Fritzi Ritz
| Fritzi Ritz | |
|---|---|
Fritzi Ritz
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| Author(s) |
Larry Whittington Ernie Bushmiller |
| Current status / schedule | Concluded |
| Launch date | October 9, 1922 (dailies), October 6, 1929 (Sundays) |
| End date | 1938 (dailies), 1968 (Sundays) |
| Genre(s) | Humor, gag-a-day, satire, children, adults |
| Followed by | Nancy |
Fritzi Ritz is an American comic strip created in 1922 by Larry Whittington, with Ernie Bushmiller taking it over in 1925. In 1938, the daily strip evolved into the popular Nancy. The Sunday edition of the strip, begun by Bushmiller in 1929, continued until 1968.
Distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Fritzi Ritz began October 9, 1922, in the New York Evening World. When Whittington left in 1925, 20-year-old Bushmiller stepped in as his replacement, modeling Fritzi after his fiance, Abby Bohnet, whom he married in 1930. In 1931, when the Evening World and the New York Telegram merged, Fritzi Ritz was one of the strips lost in the shuffle, but it returned January 10, 1932, in the New York Daily Mirror.
At least for the first decade or so, Fritzi Ritz was a silly, frivolous flapper, whose main concerns were men, clothes, cosmetics, and money. This is a far cry from her more-familiar image as Nancy's level-headed, responsible guardian).
In one 1920s strip, she says she is 19 years old. In later decades she appears to be in her late twenties or early thirties. She states in the December 3, 1930 strip that she was born in New York. She worked as an actress. Her boss, Mr. Blobbs, a short plump man with glasses, was a sometimes cheap but nice guy. Blobbs' last appearance was in May 1932.
On January 2, 1933, Fritzi's niece Nancy appeared as a houseguest and eventually overtook the strip. During the 1930s it is mentioned at least twice that Fritzi and Nancy live in New York City, though it is uncertain whether that means Manhattan or another borough. It is mentioned during the 1935 continuity when Nancy runs away from home and winds up at an Indian reservation. After that period, their city of residence is never mentioned again.
By 1938 Sluggo Smith had been added and the daily was renamed Nancy with Fritzi becoming Nancy's guardian and parental figure and her portrayal in the main strip became more authoritative as she took on parental and disciplinarian responsibilities. In her own Sunday strip, which continued for several years after the daily strip's name change, she maintained more of her original fun-loving spirit.
The Fritzi Ritz daily strip began Monday, October 9, 1922. In the early strips, Fritzi lived with her father and her Aunt Evelyn (who would eventually be retconned into her mother), with her father being the most commonly seen. Fritzi began working at Star Studios in February 1923. Most of the 1920s gags took place at work, either in the studio or on location shooting at the beach, the mountains, in the country, or at a farm. In 1925, Larry Whittington left the strip to create another, Mazie the Model. In May of that year, Bushmiller took over the strip, and Fritzi began dating a regular boyfriend, usually Wally. Most of the Fritzi Ritz daily strips from the 1920s, including her debut year, can be found in the Syracuse Herald newspaper at newspaperarchive.com.
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