Wendell had always wanted to be a cartoonist or an illustrator and the classical "fine art" emphasis at Cincinnati didn’t interest him as much. Through contacts his father had with advertisers in Nashville, he was able to gain acceptance to the Advertising Art School of Nashville and enrolled there in fall of 1933. He enjoyed the classes and the instructor [photo] and he saved many of the works of that era which were published in various magazines and newspapers. [photos] He was able to get some free lance work through the Upper Room and other Christian publications. He also did some political cartoons for the local Salyersville newspaper. The country was in the middle of the Great Depression during this time, and it was fortunate that Wendell was in school for much of the early days of this era. His experience with the Advertising Art School enabled him to get work more easily than most of his contemporaries. And in Salyersville there was apparently enough work for his dad and brother Oaks to continue to make ends meet at the Store. His sisters were teaching school by this time, and Paul was pursuing his career as an architect finding work later with the W.P.A. once Roosevelt began his presidency and the New Deal in 1933. The following are some recollections Wendell shared over the years.

After a year at the Art Academy of Cincinnati [fall 1932-spring 1933], I attended the Advertising Art School of Nashville, Tennessee, for two [three] years where I received helpful training in the field of commercial art. My chief instructor there had been with a New York advertising agency and was also a good artist in his own right, having studied under George Bridgeman of New York who was one of the best in drawing the human form. One of the hardest objects I had to design and paint while at the Art School was a two-color Royal Portable Typewriter. The most difficult part was painting the keys and getting the right perspective. [Wendell, N4]

In 1934 Mr. Wheeler, a wealthy grocer in Paintsville from whom Eugene Arnett bought many of the goods for his store, took Wendell and a Rice boy to Chicago for the World’s Exposition. Walter, who’d just completed the first year of Advertising Art School in Nashville found it an enriching experience. [Anec]

The woman who was drawn in one of his sketches at the Advertising Art School on March 12, 1935 was Alice Watts. [Anec]

It was during the summer of 1935 that Walter also did two water color paintings of Salyersville and one of Glen Sublett’s house on College Heights. The ones of Salyersville were painted while sitting on the Ivy Point Hill. Two of these paintings were given to Vo Sublett, and now hang in the den of Barbara Berryman in Versailles, Ky.

In 1935, while I was back in my home town of Salyersville for the summer [after finishing two years of Advertising Art School], I entered enthusiastically into the drawing of political cartoons for the election of A.B. "Happy" Chandler, the state's lieutenant Governor who was running for Governor. He was running against Republican King Swope of Lexington. Chandler was a popular campaigner because he had promised that if elected Governor he would repeal the one-cent sales tax that Governor Ruby Laffoon had put on the people. Keen Johnson, who was running for Lieutenant Governor on the ticket with Chandler was a Richmond, Kentucky newspaperman and was also Chandler's publicity manager. When I offered to draw cartoons, he accepted them enthusiastically and had mats of them made to run in all the papers in the state. In one cartoon I showed Happy at the controls of a locomotive bearing down on King Swope's car which was stalled on the tracks. The title was "Get Off the Tracks King: Happy's On Time." Another one, showing the capitol building in Frankfort, was entitled "Happy's Days Are Here" after the song "Happy Days Are Here Again." [Wendell, N4]

In September, 1935, when I went back to school in Nashville, I would go downtown on weekends and draw furniture for the Sterchi Bros. Furniture Company. I made wash drawings of the actual furniture and they appeared in ads in the Nashville papers. Nashville was and still is a real nice city and it has very friendly people. [Wendell]

Sterchi Bros. Stores, Inc
Church Street at Ninth Ave
Nashville
June 2, 1934
To whom it may concern:
The bearer of this letter, Mr. Wendell Arnett, has been with us for the past year [while going to school] doing our art work and his work has at all times been satisfactory, both as to drawings for advertisements and for display service around the store. We found Mr. Arnett at all times a willing and conscientious worker.
Very truly yours,
E.H. Hillis, manager

Wendell’s Sept 18, 1934 operator’s license issued in Salyersville indicated him to be a 22yo male, wt 140 lbs, 5ft 10 ½ in talk, with blue eyes and brown hair.

