thedrifter
03-19-09, 09:38 AM
Award-winning cartoonist honored on Free Press day
By PETE BISHOP
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
NAPLES — Award-winning editorial cartoonist and onetime Marine Bill Gallo says his World War II experiences made him a better journalist.
“It was a whole evolution where I did more grown up and poignant cartoons because of my life’s learning in the war,” he said.
“It’s a serious kind of thing but my sense of humor stayed with me. I became more astute.”
The longtime New York Daily News cartoonist and writer spoke to a group of about 130 fellow veterans and members of the local press who gathered Wednesday at the Hilton Naples for the fifth annual Honor the Free Press Day.
The event, organized by the Marine Corps League of Naples, honors journalists and their role in securing a free society.
Each year, a noteworthy journalist who served in or alongside the military is named guest of honor.
Like his work, Gallo’s talk was funny at times but poignant at others.
Anecdotes about rumors that circulated among soldiers during the war drew enthusiastic laughs from the crowd.
While fighting on Saipan, Gallo and his fellow Marines were told a Japanese general was holding Amelia Earhart captive on the island.
“And we were 19 so we believed it,” he said.
Gallo also spoke about the hard realities of war.
“I see the young faces that never got old,” he said. “The young people who never had a chance to have a wife, a family, a career, I think about them once in a while. War is a treacherous, hopeless ... thing.”
Michael Trephan, who handles public relations for the Marine Corps League, founded the annual event and helps select each year’s guest of honor.
“The main reason we do this is to uphold the First Amendment, that is the important part,” he said. “He is a true, down-to-earth journalist who believes in what he’s doing and I don’t know what more you can say than that.”
As the fifth guest of honor, Gallo joins World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, Vietnam War photojournalist Eddie Adams, documentary filmmaker Lou Reda and Parade magazine’s James Brady as event honorees.
Next year PBS newsman Jim Lehrer will speak to the group.
Gallo, 86, first joined the New York Daily News in 1941 but enlisted in the Marines just seven months later.
He served as a demolition technician in the Pacific and fought at Iwo Jima, Saipan, Roi Namur and Tinian.
After the war, Gallo returned to the Daily News art department. He became the paper’s sports cartoonist in 1960 and has produced more than 5,000 cartoons in the last 49 years.
The National Cartoonist Society has named Gallo Cartoonist of the Year eight times and he has work hanging in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gallo currently produces cartoons for the paper five days each week and writes a Sunday column.
“I do political stuff too, and stuff that’s just about life,” he said.
“His passion stands out, his passion for what he does,” said Bob Young, a onetime Marine and New Yorker who has known Gallo for several years.
“He does a lot for a lot of people but he does it quietly. In New York, everybody knows him, he’s one of those special guys.”
E-mail Pete Bishop at lpbishop@comcast.net.
Ellie
By PETE BISHOP
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
NAPLES — Award-winning editorial cartoonist and onetime Marine Bill Gallo says his World War II experiences made him a better journalist.
“It was a whole evolution where I did more grown up and poignant cartoons because of my life’s learning in the war,” he said.
“It’s a serious kind of thing but my sense of humor stayed with me. I became more astute.”
The longtime New York Daily News cartoonist and writer spoke to a group of about 130 fellow veterans and members of the local press who gathered Wednesday at the Hilton Naples for the fifth annual Honor the Free Press Day.
The event, organized by the Marine Corps League of Naples, honors journalists and their role in securing a free society.
Each year, a noteworthy journalist who served in or alongside the military is named guest of honor.
Like his work, Gallo’s talk was funny at times but poignant at others.
Anecdotes about rumors that circulated among soldiers during the war drew enthusiastic laughs from the crowd.
While fighting on Saipan, Gallo and his fellow Marines were told a Japanese general was holding Amelia Earhart captive on the island.
“And we were 19 so we believed it,” he said.
Gallo also spoke about the hard realities of war.
“I see the young faces that never got old,” he said. “The young people who never had a chance to have a wife, a family, a career, I think about them once in a while. War is a treacherous, hopeless ... thing.”
Michael Trephan, who handles public relations for the Marine Corps League, founded the annual event and helps select each year’s guest of honor.
“The main reason we do this is to uphold the First Amendment, that is the important part,” he said. “He is a true, down-to-earth journalist who believes in what he’s doing and I don’t know what more you can say than that.”
As the fifth guest of honor, Gallo joins World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, Vietnam War photojournalist Eddie Adams, documentary filmmaker Lou Reda and Parade magazine’s James Brady as event honorees.
Next year PBS newsman Jim Lehrer will speak to the group.
Gallo, 86, first joined the New York Daily News in 1941 but enlisted in the Marines just seven months later.
He served as a demolition technician in the Pacific and fought at Iwo Jima, Saipan, Roi Namur and Tinian.
After the war, Gallo returned to the Daily News art department. He became the paper’s sports cartoonist in 1960 and has produced more than 5,000 cartoons in the last 49 years.
The National Cartoonist Society has named Gallo Cartoonist of the Year eight times and he has work hanging in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gallo currently produces cartoons for the paper five days each week and writes a Sunday column.
“I do political stuff too, and stuff that’s just about life,” he said.
“His passion stands out, his passion for what he does,” said Bob Young, a onetime Marine and New Yorker who has known Gallo for several years.
“He does a lot for a lot of people but he does it quietly. In New York, everybody knows him, he’s one of those special guys.”
E-mail Pete Bishop at lpbishop@comcast.net.
Ellie