Chester Gould
May 25, 2012 (Friday)
Dick Tracy was born October 4, 1931. I was ten days old. His creator was Chester Gould (born 1900 in Oklahoma). Gould drew the strip until 1977, seven years before his death. The enterprise was taken over by others and Dick Tracy is still fighting villains today.
Tracy’s girl friend was Tess Trueheart. The heroes of the Dick Tracy comic strip were attractive, but the villains were unattractive, or downright disgusting. There were exceptions, like B.O. Plenty, a disgusting good guy who married Gravel Gertie, who gave birth to Sparkle Plenty, who grew up into a beautiful woman. I estimate there were around 300 villains in the comic strip, bad guys like Pruneface, Flattop Jones, The Mole, and Mumbles.
Warren Beatty made the movie, “Dick Tracy,” in 1990. He owns the rights to the Dick Tracy character and I hear he has been planning a movie sequel.
The Chester Gould – Dick Tracy Museum is located in Woodstock, Illinois, near Chicago. It memorializes the work of a man who, in his own way, helped to strengthen this nation by his emphasis upon obeying and enforcing the law. His Oklahoma roots were always visible in the clear difference between right and wrong. Or, as we used to say in our neighborhood “cops and robbers” games, “the good guys” and “the bad guys.”
You remember when it was easy to talk about good and bad, right and wrong, moral and immoral, don’t you? We call that era “the good old days.”