The Cartoons of Evansville's Karl Kae Knecht
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Communism is depicted as a gorilla, July 26, 1950. UE/EVPL.
The slavery of Communism, February 3, 1956. UE/EVPL.
“Mr. Public” responds to the hydrogen bomb, January 21, 1950. UE/EVPL.
Of course domestic politics continued its usual course, and from time to time, Evansville was visited by figures running for national office. One such event was marked by the cartoon of October 16, 1956, that depicts in Knecht’s unique style the visit of Vice President Richard Nixon to the city. Nixon was the running mate of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1956 presidential election and is here depicted flying into the airport and then proceeding on a motorcade through Evansville. He is accompanied by his wife, Pat, and the Republican candidate for Congress, D. Bailey Merrill, who has apparently autographed this original. It is in many ways an archetypal Knecht cartoon, with high-energy, bold, confident caricatures, a history lesson in the form of a reminiscence about the “old whistle-stop train trips by candidates,” wonderfully accurate renderings of Evansville landmarks, including the old courthouse and the college and, of course, the presence of Mr. Public and Kay. Kay appears twice, making her usual comment in the corner but also running alongside the motorcade. It is a wonderful document of a moment in American electoral history and of an exciting day in Evansville.215
The next cartoon, a series of detailed images that look more like a strip cartoon, demonstrates Knecht’s ability to put current events into an historical context and to react to world events as a spokesman not just of one country but of the human race. It was published on November 6, 1957, just two days after the launch by the Soviets of Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite. This was, of course, a significant blow in the Cold War space race, and the Courier editorial that appeared alongside the cartoon was full of alarm and foreboding, stating, “The capacity of Russian science was underestimated. Sputnik should now cause Americans to realize that the creative and cultural resources of this country could be much better used than they are, and that we should not make easy assumptions of superiority.”216 Knecht could easily have gone down that road, too, but instead, he chose to deliver one of his beautiful and cheerful history lessons, on “Man’s Gaze Skyward.” He put Sputnik into the context of man’s instinct to reach for the skies, tracing the history of manned flight with a series of intricate drawings of balloons, dirigibles and airships [slipping in a glimpse of the Evansville skyline, of course], early airplanes, jets and finally “man-made satellites.” At the end, Mr. Public turns to the audience, binoculars in hand, and shows them a map with times when Sputnik can be seen. Far from parochial or nationalistic anxieties, this cartoon demonstrates Knecht’s infectious enthusiasm for flight, for progress, and for human endeavor. With the caption, “What Next!!,” he is not just looking back but looking forward, excitedly contemplating a brave new world where man’s limits no longer lie on this planet alone.
Stalin’s death, March 5, 1953. UE/EVPL.
A very different side of the late-career Knecht is shown in the next cartoon, which is from June 13, 1959, just months before his retirement. Although drawn almost sixty years ago, its savage attack on the concept of politically correct speech would appeal to a certain part of the community today. It is funny, on one level, but it is also extremely harsh, especially by Knecht’s standards. Above the caption “Do Not Expect All Adults to Be Sensible!” it shows a “Racial Fanatic”—drawn in an extremely pejorative way—who is stripping children’s books of their beloved characters because of the supposed racial offence that they cause. A black sheep, a black pig, Black Beauty, Mary’s Little Lamb and the Little Red Hen are all being dismissed for the sin of having colors associated with their characters. Two bemused and disappointed children observe the scene, and at the top is a “Notice” that announces a ban on “imitations or impersonations, straight or in burlesque, of any and all races, [and] nationalities…in jokes, cartoons, stories.” Given what has been said already on the subject of the use of racial stereotypes in cartoons, including Knecht’s, and the prevalence of “Sambo” in almost every conceivable form of expression, this cartoon seems uncomfortably like a last defiant gesture from an old world that is facing a terrifying new reality. A white patriarchy had ruled the United States since the day it was born, but in 1959, change was coming. The 1960s were but a year away. The civil rights movement had begun, the feminist movement was beginning, Elvis Presley was shaking his hips, the men who would be the Beatles were playing music together and Bob Dylan had started playing small concerts. The times they were a-changin’, and from the evidence of this cartoon, Karl Kae Knecht did not much like what he saw.
