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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that flips through the pages of history to

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Speaker 1: deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gabe Bluisier,

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Speaker 1: and today We're going back in time to look at

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Speaker 1: one of the most famous and long running comic strips

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Speaker 1: to ever grace the Funny Pages. The day was Monday,

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Speaker 1: September eight. A new comic strip appeared in American newspapers

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Speaker 1: introducing readers to Blondie Boopa Dupe, better known today as

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Speaker 1: Blondie Bumpstead or just plain Blondie. Although personally I would

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Speaker 1: never give up a maiden name as good as Boopa Dupe.

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Speaker 1: Bumpstead is such a downgrade. The strips creator M. B.

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Speaker 1: Chick Young had dreamed of being a cartoonist since childhood.

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Speaker 1: His nineteen nineteen high school yearbook contained some of his

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Speaker 1: earliest drawings, which were signed with his nickname Chicken, from

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Speaker 1: which he would later derive his pen name. Before the

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Speaker 1: Blondie strip debuted in nineteen thirty, Young had tried to

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Speaker 1: launch several female driven comics with little success. One reason

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Speaker 1: for the failure of such titles as beautiful, bab and

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Speaker 1: dumb Dora was Young's penchant for portraying his female leads

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Speaker 1: as insipid and flighty. He initially followed the same chauvinous

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Speaker 1: pattern for Blondie, perpetuating the tired, dumb blonde stereotype in

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Speaker 1: the early strips. Gradually, Young was able to reign in

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Speaker 1: this impulse, and Blondie began to appear just as smart

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Speaker 1: as the string of boyfriends vying for her affections. One

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Speaker 1: such suitor was the playboy Dagwood Bumstead. Despite the strip's title,

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Speaker 1: many readers are probably more familiar with Blondie's future husband,

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Speaker 1: who's bumbling antics tend to provide much of the comics humor.

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Speaker 1: But in the early days, Dagwood was a far cry

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Speaker 1: from his current incarnation as a sandwich loving working man. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he was originally portrayed as the son of a wealthy

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Speaker 1: railroad tycoon. The comic strip struggled initially, but once Young

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Speaker 1: decided to have Dagwood and Blondie fall in love, his

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Speaker 1: readership began to climb. The couple's relationship hit a snag, though,

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Speaker 1: when Dagwood told his family of his plans to marry Blondie.

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Speaker 1: His father feared she was only out for his money

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Speaker 1: and threatened to cut Dagwood off from the family fortune

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Speaker 1: if he went through with the wedding. This prompted Dagwood

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Speaker 1: to go on a hunger strike as a way of

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Speaker 1: proving his affections and winning the blessing of his family.

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Speaker 1: This narrative stunt played out in real time, with Dagwood

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Speaker 1: refusing to eat for twenty eight days or twenty eight strips.

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Speaker 1: In the end, dad Wood's father relented and grudgingly gave

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Speaker 1: his consent for the wedding. However, he did stick to

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Speaker 1: his word and refused to provide his son with any

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Speaker 1: financial support for the rest of his life. Nonetheless, the

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Speaker 1: happy couple married on Friday, February seventeenth, nineteen thirty three.

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Speaker 1: The marriage proved to be a turning point for the

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Speaker 1: comics Trip, raising its profile and winning a slew of

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Speaker 1: new readers. It was a well planned effort on Young's

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Speaker 1: part and his way of acknowledging the downturn of the

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Speaker 1: Great Depression. Cut Off from dagwoods family connections and wealth,

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Speaker 1: the Bumpsteads moved to the middle class and became instantly

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Speaker 1: more relatable In the process, they became a reflection of

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Speaker 1: many American families of the time, and even today, those

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Speaker 1: who live and rented houses, take public transportation to work,

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Speaker 1: and rarely dine out at restaurants. These readers appreciated the

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Speaker 1: strips funny daily reminders that even when a lack of

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Speaker 1: money makes life difficult, love makes it worthwhile. Blondie herself

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Speaker 1: also benefited from the transition to a more family oriented strip.

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Speaker 1: No longer portrayed as rash or ditzy, she became a

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Speaker 1: more capable, practical, and assertive character, the voice of reason

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Speaker 1: in her household. In fact, shortly after their wedding, Blondie

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Speaker 1: led a campaign demanding eight hour work days for the

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Speaker 1: housewives and her neighborhood. She also made sure Dagwood did

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Speaker 1: his fair share of housework, often using reverse psychology and

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Speaker 1: some well intentioned cunning to get her way. Readers seemed

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Speaker 1: to find this inversion of gender roles to be a

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Speaker 1: refreshing change from Young's earlier strips, as well as other

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Speaker 1: comics of the day. Blondie became a big success, and

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Speaker 1: fans all over the world began to identify with the

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Speaker 1: strips universal themes Chick Young continued producing Blondie seven days

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Speaker 1: a week from nineteen thirty until his death in ninety

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Speaker 1: seventy three. The one exception was during nineteen thirty seven,

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Speaker 1: when Young took a one year hiatus following the death

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Speaker 1: of his firstborn son. The Bumsteads had welcomed the first

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Speaker 1: of their two children a few years earlier, and Young

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Speaker 1: reportedly found it too painful to draw their child. After

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Speaker 1: working through his grief, Young returned to the strip and

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Speaker 1: went on to produce more than fifteen thousand Blondie comics

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Speaker 1: in his lifetime. When he passed away in nineteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: his son, Dean Young, took over writing duties. Today, Dean

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Speaker 1: Young continues to write the strip with illustrations by artist

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Speaker 1: John Marshall. More than two thousand newspapers published Blondie in

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Speaker 1: fifty five countries and thirty five languages, boasting an estimated

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Speaker 1: readership of two hundred and eighty million. Of course, there's

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Speaker 1: no way to talk about Blondie without acknowledging the world

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Speaker 1: famous Dagwoods sandwich at is defined by Webster's New World Dictionary.

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Speaker 1: A dagwood is a quote many layered sandwich. It's named

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Speaker 1: in honor of the comic strip character and the mountainous

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Speaker 1: sandwiches that he frequently crafts during late night raids on

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Speaker 1: the refrigerator. According to Chick Young, a pile of random

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Speaker 1: leftovers stacked between two slices of bread was the extent

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Speaker 1: of Dagwood's culinary abilities. That's probably true if dad Wood

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Speaker 1: were left to his own devices, but if anyone could

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Speaker 1: coax a better meal out of him, it's Blondie. I'm

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Speaker 1: gay Bluesier, and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about comics history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: you have any comments or a suggestion for a historical

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Speaker 1: event you'd like to see covered on the show, you

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Speaker 1: can send it my way at this Day at i

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. Thanks to Channeler Mays for producing

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Speaker 1: the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see you

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Speaker 1: back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.

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