Ted Key

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Ted Key
Birth name Theodore Keyser
Born August 25, 1912(1912-08-25)
Fresno, California, United States
Died May 3, 2008 (aged 95)
Tredyffrin, Pennsylvania, United States
Nationality American
Notable works Hazel
Awards 1977 National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Award

Ted Key, born Theodore Keyser (August 25, 1912 – May 3, 2008),[1] was an American cartoonist and writer. He is best known as the creator of the comic strip Hazel.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Ted Key was born in Fresno, California, the son of Latvian immigrant Simon Keyser, who had changed his name from Katseff to Keyser, and then to "Key" during World War I.[1] Though his family thereafter went by Key, Theodore Keyser did not legally adopt the name until the 1950s.[1] He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the art editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Californian, and was associate editor of the campus humor magazine, the California Pelican.[2] After graduating from college in 1933, Key relocated to New York City, where he published cartoons and illustrations in a number of periodicals, including the The New Yorker, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Mademoiselle, Collier's Weekly, Look, Better Homes and Gardens and Judge. Key also worked as associate editor of Judge in 1937.[2]

[edit] Hazel

Key's most famous creation, the single-panel comic Hazel, about a wry and bossy household maid, came to Key in 1943 in a dream that he drew up the next morning and sent to the magazine the Saturday Evening Post, where it was accepted and began running regularly.[1] He soon afterward gave the character a name and a household, the Baxters'. Key's son said in 2008 that Key had picked the name "Hazel" independently, but that the sister of a Saturday Evening Post editor had believed her brother had devised it.[1]

The cartoon ran until the weekly magazine ceased publication in 1969. Hazel was then picked up for newspaper syndication by King Features Syndicate. Key later adapted his comic panel into the television show Hazel, starring Shirley Booth as the titular maid. It ran from 1961 to 1964 on NBC; for its final 1965 season, the show switched to CBS. Key continued to draw the strip until his retirement in 1993.;[3] King Features reprints panels in over 50 newspapers as of 2008.[2]

[edit] Other work

Key's other work in the comics field includes Diz and Liz, a two-page comic that ran in Jack and Jill magazine from 1961 to 1972, as well as creating the segment "Peabody's Improbable History" for producer Jay Ward's animated television series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.[4] Key also provided illustrations for the long-running "Positive Attitude" series of motivational pamphlets and posters, published biweekly by Economics Press Inc. from the 1960s to the 1980s.[5]

In addition to his illustration work, Key also authored an NBC radio play, three screenplays for Walt Disney Pictures (The Cat from Outer Space, Million Dollar Duck, and Gus), and several classic children's books, including Phyllis and The Biggest Dog in the World (later adapted into the film Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World).[6]

[edit] Personal

Key served with the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946, during World War II, primarily in public relations, where he wrote a play aimed at recruiting women into military service.[1]

Key was diagnosed with bladder cancer in late 2006, and suffered a stroke in September 2007. He was 95 at the time of his death in Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania.[7] Key was married twice; his first wife, Anne, died in 1984, and Key was survived by second wife Bonnie and by three sons: Stephen, David, and Peter.[6]

[edit] Awards

In 1977 Key received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Award for his work on Hazel.[8]

[edit] Bibliography

  • Many Happy Returns (1951)
  • So'm I (1954)
  • Fasten Your Seat Belts!: A New Album of Cartoons (1956)
  • Phyllis (1957)
  • The Biggest Dog in the World (1960)
  • Ted Key's Diz and Liz (1966)
  • The Cat from Outer Space (1978)
  • Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story (Foreword and information on Hazel, 2008)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Weber, Bruce. "Ted Key, 95, Creator of 'Hazel' Cartoon, Is Dead", The New York Times, May 8, 2008
  2. ^ a b c King Features Syndicate. "Hazel by Ted Key: About the Cartoonist". Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  3. ^ Evanier, Mark (May 5, 2008, 10:48 a.m. PT). "Ted Key, R.I.P.". P.O.V. Online: News from Me (column). Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  4. ^ Markstein, Don. Toonopedia: "Peabody's Improbable History". Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  5. ^ TedKey.com. (Official site). Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  6. ^ a b Unbylined (May 5, 2008), “"Creator of Hazel, motivational posters Ted Key dies at 95"”, Philadelphia Business Journal, <http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2008/05/05/daily10.html> 
  7. ^ Lentz, Bob (May 5, 2008, 9:08 p.m. ET). "Cartoonist Ted Key, creator of 'Hazel' comic, dies at 95". Associated Press via Yahoo! News. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
  8. ^ National Cartoonists Society (May 5, 2008, 10:48 a.m. ET). Newspaper Panel. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.

[edit] External links

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