The Bell Syndicate , launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler , was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 43rd Street and later at 229 West 43rd Street. It also reprinted comic strips in book form.
30-595: In 1913, while working as a sportswriter for the New York Herald , Wheeler formed the Wheeler Syndicate to specialize in distribution of sports features to newspapers in the United States and Canada . That same year his Wheeler Syndicate contracted with pioneering comic strip artist Bud Fisher and cartoonist Fontaine Fox to begin distributing their work. Journalist Richard Harding Davis
60-602: A column about postage stamps and stamp collecting . Joseph Agnelli was the Bell Syndicate's executive vice-president and general manager. The syndicate also distributed James J. Montague 's column More Truth than Poetry , as well as many other articles and light fiction pieces, from about 1924 until his death in 1941. The liberal Washington columnist Doris Fleeson wrote a daily Bell political column from 1945 to 1954. Drew Pearson 's Washington-Merry-Go-Round column (moving over from United Features Syndicate in 1944)
90-640: A mainstay of American expatriate culture in Europe. In Ernest Hemingway 's novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926), the first thing the novel's protagonist Jake Barnes does on returning from Spain to France is buy the New York Herald from a kiosk in Bayonne in the Basses-Pyrénées department and read it at a café. The New York Evening Telegram was founded in 1867 by the junior Bennett, and
120-626: The Tarzan comic strip. In March 1930, United Feature Syndicate acquired MNS and its strips from the Bell Syndicate. In 1924, Wheeler became executive editor of Liberty magazine, and served in that capacity while continuing to run the Bell Syndicate. In 1930, Wheeler became general manager of North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA), established in 1922 by 50 major newspapers in the United States and Canada which absorbed Bell, both continuing to operate individually under joint ownership as
150-726: The Bell Syndicate-North American Newspaper Alliance . That same year, Bell acquired Associated Newspapers , founded by S. S. McClure's cousin Henry Herbert McClure. Keeping Associated Newspapers as a division, at that point the company became the Bell-McClure Syndicate . In 1933, just as the concept of " comic books " was getting off the ground, Eastern Color Printing published Funnies on Parade , which reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from
180-618: The Compromise of 1850 would lead to "but little anxiety entertained in relation to the question of slavery , the public mind will be so fatigued that it will be disinclined to think of the matter any further." In April 1867 Bennett turned over control of the paper to his son James Gordon Bennett Jr. Under James Jr., the paper financed Henry Morton Stanley 's expeditions into Africa to find explorer David Livingstone , where they met on November 10, 1871. The paper also supported Stanley's trans-Africa exploration . In 1879 it supported
210-544: The Herald' s sensational coverage of the Robinson–Jewett murder case . By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the United States. In 1861 it circulated 84,000 copies and called itself "the most largely circulated journal in the world." Bennett stated that the function of a newspaper "is not to instruct but to startle and amuse." His politics tended to be anti-Catholic and he had tended to favor
240-720: The Ledger Syndicate , Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer wrote the Dorothy Dix advice column, which ran in 160 newspapers, until her 1951 death, when Muriel Agnelli took over the column. In 20 newspapers it appeared under the byline "Muriel Nissen," Agnelli's maiden name. Born in Manhattan, Muriel Agnelli attended Hunter College and also studied journalism and psychology at Columbia University . After marrying Joseph P. Agnelli in 1929, she began editing Bell's four-page children's tabloid, The Sunshine Club , and she later wrote
270-486: The New York Herald suffered from his attempt to manage its operation in New York by telegram. In 1916 a Saturday issue of the paper reported that a major financier was found dead from poisoning; it added that in 1901 he was "mysteriously poisoned and narrowly escaped death." After Bennett Jr. died in 1918, Frank Munsey acquired control of the New York Herald (including its European Edition). In 1924 Munsey sold
