1945-1977 - Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times

Following his discharge from Pine Camp, NY, Walter stopped by Chicago and had a brief visit with Chester Gould or Dick Tracy fame. Then after returning to Kentucky and meeting Leila and Johnny in Lexington they got a ride to Salyersville. In November Wendell went to Nashville to tend to some business matters and on the way back to Kentucky decided to go by Louisville.

"Coming back from Nashville, I said, I think I'll stop in at the Courier. I was interested in making a comic strip. That was what I always wanted to do. I used to think about it a lot in the Army. I figured that if I could get to the Courier-Journal or some other newspaper, they could give me an opening to make a comic strip, because they were the ones who had the comic strips. So I dropped by the Courier-Journal and dropped in to see Grover Page, he was the political cartoonist for the Courier. He later went to Chicago. Then, I went to see the advertising dept. One of the managers there said, ‘Arnett, we don't have a position in here yet but I think there's going to be a position in the Promotion Dept.’ I met J. Mac Winn, head of the Promotion Dept, and he said, ;Where do you live?’ I said ‘I'm Eastern Kentucky, from Salyersville.’ He said, ‘Well, give me your telephone number and where you're living and I'll give you a call or write you a letter.’

"I got back to Salyersville, and I think it was on Friday, I got this letter from Mr. Winn, and he wanted to know if I could come to work for them on Monday. So I called down there and said I'll be down. Daddy thought that was wonderful that I got a job like that. They gave me $65.00 a week. Of course Daddy thought that was a good salary - and it was then. Right after the war all these people’s salaries dropped. They had girls in Louisville working in different things making $100.00 a week. Then all of a sudden when the war ended, it was dropped."

Wendell (or Walt as he was known at the Courier) continued to work in the Promotion Dept from November 1945 until 1971 when he took a job in the Advertising Art Dept. After Mr. Winn, Basil Comissar became head of the Promotion Dept, and then in 1956 Don Towles took over. Walt was in charge of the Broadway Courier building window displays for many years and also had the responsibility for designing the Farm Awards program brochures. These and many more of his promotional works are displayed on the slide shows.

In September 1955 Wendell drew the cartoons of Happy Chandler depicted on the slide show. Happy was a colorful character who served as Governor of Kentucky and previously was the baseball commissioner when Jackie Robinson entered the major leagues as a Brooklyn Dodger, under the leadership of Branch Rickey, who had gone to the same college (Ohio Wesleyan) as Wendell’s mother.

During the early years working at the Courier, Wendell continued to work at home on his dream of creating and selling a cartoon strip about a tow boat captain named Marty Lynn. The details of this epoch in his life are detailed in the next chapter. Although he wasn’t successful in that venture, he was successful in his biographical portrait enterprise, and his personality and work at the Courier worked to his advantage. Walt was an out going person and enjoyed meeting people and telling stories. The following anecdote relates how these contacts led to getting him some work for his hobby of painting portraits.

"Daddy knew a merchant in Cincinnati, Sidney Brant, from whom he bought a lot of goods. His sons name is Sidney, I used to correspond with him - he was the nicest guy. He's a lawyer in Cincinnati. It's an interesting thing, when I came to Courier, I remember I was talking to Sidney one day and I said, Sidney, your uncle - isn't he with a big advertising agency in Detroit? He said, ‘Yeh he sure is; why?’ I said, ‘Well I was just wondering, he might help me get a comic strip started some time.’ He said, ‘Well, write him a letter and I'll tell him I know ye.’ So I did and I wrote him a nice letter, and he wrote back and was telling me what to do, how to keep going and never give up.

"One day years later, I was up in the advertising department and I met this man who was a national advertising director, Ted Wyle. I walked down there and I said, ‘Mr. Wyle, did you ever live in Detroit.’ He said, ‘Yes, why?’ I said, ‘I'm the man that wrote you a letter once.’ He said, ‘What's your name?’ He said, ‘Good God, my nephew Sidney Brant in Cincinnati told me about you.’ He was the one who got me my first job doing one of these big paintings of the head man of the wooden mosaic company. He sent out 27 post cards to various businessmen in Louisville telling about me and what I did. He got one back and it was Paul McClean the head of the Wood Mosaic Company, and he wanted me to come out and talk to him. I went out and talked to him and he told me what he wanted. He was a graduate of Yale University and had a brother, Angus McClean. One was the chairman of the board of the company. They made flooring - even the floor for the Whitehouse. He invited me to eat lunch out there with him. So I made this big painting and he thought it was terrific. He said, now I want you to do one of my brother Angus the same way. Both of them were graduates of Yale. I did it and he called me several times - he had a summer camp up in Ontario on one of those lakes and he wanted me to show the old Indian guide, to do canoes, dogs, and everything. I made a lot of paintings for him.

