BETSY HESS AND STANLEY BAER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 09/10/1945 - HFSID 227133

BETSY HESS AND STANLEY BAER
Cartoonists Betsy Hess and Stanley Baer wrote this letter to a sailor in 1945 about the comic strip The Nebbs, which was written by Besty's father Sol Hess and that they took over after his death in 1941. The Baers also wrote The Toodle Family, which absorbed The Nebbs in 1947.
Typed letter signed "The Baers" in green ink. 1 page, 7¼x8½, on their personalized stationery with a reproduced drawing of Rudy Nebb from the cartoon The Nebbs in top left corner. Sept. 10, 1945. Addressed to Emil R. Dern, Fleet Post Office, San Francisco, California. In full: "Dear Seaman Dern: Thank you for your letter of August 29, in Regard to our Comic Strip The Nebbs. Mr. Sol Hess, my Father, passed away four years ago, and since his demise, my husband and I have been writing The Nebbs. Mr. Carlson is still our artist. We are sending you our autograph [not enclosed] as you re-quested, and are also enclosing an original draw-ing by Mr. Carlson [not enclosed]. It might interest you to know that The Nebbs are now on the radio every Sunday afternoon via the Mutual Broadcasting System, at 1:30 Pacific Coast time. Perhaps yo u [sic] will be able to listen in sometime. We hope you will, and that you will enjoy them on the air as much as you have in the comic strip. Let us hear from you again sometime." Betsy Hess was the daughter of Sol Hess, who created of the comic strip The Nebbs in 1923, and married Stanley Baer in 1927. They reportedly created their own comic strip The Toodle Family in 1941 after being challenged by Sol Hess during an argument about comic strips. As Baer said in an interview with Editor & Publisher, ""You haven't got the guts," Hess charged. That dare was all we needed." Though they had no previous cartooning experience, they wrote their soap opera-ish The Toodle Family into the 1960s, with peak circulation in about 300 papers. The Toodle Family even outlasted Hess' The Nebbs. Hess died in 1941, and the Baers took over The Nebbs, later folding Hess' cartoon in their own after they decided that the Toodles and the Nebbs were related. Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Folded once and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.