Gaylord DuBois - Wikipedia

"Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (as it appears on his baptism certificate), or DuBois (He signed it both ways: as two words, both capitalized; and as one word with a capital 'B') (b. August 24, 1899 Winthrop, Massachusetts – d. October 20, 1993 Orange City, Florida) In his lifetime he wrote well over 3000 comic book stories and comic strips as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure novels."

Read the complete article on Wikipedia:

n.b. Once upon a time I made an ambitious attempt at getting a biography on grandpa started in Wikipedia. After tremendous problems getting references to work I wandered off and left it with only half of the information even visible.
I can only begin to express how thrilled I was to discover that there are knowledgeable and ambitious people people in this world to take over. The article is much larger now -- well worth the read. Thank you so much to David Porta, Kross, Stephen Day and all the others who have contributed to and made edits and corrections on this article.
I can now honestly say that if you ignore it , it will get better. ~Wendy

Photo Album on Webshots

Gaylord Dubois

It's in here somewhere

see also Gaylord Du Bois: Cartoon legend Joseph Barbera dies at 95�

I have a habit of reading through reams of information and making all my notes in my head so then when asked where I got it -- I have to wade through all the info again.

Lets start at the beginning. In a spare room of my New Mexico home I have no less than 10 large file storage containers, baskets and tubs housing a great portion of the history of Gaylord Dubois. Two boxes have some of the many comic books he has written, one is overfilled with big little books, one of novels and one of miscellaneous books, biographies, poetry, genealogy, etc. The remainder, outside of some paraphenalia like the genuine Roy Rogers felt hat, grandpa's old wallet, a wealth of family photographs, his baby book and his christening gown, is all papers. And there are lots of papers ranging from a hand written essay by his great aunt describing the sinking of the schooner jupiter (she was on it when it struck the iceberg), personal and business letters both to and from Gaylord Dubois, (he kept carbon copies of all he wrote), unpublished manuscripts, transcripts of interviews with GDB, draft copies of poems, newspaper and magazine articles, published articles in fanzines, personal journals of GDB, letters from fans, photocopies of pre 1943 comics, draft manuscripts (i.e. the working copies of Randy Scott's publication) and assorted little notes, cutouts and other things that have been found in his belongings. There is a hand written note with greetings from aunt polly that is signed by Tom Sawyer.

In an effort to sort this all out and get a grasp of how I want to present this in my exhibition I tend to dive right in without keeping a record of where I came across something. In addition to this I have my own memories of things grandpa has told me at some point in time. In answer to David Porta's question on the previous blog post I am not sure at this point what documents or articles have the Tuffy story written out but I do know I came across it in more than one location. Until such time as I can give you the actual details of the sources I will paraphrase the event as told by Grandpa.

During a telephone conversation with Oskar Lebeck GDB was told that one of his cartoon stories was a little weak and repetitive. The story was Tom and Jerry.
Grandpa comments "Its a cat and mouse -- cat chase mouse, mouse chases cat -- mouse wins. What more can I do?" Oskar says it needs another character. Grandpa suggests another mouse -- more of a trouble maker but also mentions they would be hard to tell apart. Oskar mentions dressing him, grandpa mentions a 3 corner diaper and Tuffy the mouse was born.
This is not exact but its close and when I find one or more of the sources again I will post them here.
During Randy Scott's work on the account books he had frequent contact with Gaylord Dubois and much of this was by letter and I have copies of those as well as carbons of grandpa's replies. Since the account books only show Tom and Jerry #3 after they start in 1943 Randy sent copies of earlier comics to Grandpa. One of these was Our Gang #1, 1942 where Tom and Jerry appear for the first time. Grandpa confirmed that he wrote it. Also, Irv Ziemen recalls grandpa telling him of his creation of Tuffy during his interviews.
My comments in the previous post were that I understood the creation of Tuffy (as in the story above) was after the cartoon had been running for awhile. However Tuffy appears in the very first story in Our Gang #1 so the conversation between grandpa and Oskar Lebeck would have taken place prior to the first publication.
Another source David inquired about was the newspaper article I mentioned where Gaylord Dubois is quoted as saying, in reference to Tom and Jerry, "Yes I created those two characters...". This article has a byline Jean Brooks, Sentinel Star and it says Orange City at the start of the column but there is no date on the clipping.
After I came across this article I started trying to find anything at all that would shed light on this and did come across online information (again, I can't quickly cite the source but I do have them printed out in hard copy) mentioning Hanna and Barbera starting work for Hugh Harmon/ Rudolph Ising and the first assignment being the animated feature of "Puss gets the boot" with a cat named Jasper and a mouse named Jinks. So far its a chicken/egg dilemma and the cartoon Tom and Jerry and the animated cat and mouse team seemed to have merged after each was in circulation.

