'Radio Patrol', 6 September 1936.
Charlie Schmidt was an American newspaper comic artist, best known as co-creator of the police comic 'Radio Patrol' (1933-1950), which gained such popularity in the mid-20th century that it was adapted into both a radio series and a feature film.
Early life and career
Charles Schmidt was born in 1896 in New York City. He never went to art school, but learned the trade from newspaper artists when he started as a copy boy. Between January and March 1932, Schmidt drew a closed-end biographical feature about American boxer John L. Sullivan for the Ohio-based Central Press Association. He sometimes included photo panels within his artwork.
'Radio Patrol', 27 August 1939.
Radio Patrol
In the 1930s, Schmidt worked for the newspaper The Boston Daily Record, along with crime reporter Eddie Sullivan. In 1933, their editor William Randolph Hearst Jr. (son of famous newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst) asked them to create a detective strip to compete with Chester Gould's 'Dick Tracy' (1931) from The Detroit Mirror. The daily strip came about on 7 August 1933 and was originally called 'Pinkerton, Jr.', as the protagonist was a young boy named Pinky Adams. Over the course of the series, Pinky was made older and became a youngster, modelled after the cartoonist's son Jimmy. He was also demoted to the role of sidekick, helping out a new main character, Sergeant Pat O'Hara: a brave police officer of Irish descent who often works together with his obese colleague, (Stutterin') Sam Maloney. The team was completed by the sharp policewoman Molly Day, a character modeled after Schmidt's daughter Muriel. While 'Pinkerton, Jr.' clearly tried to mimic 'Dick Tracy', it had a far more realistic tone. Schmidt and Sullivan didn't use grotesque villains or far-fetched plot developments, but instead more plausible crime stories, down to the backgrounds which show an almost photographic depiction of Boston and its surrounding cities.
'Sergeant Pat of Radio Patrol', 8 December 1941.
'Pinkerton, Jr.' quickly caught on and from 1934 on received a more nationwide distribution after being picked up by King Features Syndicate. At this occasion, it was retitled 'Radio Patrol', after the characters' radio patrol car: at the time a brand-new invention. Later it was renamed again to 'Sergeant Pat of Radio Patrol', despite the fact that Pat always worked in a team. The Sunday strip was added on 25 November 1934, and ended on 20 October 1946. The daily strip ran until 16 December 1950. Between May and June 1935, a Sunday topper called 'Public Enemies Through the Ages' appeared, featuring background information about notorious criminals in previous centuries, told in comic strip format.
Success
'Radio Patrol' inspired a radio serial, as well as a 12-part film serial, produced in 1937 by Universal Pictures. Between 1935 and 1940, four comic books were published, followed by reprints in King Comics from 1941 on. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Big Little Books also printed the series in book format. The 'Radio Patrol' comic strip additionally enjoyed international popularity. Between 1935 and 1938, it ran in Italy under the name 'Radio Pattuglia'. In Turkey, it was published in the children's magazines Çocuk Sesi and 1001 Roman under the title 'Küçük Yılmazın Maceraları' ('The Adventures of Little Yılmaz', which was their translation of Pinky's name).
Death and legacy
In 1958, Charlie Schmidt passed away in Winthrop, Massachusetts. His son Jimmy followed in his father's footsteps, and in later years ran the art department of the Boston Daily Record (nowadays the Boston Herald).
Charlie Schmidt.