He wrote to Carl Anderson, the originator of the cartoon character "Henry" asking for advice about cartooning. Anderson replied:

Madison, Wisconsin
Sept 29, 1934
Dear Mr. Arnett,
You will find it hard to get a syndicate cartoon started right now on account of the bad times. My advice would be to stick to the advertising and of it you of course know that they are using comic strip ads. Don’t think much of comic art courses, best way is to work out things for yourself, but study what others are doing and try to figure out why their stuff gets over. Any job, so long as it has to do with drawing, will help you. I did fashion work for a newspaper when I started.
Lots of luck,
Sincerely yours,
Carl Anderson

A couple of photo [see slide show for this period] taken of the students at the Advertising Art School (Isaac Harris, director) on September 27, 1934 [beginning of second year] and in May 1935 [after second year] list the following: John Parrish, Elinor Bridges (Hopewell), Mrs. Furgerson (Nashville), Bertha Cohen, James Charlot (Livermore, KY), Sue Gordon (Nashville), Marian Redmon (Nashville), Elizabeth Anthony (Nashville), and Sarale Fishman (Nashville)[Sept 1934]; Frances Allen, Marian Redmon, Elizabeth Brake, Bertha Cohen, Sue Gordon, "Skeets" Noel, Mrs. Williams, and Saralie Fishman [May 1935].

It was here in 1934 that Huey Long, then Governor of Louisiana brought the powerful Louisiana State University Football team to Nashville to play Vanderbilt. I went down to the Union Station to see the trains come in bringing not only the team but the big band plus what looked like the entire student body. Mayor Hillary House, who had been mayor of Nashville over thirty years, and I believe the Governor of Tennessee and their staffs were on hand to greet the Louisiana group. I remember the smiling Huey, his red hair waving and large booster buttons on his lapel, waving to the huge crowd who had assembled to see them arrive. Mayor House had a big LaSalle Touring car with top down, ready to carry Huey and other important members of his retinue up Broadway to the plaza in front of the War Memorial Building so that the huge LSU Band could play a concert before going to the game. But Huey wanted to walk with his band the four or five blocks to Memorial Square. So Huey Long and Nashville’s Hillary House took the long walk with the LSU Band. I followed the crowd to the War Memorial Plaza and watched and listened as the big LSU Band put on a real concert. As they would pause between numbers Huey would dip a long handled gourd into a big bucket filled with ice water and personally give each band member a drink of water. After the concert everyone went to Vanderbilt Dudley Stadium where LSU gave Vanderbilt a severe licking. Of course at the half, Huey stole the show as he always did and after the game the trains pulled out for Baton Rouge. I forget how many trains there were but it seemed that there were hundreds of students and fans. I was told later on good authority how Huey Long had gotten the L & N trains to bring the Louisiana group to Nashville. It seems he went to the President of the L & N and asked the L & N to furnish trains to bring the students, band and football team to Nashville and back for $3.50 a person. The L & N President was furious and said that this price would break the railroad. Huey is reputed to have replied, "Well the Louisiana Legislature is in session in Baton Rouge and we can and will impose a pretty severe tax on all L & N trains coming across the Huey Long Bridge into New Orleans." It is said that the L & N gave in and lost money on the deal. [Huey Long was assassinated in September 1935][Wendell, N6]

It was two weeks later in 1934, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Tennessee to dedicate the T.V.A. Dams on the Tennessee River. This was a project that the South loved and Roosevelt was the hero to the states of the South, particularly Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and the sections where the T.V.A.'s cheap electricity would benefit the people. Nashville had secured thirty miles of rope to rope off Broadway from the Cumberland River to 21st Street and West End Ave. I was with a crowd at 8th and Broadway in front of the Custom House. I was holding on to one of the ropes that lined the street like a long wire fence. There were of course no cars or street cars on the entire length of Broadway. Roosevelt's journey down Broadway would be in a Cadillac Touring car with the top down. He would be going to Fisk University to hear the famous "Fisk Jubilee Singers." After waiting for a long time, motorcycles appeared followed by Secret Service and President Roosevelt’s car. Following close behind was the press and photographer's car. I was very close to the car as Roosevelt came slowly by, waving his huge hat and smiling as only he could. He was in the back seat on the right hand side. Mrs. Roosevelt was in the middle and seated next to her was Marvin MacIntire of the White House Staff. I'll never forget that experience, for so many things happened in that two week span when I met two of the most famous people on the American scene, Huey Long and Franklin D. Roosevelt. [Wendell, N7]

