Whitney Ellsworth

Whitney Ellsworth
Ellsworth, probably in the 1970s.
Born	Fredric Whitney Ellsworth November 27, 1908 Brooklyn, New York
Died	September 7, 1980(1980-09-07) (aged 71) North Hollywood, US
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Comic book editor, television producer
Pseudonym(s)	Frederic Wells, Fred Whitby, Whit Ellsworth, Richard Fielding (w/ Robert Maxwell)
Notable works	Batman (The Adventures of Superman (TV series))

Fredric Whitney Ellsworth (November 27, 1908 – September 7, 1980) was an American comic book editor, and sometime writer and artist for DC Comics during the period known to historians and fans as the Golden Age of Comic Books. He was also DC's "movie studio contact," becoming both a producer and story editor on the TV series The Adventures of Superman.

Whitney "Whit" Ellsworth was born in Brooklyn, New York. He took a cartooning course at the YMCA in Brooklyn and worked on the syndicated features Dumb Dora (for Newspaper Feature Service), Embarrassing Moments (providing plots, pencils and inks for both) and Just Kids (assisting with pencils and inks, for the King Features Syndicate) between 1927 and 1929. In the early 1930s, he began working on another syndicated feature, Tillie the Toiler for King, as well as writing gag cartoons, articles and features for the Newark Star-Eagle/Ledger newspaper (1931–1934), also finding time to work on a number of pulp magazine stories throughout the 1930s.

In late 1934, he became associated with Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's fledgling company National Allied Publications, later known as DC Comics. Initially an assistant editor, before becoming associate editor (1936–38), Ellsworth worked on such titles as Billy the Kid, Little Linda and More Fun Comics, as well as producing cover roughs for several years. Ellsworth left the company in c. 1937-38 for a brief hiatus in California before returning to DC a couple of years later. He subsequently served as editorial director until c. 1951–1953, in particular on such titles as the flagship titles Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Batman, Detective Comics and Superman between 1940 and 1951, and later on such diverse titles as The Adventures of Alan Ladd, All-Star Comics, Green Lantern, Mr. District Attorney, Real Fact Comics, Real Screen Comics, Scribbly, Superboy and Wonder Woman (among others) between 1948 and 1951. In 1945, he licensed The Fox and the Crow and other animated characters from their distributor, Columbia Pictures.