| Sid Barron: 1917 - 2005 A humorist who favoured gentle wit over biting satire, his richly drawn works were always worth a second look TOM HAWTHORN -- Special to The Globe and Mail May 15, 2006 |
His sly style lured readers into a lengthy examination of work rich in detail and wordy in
execution. Diligent viewers would be well rewarded for their attention.
A typical Barron editorial cartoon included a scene that, at second glance, offered a
cornucopia of visual puns, as well as such detritus as a cat holding a sign, or a biplane
towing a banner.
These often included the two catchphrases that came to be associated with the artist --
"Mild, isn't it?" and "Aren't the mountains pretty today?"
He poked fun at local foibles for the Victoria Times and The Albertan of Calgary. As well, his
cartoons appeared in the Toronto Star for more than a quarter century. He often took as his
subject the residents of the vast suburban expanses surrounding downtown. He renamed
Don Mills, where he had once made his home, as Dawn Mills, a quiet yet pretentious place
where residents could not help but brag about the "exceptional quality" of their curbside
trash.
His cartoons favoured gentle wit over biting satire. He did not usually take as his subject
breaking news, or hapless politicians whose mistakes generated headlines. Instead, he
found humour in the annoyances of everyday life. The critic Robert Fulford called him "the
poet of the mundane."
In one cartoon, published by the Star in 1962, a disgruntled hockey fan watching his team
on television has failed to notice his house burning down around him. A firefighter in the
living room says, "Yeah, I'd have to go along on that . . . they're going to 'cheap penalty'
themselves right out of the game."
The slice-of-life setting, the overheard dialogue, and the absurdity of the situation are
typical of events in what came to be called Barronland. He described the setting of his
cartoons as Anyplace, Canada.
Mr. Barron shared the Star's editorial page with Duncan Macpherson, a brilliant caricaturist
whose wit was as wicked as Mr. Barron's was dry.
Mr. Macpherson skewered politicians with sometimes devastating results.
It is said the reputation of former prime minister John Diefenbaker never recovered from
his portrayal as a rabbit-toothed Marie Antoinette, which reduced a statesman to a figure of
ridicule.
The pair gave the Star an enviable tag team, although not all readers were enamoured of
Mr. Barron. One letter writer complained his works were "neither humorous nor meaningful
but just nauseating." He had his defenders, too. "Macpherson's cartoons make us laugh at
our leaders," another wrote, "but Barron's make us laugh at ourselves."
Sidney Arnold Barron was born in Toronto from a brief liaison between his young,
unmarried mother and a Belgian officer billeted with his mother's family.
From birth, he was raised by his aunt and her husband, and grew up knowing his biological
mother as Auntie Daisy. The woman he called his mother was his aunt, Florence. He would
be an adult before learning the truth.
He moved with his adoptive family to Victoria at the age of 2.
A shy, skinny boy, the usual childhood miseries were made the worse by a spectacular
stammer.
The impediment was so pronounced that in 1938 his father sent him to the National Hospital
for Speech Disorders in New York. (The hospital was favoured by U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who was on hand to open a new facility the following year.) In later years, the
cartoonist liked to tell a story about his return home to an anxious family. As they gathered
around, he announced, "I'm c-c-c-c-cured!"
In the late 1930s, he took art lessons from Allan Edwards, a precocious talent who was two
years younger than Mr. Barron and had followed him through South Park Elementary and
Victoria High School.
Another Edwards student was Pierre Berton, an ambitious writer who also entertained a
desire to be a cartoonist.
Mr. Barron found work illustrating window cards for Victoria shops, and later painting
billboards in Toronto.
When wartime restrictions halted the importation of American comic books, a Canadian
industry was born overnight. Mr. Barron found work as one of the freelancers in the stable
of Educational Projects, a Montreal-based company whose bestselling title was Canadian
Heroes. He was assigned to draw realistic depictions of historical events.
The Star Weekly magazine hired Mr. Barron as a freelance illustrator, a lucrative gig that
ended when the publication began purchasing syndicated works from American artists. He
then spent much of the 1950s seeking work on the coast and in Ontario.
"During this period, it later became apparent, he developed a caustic assessment of the
manners and moral values of his compatriots who populated the newer suburbs of
Canada's expanding cities," Peter Desbarats wrote in The Hecklers, a 1979 history of
Canadian political cartooning.
Mr. Barron was hired as a cartoonist in 1958 by Victoria Times publisher Stuart Keate, who
was eager for his afternoon daily to surpass the circulation of the morning rival, the
Colonist. His works of gentle social commentary were entirely appropriate for the sleepy
provincial capital. Three years later, Mr. Barron began selling cartoons to the Star.
In 1962, Mr. Barron moved to Calgary to work for The Albertan, all the while continuing with
the Star as a client.
Few of his Toronto readers knew his cartoons were drawn from so far away. The humorist
Gary Lautens described the circumstance for Star readers in 1964. "Barron claims he is
allergic to Toronto and every time he tries to live here (twice to date) he breaks out in
airplane tickets and heads back for the foothills," he wrote.
