Slow Ball Cartoonist: The Extraordinary Life of Indiana Native and Pulitzer Prize Winner John T. McCutcheon of the Chicago Tribune (2016) By Tony Garel-Frantzen

The pages of the Tribune have produced some of the greats of journalism, not the least of whom is John T. McCutcheon an editorial cartoonist for the paper from 1903 through the end of World War II.  McCutcheon won the paper its first Pulitzer Prize in 1931 with his drawing of a victim of a depression-era bank failure.  His body of work is extensive and includes the paper’s legendary annual Thanksgiving post Injun Summer.

This week (June 10, 2018) saw the departure of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial and business offices from the Tribune Tower, a gothic architectural masterpiece that is an integral part of both the city’s skyline and its history.  While all things must change, this bit of “progress” strikes close to home, both as a lifelong Tribune reader, and as a former employee – I worked on the eighth floor of the Tribune from 1972 through 1978.  As legions of others can attest, walking through the lobby of the Tower every morning is a heady experience, particularly when you are only 21, and new in the big city.  It just seems wrong for the paper to no longer be at the Tower.

Last year, I read/reviewed a biography of another staple of Chicago journalism, George Ade, a columnist, author and playwright.  Ade and McCutcheon were both natives of Indiana and attended Purdue University.  They were friends at Purdue, roommates early in their careers, and remained life-long friends.   

Reading Tony Garel-Frantzen’s biography of McCutcheon, Slow Ball Cartoonist, was for me like a history lesson of my neighborhood. When McCutcheon and Ade first began their journalism careers in Chicago they shared a studio apartment near 8^th & Wabash, around the corner from where I live at 9^th & State.  Their frequent train rides always routed them through Dearborn Station a building which is now a protected architectural landmark that is out my back door, its clocktower is the centerpiece of my skyline view.  When McCutcheon’s career progressed a little, he moved his work space into the Fine Arts Building a couple of blocks away on Michigan Avenue next to the Auditorium Theater & Roosevelt University, each of which are architectural landmarks from a bygone era.

And while I thoroughly enjoyed the Chicago settings in this biography, what I really loved was McCutcheon’s non-stop world travels.  As a war correspondent he covered the Spanish-American War from Manila, and San Juan Hill, and was one of hordes of journalists in Paris in1919 for the Peace Talks which ended the “Great War” and divided up the world.  He used his fame as a prominent newspaperman to literally badger his way into early aviation, including over enemy lines in World War I.

As a friend and confidant of his boss Col. Robert McCormick, the Tribune’s politically powerful editor and publisher, he was someone every politician in the country wanted to befriend – he was selective, a friend and fan of Teddy Roosevelt, and an acquaintance and non-fan of William McKinley. 

Recommendation:  For nostalgia, for Chicago history, for journalism 101, and for just plain pleasure reading, it can’t be beat.