In the early thirties, when I first went to Nashville for school, Hill McAllister was Governor of Tennessee. I lived in Nashville during the terms of Governor Gordon Browning and Governor Prentice Cooper. It was during the Governorship of Prentice Cooper that an angry mob poured kerosene on the floor of the Sheriff's office at Shelbyville, Tennessee (home town of the Governor) and burned it to the ground. This created a lot of excitement in Nashville and the Governor sent the National Guard to restore order in Shelbyville. It was over a Negro, who, it was said, raped a white woman and the sheriff had him in jail. The mob wanted him, and in the meantime the sheriff had spirited him to safe keeping in the Tennessee capital at Nashville. When the mob learned of this they burned the courthouse at Shelbyville. [Wendell, N46]

Wendell drew three political cartoons on behalf of his father for the Democratic State Campaign and received this note:

October 10, 1935
Mr. E.B. Arnett
Dear Mr. Arnett,
This is to acknowledge with grateful thanks the drawings of three cartoons, which you recently submitted. The ideas are quite fine and I am directing that newspaper mats be made of them and sent to the Democratic newspapers of the State.
Thanking you very much for this contribution to the campaign, I am
Cordially yours,
Keen Johnson

In November and December 1935 Wendell’s prints of Earl Cooper, Lloyd Hall, and Walter Prater appeared in the Salyersville Independent.

In 1936 Wendell had to have some type of operation (it could have been his hernia) and after recovery decided to return to Nashville to look for work and wrote Isaac Harris, the director. Mr. Harris replied with the following letter addressed to him in Salyersville:

Advertising Art School
"The only business school of art in the South"
1912 West End Ave., Nashville, Tenn.
Oct. 16, 1936
Dear Wendell:
I was indeed glad to receive your letter of October 12^th, and to learn that you have now entirely recovered from your operation.
It is unfortunate that you had to give up your job on account of illness. However, as I have frequently told you while in school, there is always another job.
Nothing would please me better than to have you back in Nashville again. There will be a position open in Nashville of an artist who can design labels and packages. Mr. Raymond of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, 11^th and Grundy Street this city, contemplates opening a service which will redesign packages and labels. He was in to see me day before yesterday and I had a long talk with him and let him read your letter. He seems very much interested and believes that you would probable be the artist he would employ if your work meets with his approval. For this reason, I would advise that you mail me drawings which I may show him. These drawings will be returned to you immediately after he has had an opportunity to study them. This position of course, would be permanent and he states that within a monthly or six weeks he will be ready to launch forth with this new enterprise. I have no information at present regarding salary he would pay; however, I believe that a mutually agreeable arrangement may be reached.
He also gave me a problem which I would advise that you do. He wants to see a design for a gallon paint can label. The name of the paint is "Sun-Proof." This would be lithographed and the number of colors is left up to you entirely. There should be some place provided on the paint can for an indication of the color of the paint in the can. In this case it is to be white paint. It should also carry the name Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, Nashville, Tennessee, as the manufacturer. The size of the can is 6 11/16" in diameter and 7 1/2 " high.
I would advise that you take a look at several of the paint can labels so that you may be familiar with the customary data. The label woyuld naturally be on the front half of the can and the back half would be for instructions and copy. I would suggest that you make several little thumb-nail color sketches of different ideas and make one color sketch full size so that he may get an idea of what you could do with a problem of this kind. He seems to lean toward the modernistic trend in labels. Keep it simple but forceful.
You could make these sketches immediately and mail them to me with your other drawings so that I may turn these over to him for his consideration. In addition, if you care to, you may write Mr. Raymond.
The school is really progressing and we have increased our enrollment considerably. We have between thirty and thirty-five all day students, and our night classes are filled. These students have organized a club which seems to be doing some worthy work. The entire building is used for the school. There are studies both upstairs and downstairs and the locker room is on the third floor. We have also installed Airbrush equipment for photo-retouching and many other interesting features. All students in the day classes will be given instructions this year in photography as well as art. All in all we seem to have a very fine school. The prospects for next year seem even better.
I hope that you are now completely recovered from your operation and that you are feeling your own self again. Give my kindest regards to your parents. Let me hear from you at an early date advising me when to expect your samples.
Sincerely
Isaac Harris, Director

