Comics: Bernard Kantor, Little-Known Contributor to Golden Age Superman

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 said Bernard Kantor was an “Early science fiction fan & writer who sold some plots to Jerry Siegel.” The search for Kantor was told in Brad Ricca’s 2013 book, Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—the Creators of Superman. Publicity for the book appeared in the Cleveland Jewish News, June 20, 2013 and The Beat, August 11, 2013. Jerry Siegel’s October 8, 1939 letter to Kantor was reproduced in The Beat. The letter included a fifty-dollar bill as payment for a Superman plot. Ricca spent several years tracking down Kantor who passed away on January 13, 1967. He said the death certificate had the names of Kantor’s parents, Max and Sophie Kanter. This was just enough information to search for them and add details about their family.

The Rhode Island Marriage Registration, at Ancestry.com, said Max Kantrovitz, age 22, and Sophie Peskin, 18, were Russian immigrants who married on April 30, 1908 in Providence. Their first child, Louis, was born on January 7, 1909 in Providence.

The 1910 United States Census counted the “Canter” family (lines 67 to 69) in Brooklyn, New York at 448 Bradford Street. Max operated a business making caps.

At Ancestry.com, the New York, New York Birth Index has a Bernard Kantor born on September 27, 1912 in Brooklyn. His surname may have been misspelled. Kantor’s World War II draft cards had different dates. Almost four years later, his sister, Dorothy, was born on September 8, 1916 in Albany, New York.

In Super Boys, Ricca wrote “... a look at the 1920 census reveals a Bernard Kenton with the same parents living in Brooklyn, New York.” I have not found that enumeration sheet at Ancestry.com.

At some point the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where Nathan was born on October 27, 1922.

The 1927 yearbook, The Hour Glass, was published by John Adams High and included a photograph of Louis.

Jerry Siegel’s letter in Amazing Stories, August 1929, mentioned Kantor. At the time Siegel, born October 17, 1914, was two months shy of turning fifteen. At an early age, Siegel met Kantor who was two years older. It’s not clear if Siegel was in high school in 1929. He graduated in 1934 at age nineteen.

Ricca wrote “At the same time, a “Bernard Kenton”[sic] shows up in Cleveland as a boarder ...”. Below is the 1930 census sheet with a seventeen-year-old Bernard Kentor on line 14. He was a laborer in street construction. It appears to be Kantor. It’s not known if he graduated high school.

Kantor’s parents and siblings have not yet been found in the 1930 census. The 1930 Cleveland city directory listed Max Kanter at 3455 East 121st Street. He was employed at the Artcraft Cap Company. The 1932 directory had the same information plus Louis as a salesman at Artcraft. There was a Bernard Kanter, a stockman, who lived at 1874 East 20th Street.

On January 4, 1934, Max Kanter married Mollie (Silverman) Stiel on January 4, 1934 in Brooklyn. (Max’s first wife, Sophie, may have been the Cleveland State Hospital inmate counted in the 1930 and 1940 censuses.) The 1934 Cleveland city directory listed Max, Mollie and Louis Kanter at 12645 Barrington Avenue. Max was the Artcraft manager and Louis a helper.

In the 1939 directory, Max, Mollie, Louis and Nathan Kanter were at 12406 Edmonton Avenue. 

 

Kantor’s letter appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 12, 1939.

Editor Plain Dealer—Sir: Prof. Walter B. Pitkin’s smashing indictment of American youth, portrayed as plagued with a “horrible, hideous, contemptible lethargy” in the Plain Dealer recently, has awakened the writer out of his dream into the world of macabre realism.

May I suggest to Cleveland young citizens that our habit of waiting for a mythical prosperity, or depending upon the federal government to find us jobs, has as much effect upon reality as the chant of a voodoo doctor. Let’s get out of the fantastic into the facts!

Prof. Pitkin has a recommendation which appears rational, intelligent and practical. Let us, the unemployed youth of Cleveland, roll up our sleeves and transform that stretch of waste land between Cleveland and Elyria into a streamlined community which can support itself without being a burden to taxpayers and without sinking into the slough of morbid pessimism.

