Bro. Miller was born in Milton, Pa., Sept. 2, 1869. He received his education in the schools of his native place. He learned his trade, that of sign and scenic painter, in Kansas City. Mo. He came to New York in May, 1898, and has since been connected with Keith’s Theatre.
Zetland Chapter No. 141, Royal Arch Masons, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last night by a special convocation and reception in the Commandery room, Masonic Hall. This interesting event comes too late for this issue, but will be fully described in these columns next week. The High Priest of Zetland Chapter, Comp. Edgar M. Miller, is also Master of Worth Lodge No. 210, and is necessarily a very busy man, Masonically….Miller was in the center of a group photograph published in the Masonic Standard, March 7, 1903.
…Bro. Miller was raised in Worth Lodge No. 210 May 25, 1900, and went actively to work. In December 1900, seven months after he was raised, he was elected Junior Warden, and served faithfully and with ability in 1901. The next year he was Senior Warden, and in December last was elected Master.
His fervency and zeal were equally marked in Zetland Chapter No. 141, in which he was exalted Nov. 15, 1900. He was appointed Principal Sojourner in December, 1900, was elected King in December, 1901, and High Priest in December 1902.
He received the grades in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, up to and including the Thirty-second Degree, in October, 1900, and the Order of Nobility in Mecca Temple, Nobles of Mystic Shrine, Oct. 30, 1900.
Miller—On Tuesday, February 24, 1931, at her residence, 16 Lembeck Avenue, Jersey City, Frances E. Miller, beloved wife of Edgar M. Miller. Remains reposing at the Funeral Home of Lewis W. Baumuller, 23 East 33rd Street, Bayonne, N.J. Funeral services will be held at Grace Episcopal Church, Pearsall and Ocean Avenues, on Friday, February 27, 1931, at 2 p.m. Interment Bay View Cemetery.Miller and his youngest son continued to live at the same house in Jersey City as recorded in the 1940 census. Miller was retired. On July 23, 1941, he filed his Social Security application.
Jersey City, April 2—Edgar M. Miller, a retired drug salesman, active for many years in New York Masonic organizations, died late yesterday in the Jersey City Medical Center. His age was 86. He resided here at 16 Lembeck Avenue.Death notices appeared in the Times the following day.
Miller—On Friday, April 1, 1955, Edgar M., beloved father of John, Richard, Earl, Mrs. Ruth McGrath and Mrs. Thelma Vogel. Masonic Services will be held at the Baumuller Funeral Home, 23 East 33d Sy., Bayonne, N.J., on Monday, April 4, at 8:30 P.M. Interment New York Bay Cemetery, Jersey City.On April 5, 1955, the Jersey Journal published Miller’s obituary.
Miller—Edgar M. Worth Lodge, No. 210, F. and A.M., sorrowfully announces the death of its believed Past Master, Worshipful Edgar M. Miller. Masonic Service will be held at the Baumuller Funeral Home, 23 East 33d Sy., Bayonne, N.J., on Monday, April 4, 8:30 P.M.
Carl T. Johnson, Master.
A.A. Ogilvie, Secretary
Edgar M. Miller, 86, of 16 Lembeck Ave., Jersey City, died Sunday [sic] at the Jersey City Medical Center. He was a retired drug salesman for a New York concern.The current Variety logo can be viewed here.
Mr. Miller was a member of the Zetland Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of New York, of Morton Commandery Number 4 of the Knights Templar of New York, and of Mecca Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S. of New Jersey.
He is survived by three sons and two daughters.
Funeral was held today from Lewis W. Baumuller Funeral Home in Bayonne.
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| Marvel Tales Annual #1, 1964 |
My father had a fruit store in Coney Island. In 1940, one of the customers he was well acquainted with mentioned that her son was an artist for Timely—the company that’s now Marvel Comics. The son, George Mandel, is now a novelist. This was during the Depression. My father asked her if her son could maybe do something for Sam. So Mandel introduced Sam to the big letterer of the time, Howard Ferguson, who was working for both Timely and Fox. Fox was Ferguson’s lesser account, and soon he gave it to Sam. Sam got me my first lettering job, at Fox, doing The Blue Beetle.Alter Ego #81, October 2008 published Jim Amash’s interview with artist Everett Raymond Kinstler.
page 32: Jim Amash: You say that when you got the job at Cinema Comics, there was another artist working there….According to the Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS (Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem) Death File, Joe enlisted August 21, 1942 and was discharged August 28, 1945. He served in the Army Air Corps.
