Nate Leipzig's family

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Jim Maloney_dup1
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Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 7:19 am

I've heard that Nate Leipzig's brother was very proficient with the memorized deck. Does anyone know which brother this was (he had six)?

Another one of his brothers, Fred, had a popular family cartoon called "The Doings of the Van Loon Family." It ran for 18 years and was handled by the McClure Syndicate. I don't have a start or end date, though I would estimate that is was in the 20's or 30's. Does anyone have info on this cartoon? Perhaps more definite dates, or even a copy of some of the drawings?

Leipzig's wife's name was Leila, but I would like to know her maiden name, if possible. Also when/where they were married, and her birth/death dates.

Did Leipzig have any kids? I've never heard anything, but info on his private life isn't widely available (even his wife is barely mentioned in anything I've read).

I think that's it for now. Any help you guys can give is greatly appreciated.

-Jim

Bill Wheeler
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Bill Wheeler » October 27th, 2004, 8:46 am

The brother whom you are referring to is Leo Leipzig. If I'm not mistaken he worked for Planter's Peanuts, and was proficient with the Si Stebbins stack. All of this was from the book KORT.
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Jim Maloney_dup1
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 8:54 am

That's great, Bill, thanks.

Does anyone have info on my other questions?

-Jim

Bill Mullins
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Bill Mullins » October 27th, 2004, 9:05 am

"The Doings of the Van Loons" by Fred I. Leipziger

They were collected in a book:

1912 Series - Ball Publishing, 1912, coverprice none , 72 pages.
Format: 5-21/32" tall x 15-19/32" wide; hardcover; b&w cover & interior; cover overlaps interior by 1/4"
Cover Credits:
Fred I. Leipziger (Pencils) Fred I. Leipziger (Inks) typeset (Letters)

Note that he went by "Leipziger" rather than "Leipzig".


HERE is an ebay link with scans. You might want to archive these to your hard drive (right click and "save picture"), since ebay listings expire after a few months.

HERE is a sample panel from the Cartoon Research Library at OSU. Their catalog entry says it came from the Louisville Courier Journal in 1913.


The strip ran in the LA Times from 6/14/1914-12/31/1916. Note that the Times is digitized in the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database, so if you have access to a local research library (like a university, or perhaps the NY Public Library), you might be able to see a run of them.


THIS PAGE has a few of the strips trimmed from newspapers and for sale. It indicates that the strip ran from 1913 to 1925.

Jim Maloney_dup1
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 9:29 am

That's great stuff, Bill! How'd you find these? I tried doing some searches on the cartoon, but nothing turned up.

-Jim

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 10:10 am

By the way...it seems as if the dates given are incorrect. Nate stated that it ran for 18 years. 1913-1925 only covers 12 years. Also, the book mentioned above was published in 1912, so that would indicate that it had already been running for a while (at least long enough to 1. have enough cartoons to compile into a book and 2. be popular enough to make the decision to compile the cartoon into a book and get it published). Perhaps the 1925 date is the actual end date, which would place the starting date at 1907.

What I'm not sure about is this quote from Nate: "Years later Fred became famous as a cartoonist and for over twenty years was on the staff of the Detroit Evening News. Later he devised a cartoon called The Doings of the Van Loon Family. This was the first of the family cartoons, since so widely copied, and ran for eighteen years, being handled by the McClure Syndicate."

I'm not sure if that indicates that the Van Loons cartoon was created after his time working for the Detroit Evening News, or if they overlapped. If the two were seperate, that woudl indicate that Fred started working at the D.E.N. around 1887, just five years after they move to Detroit from Stockholm. Seeing as I've placed his birth date in 1871, that means he was 16 when he first started working there. That seems a bit young, but it could be feasible.

Interesting stuff...

-Jim

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Bill Mullins » October 27th, 2004, 10:48 am

This page says that the strip was the first one run in the Louisville paper, starting in 1910.

From THIS PAGE we learn that a portrait of the cartoonist exists in the book
Allan, A. G.
A Gallery of Pen Sketches in Black and White of our Michigan Friends "as we see 'em" / by Newspaper Cartoonists' Association of Michigan. -- Detroit, W. Graham Printing Co., 1905. -- 640 p. : ill. ; 24 x 32 cm.
which is in the collection at Michigan State Univ. Library's Special Collections dept.

This page has an interesting query from Leipziger's grandson, looking for info as well. Further searching around on that site shows that in 1901, he was considered a prominent editorial cartoonist for the Detroit Evening News. An example of such work is HERE.

Richard Hatch
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Richard Hatch » October 27th, 2004, 10:51 am

You might want to get in touch with Royal Brin of Dallas, Texas, who is Nate Leipzig's nephew (I believe his mother was Leipzig's sister). He was just a kid when his uncle would come through town performing, but he does remember parties with the other acts on the bill at their home in Dallas. Brin is still active in magic and I believe is a past International President of the IBM. I'm guessing he might be a good source of information on the family.

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 11:04 am

Richard, do you have any contact info for Brin? He'll probably be my best lead for info on Nate and his family.

Looks like he was at least a past President of TAOM, in 1954: http://www.taom.org/html/40.html .

It also appears as if he has an item in Bobo: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~roy/magictalk-w ... ishes.html I think I remember that one, but I'm going to look it up when I get home.

And Bill M.: You rock! I want to know how you've managed to dredge up all this information!

Now, does anyone know about Leila, and if there were any kids?

-Jim

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 11:29 am

Richard -- never mind about the contact info, I looked him up and have a phone number/mailing address. Unless you have an e-mail address, you can ignore my request for info.