Bernard Kantor.
Cleveland.

Louis married Clara Bornstein on December 25, 1939.

Kantor has not yet been found in the 1940 census. His father, step-mother, two step-brothers and Nathan lived at 18401 Muskoka Avenue. Kantor’s father operated a retail fruit store. About two months after the census enumeration, Dorothy married Irving Sazzman on June 16.

 

On October 16, 1940, Kantor signed his draft card. His Cleveland address was 12329 Superior Avenue. Kantor’s birth date was September 12, 1912. Sam Block was his employer. Kantor named his brother, Louis, as next of kin. (Louis signed his card on the same date; Max on April 26, 1942; and Nathan on June 30, 1942.) Kantor was described as five feet seven inches, 155 pounds, with brown eyes and hair.

Kantor, spelled Kanter, registered again on January 7, 1942. His first card was cancelled. He lived at 1754 East 19th Street. Kantor’s birth date was September 17, 1912. He named his father as next of kin. Kantor was classified 4-F and did not serve during the war.

The Plain Dealer, July 25, 1949, published Kantor’s letter.

Editor Plain Dealer—Sir: In regard to the possibility of the Cleveland Indians changing ownership, Bill Veeck has publicly stated for the record “if a buyer came along with the right kind of offer a deal could be made.”

Sports Writer Gordon Cobbledick has estimated that $3,000,000 could probably induce Mr. Veeck to relinquish control of the tribe. Since bankers and other “groups” regard this figure with financial trepidation, may I offer the following solution:

By subscription, available to baseball fans throughout Ohio exclusively, the sum of $3,000,000 to purchase the tribe could be raised with the celebrity of Satchel Paige striking out an opponent. Since this represents a democratic enterprise, no single individual could subscribe to more than 1,000 shares.

Ohio fans support the Indians. Why nor afford them the thrill of ownership as well?

J. B. Kantor
3126 Prospect Avenue.

According to the 1950 census, Kantor’s father was a widower at 2733 Hampshire Road. His household included Dorothy, a divorcee, and Nathan, who, months later, married Milgreta Shapiro on September 15. Kantor, a self-employed photographer (line 21), lived at 3126 Prospect Avenue. The 1951 city directory had the same address.

The Plain Dealer, December 29, 1950, printed a classified advertisement for “J. Bernard Kantor”.

In 1951, Kantor’s father married Esther Phinick on May 8.

Kantor placed Success Society of America classified advertisements in Popular Science for February and August 1951.

Kantor was the subject a front page investigative report in the Plain Dealer, February 18, 1952. Part two appeared the following day. The paper said

The Success Society of America, latest promotion of G. Bernard Kantor, sidewalk photographer and promoter extraordinary, has a Better Business Bureau history going back to 1942 as a continuation of the National Advisory Institute.

Kantor claimed Siegel as one of the Society’s sponsors. Signing up for the courses included a three-dollar registration fee plus three-dollars a month. Some of the printed matter said

... in a short time you can compare favorably with the most profound followers of erudition.

... Money. You will be able to learn so quickly that in a short while, when you have mastered 10 to 30 entirely different methods of making money, your pockets and bank account should be bulging with greenbacks!

The paper said Kantor was a “sidewalk photographer working Playhouse Square and other busy corners.” The Better Business Bureau (BBB) had four files on Kantor. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a cease-and-desist order stating Kantor had lied about his qualifications as a securities appraiser.

Kantor’s Futurist Society would teach “secret methods of mental power and financial strategy hitherto restricted to private psychology classes and Wall Street leaders.”

Kantor’s sidewalk photography business was called Classic Photos. It was mentioned in a BBB 1946 file about photography groups not delivering photographs to clients. In 1948 Kantor tried mail order orchids and got in trouble with the state of Ohio for not collecting sales tax.

Kantor’s business address was often a post office box number. One time he used his attorney’s office address. The paper said Kantor “lives in a rooming house at 3126 Prospect Avenue S. E.”

In December 1951 Kantor tried to raise $150,000 to start a comic book company. Once again he claimed Siegel as a sponsor who had provided a noncommittal letter with an estimate to form such a publishing company.

