Bob Dunn (March 5, 1908 – January 31, 1989) was a long time member and Toastmaster at The Lambs. He was an American cartoonist, entertainer, television personality, magician and gag-writer who was born in Newark, NJ and graduated from St Benedict’s Prep Class of 1925 St Anselm’s College four years later.
Bob Dunn, who won the Rueben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1975, was newspaper cartoonist for King Features from the early ‘40’s until his death in 1989. In addition to his own strip Just The Type Dunn was known for his work on Jimmy Hatlo’s Little Iodine and They’ll Do It Every Time. He created the ‘Knock Knock’ joke and co-hosted one of the most popular game shows in the early days of television. A show called Quick on the Draw. King Features syndicated Dunn’s Just the Type from May 5, 1946 to November 24, 1963. It ran in the New York Journal-American and several other newspapers. Bob Dunn produced Jimmy Hatlo’s cartoon for many years and got an official byline on They’ll Do It Every Time starting in 1966. The strip was carried in close to 800 newspapers worldwide including the Star Ledger and Asbury Park Press.
Bob’s first summer job was drawing caricatures of visitors to Lake Hopatcong. He began his long newspaper career as a reporter. He interviewed Amelia Earhart before one of her long distance flights but shifted to cartooning full time when the opportunity presented itself. He submitted gags to newspapers and magazines and sold skits to Lamb Earl Carroll for his Vanities on Broadway in 1930-31. In 1936, “he invented the knock-knock joke” (according to The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons) in a book he wrote that sold over two million copies.
During World War II, he contributed to the war effort. Bob Dunn and other cartoonists made personal appearances at many Army camps and U.S.O. centers. In 1947, soon after the founding of the National Cartoonists Society, he and his good friend Rube Goldberg and a group of leading cartoonists from the NCS went on a three-month tour of the US and helped sell $58 million in US Savings Bonds. Dunn’s card tricks and feats of mental magic blended with Goldberg’s comic inventions for a show that amused audiences across the country.
Bob starred in two shows in the late ‘40’s and early 50’s. The first was Face to Face (NBC, 1946-1947). The second and more popular was Quick on the Draw on the DuMont network 1950-1952), a celebrity panel show hosted by Eloise McElhone and later by Robin Chandler. Bob drew cartoon charades that celebrities would try to figure out.
Bob was a long-time member The Lambs to which he contributed drawings, scripts and personal appearances. Many of his drawings are on display at the Club today along with illustrations by his good friend Russell Paterson. He MC’ed many Lambs’ Gambols with stars of television, radio, Broadway and Hollywood. And entertained at many Lambs’ functions with his Irish charm and feats of mental magic. Bob was also was the Official Toastmaster of the National Cartoonists Society which he served as President from1965-1967.
They’ll Do It Every Time and Little Iodine brought Dunn several awards. He won the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the years 1968 and 1969. He won it again in 1979 with Al Scaduto. Bob won the National Cartoonist’s Society’s highest honor, The Reuben Award, in 1975. A true Jersey boy throughout his life from his birth in 1908 through a distinguished career in newspapers until his death in 1989. Bob was a great American who gave of his time and talent to The Lambs and many charitable and civic organizations in NY, NJ and around the country.
