Sam Berman (born c. 1909)[1] was a leading caricaturist of the 1940s and 1950s.
Berman was in high school when he began drawing cartoons for the Hartford Courant. He went to New York to study art and then landed a position as a staff cartoonist for the Newark Star Eagle. During the 1930s his political cartoons were published in color in Collier's Weekly.[1]
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He designed titles for Nothing Sacred (1937) and other films of the 1930s.[2] His murals graced the walls of the Café Society club in Greenwich Village, and his work was syndicated as illustrations for Mark Hellinger's column and other newspaper features. During World War II, he did a series depicting Nazi leaders.
After WWII, he did art for advertising agencies and created caricatures of leading radio performers for NBC's promotion, The NBC Parade of Stars as Seen by Sam Berman: As Heard over Your Favorite NBC Station (1947). With a tight deadline, he created caricatures of NBC's most popular radio personalities and shows, each printed on a separate 6"x7" card, and inserted in a green vinyl slipcase. The set of 56 caricatures included Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Milton Berle, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Judy Canova, Eddie Cantor, Jerry Colonna, Dennis Day, Bob Hope, Eddy Howard, H. V. Kaltenborn, Kay Kyser, Art Linkletter, Robert Merrill, Frank Sinatra and Red Skelton, as well as the stars of Amos 'n' Andy, A Date with Judy, Dr. I. Q., The Great Gildersleeve, Mr. District Attorney, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, Truth or Consequences and Quiz Kids.[3][4]
His advertising art included a unique approach of caricaturing ordinary people, as seen in his series of ads for Pitney-Bowes. His children's books include Shapes (Scott Foresman, 1952) and Dinosaur Joke Book (Grosset & Dunlap, 1969). Books illustrated by Berman include Sullivan Bites News (Little, Brown, 1954) by Frank Sullivan.
As head of his own map-making firm, he created an unusual relief map, the six-foot Geo-Physical Globe. Berman lived in Chappaqua, New York and later lived in Spain.[5][6]