In October 26, 1936 Mr. Raymond of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company wrote Wendell:

Dear Sir:
Your portfolio arrived and I have had an opportunity to inspect it and find that some of your work is very good. If you care to come to Nashville at your own expense, I will be very glad to talk with you regarding employment.
Yours very truly,
A.G. Raymond, manager.

On October 29, 1936 Isaac Harris followed up with the following letter:

Dear Wendell:
I was in receipt of your port-folio last week and this week I received the sketches for the "Sun-Proof" paint label.
These I have turned over to Mr. Raymond and he seemed extremely pleased with them. He feels reasonable sure that you are the artist that he desires. He tells me that he has written you to come to Nashville for a talk with him.
I believe this is a wonderful opportunity for you and I certainly hope that you and he can come to some agreeable arrangement as far as salary is concerned. He informs me that he is going to offer you a 20 percent interest in his enterprise. This plus a salary should be very attractive to you. 
He would wish to see you first before making any final arrangements, and for this reason has written that you come to Nashville and talk with him. If he gives you the job you will be left in complete charge of the business and naturally he is particularly anxious to have someone that is conscientious and sincere as you are, honest and dependable as you have always been. You know that I boosted your stock very highly to him and told him that during the entire two years your were in classes that you were not absent a single day and was always on time. All these things naturally are to be considered in the hiring of an individual for work such as you will do.
I hope to see you here soon.
Sincerely,
Isaac Harris, Director

Isaac Harris gave Wendell the following note to carry with him for whichever employer he might be meeting:

"This will introduce Wendell W. Arnett, a former student of the Advertising Art School.
Mr. Arnett has been one of our best students and is very dependable and a hard worker. He has a keep mind and is able to grasp an idea quickly. We predict a very successful future for him in the Advertising Art profession. His honesty, integrity, and a love for making his work as near perfection as possible should carry him far.

Isaac Harris, Director"

Whether Wendell took the job at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company is unknown, but probably not since he went to Louisville in February 1937 for a job. During this time Wendell tried his hand as an independent entrepreneur and had a letter head made up: "Package Stylist" Label and Package Designing, W. Wendell Arnett, Packaging Consultant. 315 Hill Building, 804 Church Street, Nashville, Tennessee

On January 25, 1937 Wendell sent the following letter on the Packaging Stylist letterhead:

To: Sal Tan Company, Louisville, KY
Gentlemen,
You are invited to submit without obligation on your part samples of your present packages, labels or wrappers for sales analysis and re-designing. We feel that modern merchandise demands modern packaging and we have on our staff some of the outstanding packages designers in the country.
We know that a modern, well designed package will increase your sales curve during 1937; therefore send us one of your present containers by return mail so hat we may analyze it for sales appeal and make suggestions for improvement.
Remember there is no obligation on your part to buy if you do not like our design.
Sincerely,
W. Wendell Arnett, Packaging Consultant.

1978 obituary of Isaac Harris probably from a Nashville newspaper
“Isaac Harris, 82, founder of the Harris School of Advertising Art in Franklin , died Jan 14, 1978.  A native of Russia , Harris moved to Jackson , Tenn. with his parents in 1900.  He came to Nashville in 1912 and began a 60 year career in the art advertising industry.  A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Harris spent a total of 13 years studying in fine leading art schools, both in this country and abroad.  In 1927, Harris designed what was to become the famous “cathedral” encasement for Philco radios.  Harris married the former Beth Ions in 1939.  Together they founded the art advertising school in 1942 [in 1932 it was called the Advertising Art School ] for students who wish to combine art and business training in one educational experience.  He was a veteran of World War I and was a member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Williamson County Chamber of Commerce and the Unitarian Universalist First Church in Nashville .”