Thanks,
Jim

Richard Hatch
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Richard Hatch » October 27th, 2004, 1:19 pm

Hi Jim, I do have an e-mail address for Royal Brin pulled from a TAOM roster, but I'd rather not post it publicly. Email me privately and I'll send it to you.

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 1:50 pm

Some more curious info...while trying to find info on Leipzig's mother, I came across a record for Royal H. Brin, Sr., who died in 1946. Associated with that record (I haven't paid for full access to this service yet, so I only get partial information for now), is the last name "Edloff". That is Leipzig's mother's maiden name.

Richard, are you certain that Brin, Jr's mother was Leipzig's sister and not, perhaps, a relative of Leipzig's mother?

I understand about not posting the info publicly -- I'll send you an e-mail shortly.

Stop the presses! Leipzig's oldest brother, Hyman, moved to Waxathia, TX shortly after he and his father moved to the US from Sweden. This was a year before the rest of the family (including Leipzig's sister) moved to the US. What was he doing in TX? He worked for a relative, a Mr. H. Brin. So, the Brin's must be from the Edloff side of the family.

I thought the name "Brin" sounded familiar.

This is great, guys....really good information.

Thank you all very much,
Jim

Bill Mullins
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Bill Mullins » October 27th, 2004, 2:07 pm

Jim -- I just sent you Nate Leipzig's obituary from the NY Times via email.

Glad the other stuff was useful.

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Guest » October 27th, 2004, 2:34 pm

Jim, what the heck are you up to here? Just doing it for the fun of it? Note, if you are considering a website for searching census info etc be careful. I tried of if their 'free' trials after hearing them on a radio interview and they billed me almost $600 for doing interesting things like clicking on a link that said "click here to see if more info can be found".
Steve V

Jim Maloney_dup1
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 27th, 2004, 3:26 pm

No need to worry, Steve -- I don't enter any info unless I plan on paying for it.

For now, it's just personal research. Leipzig's always fascinated me. If I can dig up enough info, though, it may turn into a book. Who knows...

Bill: Again, much thanks.

-Jim

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 28th, 2004, 8:17 am

Judging by the obit that Bill sent me, it seems as if there were no kids. Only survivors listed are his wife (whose maiden name I'm still trying to track down) and his brothers Leo, George, and Emil.

Emil Leipziger, it seems, was a rabbi in New Orleans.

Nate married Leila in London in 1905, a few years after he first travelled there. Seems he met her the same day he stepped off the boat in England.

-Jim

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Bill Mullins » October 28th, 2004, 12:23 pm

And HERE is a photo of Nate's rabbi brother Emil.

And from THIS PAGE we learn that Emil was well thought of in N'Orleans, so much so that the local United Way named an award after him.

He had an essay in:
Title: Reform Judaism - Essays by Hebrew Union College Alumni
Description: HUC, 1949, OH.

from which we might surmise that he went to school at Hebrew Union College.

This book:
AUTHOR Leipziger, Emil W. 1877-1963.
TITLE 70th birthday banquet, December 18, 1947 ...
PUBLICATION [New Orleans, 1947]

in the Hebrew Union College Library may well have some good biographical info.

Letters from Emil exist in the KENESETH ISRAEL REFORM CONGREGATION ARCHIVE in Pennsylvania, in the William H Fineshriber collection.

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 28th, 2004, 1:20 pm

Bill -- if this ever turns into a book, you'll get one of the first copies!

Based on the photos I've seen of three of the Leipziger boys, Nate, Fred (in one of the photos of his book), and Emil (in this latest photo, where he's standing not far from Pres. Eisenhower!), there is a strong family resemblance between those three at least.

That latest bit of info gives me definite birth and death years for Emil, another great help.

I've sent an e-mail to Royal Brin. I'm hoping to get a response soon.

-Jim

Guest

Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Guest » October 28th, 2004, 1:35 pm

One thing is certain, if they say they may make it into a movie folks will claim that Tom Cruise will be playing Nate.
Steve

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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 28th, 2004, 1:37 pm

Rabbi Emil seems to have had more influence: there's another prize named after him:

"The Rabbi Emil William Leipziger Essay Prize in social science, established by Touro Synagogue of New Orleans, Louisiana, in honor of the eightieth birthday of Rabbi Leipziger." (Which would mean that it was established in 1957)

http://www.huc.edu/academics/catalog/prize.shtml

He graduated from the Hebrew Union College in 1900, when he was 23.

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Eth ... llege.html

After graduating, it seems his first assignment was at Temple Israel in Terre Haute, Indiana.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view. ... 1&letter=I


He was a winner of The New Orleans Times-Picayune Loving Cup in 1925. "The cup, awarded annually since 1901, recognizes citizens who have worked unselfishly for the community without expectation of public acclaim or material reward."

There also appear to be letters from 1947-48 in the Julian Morgenstern Papers. Also the Isidore Cohn Papers from 1943-60, plus some undated and The Jewish Institute of Religion Records from 1923 and 1946.

-Jim

Jim Maloney_dup1
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Re: Nate Leipzig's family

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 29th, 2004, 12:07 pm

Being a gentleman seems to have been a part of the Leipziger upbringing:

"Emil Leipziger, whom Lachoff describes as 'an easygoing person who got along with everyone' ... guided the congregation during the Great Depression, and after members of the congregation borrowed money to pay his salary, he donated it to members of the synagogues choir instead."

Rabbi Emil

-Jim


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