Kinstler: His name was Sam Rosen, and he was a letterer. I don’t think he liked me. I was just a young kid coming along, and I’d met people like this all too often, who couldn’t quite make in their fields. It was just a 15-year-old kid’s instinct, but I just don’t think he cared for me very much. It had no consequence to me. …
JA: What were the offices like?
Kinstler: 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue in Manhattan was choice commercial property, and still is. The office was modest; it didn’t really have any personality. There was a big reception room where you entered, and there might have been somebody at a switchboard. Hughes’ office was right behind it, and I think there was another private office back there, possibly for an accountant who could come in and out. There was a bullpen that was maybe 10’ by 20’, which contained a couple of drawing tables. Rosen had a drawing board in there. They had drawing boards for people who came in with their strips—like Maurice Gutwirth—to make corrections. They’d come in, sit down, and ink a couple of panels while they were there, or correct something. I don’t think there were more than four of five full-time people there. …
Elizabeth Hardwick wasn’t the only prominent writer to work for a publishing company which also produce comic books. When Sam Rosen, a letterer for many comics companies, went into the army, his fellow artist Pierce Rice says, “there was a little going away luncheon for him…The participants were: Miss Highsmith, then a comics writer, one of the [comics] editors, the guest of honor, and myself.”In the interview Joe explained what he did after the war.
The editor at that going-away luncheon was Stanley Kaufman, later a theater critic for The New York Times and then, for twenty-five years, the film and theater critic for The New Republic magazine….
Yeah, I was away in the service for three years, then I came back after the war and went to National—I don’t recall if it was called National or Detective Comics back then. I’d done some work for them before the war. I did one comic for them called The Shining Knight….I worked up at National when Julie Schwartz was an assistant editor. Let’s see…I worked with Mort Weisinger, Jack Schiff….I went to Harvey in 1950 and worked there until the 1970s, when I went to Marvel.After military service, Sam worked for Will Eisner.
“…I was there with Chuck Cuidera, Tex Blaisdell, Sam Rosen was the letterer, Bob Powell did Mr. Mystic, and Nick Viscardi did Lady Luck.”page 167: Jules Feiffer
“The odd arrangement was that Will sat where the receptionist ordinarily would, in the outer office where he had his drawing table, a rather dark, windowless room, and inside, a larger room than where Will lived, were his staff: letterer Sam Rosen, John Spranger who did some penciling and some inking (he had a wonderful pencil technique, drawing large, clunky, blocky characters….Dave Berg, and I forget who else was around at the time. Later on he hired Jerry Grandenetti.”In Joe’s interview he talked about lettering at a smaller size.
…Harvey used the big pages from the old times. The first I ever heard of the change to smaller pages for original art was when my brother Sam was complaining about these new, smaller pages they were instituting up at Marvel. He didn’t like it, ’cause he had to letter smaller and it was a strain on his eyes. But I didn’t find that they made that much of a difference.Marvelmania Monthly Magazine
…Sam was working for Marvel. He had too much work and I didn’t have enough, so I did a story for him. It was Sgt. Fury. And I thought: There’s only one way I’m going to get all this copy in—by making it as small as it was possible to letter it and still make it clear. I actually was not too sure it would be all right. I’m still not sure. But I’ve never had any complaints about it.
Dear Fans,
The pens I use are either B-6 or A-5 speedballs, bit are modified by guiding down and shaping on carborundum stone. Guide-lines are about 3/16 of an inch apart, separated about 1/16 from from another. For heavy lettering, I use A-6 of B-5, once again ground down until it feels right to me. As for the ink, I generally use Higgins black.
––Sam Rosen
On Saturday, October 10, 2009 of Chevy Chase, MD. Son of the late David and Esther Rosen; brother of Emanuel Rosen. Shiva at the late residence for the full week. Memorial contributions may be made to Ezras Israel Congregation, 803 Montrose Rd., Rockville, MD. Arrangements entrusted to Torchinsky Hebrew Funeral Home, 202-541-1001. Call for graveside service time at Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park, Clarksburg, MD.
