Saturday 18 November 2017

She Missed Glory

Perhaps the most puzzling credit on a Warner Bros. cartoon is the one you see to the left, where Leadora Congdon is revealed to be responsible for the streamlined designs in the 1936 short Page Miss Glory. She was never credited in any other cartoon, anywhere. Her name isn’t bandied about by historians or retired staffers at any cartoon studio. She’s a complete mystery.

Well, maybe not.

A few diehard diggers have found bits and pieces over the years. Some time ago on this blog, we quoted Leon Schlesinger in a syndicated story in the Baltimore Sun of June 20, 1937 about the cartoon.
Not long ago, we decided to do something definitely different. A girl from Chicago showed me some ultra-modernistic sets she had designed which she thought could be used as backgrounds for a sophisticated cartoon. In order to show off the sets, we had to use human characters and have the camera shoot the sort of angles Busby Berkeley made famous. The idea was novel and the result original, but somehow it was not so funny as if animals, fowls or insects had been used.
So with this limited information about Chicago in hand leave us, like Snooper and Blabber, set off a detec-a-tive prowl through history.

One thing one quickly learns in research is not everything out there is altogether accurate. Names are misspelled. Dates vary. But we eventually find a clue.

To the right is a little clipping from the Chicago Tribune of March 15, 1919. It’s one of a handful of brief reports on the teenaged Leadora, all of them involving dancing of some kind. With a check of census records we discover that Leah Congdon is listed as living with father Albert B. mother Emma. Her father is recorded a salesman for a canned food company. But we have to go to Canada for our next clue. It seems that Leadora’s father ended up in Winnipeg, Manitoba for a period of World War One. Witness the document below.



The immigration document states that Leadora was living in Chicago (with relatives, perhaps). However, she did spend some time in Canada, as you can see in the 1921 Canadian Census for Chatham, Ontario, which is something like 50-some-odd miles from the U.S. border with Detroit. Movement across the Canada/U.S. border was not difficult back then, even to live or work.



The immigration document above reveals that Leadora was born in Syracuse, New York. So what does a virtual trip to Syracuse tell us? Well, the Post-Standard happened to publish an obituary in its November 1, 1965 edition, despite the fact Congdon had not lived there for years and years.
Mrs. Osborn Dies at Home
Mrs. Leah Dora Congdon Osborn of Forest Lake, Ill., a native Syracusan who had done design work for Walt Disney, died unexpectedly at her home at Forest Lake, a Chicago suburb. She was in her 60s. Born in Syracuse, she and her family moved from here while she was in their early years. Her husband, Tech Osborn, who died two years ago, was in the printing business. He is credited with being the inventor of the process of printing color designs on oil paper. Surviving are a step-son, Tech Osborn of Forest Lake; her father, Albert B. Congdon of West Palm Beach, Fla.; and two aunts, Mrs. Fred R. Lear of Syracuse and an aunt in Florida. Services will be 2 p.m. Wednesday at Forest Lake, with burial in the same community.
Walt Disney? She worked for Walt Disney? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s altogether possible the terms “cartoons” and “Disney” were used interchangeably; we’ve run into other newspaper stories where the writer gets studios mixed up. The Chicago Tribune has a brief funeral announcement for her on the same date but doesn’t reveal exactly when she passed away.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing in this cursory detective job to indicate how she knew or met Leon Schlesinger or convinced him to use the lovely streamlined art in one of his cartoons. However, we are able to ascertain what she was doing later in life. That’s again thanks to an obituary. The Post-Herald stated Leadora’s husband (nicknamed Tek, also the name of their son) died in 1963. Sure enough, the Tribune reported on December 18, 1963:
Arthur C. Osborn
Funeral services for Arthur C. Osborn, 66, of Forest drive, Forest Lake, Lake county, who died Monday in his home, will be held at 11 a.m. today in the chapel at 53 S. Old Rand rd., Lake Zurich. He and his widow, Leadora, operated Lea-Tek studios, doing commercial photographic work, from their home. He retired in 1960 as an employe of U.S. Printing and Lithographic company in Chicago, and in 1939 as an army major. Besides his widow, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Susan Keagy; a son, Ted [sic]; and three grandchildren.
The 1940 U.S. Census for Chicago gives Leadora Osborn’s occupation as “artist, advertising.” The Tribune also published a story in 1960 announcing a one-woman art exhibit of her’s. She and Osborn married in 1937; she had been married to Robert O’Hair, Jr. in 1928. The 1930 Census lists her occupation as “artist, commercial art co.” Again, this is for Chicago. I have found no evidence of her living in Los Angeles under any of her surnames.

