Film Fannie, Everybody's, 1939
Arthur John Ferrier was born in Glasgow on 15 November 1890, the son of a mercantile clerk. He studied analytical chemistry at Glasgow Technical College, and worked in industry, selling cartoons to the Daily Record and the Glasgow Evening News, encouraged by cartoonist George Whitelaw.
When the paper's editor, William McWhirter, moved to London, Ferrier did likewise, where he married the illustrator Evelyn Brown in 1919. Still working as a chemist, he sold cartoons to Punch, London Opinion, Razzle, The Passing Show, Blighty, The Humorist and the Sunday Pictorial. From 1923 he drew theatre cartoons and caricatures for the News of the World.
From the 1930s he became known for drawing cheesecake strips, in competition with Norman Pett's well-known Jane in the Daily Mirror. His first strip was Film Fannie for the weekly magazine Everybody's. When that strip ended in 1939, he created Phyllis, Our Dumb Blonde for the Sunday Pictorial, which ran until 1946. He followed that with Spotlight on Sally (1945-) for the News of the World, and his only daily strip, Eve (1953-56) for the Daily Sketch, written by Peter O'Donnell.
He stopped working for the News of the World in 1959, but continued working in commercial art and advertising. He moved in theatrical circles and was renowned as a party-goer and party-giver, entertaining in a room full of portraits of glamorous women. He died in Chelsea, London, on 27 May 1973.
References[]
- Steve Holland, Arthur Ferrier's "Film Fannie", Bear Alley, 20 January 2009
- Peter O'Donnell, Before Modesty,
- The Affairs of Eve, DanDare.info
- Biography at the British Cartoon Archive
- Arthur Ferrier at John Noott Galleries