Mr. Barron worked in black ink and crayon on commercial board, applying bits of toned
laminate. His characters were saddled with Everyman names such as Ralph or, especially,
Harold. In one cartoon, two women are leaning over a backyard fence and one says to the
other: "Harold's a small 'l' liberal . . . he doesn't know whether to vote Conservative,
Liberal, NDP or Socred."
The "puddy tat," a cynical feline with ridiculous stripes, would appear in a lower corner
holding a sign. Outdoor scenes would incorporate the biplane.
In 1983, editorial cartoonists met at convention in Toronto, gathering one evening in the
CN Tower restaurant high above the city. Roy Peterson, of the Vancouver Sun, hired an
airplane to fly past while towing a banner reading, "Mild, isn't it?"
Mr. Barron was a gentle man of bohemian instinct, rarely lacking for female companionship,
although a growing brood of children and stepchildren placed some limits on his romantic
adventures. He met his third wife in Victoria in 1975 at what is now the Eric Martin Pavilion,
where both were recuperating from breakdowns. Their union would last until Mr. Barron's
death.
He quit drawing cartoons in 1989, retiring to Coombs on Vancouver Island. He and his artist
wife painted, Mr. Barron indulging his passion for watercolour seascapes.
Several collections of his works were published over the years, including Barron's Victoria
(1959), 2nd Annual Barron's Victoria (1960), Barron's Toronto (1965), Barron's Calgary
Cartoons (1967), Barron Book (With Puddytat Centrefold) (1972), and The Best of Barron
(1985). He also illustrated the Eric Nicol humour book, A Scar is Born (1968).
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria held an exhibition of his works in 1973. Barron cartoons
that once hung in the stairway home of B.C. Premier W.A.C. Bennett are part of a travelling
exhibit from the Kelowna Museum. The cartoons, also including works by Mr. Peterson, are
currently on display at the Courtenay and District Museum on Vancouver Island.
The largest collection of his originals was gathered by the former National Archives in
Ottawa, now Library and Archives Canada, which has 1,344 drawings. The Glenbow Museum
in Calgary owns 70 originals published in The Albertan.
At a memorial service in Victoria, mourners were invited to speak about the deceased.
Some did so by quoting from memory the captions to decades-old cartoons.
Sid Barron was born on June 13, 1917, in Toronto. He died on April 29 at Mount St. Mary
Hospital in Victoria. He was 88. He leaves his third wife, Jessamine, known as Jesi; her
daughter, Susan Barron, and son David Connor; a daughter, Lisa Murray, from his first
marriage; a son, Steven Barron, and a daughter, Catherine McLeod, from his second
marriage; and, a sister, Florence Hartman. He also leaves eight grandchildren.
execution. Diligent viewers would be well rewarded for their attention.
A typical Barron editorial cartoon included a scene that, at second glance, offered a
cornucopia of visual puns, as well as such detritus as a cat holding a sign, or a biplane
towing a banner.
These often included the two catchphrases that came to be associated with the artist --
"Mild, isn't it?" and "Aren't the mountains pretty today?"
He poked fun at local foibles for the Victoria Times and The Albertan of Calgary. As well, his
cartoons appeared in the Toronto Star for more than a quarter century. He often took as his
subject the residents of the vast suburban expanses surrounding downtown. He renamed
Don Mills, where he had once made his home, as Dawn Mills, a quiet yet pretentious place
where residents could not help but brag about the "exceptional quality" of their curbside
trash.
His cartoons favoured gentle wit over biting satire. He did not usually take as his subject
breaking news, or hapless politicians whose mistakes generated headlines. Instead, he
found humour in the annoyances of everyday life. The critic Robert Fulford called him "the
poet of the mundane."
In one cartoon, published by the Star in 1962, a disgruntled hockey fan watching his team
on television has failed to notice his house burning down around him. A firefighter in the
living room says, "Yeah, I'd have to go along on that . . . they're going to 'cheap penalty'
themselves right out of the game."
The slice-of-life setting, the overheard dialogue, and the absurdity of the situation are
typical of events in what came to be called Barronland. He described the setting of his
cartoons as Anyplace, Canada.
Mr. Barron shared the Star's editorial page with Duncan Macpherson, a brilliant caricaturist
whose wit was as wicked as Mr. Barron's was dry.
Mr. Macpherson skewered politicians with sometimes devastating results.
It is said the reputation of former prime minister John Diefenbaker never recovered from
his portrayal as a rabbit-toothed Marie Antoinette, which reduced a statesman to a figure of
ridicule.
The pair gave the Star an enviable tag team, although not all readers were enamoured of
Mr. Barron. One letter writer complained his works were "neither humorous nor meaningful
but just nauseating." He had his defenders, too. "Macpherson's cartoons make us laugh at
our leaders," another wrote, "but Barron's make us laugh at ourselves."
Sidney Arnold Barron was born in Toronto from a brief liaison between his young,
unmarried mother and a Belgian officer billeted with his mother's family.
From birth, he was raised by his aunt and her husband, and grew up knowing his biological
mother as Auntie Daisy. The woman he called his mother was his aunt, Florence. He would
be an adult before learning the truth.