"Later on I saw Ted Wyle again, and he said, ‘Well I just got one back,’ and I told him ‘Well, that one sent me off, and that was all I needed.’ I told an insurance company about how we sent out all those cards and got one request. That insurance guy told me, if you got one out of 27, that is a bullseye. That's 100%. One out of twenty-seven.

"Ted Wyle’s sister was married to Sidney Brant, and they worked for the Purlitzer Piano Company in Cincinnati. Later Ted and Sidney both came down and got jobs at the Courier. I said, ‘Ted, how did you happen to come down from Cincinnati?’ He said, ‘Well, I can make more money one day at the Courier there than two-three weeks at the Piano co. in Cincinnati.’ Ted's brother had a famous restaurant on Jefferson Street. It was world famous. In fact, I got a picture of it. What I did, Ted had me do a picture of his brother with his restaurant. It's called Leo's Hideaway. Boy he had fish that was flown in here from New York. It was a really good seafood place. He had that a long time, until it went out of business. Ted was a nice guy, a wonderful guy."

10/56 rejection letter from Reilly and Chicago syndicates
events: summer - family vacation to Texas; post cards from West Memphis;

November 1956 episode:

The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Thursday, Nov 29, 1956
[Thanksgiving was Nov 22 in 1956]
"Kentuckian Seeks ‘Good Samaritan’"
"Stranded Man Helped Out by Memphis Priest"

A Louisville newspaperman had a lost, sinking feeling Thanksgiving night as he watched a bus carrying his overcoat, luggage and hat pulling out of a small Kentucky town, stranding him.

Walter Wendell Arnett of the promotion department of the company that publishes the Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times had gotten off the bus to go to the men’s room at the small town of Mount Sterling, Ky. He was bound from Louisville to Salyersville, Ky 184 miles away [from Louisville], to see his mother.

Mr. Arnett shouted in vain at the disappearing tail lights of the bus. Then he looked around for a place to call a cab to make the hurried and expensive trip to the next town, 10 miles away.

Then, Mr. Arnett said in a letter written to a Memphian, "a nice looking gentleman wearing a business suit came up and seeing my predicament said, ‘Say, fellow, I have a car outside; come with me and we’ll try to overtake that bus.’"

Mr. Arnett attempted to dissuade the man but he insisted and Mr. Arnett got into a "1955 or 1956 Chevrolet with a Tennessee license plate with a No.1"

"Having lived in Nashville in former years, I know the car was from Davidson County, and asked, ‘Are you from Nashville?’ ‘No, I’m from Memphis."

"Further questioning and he told me he was a Catholic priest."

The priest pushed his car and the two caught the bus and Mr. Arnett again became a passenger. The priest then turned around and drove the 10 miles back to Mount Sterling. Mr. Arnett concluded his letter:

"In my excitement I had not thought to get his name or street address. All I know was that he was a Catholic priest from Memphis. I would appreciate if this letter would run in the newspaper in hopes that this young priest would see it. I would like to know who he was and his address, for he was a Good Samaritan to me on that cold Thursday night!"

 

On May 13, 1966

Worth Bingham sent the following note to Warren Emerich: "The lobby display of photo contest entries is superb. Congratulations to you and your people for a first-class job." Among those in the group responsible were Don Towles, Joe B., Robin, Bennie, and Walter.

Someone wrote the following "Ode to Arnett" about this time:

"To Walter Arnett
A Pal, good and true
Some thoughtful advice
And praise—both for you

An Artist you are
And sign painter too
Why, This Guy Smith (Billy)
Has nothing on you

Smile…….ole buddy
As your window you dress
With speed and good luck
You’ll drink coffee with the best.

Here’s luck to you
And a small gift too
And hope that with it
Come fame and fortune to you

So open it up pal
And don’t be afraid
Because the price of this gift
Has already been paid

Walt apparently was often asked to write a poem for the Promotion Dept Christmas party:

