Lou Grant was an American editorial cartoonist. He mainly worked for the Oakland Tribune for 40 years and was the syndicated political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. His work was syndicated with the Los Angeles Times, and was seen daily throughout the country, as well periodically worldwide in Newsweek, and Time Magazine. His life's work covered comedy and political satire, sports, radio, and political cartoons.
Biography
Lou Grant started his career in the newspaper business as a copy boy for the Los Angeles Examiner in 1937. He illustrated his high school yearbook at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, and worked as a cartoonist during the war years for the Camp Roberts newspaper. His first art lesson came from winning a contest on a matchbook cover called "Learn How to Draw." He then received free lessons, but he was a natural talent. During World War II, Grant was stationed at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro, California, where he worked for the camp newspaper, after having been diverted from the infantry unit that was sent to Anzio Beach in Italy, experiencing a hugh loss of life. At that time he met his future writing partner in comedy, Bob Schiller, who created All in the Family and was a comedy writer in television for I Love Lucy. They worked together as comedy writers for the radio show Duffy's Tavern. After the war, Grant went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, to work with cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo, the comic strip artist for King Features Syndicate, inking the panels for They'll Do It Every Time. After his marriage to Doris Weisel, the couple moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Grant worked as a sports cartoonist in 1944 for the Milwaukee Sentinel. His sports cartoons were known as Swine Skin Gulch. In 1949, William Randolph Hearst recruited Grant to be the sports cartoonist for the News Cal-Bulletin in San Francisco and his cartoons appeared daily in the sports section, 1949-1953. Grant's political career took him to the Oakland Tribune. His editorial cartoons appeared daily from 1954-1987, and he remained as then paper's editorial cartoonist until his retirement in 1986. He never took a day off due to the nature of being current with the politics of the day. The Los Angeles Times Syndicate distributed Lou Grant cartoons to newspapers and news magazines nationally on a daily basis. Grant was memorialized by Ed Asner in the television show The Lou Grant Show, for MTM productions.
His family includes son Bill Grant, wrestling hall of fame coach, and daughter Josie Grant, artist and muralist. He lived with his family in Palo Alto and San Francisco. He later resided in Oakland, California. He remarried Florenzi Pooley in 1973. She is the executor of his estate. Lou Grant's obituary appeared in many newspapers nationally and locally in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Awards
Grant received many awards, including from the National Safety Council for "Drinking & Driving Awareness"; from the National Press Club, the National Headliners Organization's award for Outstanding Editorial; The National Conference of Christians & Jews Brotherhood's award for Promoting World Peace, and posthumously the Sparky Award 2001 from the Charles M. Schulz Foundation and The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco. Grant was honored with a one-man show at the Oakland Museum of California called The Pointed Pen in 1983.
