This collection maintains the arrangment of creator, Donald Erlenkotter.
CGA.2017.063: Donald Erlenkotter and Sandra Hunnicutt, 2017
[identification of item], [Box number/ Folder number], Donald Erlenkotter Collection on Gladys Parker, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Ohio State University
Materials in this collection are available for use, but may be used in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum reading room only. To request materials in the finding aid, please contact
BICLM Staff, September 2017
Gladys Parker was born in Tonawanda, New York on March 21, 1908 to parents Wilburt and Caroline (Gerster) Parker. As a child, Parker was a skilled dancer, but due to severe osteomyelitis at age 14, she was unable to continue with dance. During her bed-ridden recovery, Parker began fashion drawing and cartooning, using herself as a model. She continued drawing and design throughout high school and upon graduation, sold some early cartoons to newspapers, while designing, producing, and selling dresses from her home. Finally, in 1927, Parker moved to New York City to pursue fashion design and drawing, receiving training from the Art Students’ League and the Traphagen School of Fashion. It wasn’t until 1928 that Parker became a staff cartoonist for the later defunct “New York Graphic,” creating her first strip entitled “May and Junie.” Later in 1928, she created “Gay and her Gals,” which continued into the 1930s distributed by United Features Syndicate. Despite being a cartoon strip, “Gay and her Gals” combined Parker’s love for fashion design, pioneering fashion trends including bare-midriffs and women’s trousers. Through her strips, Parker gained a reputation as a “flapper cartoonist,” coinciding with revolutionary changes in women’s rights, social norms, and fashion during the 1920s; her characters, often mirroring her own personality, could be seen as examples of “flappers”: stylish, wise-cracking young women of the roaring twenties.
Throughout the 1930s, Parker continued cartooning and fashion design, drawing illustrations for advertisements and contributing to several newspaper features. In 1930, Parker took over Ethel Hays’ “Flapper Fanny Says,” using the strip to promote and expand her fashion design. Come the mid-1930s, Parker introduced a youth fashion line through Best & Co. that was eventually sold in 150 department stores nation-wide.
Parker’s most successful strip, “Mopsy,” continued combining fashion and comics, and is believed to be modeled specifically after Parker herself; in fact, it is noted she got the idea for the strip after Rube Goldberg remarked that Parker’s hair looked like a “mop.” Created in 1937, “Mopsy” was Parker’s most well-loved and successful cartoon strips; running until 1965, it was syndicated in around 300 newspapers and appeared in eleven countries.
In 1940, Parker relocated to Los Angeles to pursue illustration and fashion and in 1941 opened her own fashion studio under the name “Gladys Parker, Inc.” Soon after, World War II began and Parker halted her fashion endeavors to focus on cartooning for the war-effort, following her then-husband, cartoonist “Stookie” Allen, who enlisted in the U.S. Army, from base-to base. During this time, not only did “Mopsy” appeared in uniform on several occasions, but Parker also took over “Flyin’ Jenny” from 1942-1944 for Russel Keaton (who had left for the service). Parker also created a W.A.C. strip entitled “Betty G.I.” for the Army.
After the war and her divorce from “Stookie” Allen, Parker continued “Mopsy” and in 1958 launched a newspaper advice column, “Dear Gals & Guys,” which continued into the early 1960s. Also in the early 1950s, Parker was one of the first female-cartoonists to be accepted as a member of the National Cartoonist Society (NCS), nominated by Hilda Terry who fought for and gained entry into the NCS in 1949. Parker continued “Mopsy” through 1965 until her death from lung cancer on April 27, 1966 at the age of 58.
This collection represents materials collected by Donald Erlenkotter during research pertaining to the life and work of cartoonist Gladys Parker. This includes Elenkotter's correspondence, collected biographical information, death certificate, and census records. The collection also contains clippings, newspapers, photographs, drawings, signed materials, proofs, and additional publications relating to Gladys Parker.
Original art by Gladys Parker has been separated out and cataloged at the item level in the
Works by Gladys Parker have been cataloged in The Ohio State University Libraries catalog under "Parker, Gladys." Miscellaneous clippings about Parker may be found in the library's biography file under her last name.