MEMO TO: The Old Gang, 1967

A PROMOTION CHRISTMAS

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Promotion,
The gang was creating the normal commotion,
Mary Lou Price, with some snacks by her side
Was typing a school speech for Vi, the blonde bride.
Celia McDonald, her back to the wall,
Was dodging the door that swings in from the hall.
A few yards away, with a deepening frown,
Robin waited and waited for type to come down.
Dudley was eyeing a stack of new books,
And guarding his markers from light-fingered schnooks.
Donovan mugged, but was keeping close track
Of when people left and when they came back.
Bernie was planning his basement de’cor,
And coaching Frank Whitman in Tom Wallace lore.
Sullivan, knowing he’d soon be egg-nogging,
Was firmly resolving to get back to jogging.
Carolyn whimpered and kicked off her shoes,
And started to work on a new Selling News.
The eyebrows of Holt, as he phoned Circulation,
Were rising and falling in great excitation.
Reta was touring some school kids around,
And Kris for the library clip file was bound.
Young Mary Alice called out round the bend,
"Who played Belle Watling in ‘Gone With The Wind’?"
Patient LaVerne, with sure sainthood in store,
Was wearily coping with Scissors once more.
Betty was trying to take it all in,
And wondering where she should try to begin.
Down in the basement, a short drop away,
Walter was making a lobby display.
Gary was striving to stand up for art,
And was feeling it more in his feet than his heart.
Kelly was burning a plate that was due
And folding and cutting and lettering, too.
Camby was trying to rev up the press,
And Mary said, "Golly! This mat is a mess!".
Jim, pulling papers, was back in the rear,
And Warren was tallying jobs for the year.
Joe was intently pursuing some facts,
And dreaming of surveys and Census Tracts.
Back up above, sinking deep in a chair,
Don Towles lit his pipe and began silent prayer.
The Vietnam sports sheets filled table and floor,
The counter held mailers and stuffers galore,
The Newspaper Classroom went round in his head,
Plus banquets and sales kits and contests and bed.
"Sixty-eight can’t be worse", he declared with a grin,
"I’ll put on my jump suit and try it again!".

Later Walter wrote the following lines:

"I’m Walter Arnett --- I love my work ---
Taking orders from all these jerks.
I’m taking brush in had each day
And I’m trying hard to earn my pay.

Sometimes it’s hard with windows to trim
To satisfy Basil’s every whim.
To dash to composing to get some type set,
And I have to get proofs while the ink is still wet.

Then it’s back to promotion for more advice.
Get out the flit gun and kill the type lice.
I have to be Santa at Christmas time
And they even force me to make up a rhyme.

Now I’m quitting all this, some lucky day,
And I’m takikng my boat to a big waterway.
So I’ll open my gift and give someone the floor.
Dig this crazy poem---there just ain’t no more.


One of his co-workers wrote the following tribute to Walter about 1950:

Model: Walter Arnett of the Promotion Department
Author: Emma Lou Love

THE LAY-OUT ARTIST

"Ah yes, ah yes, there’s good news tonight."

"No, it was not Gabriel Heatter walking into our office. When I heard these words behind me, I looked up but discovered only the lay-out artist smiling as he busied himself over his desk. Although he works rapidly and steadily he finds time to entertain his fellow-workers by imitating Gabriel Heatter, President Roosevelt, Bub Burns, and other well-known and renowned men.

"This tall, nice looking man of thirty-six years is definitely the life of the promotion department. His violet blue eyes twinkle and almost speak to you as they peer from behind those horn-rimmed glasses.

"When asked about his size, he says, 'I am about the same height and weight as President Truman, but look where he is and where I am.'

His sense of humor prompted him to celebrate his ninth wedding anniversary by taking his wife to the movies to see 'Unconquered.'

He is the proud father of two children, a boy of four and a girl of two.

Making ads for the newspaper, designing brochures for advertising, and making ads for national magazines and folders make up the work of this excellent lay-out artist. His ambition is to have his own private office with a coke machine installed.

During the war he served three years with the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and was in such campaigns as Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, and others.

Combined, his jovial manner and brilliant mind give him one of the most pleasant personalities anyone could ever hope to have."

In the summer of 1966 Wendell traveled back to Salyersville and painted a mural of the Jordan river in the baptistry of the First Baptist Church. The pastor sent the following note on Sept 23, 1966:

"Dear Bro Wendell,

Please forgive us for being so dilatory in writing you. We did put in the bulletin how much we appreciated your labor of love in doing the mural, but didn’t get around to sending you a copy of it or or writing.

Wish you could have seen how pretty the church looked on Tues when the Regional W.M.U. met with us. You would have felt amply rewarded for all your efforts…."

Walt stayed in the Advertising Art Dept from 1971 until 1973 when he secured a job in the Editorial News Art Dept at the Louisville Times division of the Courier. This later job afforded him the best opportunity he’d had to practice his skills as a cartoonist/illustrator. He would be given at feature story in the morning and by that afternoon would have produced a drawing illustrating the story. Many of these were for Mary Frances Reedley’s columns and are featured on the slide shows for this period.

