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