Youth: George was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on may 22nd, 1915, but grew up grew up in Rock Island and Chicago Illinois. In Chicago he attended Lane Technical High School and finally graduated from Roosevelt High School
He was an avid baseball player and drew pictures for the high school year book.
Commercial artist:
Baker attended a night school art class for six weeks for training to build upon his already advanced skills. He soon found a job as a commercial artist "but soon grew tired of drawing pots and pans for newspaper advertisements.
Disney:
Baker moved to California in early 1937 to try and join a minor league baseball team. This didn't work out but he was hired by Walt Disney in 1937, where he was an production assistant on several of the studio's full-length animated films. Some of these include Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi. His main job was animating thunderstorms, waterfalls and other similar effects.
World War IIBaker was drafted in June 1941 into the United States Army. He was assigned to Fort Monmouth, and upon arrival he was surprised to find He would be creating animation for Signal Corps Training Films along side his basic training.
There was a cartoon contest sponsored by the Defense Recreation Committee, he won this, and received a portable typewriter as the prize. Several of his submissions were published in Life Magazine. He was hired by the army weekly magazine "Yank", where he adapted his drawings an army recruit into The Sad Sack. The strip became the magazines most loved feature measured by the mass amounts of fan mail he received, mainly from army members who felt they were similar to his sad sack character. There even was an official army document from General George C. Marshall praising Sad Sack as a morale booster.
After the War:When the war ended the army created an advertising campaign with the slogan : "Don't be a Sad Sack, re-enlist in the Regular Army". After his army Discharge baker moved to Los Angeles where he turned his sad sack characters into a comic strip and comic magazine aimed at young readers.
Baker gave the writing the comic to others but personally illustrated all the covers himself, and continued to until his passing on
may 5th 1975 . George is buried at the Riverside National Cemetery, in Riverside, California.
Log in to comment