet) never faded away? I think it was because he had no interest in radio. He felt that the discipline that went into writing his columns would slide if he made a detour into broadcasting. (Thus, Fred Allen was free to use O.O.'s columns as the uncredited inspiration for his popular Allen's Alley segments.)
May 9, 1926
On May 16, 1926, with
Bughouse Fables gone, DeBeck launched
Parlor Bedroom and Sink, the title an apparent reference to his cheapskate main character.
May 16, 1926
May 23, 1926
June 6, 1926
June 13, 1926
June 20, 1926
June 27, 1926
July 4, 1926
July 11, 1926
July 18, 1926
July 25, 1926
August 1, 1926
Labels: barney google, billy debeck, bughouse fables, death of newspapers, parlor bedroom and sink, spark plug