The Plain Dealer, July 24, 1955, published this note.

Editor Plain Dealer—Sir: We, the “Organized Unemployed of Cleveland,” demand either immediate, profitable work or a 100% increase of relief assistance and facilities.

Charles Mondelo, President
G. Bernard Kantor, Treasurer
Chas. M. Gorsuch, Secretary

The Plain Dealer, December 13, 1956, said Kantor had six tax liens for the years 1951 through 1954. At the time his address was 2573 East 55th Street.

Kantor, as Bernard D. Kantor, was mentioned in Billboard, June 3, 1957; June 24, 1957; September 9, 1957; September 30, 1957; November 4, 1957; February 24, 1958; March 3, 1958; April 14, 1958; and November 3, 1958.

The Plain Dealer, January 12, 1960, said Cleveland residents received a yellow card, about the size of a postcard, from “American Moon Campaigns, 310 Caxton Building.” The campaign asked for money to save the earth by exploring the moon. The business address belong to an answering service hired by “B. Kantor.”

At some point, Kantor moved to New York. The Writer’s Digest, June 1960, published his letter.

For quite some time we have been trying to contact Jerry Siegel, formerly of 50 Knightsbridge Rd., Great Neck, Long Island, New York. Mr. Siegel happens merely to be none other than “the writer with the $100,000,000 brain—the original creator, with Joe Schuster, of Superman.

We are in possession of Siegel’s manuscript, “Miracles on Antares” (the origin of which is described in the June, 1958 issue of Future Science Fiction Magazine) and which Nicholas Diamond assures us is “eminently appropriate” for immediate motion-picture production.

Must we call Superman personally, in order to locate his own creator? Can readers of Writer’s Digest help?

G. Bernard Kantor
Ries-Kantor Promotions
533 W. 112th Street
New York 25, N. Y

Nearly six years later the same letter appeared in Amazing Stories, February 1966.

Kantor’s father passed away in January 1964. An obituary appeared in the Plain Dealer, January 24, 1964.

Max Kanter, beloved husband of Ester, dearly devoted father of Louis of Chattanooga, Tenn., Nathan, Bernard Kanter and Mrs. Dorothy Sazzman, dear brother of Jake of New York City, Mrs. Rose Smith, and loving grandfather. Services at Berkowitz-Kumin Inc. Memorial Chapel, 1985 S. Taylor Rd., Cleveland Heights, Friday, Jan. 24, at 1 p.m. Interment Workmen’s Circle Cemetery. Family at the residence, 2749 Hampshire Rd., Cleveland Heights. Member of the Workman’s Circle, Branch 559.

On January 13, 1967, Kantor passed away at a long-term care facility in Cleveland. An obituary has not been found. He was laid to rest at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery.

Kantor’s sister, Dorothy died on January 12, 1983 in Ashtabula, Ohio. Louis’s death was in Miami, Florida on April 28, 1997. Two days after Nathan’s death, the Plain Dealer, April 29, 2009, published an obituary.

Nathan Kanter, beloved husband of the late Milgreta “Milly” (nee Shapiro). Loving father of Sandra (Jeffrey) Fine, Debra (Don) Posner and Garry Kanter. Devoted grandfather of Chad, Kasey, T.J. and Darcy Fine, Jason (Genelle) Denzin, Brandon (Edyta) Halprin, Evan (Brandy) Halprin, and Daniel Stewart. Great grandfather of Nick, Paxten and Raen. Dear brother of the late Louis, Bernard and Dorothy Kanter. Services will be held Wednesday, April 29, at 2:00 p.m. at the Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel, 1985 S. Taylor Cleveland Heights. Interment Mt. Olive Cemetery. Family will receive friends at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. J. Fine, 6801 Silkwood Ln., Solon. Wednesday following services until 8:00 p.m.; Thursday 2–8 p.m. Friends who wish may contribute to the American Cancer Society, of the Jewish War Veterans c/o D. Kaufman, 2292 Ashurst Rd., University Hts., OH 44118.

(Next post on Monday: Art Direction 1964)