300-465: The World , Nugent created a feature called Puzzlers in 1927, which was syndicated until c. 1931 by the World 's Press Publishing Co. Puzzlers had the same elements that characterized Uncle Art's Funland , launched in 1933, which introduced Nugent's autobiographical character, Uncle Nugent (a.k.a. Uncle Art ). After initially failing to be syndicated in 1933, Nugent took his puzzle page concept to
330-648: The " Know Nothing " faction, but he was not so anti-immigrant as the Know-Nothing Native American Party. During the American Civil War , Bennett's policy, as expressed by the newspaper, was to staunchly support the Democratic Party . Frederic Hudson served as managing editor of the paper from 1846 to 1866. During the mid-19th century, the New York Herald adopted a proslavery stance, with Bennett arguing that
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#1732772659984360-803: The 1910s. As the time of Paris in World War I began, Bennett Jr. kept the paper running, even during the First Battle of the Marne when some French papers shut down. When the American Expeditionary Forces began arriving in France in 1917, demand for the Paris Herald soared, with eventually some 350,000 copies being printed each day and the edition finally becoming profitable. The European edition subsequently became
390-744: The Bell-McClure Syndicate, the Ledger Syndicate , and the McNaught Syndicate , including the Bell Syndicate & Associated Newspaper strips Mutt and Jeff , Cicero , S'Matter, Pop , Honeybunch's Hubby , Holly of Hollywood , and Keeping Up with the Joneses . Eastern Color neither sold this periodical nor made it available on newsstands , but rather sent it out free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. The company printed 10,000 copies, and it
420-489: The elder Nugent until 1974. Uncle Art's Funland ended in 1991 but was revived in circa 2009 by United Media . It is now distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication under the United Features brand. Today, the puzzle is produced by N.A. Nugent (hypothesized by some to be "Not A Nugent"). Essentially the same concept as Uncle Art's Funland , the single-page feature was published in many Golden Age comics under
450-492: The few newspaper features created exclusively for children. 'Some cartoons aren't really meant for children,' Nugent says. 'The language is too complicated and the jokes are too hard for them to understand.' With Uncle Art's Funland , however, toddlers enjoy coloring the pictures, while older children work the puzzles." After World War I , Nugent worked as the New York World ' s puzzle cartoonist for eight years. For
480-625: The ill-fated expedition of George W. De Long to the Arctic region. In 1874 the Herald ran the New York Zoo hoax , in which the front page of the newspaper was devoted entirely to a fabricated story of wild animals getting loose at the Central Park Zoo and attacking numerous people. On October 4, 1887, Bennett Jr. sent Julius Chambers to Paris, France , to launch its European Edition. Later he moved to Paris himself, but
510-422: The leading circulation paper of its period. During the time of original publisher Bennett, the New York Herald was perhaps the best-known American paper in Europe. Its first issue came out on October 4, 1887. The official name of the paper on its front page masthead was The New York Herald European Edition—Paris. But it became widely known as simply the Paris Herald . Publisher Bennett Jr. referred to
540-670: The most extraordinary appeal, and we do not feel that Superman gets into that category." (Superman's subsequent debut in Action Comics #1 in 1938 was a huge success.) The Bell Syndicate-North American Newspaper Alliance acquired the McClure Newspaper Syndicate in September 1952 — making it the second McClure-family-owned syndicate to be acquired by Bell — with Louis Ruppel installed as president and editor. The syndicate's greatest success with comic strips
570-535: The new medium of comic books . Essentially the same concept as Uncle Art's Funland , the single-page feature was published in many Golden Age comics in the 1930s and 1940s. Funland was published in almost every issue of Eastern Color Printing 's Famous Funnies from 1934 to 1948. Other publishers who ran the feature — under a variety of titles — during this period included Dell Comics , All-American Publications , Harvey Comics , DC Comics , Holyoke Publishing , and Toby Press . Beginning in 1950, Funland
600-496: The paper as a "village publication" for the circle of people in Paris who were interested in international news. Indeed, during its first decades of publication, a feature of the paper was a list of every American known to be in Paris at the time, culled from inspections of hotel registries. Even as the paper's audience grew, most of its readers were in France or countries near France. The European edition consistently lost money into
