Cartoonist

Born in Memphis, Cal Ally was the son of James Pinckney Ally, creator of the serial comic Hambone’s Meditations and the first editorial cartoonist at The Commercial Appeal in 1916. “Hambone’s Meditations” was published on the front page of The Commercial Appeal.

When the elder Ellie died on April 16, 1934, his wife Nona, Cal Ellie and his brother James took over the leadership of Hambone’s Meditations.

Hambone’s character was inspired by J.P. Alley’s encounter with former slave philosopher Tom Hunley from Greenwood, Mississippi. Hanley told a WPA interviewer how he met JP Alley:

Pressure from civil rights groups put an end to the racist cartoon series in 1968.

In 1939, Ellie began his cartooning career in Missouri, where he was a cartoonist editor at the Kansas City Journal. When the magazine closed in 1942, it moved to the Nashville Banner.

Three years later, he signed with The Commercial Appeal, where he launched The Ryatts comic strip, syndicated by Post-Hall Syndicate from 1954 to 1994.

Ellie received the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for editorial Caricature in 1955. He was inducted into the Tennessee Hall of Fame, which “honors those who have made outstanding contributions to Tennessee newspaper journalism or, through Tennessee journalism, to newspaper journalism in general, or who have made outstanding contributions to their communities and region or state. through newspaper journalism.”

Ellie retired in 1965 and died of cancer five years later at the age of 55.

Reference: Wikipedia, 2010