"TAD's Top Dog of Hot Dogs, Much More" (3-10-02)

Tue Mar 19 02:55:17 UTC 2002

   Oy.
   One year ago, Bill Gallo of the New York Daily News got this wrong.  I e-mailed the newspaper.
   No response.
   I copied piles of information, including Leonard Zilling's TAD LEXICON, and sent it to Bill Gallo AND the Daily News sports editor.
   No response.
   George Thompson wrote in.  Thompson also added that he was working on the origin of "base ball" in New York City.
   No response.
   Oy!
   Help me, Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Post!

SPORTS

TAD'S TOP DOG OF HOT DOGS, MUCH MORE
BILL GALLO

03/10/2002
New York Daily News

SPORTS FINAL
80
(Copyright 2002 Daily News, L.P.)

Soon you'll be hearing the familiar, "Get your red hots!" Hot dogs and beer at a ballpark go together like a horse and carriage around Central Park.
The term "hot dog" goes way back to the early 1900s, when a genius of a cartoonist-writer coined it. Thomas Aloysius Dorgan, who shortened his byline simply to "Tad," was the most popular newspaper guy of his day. Reading and hearing stories about him in the New York Journal-American while growing up, he became one of my heroes. So, as we approach a new baseball season - which I predict will wind up with the Cardinals meeting the Yankees - and hot dog time, I dedicate this column to Tad.

He died in 1929 at age 52, but his "Inside Sports" panel was so popular, Hearst papers continued to run his "Best of" works until the late '40s, early '50s. That's when I got to study his art and words.
Tad's drawings were simple, funny and direct. His work not only gave laughs to millions, but supplied at least four generations with pithy, catchy slang and provided songwriters with gag titles out of which grew many of the day's popular ballads.

One time Tad wrote "Yes, we have no bananas" in one of his cartoons and within months it became a popular song.

Another time he lettered "23, skidoo" in one of his cartoon balloons and immediately the phrase became part of American folklore. "Dumb Dora" was his and so was "drugstore cowboy." Tad was the first to pen these words: "The first hundred years are the hardest."

When you hear somebody say, "For crying out loud," you should know it was born in Tad's inkwell. "You tell 'em!" also came from there.

He was born in San Francisco and drawing came easy to him while growing up. But, he had to learn to draw twice in his life. Checking into his background I learned that as a youngster, a heavy rock landed on his right hand, destroying all the fingers except his thumb.

So, in due course, he became the world's best lefthanded cartoonist. He started his career in the art department of the San Francisco Bulletin for $3 a week. As he tells it, he was fired but remained (for the experience) at no pay. Ever persistent, the young artist started going to fight clubs and became good at sketching what he had seen. One time he handed in his work and the editors thought it was so good, he was given a "regular" job for a big $5 a week. Well, kids, we're talking 1915.

There's no end to how many words and phrases this man put into our dictionaries and Barlett's Quotations. Tad gave us, "cat's meow" and "cat's pajamas." Also, "red hots," "nickel nursers," "benny" for overcoat, "skimmer" for hat and "cheaters" for shell-rimmed glasses.

"Busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with hives," was his. So was, "Oh, Ma, here they come up our block."

His gift of stabbing slang phrases was a bonus atop his other work, that of one of America's greatest humorists. In a Will Rogers sort of way, he once wrote, "That guy's as loose as ashes," "He'll give you everything the hen lays but the eggs." "He'd give anybody the sleeves out of his vest."

There are cartoon strips Tad did that could run today. Such as this: You see two major league ballplayers in a restaurant, one with a fancy overcoat thrown carelessly over a chair. When his teammate remarks that they're ordered to be sent South early in February, he replies: "Too soon. Don't do (any good) to get sunburned early in February. I don't get a chance to wear my new overcoat." Hearing this are two waiters, one saying to the other: "I'd like to bust him on the kisser. I ain't had a vacation in 20 years. Says the bees and butterflies bother him, with us knee-deep in snow." Clearly Tad was always for the underdog.

Tad was a fight guy and felt best among fighters. "I liked them because they were honest, red-blooded birds who minded their own business," he said.

The popular Tad was besieged by young people aspiring to be newspapermen, and his advice to them was simple and direct: "Remember envy never got anybody anything worth having. If you balance your abilities with your limitations and never count on luck to give you anything, you succeed.

"Too many youngsters with ability fall victims to stupid jealousies of more successful men. The reason they are jealous is because their ability is inferior to that of those who have a larger measure of success."

Like Mark Twain and Will Rogers, Tad lives.