630-660: The paper to the family of Ogden Reid , owners of the New-York Tribune , creating the New York Herald Tribune (and the International Herald Tribune with a divergent future). When the Herald was still under the authority of its original publisher Bennett Sr., it was considered to be the most intrusive and sensationalist of the leading New York papers. Its ability to entertain the public with timely daily news made it
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#1732772659984660-485: The partisan papers of the day by the policy that it published in its first issue: "We shall support no party—be the agent of no faction or coterie, and we care nothing for any election, or any candidate from president down to constable," although it was typically considered sympathetic to the Jacksonian Democratic Party and later, President John Tyler . Bennett pioneered the "extra" edition during
690-529: The sale of his Wheeler Syndicate, John Neville Wheeler founded the Bell Syndicate, which soon attracted Fisher, Fox, and other cartoonists. Ring Lardner began writing a sports column for Bell in 1919. In the spring of 1920, the Bell Syndicate acquired the Metropolitan Newspaper Service (MNS), continuing to operate it as a separate division. MNS launched such strips as William Conselman 's Good Time Guy and Ella Cinders , and
720-489: The syndicate was no longer distributing comic strips. In 1972, United Features Syndicate acquired NANA / Bell-McClure and absorbed them into its syndication operations. Henry M. Snevily was the firm's president. Kathleen Caesar was the Bell Syndicate's editor. Film critic Mordaunt Hall was a Bell copy editor, and he also contributed articles. In 1964, Will Eisner was appointed president of NANA and Bell-McClure, replacing Harry Spiess. Late in life, after moving over from
750-565: Was a great success. An April 1933 article in Fortune described the "Big Four" American syndicates as United Feature Syndicate , King Features Syndicate , the Chicago Tribune Syndicate , and the Bell-McClure Syndicate. The Bell Syndicate was one of the many syndicates that rejected Jerry Siegel in 1934 when he proposed a Superman comic strip. The syndicate stated, "We are in the market only for strips likely to have
780-523: Was carried in 600 newspapers until Pearson's death in 1969. New York Herald The New York Herald was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the New-York Tribune to form the New York Herald Tribune . The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett Sr. , on May 6, 1835. The Herald distinguished itself from
810-786: Was considered by many to be an evening edition of the Herald . Frank Munsey acquired the Telegram in 1920 and ended its connection to the Herald . Uncle Nugent%27s Funland Uncle Art's Funland (also known as Funland and as Uncle Nugent's Funland ) is a long-running syndicated weekly puzzle and entertainment feature originated by Art Nugent (1891–1975). Featuring jokes, riddles, and paper-and-pencil word games, math challenges, nonograms , connect-the-dots art, crossword puzzles and anagrams , Funland has appeared in newspapers and comic books since 1933, and has been syndicated regularly since 1950. Nugent credited Uncle Art's Funland 's ongoing success "to its being one of
840-409: Was in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The company had some strips in syndication through the 1950s but the only ones to have success into the 1960s were Uncle Nugent's Funland , Hambone's Meditations and Joe and Asbestos . In 1964, the publishing and media company Koster-Dana Corporation was identified as controlling both North American Newspaper Alliance and the Bell-McClure Syndicate. and by 1970
870-407: Was regularly syndicated until after Nugent's death. Originally syndicated by the Bell-McClure Syndicate , it became part of United Feature Syndicate in 1972, lasting there until 1991. In 1975, Funland was being distributed by United Features to more than 100 newspapers. Nugent's son Art Nugent, Jr. (1926–1997) took over Uncle Art's Funland in the early 1970s with occasional contributions by
900-635: Was sent to Belgium as war correspondent and reported on early battlefield actions, as the Wheeler Syndicate became a comprehensive news collection and distribution operation. In 1916, the Wheeler Syndicate was purchased by S. S. McClure 's McClure Syndicate , the oldest and largest news and feature syndicate in America. (Years later, Wheeler's company would in turn acquire the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Immediately upon
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