Louisville: Clingman Engraving Firm (spring 1937) & surgery

I came home after another year in Nashville [He may have finished school in summer or fall of 1936 and had a job he had to give up according the letter above] and worked around home drawing, painting and sign painting. Then, through the help of Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Co., from whom my father had bought merchandise for over fifty years, I got a small job in Louisville at the Clingman Engraving Co. I came up to Louisville right about two days after the 1937 flood. [early February] You'd go into these stores and everybody would be sitting on dry good boxes. There was mud everywhere. I worked for about three months with this company in the old Board of Trade Building at 3rd and Main Streets. I learned about how cuts were made and the process of photo engraving, an experience which helped me when I worked on newspapers and advertising agency work later on. [Wendell, N7]

I gave up the job at Clingman Engraving due to a hernia on my right side that was giving me trouble. A cousin of mine in Lexington, Ky, who was a doctor [Vo Sublett], scared me about the hernia and said I needed an immediate operation. I told my parents and my cousin arranged with a surgeon in Lexington to do the operation at St. Joseph's Hospital there [1937]. I was told that the hernia was congenital, although it had never before given me any trouble, and hearing this made me wonder about one of my unrealized ambitions. [Wendell, N7]

While back in Salyersville recuperating from my operation [summer of 1937] I worked around our place helping out in the store. I never felt the call to be a merchant like my father or older brother Oakley, who by the way was a born salesman. I remember Oakley told my father once, "Papa, (he called him Papa and I called him Daddy) just let me have the shoe section of the store and I'll make you more money than all the other stuff in the store." And he did. One reason for his success was that there is a tremendous mark-up on shoes. He did however have a good shoe line called "Star Brand All Leather Shoes" which were made by the International Shoe Co. of St. Louis. There wasn't as much profit in little things like Clark's O.N.T. thread [Our New Thread] and other little items, though my father did all right in the store business for he as well as my brother were good businessmen. [Wendell, ghostbk]

After my school years at Nashville, I got a job as artist and layout man for the Robert G. Fields Advertising Agency in Nashville [summer 1937]. Fields had been head of advertising for the Caldwell Company, one of the largest investment and bond houses in the South. The President was Rogers Caldwell. It went under during the Depression or about that time and many people and institutions around the South lost their money. There was a lot of ill will against the owners. The accounts we handled at the advertising agency were not very large, though we did handle one section of the men's shoe division of the Jarman Shoe Company, a Nashville based company. Another was the West Kentucky Coal Company. We also handled WLAC Radio Station, Nashville Pure Milk Company (Sealtest) and a lot of smaller investment houses. I did a lot of drawings and layouts for all of these firms and got a lot of valuable experience the six years that I was with the Fields organization. [Wendell, N46]

Mr. Fields, who owned this advertising agency for which I worked, was a former Captain of Field Artillery and served under Col. Luke Lea in France during World War I. Lea owned the Nashville Tennessean Newspaper. He was a tall handsome man and he had served also as United States Senator from Tennessee. Fields said that during World War I, towards the end of the conflict, Col. Lea had heard that Kaiser Wilhelm had fled into Holland and was in a hotel in a small town. Col. Lea and a few of his men (Larry MacFail, who later owned the Brooklyn Dodgers) went in haste hoping to capture the Kaiser, but as they burst into the hotel, the Kaiser had long been gone. [Wendell, N47]

In 1937, while at the advertising agency, I had the opportunity to enter a nationwide poster contest put on by the Outdoor Advertising Inc. of New York. The size was for the twenty-four sheet boards you see along the highways. I took as my subject the Sealtest Company, since we did their advertising. The poster I submitted was scaled to the big poster size, done in full color. I kept it very simple and showed a baby reaching out for the Sealtest emblem. The only copy I lettered on the poster was "Mother Knows Best." Well, the poster was one of one hundred and fifty out of several thousand to be selected to hang for a week in the Mezzanine Gallery of Rockefeller Center in New York. They sent me a booklet with my name listed with prominent national artists, and it made me feel real good. That same year [in an earlier resume letter he said 1940] I designed a poster for the "William Allen White Committee for aid to Britain." This poster was in color and with several others toured the country and was later placed in the library of Yale University. [N47]

