The Boy of ’99 The Ties that Bind

Chapter Three Charlton’s Jailhouse Compact

TIME TO GET LEGIT Doubtless some of the pressure prompting John Santangelo to finally go legitimate was the fact that retail outlets selling his songsheet publications were facing civil action by the unrelenting MPPA. Just as the racketeer’s own legal reckoning was hitting a crescendo, the tireless trade association filed suit in August 1939 against four Hartford, Conn., drugstores with damages seeking a total of $55,000.1 Such tactics by the MPPA were not new; as in 1937, it targeted bigger quarry than mere mom-and-pop operations. National chain retailers Walgreens and W.T. Grant settled with the organization, and, haunting municipalities in Santangelo’s vicinity, the MPPA seized illegal songsheets by the thousands at area newsstands.2 For Santangelo, the writing was on the wall.

Plus, even while serving his eight-month-long sentence, he was compelled to make good with some New York City music publishers as his lawyers downsized a $75,000 demand by offering $3,000.3 With such persistent legal headaches, it’s no surprise why Santangelo teamed up with onetime Waterbury city lawyer Ed Levy, who fortuitously was in a nearby cell at the New Haven County Jail.

This page: A pair of Charlton’s shortlived song lyric magazines and the cover of the first issue of their flagship title, Hit Parader [Nov. 1942], which lasted until 1991. Opposite page: One of the few known photos of John Santangelo (left) and Edward Levy together, in Stars and Stripes, Sept. 11, 1957 European edition. Photo by Merle Hunter.

THE CHARLTON PUBLISHING CORPORATION The newly forged business partners both had sons named Charles and, while planning for a future outside as they strolled together in the prison yard, the men christened the association in honor of their respective five-year-olds. Though they did occasionally utilize T.W.O. Charles Company and the Charles Publishing Company (among many others), it was the name of Charlton Publishing Corporation that was featured in the fine print of their first batch of publications—Prosperity Hit Parader, Prosperity Big Book Magazine, and Radio Hit Songs—all first published in late 1941. All had a 10¢ cover price. Their most successful songsheet magazine, Hit Parader, with its three-color covers and dime price tag, would debut late the following year, cover-dated Nov. 1942.

Chapter Four The Coming of Charlton Comics

THE CHARLTON WAY Right out of the gate, Charlton Publications scored with their songsheet magazines, soon giving industry leader Song Lyrics, Inc., significant competition and holding its own against that another newcomer to the law-abiding side of the business, D.S. Publishing. With the 1942 launch of Hit Parader, the publisher’s most successful periodical in the magazine game, Charlton’s status was, if not secure, impressive. Santangelo’s jump by mid-decade from outlaw bootlegger and jailbird to legitimate, formidable powerhouse was simply breathtaking.

The 1954 profile of John Santangelo mentions an important equipment acquisition that would portend to the company’s future: “A big web newspaper press, used for comic books,” reported New England Printer and Lithographer, “came from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1942 and turns out 500,000 signatures in 24 hours.”1 Despite that expensive purchase, as best as can be ascertained today, it still would be, at the very least, two years before Charlton’s four-color funnybooks would be running off the Derby printing presses. And even that start proved a slow one, as Charlton pragmatically dipped its cautious toe into the already crowded waters of the comics field. (And maybe skepticism is warranted, too, about the date of that pricey acquisition from Missouri if one believes that many of Charlton’s early comic book titles were printed in Holyoke, given the preponderance of colophons listing the address of Sherman Bowles’ Holyoke Printing Co.—One Appleton St. Still, given the lack of hard data and the fact that the first industrial space Charlton retained in Derby—at 49 Hawkins—had plenty of room for a printing press and loading dock, thus it’s conceivable they printed their own comics.)

A vital component of the Charlton equation had already been in place since Santangelo’s illegal songsheet days: distribution. As early as 1936, his operations included as many as ten trucks to distribute the printed material. In the ’40s and decades to come, while never a top player in the field, the arm of Charlton officially named Capital Distribution Co., Inc., would, into the ’80s, prove a significant source of income for the company, by distributing the material of other publishers.

THE FIRST CHARLTON COMIC BOOK The very first Charlton comic book was Yellowjacket Comics, an anthology title lasting ten issues initially published between mid- and late 1944, then put on hiatus, and subsequently restarted in late 1945 for its five remaining issues, lasting until spring 1946. Each issue was the standard 52 pages and starred the titular super-hero, who was fantastically-powered and possessed a supernatural ability to control swarms of bees—and not wasps as the name suggests (see sidebar for more tantalizing facts!). Another featured series is Diana the Huntress (who appeared in every issue, plus an appearance in Zoo Funnies #8), a depiction of the Greek goddess visiting modern-day Earth and fighting Nazis and then criminals, sometimes with fellow Olympians joining in on the fun.

Other regular Yellowjacket Comics features included the exploits of lion-tamer Danny King, the “King of the Beasts,” which sported handsome, illustration-like work by Harold DeLay, an aging artist whose final art was published posthumously in Charlton’s Catholic Comics. Then there was the “Harbor Lights” series about crime, war, and sometimes horror found in eight issues of Yellowjacket. “The Filipino Kid,” with protagonist Juan Manito, a guerrilla warrior fighting the Japanese occupiers, was also included in eight issues.

“Famous Tales of Terror,“ yet another series that ran for eight episodes, were mostly very short adaptations of Edgar

1940s 1940s

Photo courtesy of Shaun Clancy. Allan Poe stories, and is particularly notable for its story host in #7, named the Ancient Witch, a character that has an uncanny resemblance to the Old Witch, host of Haunt of Fear. The remarkable thing is that the Charlton character predated the far more familiar EC Comics character by a full four years!

The numbering of Yellowjacket was carried over to Jack-in-the-Box Comics, which sported the cover notation “Incorporating Yellowjacket Comics” beside the comic book’s logo for all of its six issues (not counting an earlier samenamed one-shot). Strips that continued included Yellowjacket and “King of the Beasts “(#11), plus “Cap’n Grim” (#12).

Previous page: Charlton’s first comic book, Yellowjacket Comics #1 [Sept. 1944]. This page: At top (from left) Ed Levy, John Santangelo, and Burt Levey attending a late 1940s Charlton holiday party. Above are various Charlton titles from the 1940s. Inset right is comic strip from Radio Hit Songs #1 [Oct. 1941].

Comics-Type Charlton Stuff

Technically, one could say the first comics-type material to appear in a Charlton publication was probably the “Radio Rarities” comic panel by Dooley (seemingly used as filler), two of which appeared as full-pagers in Radio Hit Songs #1 [Oct. 1941]. The syndicated feature also appeared in newspapers in numerous states during that same year and, in 1942, it was utilized to promote local radio stations.