One black ear, one white ear, a few
black spots, a stub of a tail and big blue eyes are the
distinguishing features of that laughing pudgy pup called
Bonzo. In the early 1920's Bonzo reigned
supreme. He was the envy of politicians, film stars,
and beautiful women. His features beaming down from
innumerable posters plastered across the world became an
institution. He appeared in films and on the stage,
and he was the sole subject for a series of art
portfolios. He was also the inspiration behind the
manufacture of a multitude of highly commercial
merchandise such as toys - both cuddly and mechanical,
ashtrays, pin-trays, trinket boxes, car mascots, jigsaw
puzzles, books, calendars, sweets, and a profusion of
postcards. Everyone, no matter what their age,
adored the little dog with the crinkly face, golf-ball
nose, and big feet.
Bonzo and the situations his creator
George Studdy put him in made him into a kind of
'Everyman', a comforting 'man-in-the-street' symbol
which denounced all forms of pomposity. He drank,
gambled, and had a wicked eye for pretty women, but
Bonzo was never violent, never spitefully unkind, and
never repulsively offensive.
Looking back at the pre-1922 Studdy
sketches of dogs it becomes clear that the original
concept for a mischievous pup was born around 1911 -
possibly earlier. The first dog which, as Studdy
put it, "could run by itself" appeared in Pearson's
Magazine. The drawing depicted a running hound
with a wasp sitting on its tail and was captioned "When
you are on a good thing - STICK TO IT!". It
was also produced as a framed print, together with a
companion picture titled "If you see a good thing - GO FOR IT!".
This unnamed dog continued to appear
in various Studdy sketches, and gradually became a
regular feature in The Sketch magazine. It was
from this magazine that Bonzo finally sprang in 1922,
and he never looked back.
By the mid 1920's booksellers,
stationers, toy shops, and the big department stores
were selling a huge variety of Bonzo products.
A.V.N. Jones & Co. of London produced two series
of jigsaw
puzzles, (thirty-one puzzles in all) each having a
different colour picture of Bonzo, and consisting of
"100 pieces on the interlocking system in Satin
Walnut"! When assembled, the picture measured 10 x
7 inches, and the cost was three shillings and sixpence
(about 17½ pence today!). The same firm made a
range of ashtrays
and pin-trays in a brown semi-porcelain, with a
gilt edge and a black transfer print of Bonzo in the
centre.
Motorists could decorate their cars
with Bonzo mascots, made from either chrome or
brass. One maker produced a wonderful mascot of
him galloping like the wind. It was named 'The Telcote
Pup' (after the manufacturer), was about 5 inches
long, and sold for 3 Guineas in 1923.
Confectionery manufacturers designed lollipops, jelly
babies, chocolate bars, and sugar fondants in Bonzo
shapes, and special Bonzo tins to sell them. A
profusion of soft
toys appeared in the toy shops for the very young,
and pull-along tin toys for toddlers.
George Studdy himself was busy
illustrating books and annuals written around Bonzo, and
everywhere postcards featuring him in some situation or
other could be found. Bonzo was a 'hit', not only
in the United Kingdom, but all over the world.
One of the penalties of Bonzo's fame
was that his creator, George Studdy, was forever being
asked "How did you think up Bonzo, and exactly what sort
of dog is he?" Tired of having to repeat himself
numerous times, he tried to think up new and witty
answers to the question. In an article
interviewing Studdy published in The Royal Magazine, it
describes how he comes up with Bonzo's look:
Studdy
employs
no models, but one presumes that he memorises the
expressions of all
the dogs he meets in the streets of London, and of
those he sees in the country
on those occasions when he drives out of town in his
beloved old car.Here is the
story of his origin in Studdy’s own words:
"Scientists take a few fossil bones of an
extinct animal and design therefrom the complete common
ancestor of various living types. At least they
say so. Now Bonzo seems to me to have arrived in
the same manner, only reversed. Either the
terrier, sealyham, bull dog or bull terrier meets the
eye during the course of a half mile walk. From
the semblance of various traits or features of these
four breeds, Bonzo has been evolved into the complete
imaginary design of their common ancestor. The
young of all existing types show stronger resemblance to
their ancient progenitor than the adults, so the
grown-up puppy-like Bonzo strictly observes this law of
nature. Formula being: 4 pups / post bellum x
1,000,000 BC² / Bonzo Saurus = Bonzo!".
Studdy also used this, together with
other ideas, to 'trace' Bonzo's origins with a set of four
drawings in The Sketch at the beginning of 1924.
Headed "Bonzo
in search of his Forefathers", they show Bonzo
uncovering some plain truths about his ancestors!
The question still came though, and another of his
replies appeared in Tit-Bits in
1925, where he gives a slightly different
explanation:
"Some years ago a certain professor declared
that in time to come we should all make use of
mechanical contrivances, something like robots, to do
our housework, to carry us to our offices on our
shopping and sports trips - in fact to do everything and
take us everywhere. This idea appealed to me and I
made a cartoon of it for the editor of The Sketch.
My robot took the form of a queer animal with the hind
legs and tail of a dog but without a head to it.
You will see from the illustration below what I
mean. From that robot dog developed Bonzo. I
knew at once that I had found in those hind legs and
stubbly tail the germ of a really funny idea, and I went
on experimenting with it until Bonzo as he is to-day
finally emerged."
The process of evolution that George
Studdy outlined was, of course, tongue in cheek, but Bonzo
had by that time become such a popular character that some
people took it rather too seriously. Major J.E.
Power, a well known dog breeder, asked for George's advice
in order to produce a new variety to be called the Bonzo
Terrier. His attempts involved the cross breeding of
several strains in order to achieve his aim, but
thankfully he failed dismally. Bonzo, you see, was
unique!
Although more than eighty five years
have passed since this button-nosed, blue-eyed,
elephant-eared, pudgey-footed little terrier that is
Bonzo first captured the affections of the world, he is
still very much loved and sort after today. Long
may he continue to make the world laugh!
Research and text by Richard
Fitzpatrick with acknowledgments to Paul Babb & Gay Owen
