Edward Leroy “Ed” McLean was born on December 5, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois according to his post-World War II draft card which had his full name. His parents were James H. McLean and Beatrice E. Davis who married on June 24, 1920 in Chicago.
The 1930 United States Census counted McLean (line 17), his parents and three older siblings, Margaret, Beatrice and Thomas, in Chicago at 5121 Justine Street. His father was chauffeur at a furniture storage company.
The 1930 United States Census counted McLean (line 17), his parents and three older siblings, Margaret, Beatrice and Thomas, in Chicago at 5121 Justine Street. His father was chauffeur at a furniture storage company.
In the 1940 census, McLean (line 38) had two younger siblings, Douglas and Ursula. The family of eight were Chicago residents at 5724 South Racine Avenue.
The same address was on McLean’s draft card which he signed on May 20, 1946. His veteran’s file said he had enlisted in the Navy on November 20, 1945 and honorably discharged on May 15, 1946. McLean was described as five feet seven inches, 130 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair.
McLean was not counted at Chicago with his parents in the 1950 census. There was a newspaper cartoonist with the same name (line 20) in New York City at 463 West 19th Street.
Although his birth year, 1925, and birth state, New York, differ, I believe it was McLean because of Jules Feiffer’s 2010 autobiography, Backing Into Forward: A Memoir. Feiffer devoted a chapter titled, Ed, on McLean who was lettering at Wally Wood’s apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The book included a 1948 photograph of McLean.
... Woody introduced me to one of his studio mates, a lettering man named Ed McLean ...There are no entries for McLean at the Grand Comics Database and Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999. Information about his art training has not been found. McLean may have met Wood at Burne Hogarth’s Cartoonists and Illustrators School. A class photograph is here.
... We met on my first visit to Woody’s studio, a long room that deepened and darkened as your eyes failed to get used to it. Artists and writers sat like galley slaves at desks and drawing tables jammed close enough together to constitute a single piece of furniture, an intimidating world of cluttered comic pages and pounding typewriters, dingy and roach-rich. The no-frills ferocity of the place was intoxicating. ...
... Ed was short and stocky, a big head with thin red hair, built like an Irish workingman, not a writer. ...
... Ed was from the South Side of Chicago, Studs Lonigan territory, and like Farrell’s hero and Farrell himself, he stemmed from Irish Catholic working-class roots. When we met in Woody’s studio, he had been in New York for six months, on the lam from faith and family. Ed was an itinerant. ...
In 1957, McLean and Ylavaune Wiley obtained, in Manhattan, marriage license number 9447. Their May 16 wedding was reported in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, May 20, 1957. Feiffer was one of the attendants. Ylavaune was the research librarian for the Radio Advertising Bureau, Inc. McLean was a freelance writer.
Soon, McLean found work as a copywriter. His acclaimed talents and skills were described in obituaries and remembrances at Chief Marketer, September 7, 2005 Direct Marketing News, September 7, 2005 and Target Marketing, December 1, 2005. A photograph of McLean is at Denny Hatch’s Free Direct Marketing Blog.
McLean passed away on August 13, 2005 in Ghent, New York. Six months later, his wife died on February 23, 2006.
Further Reading
Potrzebie
(Next post on Monday: Rich Chidlaw, Cartoonist)
Potrzebie
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