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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Judge Rummy, Silk Hat Harry etc. </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=294 WIDTH=300 ALT="The judge outlines a plan to the force." SRC="jrummy.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"><H1>JUDGE RUMMY, SILK HAT HARRY, etc.</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Original medium:</B> Newspaper comics <BR><B>Appearing in:</B> The Hearst papers <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> approx. 1910 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Thomas A. "Tad" Dorgan <FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> <A HREF="glossary.htm#cartoonist">Cartoonist</A> Thomas Aloysius "Tad" Dorgan was the creator of Johnny Wise, <I>For Better or Worse</I> (<A HREF="forbettr.htm">no relation</A>) and other early  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> comics, but his greatest fame came from his position as America's premiere sports cartoonist. Because of that, his daily cartoons about anthropomorphic dogs (comics historian Coulton Waugh called them "dog-headed men") usually ran in the sports section. It originally shared space with Dorgan's <I>Indoor Sports,</I> sometimes one and sometimes the other dominating. <P> Dorgan's dog-men feature varied its name from time to time. Sources cite <I>Silk Hat Harry's Divorce Suit, Old Judge Rumhauser</I> and <I>Judge Rummy's Court,</I> which, together, seem to cover most of its tenure. It ran in the <A HREF="king.htm">Hearst</A> papers, starting somewhere in the neighborhood of 1910. <P> Being situated on the sports page of most papers, the dogs were generally read by hair-chested he-men, so material wasn't limited to what was acceptable by gentler folks such as women and children. That's why <I><A HREF="mrjack.htm">Mr. Jack,</A></I> also a raunchy <A HREF="glossary.htm#funnyanimal">funny animal,</A> had been consigned there during the previous decade. Nothing in it would shock anyone today, but Harry, Rummy and their pals liked to party hard, with lots of booze and loose women. Prohibition affected the alcohol content of their activities only by making the stuff a little harder to come by. <P> When the gang got into animation, like so many Hearst properties of the time (e.g., <I><A HREF="jerryjob.htm">Jerry on the Job,</A></I> <A HREF="maud.htm">Maud the Mule</A>), Judge Rummy was the star. Starting with <I>Judge Rummy's Day Off,</I> released August 19, 1918, between two and three dozen silent cartoons were made before the series ended, in 1921. <P> On the newspaper page, Dorgan continued his cartooning as health permitted. He suffered a heart attack in 1920, and a couple of years later went into semi-retirement, i.e., cut his output, claiming to have become lazy in his old age (he was in his late 40s). He died at 52, in 1929 <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! 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