He moved with his adoptive family to Victoria at the age of 2.
A shy, skinny boy, the usual childhood miseries were made the worse by a spectacular
stammer.
The impediment was so pronounced that in 1938 his father sent him to the National Hospital
for Speech Disorders in New York. (The hospital was favoured by U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who was on hand to open a new facility the following year.) In later years, the
cartoonist liked to tell a story about his return home to an anxious family. As they gathered
around, he announced, "I'm c-c-c-c-cured!"
In the late 1930s, he took art lessons from Allan Edwards, a precocious talent who was two
years younger than Mr. Barron and had followed him through South Park Elementary and
Victoria High School.
Another Edwards student was Pierre Berton, an ambitious writer who also entertained a
desire to be a cartoonist.
Mr. Barron found work illustrating window cards for Victoria shops, and later painting
billboards in Toronto.
When wartime restrictions halted the importation of American comic books, a Canadian
industry was born overnight. Mr. Barron found work as one of the freelancers in the stable
of Educational Projects, a Montreal-based company whose bestselling title was Canadian
Heroes. He was assigned to draw realistic depictions of historical events.
The Star Weekly magazine hired Mr. Barron as a freelance illustrator, a lucrative gig that
ended when the publication began purchasing syndicated works from American artists. He
then spent much of the 1950s seeking work on the coast and in Ontario.
"During this period, it later became apparent, he developed a caustic assessment of the
manners and moral values of his compatriots who populated the newer suburbs of
Canada's expanding cities," Peter Desbarats wrote in The Hecklers, a 1979 history of
Canadian political cartooning.
Mr. Barron was hired as a cartoonist in 1958 by Victoria Times publisher Stuart Keate, who
was eager for his afternoon daily to surpass the circulation of the morning rival, the
Colonist. His works of gentle social commentary were entirely appropriate for the sleepy
provincial capital. Three years later, Mr. Barron began selling cartoons to the Star.
In 1962, Mr. Barron moved to Calgary to work for The Albertan, all the while continuing with
the Star as a client.
Few of his Toronto readers knew his cartoons were drawn from so far away. The humorist
Gary Lautens described the circumstance for Star readers in 1964. "Barron claims he is
allergic to Toronto and every time he tries to live here (twice to date) he breaks out in
airplane tickets and heads back for the foothills," he wrote.
Mr. Barron worked in black ink and crayon on commercial board, applying bits of toned
laminate. His characters were saddled with Everyman names such as Ralph or, especially,
Harold. In one cartoon, two women are leaning over a backyard fence and one says to the
other: "Harold's a small 'l' liberal . . . he doesn't know whether to vote Conservative,
Liberal, NDP or Socred."
The "puddy tat," a cynical feline with ridiculous stripes, would appear in a lower corner
holding a sign. Outdoor scenes would incorporate the biplane.
In 1983, editorial cartoonists met at convention in Toronto, gathering one evening in the
CN Tower restaurant high above the city. Roy Peterson, of the Vancouver Sun, hired an
airplane to fly past while towing a banner reading, "Mild, isn't it?"
Mr. Barron was a gentle man of bohemian instinct, rarely lacking for female companionship,
although a growing brood of children and stepchildren placed some limits on his romantic
adventures. He met his third wife in Victoria in 1975 at what is now the Eric Martin Pavilion,
where both were recuperating from breakdowns. Their union would last until Mr. Barron's
death.
He quit drawing cartoons in 1989, retiring to Coombs on Vancouver Island. He and his artist
wife painted, Mr. Barron indulging his passion for watercolour seascapes.
Several collections of his works were published over the years, including Barron's Victoria
(1959), 2nd Annual Barron's Victoria (1960), Barron's Toronto (1965), Barron's Calgary
Cartoons (1967), Barron Book (With Puddytat Centrefold) (1972), and The Best of Barron
(1985). He also illustrated the Eric Nicol humour book, A Scar is Born (1968).
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria held an exhibition of his works in 1973. Barron cartoons
that once hung in the stairway home of B.C. Premier W.A.C. Bennett are part of a travelling
exhibit from the Kelowna Museum. The cartoons, also including works by Mr. Peterson, are
currently on display at the Courtenay and District Museum on Vancouver Island.
The largest collection of his originals was gathered by the former National Archives in
Ottawa, now Library and Archives Canada, which has 1,344 drawings. The Glenbow Museum
in Calgary owns 70 originals published in The Albertan.
At a memorial service in Victoria, mourners were invited to speak about the deceased.
Some did so by quoting from memory the captions to decades-old cartoons.
Sid Barron was born on June 13, 1917, in Toronto. He died on April 29 at Mount St. Mary
Hospital in Victoria. He was 88. He leaves his third wife, Jessamine, known as Jesi; her
daughter, Susan Barron, and son David Connor; a daughter, Lisa Murray, from his first
marriage; a son, Steven Barron, and a daughter, Catherine McLeod, from his second
marriage; and, a sister, Florence Hartman. He also leaves eight grandchildren.
