The Museum Of UnCut Funk sends out a special thank you to Allan Holtz at the Stripper’s Guide for allowing us to repost his articles on the Smith-Mann Syndicate.
Sunny Boy Sam
Most of the Smith-Mann Sunday section material was new, but one real old-timer to make the jump to color was Sunny Boy Sam, a strip that had been running in the Pittsburgh Courier since way back in 1928. It was created by Wilbert Holloway, and he was credited on the strip until 1969, an impressive run by any standard, though I get the feeling that some portions of the run might have been reruns. The long run continued under the pen of Clarence Washington until sometime in the 1970s, long after comic strips had become unfashionable in the Black papers.
The last I know of is from 1976, but it may have run much longer – the film archive I was working from ended with that year.
Source: Allan Holtz; Copyright Allan Holtz 2013 The Strippers Guide http://strippersguide.blogspot.com
4 Comments
Awesome cartoon! Never knew about this, until now!
I remember my grandmother sending me to the corner store to get the Pittsburg Courier especially to read Sunny Boy Sam. She used the cartoon to pick numbers for the weekly bolita.
Wilber Holloway was my grandfather. My family has a lot of his original drawings. I’m glad his work is still being remembered. Thank you all!
Great read God, Dr Buzzard, and the Bolito Man by Cornelia Walker Bailey. Speaks of looking for numbers for the Bolito man in this cartoon in the 1950’s.