Nixon visits Evansville, October 16, 1956. UE/EVPL
Sputnik and the history of air travel, November 6, 1957. UE/EVPL.
Racial political correctness is condemned, June 13, 1959. UE/EVPL.
Knecht drew cartoons dealing with all the issues, great and small, of the postwar world, but he never forgot his role as an activist for his own community. The final cartoon of this chapter, from November 12, 1958, reminds us that he was working to raise money for good causes right up to the very last months of his career in Evansville; the caption was “‘U’—YOU Help to Bring It In!” A flaming torch represents the United Fund Campaign for 1958, and a figure representing the common man (although not Mr. Public) is seen walking through the U, from darkness to light, carrying pledges for the “26 participating agencies.” Knecht then lists all twenty-six of the agencies prominently on the U. It is a superficially simple cartoon, but the subliminal message conveyed by the contrast of the light and the darkness is potent; it seems to be urging the viewer to come forward and help lighten the darkness with a pledge. The implicit message is that it will light the community but also perhaps bring light to your life. And it is reminiscent of many of his cartoons over the years in which the readers are addressed directly and given a clear role to play. A master communicator, Knecht used his skills always to try to improve the community that he had made his home, and this cartoon is a great example.
United Fund campaign, November 12, 1958. UE/EVPL.
CONCLUSION
After battling illness for several years, Karl Kae Knecht died on July 28, 1972, at age eighty-eight. He was buried in Evansville’s Oak Hill Cemetery.217 The day after his funeral, the newspaper with which he was synonymous printed the following remarkable tribute on the front page that he himself had graced with his talents for forty-six years:
Karl Kae Knecht, cartoonist for The Evansville Courier for nearly 54 years, left a mark upon his time and the area in which he lived unique in the history of the Tri-state. His contributions to the growth and acceptance of this newspaper by its readers are incalculable. Words cannot express his varied interests, his keen insight into the future and its needs, that guided and shaped the artistry through which he spoke. The Courier believes its eulogy to Karl Kae Knecht best can be expressed by reprinting from the originals a variety of his cartoons published in this newspaper over the years. They appear this morning on the editorial page. Each of them speaks to us today just as they did when originally published and convey their message without the original captions, the professional test of fine cartoons. Rest in peace, Karl Kae Knecht.218
It is, in its own way, an elegant and rather beautiful tribute; the key word, perhaps, is unique. Karl Kae Knecht was like nobody else. The city’s other newspaper, the Evansville Press, published the following letter two weeks after his death: “There are many people that I respect, but none exceeds my admiration for K. K. Knecht, who treated me as a human being.” It was signed “Ex-Office Boy of 50 Years Ago.”219 His old friend C.B. Enlow, chairman of the National City Bank, said on Knecht’s retirement in 1960, “I cannot think of anyone I have ever known who has led a fuller life and contributed more to the every day enjoyment and inspiration of those privileged to see your daily cartoons in The Evansville Courier. There has been no one else like you.…I recall so vividly the remembrance of your laughter, your joy and fun in living, and your never
failing courage and optimism.”220
Karl Kae Knecht, self-portrait, 1955. UE/EVPL.
A unique man who treated people as human beings, Karl Kae Knecht left his mark on Evansville, the country and, indeed, the world through his artistic activism. While guilty of peddling racist stereotypes at a time when almost everyone else was doing the same, ultimately what shines through his art over a lifetime of drawing is his humanity and his sense of humor. One former co-worker, Jim Palmer, said that his “unfailing kindness and good humor made life a good deal pleasanter for us all.” His lifelong friend Marie Horton Woods said in 1960 that he was “solid and quiet and—I think the word is just good.…[He is a] gracious and kindly gentleman.…The office won’t be quite the same without his quiet, cheery presence.”221 His cartoons were seldom loud, seldom ostentatious; in many ways, his activism spoke quietly. But speak it did, with great effectiveness, for over fifty-four years. When he left the Courier, his colleague Jeanne Suhrheinrich spoke of how “gloomy” it was to pass the now empty office of “one of the most vibrant personalities I’ve ever known.”222 The office was empty. The artist was gone. But the cartoons remain.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. Hoff, Editorial and Political Cartooning, 13.