In 1977 Walt retired from the Courier, but Wendell continued to paint portraits and other subjects at home. These projects are detailed in subsequent chapters of this life story.  He and Leila were able to visit their daughter in Hawaii in the summer of 1977.  Their son-in-law was an officer in the Marines stationed there for several years.  Then, when Leila retired from school teaching in 1984, they traveled with Wendell's half sister, Ruth Schoppe, to England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.  While there they reconnected with the Smith family of Gravesend, England who had visited them a few years earlier with a group who came to Louisville.  In the early 90's Leila and Wendell were able to go with a group from their church on a bus tour of the Northwestern United States.

Wendell developed several illnesses during his final years including benign prostate enlargement requiring a TURP, Alzheimer's disease, BOOP pneumonia, and aortic stenosis.  He died at home the evening of July 10, 1998.

In 1997 during Wendell’s final illnesses the children persuaded Leila to write down her life story, and these notes are listed on this same website. Some of the comments from her story which relate to Wendell’s life are noted below:  Comments in [brackets] are mine, John Arnett.

We were fortunate to have a house, thanks to Wendell's parents' generosity. [Eugene Arnett had loaned them about $10,000 for their house on Carlisle (later named Crestmoor) and they were able to repay it within five years.]

When we moved to Louisville we didn't have a car. We had sold ours in Nashville when Wendell joined the army, as I had a ride to work with the people who lived in the boarding house where I lived. Too, because of gasoline rationing, no one could use a car for unnecessary driving anyway. After the war, there were no cars for people to buy for quite awhile. Wendell put his order in to Howard Camnitz at Universal Car Company, but I don't believe we were able to get a car delivered for a year or so. Wendell was able to ride the bus to work,

I mentioned earlier about how hard it was to get a car after the war was over. Wendell repeatedly called Howard Camnitz and Universal Car Company, to no avail. Finally, he decided to write a letter to the president of General Motors and tell him about our long wait. It had been a year or two since his original order, if I remember correctly. At any rate, he soon had a reply to his letter and before long, the car was finally received at Universal Car Company and delivered to us. It wasn't exactly the model we would have chosen, but we were glad to get anything. [The car they got was a "loaded" green 1947 Chevrolet which they kept until getting the used 1955 Chevrolet.] It was a dark green four-door model, but it was sort of bullet-sloped, making the back seat area not quite roomy enough for all our children who grew to be quite tall before we were able to trade it in. I need to look up the records to be sure but it seems to me that we had that first car about fourteen years.

Wendell rode the bus to work because it was so convenient and cheaper than driving to town. This was a good arrangement for me, too, since I always had the car available to go to the store or take the children places.

One of the greatest benefits and pleasures we derived from owning a car was the fact that we could drive to Salyersville on occasion to visit Wendell's family there. They always fed us bountifully while we were there and loaded our car down with food when we started home. She always packed us a dinner of friend chicken, fruit, and cake which we ate on the way home. Usually, we ate dinner near the fence around the airport at Lexington and watched the planes land. It was just across from Calumet Farm, near Versailles, a pretty and interesting place to stop and relax awhile.

Recently I drove back to the old neighborhood and discovered that the little house at the back of our lot is no longer there. A privacy fence had been built around the back yard, which now includes the area which was a small vacant lot next to us. While I was trying to see how things had changed a young lady drove up who now lives in our old house. She was just a bride and had lived there just a year. She invited me to look around the back yard and I discovered that the concrete slab that had been poured in front of Wendell's little studio was still there. As I examined the piece of concrete I discovered one footprint and part of another which I believe our children must have left there when the concrete was poured. I made a crude "rubbing" of the prints but hope to go back soon with some chalk and better paper to make a better copy for our children to see when they come home this summer. The old garage is still standing but I believe the tree where the tree-house had been built is gone.

[In 2001 John and David brought part of the slap to the 612 back yard. The inscription on the slab was: "J.W.A" "9/16/50" with accompanying hand and foot prints.]

[Johnny remembers visiting WW in the little studio where he had a small coal stove to warm it and a radio for entertainment while he drew his cartoons and sketches. Johnny recalls listening to such programs as "Suspense," "Gang Busters," "The Lone Ranger," "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon" and others. Occasionally WW would smoke cigars in the little studio. Leila eventually persuaded him to stop.]

In 1950. Wendell's father, who had been in declining health for several years, died July 28 at the age of 77. We all went to his funeral in Salyersville. I remember the church bells tolling as they carried his casket from the house, where he had been lying in state, to the church. Wendell always said that the bells tolled the number of years a man had lived.

