Remembering sad sack

Soldiers Magazine, Nov, 2007 by Wendy Rejan

Everybody knows one: the new guy who just can't seem to do anything right, can't seem to do it fast enough or the way the boss wants it done.

In World War II parlance, these unfortunate characters were the infamous "Sad Sacks" who earned a permanent place in the Army lexicon in 1942, thanks to enterprising young cartoonist Sgt. George Baker.

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Yank magazine, published from May 1942 to December 1945, provided World War II GIs with much-needed entertainment and comic relief from the war, becoming the most-widely read publication in the history of the U.S. military. It covered news from home and kept everyone up to date on the latest campaigns in each of the theaters.

Second only to the popularity of the Yank pin-up girl was the Sad Sack cartoon, created by Sgt. Baker in 1941. Beginning in May 1942, his cartoon became the first permanent feature of the magazine.

Sad Sack, a drafted Army private, was a disheveled-looking chap, with a big nose and big ears. One World War II Army wife, Mrs. Theresa Livingstone, remembered Sad Sack's uniform as always falling apart or looking askew. "He never looked tidy." She said his appearance was "funny in a sad sort of way."

The cartoon followed Sad Sack's undistinguished journey through the bewildering bureaucracy of Army life and epitomized the experiences of the common Soldier. No matter what kind of day you had had, you could pretty much count on Sad Sack having a worse one.

As Sgt. Baker explained in a 1946 interview available on the official Sad Sack Web site, "The underlying story of Sad Sack was his struggle with the Army, in which I tried to symbolize the difficulties and frustrations of all enlisted men."

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Before being conscripted into the Army at age 27, in June 1941, Sgt. Baker worked in Walt Disney's animation department drawing background effects for Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse cartoons and working on films like "Dumbo" and "Bambi."

Three weeks after leaving Disney, he arrived at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and did animation work for Signal Corps training films. He also drew his first Sad Sack strip. His yet unnamed comic featured the private performing kitchen-police duty.

Sgt. Baker took a three-day pass to head to New York City to market his cartoon, but was rebuffed by every major newspaper.

Determined not to lose heart, he entered the cartoon in an armed forces cartoon competition, where it won first prize. The same cartoon attracted widespread attention when it was later published in Life magazine.

The executive editor of Yank, Maj. Hartzell Spence, saw Sgt. Baker's KP cartoon and asked for a few more samples. Afterwards, Maj. Spence asked him to send in a comic every week, and Sgt. Baker spent every spare moment from then on creating Sad Sack cartoons for Yank.

War Department officials eventually transferred Sgt. Baker from the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth to the Yank staff in Manhattan, in June 1942. Sgt. Baker was sent to dozens of training camps to learn about all the different branches of the Army. As American troops became engaged in major battles in Europe and the Pacific, he was sent to every theater to keep his character abreast of current developments.

There were 21 editions of Yank at one time, all with the same content except for a few pages that were dedicated to local news and features. Sgt. Baker was stationed at several overseas bureaus during his time with Yank, including Panama, Italy, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan.

In his own career, Sgt. Baker was highly successful and pulled off quite a feat with his other Yank staff members when they arrived in Tokyo a week ahead of the occupation forces and took over a Japanese printing plant.

Under difficult conditions they managed to get out a special edition of Yank, which featured the Japanese surrender on the battleship USS Missouri and was delivered to Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he arrived.

Sad Sack even graced the cover of Yank, on June 25, 1943. Soldiers began to create Sad Sack clubs and only allowed enlisted members below the rank of corporal to enter. Two Army songs were also composed about Sad Sack, and the lyrics of Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" paid homage to Sad Sack.

Baker's cartoon reportedly drew more fan mail than Yank's popular pin-up girls. Sgt. Baker said Soldiers often wrote to him with suggestions from their own experiences.

When Yank stopped publishing in December 1945, Sad Sack received worldwide syndication through Simon and Schuster publishers. And Paramount Pictures even made a movie titled "Sad Sack" in 1957, with Jerry Lewis playing the lead.

The cartoon was in newspaper syndication until 1960. It lived on until Sgt. Baker's death in 1975 and was continued by various other artists through the early 1980s.

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Ms. Wendy Rejan works in the historian's office at the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.