Tad Dorgan

Tad Dorgan studied at San Francisco Polytechnic High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is journalism. Employment is recorded with San Francisco Evening Bulletin and New York Journal-American. Distinctions recorded are International Boxing Hall of Fame.

• Name — Thomas Aloysius Dorgan • Born — 29 April 1877 • Birthplace — San Francisco, California • Died — 2 May 1929 • Place of death — Great Neck, New York • Occupation — Journalist, Cartoonist, Sportswriter • Family — Thomas J. Dorgan Father Anna Dorgan Mother • Spouse — Izola M. Dorgan • Credits — San Francisco Bulletin, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Journal

Dorgan was born in San Francisco on April 29, 1877. He was one of at least eleven children – six sons and five daughters – of Thomas J. and Anna Dorgan. His brother John L. "Ike" Dorgan (born April 1879) was publicity manager for the Madison Square Garden, and his brother Richard W. "Dick" Dorgan (born September 1892) was an illustrator and cartoonist. Polytechnic High School teachers Rosey Murdoch and Maria Van Vieck recognized and encouraged Tad's talent as an artist. When Dorgan was a child, he lost several fingers of his right hand in an accident whose details are unclear. Cosmopolitan writer O. O. McIntyre, a friend of Dorgan's, wrote that when Dorgan "was eight, he was fooling around on a house-moving job and attempted to ride a shovel on a rope that was propelled by a big pulley. He turned his head for a second and his right hand was caught in a pulley, crushing off four fingers of that right hand, which was reduced to a thumb and a piece of knuckle." Henry Morton Robinson's description of the incident is largely the same, except that he said it took place when Dorgan was nine. Westbrook Pegler, another friend of Dorgan's, wrote that Dorgan had lost "the first two fingers and half of the palm of his right hand" in an incident with a buzzsaw. Comics historian John Adcock noted that, of all the "dozens of different stories", only McIntyre's version accorded with the statement on Dorgan's draft card that he had "all fingers except thumb off of right hand". After the amputation, Dorgan took up drawing for therapy. When he was 14 he joined the art staff of the San Francisco Bulletin.

• Illustration — Installment of Dorgan's "City Life" (1921) He created his first comic strip, Johnny Wise, for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1902. By 1905 he was working in New York City at the New York Journal as a sports writer and cartoonist. Jack Dempsey described him as "the greatest authority on boxing". In addition to his work as a sports journalist, Dorgan did a humor feature, "Daffydills". His dog cartoons, including Judge Rummy (1910-1922), evolved into the strip Silk Hat Harry's Divorce Suit. This was accompanied by a one-panel gag series called Indoor Sports which became his main feature, along with an occasional Outdoor Sports.

Dorgan is generally credited with either creating or popularizing such words and expressions as "dumbbell" (a stupid person); "for crying out loud" (an exclamation of astonishment); "cat's meow" and "cat's pajamas" (as superlatives); "applesauce" (nonsense); "cheaters" (eyeglasses); "skimmer" (a hat); "hard-boiled" (tough and unsentimental); "drugstore cowboy" (a loafer or ladies' man); "nickel-nurser" (a miser); "as busy as a one-armed paperhanger" (overworked); and "Yes, we have no bananas", which was turned into a popular song. • Illustration — In addition to his humorous and sports-related cartoons, Dorgan also drew political cartoons, such as this example, "The Road to Dividends", in which a young child is weighed down by a heavy burden while several wealthy men march behind her. In the New York Times obituary, he was bracketed with George Ade and Ring Lardner as a popularizer of "a new slang vernacular". His obituary also credited him as the originator of "Twenty-three, Skidoo", "solid ivory", "Dumb Dora", "finale hopper", "Benny" for hat, and "dogs" for shoes. W. J. Funk, of the Funk and Wagnall's dictionary company, placed Dorgan at the top of the list of the ten "most fecund makers of American slang". The word 'hip' in the sense of "aware, in the know" is first attested in a 1902 cartoon by Tad Dorgan and first appeared in print in a 1904 novel by George V. Hobart, Jim Hickey, A Story of the One-Night Stands, where an African-American character uses the slang phrase "Are you hip?" These are referenced in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. Dorgan was erroneously credited with coining the usage of the phrase "hot dog" as slang for sausage.

• Illustration — "Tad" signature of Tad Dorgan Tad Dorgan and his wife, Izole M., lived in Great Neck, New York in a house valued at $75,000. They had no biological children, but they raised two Chinese children to adulthood. Dorgan stopped attending sporting events in the early 1920s because of poor health, and a heart ailment kept him at home for the last eight years of his life, but he continued to produce sports comics for William Randolph Hearst until his death. He died in Great Neck of heart disease, hastened by pneumonia. Hearst newspapers announced his passing in front-page headlines and some of his cartoons were reprinted for a short time. Izole, a writer before she married Dorgan, was the vice-president of the National Doll and Toy Collectors Club. After Tad's death, she started a successful business manufacturing doll furniture.