2. Greer, “Karl Knecht Remembered.”
3. “Karl Kae Knecht,” Sunday Courier and Press.
4. “Evansville Honors KKK,” Evansville Press.
5. Dewey, Art of Ill Will; Hess and Kaplan, Ungentlemanly Art.
6. Quoted in Buck, “Defining the British Political Cartoon.”
7. Rowson, Giving Offence, 39.
8. Navasky, Art of Controversy, xxi. Art can be, of course, a “weapon,” see Philippe, Political Graphics.
9. “Renowned Courier Artist,” Evansville Courier.
10. Mesner to Shaw, June 9, 1960. He was “known as the dean of American Political Cartoonists” (“Karl Kae Knecht,” Association of American Editorial Cartoonists News, 1).
11. Ensley, World of Karl Kae Knecht, 4, 21; Pulitzer Prize Nomination Acknowledgement. Ensley incorrectly states that the nomination was in 1949.
12. “Century of Cartoons,” Evansville Courier and Press; “Pen & Ink Politics,” Evansville Courier; Giglio, Truman in Cartoon and Caricature. Knecht’s cartoons also appear in analytical biographies of Presidents. See Maney, Roosevelt Presence, 160–61.
13. “Cartoonist Praised in Messages,” Evansville Courier; Political Cartoon Society, Low, the Twentieth Century’s Greatest Cartoonist; Laxman, “Freedom to Cartoon,” 74–75. The great Indian cartoonist R.K. Laxman has called Low “the greatest cartoonist the world had ever known.”
14. “Real Pro Retires,” Evansville Courier.
15. Lichtman, Prejudice and the Old Politics, 277–78. “Dry Democrats in the State at large bolted their ticket,” and Smith did not even receive “the solid Catholic vote” in Indiana.
16. Bosse, When Everybody Boosts Everybody Wins.
17. Quoted in “150 Years of History,” Evansville Courier.
18. “Karl Kae Knecht,” Sunday Courier and Press.
19. Benedict to Scism, October 17, 1952.
20. “Correctly Delivered,” Evansville Courier.
21. “Knecht Drawings Moved Courier Readers,” Evansville Courier.
22. “Cartoonist Dean Visits Rochester,” Rochester Post-Bulletin.
23. MacLeod, Evansville in World War II, 27.
CHAPTER 1
24. “Former Freeporter Was Honored Recently,” Freeport Journal; “Distinguished Son Returns for Diamond Jubilee,” Iroquois Crier; “Cartoonist Pays Homage to his Birthplace,” Evansville Courier. Knecht drew a picture of the store in 1955.
25. “Menagerie Is Artist’s Hobby,” Illinois Central Magazine, 15; “First Cartoon of Karl Knecht,” Freeport Journal-Standard. The cartoon showed W.T. Rawleigh, campaigning to be mayor of Freeport, atop an elephant, with the caption “Nothing Can Stop Him.” Knecht was right—Rawleigh won.
26. “45 Years of Courier Cartoons,” Evansville Courier.
27. “Karl Kae Knecht Today Begins 2nd Half-Century with Courier,” Evansville Courier.
28. “Truly Amazing Production Record,” Indiana Business and Industry, 14.
29. Howells and Matson, Using Visual Evidence, 33.
30. Carroll to Fehn, December 4, 1933.
31. Ensley, World of Karl Kae Knecht, 5; “45 Years of Courier Cartoons,” Evansville Courier.
32. Marschall, “The Century in Political Cartoons,” 54.
33. The twelve-page paper that day cost two cents, and the main headline on page 1 was “Taft Takes Over Government of Cuba.” The weather forecast called for rain and cooler temperatures.
34. “Museum Will Exhibit Knecht Cartoons,” Evansville Courier.
35. Hackleman, Commercial Engraving and Printing, 382; “One Score and Ten,” Evansville Courier.
36. “Cartoonist Ki ‘Professor’ Now,” Evansville Courier.
37. Knecht, “Chalk Plates.”
38. Marschall, “Century in Political Cartoons,” 55; “Improved ‘Art,’ Better News Pictures Help Make Courier Easier to Read,” Evansville Courier.
39. Knecht, “These All on Chalk Plates.” It actually says “crudness.”
40. “Honors Heaped upon Knecht at Birthday Party,” Evansville Journal.
