Buck Jones

Buck Jones: "Buck Jones
Real name: Charles Frederick Gebhart
(Some biographies incorrectly show Gebhard or Gebhardt)

1891 - 1942

Buck's real name was Charles Frederick Gebhart, and his oft reported birth dates and birth place is December 4, 1889 or December 12, 1891 in a 'small house on the outskirts of Vincennes, Indiana'. Buck's parents are generally identified as Charles and Evelyn Showers Gebhart. Apparently, there is no birth certificate or other documentation to confirm Buck's real birth date. Communiques to the Knox County, Indiana Health Department (Vincennes, Indiana) resulted in a reply of 'no record found'. The Vincennes Chamber of Commerce replied that December 12, 1891 was the date they have. Am checking some other Vincennes sources, and will report if I have any luck ... but am not optimistic as other western film historians and authors have tried to locate a birth certificate and failed."

Classic Images: Tim McCoy

"Col. Tim McCoy
Man of Destiny
by Mike Newton
Lightning Bill Carson stood in the saloon doorway, letting the batwing door flip behind him. His austere presence, set off by his high peaked Stetson, dark shirt, and pants, was made more imposing by his icy cold stare fixed on the men standing at the bar. The room, which had been filled with the tinkling of a piano and men’s conversation a moment before, was now silent with hushed anticipation.
Suddenly, "Blackie", one of the men at the bar reached for his six-gun. It never cleared the holster. Carson’s .45 spoke first and Blackie, wanted by every lawman in the West, lay on the floor.
This typical scene was part of every Tim McCoy B-western of the late Thirties and early Forties. He wasn’t always Lightning Bill Carson, cowboy G-Man. Sometimes he was Trigger Tim Rand, or U.S. Marshal Tim McCall, one of the Rough Riders. Regardless of his name, when he appeared on the screen, Saturday matinee kids knew they were in for thrills and excitement.
The man who became Buffalo Bill’s successor in the field of bringing live wild west show entertainment to the American public, was born to Irish immigrants in Saginaw, Michigan, April 10, 1891.
Growing up, McCoy heard stories about the early settlers, the Indians, and the Civil War, from people who had lived during those times. Those stories, combined with his interest in history, inherited from his father, prepared him for his future career."

read it all...Classic Images: Tim McCoy:

Read the Book Tim McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail by Gaylord Dubois

Ideal Metrology by Hermon Gaylord Wood

Ideal Metrology in Nature, Art ... - Google Book Search

The link above goes to to the book 'Ideal Metrology' by Hermon Gaylord Wood -- Gaylord DuBois's grandfather. He built the house in Winthrop, Massachusetts that Gaylord was born in. He was an architect, designing and building many churches, and also has items registered in the patent office.

The book "Ideal Metrology" was published in 1908.

If the link above does not take you to the book you can go to Google Books and search for Ideal Metrology. The entire book is available online.

DuBois - Wood -- Merritt

It is a daunting task sorting through all of the letters and information I have gathered on grandpa but it has the rewards of tracing out the family tree.

Of course names have caused some confusion at times but it is all coming together. I added the photo above to the photo album on webshots but have not yet named or otherwise identified the photos. As I do sort them out I'll add names or approximate dates.

This photo was one that was a little easier to identify since it was marked on the back. The name of the lady in the photo is Nancy Ashby Merritt. She is the great grandmother of the signer, E M Wood. I believe this to be Elizabeth M Wood, the daughter of Hermon Gaylord Wood. Hermon Gaylord Wood married Mary Elizabeth Luff and when he died in 1913 he was survived by his wife and two daughters. The daughters were Miss Elizabeth M Wood and Mrs Cornelius (Mary) Dubois, Gaylord Dubois' mother, and the one I have known to be called Gran Dubois. The daughter Elizabeth M Wood, who has signed the back of the photo, would be the one I have known as Aunt Betty Wood.

The lady in the photo, by my calculations, is therefore the Great-great grandmother of Gaylord Dubois.

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

Lone Ranger First Edition

On eBay and other locations on the internet I frequently find copies of the Lone Ranger advertised as '1st Edition' and descriptions that state they are by Gaylord Dubois. They really are by Gaylord DuBois but not always 1st Edition. If it has Fran Striker's name on the [front of] the dust jacket or stamped on the outside cover, it is not a first edition.



Many of these do not have Gaylord Dubois's name anywhere except on the fly leaf title page. The actual 1st Edition had his name on the dust jacket, the front cover and inside on the fly leaf title page.





I have no idea how many of these were actually printed but I have more than one. One edition has Gaylord Dubois stamped on the front cover but not printed on the fly-leaf title page.


I remember Grandpa having the dust jacket in his treasures with his name on the front. In later years I had, in my treasures, a photo copy of the dustjacket with his name on it.

Through the wonders of the internet I have [now] managed to collect a few of the different printings and have the following in my collection:

2 with the dust jacket saying Gaylord Dubois, the book cover stamped Gaylord Dubois and his name inside on the fly leaf title page -- they are both from the first printing.

1 with no dust jacket, Gaylord Dubois stamped on the front cover and on the spine but not printed on the fly-leaf title page.

I also have one with no dust jacket and Fran Striker stamped on the front cover. It does say Gaylord DuBois inside on the fly leaf title page but is not from the first printing.

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.

Cartoon legend Joseph Barbera dies at 95

Cartoon legend Joseph Barbera dies at 95 Entertainment Entertainment News Reuters.com:

"Barbera and Hanna, who died in 2001 at age 90, met at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
film studio in 1937 and first worked together on the cartoon, 'Puss Gets the
Boot,' which led to the creation of famous cat and mouse friends, Tom and
Jerry."

My condolences to the families and friends of Joseph Barbera and it would seem he lived a long creative life.
The excerpt above is one more little shred of conjecture on my trail of finding the facts. "Puss gets the Boot" led to the creation of Tom and Jerry. In a newspaper interview in Florida, Gaylord Dubois said (regarding Tom and Jerry) "Yes, I created those two...".And there is more -- the dialogue of creating Tuffy with Oskar Lebeck in a phone call has been noted on several occasions and in several published places and it was my belief this was at some point after Tom and Jerry had been being published. I now have the first 'Our Gang" comic that Tom and Jerry appeared in and Tuffy is already a character.Anyone out there have anything they can add -- shed any light on this?

Brothers of the Spear

Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Brothers of the Spear: " BROTHERS OF THE SPEAR
Medium: Comic books
Published by: Dell Comics
First Appeared: 1951
Creators: Gaylord DuBois (writer) and Jesse Marsh (artist)



These days, stories in which black and white adventurers treat each other as equals are such a familiar sight, they're scarcely even noticed. But a half-century ago, they were quite rare. The first such series in American …