Posen, Alvah

Biographical notes:

Alvah "Al" Posen (1895-1960) was an American cartoonist best known for his long-running strip Sweeney and Son .

Born in New York City, Posen served in the Army during World War I and then traveled in the Orient as a member of a geological and mining expedition. Although he had no formal training in art, Posen sold his first comic strip, Them Days Is Gone Forever (later renamed Them Days Are Gone Forever, to United Features Syndicate in 1921. The strip featured a short tune accompanied by a limerick-style rhyme. Within a year the strip was running daily in one hundred newspapers. Posen discontinued it in 1927.

His second comic strip, Ella and Her Fella, while employing the same limerick format, ran only a short time. In 1933 Posen began Sweeney and Son for the Chicago Tribune - New York News syndicate, which ran for 25 years; for many of those years it ran in conjunction with a four-panel four-word rhyming gag strip called Jinglet, also by Posen. In 1949 he revived the scheme of Them Days Is Gone Forever and renamed it Rhymin' Time . While engaging in political and social satire in his comic art, Posen was most interested in portraying the humanly amusing side of life.

Al Posen was a co-producer of the first Marx Brothers motion picture, a silent short which was a financial flop. As a member of the National Cartoonists Society, he originated the idea of cartoonists' shows for American servicemen overseas. Posen died June 10, 1960.

From the guide to the Alvah Posen Papers, 1919-1959, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)