A Valentine from cartoonist Wesley Morse to Ziegfeld Girl Avonne Taylor, 1922-23(?). Notice the pencilled in “Sorry I missed you” and the quickly sketched self-caricature of Morse with a smoke formed question mark hovering over his head. The 80 illustrated letters Morse penned for Taylor are the only surviving document of their long-ago affair.
Wesley Morse, Pencil, pen and ink and gouache on personalized stationery, 7.25 x 10.75in.
• How It Seemed To Talk With You Today — Wednesday Night, 1922-23(?)
• To Late (sic) — Thursday Night, 1922-23(?)
Although the majority of the drawings in the The Taylor-Morse Collection are stand-alone gags, there are three sets of two-panel sequential pages. This is a splendid example, with Morse cleverly utilizing the tossed life preserver as a unifying visual and story element. Also, there is a poignant undertone, a sense of longing and loss, present through much of his illustrated correspondence with Avonne.
Upon Ziegfeld Girl Avonne Taylor’s death in 1992, the drawings that make up The Taylor-Morse Collection were discovered among personal scrapbooks packed away in a Palm Springs, California storage facility. Taylor’s family uncovered an intimate series of 80 drawings by famed Tijuana Bible and Bazooka Joe cartoonist Wesley Morse done specifically of, and for, Taylor, in 1922-23, each on his personal stationery. These images had remained unseen for 70 years.
Wesley Morse images © 2007 Talley Morse
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