• November 28, 1977
• Vol. 8
• No. 22

America's Top Cartoonists Get Together to Give Beetle Bailey and Friends a Permanent Home

It was the biggest blowout," said Hagar the Horrible cartoonist Dik Browne, "since the wedding of Maggie and Jiggs." Browne was among 21 of the nation's most celebrated cartoonists who gathered in Rye, N.Y. to raise money for the Museum of Cartoon Art. They and their friends met and partied, at $100 a plate, in a century-old mansion called Ward's Castle, once a Ripley's curiosity and now the new home of the museum, opening Dec. 11.

Founded three years ago in Greenwich, Conn. by Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, the museum houses more than 40,000 strips from 100 cartoonists and is the only institution of its kind in the world. Walker established it, he says, "to preserve a national heritage." Before the museum existed, cartoon syndicates merely threw away originals because they were short of storage space.

The museum's directors paid $70,000 for the castle, $50,000 of it coming from the Hearst Foundation and the rest from Walker himself. The party brought in another $20,000, which will be used for renovation. "We have," says Walker with satisfaction, "brought this castle back to life again." Adds Browne: "Looking at it, one can't help but wish that the Little King were here."