Outdoor Advertising Incorporated
October 20, 1937
Mr. W. Wendell Arnett
Robert G. Fields & Company
1101 Bennie-Dillion Building
Nashville, Tennessee
Dear Mr. Arnett
We have the pleasure of informing you that, at a meeting of the Jury for the Outdoor Advertising Design Award Competition, your design for the Nashville Pure Milk Company, with the baby’s head, was one of the one hundred fifty selected for public exhibition in the Mezzanine Gallery of the International Building at Rockefeller Center. However, your other design was rejected.
Cordially yours,

Oct 22, 1937, Walter submitted a sketch of a small boy in rags a Community Chest poster and received a letter of appreciation. The poster was "placed in Loveman’s window on Union Street, and all the members present were delighted with it."

Our agency also did a lot of work for the big Methodist Publishing House of Nashville. One publication we helped to send on its way to success was a little magazine called The Upper Room, edited by Dr. Carlton Emmons. It is still a great little book. It was for the Methodist Publishing House that I did a book jacket in color for a Peabody Professor, Thurmon Sensing, who had written a book, "Champ Ferguson: Confederate Guerrilla". [N47]

I remember I used to do the finished art covers in cartoon form for the National Life and Accident Insurance Company's official house organ, "Our Shield." They used to say that the call letters of WSM Radio (which the company owned) meant "We Shield Millions," and WLAC, the other 50,000 watt station owned by Mr. Burton of the Life and Casualty Insurance Company (who was a staunch member of the Church of Christ), stood for "We Love A Campbellite." Nashville was one of the few cities in the country that could boast of having two 50,000 watt radio stations. Our advertising agency in Nashville handled the advertising for Radio Station WLAC and WSM. I did quite a number of drawings for The National Life and Accident Insurance Company. WSM was the home of the "Grand Ole Opry". Every day at 4:00 P.M., WSM had an interesting commercial put on by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. It went like this: "We now take you to a point twelve miles south of Nashville on the main line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, where you will hear the actual sound of the L&N's crack passenger train, the Pan American, as she speeds past the 878 foot tower of WSM. Here she comes!." This was no tape or phonograph record, for the announcer would hold his mike close to the tracks and as the train approached, the engineer would pull his whistle several times and as the approaching train came nearer the mike, you could hear the steam and the chugging exhaust as the train raced by. As it sped past the announcer would say, "There she goes, the Pan American, as she speeds south to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The engineer today was Jack Holland." [N46]

Most of Wendell’s National Life and Casualty Insurance Company covers are available in the slide show for this and next time period. He drew the first of these for the Sept 1938 issue and the last appeared in the Aug 1942 issue. He saved twenty-six covers and may have done more. These are the years he did covers and a hint of what the cover depicted:

1938

balloon lifting (Sept 1938)
football kicker "Over Top"
hand writing note "Making History."
map of US & states
clock & legs walking

1939

half world smiling; half sad
factory billowing smoke "…Good"
hand turning calendar

1940

man reading n.paper "h.l. thrill"
"In Memoriam"
shields protecting factory
planes, tanks, ships, shield
horse race
Our Shield National Building
Statue of Liberty, Shield cover

1941

Shield boy 19 yo
ship navigating rocky waters
"business" bursting out of Usmap
sky-writing airplane
ship being launched
smoke stacks & bombers
bridge being built
golfer's putter about to play

1942

phonograph record
drawing of National Building
sun dial w/ "Grow Old…" quote (Aug 1942)

In addition to these cover designs Wendell submitted cartoons with political and religious themes to the Nashville Tennessean and various religious publications.  Many of these are also featured on the slide shows of both this period and the periods after the war when he was living in Louisville.  His goal was to be considered a cartoonist, and he kept his eye on that goal for the rest of his life.

Slide Show for this period of Wendell's life:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496800@N04/sets/72157631976692411/show/