This is all I can offer at this time and if I were able to make any proclamations I can assure you they would be accompanied by the sources rather than a plea for assistance.

Another blog mention of GDB

American West History & Notables: 30 January 1890, 1933

His birthday was noted...

Doctor Why: Today CXXVI

the DuBois name

It is still unclear whether the name should be Dubois, Du Bois, or DuBois. Until very recently I had always thought it was one word. After being questioned on it by Larry Lowery and mentioning my thoughts to him on the spelling, I had a dream shortly after where I am certain that my departed grandmother admonished me with "Yes, Wendy, it was one word but it had a capital 'B'. " The next day I had the sense of 'aha' with me all day as I remembered him signing it that way and found several old letters, poems, etc where he had signed it as one word -- with the capital 'B'. But my excitement waned as I noticed on some manuscripts and other documents that he had typed it as 2 words. Finally I dug out his baptism certificate and if it can be considered a valid source his name is Gaylord MacIlvaine Du Bois -- 2 words. On my mother's birth certificate it is one word -- with a capital 'B'.
More information on the name can be found on the Dubois Family Association website where it is mentioned that there were discrepencies way back and there seems to have been 2 lines that handed down the alternate spellings. Click the link below for more on the
DuBois Family History
The following poem was also gleaned from the DuBois Family Association website and if read through to the end the correct pronunciation is inevitable.

The Du Bois Name

Not putting much trust in the Edict of Nantes
Our Huguenot ancestors ran out of France.

Old Chretien's offspring soon scattered afar,
All firmly convinced that their name was du Bwa.

But some stayed in Leyden and then, oh my gosh,
Translated the name to the Dutch Van der Bosch.

And some went to Scotland, the land of their choice,
Where clansmen corrupted their label to Boice.

But Louis and Jacques came across to New York,
Where Dutch, French and English all mingled their talk.

And ever since then, in this polygot nation,
Folks ask us, "Please, what's the right pronunciation?"

'Tis no longer du Bwa as so many suppose
And it is not Du Boys, and of course not Du Boze.

Du Boy is not right, nor is Du'Bois correct,
For the accent is not where some people suspect.

Please read this out loud so the sound of your voice
By this rhythm records that our name is Du Bois'.

FLOYD READING DU BOIS 1878-1952

Gaylord DuBois: Information from Answers.com

Gaylord DuBois: Information from Answers.com
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia.

Gaylord Du Bois DuBois

Gaylord DuBois was my grandfather. Gaylord DuBois wrote comic books. Gaylord Dubois wrote boys adventure novels. Gaylord DuBois was a ghost writer. Gaylord DuBois... well, I could go on and on so I will back up a few steps and talk about my own activities.
I am a visual artist and about 2 years ago I had an idea about portraying grandpa's career as an art exhibition. I mentioned this to an agent/friend and she immediately told me to get to work on my thoughts and ideas. I started gathering information to add to my own knowledge of grandpa, and I started collecting anything I could get my hands on -- books, comics, news articles, grandpa's personal belongings, family heirlooms, photographs, manuscripts, etc.
Each time I started thinking I was closing in on having enough inforamtion I discovered so much more about this man -- and had so much more to research and seek out. I have dozens of fans, researchers, professors, scholars, friends, etc that have helped and of course my family. To date I have accumulated a wall full of boxes and bins, piled to the ceiling and am now trying to sort it out in some sort of order. The dilemma I currently face is how to approach this as an art exhibition because of the wealth of information I have garnered in my search. Many times I have decided it was better suited as an historical exhibition but then in what venue? ... and what media?
At this point, I am starting this blog, where I will put details of his life along with details of my progress in assembling some type of exhibition. If anyone has an idea on how I should approach it please leave comments or contact me. I have many people who have been a wonderful source of help to this point. Maybe with the blog and comments there it will seems a little more like an open discussion instead of emailing so many back and forth and duplicating some info while missing out on other.
Anyway -- for now this is my feeble start. My time spent at this is erratic. If you are reading this to find out more on the man, Gaylord DuBois, stay tuned -- that will be on here too. I have historical family history back to the sinking of the Schooner Jupiter when it struck and iceberg and beyond. I have photos and letters covering much of his 93 years of life and even some of his parents, grandparents and great grandparents.
I have promised some of the fans and other contributors that I would assemble some sort of bio for their purposes and have yet to do that but the information will be appearing here. If you have an interest in being a regular contributor to this blog please let me know and I'll give you an invitation.