Return to "Our Boarding House"

When I was very young, I enjoyed the comic strips in the daily newspaper about as much as every youngster did. They were all different back then. We had Dick Tracy, Lil' Abner, Mutt and Jeff, Smokey Stover, and a host of others that are long gone. Probably the only one that is still around is Blondie.

At first, I paid little attention to "Our Boarding House." On week days it was just a single panel, although it was a full sized strip in the Sunday edition. It had too many words, and folks just seemed to be standing around and talking. But as I entered my teens I began to read the strip daily. Maybe it was the fez that he wore around the house that caught my eye. I became fascinated by the interaction of Major Amos B. Hoople, his boarders and friends. They all seemed so human, in an exaggerated way.

Major Amos Barnaby Hoople

Our Boarding House was syndicated as a daily cartoon in hundreds of newspapers from 1921 until 1981. During the 1920's and 1930's, boarding houses were an institution in our society. The boarding house was the home away from home where men lived to save money until they got married and moved into a home of their own. Women in the same situation usually "took rooms" with a family. Boarding houses were often a second source of income for a family struggling to support the household.

Our Boarding House told the story of wizened homeowner Martha Hoople and her quirky stable of boarders. It appeared for four months in 1921 before the Major ambled obnoxiously back into estranged wife Martha's life after a ten-year absence.

Major Hoople's disagreeably daft personality was quickly embraced by readers. Aside from his affinity for cigars and the weathered fez donning his balding head, Hoople was best known for stretching the strip's text bubbles to the bursting point with his long-winded speeches, littered with colorful non-words like "harumf," fap," and "egad," about the astounding ten years he spent away from his wife. He considered himself an expert on every subject, and was always on the lookout for a new get-rich-quick scheme.

I searched the web for Major Hoople images, but I had only modest success. This cartoon seems fairly representative of the style.

I did find, however, a Canadian company that sells a book of Our Boarding House cartoons. The company is Lee Valley Tools. Here is a link:

[http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=52679&cat=1,46096,46100&ap=1]

I ordered a copy, and look forward to experiencing once more the remarkably colorful speeches of the good Major. My wife just told me that I am starting to look like him--fap!