Sometime in the spring of 1951, Wendell had an opportunity to go on a towboat ride as a guest of the Ashland Oil Company. He boarded the boat at Louisville and rode all the way to New Orleans, and then returned home by bus. At that time he was working on a cartoon strip named "Marty Lynn." Even though it was not really the best time in our family for him to be away from home (since it was just a few weeks before our baby was due), it did seem like a wonderful opportunity for him to learn first hand about life on a towboat, so I agreed and urged him to go. I could have reached him anytime, in case of emergency, but fortunately, none occurred and I went full term without any physical problem.

In October 1952 Wendell went to South Charleston, W. Va. For Gene Paul Arnett's funeral. Gene Paul was Paul's son and died when he was about eight years old of nephritis, a kidney disease. All his little scout friends were pallbearers and Wendell said is was such a sad occasion.

[In June of 1952 Wendell finished most of the Marty Lynn strips. In fall of 1952 he took a trip to Chicago to try to sell his "Adventures of Capt. Marty Lynn" comic strip to some of the newspapers and syndicates there. He was rejected.]

I don't believe Wendell felt so sad about moving as I did, and he was really happier about coming to this particular house than I was because he had always lived in a two-story house growing up, and had always wanted us to have that kind of house. To me this house was less than ideal because of the small bedrooms, impractical windows and many steps and other undesirable features. However, the price was right, and 127 Hillcrest has proven itself to be a good place to live these forty-six years, I think.

When Johnny was in Barret, he was able to get a job delivering the Courier-Journal in the mornings and The Louisville Times in the afternoon. It was very demanding and took up most of his time and energy that year. When the papers were delivered, he had to spend a lot of time collecting from his subscribers. On Sundays (all night Saturday night, in fact) he and Wendell worked together assembling and delivering the paper. When the weather was bad, too Wendell or I would drive him to his route (Birchwood from Frankfort Avenue to Grinstead) and then Grinstead Drive from Birchwood to Hite. He saved quite a bit of the money he earned and it helped pay his expenses at OBU.

Another job he had, after he gave up the paper route, was working as a "bag boy" at Winn Dixie on Shelbyville Road. One additional bonus of that job was the fact that they gave him a lot of the bread left over on Saturday night, and he took it to the "MK House" for the use of the Nigerian missionaries kids. Another, even less glamorous job that he had was running the dishwashing machine at the seminary cafeteria and also at the Christian Church Home on Fourth Street. He made so little money in those jobs, however, that he didn't work there very long.

On some vacations we visited Wendell's parents in Salyersville and Paul's family in West Virginia. One summer we went to St. Louis to visit Helen and Don as well as Gene. We enjoyed taking the children to the wonderful St. Louis zoo, and one year we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. One summer we drove up to Illinois to meet Wendell's aunt Allene and Aunt Lillian. On our way back from visiting them we drove to Springfield, Illinois, where we saw Lincoln's home. Johnny was at band camp that week and did not get to go with us.

After Wendell retired [1977], he was able to continue painting portraits, which he was commissioned to paint. He had begun doing "leather" portraits at first, but I finally convinced him that it was his gift of painting people's faces so realistically which was so remarkable, not the use of leather! He had many, many requests for people's portraits and really enjoyed this time in his career, as well as the money he earned this way. His "first love" had been cartooning, I believe, but since his comic strips never did get accepted, he felt that he was fulfilled, I believe, in his portrait painting.

In 1977 Wendell retired and the children gave him a ticket to fly to Hawaii as a retirement gift. On our way to Hawaii, we went to Chicago and visited the Field Museum where the "King Tut" exhibit from Egypt was on display. That was a wonderful trip. It was Wendell's first plane ride. After he got over the fear of flying, it made many other trips possible

[Activities and events associated with the Hillcrest years not yet specifically identified by year: old Crescent Hill swimming pool, Corky Bales fall and arm fracture, baseball at Emmet Field, foot ball by the tennis courts, pogo stick finger prints, Dicky Abbott cave exploration, St. Joseph Picnic off limits, only one radio in living room, few records, no dancing, card playing or Sunday movies, transition of Crescent theater. Howdy Doody and Princes Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring.]

Slide Shows for Courier-Journal and Louisville Times art work:

1945-58 (Promotion Dept)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496800@N04/sets/72157632556977377/show/
1959-70 (Promotion Dept - continued)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496800@N04/sets/72157632557312069/show/

1971-77 (News Art Department; 1973 - News Art Dept.)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496800@N04/sets/72157632557562553/show/