Correspondence- Ohio State University Cartoon Library & Museum Correspondence- Historical Society of the Tonawandas Michigan State University, Comic Art Collection
Erlenkotter, Donald, Gladys Parker: Cartoonists and Creator of "Mopsy" - 2017 Collected biographical listings for Gladys Parker
Death certificate for Gladys Parker, County of Los Angeles Correspondence with Social Security Administration Social Security Application Form SS-5 for Gladys Parker, giving date of birth and naming parents "Cartoonist Gladys Parker Dies," Los Angeles Herald Examiner, 27 April 1966, p.A-2 Obituary for "Gladys Parker, A Cartoonist, 56", New York Times, 28 April 1966, p.43 Obituary for "Gladys Parker, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 April 1966, p.44 Obituary for Gladys Parker, Chicago Tribune, 28 April 1966, Sec.2, p.16 "Gladys Parker, Cartoonist, Dies," Dallas Morning News, 28 April 1966 Funeral arrangements for Gladys Parker, Los Angeles Times, 28 April 1966, Part II, p.2; 29 April 1966, Part III, p.13 Complete probate file for Gladys Parker, File P-508762, Los Angeles Superior Court e-Bay file for Gladys Parker's 1954 Chevrolet Corvette, 26 November 2003
Census records for Parker and Gerster families of Tonawanda, New York Incomplete cemetary records for same families
Excerpts from assorted newpapers for Flapper Fanny by Ethel Hays, March 1930 Excerpts from assorted newpapers for Flapper Fanny by Gladys Parker, 1930-1935 Flapper Fanny cut-out and wardrobe, The Ogden Standard-Examiner, 16-21 Nov.1932
New York City Brides Records Results, Italian Genealogical Group Application for marriage record, Ben Dave Allen to Gladys Parker Certificate of marriage registration Newpaper excepts, Gladys Parker & Ben David "Stookie" Allen Newpaper excepts, Gladys Parker & "Slapsy" Maxie Rosenbloom
Information about actress-models in Gladys's SPOT magazine presentations.
Selected Mopsy panels from The Stanford Daily, 1937
Receives on of five third-place costume design prizes, New York Times, 21 Oct. 1927, p.40; 30 Oct. 1927, p.19 Gay and Her Gang by Gladys Parker, Daily News, Huntingdon, PA, 11-12 Sept. 1928, pp.3, 7 Gay and Her Gang, by Gladys Parker, and Malaria Muggs, by Ben Dave Allen, Daily News, Huntingdon, PA 18 Mar. 1930, p.7 Assorted newpaper excerpts for Gladys Parker involving comics, fashion shows, fashion features, advertisements, etc. through 1936
Assorted newpaper extracts covering fashion, etc. from 1937 through 1966 Announcement of Gladys Parker advice column "Dear Gals and Guys," Anderson Herald, Anderson, IN, 28 June 1958, p.1 Annoucement of Gladys Parker Advice column "Dear Gals and Guys," San Antonio Light, San Antonio, TX, 15 March 1960, p.47; 7 April 1960, p.42 "Dear Gals, Guys," San Antonio Light, San Antonio, TX, 29 May 1962, p.33 MOPSY, News Reporter, Hubbard, OH, 18 May 1966, p.20; 1 June 1966, p.20; 15 June 1966, p.20 [posthumous]
Gladys Parker at drawing table, age 22- press photograph (1930) Gladys Parker with brush, drawing board, and Grecian bust (09/17/1932) Gladys Parker at drawing board- press photograph (09/22/1932) Glady Parker at drawing board, slight glue adhesion (04/02/1949) Same, with two small holes punched at top (04/02/1949) Gladys Parker, with her drawing of Mopsy (08/25/1950) Gladys Parker on tour of Korean front, smoking a Camel cigarette (07/30/1952) Gladys Parker, with her 17-year-old cat, Miss Kit (05/19/1953) Same, Miss Kit disappeared when a fire destroyed Gladys's apartment (05/19/1953)
Donald Erlenkotter's correspondence and reference materials; Tonawanda, Erie County, New York
includes: 03/24/1943; 03/26/1943; 03/31/1943; 04/03/1943; 04/15/1943; 04/23/1943; 05/01/1943; 05/10/1943; 05/11/1943; 06/02/1943; 06/05/1943; 08/20/1943; 09/03/1943; 09/06/1943; 08/31/1946; 02/08/1947
includes: 10/03/1947; 04/25/1948; 01/22/1950; 02/26/1950
includes: 07/01/1934; 07/22/1934; 12/30/1934; 01/27/1935; 03/24/1935; 04/07/1935; 06/16/1935; 07/28/1935