Harold Teen

Harold Teen was a comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed (pronounced "eed"). Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested, and certainly approved, the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarkington's successful novel "Seventeen".

Under the title "The Love Life of Harold Teen", it debuted as a Sunday strip in the "Chicago Tribune" in 1919, and a daily version was added later that year. The strip did a good job of representing the Jazz Age, and became a minor cultural icon of its time. The principal characters were Covina High School student Harold Teen, his girlfriend Lillums Lovewell, his diminutive sidekick Shadow Smart and Pop Jenks, proprietor of the Sugar Bowl soda shop where Harold consumed Gedunk sundaes.

During World War II, Harold joined the Navy. In the post-war period, the strip failed to retain its relevance, and it came to an end with Ed's death in 1959. Carl Ed received writing credit for both film adaptations of "Harold Teen". In the 1928 silent version, Harold was portrayed by Arthur Lake, best known for his many performances as Dagwood Bumstead, and tap dancer Hal LeRoy had the title role in the 1934 movie musical "Harold Teen".

External links

* [http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq52404.html John Ruch on origin of "Gedunk" in "Harold Teen"]
* [http://www.san.beck.org/MM/1934/HaroldTeen.html Sanderson Beck's Movie Mirrors: "Harold Teen" (1934) film]