No, this is not an attempt at a complete biography. It’s merely a few notes to give us a bit more information than we knew about Miss Congdon before.

I’ve always liked Page Miss Glory, though director Tex Avery baldly told historian Joe Adamson: “Forget it. It was lousy.” The designs and layouts in the dream sequence are very good and Avery finds room for some funny gags. Read a post about the cartoon here and young Steven Hartley’s opinions back when he was a 15-year-old blogger here

12 comments:

  1. I read somewhere online (alas, don't remember where) that she'd been either the label designer or photographer for Libby's canned foods, which was Chicago-based.

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    1. It wouldn't surprise me if she had some local work in the area doing graphic/commercial arts for businesses.

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  2. Movement across the Canada/U.S. border was not difficult back then, even to live or work.

    Oh, if only it were like that again. The stories of my siblings going across the border just to drink in bars will tease my grandkids one day!

    The best picture we DO have of Leadora (to date) is this Ancestry(dot)com entry I dug up some years back, I didn't sign up for a membership but what you can see in the thumbnail is a young Mrs. Congdon with some dog she had (or it's someone else's).
    https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=ROOT_CATEGORY&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=ms_f-2_s&gsfn=Leadora&gsln=Congdon&uidh=000

    On another blog I've been to ( http://texaveryatwb.blogspot.com/2013/05/page-miss-glory-reluctant-excursion.html ), someone by the name of "Elanor" wrote this comment...

    "Leadoah Congdon indeed was a polished artist..I knew her,... Albert Baynes Congdon, her father, was my step grandfather, my only grandfather...he was a peach...
    Lea and Teckie Osborn,from Lake Forest, Il.were dear soles.
    I have her art.
    Teckie jr.....if you are out there, contact me....
    ELEANOR"


    I might as well spread the word in case this "Teckie, Jr." ever does come here! Too bad Elanor isn't a Google/Blogger user or I would've asked her about Leadora's artwork she supposedly has kept all these years.

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    1. As he died in 2001, I imagine that won't be happening.

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    2. Well that sucks. If only I was somehow able to get in touch with this "Eleanor", who probably just used a library computer for all I know when she posted her comment. Of course that is to be expected when blogs allow those who aren't registered with Google/Blogger or other social media outlets to post comments anyway. It's just a little down when ever someone does post in an unknown fashion and any way to get a response is nil.

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  3. Nobody ever associated Tex Avery with advancement of the animation art form, but that's what "Page Miss Glory" ended up being in the history of the Schlesinger studio -- a cartoon that showed a strong amount of skill and discipline in animation (and laying out) a film that captured Congdon's design concepts, in contrast to the Warners' house-style seen at the start and finish of the short. It's very successful in it's own way, even it it's not successful in the gag-heavy way Avery wanted his cartoons to be successful.

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    1. Jones, in particular, was dismissive of the studio's background artists (prior to Paul Julian), but the work in this cartoon shows someone knew what they were doing.
      Everyone treats Avery as a one-man-band, but someone must have assisted with layouts in this short and I'd sure like to know who it could have been.

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  4. Even odder, of course, is that putting that credit there meant no credit for the usual direct-I mean, Supervisor (LOL :) ) ), animators, or or music composer, and it's hard to tell who directed those early shorts. It's even hard to tell that thisw eas an Avery short without being informed...besides Congdon the only other credits are the songwriters (Harry) Warren & (Al) Dubin and producer (prior to the title card), Leon Schlesinger.Steve C

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  5. The Wikipedia entry for this one says "The voices in this cartoon were provided by members of the Our Gang series." Wikipedia's reputation for inaccurate information aside, how could an idea like this even originate?

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    1. Some animation fans take snippets of things they read, or think they read, and use them to jump to conclusions.

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  6. There's an argument to be made that Ms. Congdon designed the bullseye (the rings) for the titles of the Merrie Melodies at this time. Yes, I'm aware a variant of this motif was used earlier on Willie Whopper cartoons - but the Schlesinger version was more aligned with the art deco movement - and made its debut just two months earlier on either I WANNA PLAY HOUSE (the earliest original title we have with the rings) or FLOWERS FOR MADAME (the first 3-strip Tech MM - which may have debut them and was reason enough for a new opening title treatment). 🤔

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    1. Jerry, this thought has crossed my mind, but I've never bothered to explore the title cartoons to see what production was first to use it.
      As a completely arbitrary sidebar, a theatre in Grand Junction Colorado included her name in its print ad (it played with Jimmy Stewart's "Next Time We Love"):

      "MISS GLORY"
      Something Different in Color Cartoon
      By Leadora Congdon
      PLUS
      Late News Events
      Mickey Mouse Signs Up
      Gov. Allred Ovates

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