41. “45 Years of Courier Cartoons,” Evansville Courier.
42. Karl Kae Knecht Hand-Drawn Notebooks.
43. “Social and Personal,” Evansville Courier.
44. Ensley, World of Karl Kae Knecht, 12.
45. Woods, “Knecht’s Top Interest—His Wife,” Evansville Courier.
46. “Jannie Knecht,” Sunday Courier and Press.
47. “Speakers Allowed to Start, That’s All,” Evansville Courier.
48. “Lady Rotarians Refuse to Let K.K.K. See Dance,” Evansville Courier.
49. “Knecht’s Life Mirrors Twentieth Century History,” Evansville Courier; “To Meet Truman,” Evansville Press.
50. “Entertainment Given at Marine Hospital,” Evansville Courier; “Boehne Camp Now Has Small Branch Library,” ibid.; “Local Entertainers a Big Hit at West Baden,” ibid; Engler, Evansville, 80. There is a photo of the U.S. Marine Hospital in Engler’s book.
51. “K.K.K.’s Canes for West Baden Soldiers,” Evansville Courier.
52. “Cane Shower Has Brought 200 Sticks,” Evansville Courier; “K.K.K.’s Canes Christmas Gifts,” ibid. “Alfred Bernardin sent two of his finest walking sticks.” Bernardin was the founder of the Bernardin Bottle Cap Company.
53. “Thousands Visit Local USO Club,” Evansville Courier.
54. “Cartoonist Will Give Lincoln USO Program,” Evansville Courier. For race relations in Evansville, see Bigham, We Ask Only a Fair Trial.
55. “Visiting Committee Plans Camp Program,” Sunday Courier and Press; “Special Party,” Facility Bulletin; Newcomb to Knecht, October 11, 1944; Rowland to Knecht, November 4, 1944.
56. “Vaughn Shoemaker; Created John Q. Public,” New York Times.
57. Piott, Daily Life in the Progressive Era, 118; Hess and Kaplan, Ungentlemanly Art, 34.
58. Dewey, Art of Ill Will, 20; Brookes, “Little Man and the Slump,” 49. In Britain, there was Sidney Strube’s “the Little Man,” which appeared “every day on the editorial page.” “This respectable bespectacled figure with his bowler hat and umbrella was constantly shown at the mercy of the various ‘vested interests’ intent on wasting that part of his earnings which he paid in taxes.” Laxman, “Freedom to Cartoon,” 81–83. The Indian cartoonist R.K. Laxman also created a “ubiquitous…common man” after World War II--a Mr Indian Public—and he, too, was a “mute…bemused spectator of events which are beyond his control.”
59. “‘Dean of Cartoonists’ Boosted Red Cross Spirit and Support,” Evansville Courier.
60. Check to Knecht, June 6, 1960.
61. Ensley, World of Karl Kae Knecht, 57. Ensley mentions, among others, the “Associ
ation for the Blind, Big Sisters, Boy Scouts, Catholic Community Center, Family Welfare, Public Health Nursing Association, Red Cross, Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Tuberculosis Association, Y.M.C.A., and Y.W.C.A…local hospitals, the March of Dimes, the Community Chest, and the United Fund.”
62. Klinger, We Face the Future Unafraid, 28–33; Morlock, Evansville Story, 177.
63. Olmstead, From Institute to University, 25. University historian Ralph Olmstead famously said that attempting such a fundraising effort in 1917 was “at least folly, if not insanity.”
64. Ensley, World of Karl Kae Knecht, 78–79.
65. Willard Library, Evansville Zoological Society and Mesker Park Zoo, Pictorial History of Mesker Park Zoo, 6.
66. “Lions Offered to City as ‘Real’ Zoo Nucleus,” Sunday Courier and Journal.
67. “‘King’ and ‘Queen’ Are in New Home,” Evansville Journal.
68. “Karl Kae Knecht,” Town and Country Review.
69. “Start Fund to Buy Elephant for Zoo,” Sunday Courier and Press.
70. “Whoopee! Elephant Fund Full,” Evansville Journal. The family had in 1900 donated the land for the original Mesker Park; George L Mesker subsequently donated very large sums of money to improve the site.