Famous Oklahoman describes a person who has hit the spotlight and, in significant ways, has left a permanent mark on society by way of Art, Humanity, Political, Inventive or in some way or another has stood out in plain view.
In most cases, famous Oklahoman refers to any person being born, living in, or perhaps passing away after November 16, 1907 as on September 17, 1907 the people of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories voted favorably for statehood and TeddyRooseveltslammedthe gavel admitting Oklahoma, as the forty-sixth state in the union.
November’sFamousOklahoma is Chester Gould. Gould, born November 20, 1900 in Pawnee Indian Territory.
Gould is an American Cartoonist best known as the creator of the Dick Tracy Comic Strip.
Gould, known to most as simply Ches, started his career at the Pawnee Courier-Dispatch under his father’s watchful eye, Gilbert. Gould’s father, the paper’s editor, placed cartoon character sketches that his son created in the window of the newspaper office.
When a Supreme Court lawyer purchased one of the drawing,s it seemed there was no stopping him from that point. Gould was a senior in high school at Pawnee when the yearbook staff at Oklahoma A&M University discovered his talents and commissioned him to make line drawings for the 1918 and 1919 yearbooks.
Gould hit it big time Sunday, October 4, 1931 when Dick Tracy, the comic strip, ran in the Detroit Mirror and was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate.
Pawnee, Okla. is home to The Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum and has a full timeline of Gould’s career. An interesting fact stated in the timeline is that Dick Tracy wasn’t the original name of the comic strip.
The article states that Gould sent off his sixty-first idea to J.M. Patterson and, a month later, a telegram arrived reading, “I Believe Plainclothes Tracy has possibilities, wouldliketoseeyou when I go to Chicago…”, The article goes on to say that the original name was too long and Patterson suggested that “they call cops Dicks, let’s call him Dick Tracy”.
From there, Patterson set the stage for Dick Tracy and his beginning for Gould to be placing Tracy as a white collar detective having dinner with his girl, whom he wants to marry, and her family. Patterson then said, “That night hood-lums break in and stick up her father and kill him, you take it from there”.
The rest of the story is in print across the globe from 1931 to 1977 when Gould retired at the age of 77 having never missed a deadline according to dicktracymuseum. com. The strip continued on for a period after Gould’s retirement under the care of Gould’s assistants.
Some interesting facts about the town Pawnee is not only that a museum exists in his honor but that another famous Oklahoman, Pawnee Bill Wild West Performer, also has a museum in his honor.
The development of Dick-Tracy took a period of ten years. Gould worked various papers during this period. Once the comic strip caught traction, it ran for decades across the United States and 27 foreign papers.
Gould left an everlasting iconic mark on the world and apparently his birthplace as the historic town of Pawnee, Okla. The town is the home of the Pawnee Historical Society Museum and Dick Tracy Headquarters as well as, World’s largest Dick Tracy Mural by Tulsa artist Ed Melberg.
Gould passed away May 11, 1985 leaving a legacy that is not forgotten. His catchphrases like, “I’m a cop. I don’t need a gun to get respect”, and “You can’t out run the long arm of the law”, along with a slew of other common phrases that Gould coined it is easy to see that Gould truly had a everlasting impact on the world.