The "Some People Never Give Up" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Waiting for "The Saturday Evening Post" to appear in my mailbox.  I still enjoy reading the magazine, but wish it was monthly rather than bi-monthly.  But, perhaps it is a monthly publication and my mailman keeps every other issue to read himself.  Now that's something I have to inquire about when I see him the next time.  Often wondered why he had a smile on his face all the time.  The Saturday Evening Post does that to you...you know!  The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time in 1821.  Not sure what month, but doesn't matter since I wasn't alive back then anyway.  It was printed in the same print shop at 53 Market Street in Philadelphia as the Pennsylvania Gazette had been published in during the 18th century.  I love the formatt of the magazine as well as the stories, cartoons, illustrations and even the advertisements.  But, perhaps my favorite part of the magazine is the cover.  The Saturday Evening Post has had some of the top cover artists over the years such as Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker.  I have even featured a few of the covers in some of my stories in the past.  But, they have also had another artist who I enjoyed.  Guy by the name of Tony Sara who was said to have been one of the most unusual...and happiest...creative oddballs to work as an illustrator for the Post.  He was known to have said "I never had so much as an hour of art instruction."  Maybe true, but he had lots of creative adventures that proved to be a good substitute.  Tony was born in 1880.  His father was a German diplomat who sent Tony to a military academy at the age of 14.  Now, I have a friend whose dad sent him to a military academy, but that was because at the age of 15 he took the family car out of the garage at night and went joyriding in it.  After 6 years at the academy, Tony was commissioned a lieutenant in the German army.  Yep, a guy who got into trouble all the time ended up a lieutenant in the army!  Wasn't long before he resigned his commission and became a puppeteer.  Shortly, he fell in love with an American girl named Bertha McGowan, moved to the USA and married her in 1909.  

He tried quite a few careers, most without success.  First he designed wallpaper, than prepared ads for a marmalade company, then wrote guide books and finally opened a curiosity shop where he built and sold puppets.  Nothing seemed to work so he tried a career as an animator and illustrator for children's books.  But, he still wanted to be a puppeteer.  He learned the trade watching "The Great Holden" and eventually put on marionette shows in the windows of Macy's Department Store in Manhattan at Christmas.  He also sold cartoons to a publication called "The Sketch."  He wasn't very good as a cartoonist, but people liked his jokes that went with his cartoons.  With practice he slowly became competent and he persuaded the Saturday Evening Post to give him a chance.  By 1915 his art was appearing on the cover.  Three times to be exact!  Evidently cover artists used oil paints and Tony didn't like to paint in oil.  "Took too long to dry," he would say.  So, he began to illustrate for writers in the Post.  One such writer was Sinclair Lewis.  All along, he kept up his stints as a puppeteer for Macy's and in 1924 when Macy's began its famous tradition of a Thanksgiving parade, he came up with the idea of having a blimp in the shape of a funny animal filled with helium and placed in the parade.  

Macy's Parade balloon designed by Tony Sara

Tony persuaded the Goodyear company in Akron, Ohio to make a huge Mickey Mouse and Ferdinand the Bull balloon.  He viewed these balloons as reverse marionettes with strings controlled from the bottom rather than the top.  His new invention was a huge success and still is to this day.  Than in 1936 he took one of the big balloons and told of a big sea monster off the coast of Nantucket.  He made massive footprints in the sand where the beast allegedly came ashore.  Really attracted attention, and Tony became a national celebrity.  Tony Sarg might not have had the most, or best, artistic ability, but artistic talent was only one of the considerations in becoming a successful illustrator.  Check out some of the work that he had done for the Saturday Evening Post.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS. The following were pages from the Saturday Evening Post and were all illustrated by Tony Sara.  Click on them to enlarge them.