Mary Worth (comic)
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- This article is about the comic strip. For the evil spirit that is sometimes known by this name, see Bloody Mary (folklore).
Mary Worth is a newspaper comic strip syndicated by King Features, developed from an earlier Apple Mary strip by writer Allen Saunders and artist Dale Conner in 1940, under the pseudonym "Dale Allen". It was also published briefly in a comic book (Harvey Comics 1949-50) as Love Stories of Mary Worth.
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[edit] Summary of the strip
The title character, a 60-year-old former teacher and widow of a Wall Street tycoon (Jack Worth), formerly lived in New York and later moved to the Charterstone Condominium Complex in fictional Santa Royale, California. In this pioneering soap opera-style comic strip, Mary Worth serves as an observer of and advice dispenser for her fellow residents, tackling issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, infidelity, and teen pregnancy. Originally titled Mary Worth's Family, its title was shortened in 1942, at which time artist Ken Ernst succeeded Conner.
Most reference sources [1] state it was a continuation of the Depression-era strip Apple Mary, created by Martha Orr in 1932, centering on an old woman who sold apples on the street and offered humble common sense. King Features denies that Mary Worth was a continuation of the earlier strip,[1] disregarding Saunders' own detailed account in his interviews (1971) and autobiography (1983-6) of how he was given Apple Mary in 1939 and developed it into a Mary Worth with stories he thought women would enjoy more. The strip then took off, according to Saunders (autobiography ch. 13), as he and Ernst introduced over the years a "parade of dazzling, dreamlined dishes," from ingenues to vixens. Each story (and its cast) was independent, with little continuity to the next, and Mary generally made only brief appearances to react and give her matronly advice. Only in recent decades has the strip centered more on her, along with a regular cast of her closest friends: Professor Ian Cameron and his younger wife Toby (an artist), advice columnist Wilbur Weston and his college student daughter Dawn, and Dr. Jeff Cory, Mary's perennial beau, and his son Dr. Drew Cory. Many stories now begin with new people she meets in her volunteer work at the local hospital or at poolside parties at Charterstone, where she is known for her tuna casserole.
Allen Saunders retired in 1979 (and died in 1986), and Ken Ernst passed away in 1985. Artists and writers who have worked on the strip since then include Saunders' son, John Saunders (1974-2003), Bill Ziegler (1986-1990), and Jim Armstrong (1991). Former DC Comics artist Joe Giella took over drawing duties in 1991, with Karen Moy writing the strip since John Saunders' death in 2003. Under Allen Saunders, the daily strips usually had four panels with multiple exchanges among the characters, keeping a good narrative pace from day to day with several stories per year. But under his son, the norm became just two panels, with less dialog and less detailed artwork, and with stories stretching out as long as 18 months. Moy has sought to reverse that "glacial" pace, and at the same time, to show Worth as not only a "figure of common sense and compassion," but also as "human" in her own flaws and experiencing "jealousy, self-doubt, fear, and anger" (Moy, as quoted by Alfonso).
In Summer 2006, Moy's handling of the strip during a plotline in which Mary was stalked by Aldo Kelrast (an anagram of "stalker"), a Captain Kangaroo lookalike who may have killed his late wife, drew media attention.[2] An intervention staged by Mary and her friends drove Aldo to returning to finding comfort in alcohol, which led to his death in a drunk driving accident where he drove off a cliff. A subsequent plot development was the arrival of Ella Byrd, another elderly dispenser of advice who aroused feelings of jealousy and inadequacy in Mary but also, as a psychic, alerted her to Dr. Jeff's danger in Vietnam, where he was volunteering medical care and was seriously ill himself. Mary flew there, brought him back, and is now her old self again, with an aphorism for every occasion.
Working part-time as a volunteer nurse at a hospital, Mary encounters an elderly dying woman named Donna, who tells Mary that she can't rest in peace while her grown sons, Richard and Ron, are fighting over her body. Mary talks to the boys and gets them to make peace. Soon afterward, Donna's condition worsens and she dies in peace, knowing that her sons are once more friends. Ron, however, is having a difficult time adjusting after his mother's death, and he turns to Mary for advice and a shoulder to lean on. Mary is glad to be of assistance, but Dr. Jeff is jealous that Mary is spending so much time with Ron, and they have an argument. Ron soon is elected to city coucil, and he brings Mary to dinner to celebrate the good news. However, the newspaper reporters are lurking in the resturant and the next day, there is an article in the paper that states that the newest city council member is having a romantic dinner with Santa Royal's most respected and esteemed woman, Mary Worth.
[edit] Cultural references
A recurring skit on The Carol Burnett Show was a satire on the comic, called Mary Worthless. The title character went around helping people, "whether they liked it or not". At the beginning of each installment, Carol Burnett, in character, sat inside a comic panel and introduced herself: "Oh, hello. I'm Mary Worthless, and I'm a do-gooder." The last line usually elicited much laughter from the audience, as they knew her schemes to do more harm than good.
An episode of The Simpsons, "Bart Sells His Soul", features Comic Book Guy displaying "a very rare Mary Worth in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide." In another episode, "Lady Bouvier's Lover", he trades a Mary Worth telephone to Bart Simpson for an Itchy and Scratchy animation cel. In the episode "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?", the tour of the Springfield Shopper leads them to the comic department which is headed by the author of Mary Worth. The guide asks "Who reads Mary Worth?" to which the group remains silent, and the guide says "Let's move on."
In the Futurama episode "The Why of Fry," Fry remarks, "There are guys in the background of Mary Worth comics that are more important than me" upon finding out that Leela, his love interest, is about to go on a date with an important mayor's aide.
The Family Guy episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail 1" features Chris making a print of a Mary Worth strip on Peter's belly fat and stretching it out, Silly Putty-style, saying "Look what I can do to Mary Worth's smug sense of self-satisfaction." To which Peter responds, "That's right son, take her down a peg."
In a FoxTrot strip, the characters are discussing how many comic strips that day have jokes based on golf. Jason comments, "I loved Mary Worth's punch line about sand traps."
In a Pearls Before Swine strip, Rat, on steroids, decides he "will kick Mary Worth's &#$*%!"
In response to readers of a newspaper in Shreveport, LA voting to drop Mary Worth,[2] the comic strip The New Adventures of Queen Victoria spent a week in September 2007 with Victoria planning Mary's funeral.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Most notable among them is the Allen and John Saunders Collection itself at the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University
- ^ The Palm Beach Post
[edit] References
- Alfonso, Barry. 2007. The Case for Mary Worth. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 24, 2007.
- Ridgeway, Ann N. (interviewer) 1971. Allen Saunders. The Journal of Popular Culture 5 (2), 385-420.
- Saunders, Allen. 1983-86 (in 16 installments). Autobiography: "Playwright for Paper Actors," in Nemo—The Classic Comics Library, no. 4-7, 9, 10, 14, 18-19.
- Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1.
[edit] External links
- Strip description at King Features
- Mary Worth at Comics Curmudgeon
- Author and artist biographies at King Features
- Toonopedia entry
