Bob Dunn (cartoonist)

Bob Dunn (March 5 1908 – January 31 1989) was an American cartoonist.

Dunn was known for his work on "Little Iodine" and "They'll Do It Every Time" for which he won the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the years 1968 and 1969. He won it again in 1979 with Al Scaduto. Dunn won the National Catoonists Society's highest honor, the Reuben Award, in 1975. He also received their Silver T-Square Award in 1957 and the Elzie Segar Award, named after the creator of "Popeye".

Bob began his career at King Features Syndicate. He submitted gags to newspapers and magazines and sold several skits to Earl Carroll for his "Vanities" on Broadway in 1930 and '31. In 1936 "he invented the "Knock Knock" joke" (according to The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons**) in a book he wrote that sold over 2 million copies. More successful books followed including "I'm Gonna Be A Father", "Hospital Happy", "One Day In The Army", and "Magic For All".

He starred in two shows in the early days of television 1949-1953. The first was called "Face To Face". The second and more popular was "Quick On The Draw", a celebrity panel show first hosted by Eloise McElhone and later by Robin Chandler. Bob would draw cartoon charades that the celebrities would try to figure out. He was one of the cartoonists featured in a network television special on NBC in 1966 called "The Fabulous Funnies". He was a long-time member of the famed theatrical Lambs Club to which he contributed drawings, scripts and personal appearances; and was the Official Toastmaster of the National Cartoonists Society which he served as President 1965-1967.

In 1947 soon after the founding of The National Cartoonists Society, he and his good friend Rube Goldberg and a group of top-flight cartoonists from the NCS went on a 3-month tour of the US and helped sell $58 million in US Savings Bonds. Dunn's card tricks and feats of mental magic blended with Goldberg's comic inventions producing a "chalk talk" that amused audiences across the country.

References

* [http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards.asp NCS Awards]
**The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons. Chelsea House Publishers New York and London 1980

External links

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DE1339F931A35751C0A96F948260 NYT obituary]