'The Toodles' from the French-Canadian paper Photo-Journal (2 January 1954).
Rod Ruth was an American illustrator for pulp magazines and wildlife books, as well as a commercial artist and cartoonist. Between 1941 and 1956, he was the artist of the family newspaper comic 'The Toodles', written by Stanley and Betsy Baer. He also created a great many advertising comic strips for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum.
Life and career
Rodney McCord Ruth was born in 1912 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. He went to school in New York City and then found work with the publishing company Street and Smith. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, followed by the Frederick Mizen School of Arts and the Institute of Design. His first job was with the Chicago-based publisher of pulp magazines, Ziff-Davis. Between 1940 and 1951, Ruth's illustrations appeared in pulps like Amazing Stories, Weird Tales and Fantastic Adventures.
Illustrations for 'Amazing Stories' (March 1950, September 1951).
The Toodles
Besides illustrating pulp magazines and books, Ruth also had a stint as newspaper cartoonist. In 1941, Sol Hess, creator of 'The Nebbs' and writer of 'The Gumps', had a heated discussion with his daughter Betsy and her husband Stanley Baer about the quality of his work. He eventually told the couple that if they knew so much about comics, perhaps they should create one themselves. Even though Betsy and Stanley Baer were actually grocers, they took the challenge. On 4 December 1941, 'The Toodle Family' - often shortened to 'The Toodles' - made its debut in The Chicago Sun. Since the Baers couldn't draw themselves, Rod Ruth was hired as the feature's illustrator. The series revolved around two parents and their twin children. On 18 January 1953, the Daily Herald of Utah County described the series as follows: "Toodles is a story of a modern family consisting of Jane Toodle, an attractive, understanding mother; Tom Toodle, the kind of a dad that every father THINKS he is; Sally Toodle, teen-age high school daughter; Larry Toodle, the College football hero son and the delightfully loveable, mischievous Toodle Twins, Penny and Pat, who get into your hearts as well as your hair. The Toodles live in a typical college town, and their lives are filled with the humor, true-to-life struggles, romance, and heartaches that go into making up the lives of today's modern American family."
'The Toodles' (24 January 1957).
'The Toodles' was originally a gag comic, but eventually became a more dramatic series with serious undertones. Stanley Baer came up with the plots, after which Betsy compiled all these ideas in script form. Her father, Sol Hess, lived long enough to see the comic being launched, but passed away at the end of the same month. By then, the Baers also took over the writing of 'The Nebbs' and its Sunday companion comic 'Simp O'Dill' until the end of those features in April 1955. Afterwards, they included characters from 'The Nebbs' into their own 'Toodles' feature, drawn by Rod Ruth. Becoming experienced scriptwriters, Betsy and Stanley Baers even moved beyond 'The Toodles' and scripted new episodes of 'Mutt & Jeff' (originally created by Bud Fisher) and 'Don Winslow of the Navy' (originally created by Frank V. Martinek and Leon A. Beroth).
'The Toodles', from the 1951 Ziff-Davis comic book.
Drawn in a realistic style, 'The Toodles' was comparable to a soap opera in the sense that new installments in an ongoing narrative had to be created on a daily basis. The Chicago Sun Syndicate and then Field Enterprises distributed the feature to about 300 newspapers. It was also published in French as 'La Famille des Nebbs' in La Patrie du Samedi and as 'Les Gamins' in the Canadese newspaper Photo-Journal, as well as in Afrikaans as 'Die Pokkels'. In 1959, Ruth officially quit the series and passed the pencil to Pete Winter, who continued the strip until the end of its run on 31 December 1961. At one point, Cliff Voorhees also drew the series for a couple of years, possibly as a ghost artist for Ruth in the second half of the 1950s. In 1951, Ziff-Davis released one comic book with collected 'Toodles' Sunday stories drawn by Rod Ruth. In March 1956, Argo Publications published a spin-off comic book about 'The Toodles Twins', credited to the Baer couple and Rod Ruth.
One of the many Spearmint Gum strips by Rod Ruth (Erie Times News, 17 August 1954).
Wrigley's Spearmint Gum strips
In 1954 and 1955, Rod Ruth was also the artist for a series of newspaper advertising strips for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum. The feature had no official title and the only text used in the strips was the exclamation: "That gives me an idea!". In each episode, a person (usually a child) desperately tries to solve a problem. After being given a stick of chewing gum (always depicted in a two-panel sequence), he instantly comes up with a brilliant solution. Next, the protagonist spots someone else facing a similar problem and exclaims, in a balloon spread over two panels: "That Gives Me An Idea!". He or she then gives the second person (usually an adult in a professional situation) a piece of gum (presumably not the same one he chewed on earlier), after which this person also succeeds in doing what he or she wants to do. As an additional feature, the whole two tiers are shaped in a recognizable wave form, which (along with the rigid format) was kept for the strip's whole run.
Rod Ruth, The Herald Palladium, 5 February 1993.
Later life and death
When the pulp magazine market dried out, Ruth continued to work as a professional illustrator of books about wildlife and dinosaurs. As a wildlife illustrator, he worked with many world-renowned museums and naturalists to produce the illustrations for numerous children's books. For instance, his art appeared in the book 'Album of Dinosaurs' by Tom McGowen (Rand McNally & Company, 1972). In 1963, he also illustrated a version of Beatrix Potter's 'Peter Rabbit' for the Whitman Publishing Company. At age 74, Ruth passed away in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1987.
December 1955 holiday season card by Rod Ruth and the Baers, published in the Washington D.C. Evening Star on 20 December 1955.