June 17, 1919 marked the debut of the quintessential Jazz Age comic strip, Barney Google. Astoundingly, the strip is still running (in a much evolved form), making it darn close to the longest running comic strip ever. The strip was created by Chicago-based Billy DeBeck (1890-1942). As originally conceived, Barney was a slightly rogue-ish "sport" character in the vein of Mutt and Jeff or Bringing up Father's Jiggs, a guy who hung out at racetracks and boxing matches, placing bets and getting into trouble.
Three years into its run, the strip got its second star, Spark Plug the sway back nag, more a burden to his owner than the race track meal ticket that was hoped. Spark Plug's nickname "Sparky" became the nickname of Charles Schulz...fated to have his own massive success with the comic strip Peanuts three decades later.
Barney Google was so popular that Billy Rose and Con Conrad wrote a hit song about him in 1923, popularized by the likes of Eddie Cantor and The Happiness Boys: "Barney Google, with the goo-goo-googly eyes!" There was all kinds of Barney Google merch: books and games and toys, and its catchphrases and slang swept the country too: "heebie-jeebies", "hotsy-totsy", "sweet mama!", "horsefeathers!" (surely the inspiration for the title of the Marx Brothers movie.)
A series of silent movies starring Barney Hellum as Barney were released in 1928 and 1929. There were also a handful of animated cartoons released by Columbia in the mid '30s.
In 1937, the nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner dubbed the number represented by one followed by 100 zeros "googol", likely inspired by the comic strip character, merged perhaps with Nikolai Gogol. In 1998 the search engine Google came on the scene. This is no small legacy.
In 1934, the Barney Google strip got a new injection of life when it took a major left turn in its underlying premise. Barney found himself in the North Carolina mountain town of Hootin' Holler, where he met Snuffy Smith and a whole host of other hillbilly characters. Not coincidentally, this was the same year that Li'l Abner debuted. In short order, it became a hillbilly strip rechristened Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. Barney gradually Barney faded into the woodwork and was practically written out of the strip. Snuffy's own catchphrases like "great balls o' fire" and "time's a-wastin'" became popular as did the use of the term "doodle bug", as in "Who has seen the doodle bug?", likely inspired by L. Frank Baum's Wogglebug.
Former silent star Bud Duncan played Snuffy Smith in the Monogram films Private Snuffy Smith and Hillbilly Blitzkrieg, in 1942. From 1962 to 1964 there was a Snuffy Smith animated cartoon series for television.
As I wrote here, I discovered the charms of the strip in the 1970s. Still going strong, a century down the pike!
For more on the history of American pop culture, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, for more on classic comedy please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.
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