Holidays and All in the Family

One the annual rituals that Jerry Doyle enjoyed most was the creation of his celebrated Christmas/Holiday Season cartoon. As always with Doyle, it was a family affair, as he could not resist involving his wife and children in the festivities. On display here are Christmas-themed cartoons and season greeting cards that Doyle created to share with friends and kin. One of the hallmarks of Doyle was his ability to weave in current events and popular culture with the holiday season. Doyle also liked to mark special family events with illustrated birthday cards, postcard birth announcements, and illustrated envelopes to share with this children and grandchildren. One of his more unique creations was a World War II Era pin-up photograph he produced for his son Jerry Doyle III, who was serving with U.S. Marine Corps in the South Pacific.

“Merry Christmas, From Peg, Jerry and The Rest of the Crew” (circa 1930s)

One of the earliest of the annual holiday cards Doyle produced, with a family-centric theme featuring the Doyle clan front and center: wife Marguerite (“Peg”), and children Jerry, Margaret Anne (also “Peg”), and Terrance

“We Join in Union to Wish You Season’s Greetings”

Doyle Family Holiday Cartoon (circa 1930s)

Doyle loved playing the role of the besieged dad in his cartoons. In this panel, he cleverly drew inspiration from the union organizing drives of the New Deal Era.

“Dangerous Fallout But We Just Couldn’t Forget You & Yours—Vesta and Jerry Doyle”

Illustrated Christmas Card (circa 1960s)

“No Blackout on Our Holiday Wishes-Have a Monstrous One!”

Illustrated holiday card spoofing The Munsters, a popular TV show during the mid-1960s (1966)

“A Delirious Christmas & A Frenzied 1965”

Christmas Card capturing Beatlemania and featuring the Beth Lane Beatles (1964-65)

“Test-Tube or Cloned???”

Holiday cartoon (circa 1970s)

“Made our Christmas Edition With The Help Of My Able Assistant Vesta”

Holiday Cartoon. (circa late1960s)

When Doyle was briefly hospitalized, his wife, Vesta, lent a helping hand to meet the deadline for his featured holiday cartoon.

“A Way Way Out of this World Holiday Greeting A-OK”

Holiday cartoon with Doyle appropriating the public’s fascination with astronauts and NASA’s Gemini space missions (circa mid-1960s)

Illustrated holiday letter to the Lawlor Family, his daughter Peg, son-in-law John H., and grandchildren—Megan, Trish, Colleen, and John M. (December 21, 1980)

Illustrated birthday card for granddaughter Trish Lawlor (date unknown)

“How’s Our Daddy?”

Illustrated postcard (1964)

A new addition to the Doyle-Lawlor clan was always cause for celebration and a humorous card to mark the occasion. Here Doyle has fun at the expense of the expecting father, his son-in-law, John Lawlor Sr.

Illustrated Postcard (April 1962)

Doyle delighted in each new grandchild born to the Lawlor family (here the birth of Colleen).

“Jerry Grable” (1944)

Long before the creation of Photoshop, editorial cartoonist Jerry Doyle altered photographs to humor his family and newspaper colleagues. In 1944, he appropriated the iconic Betty Grable pin-up image and superimposed his head on the starlet’s figure. He then sent the doctored photograph to his son, Corporal Jerry Doyle, III, serving in the South Pacific with the U.S. Marine Corps.