Reamer Keller Napkins

This is one of those blog entries where I could not stay on topic. I go from a gag cartoonist to the Kinsey Report to my poorly attended junior high talent show to MARY TYLER MOORE.


Reamer Keller's cartoons (and writer's Percy Barker's words and/or stats; you're left to wonder if he wrote the gags and the stats) adorn a series of three dozen cartoon napkins that poke fun at the Kinsey Report at one of my fave blogs: A Hole in the Head blog.

Johnny C., your HitH host, has cut the napkin collection into 3 parts:

Sexual Misbehavior in the Human Male Part One

Sexual Misbehavior in the Human Male Part Two

Sexual Misbehavior in the Human Male Part Three

Keller, who lived in the Atlantic Highlands section of New Jersey, was a prolific gag cartoonist whose sketchy, controlled sloppiness was a staple of many publications. This duotone set of napkins, from 1953, are just part of the cartoon parody reaction to the Kinsey Report. Other publications include OH! DR. KINSEY! (1953) edited by Lawrence Lariar, and A CARTOON GUIDE TO THE KINSEY REPORT (1954) edited by Charles Preston.

This is the second time I've seen a series of Reamer Keller bar napkins. The first time was about a year ago here.

Big tip o' the hat to Johnny C.

And -- hey -- if you have some time, take a peek at his 1977 Diary. Johnny is a brave man!

Just take a look at the March 19, 1977 entry. I remember that I was performing in a talent show at my junior high school (Woodbury Junior High School, Shaker Hts., OH) on that night. That dumb talent show was one of the most sparsely attended efforts ever. And it was all because we had some serious competition: the last MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW was airing the same night.

In the pre-VCR days, people had to make a choice. And a lot of us learned that our folks loved MARY more than us! Heck, a lot of the kids would've rather been at their own homes, eating space food sticks and Tab cola, sitting in the ol' bean bag chair, cocooning in our suburban wall-to-wall shag carpeted family room, watching the last MTM. If I remember, there were a number of kinds who plain didn't show up for the talent show.